Canada Roadtrip: Day 12

It's our last day at Whistler, and it pretty much had to be a photo day since I crashed pretty bad on Dirt Merchant yesterday and can't really use the thumb on my right hand. Keep that in mind when you see photos of me here and wonder "why isn't he doing anything cool?" Well, you'd be stoked to straight-air those jumps without a thumb too. Everyone was killing it today, so the photos pretty much took themselves. Big thanks to everyone for their patience, and I'm so happy that Zak is alright. Holy shit that was scary to watch man.

Canada Roadtrip: Day 9

Day two at Whistler, and things have been a bit up and down. On the second lap of the trip I blew a corner while pinning an easy trail, washed out the front end, and ended up hitting a large rock with my thigh. I rode the rest of the run in survival mode since I could not bend or straighten my leg, and then watched bike movies in the condo while everyone else rode. Basically, it sucked, but it was about $1000 cheaper than my first day last season.

This morning things were a bit stiff, but the leg loosened up as the day went on and eventually I stopped riding like a total gaper and got into the flow a bit. Near the end of the day I decided to go do a lap down Schleyer to Detroit Rock City and had one of the most spectacular, but relatively harmless, crashes of my life. I was wearing the GoPro, so I have a sequence of the crash below.

One run later, Jen had herself a much more harmful off while pinning the bottom section of Heart of Darkness. Her shoulder is a bit pissed and she broke her derailleur hanger, so we'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Despite the offs we're stoked to be here and can't wait to ride more.

Canada Roadtrip: Day 7

Squamish is a great place to be even when you're climbing like shit. My shoulder is treating me alright, but that doesn't change the fact that I've barely been on the rock for two months. Neither Jen or I have been climbing up here for several years, so we decided to basically go on a tour of the place and climb in as many different areas as we could. We got to climb some beautiful cracks, and I re-discovered just how terrible I am at slab climbing. I can't wait to come back again next year when we're both climbing strong and can get on something with teeth.

After a couple of pitches this morning, we drove back to North Van, got the bikes, and headed to Whistler. Now we're re-kitting for biking.

Canada Roadtrip: Day 2

Friday after work, Jen and I loaded the truck with four bikes and a bunch of climbing gear and pointed it North. Last night, after a relatively uncomfortable rest-area bivy and a fairly intense border interrogation (border agents just don't like me) we arrived in North Vancouver, BC and and unloaded a healthy amount of gear into Jen's cousins' place. It's really starting to pay off having a Canadian girlfriend. So today, Martin gave us a quick tour of the old-school freeride goodness that is the North Shore. We started off the day with the ultra-classic tech on CBC (I can't frickin' believe I didn't bring a camera on CBC) and continued onto some varied goodness below it. Later in the day we moved to Fromme, where things aren't quite as tech and Jen could get her flow on a bit more. Both areas were super fun, and I can't wait to get in some more, but we're off to Squamish for a few days of climbing first. Man, life is so hard.

Jen's New Whip

Since she started freeriding this spring, Jen has already outgrown her mini-freeride bike and now requires a full-on DH rig. She was looking at a few options when I made the mistake of letting her ride my TR450 one day. I nearly had to fight her to get it back, so we both decided that getting her one of her own was the best thing for our relationship and my medical insurance. Today it arrived, and it's all she hoped for. Tomorrow it's going on the truck with it's three friends and heading to Canada for a serious test.

I Street

Heading to I Street is always a good way to spend an afternoon. The crew up here has been building like crazy these last couple years, and some of the stuff that's gone in is quite impressive. I really need to spend more time up here and get a bit better at jumping. I feel like I can go pretty big and still feel comfortable, but I don't go jumping nearly often enough to produce anything that could even loosely be referred to as style. Oh well, I'm sure Whistler will help that.