A big weekend in Chilliwack

Ricky and I both spent a lot of our racing careers in Chilliwack.  It's a great training venue for both mountain bike and slalom racing, but other opportunities abound.  For my part, I didn't quite realize to what extent until I 'retired' and pursued a more diverse set of interests.  I was in Chilliwack again this weekend, the river was at a great water level, and I didn't go paddling. 

After an all-nighter in the car, I arrived on Saturday morning and needed to stretch my legs out and get some fresh air.  So I drove up to Elk Mt. and ran up it.   35 minutes and you're here, with big views of the Fraser Valley.

(Elk Mountain)

Then we got down to business.  

We're racing RedBull's Divide and Conquer next weekend.  This year, we've teamed up with Joren Titus, a man not bound by gravity - this dude can run uphill - and we aim to repeat.  Last year's race was super fun, with three hard legs and a very strong field.  This year will be no different - we're going head-to-head with lots of old friends and sparring partners.

Anyway, we're working with Mt. Waddington's Outdoors and Clearbrook Coffee Company this year, helping to promote their Fraser Valley businesses.  So we have a team car.

We painted and stickered it up on Saturday afternoon and put on a barbecue for the whole crew.

Sunday morning brought the Vedder Mountain Super-D race for Ricky and the same ride for Connor, Melanie, and I.  Vedder has some of the best mountain bike trails in the world and they were in incredible shape.  So many bridges, stunts, and bermed corners.  Places to open up and places to hang on for dear life.  From the high trail, The Den, you can stretch the downhill out for 20 minutes!  

(Race start)

There were over 100 racers.  I think that's the FVMBA's best turn-out ever.  Ricky broke his bike about half-way down and coasted to 8th place, less than a minute off the pace.    

(Ricky, sending it)

Straight after the race, it was back in the car and off to ski Mt. Cheam.  

The dudeman car was packed to the gills, with Ricky, Nathan, Melanie, Connor, Jon, and I, and Max the dog making the trip.  Nevertheless, with a little pushing, tailpipe collateral damage, and some strategic rock placements, we got it all the way to the snowline.  

(Oops)

With just a few km to the base of the mountain, we made quick progress and were up to the saddle in a few hours.  It was late and the weather wasn't so great - we were socked in a few times on the climb - but the snow was, so we turned it around and got in some good turns on the way down.

(A man and his dog)

(Nathan Etsell, Ricky, Connor, Melanie, and Max take in the view of Lady Peak and Jones Lake)

 (Connor, hucking it out of a natural booter)

 All in all, about as good as weekends get.  And all right in the backyard.

The Waddington Hut trip

This past weekend, we went into the Waddington Hut in the Birkenhead area north of Pemberton.  

Ricky has the full report on rickyfederau.blogspot.com already.  

The hut was busy and another group wrote a trip report too.  They neglected to mention the incident and so I did.  They took it down, so here it is again.  

"You didn’t tell us about Sunday night, Louie.  Please, allow me.

To start, the Waddington Hut has a voluntary registration system.  There were 14 people registered to stay last weekend and around 30 at the hut.  If you plan to go, register here - http://www.ubc-voc.com/wiki/VOC_hut_registration.  You don’t have to, but you should.  It helps everyone to plan and know what to expect. 

On Sunday night, 29 of us listened to Kyle Miller drone on and on and on about himself as we tried to go to sleep.  Never before have I met such an obnoxious, self-absorbed jackass in the backcountry.  (Go to the hill!  You’ll fit right in.)  The quintessential FIGJAM (Fuck, I’m good.  Just ask me), a BIG DEAL.  He’s got a website:

“The “Where is Kyle Miller??” Project is a backcountry initiative dedicated to the exploration of new lines and dramatic descents in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.”

You call it a project, an initiative.  I call it a weekend.  Whatever.  I doubt this is the first time Kyle has referred to himself in the third person. 

Anyways, eventually even Kyle gets tired of listening to himself talk and we all go to sleep.   For an hour.

