Staying fit while having fun

Whitefish Whiteout: Living up to the name

2012-01-23T22:37:00.003-07:00

I felt like I was ready to race, so I headed down to Whitefish, MT with Mr. Sellers, and actually I think my first time south of the border in about 8 years. Being lazy Pete, I never got around to getting any greenbacks, and we were only there for a day (New Belgium Fat Tire Ale was calling my name).

So anyways, now to the race.

Course: Having never skied Whitefish before, I was "flashing" the course. The descents were pretty fun, but the climbing was heinous. New snow and low cloud made for a tough climb up the Toni Matt groomer, and the rest of the ascents had ascents through steep glades. The descents were through the trees but were marked with GS gates, so not too hard to follow. The ascents were marked with flagging tape, which was a little hard to see in the fog and rime. Fun course, I will definitely be back.

Gear: Whoaahh boy, new snow combined with some weak glue on the tails of my skins made skin failure a huge issue on the day for me (I did not wax my skis recently, but maybe the bases were contaminated?). Only on the first ascent did I not have to stop midway through to change a failed skin. On the 3rd ascent, I was about 2 switchbacks below the start of the bootpack up the NBC gully and I could not get any of my skins to stick, and I really struggled to get to the start of the bootpack. I felt really foolish for leaving my wall to wall skins with tails on them in Canmore, when they should have been in my backpack. And I think for this course, wall to wall might be more effective.

Technique: My transitions were pretty dialed, but my kickturns were a little lazy, and not keeping the tails of my skis out of the snow may have contributed to my skin failure problems. I felt like I was skiing well for not knowing the descents.

Engine: I think I probably could have done with a better warmup as the first climb was really tough, but I was in 3rd at the top. I was feeling good, eating and drinking well, but just wasted too much time and energy dealing with my climbing skin problems.

TSN Turning point: You guessed it. My skins failed midway up the 2nd climb, and I got passed by a guy on some telemark gear, just cruising up with ease. Ended up finishing 5th, but the winner Ben Parsons was done before I started the last descent :(

So overall, a good lesson learned, I will definitely race with the glidelites in the pack from now on. Pretty tight community, and thanks to Whitefish for being so accommodating to the uphilling crowd!

results

Returning to the scene of the crime

2012-01-17T19:00:00.001-07:00

Still sore throughout last week, but slowly feeling better, I decided to get back out skiing, and attempt to search for my missing ski.

Medicine that works

Directing the Subaru owner to the goods. Gtay's first day out touring, he was a good sport helping me look for the ski.

A view from the top of the slope that I triggered. About 20-30cms of new snow had fallen since the incident. The picture really doesn't do justice to the steepness of the slope, and the slope also appeared to have a nice convex roll to it. At that point, I realized that I never really got a good look at the slope because I came in from the skier's right side. The continued steepness of the slope and the density of the trees downslope increased the consequences. I was very fortunate. Even with a significant portion of the unstable snow removed from this slope, I was still weary of heading down, as I did not want to risk triggering another pocket and going for a similar ride. We tried to approach the slope from the bottom, but the terrain was too steep or the trees were too thick. A search will have to wait until the spring melt freeze, or the summer or possibly on belay?

Moral of the story is to know and evaluate every terrain feature you encounter.

I also happened to forget my poles that day, luckily I didn't forget my snowsaw! I might also be onto something with the curved pole tips! Snow was pretty good otherwise, though sloughing fast, something to watch out for in the next while for sure.

Sunday was fun with a huge group of some cycling buddies skiing some more great snow

And breaking some gear.

Still lonely :(

I bung'ed er up good

2012-01-07T19:44:00.007-07:00

Hi, some of you may have heard about my avalanche incident at purple prince.

Pretty much what it boils down to is that I skied a steep (50deg according to KCPS) , windloaded and unsupported feature in the trees and triggered a size 2 (according to KCPS based on destructive power). It released on the depth hoar and I went for a ride through the trees and got banged up pretty good (required 11 stitches to my chin, and my back is pretty sore and possibly a broken collarbone). One of my Dynafit Manaslus w/ Vertical st bindings is still up there. When I consider all of my body parts that are currently hurting, I feel extremely lucky that I didn't break my pelvis, femur, or my spine.

We had a skied a line at similar aspect and elevation earlier (but probably not simlar slope angle). We dug a pit on that same slope we skied earlier (got some medium partial planar results), and I even kicked some small cornices down on to the slope that I eventually triggered and got no results. All of these turned out to be false negative results.

I first really saw that the slope had a skiable line while observing it from the highway with Bill earlier in the week, but I did not have the picture with me on the day of the incident. I was determined to ski this new tree line.

That day the avalanche danger was High in the alpine, Considerable at treeline and moderate below treeline. As purple prince is below treeline, I figured that the local avalanche danger would probably be either Considerable or moderate. But I neglected to think about the wind (something that is kind of considered at treeline forecasts, and not really considered at below treeline forecasts) even though the clues were right there in front of me! Cornices...

I also didn't really consider the slope angle. Steep slope angle = thin snow (think about the extreme example of a cliff face), thin snow = easy trigger point. As fun as it is to slash a turn on a steep rollover, it is not very much fun getting strained through some trees.

I also didn't consider the consequences of getting caught in a slide in the trees. Trees are not soft. I made the wrong decision.

I let my guard down in the trees where it is usually assumed that the snowpack is well supported by the surrounding trees. About a week and a half earlier while skiing Vermillion Peak with Bill, we stopped before an opening in the trees, and got the snow in the opening to release about 15cm down with a ski cut. The trees on Vermillion are burned and have no branches to provide additional support to the snow, but it was a great example: Just because you are in the trees does not necessarily mean you are safe.

I was with a new partner, and he did an awesome job helping me get out of there. But not only was it his first time skiing with me; it was his first time skiing in K-Country. I would understand if he was naturally apprehensive to question my decisions (and I’m not even sure if I would have followed his suggestions; trying to reassure him that it will be fine). Now some of you probably have figured out that I am a pretty goal oriented person, and it takes a lot for me to walk away from something (Bill has been on some good deathmarches, he would know!). From A Dozen More Turns (an excellent case study) a good rule to follow is to back off if even one person in the group is uncomfortable.

In the future, to offset my goal oriented attitudes, I want to see my partners step up and plan the touring days instead of trusting my judgement. I’m also going to stop posting backcountry skiing pictures and talking about descents that we have done on my Facebook or my blog. I don’t want to feel like I have to ski the deepest pow or the steepest lines.

Carry an inclinometer. Look for the red flags. Don’t ignore the red flags (steep slopes, possible trigger points, wind loading). Think of the consequences (terrain traps, trees). Plan escape routes and pinpoint safe zones. You can’t ski the backcountry the same way you ski at the hill.

Helmets are a good idea in the backcountry. Mine took a couple of good dings. I wear a Buff and take the earflaps out, therefor no complaints about impaired hearing.

Craig's version: http://craighartmetz.blogspot.com/2012/01/avalanche-involvement-january-5-2012.html

some good skiing

2012-01-02T14:09:00.001-07:00

Boxing Day shred

2011-12-26T19:10:00.005-07:00

Time to get out there!

2011-12-22T19:18:00.000-07:00

Semester is OVER, currently in Canmore for the next couple of weeks.

Snow biking in Champion city has been good so far, but one of the few times that I've wanted studded tires (ICY!)

Got out for my first time ever at Rogers Pass with Steve, and Ian. Ian showed us Red Platers the goods for a solid day.

Bill is back from K-town, and but he came ready to shred!

vert 170

2011-12-05T18:10:00.002-07:00

I was pretty pumped to find out that my MecE 460 presentation would be earlier in the day, to give me time to get to Calgary to race the Vert180. The presentation went well, we didn't get destroyed by any questions from the judges, and one of the judges, who works for a company competing with out project sponsor, was handing out business cards at the end.

So, I set off for Calgary at 2pm, but the roads were pretty icy, and it took me an extra hour to get there. I rolled into the COP parking lot after 6pm got my shit together quickly (leaving my music, and HR monitor in the car), but by the time I figured out where on the hill the race started, they had already started. I was able to start late and instantly went into kill mode.

It took me a couple of laps to get dialed in (unfog glasses, remove skin sheets from skins), but after that I was feeling good, until about 45mins to go, as my left hip flexor was killing me (need to do more skinning on the trekker/Explosiv setup to build strength!).

All of the fast guys (and girls) were racing on relay teams, so I ended up winning, even with all my bumbles during the first 30min of racing. I got a pretty sick down jacket from MEC, and also collected my RAB national team jacket, so I'm pretty much a bird.

I came with 1 down jacket, and left with 3.

The organizers did a swell job, and I even got to sleep at Niall's house when I decided that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to drive to Canmore. Fun race, good swag, skied some pow at COP and threw some tricks off a jump on the course.

fall term break

2011-11-15T20:59:00.000-07:00

I was able to escape the wrath of group projects for another weekend and loaded up the vehicular and headed to Canmore

So much room for activities!

Yes, I was equipped for some biking, skating, XC skiing, and ski touring. Thursday, I rode to Banff through a massive headwind, but when I got to the Vermillion Lakes, it was clear that skating would not be an option.

Friday, I did some more ski touring, good to get out again. A bit of windslab, but I was able to slay it good.

Saturday, headed to the Moraine Lake road for some XC skiing. A lot of people who I knew were there, pretty cool! Also got passed like I was standing still by some national team skiers doing intervals, and a 1 armed skier! But I kept rolling (er sliding) like a hero, aka the Fred of skiing. More skiing on Sunday with some DEEP trailbreaking and baseless snow that was too deep to turn in (harsh life, I know...)

First turns of the season

2011-11-06T21:41:00.001-07:00

School eased up a bit this weekend, but even with neither Steve, MT, or Bill able to go, there was no way that I was going to miss out on what looked to be good conditions. I fired off an email to the UofA Outdoors Club mailing list asking for partners. Pretty much every reply was from an international student, I guess they see people with cars as chumps willing to take them out of town for the weekend... Anyways, I managed to sift through all the replies and found some genuinely interested people, and headed down to Canmore on Friday night.

What you get when you combine a Norwegian chick, a park rat, and a British dude for a weekend

I was the only one without any real gear issues, but we cranked out a bunch of laps, and by my estimation, about 1000m vert, which is pretty good! Conditions were awesome, some of my funnest ski touring turns yet!

I'm pretty pumped it worked out well, definitely will consider using the mailing list for filling space in my car in the future.

Edmonton biking GNAR

2011-11-06T21:26:00.000-07:00

fall mtb part 2

2011-10-29T17:52:00.000-06:00

I had a fun ride with Mike and Mike (Blender and Sarns), and found some new trails to make part 2. Part 3 possibly coming.

What I've been up to

2011-10-27T16:04:00.000-06:00

School has taken an iron grip (well actually an Incoloy 925 grip) on my life lately, but I have been trying to squeeze out some goodness.

Although I had to take a week off due to sickness and writing a lab report, I was feeling good in a revived Wednesday night cross session thanks to Mark at http://www.hardcorebikes.ca/ for getting that going again! I dominated the start sprints just like the old days. I've still got it! I decided to race provincials in Devon.

The winner of the holeshot got some stuff from Slime, so I used my Wednesday night start skills and took that prime! It was also nice being a half lap into the race and still sitting in 4th. The legs were stiff from not getting a great warmup and not riding hard the day before (and probably from a week of inactivity and being sick), so I eventually faded to 11th.

The school cycle continues, so I have been trying to get out when I can:

Thanks for giving

2011-10-14T21:37:00.000-06:00

So like last year, I raced the cross race on the Saturday, then headed down to Canmore to meet up with Bill.

Like last year, the race also went well, for a while, I had 5th place in my sights, but I faded a little, and had a really good mental battle to hold on to 7th place. It must have been the new skinsuit! I got a bit of a sore throat on Friday night though, so my breathing was not optimal.

yeah, I might need to learn how to bunny hop...

Photo: Gord Brenner

In Canmore, I was pumped to see Bill who came from Kelowna and my grandparents who came from Victoria for the weekend. Sunday, Bill and I headed to Moose Mountain, just like last year! It had snowed up high and rained hard down low during the week, but things had apparently tacked up nicely in the last couple of days.

We set our sights on a ride up Pneuma, and a descent down SHAFT, a newly cut trail. SHAFT was a little greasy in places (the fun kind of greasy), but the berms were awesome and the trail had good flow! After having a fun rip down SHAFT, we headed up to the top of Ushoulda, which was another fun rip, fast, natural, and flowy! I was feeling sick, the legs were tired, and we had to get home for some turkey, so we cut er short.

Monday, my voice was totally gone, and so a ride was out of the question. Then I was super busy with school during the week (lab report, group project stuff). I think it's the first time in university that I haven't had time to ride!

FRS: science or superstition?

2011-10-02T23:16:00.001-06:00

So at a recent race, I managed to win (or rather catch) a 14 serving box of FRS. It still had the price tag on it, $30. John C got one too. We joked, "What kind of idiot would buy this stuff?" Directed use states to take 2 packets every day (so $30 for 1 week's supply?!?!?!)

I got a good laugh out of a "low cal" energy product. Apparently the active ingredient is Quercetin (300mg), a powerful antioxidant, that can also be purchased at a drugstore ($15 for 500x500mg or ~120x better value). I've taken multiple statistics courses and a health care ethics course, so I am a little interested in performing a study to see if this stuff really works. FRS's operations are a little shady (a "free trial" where they automatically renew your order and charge you for it), so I will feel no guilt when I either prove that their product is "not very effective" or if it is effective, suggest that quercetin should be purchased from a drugstore.

Experimental Design: I propose a blind, placebo controlled paired test. I will be the subject and I will be randomly served either a placebo (wild berry flavoured juice mix) or FRS per day without knowing what I am served. I will then describe how I feel, specifically my energy level, and at the end of the study, I will compare the serving (juice mix or FRS) to how I felt, and draw some conclusions.

A couple of potential issues with this experimental design:

-Although I will not know what I am taking (juice mix or FRS), if the two have significantly different flavours, colours, textures, etc, then that may influence the results as I might recognize what I have been given and my impression will be influenced by a previous impression. Hopefully the flavours are close enough, and I will use an opaque bottle.
-Days after hard workouts/races or after less sleep will generally have lower energy levels. Maybe I should eliminate those days from the test...
-Should I be taking 2 servings per day?

Anyways, for over $2 per serving, I would hope to see some measurable results!

what I did on my summer vacation

2011-09-30T18:52:00.000-06:00

From

http://www.engineering.ualberta.ca/en/NewsEvents/Engineering%20News/2011/09/Studentscoopworkexperiencecouldleadtonewtreatmentsforheartpatients.aspx

Student’s co-op work experience could lead to new treatments for heart patients

September 29, 2011

By By Richard Cairney

Biomedical engineering professor and researcher Richard Thompson, left, supervised mechanical engineering student Peter Knight as he designed and build an exercise ‘bike’ that attaches to an MRI machine.

Edmonton—If he isn’t in class or studying, you’ll find mechanical engineering student Peter Knight pushing himself to extremes in mountain bike races—it’s an extremely demanding sport that causes your legs to scream and forces your heart to beat at speeds nearing 200 beats per minute.

It’s somewhat ironic, then, that Knight has spent the past several months designing and building a type of stationary bicycle for patients who are suffering with cardiac disease.

A mechanical engineering (biomedical option) student in the faculty’s Co-op Engineering Program, Knight is wrapping up a work term in the U of A Department of Biomedical Engineering designing, building an exercise device that can be attached to an MRI machine.

Richard Thompson, a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Knights supervisor for his co-op term, develops new MRI methods for imaging the heart and other organs and applies these methods to study diseases such as heart failure.

Knight’s new device will enable heart disease researchers to use MRI to generate images of a patient’s heart working and “see” how their blood flows and circulates while under physical exertion. The images will provide unique information about the nature of an individual’s heart disease.

