2017 was an amazing year. In August 2016 my wife Melanie and I had
our second child. Fraser is a little boy who is turning into a crazy
dude. For most of 2017 I was a stay at home Dad, but my wife was on
maternity leave, it was like the “Summer of George!” However I didn’t
sit around eating a block of cheese the size of a car battery.
Skiing.
The ski season was amazing! I’ve never seen so much snow in my yard, I
measured 80cm right in my yard! When I was short for time I would just
drive 5min and go for a tour up Vedder mt. If I had more time I would
get a partner and we would drive for 20 min to a secret stash up the
river valley. It was a crazy good ski year.
This is what my giant block of cheese looks like.This is my buddy Wayne hucking his meat at the secret stash.Summit
of Mt Frosty with Gary Robbins. Gary was training for the Barkley
Marathons, he almost finished it. But almost doesn’t count, so I guess
we are going to have to ski more next year.
Bikes.
After winter was over Mt bike season got into full swing! After a
winter of skiing and other secret training I was super fit and excited
to race bikes. I was more fit on the bike then I had been since I
stopped racing world cups 10 years ago. My plan was to do the Vedder
Classic, the Sunshine Coaster, the Nimby 50 in Pemberton all in the
month of May, and then Spwakus 50 in Squamish in the middle of June.
Things did not go to plan however and my kids got some nasty flu along
with ear infections- giving everything to me. I spent 10 days on
antibiotics and felt like a bag of poo for most the month of May. I
still earned a 4 at the Vedder Classic and another 4th at the Sunshine
Coast, not bad. I had to pull the plug on doing the Nimby as I spent the
entire day in bed. The Nimby is one of the most amazing races I’ve ever
done and I cant wait to be back for 2018. The Spwakus 50 in Squamish
went well. I had a super battle with race winner Craig Richey and
finished 19sec down for second place. Craig and I would trade shots all
day, he would step on my balls anytime it went up and I would reel him
in on the down, it was an amazing day, I just wish the end result was
the other way around. I’ll be back.
I’ve been riding for a company called Nobl Wheels for the past 3 or 4
years. They make the best Carbon wheels in the world. I’m super lucky
to test them, give feedback and just ride them hard. This past year we
did a little project video that turned out really well. I’m super proud
of my past and what I accomplished. Here is the Video.
In August I also took part in the Terry Fox 360. Its a fundraising
ride that goes from Sun Peaks resort in Kamloops all the way to
Valemount in one day, its a total of 360km. 31 riders did the ride in
about 11hrs. In total we all raised $55,000 for the Terry Fox
foundation.
Podium from SpakwusSpakwus 50Start of the Sunshine CoasterSingle track goodness.360km is really far, but you still have time to ride like an idiot.
Trail Running.
After the competitive mountain bike season was over I started doing
some running, with the goal of doing the Around the Lake Give’r Take 30
in October. I did the race last year and finished 2nd. This year I
wanted more so I did a bit of running. For 2016 I did a total of 3 runs
for training. The ATL race is 30km with 1500m of elevation and its
really hard. After I finished in 2016 I said I would never run again.
But my competitive nature got the best of me and I signed up again (my
wife signed me up, the race sells out and I’m way to much of a gong show
to register that early). Race day came and I smashed it! The course was
a little different this year so I also hold the new course record!
After finishing I couldn’t walk the 100m to the car, my legs were so
cooked. Then Melanie goes and finishes 3rd overall in the women’s race!
Amazing!
Finish. It was really hard to pick my feet up at this point.then I sat here for 35min while everyone made fun of me for not being able to walkMel finished 3rd, so good!If you win the ATL you win this hand carved stick. Coolest race prize I have ever won! I needed it to walk back to the car.
Kids.
2017 was an awesome year! Besides just playing in the woods and doing
dumb things I got to spend a ton of time with Melanie and the kids.
Elbie and Fraser are growing so fast and its super fun to watch and be a
part of.
Picking up some pumpkinsElbie going rock climbing, or taking a poojust another dayLittle Fraser.
Four years ago the Vedder 10 grand was born. The original idea was
to have this savage ride that few could finish. Every year the route
changes but it will always maintain severe difficulty and some of the
best dirt on the planet. This year there was 3 loops and each loop was
worth about 3000feet of gain. 20 riders started it and only 9 finished.