Then Louie gets sick.  He throws up.  On himself, on a few other people.  He looks like he’s going to do it again and he doesn’t move.  Someone says ‘Dude, you gotta get out of here’ and he wanders downstairs, leaving behind a loft packed tight with groggy skiers and a big mess.  It’s mostly box wine.

Most of Louie’s party disowns him, since they ‘all only met a few days ago’.  And they start making excuses - like ‘Well, he skied all day’.  Um, like we didn’t.  That’s kind of what people go to huts for.  We just didn’t get drunk on box wine.  Louie doesn’t come back upstairs.  Those puked on start cleaning themselves up, until KYLE TO THE RESCUE!  To be sure, Kyle helps, but he won’t stop fucking talking about how great he is for helping while he’s helping.  He also memorably says ‘Look, we’ve all been here before’.   We have?  Nope.  I guess that’s how the pros are different from the everyman.  Eventually, someone asks him to shut up and just go back to bed. 

Louie won’t talk to anyone the next morning.  No clean up.  No apology.  He just pretends it never happened.  Like in this trip report. 

Communal huts don’t work unless everyone acts as if they’re part of the community. 

Check your egos at the door."

For the record, Louie has since apologized.  It happens that huts can be busy and people get sick.  No one is pissed about that.  

I'm just bringing everyone back down to earth, where the mountains are big, the people are small, we forget about the rat race, and just have a good time.  You'll be a better skier for it, and (much more importantly) a better person.

The Yaar! traverse

Earlier this month, Andy Traslin got some play for climbing both Yak and Nak mountains in the Coquihalla ski area in a day.  We see your Yak - Nak and raise you a Thar.

A few days ago, we considered doing the Nar (Nak - Thar) traverse, but once up there, we wanted to see it from the other side before we skied it.  So yesterday, Ricky and I set out to do laps on Thar to check it out.  This is what we ended up doing

No GPS.  Just great drawing with a mouse.

the Yaaar traverse, or Thar - Nak - Yar.  

There was already a skintrack in between Thar and Nak, but it eventually broke left and contoured around Nak.  We used it to start up Thar and then traversed around the bowl.  

From the back of the bowl.  Nak front right, Yak behind.

After skiing Thar, we returned to the track and took it all the way up Nak.  

Ricky scopes it out.  Nak and Yak from the top of Thar.

The weather wasn't great on top of Nak and there's awesome glades to ski below, so we did a run all the way down off it.  

As we climbed back out, vis improved and we decided to give Yak a shot as well.

The last pitch of Yak.

The climb up Yak is somewhat exposed, but less so if you go all the way to the saddle between Nak and Yak in the trees and then traverse across the face.  That's what we did.  The last 150 m. are steep, but yesterday, snow conditions were good.  That made for fairly straightforward climbing to the summit and great skiing right from the top.

Ricky, from the summit of Yak.

If you're just in it to bag the peaks, you could do it much more efficiently.  But there's great skiing on all three, so it's worth taking a few runs down along the way.

Gates at the weir, climbing, and riding bikes all the while

What's happening?  I've been in the mountains a lot.  

Last, last Saturday I went to Lake Louise with Vinnie and Jas and they made me climb up some rocks.  Lake Louise is beautiful and nowhere else can you climb in front of as many Japanese tourists.  I have to agree with Ricky here, though - climbing makes you feel like this.  It's worst if you don't really know what to do with your feet and invariably end up doing an endless series of pull-ups with your fingertips.  This is what I do.  Vinnie is getting good.  Jas walks up climbs that make lesser dudes sound like this - 

Here's Vin, on the hardest route he tried -  

On Sunday, Jas, Vin, Liza, and I put in a big day in k-country.  We started at Barrier, rode the Prairie View / Jewel Pass loop, had a snack at the car, then rode Baldy Pass.  