“The most common disease in North America is heart disease—and it is often exposed only when you exert yourself,” said Thompson. “What’s interesting is that in some patients, their heart might not be the primary problem.. There are many heart failure patients whose hearts look like they are pumping normally but its possible that their skeletal muscle or their brain aren’t getting enough blood during exercise, which may be the factors which then define their disease . . . no one has looked at all of these factor together and if we can identify the weak link, it will open up new potential methods to treat this common disease.”

The device Knight has been building, he says “will be an important add-on” in the research. There is a commercial version of the MRI stationary cycle that costs tens of thousands of dollars, but Thompson, an alumnus of the U of A Faculty of Engineering, was happy to put Knight to work on the project.

Knight says designing the device was tricky. For starters, there were physical restrictions to consider: he needed to be sure that patients laying on their backs pedaling in a circular motion wouldn’t hit their knees on the MRI machine.

“Because your range of motion is somewhat restricted traditional cycling wasn’t an option,” said Knight. “What we decided to do instead is use a linear reciprocating motion where your leg moves straight back and forth—it’s similar to a piston in a car.”

Patients would push their feet against rods connected to a large flywheel with adjustable resistance.

Knight also had to consider what materials he’d use. At the core of an MRI machine are magnets so powerful that people with pacemakers are not allowed too close to the machines. Knight couldn’t use metal in the device.

As a result, Knight’s stationary bicycle is made from wood, held together with stainless steel screws—its molecular composition make it virtually immune to magnetic forces. The flywheel is made from plastic and the wheel’s hub—from a mountain bike, of course—is mostly made of aluminum.

Knight says the co-op placement was a natural fit for him not only because he’s a high-level cyclist, but also because of the impact it could have in health care. His previous Co-op placements have included the Canmet Energy Technology Centre in Devon, Alberta, where he examined ways to separate more components from oilsands tailings; another was working with Dean of Rehabilitation Medicine Martin Feguson-Pell on sensors that would monitor a hospital bed’s physical condition, to prevent patients from getting bed sores.

“I don’t want to pigeon hole myself into one particular area,” said Knight. “Being in the co-op program you have a chance to try a lot of different things out, so that’s what I’m doing.”

Thoughts about the trails we ride part 2

2011-09-26T16:23:00.000-06:00

In the previous post, I talked about how I really want to go out and ride some trails because their future may be uncertain. Here are some more thoughts on why trails close:

Natural causes: This is actually a big issue in Edmonton with trails that are close to the river bank. When the river rises in the late spring, it sometimes takes some trail with it. This is usually solved by re-routing the trail further from the bank. Another example of a natural cause of "trail closure" is when the trail gets overgrown or covered in deadfall.This usually means that the trails were not really that popular to begin with, so not much of a loss.

Logging/Development: This is truly tragic because the trail is pretty much lost for good. However, there are plenty of examples where local trail organizations have arranged with the logging companies to have them clear the trail after logging is completed. Meandering singletrack in the middle of a cut block! Well, it's better than nothing.

Land ownership issues: It surprises me how much of our wilderness is owned by someone! Many local trail organizations have been able to negotiate with landowners who happen to have sections of trail crossing their property to maintain access for trail users. However, there are other landowners who are concerned about the nuisance or liability issues. Occupier's liability is actually a huge issue for riders who enjoy man made stunts. Landowners need to be educated about the economic benefits of trails, and riders need to take responsibility for their mistakes! A change in the laws regarding occupier's liability could potentially revolutionize mountain biking as we know it.

Environmental issues: I have seen 2 main examples. The first being trails that cannot handle the traffic they received without frequent maintenance (they end up getting neglected). They become blown out and much of the soil has been removed by use. The solution to that is to first of all route trails at an acceptable grade for the traffic they will receive and the soil conditions, and to keep up on maintenance, possibly armouring the trail. If closed, these trails should be reclaimed if possible to discourage future use. The second example of closure for environmental reasons is to protect environmentally sensitive areas and species. This is a big issue in the Canmore area where many trails are in Provincial or National Parks, or in areas that are designated as wildlife corridors.

Canmore mountain bikers have lost lots of high quality singletrack (Soul Brothers, Alpine Club, Touch of Class. I regret not getting a chance to ride any of those trails, and there are probably many more that were closed as well) as wildlife corridors are zoned to help wildlife deal with being forced further up the valley by housing and *shudder* golf course developments. Well, I would not want to have any wildlife encounters, but there have been some trail closures that are not consistent with the science: closures in areas that are not wildlife corridors (either not used, or too steep to be suitable), or trails within arms lengths of existing developments (roads, housing, etc..). In addition, some trails that were closed in corridors were reclaimed, making them unusable for animals, defeating the purpose of the corridor. I would hope that these wildlife corridors are still studied and monitored. If the effect is not significant, then there is no reason why the trails should be closed...

In some cases, mountain bikers have been singled out for trail closures, while hikers and even equestrians still have access to the trails closed to bikes. While I would prefer to stay away from most of these multi-use trails: they might be of little interest to me (not singletrack, not rideable, or to avoid potential user conflicts), there are some classics that have been closed specifically to mountain bikers (Mt. Assinaboine).

I appreciate the efforts of mountain bike organizations to develop trails that use intuitive grades and contours. Trail closures not only remove a piece of cultural significance (ie: one of the original freeride trails), but they also displace trail users and concentrate them, potentially increasing user conflicts.

In the next installment, I will have some opinions on what Mountain bikers can do to maintain trail access, and some thoughts on how to replace or expand trail networks.

CX weekend #1: Bad race, good race

2011-09-25T19:22:00.000-06:00

The ERTC School of Cross and the Hardcore Hop 'n Hurl were the first 2 stops of the AB Cup, and came after a couple of hard Tuesday night races. It was hot on both Saturday and Sunday.

I always seem to race better in the heat as it seems I am less affected by it. That doesn't mean that I enjoy the heat, I just ride relatively better in it. I actually find that I usually fare well in tough weather conditions (not tough course conditions) like rain, snow, cold, hot, etc. It's like those "mountain bikers" (riders with amazing technical skills and riders who want others to think they have amazing technical skills) who hope for monsoons before their races so that they will do better. You would have to be a very sadistic person to enjoy ruining your bike, ruining some trails (I'm talking biblical monsoon, not just your average rain) and risking serious injury, but those tough course conditions allow them to finish higher.

Saturday's race (School of Cross) was going good (relative to the other riders of course), I had passed some people who had blown up in the heat and had my crosshairs on more riders ahead and was sitting around 10th, then on A CLIMB, I heard the psssssssssssss, flat rear tire, and I had to run the rest of the way to the pit (double pits are awesome!), and I didn't have a spare wheel, but fortunately Tracy hooked me up with one of his EC90SLs.

"Anyone have a less expensive wheel I could use?"

I was well back by the time all that running and wheel changing stuff was finished, but I rolled the rest of the race pretty hard and came in DFL @ 1lap.

photos: Gord Brenner

Sunday, I was looking for redemption and boy, did I get some of that stuff. I had another good (again, relative to the other riders) race and saw some fantastic explosions. My turn for an explosion came with about 3 laps to go, but it was a small explosion and I only lost 2 positions. I think I finished around 8th or 9th.

So next weekend is the Dark Knight, Cross for Kids combo in Calgary but I'm not sure if I will race due to school. MT mentioned "Waiparous" an area I have been ogling as of late due to a certain hike-a-bike descent.... (I'm sure he was thinking more along the lines of 4 wheeling or climbing...)

photo: not mine!

bow 62.5 (80ish)

2011-09-19T19:38:00.001-06:00

Good to see the organizers have a sense of humour after the race was cancelled last year!

I signed up for this puppy a couple of months ago. Fortunately, the weather was perfect, a little cold in the morning, but no precipitation!

Course: To be honest, the first part of the course was not very exciting. I enjoyed the rolling terrain of the Elbow Valley, Prairie Link, and Prairie Creek trails though. The Sulphur Springs climb is a classic from the Summer Solstace race, but I don't really enjoy the fast descent with loose, non-bermed corners. The link from the end of the Prairie Creek trail to the feedzone was pure character builder with mud bogs, small creek crossings, and where the trail was dry, it was chewed up by cows. After the feed zone and the gravel road section, I enjoyed the course more. The Powderface Creek trail was fun, and I enjoyed Pneuma and Special K.

Technique: After a super fast start, I was super jittery going into the Sulphur Springs descent and took it pretty slow on the loose, off camber, switchbacks. I felt better on the Powderface descent and shralped up the Special K descent.

Engine: I started a little out of my comfort zone and paid for it, but fortunately, not too badly. I settled in after the feed zone, crushing the final climbs, battling some cramps, and made up some positions. Only 2 feed stations but they were well stocked, so I made sure I fueled up!

TSN Turning point: After I recovered after a hard start, I started to work my way back through some of the people who passed me while I was recovering. Unfortunately, the legs started cramping, and I had some chainsuck issues so I couldn't duel with one last rider in my cross-hairs. Funnest moment was definitely destroying this one sketchy guy who didn't want me to pass him. He stopped/dabbed in front of me multiple times and blocked me from riding through on the Pneuma climb! When I finally did pass him, he was no where to be seen. What a guy!

It was my first real long race without frequent access to feed zones. Because the race was in Bragg Creek, I didn't want to rock a 2nd bottle cage on the bottom of my downtube (cow shit is not good for you). I didn't have a hydration pack bladder, so I loaded up a small backpack with some bottles, but I would lose time swapping bottles. Hydration bladder or hardtail with 2 bottle cages is a must!

So, I rolled in top 20 overall I think, 4:46ish, and 5th in the 20-30 category. Although during the 1st part of the race, I was questioning why I was racing, I really enjoyed the 2nd half: Powderface was a fun climb and descent, the rolling terrain of Elbow valley, the technical climb of Pneuma and the technical Special K descent were all so much fun and make me want to ride more trails in the area. I'm not sure how well I would enjoy this race in more adverse conditions, so I don't know if I would gamble on the 2+ months in advance registration date... We were very lucky this year!

Thanks to Cody for splitting gas on the ride down, sharing some awesome bike stories, and to Ryan for offering us a place to stay!

Thoughts about the trails we ride

2011-09-15T15:41:00.000-06:00

Back in the real world, I am currently going through a huge biking withdrawal. Yes, I have still been riding my mountain bike (and now starting to ride my cyclocross bike) in Edmonton, but I realize that there is a gigantic volume of awesome trails out there (even just considering the different regions of British Columbia, let alone the rest of North America, let alone the world). And many of these classic trails have uncertain futures: logging, land issues, environmental issues. Classics like Oasis in Rossland, Rose Hill in Kamloops, Boulder Mountain in Revelstoke, Spanky's in Vernon, Millstream in Victoria, Soul Brothers and Touch of Class in Canmore are no longer "open"; and I'm sure I could go on forever naming other classic trails that are "closed" or no longer rideable (logged, deadfalled, etc..).

I sit here dreaming about going out and riding as much trail as possible because the future is uncertain. I just have the greatest itch right now to go out and ride trail! I don't want to hear about how awesome the trail was before it was closed. Obviously, I would prefer that they would not get closed, but at least I would like to KNOW what the trail was like. Yes, new trails will be built, but to many, they "just aren't the same".

Mountain biking is still a little bit of an "outlaw" sport, and I applaud the efforts of those who are championing for trail access and trails, and those who respect this user group that is just trying to have fun while they get their exercise.

To be continued...

Specialized Trail Crew application

2011-09-08T16:17:00.009-06:00

My name? Peter Knight. I am 21 years old and just starting my final year of my Mechanical Engineering degree at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. My primary goals are race related, but there is no better way to become a faster mountain biker than to spend lots of time on my mountain bike. While at work or at school, I daydream about riding my bike. Problems are mysteriously solved when I have a couple of hours to myself on the trails.

My quest to become a faster racer has me improving both my fitness and my technical skills while keeping things fun. I like to embrace a wide variety of riding, from steeps at the bike park to long singletrack loops, and even gravel paths and roads. I don’t believe in specific riding styles. The words “all mountain” “cross country” “freeride” don’t mean anything to me. The labels “Roadie” or “mountain biker” only represent a preference of a type of riding surface. I believe that the trails I ride are dictated by how comfortable I am on a certain bike.

Through racing, I have met many great people and have been able to enjoy thousands of kilometres of trails with different riders. I have progressed steadily up to the Elite category, and have raced for the provincial team on some occassions. The community in Edmonton is awesome. For a big city, the riding here is unreal. Where else can you host a Canada Cup in the middle of the city or find a group willing to ride on snow in the middle of winter? And it is so easily accessible. I can go on short mountain bike rides straight from my door! I can ride trails on my commute to school or work.

My club, the Hardcore Race Team, along with many other clubs have adopted sections of trail in our wonderful river valley. As a club, we help maintain the trails by improving drainage, limiting erosion, and trimming branches. The group rides are always adventures, and sometimes, I even get to lead. My club also organizes the midweek mountain bike races in the city and a couple of provincial series races, and I help set up the course, marshall the races, and clean up after the race. For many of these provincial series races, members of my club make up more than half of the elite men’s field! I see these grassroots events as extremely crucial to bringing more people (most importantly more youth) into the sport as they are inexpensive, and don’t require suffering for long periods of time. I have raced pretty much every Alberta Cup XC race in the past couple of years as it is important to support the series.

So why me? Well I, like anyone, could list a million subjective qualities about myself and use action buzz words, but I would prefer to boil it down to a few simple and more objective qualities:

Visibility-I am pretty active in the cycling community; I show up to group rides, trail days, midweek races, Alberta Cups, movies, and other cycling related events in the city. I also spend a lot of time riding my bike in the Edmonton river valley.

Good role model - I believe that it is important to respect the other riders, whether they be other racers in race situations, or just the general riding public. I am also at an age where some people, for whatever reason, quit cycling, while others discover a new activity. As an elite racer, many people will look up to me when they are just starting out, or will be inspired because I have been able to compete at a high level, even while studying Mechanical Engineering in university. Stress is simply no match for time on the trails!

Racing is fun and all, but I find the real reward comes when you crush sections of trail with the friends you made, or when you discover awesome singletrack in an unfamiliar area. Specialized makes some fine bikes (I love my Stumpjumper HT and my Tarmac), will one find it's way to me for next season?

Zest Tour days 9, 10, and 11: Kelowna, MacKenzie, CNC

2011-09-07T22:24:00.001-06:00

Kelowna: hot and dusty as expected, but once I quickly acclimatized, it was not that bad. We rode in the Myra-Belleview Provincial Park, where there are actually some sick trails for those who don't just like riding down.

We climbed and climbed, all the way up to the Kettle Valley Railroad (WTF is it so high up above Kelowna for!). But by that time, my rear hub was starting to not work properly (it would later turn out to be a broken hub axle, possibly tapered Maxle Lite related), so I had to take the descent chainless. It was a fun descent with some pretty gnarly rock sections, and through some burnt forest from the fire of 2003

I was pretty bummed about the axle failure, but luckily I got to take Bill's Ibis back to Canmore and he gave me permission to ride it. After listening to him complain about it wheelie-ing on steep climbs, but raving about it on the descents, I was eager to try it out. I took a quick stop in Revelstoke on the way back. I really enjoyed our 2 days earlier in Revelstoke and there was still lots more good trail that we had to ride (and there still is!). I opted for a quick ride on the ski hill side, and found some steep rocky trails, with flowy sections (I know, a pretty common theme on the Zest Tour). The Mojo was not wheelie-ing THAT bad. Sorry Bill!

Oh yeah, I picked up my skis/boots/bindings.

New gear, guaranteeing it won't snow until December for sure. I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing!

I decided that I still needed a little more time on Bill's Ibis, so I went for a quick rip at the Canmore Nordic Centre with the GoPro, riding a bunch of the old classic trails that real riders love

Canmore fun on pinkbike.com

After being spoiled riding some awesome trails for the previous week, it is extremely clear that the trailbuilders at the Canmore Nordic Centre are not very experienced. I know I have been harsh on them, but the vibes I am getting from them is that you cannot build fun AND sustainable trails, but after riding Revelstoke, that is simply not the case.