The ride was on Sept 10th.
Its hasn’t rained in Chilliwack forever, then the day before the ride
it rained around 10mm. Conditions were so good. It was Velcro out
there. Just insane!
Loop 1 – Up all the main stream Mt bike climbing trails. Descending
multi purpose trails into Yarrow. Coffee stop at Chestnut Springs.
Loop 2 – Up the west side to do the first pitch of tower road. Then
nin back to the ring road and up to Hanggliders view. Then Stairway all
the way back to tower road. Up to hide and seek and down BHD all the way
down to the lake, For pizza and beer.
Loop 3 – Up single track to TTT and Gas can. Up rocky road and then up the Den Climb. Den down and home.
Anytime you wear a chamois for 11hrs in a row its a big day. The
entire day saw only 2 flat tires and no other major mechanical issues.
Best day ever!
The group at the startTop of the first loop.Before the GnarChestnut Springs Coffee shop
With some nice warm days starting to show up in the forecast its
time for me to put away the skis and start riding my bike. This past ski
season was one of the best I can remember, for many reasons. If you are
a super keener there is still some great skiing to be had well into
April, but I have pulled the plug and moved on to riding bikes. It is
time to say good bye to the skis for this year, but I just wanted to
remember some of the good times this past year, and what a year it was!
First Long day.
I tried to made a point to do a bit more exploring this winter and
ski some lesser known local terrain. These blisters were from a day my
friend Gary and I skinned up Mt Cheam all the way from Chilliwack Bench
road. It took us 2.5hrs of “going good” and my feet payed the price. We
pulled the plug on the summit due to conditions in the alpine, but my
feet won a wicked prize.
The white valley
A very fun day for me was when a small group of us drove 12 min from
my house and put on skis at the bottom of Bridal Falls FSR and we
skinned right to the top of Mt Archibald. The views were amazing and the
multiple hour skin up was well worth it. Conditions were not great on
the North aspect we wanted to ski, but the views on the way up were just
awesome and we didn’t see one other group.
Coq smokeface shotsbeing an idiot…
The Coquihalla is normally an amazing place to ski. Getting fresh
tracks on the easy stuff is much harder then it used to be. However
around the Christmas holidays it was just going off! I had a good friend
come up from California and we skied a ton with amazing conditions
every time. It was full hero snow.
Gary and I top of Needle trees
It was late winter of last year when my wife Melanie and I watched
the documentary on Netflix called “Barkley Marathons, The Race That Eats
its Young”. Then shortly after that the main stream media was telling
the story of this hard man from North Vancouver who attempted the
Barkley, his name is Gary Robbins. Melanie knew Gary from her previous
life living in North Vancouver. Fast forward to late summer of 2016, we
are shopping at the Coopers in Garrison and I come out of the bathroom
and see this guy who looks just like Gary Robbins. That’s when things
got funny.
I whisper to Melanie, “hey I think that’s the Barkley guy”
Mel says to Gary, “hey, are you Gary from North Vancouver?”
I say, “yeah you’re the Barkley guy!”
Gary’s wife, Linda rolls her eyes.
Turns out Gary was camping up at Cultus Lake with his wife Linda and
their young son Reed. I then started my “you should move to Chillwack,
its amazing” speech, and before you know it we had exchanged numbers and
I was giving them a tour of the neighborhood. Over the winter we ended
up skiing almost once a week and we had some amazing skis together. Gary
was using skiing touring for training for this years Barkley. Once a
week Gary and I would get together and crush each others balls while
having the time our lives. If you haven’t heard what happened at this
years Barkley you should check it out. Gary is a Boss, and its quite a
story. Needless to say next winter we will be doing some longer days,
more vert, and not getting lost. Well, maybe getting lost…
Between Cheam and ArchibaldGary getting deep at Elk View pointTop of Frosty Mt in Manning park
Most of the days we skied were amazing, but you don’t always win. On a
very cold day in the middle of winter we did Mt Frosty in Manning Park.
I was just getting over the flu and was suffering like a dog all day.