Baldy is one of my all-time favorites.  No one ever goes there.  It starts with a long climb, then a bomb back to the road.  The first part of the descent is loose, then it's bouldery and technical, then, about halfway down, you can just let go of the brakes and send it.  I got the hole shot and led it out.

Prairie View. 

Mike got permission to put temporary gates up at the weir on Tuesday and everyone went out to paddle for at least a few hours.  A bunch of media people showed up (and not in the usual way, which is to do a story about drowning). 

So good!  Gates at the weir.

If there were permanent gates at the weir, I don't think I'd do much else in the summer.  It's fast, it has good features, and it's right by my house.  The current plan (pending approval) is to put up at least some in the fall.  

Last weekend, I volunteered to do a few laps at 24 Hours of Adrenalin for a team Shane from Ascent Physiotherapy in Canmore put together.  

Dude, those tents are done.

Apparently, a storm blew through CNC on Friday night.  There were huge piles of mangled pop-up tent frames everywhere on Saturday morning and they had to delay the start as they set everything up again.

Mountain bike sprawl, redux.

Once it was going, it was good.  I rode five laps, a little faster than an hour during the day and a little slower at night.  I went for it on the second lap, burned out with a climb to go and lost back any time I gained.  Full coma at the finish line.  After that, I did a better job of pacing, went just as fast, and had way more fun on the course.  That solves that problem...

Everyone on the team - Liza, Shane, Grant, Erdem - was solid and we ended up on the podium.  It was Erdem's first race podium and he was elated.  Super fun!

Running the downtown brown

Let me start by acknowledging that Calgary is a cultural backwater that equates urban planning with more suburbs! and that is cold 8-9 months of the year.


But, BUT!


I live in Inglewood, which was originally downtown Calgary and is on the Bow and Elbow Rivers.  I can ride my bike to work in 10 minutes without crossing a road.  I can paddle to work in 30 minutes (and home in 10).  It's being rapidly gentrified, which means there are lots of home renos happening and new shops and restaurants popping up all the time.  Further, the city has decided that its new wealthy residents require things like stoplights, re-paved bike paths, regular lawn-mowing of the parks, etc... which former residents lived without for decades.

Paddle to work.

It's also home to the weir, now known as Harvie Passage.  The weir used to be a drowning machine, but, over the last few years, they've backfilled behind it and made a whitewater park.  

Harvie Passage, the new weir and my backyard

The last month has brought high water to the Bow in Calgary, so I've been paddling there a lot.  The usual routine is to drive down and run home, then paddle down and go surfing.  Maya swims down to the site, then I ferry her out to the island, which has no other access and serves as a self-declared one-dog off-leash park.


From the picture above, you can see there are two channels.  The river-right (and photo-left) channel has small, flushy drops and big pools between them.  It's great for slalom and for learning to paddle and, at current flows, it has a few really good play features where you can do tricks like this.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=943447338015

There is a pretty big crew out on most weeknights now.

The river-left channel has great surfing waves in the first two drops.  The third drop is not very friendly, especially at high water.  I've run it occasionally in the last month, cleanly until the last time...  

Jon Allen and Jazmyne Denhollander came out a few weeks ago, on their way to Junior Worlds in Wausau, and I offered up a tour of the new site and floorspace to crash on.  Jon and I took a good look at the last drop and I decided to run it.  I ran over a boil on my approach and lost some, speed and when I hit the hole, I stopped like I hit a brick wall.  I cartwheeled fruitlessly for a minute and eventually got out the wet way.  Scheisse.  

The obligatory bootie shoot.

We are all between swims.

Unbeknownst to us, a rafter drowned in the same hole a few hours prior.  As a result, we got some not-so-positive press.

Jon makes the news.

I don't want to rant about this, but use your head.  Water is dangerous.  By dangerous, I mean it can kill you.  In a bathtub or a swimming pool even.  So, before you go swimming, you should learn how to swim.  Don't try to swim across the lake on the same day as the first time you get your toes wet.

The same goes for paddling whitewater and for everything else.  