Finally back in Edmonton, I participated in the Hardcore Bikes trail day. Low turnout as some people were racing the first CX Tuesday nighter (SHAME!), but we got some good work done.

Zest tour: Lots of riding, lots of km's, lots of vertical m's (I GPS'd it all with my Garmin Edge, but I did forget to start it on occassion, so I don't have complete totals). I rode my super vesatile Marin Attack Trail with 2 wheelsets: Stans Arch/Supercomps with Maxxis Advantage 2.1 for more of the XC stuff, and the stock Mavic 321/Champions with Kenda Nevegals 2.35 for the rougher stuff. Bill rode his Ibis Mojo for the XC stuff, and his Santa Cruz Driver 8 for the rough stuff. All vertical descent was earned, EXCEPT Frisby Ridge DH for me (Bill drove the vehicle down), and Bill missed out on a short climb that I did to pick up the vehicle after Sale Mt.

Last year, we did Rossland (Red Top then 7 Summits and a short Kootenay-Columbia loop the next day) and Fernie (Roots-Hyperventilation-Extension-Ridgemont then Fernie provincial park, and the FAR trails the next day). Awesome riding either way, but this year worked out better: shorter travel times between towns = more time to ride.

Currently my Garmin maps are private, but if you want me to make them public (so you can study my heart rates and learn how to beat me) then feel free to leave a comment below.

Zest tour day 8: Sale Mt./Martha Creek, Frisby Ridge

2011-09-07T22:04:00.000-06:00

A nice sleep in the hammock was only interrupted by the GREASIEST coughing dude. Fresh off our Mt. 7 up and down slay, we decided to give Sale Mt the similar treatment. It was a little longer (16km, 1500m elevation gain for a 9.3km descent!), but Bill had his Ibis today, so he was up for it. A couple of hours later, we were at the top. 5000 ft UP AND DOWN on the Marin Attack Trail (and Ibis Mojo)

Nice views 1500m up at 2000m!

Just as we got to the top, a group of shuttlers arrived at the top as well. I asked the head honcho who was wearing a jersey bearing the logo of a certain alcoholic beverage that is popular with those who are from the province directly to the east of Alberta if he had a socket set so that I could tighten up my suspension linkages.

"Hey, would you happen to have a socket set in your truck?"

"NO!!!??!!"

"Sorry..."

Yes, I actually apologized for asking a question...

The descent was super rocky at the top, the kinds of rocks that eat tires and rims for breakfast, and spokes for desert. Eventually the rocks eased up and led to some steep corners, bridges, and flowy sections further down. Fun descent and we and our bikes survived unscathed (I almost ate shit really hard on a steep section before a road crossing), but we were both wishing for some thicker tires for some piece of mind...

Plenty of descent done

Plenty of descent left

A note on trail etiquette: "TEAM PILSNER" were on DH bikes, full armour, etc.. and they were pretty good riders, so we let them go ahead of us. But they kept stopping for a long time at each intersection and we would catch up. Should we continue onto the next section ahead of them where they will eventually have to pass us again and again, or do we wait and drop in right after them? We chose to wait, but it definitely got annoying near the end...

Well that wasn't enough for us. Although we didn't have enough time to ride up to the trailhead of Frisby ridge (so that we could both ride the DH back to town), we drove up a gnarly logging road to a BUSY parking lot. Wow, this new trail is popular! As it was in the afternoon, most people were on their way back down, and by that confusing IMBA rule, we could climb interrupted!

"Frisby Ridge is pretty much wheelchair accessible"

During the climb, I was honestly a little worried that these super buff trails would be the future of mountain biking. What will happen to steep and technical riding? I was having nightmares that involved the shitty new trails at the CNC. Well after some beautiful views up top, we headed down the SUPER FLOWY descent: contours you can pump, berms you can rail, smiles on our faces. And at the bottom, Bill was done, that he let me do the DH to town while he drove the vehicle down. (muhahahah, my plan worked to perfection!)

Even more flow, some steep sections, maybe the funnest trail of the trip. Sorry Bill!

After crushing some Micky D's, it was off to Kelowna to drop Bill off at UBCO

Zest tour day 7: Keystone Standard Basin and Mt. Macpherson

2011-09-07T22:00:00.001-06:00

Rain all night confined us to our tents for the night, but it cleared up in the morning. We set out north from the campground, and a further 15km up a logging road to the trailhead. It was chilly, and still a little damp, but we soldiered on and quickly emerged into the alpine, where we were greeted with...SNOW! WTF??!?!?!

Revelstoke: Where it rains in the winter and snows in the summer

We were the first group out on the trail, and the snow forced us off our bikes in some sections and made our feet cold. When I realized that we were only halfway to the hut, we actually turned around, until we encountered another group who convinced us to finish off the trail. I led the rest of the trail to the cabin, sometimes through 1 or 2 inches of wet snow, where someone from the other group was thoughtful enough to bring a lighter so we could get a fire going. After spending some good time in the hut warming up, we set off for the 11km back to the car (the full 18km is rarely done, rougher, lots of hike a bike apparently, maybe for a nicer day!).

The snow had melted a little and there were lots of other riders heading out to the cabin. It was actually quite tacky near the car, and the fun descent was over way to quickly!

So much room for activities!

Although the cold, faux turn back, and time at the cabin made this ride take longer than expected, we still headed the short distance to Revelstoke to ride a short loop at the Mt. Macpherson trails. A quick look at the trail kiosk, which included recommended directions of travel for every trail (super clutch), I was able to piece together an awesome loop. We also ran into the super fit Mel B, who gave us some suggestions (which I actually ignored, sorry Mel!).

We climbed up, and rode this super fun and flowy awesome trail. Bill challenged me to not pedal the whole trail, and it was easy to rip up the trail by pumping the contours. Picture Soft Yogurt, but much flowier, and without the BMX track look.

The second small loop we did had some more technical features: rocks and roots, which became challenging as the daylight faded under the dark tree canopy. Back at camp, we were pumped to spend a clear night in the hammocks!

Zest Tour day 6: Mt. 7 and Mtn Shadows

2011-09-07T21:58:00.000-06:00

With nice weather, we were stoked to get in a big day of riding.

We started by pedalling up (yes, pedalling up) the Mt. 7 FSR, 14km and 1100m vertical to the top of the paraglider launch site. Bill rocked the climb on his 40lb 8" bike like a champ. With 4km to the top, we were offered a ride, but Bill declined as he wanted to finish the job himself.

Deaddog was a little too gnarly for me, we opted for a different descent from the top

It was still a little damp up top, a little too damp for Bill the desert dog. but things tacked up as we got back on the main DH, and we were able to rip the super flowy descent.

The final section (snake hill) down to the parking lot at the bottom is SUPER fun. Super smooth and fast berms snaking through a small valley.

After grubbing up, we set out to ride the Mtn Shadows trails which were also nearby. After much exploring of a confusing network with many different intersections, we found a super fun line with lots of rock up high and flow down low, and it eventually funneled back down to snake hill. If you have ever ridden Rock Garden at Kicking Horse, there was a section like that (ladder bridges onto and off of rocks) but in the middle of the forest! Unfortunately this area is on someone's woodlot, and some rogue builders have fallen green trees. A lot of the ladder bridges had been chainsawed, and some deadfall definitely looked like it was placed across the trail. Uh Oh. Otherwise a fun area!

unfortunately, we didn't have time for a rope swing session as we had to head off to Revelstoke for the next leg of the tour.

Uh, are you sure you don't want any tent poles there Bill?

Zest Tour Days 3, 4, 5: Baseline, G8, Moonrakers

2011-09-07T21:56:00.002-06:00

Bill joined in for the trek out to Baseline Mountain in Rocky Mountain House. I had scoured teh interwebs looking for beta on the trails there, but the biggest help came from Barry at Hardcore Bikes who provided me with a hand drawn map and some instructions. We managed to only get a little lost before finding the goods. The mountain has a certain mystique about it: a locked gate at the bottom, tales of conflicts, rider protests, Canada Cup and Alberta Cup battles, floods, logging, and cancelled races along with very little information on the intertubes.

Holy steep! Barry wasn't kidding

We knocked off 3 laps pedalling up the road and descending down the old and new DH, and Bearded Lady. The Lady and the new DH had their steep sections that put a smile on Bill's face, and some flowy sections lower down that we both enjoyed!

Bill in his natural element: steep

The next day, we had planned to ride at Moose Mountain, but it was raining HARD in Canmore. We hit up a weather window and rode G8, a super fun and short ride that I haven't done for a couple of years. FUN! And a good test of the Attack Trail with the lighter XC wheels, below 30lbs now!

The next morning, it was still raining as we headed out to Golden. It must have just started raining in Golden because the trails were still dry, but by the end of our 3hr ride around the Moonrakers area, we were drenched and puddles were already forming.

Super buff trail network and we rode the new CBT Mainline trail up and down.

We were lucky enough to get to stay at Ian G and his wife Shauna's beautiful house in Golden to get us out of the rain, and howl with their dogs, and get some more beta on Golden's trails.

Hinton Races. Zest Tour days 1 and 2.

2011-09-07T16:43:00.004-06:00

Okay, so I am a bit behind, and I have lots to catch up on, so let's get started! A super fun weekend out in Hinton racing on some awesome trails, taking a dip in an awesome lake, and sleeping in a tent. I was super pumped to ride the trails, I am considering these races to be the first stops on the road trip known as the Zest Tour.

Both the cross country and the marathon the day after played out very similarly

Course: Awesome. Fast and long descents, long climbs. The long climbs suited me well. There was a fun descent in the marathon race: the most perfect berms that I have ever ridden in my life, and some gnarly rock sections. Kudos to the builders (who also happened to be the organizers!)

Technique: There were some timed downhill sections in the marathon race, but there was some climbing in the timed sections, so my losses did not look as severe. While I was within the top 10 fastest racers in both races, I was mid pack on the timed downhills. Obviously room for improvement.

Engine: The engine did not let me down. I ended up doing a lot of riding with my teammates, but was able to outlast them by the finish line by crushing the climbs.

TSN turning point: No real turning point, except maybe catching and dropping riders who had blown up in both races. I had to battle back after the descents, and I had to made sure I put enough time into my rivals on the climbs.

Anyways, a super fun race, awesome course, awesome organizers, shame there wasn't more people there...

Both races. I have to figure out how to separate the workouts!

SUNridge

2011-08-26T15:46:00.000-06:00

Postponed from early July due to the monsoon, weather was the complete opposite for the rescheduled Perogy XC. Sunny and 31C. HOT

Course: Tight, windy, and some killer steep climbs. Good conditions, so nothing was super sketchy, maybe a loose corner or two, and some tight trees.

Technique: It was apparent that I did not have this course as dialed as I would hope. I would lose a huge chunk of time on the tight turns of the first part of the lap, then gain time on the steep climbs.

Engine: Pretty good today in the heat, drank well and didn't cramp. I was climbing well. I had to sit down after the race as the heat was just too much. Couldn't hang with the Blender when he blew by me on the steep climb on the final lap to take the final podium spot.

TSN Turning Point: Well, Blender riding by me on the hill on the last lap prevented me from getting a podium, but I lost too much time in the cornering sections and in the feed zone!

Anyways, work is over and I have a biking road trip planned with Bill, and I am super pumped for it. It all kicks off for me in Hinton this weekend with some awesome races. Long climbs + fun descents = FUN!

Which reminds me of an interesting discussion from Facebook. There are currently 35 people signed up for the Muck Yeah! Race on what looks to be an unreal course!

on pinkbike.com

Yet there are organizers who can charge $100 more for arguably lesser courses and have their event sell out? $150 races don't bring kids into the sport. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL GRASSROOTS RACE!

Life is an eternal struggle...

2011-08-18T20:38:00.000-06:00

...between good

...and evil

Swift, Silent...zesty

2011-08-07T22:00:00.001-06:00

Another weekend off racing (though apparently I missed out on a race). But filled with more riding in Canmore on the Marin Attack Trail. I've been getting a little zesty on that bike, hopefully I can adapt back to my race bike in time for my next race! A busy weekend of activities with some climbing thrown in there as well. A solid crash and lead fall in there for good measure...

Fun natural wall ride

Bill showed me how to ride the slab. I did eventually sack up and hit it.

My new toy, secret training redefined

2011-08-01T21:00:00.002-06:00

The face of secret training just changed.

I got a Garmin Edge 500 to replace my cracked PowerTap display, my shitty, old, unreliable POLAR heart rate monitor (if you want me to stop dissing your product, free product/money will shut me up!), and to give me altitude/GPS tracing capabilities in the winter for skiing.

Note: My PowerTap heart rate strap from my Powertap Pro+ (ANT+) works. Garmin customer service said it wouldn't. Pretty pathetic considereing that Dynastream (developers of ANT+ and spin off from UofA) is a sub of Garmin. So Garmin succeeded in selling me a heart rate strap and a speed/cadence sensor I do not care for....

I would like to keep my secret training secret, so I have elected to not share my workouts, except if I go on an awesome ride/ski.

I have had the best time making awesome maps and profiles, and it is a super easy way to log my training.

I was just riding along (JRA) and all of a sudden, my shoes turned into the women's model

It has been raining lots in Edmonton this summer. I wasn't too pumped for this double rainbow

Edmonton Canada cup

2011-07-24T17:24:00.000-06:00

Muddy. Lots of Running. Wishing I had a singlespeed (less stuff that could break). In awe of the mud on the bikes from the earlier starts. Tonnes of different tires on the start line.

photo: Gord B.

It would be easy for me to shut down on this course in these conditions, and a terrible start, but some good battles kept me in the game. Finished with a decent percentage, didn't get chicked, or passed by too many juniors. Local knowledge definitely helped. Stoked to survive unscathed.

photo: Gord B.

Nationals weekend: One pic race report and more

2011-07-17T22:49:00.004-06:00

2 flats on different laps on the same section. Legs were feeling good! Thanks to everyone who did their best to keep me in the race!

Photo: MT

Raced. Flatted. Flatted. Rock climbed. Team relayed. Rode a 29er. Learned to drive manual.

Good ideas: spare wheels (with similar rotor spacing, DOH!), tubeless, team relays, 29ers, long climbs.

Bad ideas: learning to drive manual in a really loud car.

Impartial: front row call ups.

pssst!

2011-07-10T19:48:00.002-06:00

Meanwhile at my rain and mosquito free secret training base

Giving astute readers a look at a potential new descent for the race this weekend. Oh, the Star Wars trail on Tunnel Mountain is like Episode 1 (not that good, except for the pod racing).

Feeling sorry for those who are just jealous

2011-07-07T22:43:00.000-06:00

When I encounter anyone who is pissed off at my prescence, I just remind myself that they are just jealous of how awesome my life is. Instead of being angry, I feel sorry for them.

Oh Canada

2011-07-04T18:54:00.004-06:00

Well since $500 3-day stage races (not including accommodation) that sell out in a couple of hours are not really my thing, I had a free long weekend to do some rad stuff.

Kicked it off with some biking at Kicking Horse

Bill's Driver 8 and my 'Driver 8 junior' aka Marin Attack Trail

The bike was awesome, totally matches my riding style (mostly everything up to small drops: I can get away with a lighter, shorter travel bike).

With the right geometry, tires, and even front and rear braking, I tamed Rock 'n Roll

"That's Jedi"

Saturday, I had the stupid idea of trying to ski in July. Mt. Cornwall was the destination (visible from Calgary, just north of Banded Peak).

Bill working his way over flood plain rocks, before turning the corner in the distance. "It's like a Warren Miller movie where they go to Africa and hike for a really long time just to ski a tiny snowpatch"

The objective wayyyy off in the distance. Only a couple more hours of bushwacking, rock-hopping, scree bashing, and skinning left!

Bill in the scree bashing segment

Then my camera died, but I did make it to the top to ski...all 300m vertical of it trust me! (Well there was a wind loaded gully that got us about another 200m vertical of skiing further down). The skiing was actually not bad (good corn!). 1300m vertical, ~24km round trip of biking, hiking, and skiing.

View from Calgary: Mt. Cornwall is just right of centre. If you look closely, you can see our tracks!