It was -20 and windy at the top, I lost a ski on the way down and
watched it get like 50 feet of air time before it landed in some rocks.
Then on the ski out we got crazy lost and were very late getting home.
Gary got stuck in traffic as well. That day I ate my feelings in the
form of a Jim’s large specialty pizza.
Elk View bomb
My final memories of the winter was when we got a massive dump right
in Chilliwack. We had 80cm on the ground right in my yard. I did a bunch
of days up at Elk Mountain. It was a rather large approach but totally
worth it. You could do 500m runs in the trees on some of the most
amazing terrain ever. I had so many great days up there this year. It
was so easy to rack up some serious vertical. Gary and I did a day just
shy of 10,000 feet in very short order. Every ski season is not like
this and I was very lucky to take advantage of it.
Elk approach you can just see Cultus Lake in the backgroundHigher up in the trees, still going up.Wayne just sending it.
The around the lake give’r take 30km trail running race has been a
staple in Chilliwack as long as I can remember. This years race was on
October 15th and like it says in the title its about 30km of trail
running around the lake. Little did I know, its hard and is probably
something you should train up for. I wanted to do the race for a while
now, just never had the guts to sign up. I thought it would be cool to
run the race for my 30th birthday but that never happened and now that
I’m much older then 30 I may as well just do it.
I run, but I’m not a runner. In the months leading up to the race I
did a total of 30km of solo trail running. I also ran a couple of times a
week pushing a chariot stroller around with a heavy 2 year old. As I
would find out it was enough, but I should have really done more running
prior. The one thing I had going for me was that I’m a half decent bike
rider and those pesky cyclists are really good at running up hill. The
forecast for the day was for 100mm of rain. I had to google “tips for
running in the rain” and so I ended up wearing a hat, putting band aids
on my nipples and wiping a tub of Vaseline in my crotch/thunder thigh
area. It didn’t rain one drop during the race. In true amateur fashion I
also got a brand new pair of running shoes 5 days before. The staff at
Mt Waddingtons made sure I had a proper fitting shoe and I had zero
issues with my feet. My body on the other hand…
The race started out way faster then I wanted on the roads through
the Cultus Lake community. I’m a stubborn bugger and there was no way I
was letting anyone drop me before we hit the trails. Ben Schmidt put the
hammer down so hard that I was breathing through my eyeballs and the
rest of the field was blown apart. I remember thinking on the road, “oh
this is so dumb, I should really run my own race, this is so
unsustainable, you idiot, you’ll pay for this”.
Ben and I hitting the first trail. Bring on the up hills!
However once we hit the trail and the race started going uphill I
slowed down my pace and still dropped Ben. I kept putting time into him
right up to the top. He was out of sight and out of mind. I thought to
myself “wow, I got this, I just need to run my own race and not die
before the end”. I ran my own race but Ben caught up to me right before
we got to the Columbia Valley. I then suffered like a dog trying to go
stride for stride with Ben. Ben is like 10 feet tall and for every step
he takes, I end up taking 12. We hit watt creek aid station together
after I had turned myself inside out trying to stay on Ben’s wheel on
the pavement. I hit watt creek hill very hard and dropped Ben like a bad
habit. However he closed the gap on the downs again before Edmeston
hill. I attacked up Edmeston as hard as I could again and I lost sight
of Ben, again.! Then I pinned the down with everything I had. I thought I
had lost Ben for good. But he was like 100m behind at the bottom. I
knew he would dispose of me on the beach like the dead man I was. We hit
the beach together and Ben put 1.5mins into me before the finish line
and I had to settle for 2nd place.
I crossed the finish line in just under 2hrs 24min. The second
longest run I have ever done. The longest was a marathon in 2008(never
again). I think if the race was 500m more I would have collapsed into
the lake and drowned. Being the first time ever doing the Around the
Lake Give’r Take I was blown away with how well it was organized. The
registration was super easy, things ran on time, the course marking was
so easy to follow and the cookie spread at the finish was world class.
What an amazing event! Right after crossing the finish line I told
myself I’m never doing this again. However after 5 days of not being
able to sit on the toilet or walk down stairs I think I’ll be back for
2017.
Clarence
Wiens with the orange hat along with myself and 3rd place overall.