If your first experience is this

you're liable to break your back.

Summer Time

Well its been a busy last month with a lot going on but not really. so here is some photos from the good times.

After the Red Bull Divide and Conquer Toby stayed for a bit. We wanted to get in some spring skiing it was good but not ideal. on the monday we went for Mt Cheam in Chilliwack and we ended up doing more road building then skiing but what can you do, "if the road ahead is not paved you need to build a new one" and we did thanks to our G3 shovels. My car is the bomb by the way, we drove her right to the snow line.

I'm a pro at shoveling chicken poo and I was very surprised at how well my chicken poo shoveling fitness transferred over.

This is the chute down to spoon lake, great vis, happy June.

Wednesday the sky opened up and we got a great weather window to ski Mt Baker.  Early start and lots of Crowsnest Coffee Company brew were very much needed.

We had to hike for about 45min up the Heliotrope trail but then we hit the goods.

We made it to 9200ft then the wind gusts turned for the worst and we chose to turn around and slay some corn. Awesome day.

Then Melanie and I went to Hood River Oregon to hit up outlet mall and get our shop on......... We shopped for epic singletrack, and we got the goods for sure. Post Canyon is an unreal place to ride, really nice buff trails and tons of flow, there was also a ton of gap huck your meat or what ever you want, oh the good times.

Melanie sporting her Nimby 50 race winners jersey. with the epic view of mt Hood in the background. I think hood river is a very cool place, you could set up shop and do some awesome spring skiing, hood, Adams, and St Helens are all within sight. Crazy.

I Like.

Then last weekend Melanie, Etsell, and I went for the baker again. It way the first sunny weekend in a while and we counted over 50people to reached the summit. We did not. The wind was once again kinda crazy at 9200 and its just not fun, I hate the wind. Im out! so we just skied down and loved life.

Etsell with one of the massive groups going down.

Melanie getting her sun burn on. It was so bright up there, I wore sun glasses and still my eyes were burning.

this is about where we turned around. so cool.

the dream.

Spring skiing: Mt. Cheam and Mt. Baker

After our big victory, we gave a few interviews, waited for the stragglers to come in, collected our winnings, then binge-drank RedBull until we had happy feet.  This last part took all of 10 minutes and then we passed out.  Ricky's stupor lasted for a full day.  Not to worry - this is how races often end for him. 

Back in Abbotsford on Monday, we stared out at the rain and pondered what to do next with our lives...  

Rain makes the river brown

Brown

and so we loaded up some boats and headed for the Chilliwack River with Jazmyne and Ian.  Our film crew posted at Tamihi and I expect a 'sick edit' of our run any day now.  We went to Peggi's for donairs, drove back to the farm, traded boats for bikes, and shredded Mt. Sumas until the wee hours.  


Then I crushed Jon and Ricky at Settler's.

Getting crushed.

On Tuesday, Abbotsford was socked in.  We thought we might be able to get above it and decided to ski Mt. Cheam.  Low down, we encountered a tree across the road and had to build a new road around it.

When you get to the end of the road, get out a shovel.

Above that, the fully-capable Tercel tackled water bars like a champ and we drove right to the snow line.  An hour and a half later, we were at the saddle between Mt. Cheam and Lady Peak, still entirely in the clouds and not going anywhere.  

Look!  Mt. Cheam

We waited for a while, but eventually turned around and skied back to the car.

On Wednesday, we woke up and saw this

'Blueing!  Blue On!'  Mt. Baker

and decided an attempt on Baker was in order.  In the car by 6, boot packing from the trailhead by 7:30.  It stayed full bluebird all morning and we made swift progress.  Late in the morning, we were on the Roman Wall, a few hundred meters from the top.  

On to the Roman Wall

Once on the ridge, the snow turned to ice and it was blowing gale-force.  Sketch ball.  We turned it around, for the second day in a row, but got a fantastic ski all the way down.  

Ricky, shredding it

Three full days of fun.