But you know what sucked? Bushwacking, rock hopping, scree bashing, up and down the mountain with skis and boots on our backs. This was a long and draining day. Overall, it was not very much fun. I hate walking down hills. I hate bushwacking with skis on my back. I hate carrying a heavy pack.

So I now have a 9 month Alberta skiing streak, but I am not going for 10 or 12. Skiing in the summer requires long approaches for very few turns, and I think I would just rather go mountain biking, though I do know of some summer skiing that could be done very close to a road, if I were in the area...

So after Saturday's character builder we set our sights on a more fun adventure. We set out to look for the trail we couldn't find last weekend. With some more beta obtained from a series of tubes known as the interwebs, we were finally able to find the trailhead (which was very well hidden, let's just say it is fairly obvious that SOMEONE does not want people riding there). The elements were against us as we slid around in the rain and got blown around by the wind, so a lot of walking was done, but we rode the trail. We will return again.

Mission: failure, Journey: fun

2011-06-29T17:23:00.002-06:00

Well first of all, I decided not to race the Rundle's Revenge. Why?
-$120/150 entry fee
- shitty course: Killer Bees and Ziggy's got ruined by the Canmore Nordic Centre last year (there isn't a single person I had talked to who likes the "improvements"), and the course went down the Georgetown climb instead of going down something awesome like the Coal Chutes, Ass Whooper, or No Homers.
-Still muddy? I rode somewhere else in the valley and the trails were DRY!

What else would you expect when the Trans Rockies organizers put on a race. I don't really feel like paying their ridiculous entry fees to ride down fireroads. I will continue to chirp their course selection until they give me a free entry to prove me wrong! In the meantime I will race the ABA/CCA races and if I need my endurance fix, there are plenty of other races on better courses for like half the price.

So anyways, the goal was to ride some awesome'er trails this weekend instead. Bill and I had our sights set on this one newer trail with tales of rock slab descents. However, we didn't have a car to access the trailhead. No problem, Bill knows of a set of trails to get us there. So we just had the best ride over there (ironically, the course followed part of the final stage of last year's Trans Rockies, apparently the funnest stage. I'm guessing the least funnest one was where they had to bushwack up through a forest of alders to get to the pass. I laugh every time I see Steve and Mike B's number plates at Hardcore bikes as they are all scratched from that stage...), but we couldn't find the damn trail we were looking for! Oh well, plug was pulled and we rolled back on the highway, Bill was running on fumes. Solid ride, even if we didn't find what we were looking for. The ride out there is worth it's own trip, out and back next time!

Just an update on the Marin Attack Trail. I still think the bike can charge some XC singletrack, and the quad link rear end is super stiff and efficient. The AT will be put to the test next weekend at Kicking Horse!

De-motivational speakers. Will the real athletes please stand up.

2011-06-27T17:29:00.003-06:00

I remember the days: the whole school would assemble in the gymnasium and listen to a “motivational speaker” performing his/her craft. Maybe this person competed in the Olympics (or was dreaming of competing in the Olympics), World Championships, or summitted Everest or whatever. After sitting through an hour of “goal setting”, “adversity”, “dreams”, “accomplishment”, “team work”, “leadership” I left from the gym pretty pumped and ready to take on the world…and happy to get my ass of the gymnasium floor.

A couple of years later, the speaker’s name would flash through my head. Hmm, I wonder what they are up to now; I wonder if they achieved their goals! Well Google is a wonderful tool and after a couple of minutes it is pretty easy to place a big frickin’ asterix beside their “accomplishment” (aka age 26.5-27 with exactly 3 moles on their left arm, red hair, blue eyes, training exactly 8.5 hrs per week and a height of 175cm World Champion of the World).

Okay, so whatever his name’s Everest summit is disputed , he has been accused of questionable ethics, poor team work (we followed his expedition in grade 5 pretty much every day: watching his videos in the days of dial up modems, clipping out news reports).

Although I no longer have to go sit on the floor of a gymnasium attending mandatory presentations from motivational speakers, I am occasionally come across their websites or posters. But instead of having to sit through the bullshit, I can go straight to Google and find the asterix. Okay, so buddy never really won the world championships or so and so never ended up making the Olympic team, let alone the national team.

You can usually discover the “motive” behind the phony motivational speakers. It almost seems like they are gambling: spend money on some adventure, then hope that they can recover the costs and then some through sponsors and speaking tours while vanishing from their sport. Where is the passion?

Okay, so you are a great speaker and are able to motivate your audience (that don’t impress me much)…but can you please be up-front about your accomplishments? How about showing some respect for your fellow competitors, teammates, and humans who are better than you. Are you truly the best at what you do? Stop making excuses. Let’s hear some HUMBLENESS, PASSION and some HUMILITY.

Motivational speaking is a very lucrative business. Companies pay huge amounts of money to inspire their employees, and athletes rely on the money to put food on the table. There are plenty of passionate athletes out there who have true world class accomplishments: athletes who could use some money, but have other things to do…like actually train for their sports so that they can have successful accomplishments, or even work full time. I would encourage those real athletes to brush up on their speaking to fund their projects!

Maybe now, I will do some Googling beforehand, so that I can do some heckling later…

Are there good speakers out there with legitimate accomplishments? I was actually pretty pumped after I saw a presentation from Will Gadd a couple of months ago (not mandatory, but I did get a Red Bull for attending). Although I’m sure he takes a lot of heat from athletes in his respective sports (climbing, para-gliding, kayaking) for being a little too much of a self promoter, his presentation revolved around the simple point, and no bullshit: Go out and get it, but “if you die, you suck!”.

Anyways, this is a blog, so I am guilty of some sort of shameless self promotion, but so is using Facebook and Twitter.

Attempt at some June turns

2011-06-21T16:34:00.002-06:00

A few turns were made and some valuable reconnaissance performed to salvage an otherwise overly ambitious adventure in what were sub-optimal conditions. However, the trip was planned so that the chute could be pulled at any time.

Ambitious: A bunch of firsts for everyone

Conditions: Super late bed time, car sleep, forgotten gear, stove not working, HEAVY wet snow, fresh grizzly tracks.

Conclusion: recon of an area we rarely ski, skiing in June, fun training, some lessons learned

Lessons learned: Test gear, have a plan B, make sure everybody is motivated, wait a couple of clear sunny days and nights before getting after it!

Heavy, wet snow, lots of sluffing from the rocks, but nice to be out there!

Anyways, I rode the new legacy trail to Banff in the rain to watch the Banff Bike Fest criteriums! Always entertaining to watch how the race unfolds.

Sunday, we hit up a father's day car show in the park. Normally, I'm not a huge fan of cars, especially American cars, but there were definitely some cool ones there. An F550 with 4' tires, a couple of Ferraris, and a dude who looked just like my dad...only with a massive mullet.

Then we did some laps of the agility-parcours at the CNC. Working those fast twitch fibers!

Agility Parkour from Sebastian Pachmayr on Vimeo.

Then some evening climbing to round out the weekend

Iron Maiden

2011-06-12T21:18:00.000-06:00

After it took me a while to recover and some rookie mistakes, I was back racing again in Canmore for the Iron Maiden (formely Iron Lung) race.

Course: The climbs seemed like the perfect length and the descents allowed for a good recovery. Rain during the week, and during race day made the course super slick. This is a similar course to what will be used for nationals, so if conditions are good, I should have an awesome race.

Engine: I found that I was climbing really well, and the climbs on the course always kept me motivated to hammer.

Technique: With the course being pretty slick, and me naturally being one of the weaker descenders, technique was not my strong point and I lost a lot of time on the descents.

TSN turning point: Probably on the Devonian drop on lap 1. Front tire washed out on the slick rocks, but I was able to clip out and slide down on my feet. Definitely rattled for the rest of the race.

I opted to miss out on the "Organ Grinder" 5hr race the next day (I probably would have done it as a 2 person relay), for a couple of reasons: #1 Giver-8-er and Kananaskiker really beat the shit out of me and I needed a couple of days to recover from each of those, and #2 The course was still pretty slick.

On another topic, I have started sport climbing. My brother and some friends are pretty into it, and I have obtained some cheap gear. Excellent "cross training" and a fun way to spend some time with friends and blow off some steam. I love the texture of real rock compared to the climbing gym, but I am still a n00b.

Which way to the sufferfest?

2011-06-12T20:46:00.001-06:00

And now a return to my ISO (or DIN, CSA, ANSI?) standard race report format. Another weekend of racing myself into shape (aka I skied too much in spring). A stage race with a longer XC race, a ~~dirt criterium~~ XC time trial, and a hill climb time trial; the Kananaskiker, organized by Cafe Racers.

Course: XC: Because of the slightly different race format, there were less restrictions on the course, and I think that the course was awesome. The course seemed like the Bill Knight Super Loop, i.e. what you get when you combine all of the best trails at the CNC. I really suffered on a long slog of a climb (FYI) after the feed zone

Engine: I was riding the course and feeling pretty strong, except on FYI, and I really suffered there, but I was "only" 21mins back of Roddi at the end, and the time gaps weren't as big as I thought. Everybody suffered. Deep field too, lots of stronger riders. Hopefully this will make me stronger.

Technique: My descending was OK, and again, just not enough power on FYI.

TSN Turning Point: FYI.

XC TT was a (shorter) version of one of the 3 laps we did yesterday, many didn't realize that the course was shortened a bit until the crutial junction came up, some missed that. Hill Climb TT was up the extremely dusty Spray Lakes road. The legs were not recovered very well (but I'm sure everyone else had sore legs), and I put in a solid effort in both stages...and finished about where I finished the day before. 9th, 8th, and 8th.

Ok, so I did do a little bit of climbing. The crag dog

Let's just say it was pretty obvious that these guys don't host races very often. Courses were sick though!

The intention was clearly there to make an awesome race: Long XC stage race, awesome course, and a start from the town, I didn't miss a turn or a start or a feed, so I can't really complain.

"I'm an endurance racer"

2011-05-29T22:13:00.002-06:00

I chuckle inside whenever someone claims to be an "endurance MTB racer". Usually it means that they are getting shelled in shorter XCO (olympic length XC ~1.5-2hrs) or cyclo-cross races and aren't really that fast in the longer races. Marathon world championships, stage races, and longer 1 day races are consistently won by those who dominate the XCO circuit.

-Solid week, had the Tuesday nighter race that I was looking for, then broke my derailleur hanger when I was just riding along (JRA) on Friday, and Hardcore Bikes fixed it on Saturday, ready to rock

-Itching to race, I signed up for the Giver8er, on a surprisingly rideable course after a week of monsoon in Calgary

-Long distance racing is all about being chill, Miller Chill. You only have so many matches to burn, use them wisely

-I was a little too Miller Chill. It was kind of like when you buy a six pack of Miller Chill, then realize that you should have man'ed up and not bought light beer. Probably could have showed up more than 15min before the start, and not started near the back of the field, and not taken looonngg breaks.

-Couldn't string 2 good laps together at the beginning to save my life: Flat tire and slightly dented rim, chainsuck after the water washed the oil off my chain, waiting in line at bike wash while wankers clean their shoes, pedals, and tires, and never got around to moving my shit from the car to the pits.

-Homemade smoothie was fuel for the diesel engine I never knew I had. Switched phasers to kill for the last couple of hours of racing.

-Result? Pretty far down, but if you are not first, you are last. I am stoked that I was feeling good at the end, and as consolation, I'm sure taking the time to hydrate and eat properly, while slower overall, was probably better for training purposes.

-The clock is ticking even when you are not riding, I need to limit the breaks I take by grouping up tasks (bike maintenance, eating).

May Long- switching to glide

2011-05-24T14:37:00.003-06:00

Hardcore Cycling Club and Redbike organized a MTB stage race on the weekend, a first in my time of mountain bike racing in Alberta. I volunteered for the time trial in the morning: a fireroad climb followed by a rooty descent and some flat sections at the end to keep you honest. Some crashing provided some LOLZ for me.

I suited up for the dirt crit: 6 laps or a really short course. The most recent Hardcore Fat Tire Tuesday race really pissed me off as I lined up when we were told to and I still ended up with a 3rd row start. Getting stuck in bottlenecks, watching people let gaps go, and making glory passes ensued, until I flatted my front tire

So anyways, I lined up on the front row and even though there were none of said SPORT riders in the field, I did a full on sprint off the start and led for the first lap, which highlighted in me actually gapping some riders on the descent along with Dave R. John C joined the fun, and attacked when Dave was fed up with leading. I rolled in for 3rd in a hot race (hotly contested and high temps) behind John and Dave, and Mark R came in 4th to make it a Hardcore 1-2-3-4.

I did some more spectating for the XC the next day and saw an awesome crash to bottleneck combo in the sport men race. Atta boy! Then it was finally our turn to take to the course. I threw down a couple of quick laps just a little bit behind the leaders, then it started to rain...hard. The track got super greasy and I was not having fun anymore and I shut it down but still finished. First couple of laps, the heart rate was around 180, I saw a lot of 150-160bpm in my last 3...

Off to Canmore to catch the slush cup and continue my streak of skiing for free. I decided to dress up like the typical douche-park-rat-wannabee-gangsta-who-lives-in-the-suburbs: Tall-T, low-riding pants with suspenders dangling, bandana on face, goggle straps under helmet, and GoPro. Why make fun of people who can only get out to ski once per year when you can make fun of people who try to be cool and end up looking ridiculous in their pursuits! Threw down some sick crotch grabs and mule kicks in the park. The skiing was pretty awesome too: the snow was soft and forgiving and there was water to be skimmed on the way down. Good times, the band playing was solid, but I forgot to take things "switch to the road" at the end of the day.

Even did a pro call-out of Kevin Hjertaas. "Come on, I've been retired for years!"

Like a SAUCE

2011-05-14T13:54:00.002-06:00

Why is it that every sandwich, salad, etc... that is not made in front of you under your watchful eyes is slathered in some sort of whale semen concoction (salad dressing, mustard, and/or mayonaisse). It tastes terrible and is bad for you (fats, heavily processed, etc...).

The KRAFT raw material extraction facility: raw materials will later be refined into mayonaisse, mustard, and salad dressing

I did some volunteering today, and we got to choose what was put on our food. What a treat being able to enjoy free food instead of eating it just because I am hungry. Let people choose if they want some sort of sauce on their foods. It's not like they will use more than the "sandwich artists" do. Surpringly , there are people out there who enjoy the simple taste of the bread, vegetables, and meat; maybe some BBQ or some pizza sauce on there.

Even more spring lines

2011-05-08T21:00:00.002-06:00

Freezing levels are starting to creep up, and the prevalence of crusts has increased. The snow under the surface is getting noticeably warmer. Probably a good cue to cut back on the skiing and start riding the bikes more! My skimo-racing buds keep mentioning Wapta, Columbia, speed traverse, but I need to learn how to do some crevasse rescue first!

After some nasty crust at the top, Bill found some good snow...before the hardpack at the bottom

Fun roadside line, not so fun conditions for most of it

and some from last weekend

and you can't even see the top part!

Spent Sunday at the Lake. It was snowing hard all day, and visibility was not great, 189 squads don't like skiing trees that much. Better snow in the afternoon after switching to my normal skis, and a pond skim at the bottom. Missed an opportunity to snag some pictures. Time to ride!

More spring lines

2011-05-04T18:30:00.002-06:00

I was getting chirped by the boys and I was fearing mutiny (up my sleeve?), but they came through for a big day.

"Wow, the views are amazing"

"It's just a black run"

"It's too narrow"

"It's not worth it"

more pics to come

Chester, Miner's: getting radical

2011-04-24T20:35:00.001-06:00

Eager to get after it after a week of getting antsy as reports of big lines getting skied poured in. With warm temps and sunny skies, early starts were a must, so the clock was set to 0420 each morning. As much as it sucks waking up that early, I didn't mind once I got going. It was also nice to be done before noon, leaving plenty of time for other activities. Pole position every day on a long weekend has to be worth something: 3x2000= 6000 GNAR points

NW face of Mt. Chester on rental gear, that is how we roll. Any suggestions for axe/crampons (comment below?)?