Clarence is holding me up in the photo due to my legs being broken…
The 2016 Nimby Fifty was just epic!
Every year its epic, but this year was a whole other level. The drive
from Chilliwack to Pemberton is about 3hrs and on the drive up we were
thinking its gotta stop raining soon. But it never did, it just got
colder and wetter. The truck said 7c and it was raining like a boss. I
used to love racing in the rain and mud, but I’m old now and I aint got
time for dat. But the Nimby is super fun and it was sure to stop raining
and warm up…. All lined up and ready to rumble.
This year’s Nimby had some heavy hitters. Quinn Moberg was on good
form and I’m sure he was hungry to tear my legs off after last years
race. Cory Wallace is just a beast of a bike racer and Canada’s best at
Marathon XC. Then there’s Kris Sneddon who’s been racing just as long as
me and might even have more chest hair than me. It was a true show
down. I was thinking to myself at the start that I would be really happy
to be top 5 today. Kevin Calhoun turning the screws at the start.
The start of the race was just wild. I don’t think I’ve ever suffered
so much up that start loop climb. I was wet, cold and I just wanted
heated seats and dry sweat pants. The race stayed together with the top
15 guys until we hit the bottom of the big Nimby climb. Quinn went in
first and being old and smart I know I didn’t want to let him get much
time. I went in second and hung on for dear life. Quinn was strong and
tore the race apart, I was about 1min 30sec down at the top with the
rest of the dudes at 1min back from me. Even riding like a hack I still had a ton of fun. My bike is really playful and loves to spend time on just the rear wheel.
The decent down overnight sensation is where things got good. I was
riding like a true hack. Crashing all over and just being a big idiot. I
over shot this one corner and went off trail, I landed hard on my
face/wrist. Once I got up I thought to myself, this is not fun. I’m
going to finish Overnight and go straight to the warm truck and put my
sweat pants on. I hate bikes, I’m to old for this, I’m quitting, stupid
Nimby. I got to the bottom of overnight and Quinn had broke a spoke in
his wheel and he was changing out wheels. Well then, so much for
quitting, I was winning the bike race. My wife would kill me if I
dropped out while winning. Sorry honey, my hands got cold so I dropped
out……
With about 5km to go Kris and Cory caught up to Quinn and I. It was
going to be a battle to the end. I was going twice as fast as the others
on the downs but they were going twice as fast as me on the way up. So
the last little bit was a game of cat and mouse. I rode the last
downhill like a champ and closed to within 5sec of Cory and had left
Quinn and Kris to fight it out for 3rd. Cory is a beast and there is no
way I’m pulling back 5 sec to Cory on a flat gravel road after racing
for 2hrs 15min. I bet there is no one in Canada who could pull that
back. So Cory won, I was second, and Quinn took Kris in a sprint for
3rd. What a day. The top 3 right after the finish. Now I can go warm up.
The Nimby is one of the best races I’ve ever done. I’ll be back next year for sure.
My hometown is amazing!
This past weekend Vedder Mountain played host to two amazing days of
racing. The Vedder Mountain Classic cross country race on Saturday May
14, and a BC Enduro Series stop on Sunday May 15. I did both races and
it was the BEST EVER!
The Vedder Classic is very special to me. The race started running
in 1982 and ran for a long time before it was over and done with around
1999. The 1996 Vedder Classic was the first bike race I ever watched. I
remember seeing Micheal Pruner, Mike Johnston, and Chris Sheppard do
battle. This race inspired me to ride my bike and gave me my competitive
nature. The course back then was just savage! The guys climbed up tower
road three times during the race. Now days if you climb up tower road
once a year you’re kind of a big deal. Back in the day, when men were
men…..
I was 10 years old in 1991
The Fraser Valley Mountain bike Association Brought back the Vedder
Classic for 2016. The course that was decided on was about 30km and
1500m of climbing. It was hard, technical, flowy and just super fun.
Riding here for the last 20 years I had the home rink advantage by a
long shot. It was really my race to loose as far as I was concerned.
However Rhys Verner and Sullivan Reed were not going to let me just have
it.
