Monday, June 19, 2006

Bear Attack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guess where we went on Sunday? The worlds best playground; Whistler.




Hi Jason












BEAR ATTACK!! - Run for your life
(or lie down and play dead depending on who you believe!)

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Ok, so we did have a bit of head start on the bears which to be honest didnt seem very interested in coming towards us but I bet its the closest any of YOU have been to a bear this weekend! lol

We did just miss a closer encounter, before we got there, a bear was actually wandering around at the village - just above the hut on the right of the top picture!












There were just the three of us again, here are the other two on a woody thing on "Devils Ride" (Trung in front, hiding behind the branch)








T got on much better with the bike park than he did with The Shore. The runs are well graded and even in ability so riders dont have to worry about getting out of their depth. Here's "The Flying Monkey" (Trung) on the practice drops









And both the lunies together. Moments after this shot, Trung crashed and nearly hit the camera man! (Yes Kiyoka, he's ok)












...and who's this stylish fella?

Oh, silly! It's me!










The Flying Monkey in action again - he did amazingly well at Whistler and is now ready for his first run of the world famous "A-Line"
















It hurts!














It's true. At the end of every rainbow lies pure gold. At the end of this one was Whistler!!!! ;-)











We'll be back. Oh yes!

Shore Newbie


My regular readers will remember that I was helping Trung to find a bike (did I mention it?).
Well, he's now got one and has done a couple of rides with Jason. They were heading up Frome on Saturday so I went along.

To even the score a little, I took my cross country bike (4.5 years old and she still looks and rides like a million dollars :-))




As Trung is a beginner, naturally his first ride was on The Shore and this one, (his 4th I think) would naturally be down a black! (thats the advanced trail for the non-bike/ski people reading this)












Here he is proving too quick for the camera!















Aha! Got him this time













Jason's quite a good technical rider and has a good sense of self-preservation. Here he is on one of the many skinnys











Jason again


















Trung on the other hand, prefers to throw himself in headfirst - and quite a few times that's literally how he ended up!

10/10 for steepest learning curve imagineable!


It took us 2 hours to ride up, 2 hours to ride down. How's that for balance!

Friday, June 16, 2006

Club Ride at Cypress

Did I mention that I joined a bike club? The Cove Club hasn't got going yet this year so I joined up with the other main North Shore Club Pedals and Pints which is run by John Henry Bikes

They ride every Thursday night and alternate Saturdays with groups for everyone. I skipped (no pun intended) the cross-country (up down up down) and all-mountain (up up, down down) and went straight to the shuttled downhill (down down down down!)

This is us dropping into our second run on Cypress last night, we did "Sexboy" I think and on our first run Reaper, Hosepipe, Lower Hogans and Family Guy.






My other ride with them was a couple weeks ago on (Mount) Fromme. As you may know, it's not possible to drive up Fromme so we had to ride up. It took about 70 mins and my legs about 2 weeks to recover! But the trails were fantastic. Not too technical but flowing and fun with a few stunts thrown it. I think we did, 7th Secret, Upper Oilcan, Expresso, Upper Crippler, Lower Crippler or something like that!!

The observant among you may have noticed the name - Pedals and Pints - yes, thats right, we all meet at the pub afterwards for a pint and some food :-)

Well, I guess I'd better do some study cos there's a whisper about rolling up to Whistler tomorrow.....!!!

Monday, June 12, 2006

More from the heli-drop








Me goin' "quite steep but not vert"






















followed by My Simmons




















Wanna bike or 16?



















its very pretty in them there trees















another big rock



















Barb dropin in on an off-camber rock



















Kenny on awsome rock

















Everybody say cheese!



















oh look....another rock!














and yes, you've guess it, another rock, this time Smoke hardtailin' it









Photo's courtesy of The Bush Pilot

Johnny got me a helicopter for my birthday!