Interesting dilemna: About 1hr on our way up the chute, we noticed a group of 2 starting to skin up the apron. We figured we would have to wait for them at the top so that we would not sluff them out. We were in no hurry so we didn't mind waiting, but I would imagine there are plenty of scenarios where this could be a problem: what if we were linking this up with some other lines and/or had to beat warming/sunset or had other time committments? comments?

Ultimately, it turned out to be a couple who run a local shop. Maybe we should ask for some discounts for our patience :)...

Miner's, super skied out, nice to tick it off

The highline trail access to Quarry Lake was super fun. Surprise pass on Sunday, for an "easier" day, but we didn't get to pose with some asian tourists. Some good apron skiing on all 3 days

Recharging the stoke

2011-04-17T21:23:00.003-06:00

Winter doesn't seem to want to give up and I may as well be getting after it! A couple of road rides and then BAM more snow. No point in fighting it.

First a couple of funny pictures I forgot to upload from a couple of weekends ago

I must be getting old

There was an awesome truck/snowmobile setup. It was funny at the time

Now some stuff from the weekend

Out and back Skoki with SS. Quite the slog for maybe 4 turns, but an awesome workout! I need to learn how to skate!

Headed out with MT on Sunday

We may have skied this

My "weight training" touring setup. No "waiting" for my friends!

Ken Jones Classic

2011-04-05T21:41:00.002-06:00

I’m not going to lie, I was like “WTF is Ken Jones”. Turns out he was a guide at Skoki Lodge back in the day. The history of ski mountaineering in the rockies is fascinating!

The last race of the Canadian Calendar was at Lake Louise on Saturday. The visibility wasn't great, but the snow was good, and I think I had my best race yet. Rocked the hostel the night before the race so we wouldn't have to drive early in the morning. A couple of fast guys were away, but I battled hard and finished 3rd.

Course: 3 long ascents and descents on this course. The descents were awesome! F-gully in Whitehorn II, Speed Gully on Richardson's Ridge, and finally Elevator Shaft to Rock Garden. There was a really loooooonnnngg bootpack section to Richardson's Ridge that wasn't too bad, until the slight downhill wallowing section. Lots of skating on The Skiout to the finish. Climbing up Purple Bowl was cool! The course utilized some of the slackcountry areas of Lake Louise that I have wanted to explore.

Gear: Gear was perfect again today. Only real issue was that I did not know the ascents that well and didn't optimise the use of my fast or my grippy skins.

Engine: The engine really shined today. I went hard, and didn't fade significantly, though I guess the last ascent was not very steep so that helped. 4 clif bloks, 1 bottle of gatorade, and part of a can of Monster from the feed zone! The feed zone definitely helped, but maybe I will carry some Coke with me to get me to the end of races that do not have feed zones. I find that works well for me, provided I have not bonked already!

Technique: Jeff Colvin put on a descending and change-over clinic. That's all I can say...

TSN Turning Point: Not a major turning point, but a positive one. Downing some Monster at the feed zone before the long final climb. I caught and passed Jeff Colvin (who passed me and put some time into me on Speed Gully) and held him and Steve Sellers off until the finish, and didn't finish too far behind Ian Gale, Mel Bernier.

I'm pretty pumped that I didn't blow up considering that this race was the longest of the year. Switched to the burly setup and got some good (but tired) turns in the afternoon. Still some inbounds areas I want to tick off in this phat year: ER5 couloir, I-gully

Got next year's race setup all mounted up. Not only can MT take sick photos, he can also ski tech, and pre-view courses for me!

Rookie ski mountaineering racing season

2011-04-03T18:14:00.010-06:00

I'm sure some of you are wondering what I am doing skiing (and climbing up mountains) on kid's skis in a 1 piece lycra suit, and a bike helmet (or climbing helmet). It is ski mountaineering racing (or skimo for short, or rando racing), and it is all about moving fast through the mountains. It requires a full-on effort, usually for over 2hrs, so in a way it is similar to mountain bike racing.

The courses are usually 5000+ vertical feet with multiple ascents and descents, and the occassional bootpack section to spice things up. Good fitness is important, but you need to be able to suffer, and still be able to ski when your legs are fried.

Most of the race is spent climbing, so the gear is (stupid) light. The skis are short and narrow and the boots are not very stiff, but it is remarkable how versatile this gear is. The courses utilize expert terrain, and it is also fun to blow by the recreational skiers on the descents.

The races were a little longer than I was used to, so I did "run out of gas" occassionally, and I had to haul my carcass to the finish. I was always pumped when I reached the finish though! The racing is hard. For some, you have to sacrifice to race, but I found that I was more motivated to train: to ski tour, because of upcoming races!

I didn't ride my bike very much this winter season, but with all of the snow in Edmonton, I think I picked the right season to try racing! I put in more volume in than I used to though because I was motivated for racing. I found that I was super pumped to go ski touring, and went ski touring way more than I skied the lifts. I tried to keep the intensity within check as to not spoil my mountain bike season too badly. I am curious how my bike season will turn out.

I've managed to track down some even lighter gear for pretty cheap for next year. Hopefully I can find the time in my final year of school to race and train because I really had fun this winter! Thinking of some midweek e-town sprint skimo races.

Dogtooth Dash

2011-03-28T19:03:00.005-06:00

photo: Malcolm Taylor

Once again had to make the solo drive from champion city to meet Bill and MT in Golden. Bill Greyhound'ed out from Kelowna, and MT showed up a day early to rip Kicking Horse and to help set the course. Bill was going to step up for the elite race, and MT was going to take some pictures.

The entry fee included lift tickets, so I did a couple of runs on the big skis and then the race skis to warm up. Some fresh snow smoothed things out, and we could send some arcing turns through Fuez bowl.

The race started with a running start around the restaurant at the top, before venturing through the bowls at the top.

Course: Definitely the sickest course on the circuit, both "Fun" and "Cool". All 4 inbounds alpine bowls, and some awesome descents. 10cms overnight made the ski conditions awesome, but required the volunteers to set the course AGAIN! Technical bootpacks, steep descents, this course was amazing!

Gear: Gear was pretty good today. The only issue I had was on the first descent after the run, my boots didn't lock, but that didn't prove to be much of a problem.

Engine: I was having an awesome race until the final 2 climbs (roughly about 500m out of 1600m left to go). For the race at Lake Louise, I will make sure to focus more on nutrition: fueling up properly the week before, and NOT slamming an energy drink right before the start!

Technique: As good as I could have asked for today. Change overs were quick and I ripped the descents.

TSN Turning Point: The turning point was at the beginning of the 2nd last ascent. The tank was running pretty low at that point.

photo: Malcolm Taylor

Results at Goldenskimo. In terms of percentage back, I was faster than I was at SSV. Now, I just need to extend the time until I implode! Bill put in a valiant effort, probably suffered, but was put out of his misery when he failed to make a time cut.

The next day was a short sprint relay race with 2 climbs. I teamed up with Bill and suited up. I busted out the value village suit I got for "Putting on the Ritz" in grade 10 (ca. 2005), and Bill rocked his "greasy car salesman" suit. One of my F1 cords broke at the top of the gondola, but it actually did not hinder my skiing that much; the lack of cord tension was more noticeable when locking and unlocking the walk mode. I guess I'm just a skiing Jedi! We both put in a solid effort (Bill was having so much fun climbing that he dropped his skins on both of the 1st lap descents so that he could do more climbing), but we got skunked in the costume prize department...that's the way she goes...

Doing some classy post race pow slaying

All in all, Kicking Horse and all of the volunteers did an awesome job. With a big inflatable arch at the top of the gondola (or at the yurt on day 2) and Jordan P manning the mic, there was definitely no question that something was going on! Lots of great prizes from the sponsors, an awesome dinner at the Eagle's Eye on Saturday night, and 2 days of skiing; The Dogtooth Dash showed why it is the best race in Canada. Thanks to everyone for making this possible!

Trainer gaming

2011-03-24T11:07:00.001-06:00

Finally acquired Little Big Planet 2, and playing it while riding the trainer makes time FLY by. That game is quite the experience and it really puts me into a trance!

Coming off a solid weekend skiing Try5t L@ke both days, the first with Steve Sellers on the skinny race skis. Skiing pow and tight chutes in flimsy boots and short, skinny skis is quite the experience. Lots of skiing in the backseat, and lots of faceshots. Somehow, I stomped a small pillow line on the way out. I returned the next day, this time on the “weight training” setup and ticked off some more chutes. I skied the area closest to the Fist, and even though there were already a couple of tracks down it, she still sluffed. For my final lap, I skied a narrow rock chasm line. After a couple of jump turns, I straightlined the exit, but hip checked into the deep snow. Poor form! Gotta work on those…

Dogtooth Dash is coming up. I am stoked, as this was the race that planted the seed last year. Bill is coming up to race as well! Will Dogtooth Dash use Leech Seed on Bill, so that he will do more races?

A little stoke...

2011-03-08T08:49:00.003-07:00

This is from the Xmas break, I have finally been able to convert some of the video files and get around to making a video. A fun area was discovered that we used to just ski right by!

ROAMing the interwebs

2011-03-05T00:07:00.004-07:00

Still pumped from my short jaunt down to Nelson, I have scoured the blagosphere for more recap of the coldsmoke festival! My Coldsmoke buzz is certainly worthy of a fourth blogpost (although it was no Norway trip...).

What did others think of competitions, the clinics (one of which was put on by Ian Gale in the ROAM race. I attended, and I learned that I need to speed up!), or the atmosphere of the festival. Too be honest, I was a little let down by the atmosphere, but I guess we only really got a superficial Coldsmoke experience (we didn't stick around much longer after I received my award, didn't hit up the events in town, clinics, or events other than the skimo race). The expo area was definitely a highlight, lots of new 11/12 gear, some swag, and Steve got to deploy a BCA airbag pack

G3 did a writeup here, as one of their employees duked it out in the ROAM race.

Phil Best took some nice pictures (I would say that they are some of the BEST) at www.bestphotos.ca. I think he would rather not have me post some of his pictures on my blag without his permission so that all my mom would have to do is right click, save as, so here it goes:

I got #13, and I flipped it upside down like any superstitious Euro cyclist would. They were understanding...

"Why do bagpipers always play the same song"

Holeshot

There's a guy in full denim leading a guy wearing a race suit, race pack, and some Ski Trab World Cup skis!

Just minding my own business, hammering away

'cuz I'm out here grindin'

How about the one on the right?

Anyways, there are some really nice pictures, and I would encourage. Lots of people racking up some hangtime and getting upside down in the slopestyle! Stoked for when the highlight video comes out! More pictures on the event website

It was definitely a fun guys weekend, with an epic game of word association (think obscure 90's hockey players and celebrities) and women's curling. I am really hoping that I can rig up my schedule for next year in a way that I can skip class on Friday and Monday so that I can return, and maybe gun for King of Coldsmoke! Hopefully the snow is a little better...

Anyways, a good way to grow interest in the sport, especially with the industry presence and stepping up with some great prizes! Speaking of great prizes, rumour has it that the Dogtooth Dash will also have lots of stuff to give away, should be a fun race!

Quiver overhaul

2011-02-28T18:36:00.003-07:00

After the race, I checked out the expo area and demoed some gear that I am interested in. I wish I had more time to demo, but I felt like I was able to hit up the most important stuff. My ski touring has been more focused on training, touring more vertical and more often. Because 90% of the time is spent climbing, and sometimes the descent is not always in hero snow, I think it makes sense to go with a lighter setup that will leave you with more energy at the top of the climb. I am starting to think that early rise tips are also a good idea, not just because they LOOKZ STEEZYZZZ, but because the tips don’t dive in the typical rotted out snowpack we get here early in the season. The windslab snow that was very prevalent would be a good test!

When I started ski touring, I was naïve, but I also wanted something that I could ski or tour at the resort. Now that my quiver has expanded, and I have started climbing more vertical, my current slackcountry setup is less practical. That said, this year, I have been touring almost exclusively (other than my race setup) on alpine trekkers either in my Explosivs, or my Quads. When I ski on this setup, I don’t have to wait for my friends, and I must be reaping the benefits of “weight training”.

There is a new generation of gear that skis as well as stuff that is lbs heavier!

Voile Vector (180cm): First thing I noticed was that the tails seemed really long. Maybe something to do with how the boot centre of my boots lined up in the demo bindings. The windslab that was foiling my beloved Rossignol Quads (and my Atomic TM:11 race skis) was tamed by these skis, and then they proceeded to rip on the groomed. There is a waxless version for next year; according to the rep you can climb some decent hills without skins!

Dynafit Manaslu (178cm): These skis felt a little more natural and I think they fared even better in the windslab. Not as much edge grip as the Voile Vectors, but still a pleasure to ski. These would require new bindings.

Scarpa Maestrale (27.0): MT has these boots, and I have been predicting that they will take over the market as they are light, tour well, ski well, and are relatively inexpensive as far as touring boots go. The unmolded fit was definitely tighter than my Typhoons (The Scarpa reps loved the yellow Scarpa Hurricane tongues that I put in the Typhoons, they could not stop talking about them). The boots were a little difficult to get on, and were a little tight, but skied really well. Would definitely need to mold the liners though…

I ran out of time before I could demo something ridiculous like the new Black Diamond Gigawatt, or the Salomon BBR, or even my Scarpa F1 race boots on a bigger ski.

ROAM race

2011-02-28T18:24:00.003-07:00

Ready to rock on Saturday morning, almost got psyched out by some dude wearing the same skinsuit as me.

"Don't worry about him, he's old"

My usual rule is: “Someone is only fast if they are willing to rock a 1 piece lycra suit”, funny because the cycling tights worn by those who don’t want to rock the onezie usually end up being MORE revealing!

So anyways, I jumped off the line to get out of trouble and drag raced with Ian Gale to the 1st descent, not long after the start. He was quick to rip the skins and got a huge gap.

Course: I would say that the course was “cool”. It gave you a good tour of the resort and the descents were almost exclusively in the backcountry around the ski area. Lots of flat sections though, and a skins-on descent. The ridge descent was “interesting” weaving between trees and snow drifts. The 2 main descents would have been awesome if the snow didn’t have a wind crust on it! It was nice to get a big climb over with right away!

Gear: No gear issues today, the skis weren’t liking the wind crust too much, but I don’t think any race ski would!

Engine: Engine was pretty good. I like getting the big climb over with first thing, and I actually closed the gap a bit. I don’t think I pushed hard enough on the flats, but definitely opened up the throttle on the climbs.

Technique: Lost some time on changeovers and the descents. Climbing, I felt like I was doing pretty well.

TSN turning point: Top of the 1st descent. Ian ripped his skins way faster, creating the gap before the long flat descent that required some skating.

A much better race for me, only 8 mins behind Ian, as opposed to ~19mins at Scumshine. Finishing times were similar, but obviously he didn’t have anyone to battle with up front. The prizes were VERY generous: I came away with a set of Garmont Radiums in my size! Thanks to the event sponsors! Definitely planning on returning next year if my school schedule will allow!

While I was racing, the boys were hitting on Michelle, the bartender, who seemed very interested in how my race went, or so I am told.

Some event coverage from www.backcountryskiingcanada.com here and some results here

The road to Coldsmoke

2011-02-28T18:09:00.004-07:00

Okay, so I have officially hyped up this blog post more than it deserves to be hyped up...

The weekend after the Scumshine 5000, I teamed up with my buddy Max and we entered the Powder 8 competition at Lake Louise. What is it with me and taking the fun out of skiing powder! I dusted off my synchro skiing skills (It has been 4 years since I have paid CSIA dues, but I found synchro skiing relatively easy). We put together a solid run, and I skied pretty much as close behind Max as possible (my ski tips hit his tails on a couple of turns). While we were synchronized, I was a little out of position, almost skiing beside Max at one point. We failed to qualify, but that was OK as the lift tickets were cheap, and there was some pow to be skied in the bowl that hadn’t opened to the public yet! Thwarted on a dawn patrol mission of deep pow by closed highways…BLAST!