Start Loop through Clutus lake
The race started out going up the new single track trails on Vedder
called Sunny Side-up and Kerry’d Away. With my jersey wide open and
chest hair flowing in the wind I was at the front driving the pace as
hard as possible. Rhys was right on my wheel, he was chit chatting with
me about how great the trails were and about other things in life. I
thought he was going to just walk away with it at that point. I was
seeing cross eyed and breathing through my ears. Sully had a couple dabs
on the way up and lost 20 meters to us but was also right in tow.
Old hat and young buck doing battle
The three of us came together on the long flat section before the Den
climb. Being old and wise I knew the Den climb would be the deciding
factor in the race. I also knew I needed to be first to the top cause
there was a $50 king of the mounting prize and I gotta eat yo. So half
way up the climb I attacked as hard as I could right to the den. It
hurt, but I was now clear to ride my own race out front. No dust, no
stress, out of sight out of mind. Being out in front you can really
control the race. I felt I did a great job of dosing my effort right
until the finish. I came in for the win and it was great. Rhys was
around 1 min back and Sully about another 30 seconds later.
The final box for the Vedder Mountain Classic.
Sunday was the Enduro. I’ve never done a proper Enduro race before.
Its nothing like xc but is still crazy hard. Its like doing an xc race
but not timing the ups, then timing all your down times and totaling
them up at the end of the day. Its a really cool format for racing
bikes, you get to ride easy up with your buddies and trash talk each
other between the stages.
Enduroing the loam
For the race there were three stages and all of them ranged from
600-800m of elevation loss. Its a big day on a bike. I knew the trails
very well and my pregnant wife has put me on a no crash policy for this
year so I was able to stay clean and smooth. I ended up 8th overall, so
I’m super happy with that. What I’m even more happy about was the fact
that Vedder mt blew peoples minds. The loam out here is just off the
charts and people were so excited.
Brendon Edgar wearing some of the Loam.
I’ve got a new bike this year the Ibis Ripley. The bike is really
amazing. Its 120m of travel front and rear. Its a very playfull fun xc
bike that kind of does everything really well. Its the only bike I have
and its key it does everything well. I’ve always said that the secret
to a good bike is in the wheels and I’ve been running the new 2016 NOBL
wheel set with the NOBL hub with zero engagement. This whole zero
engagement thing blew my mind, its just awesome. I used the TR28 wheel
set with 2.25 racing ralph tires for the XC race. I ran 24psi front and
rear. For the Enduro Race I used the TR36 with 2.35 HansDampf. I ran
20psi front and rear for that. I ran a ONEUP 34tooth front chain ring
with a xtr 11-40cog set with a ONEUP 45 cog. This bike is so fun and
fast.
Cheating on the Climbs.
Back in April of last year Nobl Wheels built me up a set of hoops to
race the Nimby Fifty on. The goal was to create a set of wheels that
would be on the XC side of things. Low weight was key and the 1444 gram
“race” wheels were born. My short term test results can be found here.
However I still have them on my bike to this day. It’s a semi-custom
version of their Trail build – designed to provide a more race-oriented
feel, but still able to shred. It has 28 hole TR28 rims front and back,
full ceramic Industry Nine turquoise hubs, Competition Race
rear/Aerolite front spokes, and DT Squorx alloy nipples, weighing in at
1444 grams.
Sideways into trees. So good.
I’ve had the wheels on my bike for the majority of that time. Spring,
Summer, and Winter. My main concern at first was durability. At 1444
grams I was convinced this would be a temporary thing. These wheels have
really surprised me, I haven’t done a thing to them. No spoke wrench,
no broken spokes, and still straight as an arrow. The I9 hubs still
sound like a swarm of bees are chasing me through the woods. The
durability on these wheels is like nothing I’ve ever seen. In years past
I’m more used to taking my wheels in for maintenance and repair every
couple weeks. I don’t really have time for that, I would rather just
ride
Ride like an idiot
These wheels have been put through the ringer. Being a Nobl sponsored
athlete my job is to test these wheels and provide feedback. I beat the
snot out of these things. I like to spend as much time as possible
sideways on the trail riding like an idiot. Or riding a 95mm xc race
rocket like a downhill bike. Whatever it takes really.
Winter beater.