Ok, so it wasn't for me, it was for Dub.....and well it was just a ride in a helicopter. I was hoping to blag a ride if Wade didnt show but as luck would have it someone else dropped out after an injury in yesterdays Ripper so we both went. Its the first time I've seen him this year so was looking forward to following him down some crazy trails

Here's the bikes waiting for a skyhook





There were 16 of us all told, so thats 5 shuttles (one just for bikes). The four of us drivers had to drop the vehicles elsewhere and get picked up from a 'stealth' spot a few miles down the road.

And I do mean "spot" - it was only just big enough for the heli to land and the rotors did a nice trim job on the bushes above our heads!






I dont think the fishermen (just out of view 10ft below on the beach) beleived us when we said we were waiting for a helicopter....

Ha! Proof: a big noisey wurly thing!









Barb taking Harley for a bit of extreme dog walking



I really didnt expect the elevator music on the way up - "Pump up the Jam" - Barb was singing it all day after that












Nice view eh?

I was pleasantly surprised by the ride up. Aside form the noise, it was almost exactly like flying in a glider (airplane with no engine for the ESL students reading this). It just sort of floated its way up with not much sensation of forward flight (aside from the ground going past of course)







CLICK HERE for the top-o-the-world shot



Bye bye Mr Wurley driver


I guess we're on our own then - 6 hours from help.









The descent down the snow was hysterical. The technique was to lean forward (to get the steering to work), lock the back wheel and hope for the best! I only came off once - I was heading at high speed for some trees so threw myself into the snow - of course that didnt stop me sliding into the trees (!) but I grabbed a branch and stopped myself before any damage was done





Wade filming Kenny surf his was through the rocks














Bikes dont work too well in a few feet of snow!














We came out of the forest a dozen or more times at a spot like this - always beautiful views












The man himself. Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr Johhny Smoke












I didnt get many shots of the riding cos I was too busy, err, riding! But here's Kelly (Mrs Dub to-be) on a fairly easy bit. Some of the riding was c r a z y with the steepness, loose ground, rocks and of course the moss covered wet roots.....but lots of fuuuuuuuuuuuuun!















Ah, the Birthday Boy! Happy Birthday Dub, 30 today - so young!

....and yes, we have to go UP that. Oh didnt I mention? As well as 7,500ft of downhill, we also had 2,500ft of uphill to do.... c r a z y !!















Can you spot Dub dropping into the massive rock?









He's right in the middle, next to the overhanging tree






Here's another plaything - Awsome Rock - optional and with two lines, of course I couldnt resist the over-vert line - this is the view rolling in...










Here's Kenny dropping in, at this point you can just see the bottom!













Quite near the end I followed Dub and Wade out onto another rock view point, but this one was slightly scary - looking back here, you can see the ridge we're riding along, you couldnt see the bottom on the right cos the tree TOPS were blocking the view!






and if you go too far (ie 5ft further than Dub here), you'll fall 1500ft to what I can only assume would be a harsh landing!












But all too soon it was over - well 6 hours later actually and as is traditional we finished at the beech











for a few non-alcolholic beverages (officer)












I cant blame Harley for sleeping - at 12 years old, she didnt just descend the 7,500ft and climb the 2,500ft that we did - she did a damn sight more running backwards and forwards making sure all her sheep were in line!

Gnarly dog!







I have to take this opportunity to thank Johnny for yet again taking me on one of the best rides of my life. I owe you one Smoke!

If you want an adventure, give Johhny a call at Bush Pilot Biking

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Disney Heli-biking - tres fun, oui?

It was supposed to be a day of study for me today but when I saw Johnny at the Ripper yesterday he said there might be a spare place on the chopper tomorrow if I wanna go....
Err, YES!

So bright and early 16 of us took a ride into the sky and back together. I really need to study now but just to wet your apetite, here's a couple pics

This landing spot was about 20ft wide with a sheer drop to the beech one side and trees the other.
I think the fishermen on the beech were a bit shocked to see the chopper swoop in across their heads!






The first few km were on snow of course, very steep, very silly and very fun


Hopefully you can click here to see a shot of the landing zone up top