Then the weekend after that (family day weekend), I went for a solo backcountry ski mission. Although it is a realization that I need more touring partners, it was fun to crush some vert solo and if you go to a popular area, it is a relatively safe way to get some training and some pow skiing in. You can work on your race change-overs.

Now for the main event: We hit up Kootenay Pass on the way down. What a cool area! Nice short laps and you can ski right to the highway! We were a little unprepared for the west Kootenay cold (Since when does it get cold there?), and the snow was a little wind affected, but some good turns were had. Ainsworth hot springs was definitely WORTH it: we had a nice circuit of main pool - cave - cold pool and did multiple laps.

Off to Whitewater, the snow in the alpine was also wind hammered, inbounds was skied out, but I had some fun inbounds runs, and the new backside chair opens up a whole new world! Ran into Ian Gale, shit, looks like some tough competition in the race tomorrow!

Scumshine 5000

2011-02-06T19:14:00.008-07:00

The Scumshine 5000 was the first long course race on my lighter race setup, and only the sencond long course race that I have done. I was pretty pumped for the week leading up.

In support of the ski patrollers and the rest of the staff, I refused to pay the $66/$45/$26.44 (all +GST) that they wanted out of me for a ride to the Goat's Eye base for the start; instead I opted to skin up the ski out and add the money saved to my Little Big Planet 2 fund.

Instead of giving a long, drawn out, blow by blow, tri-geek/Cat5/Novice style, overanalyzing race report, I will give you a summary:

Course: The course was pretty fun. More low angle skinning, but otherwise a good balance of long/short/steep etc, and the course provided a good tour of the resort, while preventing encounters with the paying public. The descents were not ridiculously technical and the snow was good.

Gear: Since I am new to this style of racing and have not put too many miles on my gear, I am expecting some hiccups. Boots were awesome, but I need to make sure the levers on my boots are engaged! The skis had just been tuned by MT and were very predictable. I had some skin failure early on (I shouldn't have left my skis w/ skins outside before the start!). I found that the "middle" climbing aid on my bindings was too high, so I skinned the whole race with no climbing aids (heel on ski mode).

Engine: I was sitting pretty good off the start, until I blew a skin. I lost some time there, but the gap continued to increase through the race. I barely fended off the cramps on the last climb. Maybe a little more fuel (water, gel, etc.) required.

Technique: My transitions need some work to be competitive. I really stuggled on the last climb as it was steep and slick with lots of kick turns. I didn't have anyone to compare my descending to; the legs were burning, but I felt in control, so I obviously was not going fast enough!

TSN turning point: I was in contact with the last group of national team members near the top of the first climb, but one of my skins blew off my ski, so I had to stop and put another one on. I was rattled, lost some time, and crashed on the first descent where I needed to carry speed when one of my boot levers did not engage. This caused the initial gap, but I would lose more time on the climbs and the descents as the race went on. I got beat by faster racers...

So:

In terms of placing, this is exactly where I thought that I would probably finish. There's room for improvement, so hopefully that gap can come down...

The Rx: MORE everything

I am probably the youngest skimo racer in North America who has the balls to rock a onezie. This is good, as I am sure that most people wish they had started racing at an earlier age...

MT raced the short course, got 2nd place, and collected some swag. Steve and my parents cheered me on, using the lifts to follow me around the course, keeping me pumped! We also had an unreal descent to the bottom at the end of the day!

2011 sked

2011-01-26T21:20:00.021-07:00

Here are all of the events that I plan on doing this year for sure (EDIT: I am going to update the results as they happen):

Tiki Torch Dash, January 15 - 1st in Solo short course circuit race, 2nd in vertical @~99%
Sunshine 5000, February 5 - 9th @ ~80%
Roam Randonee Rally, February 26 - 2nd @ ~94%
Dogtooth Dash, March 26-27 - 6th @ ~83%
Lake Louise Race, April 2 - 3rd @ ~89%
Esplanade Epic, April 16-17 CANCELLED :(

Then a pretty awesome ABA calendar!

Hardcore/Redbike XC, May 22-23 - 3rd in dirt crit, 5th in XC
Giver-8-er, May 29 - 22nd, but good training!
Kananaskiker, June 4-5 - 9th @87%, 8th, 8th (XC, XC TT, HC TT)
Iron Lung XC, June 11 - 11th @ 84%

then a nice break...

Nationals XC, July 16 - @ 1 lap (STANS is your friend)
Edmonton Canada Cup, July 24 - 31st @83%

then a nice break...

Perogy XC, August 21 - 4th @91%
Hinton XC, August 27 - 6th @87%
Hinton Marathon, August 28 - 8th @86%, 16th in timed downhills @88%

BOW 80, September 18 - 20th @84% (5th @85% in 20-30 cat)

And then some cyclocross! I'll try to do as many races as possible, but I may skip some single race Calgary weekends to focus on school.

I think I would try to relay the first couple of marathons, see how the legs react after going hard in the XC the day before. I think the marathons should help my XC as well.

No road races in there. I might throw in Canada day crit, Bowness Hill Climb/RR, Bicisport RR, and maybe the Lethbridge RR/XC; probably not though...

During the long breaks it is important to keep training, but also to do some exploring on the bikes. Maybe there are some fun out of province races. It is nice not racing until Victoria Day weekend, it means I can go skiing into May!

Baseline goal is to improve from last year. The "season maker" would definitely be throwing down some sick skimo results, and then not getting 'chicked' at Nationals or the Canada cup (or skimo for that matter)!

Let's hope to stay healthy!

2010...in review

2011-01-26T20:56:00.003-07:00

2010 In review. I would have to say that 2010 did not suck.

- The year started off right with a powder day at Revelstoke, leading to refills in the afternoon.

-We did our AST2 avalanche course. It was a lot of fun getting into some bigger ascents and descents, not just yo-yoing the same 200m slope all day.

-Reading week was a lot of fun. We stayed based in Canmore and went for some nice ski tours, and had a fun day at Kicking Horse (KHMR).

-Good winter training, some nice rides on the snow, then on the road in early March! I definitely suffered hard on the road, just like I have suffered the previous springs.

-A sick powder day at Sunshine Village (SSV). We initially were planning on heading to KHMR, but the road was closed due to an accident and we returned to SSV. It was a blessing in disguise as we ripped some deep pow (Dive opened up too!) and didn’t really have to compete with anyone for fresh tracks (except the one time we snaked the ‘freeride’ team. BTW, a good tip: never let a ‘freeride’ team get in front of you, unless you like skiing moguls!). Even with the highway closed, KHMR was super busy

-My first ever skimo race, the Dogtooth Dash at KHMR. Probably one of the hardest races I have ever done, but it is awesome finishing and knowing that you just crushed a ridiculous amount of vert! Definitely a pivotal moment of the year… Shortly after, I started looking around for some used race gear, and I found some

-Bike racing got an early start as the snow disappeared in April. I started off pretty slow (I got dropped early on in a road race), but I got some good races and group rides in the legs.

-April mid-exam break Canmore sessions. I headed to Canmore whenever I had free time to study, play Pokemon, and to do some skiing and biking. The trails were awesome, and I got to ski Milky Way in the Dive! It gets better: An upslope ripped through and Bill and I toured up Nakiska to ski some ridiculously deep powder! That day, I also found out that I would be going to Norway to launch rockets. Skiing Surprise pass in May was also fun!

-I finally got a job for the summer, helping to design some stuff to fatigue hospital mattresses.

-After suffering hard in March and April, I had pretty good fitness in May and June and upgraded to the elite category in both road and mtb. Those were my main two goals this bike season.

-Canada day long weekend was a blast. Justin, Cody, and I headed to Canmore to have a mini training camp, and preride the nationals course. So. Much. Fun.

-Suffered hard against some ridiculously fast riders at the Edmonton Canada Cup and at Nationals.

-A nice break from racing from late July to late August, so I rode some bike park at KHMR with Bill. But the highlight was definitely riding the awesome trails in Rossland and Fernie!

-KIM MITCHELL, sick concert, even sicker mixtape

-My cross season was short, but awesome. I was top 10 every race and did not get lapped! The weather was really nice, and I did a lot of my training on my new mountain bike (Marin Attack Trail). Who says you have to ride gravel trails or get pummeled by roots on your cross bike during cross season?

-NORWAY. Arguably the best week of my life. An awesome course on sounding rockets, in an awesome location (above the arctic circle, on an island, with mountains, right on the ocean), and met some awesome people! I am super stoked on rockets and Norway now!

-November was pretty chill. I rode my mountain bike some more until the snow finally came, and capped off the month with the first ski mountaineering race of the season.

-Finished up my projects and exams in December, ripped a powder day at KHMR in between. Although it didn’t snow much, we did some fun ski tours, and eventually got to rip some pow at KHMR again.
My first biking season in a while without a coach, it went pretty well. I probably would have been faster with a coach, but would have had to sacrifice some of those ski days in the winter and spring.
Very few negatives in 2010. My marks in school slipped a little bit, either I am not as motivated as I was in my first 2.5 years, or I just have to try harder (and not go skiing instead of studying?). Not really that alarming as nobody seems to give a rat’s ass about my marks because I didn’t solve world hunger during my spare time. Oh, and English class sucked (as expected).

2011 started off pretty shitty actually. The fireworks scared the crap out of the dogs. MT’s dog, Cassie, ate what was left of my Toblerone (I am guessing about 400gr), and Geisha decided to run away, and after some frantic searching by everyone in the house, she was found by someone who had used a belt as a leash. Hopefully, as you can see in my previous post, things have started to get better!

I am pumped to do more skimo races in the winter; they are motivating me to keep training through the winter. I would definitely like to do more 1000+m ski touring days, ski some peaks, some powder, and maybe some summer skiing. Maybe learn some crevasse rescue and glacier training to open up more terrain for us. Skiing is important to keep a good balance and prevent burnout. I enjoy getting out, and crushing some vert even if the snow sucks; hopefully I can motivate my friends to think the same! Bill (the trooper), who is a closet suffer enthusiast, is already almost there.

For cycling, I plan on dialing back the amount of road races I do. In the words of Steve Martins, “I have never felt unsafe on a bike, unless I am road racing” or something like that! That said, Tuesday night crits are a lot of fun (solid small group of some chill riders), and the provincials course is also pretty good. Definitely no more TT’s, unless they are of the uphill variety (maybe make an appearance at the Tour de Bowness Hill Climb). I also plan on doing more of the marathon events (either relay or solo), and some bike park/freeride to work on descending.

For both skimo and mtb/CX, I just want to get faster (reduce the time gaps) and stay healthy. I kindof know how to do that, it is just a matter of motivating myself to do that! A hockey coach of mine once said that he wanted each of his players to come out of the season a better person. Yeah, that too!

I hate setting specific goals (I want to win X races, I want to finish top X in this race, I want to make X squad of X people, etc…). They are too dependent on other people, field size, etc, at my current situation (just starting out in elite mtb, and skimo racing), and I am just doing this for fun! Maybe I'll challenge myself not to get "chicked" on the mountain bike this year?

Well would you look at that! Over 1000 words. Congratulations if you read this far… It is amazing how much easier it is to write (or read) for fun rather than for some stupid, useless waste of money course!

Well, that is just Golden!

2011-01-18T20:57:00.005-07:00

Talk about a weekend that had so much WIN and so much suck that it required an extra day!

I am going to try to intersperse this epic tale with some quotes that defined the weekend.

The plan was to ski some pow at KHMR, do the Tiki Torch Dash in the evening, and then GTFO back to Canmore. We (as in MT and I) had to drive through Radium hot springs on the way there, adding some time to our trip, but it was okay because we were listening to fishing and hunting radio shows. And talking about snowmobiling:

"I don't get what is so fun about climbing up a hill"
"Peter, you skimo race..."
"Haha, okay, but if I had a sled, I would just head to a meadow and boondock all day!"

We eventually arrived at KHMR, though a little late, and the parking lot was filled. There was an astonishing number of red plates. A surprising number of 'Bertans braved the highways.

"What do you want for 2011?"
"Less douchebags with red plates. Eat a dick" (from The Force gazette)

I guess the secret is out and as a result, KHMR on a weekend after a storm is busy! We had some amazing runs, hit up the opening of Fuez bowl, and met up with cycling buddy Kirk Hamilton for a run, and he showed us a cool stash in Fuez. I tried to ski everything as non-stop as I could for "training" purposes. We missed last gondola, but ripped one last run on the Catamount chair. I brought a huge cooler of snack food (it would come in handy) and we rocked the tailgate lunch and dinner!

Alright! time to suit up for the race. I slipped into my skimo suit (I definitely got some glares from others) and with Rogers Pass closed, there was an absence of many racers. A large portion of the national team live west of Rogers Pass, either in Revelstoke, or on the coast.

"So due to highway conditions, our referee and many other racers could not make it, so there will be no points...Is that okay Peter?"
"If this map looks like it was hand drawn with pencil crayons, that is because it was"

I was flying solo for the first 4 lap short course race and I took off and developed a huge gap. After a quick rip of the skins, I took it easy on the rest of the course as I was also seeing the course for the first time. Ian Gale, a national team member racing in full denim was on a 2 person relay team and left for his first lap as I was leaving for lap 2. I stayed with him, giving up only a couple of seconds at the top, but he pulled away with a quicker transition at the top (I hate saying transition, as the word is usually associated with trigeeks). The rest of the laps ticked by pretty quickly, and eventually I rolled in with a convincing win in the solo men. Unfortunately, Brad, another super fast up and coming racer did not have his race setup together, so he chose to race on his much heavier tele-setup. There will be some epic battles in the future!

Alright so after the short course race was a vertical race to the top of the Catamount chair. I got into position behind Ian right off the start, and managed to stay within a couple of seconds for the whole race. The gap would widen and narrow. With the top of the chair in sight, I attacked to close the gap, pulled close to even (ha I think I surprised him, but with no other fast guys there, I am not sure if he was going all-out), but he responded by upping the pace. I pulled into the finish just behind him.

"How far away is Whitetooth...I mean Whitefish?"

The suffering is definitely feeling easier. Just put the head down, and SUFFER!

Alright, so after picking up some swag, and a sick dinner, I slammed some energy drink for the drive home. Unfortunately, the 93 was now closed, so we stayed the night in Golden. We got up pretty late and didn't seem to have the energy to ski the 10cms of higher density snow that fell overnight. So we just chilled around town, killing time before the highway was scheduled to open.

"80% off of a $7 bathing suit? That is like $1!"

We hit up Subway, just before leaving and I got the Volvo stuck in the deep snow.

"How obvious is it that it is your parent's car?"

Ha well that just killed some time, and off to Radium where we found out that the highway was still closed for another day. Off we went through Fernie, and after getting a little lost in Calgary,
"What is this? a shopping mall?"
we arrived in Canmore at 2am.

Work on Monday was not going to happen, so I made use of my time in the mountains by throwing down a rip up the skiout to the top of the Divide chair.

Too much driving, no Whitefish race for me.

MT is starting to get stoked on skimo racing, he is thinking about the mods he is going to do to his gear!

As fun as KHMR is, I am not sure if I would head there again if the road conditions were questionable. But unfortunately, the dicksplashes who manage/own SSV have provided me with some extra incentive not to pay to ski there. But it is definitely a good place to get some training in! Glad I didn't get a pass there as it gives me the opportunity to get into the backcountry to train or check out Lake Lousy!

Big lines and blower pow in....Edmonton?

2011-01-09T17:15:00.006-07:00

Well work started a little earlier than I had hoped, and so I was stuck in Edmonton for the weekend, pretty much trapped by the storms that were pounding the mountains that I wanted to ski.

Lots of new snow on the ground for Saturday morning and I had to decide how I was going to blow off my energy: wayyyy too much snow to go biking, the snow would have been pretty deep for XC skiing, but I had my skimo race setup! I set off with my new fast 50mm mohair skins and headed out from home to the museum hill. It was a bit of a slog, but I soon got there, and there was some blower pow waiting for me! Lots of new snow on top of a supportive, base.