The cheater wheels have made it on to two very different bikes. For
the spring and summer I had them on a Rocky Mountain Instinct. More
recently I have been riding a more full on XC rig, a Trek Superfly. Both
awesome bikes but both serving a bit of a different purpose. The
Superfly was built up as a winter beater bike, a mud machine. It never
gets washed and gets hammered on Lennox Lewis by Mike Tyson.
The only good thing about last years “winter” was being able to ride
mt bikes in hero dirt every day and riding alpine in mid February. I
would much rather have a proper winter with snow sports and leave the mt
biking to its proper seasons. This year I dreamed would be different
and not all doom and gloom for the skiers. I bought a 1986 4wd tercel,
waxed up my skis and did the snow dance in hopes of the pow pow. Well my
dreams came true this year and the Christmas holidays have been unreal!
Back to old times, face shots for all! 2015/16 winter is delivering in a
big way and its so great to see.
Snow in Chilliwack. All kids love the snow.
We don’t often get snow in Chilliwack but when we do the mountains
get hammered. I have a rare disorder of “anti resort syndrome”, which
causes me to get dizzy and puke anytime I ride the chair lift so I’m
forced to earn my turns in the backcountry. Living in Chilliwack we are
really blessed with options when it comes to the backcountry and for me
the go to places are Manning Park (not the resort) and the Coquihalla
summit rec area.
about to ski the first run of 2015/16alder bashing.
Manning Park was my first outing this year and early season skiing
always has its problems, like alder bashing and core shots. But luckily I
took Eric Clegg with me to test out the alder situation and clear the
path. The skiing was really good but I knew it could get better.
Wayne living the dream.
Sure enough it got way better, best ever, some might say. Skiing in
the needle area at the Coquihalla on a powder day in the middle of the
week is the best thing you can do in your life. I took Wayne with me and
we hit it hard. Just deep fresh snow with all the features poking out.
You had to be a little careful not to snag a ski on debris below the
surface but sure beats alder bashing.
Sean Connery sending.
The Christmas holidays were the best part of this year by far. It was
crazy good! Best Ever! Huck your meat off everything possible! It was
really as good as it gets. Deep stable fresh snow. I spent a bunch of
days skiing out Nak peak. Got to ski with some new friends Hammish and
Becca who are very happy Chilliwack residents. They both moved here from
Scotland and can really ski. Just picture Sean Connery and Grounds
Keeper Willie on skis.
getting sideways?I’m Ricky and this add is owner approved.
My Tercel is just the best mountain car of all time. The thing is a
beast in the snow. It only takes an hour to get to the Coq and the
tercel just kills it. “don’t mind us, we’re just passing you in a pop
can, slow down, Ricky slow down, uh the road is slippery, is it in 4wd?,
just take it easy” my wife while she fills her pants in the passenger
seat.
trail breaking in the sun.time for a Clearbrook coffee?
After all the storms Nate Dawg from Clearbrook Coffee company and I
got out in the sun to poke around deeper into some new to us zones. This
is up at the Coq and its super good. I won’t tell you where it is but
rather that you should all get out and explore some new zones. Skiing is
back and its amazing!
Now that fall has fully hit us with an onslaught of rain and colder
weather its time to do two things. Think and dream about a proper ski
season and then remember the best mountain bike rides you had this year.
For me fall is maybe the best time to ride the moisture has returned to
the dirt, the temperature is less then 35c, you should be really fit
from a summer of riding and the fall colors are just awesome!
Just busting out onto the first view on Stairway to Heaven
Last week I might have had my best ride of the year. It was a solo
mission on Vedder Mountain. One of my personal favorite trails has to be
Stairway To Heaven. Stairway is a multi use trail that spans the entire
high ridge route of the mountain. Total length is around 6km and its
very advanced xc/all mountain riding. Rock faces, techy roots, view
points, tacky hero dirt, gnarly steep climbs and descents, and its just
so epic it makes you a little bit scared. Its an expert level trail that
will change your life by riding it.
Mossy green, roots, rocks and hero dirt in the corners. SO GOOD!