Sorry no pictures, but I did plenty of laps, and found this pocket where one turn would pretty much guarantee a faceshot! On my way back, I headed up McKinnon Ravine, thinking about a couple of ridgeline MTB trails on either side of Ramsay Ravine that might be fun to ski. I bootpacked up the one on the museum side, it was a little narrow, but it was pretty deep. There were a couple of mothers with small children at the bottom. They cheered me on while I was fully expecting them to say to their children "don't you ever do what this stupid boy is doing!". Then they asked me if I was going to shralp the line on the other side of the Ravine!

So I started booting up the other line (the one with the wooden boards in the middle holding up the slumping earth, chainlink fence at the top). This one was a little wider, and I did some jump turns up top, ripped an airplane turn off the board and slayed the spine-like apron! Sick! Then the long slog home, where I bonked hardcore!

Sunday, I had a new objective: There is a chute down the bank to the river in front of my house. Bill and I have biked down it, and Bill named it BMT (big mountain tuck).
Bill on the drop in ramp

Well, while walking the dog, she was looking pretty filled in, so I sacked up and slayed it!

Ghetto Edmonton skiing, calls for ghetto mountaineering skills. When I biked down this, I had a real problem climbing out of it, so this time, I brought some rope!

Here is a pic from the bottom. The line S-bends down between the two big evergreen trees.

Picture of the drop in ramp in winter. you can see the rope as well!

Then in the evening, I headed out with Steve to Fox drive hill for a little night session. Steve mentioned something about it being an old ski hill back in the day. We saw a Land Rover stuck in the snow on the way over! We started off on the face pointing towards the creek and ripped some more deep pow in the night. The overcast sky reflected the city lights so there was enough light to see even without headlamps. MT, please refrain from hating on our point and shoot flash setup.

We then worked our way around the hill, to the face with the stairs, but the pitches were interrupted by those annoying fences, and the snow was a little too punchy (some faceted snow under the blower) for my narrow race skis, as well as not steep enough to rip in the deep snow. Steve aired off the wooden fence

We found awesome snow in some cutlines just east of the stairs. There was a nice base, and we quickly shralped the steep narrow chute.

We headed back to the face towards the creek and cleaned out the bottomless snow.

A bit of a scare as I crashed and one of my skis submarined, but we were able to find it.

Steve was actually serious when he said that this was the deepest snow that he had ever skied on his Megawatts! Deeper than this, this, or this? We were trying to classify this style of skiing. Not backcountry, but BACKyardCOUNTRY!

Breaking it down

2011-01-03T21:16:00.004-07:00

Another year, another winter break...

I finished up my exams pretty early and headed down to Canmore, picking up Bill at the Calgary airport (along with playing in the Spaceport!). It was nice to see Bill again, as he has been at school in Kelowna. Nice to catch up and hear some of his stories, and how he is doing at school.

The Cole's Notes:
-Kicking Horse with the fam to start off with: Had a nice rip with Ian Gale, a patroller at KHMR and a fast skimo racer, on the surprisingly versatile race setup. Skied some of the chutes with Bill while my mom skied the bowl.
-Burstall Pass with Bill, discovering that the race setup is not the best for skiing pow (faceplant to yardsale haha)

-Some XC skiing at the CNC and in the Edmonton River Valley. Skiing tracksets is a lot of fun!
-"Weight" training touring setup = Alpine trekkers + Explosivs + demo bindings
-Emerald Peak with Bill. A fun tour that we did for the first time. Snow was a little thin near the bottom making trailbreaking over an old track difficult, but the snow became more supportive up higher. The largest vertical that I have climbed for a single descent!
-Back to Kicking Horse with Steve and Bill in time for a storm. We discovered a new area of the mountain that we had never skied before, and we enjoyed refills on the second day

-Deathmarching the Chickadee Valley

-Skiing Fortress. We were fortunate to get a ride up the gated road. Though we only skied the frontside, there is some awesome looking terrain on the backside.

-Another Burstall pass mission, and some skiing on Observation Peak, searching and finding the goods.

Study Break

2010-12-16T21:05:00.003-07:00

It just had to be done: Kicking Horse on Friday with close to a foot of new snow waiting for me...

I am still upset that I did not GoPro a deep run I had down the gondola face; Doh! I was on my rock skis as the base was nonexistent in some areas, but otherwise the snow was deep. And I pretty much walked on to the chair/gondola for each run. Not many people there!

Saturday, I did a solo recon mission up to Burstall Pass. Good slog to get there and back, and not much skiable vert, but some cool terrain up there and lots of snow.

Anyways, exams are done, so the countdown is on for the blog to start going OFF!!!!

5-4-3-2....

Vert 180

2010-11-29T16:23:00.004-07:00

My beauty sufferface, courtesy of MT

Another awesome weekend! My first ski mountaineering race of the season, and my first on my new gear! It was a night race, so there was lots of time on Saturday morning to chill in Canmore and launch rockets! I made some homemade rockets, and was pretty stoked to make a re-launchable rocket!

Then off to the race. We got there a little late, and the sign in and pre-race meeting were a little hectic, but fortunately the logistics of the event were pretty simple. MT and Steve decided not to race (they wussed out), instead they became the Pilsner Pit Crew whose primary tasks were to drink beer and take pictures. It was funny walking around in my spandex suit. I could feel the hate just raining down from all of the park rats in their fart bags who looked as equally ridiculous as me.

180 minutes of the pain locker at COP aka hammer out a 130m vert lap as many times as you can in 3hrs.

The front row was pretty wide, so I lined up on the front row. Off the start I was going pretty good, and soon people were dropping off the front. Eventually I found myself in 2nd, right behind the fastest Canadian racer. The pace was furious, and I decided to ease up a bit, and let 2 more people ahead. I ripped up the bootpack section and was in 4th place (including relay teams) at the top of the hill on the first lap. Not a bad start.

But the top of the hill was pitch black, and this was the first time that I have ever had to put Dynafits on in a race. So I definitely struggled and lost lots of time. Then on the way down, I was expecting to see course flags so I didn't go too fast. I probably should have skied the course beforehand...

I got settled in pretty good, and was skiing pretty well during the first hour. The glue on my race skins wasn't really sticking that well anymore because of snow from all of the transitions, so I had to switch to my backup skins, a more conventional setup, but noticeably slower.

I was sending the uphills pretty hard, I got better and better at stepping into Dynafits, and by the end of the night, I was pretty much straightlining the descent. My gear was pretty dialed, which was good because this was the first time that I have used it! I guess my final excuse would be that my gel got really viscous and was impossible to take out of the gel flask

I kept it strong until the finish and brought it home. I tied for 4th in solo men which is awesome, especially for only my 2nd skimo race ever! It was a good scene, with a dj, and lots of people came out to try racing!

Sunday, with tired legs and sore lungs, we headed out to Chester Lake for a "nature walk" (no intention of skiing). Yeah, not much snow up there!

Norway withdrawal

2010-11-09T18:14:00.004-07:00

Yep, it was hard to leave 'Utopia' to come back to 'BERTA.

Yup, definitely back in 'BERTA

But when I got home, things weren't so bad. I missed my bike, and my skimo suit arrived!

English class was by far the harshest reality of coming back. Something soooooo sucky after such an awesome week!

The week actually flew by; I went for a couple of mountain bike rides, and for the weekend I was in Canmore!

Canmore was pretty fun; there is not much snow there so the mountain biking is still amazing. I went for a ride on Saturday with my out of shape friend MT (he wanted me to give him that shout out). I also got high off of Black Diamond Gold Label Adhesive!

There's this cool new outdoor gym in Canmore! But I think you need to bring a really heavy backpack to get a good workout in!

Sunday, went for a ride by myself on the now classic Bill Knight Super Loop. Just take all the awesome trails at the Canmore Nordic Centre and put them into one ride!

The Norway blog: part 4

2010-10-31T20:36:00.010-06:00

We left Andenes early in the morning. I had been disappointed that I had not planned for a day in Oslo, instead opting to head straight home in one day. The other Canadians were going to meet up with some of the Oslo students on Saturday night. Changing the flights would be pretty impossible.

The flight from Andenes to Tromsø was really cool as the views from the plane were amazing. I usually don't shoot pictures out of the plane window, but I think I got some good ones from the flight. The turbulence near the end of the flight was pretty extreme.

Things got interesting when we tried to leave Tromsø. The reverse on one of the engines was not working, and we had to go back into the terminal. There was always the possibility that I would miss my connection in Oslo to London due to the delay. We waited anxiously, unsure of what would happen (overnight in London/Oslo). My bags were only checked to Oslo, so I would have to pick them up and check in again (there was 3hrs between the original flights). We got to Oslo, and sure enough, the plane had left. Fortunately booking the night in Oslo was now a possibility. I think that Thor made it my destiny!

After checking into the airport hotel, we headed into Oslo on the train to meet up with Cato, Live, and Emilie from the camp. The city had the distinct Euro feel to it with streetcars, cobbled streets, pedestrian only streets, rental bikes, etc... We were debating on where to eat as us Canadians wanted an authentic Norwegian experience, but ha I guess that is easier said than done. There were TGI Fridays all over the place! We settled on this place called Egon. After dinner, we walked around more, and checked out the opera house. Then it was time to head back to the hotel.

I finally saw Avatar on the way home. Definitely did not live up to the hype, but I guess I did watch it on the small screen on the back of the headrest in front of me.

Wow what a trip. It went by way too fast.

What an awesome country. The beer is expensive, but the education is free. The girls are gorgeous, intelligent, and down to earth. People go outdoors to get exercise, and they eat well. The landscape is beautiful.

Most of the Norwegians were SLR'd out. Good thing I came similarly equiped.

I will keep updating as I remember more of the events that happened.

The Norway blog: part 3

2010-10-31T20:07:00.008-06:00

Thursday was the big day for the launch. The usual conference room doubled in size with the extra people attending the morning meetings, both ARR staff, and local politicians and press. Soon we were off to our respective stations, to prepare for the launch.

The telemetry group was split further into two groups. One group was in the main telemetry station supporting the professional ARR staff (they don't want to leave this important task up to the students), and another group was in the student telemetry station. I was in the student station, which is basically a simpler version of the main station. I controlled the antenna, making sure that it followed the rocket through it's flight to pick up the signal transmitted by the rocket.

The launch came up quickly, and I was able to track the rocket through most of its flight until just before splashdown.

Now was my opportunity to try and see how fast I could climb up to the col. I forgot to time myself, but I think it took me about 10mins to gain the 250m or so straight up to the top. I don't think that I was the fastest, and I went out way too hard and had to suffer to get to the top. I ran down the other side, and jogged back to the base for a total time of 30mins. I am writing this on Sunday, and my legs are still sore!

After my climb, the rocket group launched a weather balloon to measure the wind profiles, but unfortunately the sensor box fell off just after the balloon was released.

After the post flight meeting, we had an interesting lecture on Near Earth Objects before beginning the preparation for the presentations on Friday. We finished our report just before the farewell party.

The farewell party was fun. I had gone into town after supper to get some Ringnes beer, and the ARR had some Tuborg for us as well.

ah let's see what went down:
-trying to solve integrals
-playing some weird cardgames, and cardtricks
-drunk frigid ocean swimming
-sauna
-watching the Ariane launch, relating it to our own experience earlier in the day
-trying to sing Norwegian songs
-exchanging culture via-youtube, including gettin' 'er goin' on the Mitchell
-hiding from the night watchman
-chilling in the basement

Friday morning, I made sure that I was ready to rock, no matter how many wobbly pops I consumed the night before. The trip to ALOMAR was cancelled again, so we had time to polish our presentation. The LIDAR at ALOMAR was not operational at the time, but it would have been cool to go up the mountain. The presentation went off without a hitch, but we were experiencing our last moments with the Norwegian groups. First the Tromsø group left, then the Oslo group. After the Norwegians left, we fired off some more model rockets. We then headed into Andenes with one of the grad students, and ate at this restaurant, Arresten, in the old jail. Then we wandered the town in search of some nightlife, but we must have been too early because the places were absolutely empty!

The Norway blog: part 2

2010-10-31T18:59:00.008-06:00

The course began on Monday with a presentation about the facility and the program, then a tour of the facility. During the tour, I learned that there was a record time up to the Col on the mountain that I had climbed yesterday. I knew that I would have to see how fast I could climb!

After lunch, we got an introduction to rockets from a grad student who does model rockets as a hobby (hobby rockets are quite rare in Norway). Learning about the stability (the position of the centroid in relation to the center of pressure) of a rocket was useful. Then we had a lab where we made some paper rockets that would be launched using an air compressor. The key was a good fit on the tube, and good ballast in the nose to increase stability.

After launching the paper rockets, we headed into the town of Andenes for dinner at an Italian restaurant.

In the evening, the UofS students "broke the ice" by sharing the Crown Royal they brought from home.

On Tuesday, we had to make the tough decision of which group to be in: Group A: Rocket, Group B: Experiments, Group C: Payload, or Group D: Telemetry. I ended up with group D. We started off with an overview of the process, and soon started to input the correct settings for the equipment. We also used a satellite tracking software to predict when certain satellites would pass over the range, so that we could track them the next day. Originally, there was a trip planned to the ALOMAR observatory on the top of the mountain, but that was postponed until Friday as the steep road up the mountain was icy. The lectures in the evening were on various atmospheric research topics and their applications at ALOMAR, which were interesting new subjects for me.

The rocket group would assist with various demos during the week, as well as use some software to predict the trajectory of the rocket. The experiments group and payload group would build the sensors for the rocket, make sure that the payload is balanced, and analyze the data once it is extracted.

In the evening, we walked into town, only to discover that they stopped selling beer after 6pm.

Wednesday, we had a presentation on range safety before diving into more group work. The setup of the equipment for the launch was completed before lunch.

There had been talk about going swimming in the frigid ocean earlier in the week, but nothing had materialized. I wanted to go swimming, so I went out after eating lunch. I brought along some warm layers with me to the beach so that I would warm up quickly after swimming. The sand was fine and white, and the beach was quite shallow, so I could go out a bit and only be waist deep. I was waiting for the right moment to submerge my head, when I noticed that the waves could be body-surfed. So I did that a couple of times, then got out and started to change, when I saw two of the Norwegian girls (Live and Emilie) from the camp. They were quite impressed, I was a little embarrassed (I was actually just about to drop the drawers because I wasn't expecting anyone to see me on the beach. Good thing I didn't as there was shrinkage!). I decided to go back in, because I wanted them to take a picture of me swimming. After getting out, I dried off with my wet towel and slipped into my warm clothes.

I didn't have much time for a warm shower, so I put on lots of warm layers, but it took me about 1.5hrs to stop shivering. Word slowly spread around the camp.

We tracked a NOAA satellite during the last part of the lunch break, and we got a pretty cool picture after processing the signal!

The hybrid motor and model rocket demonstration from group A was pretty exciting. The motor used N2O gas as well as plexiglass as fuel.

We went out late in the night to watch the aurora. It started off slowly, then dazzled us with shimmering green light.

The Norway blog: part 1

2010-10-31T18:23:00.005-06:00

It is always nice to get out of town for a while to go explore a new city, especially when someone else is footing the bill.

Back in April, I found out that I was chosen as one of the two UofA students that would partake in a week long course at the Andøya Rocket Range in Norway, along with students from UofC, UofS, University of Oslo, and the University of Tromsø, as part of the CaNoRock program.

After applying for travel grants, scheduling plane tickets, and hotel rooms the week finally came. After writing a statistics midterm on Friday the 22nd, I headed to the airport for my flight to LHR, and ultimately Oslo. Arriving late in the afternoon, we (I along with the other UofA student) didn`t head into the city. Instead we decided to head straight to the hotel to get some needed rest. The Esso On the Run looked familiar, but with different types of chocolate bars.

My jet lag prevention strategy was to not sleep unless it was synchronized with the final time zone. It seemed to work out pretty well. We woke up to an awesome complimentary breakfast at the hotel: waffles, bread, fish, cereal, yogurt, sausages, home fries, fruit...om nom nom. I ate lots, and then hopped on the bus to the airport.