The Stairway portion of the ride took me around 45min for the 6km
section from Tower road to Hanggliders view point. It’s arguably the
best 6km of real mountain biking on the planet. After the Stairway
section I ended up piecing up some other unbelievable single track all
the way to the top of the Den and then down and home. Total distance for
my ride from my house was around 32km and most of that was single
track. Chilliwack is so amazing, it blows my mind when I do this ride
and I see zero other people out there. Just another awesome day living
in the Wack.
Fall, ski socks, NOBL hoopsCultus Lake from the south endThe timeless view of hang glidersGPS route
The 2nd annual Vedder Mountain 10 Grand ride took place last
weekend in Chilliwack, BC. The Vedder Mountain 10 Grand ride was born
out of necessity in 2014 when some manly men from Chilliwack decided
they were getting soft and needed to man up. Plus we all like riding
bikes so why not do a really good long hard one? With the steepest
climbs you can imagine, but also with some of the best descending ever!
This year we were able to drag 16 riders to the start. Only 11 would
finish, truly an epic day!
The plan was to depart from Vedder bridge at 8am and head out for the first of our three loops.
Loop 1
Vedder Super Loop! 4200ft of elevation gain. Epic view at hang gliders.
Classic xc trails to transfer to the top of the den. A den run with
prime trail conditions! The start to the ride went off great! We had
budgeted 4.5hrs to complete the loop and we had it done in 4hrs with a
little bonus section for good measure. The group that turned up had some
serious horse power with a ton of xpro xc racers. All 16 finished the
first loop. We had 2 mechanicals with Andreas Hestler getting a flat
tire descending hang gliders and Mike Levy breaking a rear axle going
down the den.
Loop 2
Upper West Side and tower road via sunny side! 4300ft of elevation gain.
Nice beginner climb that gradually turns into really really steep
climbing. The newly named “Whistler” descent. Climb from the radio tower
to upper view. 2600ft descent down to the lake. This has been my
favorite loop on the mountain this year! It really has a little bit of
everything and we hit the conditions spot on. The steep decent on “yeah
whistler” made half our group poo their shorts a little and the climb up
west tower road put people in the pain cave. This was by far my most
favourite trip up west tower road this year as I cleaned the entire
climb for the first time this season. However the highlight of the loop
had to be when Scott Simpson crashed and went neck deep into a puddle at
the top of tower road. Such an unreal loop!
Loop 3
Getter done! 1500ft of elevation gain. Climb up road to zest. Down
single track. Ride home. The last lap of a big day is always a struggle.
Our group of 11 just crawled up the ring road like a pack of turtles.
But we got it done with plenty of daylight to spare. I hate bikes now.
Never riding again. Maybe.
Congrats to all that finished. Scott Simpson, Simon Blythe, Derek
Slykerman, Clint Ellis, Russ Wood, Andy Traslin, Ben Schmit, Marty
Lazarski, Tobin Mccallum and Sullivan Reed. See you guys next year!
The 16 brave souls at the start. “look around, only 11 of you will be left in 10hrs”Top of hang gliders. All 16 made it up. Best view on the mountain.Marty helping Dre fix a flat. On the way down from hang gliders.Gooney Goo Goo rest stop.Marty eating like a true champion.Top of the Den. Still all 16 guys.First
victim of the day was Mike Levy. His axle snapped in half going down
the den and he had to walk home with his tail between his legs.Feed
zone after lap one. Pizza, cookies, beef jerky, and coke. We lost a
couple more riders after the feed and were down to the 11 that would
finish.If Scott Simpson looks defeated that’s cause he is. But he stuck it through and finished like a champ. Kind of…Marty and Sully at a high point on tower road. All smiles yo.Simpson
falling neck deep into the puddle was the highlight of the day. Scott
normally rides like a champ. However going around this puddle he decided
to ride like a hack.Just before the radio tower. Marty, Simon and Ben crushing!Marty taking a break on the way to upper view. So green right now on ChunkyUpper view. Its 2600 feet of down on loamy dirt right to the lake.
Scott Simpson thoroughly enjoying his pizza and jerky at feed zone number 2The finish crew near the top point of the last loop.
All lined up and ready to rumble.
Kevin Calhoun turning the screws at the start.
Even riding like a hack I still had a ton of fun. My bike is really playful and loves to spend time on just the rear wheel.
The top 3 right after the finish. Now I can go warm up.
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