Waiting by the gate, the UofS students, Roman and Grant, met up with us, then Eric and Matt from UofC introduced themselves when they heard the word "theoretical" come up in our conversation.

We flew from Oslo to Tromsø, and then to the final destination of Andenes. Andenes is a small 1 gate airport with a military base. We hopped on the taxi that was waiting for us, and soon arrived at the rocket range. We had plenty of free time before the other students arrived, so we decided to go for a hike: straight up the mountain!

It was a little sketchy at the bottom walking over some boulders covered in grass, but I soon kicked it into overdrive and ripped up to the top. I traversed the ridge with the UofS students, eventually getting to the highest summit on the ridge at about 450m from sea level. The UofS students were motivated to summit when I told them that there was a logbook at the top. The weather was moving in and out, and I wasn't sure of when the sun would set, so it was a little risky.

After our adventure we played some Risk. Alliances were formed and broken.

Eventually the Norwegian students showed up, and the first dinner of the week was served: pizza, one of which had Tex-Mex toppings (Norwegians love their tex-mex). After dinner, we started to get to know the other students, but not without awkward silences (6.5 to be exact!).

Givingthanks

2010-10-11T19:04:00.004-06:00

Another sick long weekend of riding in the books.

Saturday, I raced the GP Jim Horner CX race. It was hot out again, but I rocked the bottle cage with bottle on my bike and unzipped the jersey, so I survived. I got another slow start, but was able to work my way up quickly, and was picking off riders. Then I locked up my rear wheel on some off camber and went down, driving my brake lever into the grass. I got up fine, but I had lost the time that I was making up on the riders ahead, and my gap (that was slowly coming down) to the chasers who were not far behind. After shaking off the post crash jitters, I focussed on not losing any more places, and finished up in 7th.

After heading down to Canmore Saturday after the race, Bill and I decided to go ride Moose Mountain. I have raced the Summer Solstace race on the lower slopes, but this was my first time riding the more downhill specific trails. We rode Sulphur Springs - Pneuma - Special K - Tom Snow/Ridgeback, I was on my Marin Attack Trail! Pneuma is a pretty fun climb, but the last part after the intersection with Race of Spades is super techy! Special K was a good rip as well with some good steep sections and awesome flow. We experimented with a "different" GoPro mounting position. Look at Bill drop me!

Yes, it seemed that riding in Kelowna has made Bill even faster on the descents, but I was able to crush him on Pneuma with my cyclo-cross legs.

Finally, on Monday before we each headed our separate ways, we went for a quick rip at the CNC with some hero dirt courteousy of Sunday afternoon's light rain!

Dark Knight

2010-10-04T16:45:00.003-06:00

photo: Ken Hurd

That was a pretty fun weekend. Saw Fubar II on Friday, and then I headed off to Calgary with MT for some biking. I could have used a little more sleep. We got there before the race so that we could do some riding at COP. We didn't get there early enough, so we didn't have too much time to ride, but it was pretty fun on the new Marin! That bike provides a solid pedalling platform, and when combined with its lateral stiffness, it accelerates nicely. But when you point it down, the Quad Link soaks up the bumps. beauty. We rode Safari Planet and Dragon Slayer, and manned up for the DH course for our last run. The DH is easily the best trail there.

The Dark Night course was pretty fun, lots of off camber, and it hit up the last couple of tables and berms coming out of the bike park. In the dark it was really fun, and I got into the rhythm of the course really well early on. I rolled in for 9th, which was pretty good. MT was rocking 2 flashes and got some sick pictures that will be posted soon!

I just missed picking up the Pig Keg. I didn't see it until the guy in front of me slid out while trying to grab it haha.

For Oval cross, the legs were definitely feeling the effort from the previous night, but I avoided getting lapped on a fairly short course.

To cap off the epicness of the weekend, we checked out the Bass Pro Shop on the way home. Got an awesome flanel shirt!

School of Cross and Hop 'n Hurl

2010-09-27T18:37:00.002-06:00

A good start to the season for me. I survived through the heat on Saturday and took 6th place after starting in DFL. I think out of all of the elite level races that I have competed in, that is my most impressive result. The heat was a huge factor on the day. My average heart rate for about 1hr was 188bpm, which is higher than the max HR that I have had in some races this year.

The next day, I got a better start, and managed 8th on the day.

OH YEAH! Marin Attack Trail 6.8

2010-09-24T15:54:00.004-06:00

My new Marin Attack Trail 6.8. Thanks to Hardcore Bikes for hooking me up with a sweet deal.

66 deg HA + 6" Quad link suspension = a bike that can slay ANYTHING that I need it to.

With a light XC wheelset and the burly stock wheelset, I can go on a road trip with one bike and ride all the trails that I would want to ride.

My initial impressions:
-Stiff
-Floats over logs
-Slack head angle and short top tube make climbing a more challenging, but still very doable, thanks to quad link for providing maximum traction

Speaking of Marin and Quad Link, I am pretty stoked about their new 2011 Rift Zone. It just might be my bike for 2011:

I'm just doing my rock and roll duty

2010-09-19T15:32:00.002-06:00

Kim Mitchell is a guitar god

Visiting the land of HST

2010-09-02T16:45:00.004-06:00

Rossland-Fernie-Canmore

Reminder kids...

2010-08-29T08:55:00.005-06:00

...always check to make sure your bike is dialed BEFORE the start of the race.

pic here thanks to Patrick Graham

At least the legs seemed to be dialed. And Hardcore CC riders pretty much made up half the field!

A solid weekend of riding

2010-08-17T20:40:00.003-06:00

Haven't been out on the road bike much this year, hence haven't used the PowerTap much. But put in a couple of solid rides on the weekend, even setting a new 30 sec peak power somewhere.

Partying like it`s 1999...er 2000

2010-08-07T18:48:00.006-06:00

So there I was on Pinkbike.com...

the oven
Alyson Sydor on "The Chute"
Roland Green on "Devonian Drop"
Cadel Evans
(*Note: I did not take ANY of these pictures)

I remember going up to watch the finish one year in the stadium area. I really regret not watching "The Chute" or "Devonian Drop". Look at all the people there! Mountain bike racing was much more awesome back then...

"Nicholson", R.I.P Ziggy's and Killer Bees

2010-08-02T20:20:00.006-06:00

The last 3 of my August long weekends were spent racing the Tour de Bowness, and this year, I decided not to partake in the cat 2 sketchfest, instead opting to do some mountain biking around Golden (and NICHOLSON).

I noticed a marked improvement in my descending skills after last weekend at KHMR, so we went back there on the big bikes. However, the lack of rain in the area made the trails extremely dusty.

Although it was the long weekend, with a fire ban we were hopeful that we would be able to snag a campsite after a day of hitting the lifts at KHMR. After driving up a steep gravel road with about 7 corners over 3km, we were more than a little surprised to see what looked like a full campground. Camping was plan A. Plan B was to giv'er. It was about 7:30pm, and we made the game time decision to rip the Canyon Creek trail and peace it back to Canmore.

The trail consisted of about 13km of logging road followed by a super smooth singletrack descent that skirts along the edge of a super narrow canyon. Shear cliffs dropping down about 100m to a narrow ribbon of whitewater. The mosquitoes were bad and I had to keep riding if I wanted to read my map. An hour later, we were back at the car.

Back in Canmore:
I died a little inside when I saw that the classic CNC singletrack of Ziggy's and Killer Bees had been re-routed to make them "more sustainable". They made a new trail that is heavily benched and removed all of the roots. This seems to be a disturbing trend that is happening and soon more CNC classics will fall under the axe. Removing the roots allows the trails to be rideable in wet conditions (as soon as the trail tread compacts), but in a couple of years all that will be left is smooth fast singletrack, not exactly challenging. Add to this a strict adherence to limiting the trail gradient, so descending a slope requires multiple sharp switchbacks, not exactly fun on my long XL bike.

If the gradient of the trail is steep enough, water will drain down the trail which is understandable, but the "rules" seem to strict and will limit the challenge of the trail. If they are concerned about erosion, why would they remove roots from the trail tread? Why do they need to remove the roots from a climb?

My concerns?
-loss of classic singletrack (Killer Bees, Ziggy's, and soon T2)
-tight switchbacks (laundry chutes)
-trails do not look "natural" (trail benching, rock placement, root removal)
-challenge will not come from roots or steeps but from placed obstacles and tight switchbacks

My ideal solution to the initial problem:
-improve signage (done)
-build NEW singletrack that is rideable in poor conditions, and by beginners, instead of wrecking current challenging singletrack

Going downhill fast

2010-07-24T15:57:00.008-06:00

Peter's Tip of the day: When QEII turns into a clusterf***, it is probably a good idea to get as far away (east or west) as possible.

Someone got all butthurt over some misspelled f-bombs, but not the graffiti on the bridge?

Me

Bill

Mavic neutral service

Wow there are a lot of mountain bike "racers" at 24 Hours of Adrenalin. Where did they all come from?

Canmore Nationals. Gluten Free?

2010-07-19T18:08:00.006-06:00

A solid preparation week similar to how I have prepared for major races in the past. Finally, a working heart rate monitor as I mooched parts from Trevor Pombert's old Polar. Headed down to Canmore Thursday evening to allow the legs time to prepare for Sunday's race, pre-ride, and sign on. Speaking of sign on, apparently some riders have people who sign on for them. Must be nice...

It had been haunting me for the last two weeks: Should I jump the double logs on the first descent, "Mad Handler". 2 weeks before, I had gapped them, but had a weird crash on the next corner. Initially, I played it safe and rolled them, but while looping back up the climb, I saw Derek Zandstra gap the logs with ease. I had convinced myself to give it another go and then before I knew it, I was on the ground. Alright, no log hopping for me... The pre-ride pain continued when I tagged my hip on a tree on "Nectar Noodle". Ouch!

While having pre-race dinner at LunaBLUE (food was okay, $$$ and adagietto), Steve called me out for eating pasta, citing that gluten inflames muscles. "Haven't you ever listened to Allen Lim?" Well that set the tone for a weekend of WWALD (what would Allen Lim do) jokes.

Race day, watched some of Le Tour, then some live footage from the woman's elite race, and then headed up to the CNC in time to see the finish. After a solid warmup, I was in the start grid with the clock counting down the 45 second gap for our start (under 23 men) after the Elite men. Oh yeah, some frenchie offered up one beer to whoever won if he did not get lapped. I thought to myself:

yeah right. You are from Quebec; you came all this way to race; you must be fast

The start was not too bad through the start loop, nice and strung out, but I found myself in the back, which turned out to be a problem once 2 CVM riders decided to let a gap go (probably the dude who was worried about getting lapped). I chased back on, and the engine was nice and hot to slay the climb. However, my descending was not up to par as I lost contact with the riders I was with. Settled into laps 2 and 3 nicely, and started to notice the fade in lap 4. Finished lap 4 just before Elite winner, Geoff Kabush came in, phew, I did not get lapped! Lap 5 with the Coke bottle was survival mode to bring it home to the finish. After a solid effort 13 mins back, 16th place, and 5 UCI points (thankfully, not enough to race a World Cup), I was spent.

A few recovery beers helped to ease the pain, but I was still too tired to ride Highline. This year, I have "raced" myself into shape, but all of my MTB races have been just over 90 minutes. But the last 2 races have required at least 120 minutes of racing. When I would usually be "bringing it home" to the finish, I now have to try to avoid getting lapped and then do another lap on top of that! Already looking ahead to next year: by competing in more 2hr + races next year, and improving my descending, I can easily shave more time off my race!

The organizer really took a lot of heat about the course design. It actually seemed to have a nice ebb and flow, and was pretty good, it just did not live up to the Canmore reputation.

Too fast to be slow, too slow to be fast

2010-07-11T20:44:00.011-06:00

photo: Emils Muehlenbachs

Well after a solid weekend of training in Canmore, I was pumped to test out the top end for the final time in the Tuesday race before the big race on the weekend. The legs were still a little dead from the weekend, but I was motivated to suffer hard, and that is what I did. I crashed at the beginning of the 2nd lap and looked down and saw a lot of blood on my left knee. Still finished the race strong! I had to get driven home from the race and headed to emerg. to get 3 stitches.

Wednesday morning woke up at 4 with my knee in excruciating pain, not due to the cut, but because of some bruising. Fortunately, I did not break my patella! The knee set me back pretty much until Saturday, where I put in a solid pre-ride to loosen up the legs without even noticing the bruise.

I was stoked for race day, and feeling pretty good as I rode to Kinsmen, ready to suffer hard. After chilling around the expo area and a warmup, I was called up near the back.

We are off, but on the first climb, there was a bit of a pileup (poor shifting/crash?) and so I had to get off and run. I was in 2nd last and there was another bottleneck on the next hill. The course was in really good condition except for a climb that is now permanently muddy due to a spring. I started picking off some riders, until I reached a Sask. rider (Cory Zet. BCW) who I just could not close the gap too. Some juniors passed me, and then I rode behind Emily Batty for a bit after she "chicked" me. More juniors, then Amanda Sin, dang chicked again. On the 4th lap, I was hurting pretty bad, and was waiting for my final lap Coke bottle to appear in my feeder's (Gary Middleton, thanks!) hands. It didn't come as I was only on my 5th lap, which I suffered some more on. Then I saw Derek Zandstra a little bit behind me, and so I hit the gas as hard as I could. I held him off just as he turned to go through the finish chute, but was pulled from the race. Thanks for putting me out of my misery! I wasn't disappointed as the legs were hurting and I left it all out on the race course. Solid race for me; legs were not quite there.

After the race, checked some results. There were some riders who were not far ahead of me. But almost all the riders I passed had DNF'd, so I was in 2nd last place! For 5 laps, my time was pretty much 2:00:00, which would have placed me well in my usual expert men category, competitive with the master experts; 2 women and a whole bunch of juniors beat me (ignoring tactics, battles, course conditions, etc...), so not too bad.

I've never really dominated the expert category; I've just thrown down some consistent podiums, and started closing the start gap into parts of the elite field. I enjoyed the prestige of racing in a Canada cup category, enjoyed having to deal with less lap traffic, enjoyed having a drier course due to a later start (except for the muddy hill, which only got worse).

How does it compare to last year? Last year with one less lap, I did not get lapped. I didn't see how long after I lapped through for my last lap that Andrew Watson finished last year. I technically just avoided being lapped today doing one more lap with what could be considered a stronger field. I was definitely noticing the home field advantage as I had a lot of the rooty lines dialed in. The only area I sucked on was the rhubarb'y area after the road climb.

Ha the next EMBA project should be to fix up that climb. I would be interested in helping out. As an engineer (not a CivE though) it would be interesting to see the solution. Do you have to bring in granular material, and some pipe to permit draining? Do you use wooden structures to divert the water or the trail? Is the trail a lost cause?

Learning how to ride

2010-07-05T20:43:00.008-06:00

Let me tell you, I was thrilled when I found out that I had a four day weekend. What better way to spend a long weekend shredding with some pals in Canmore?

Driving back and forth to Canmore can get expensive, but JMidds and Wildcat tagged along to split travel costs. Not only did I make the most out of my hard earned Benjamins but I had so much fun riding with such skilled riders!

A sick drive down, and early on, it was decided that the radio would be locked on Top 40. After 4 or so hours of discussing the meaning of life, we arrived at our destination, chamoised up, caffinated, and proceeded to rip some of the newer Canmore singletrack for a couple of hours. An awesome ride, but I found out there that I have a lot of work to do to get faster on the descents. Oh yeah, and we ripped up Soft Yog's (soft yogurt) to the G-out, something that we would do to end all 4 days.

Canada day, and with the fireworks in the park behind the house, we made some s'mores in the firepit, pounded some brews, and played frisbee keep away with some annoying kids. More importantly, I stocked up on some 'rade.

The next day, we rode the course for the upcoming national championships.

A quick note about the course.
There is so much potential at the CNC, the course was short of delivering. I'm sure there's a perfectly good reason why the designer chose to exit off Nectar Noodle early to descend via the double track instead of continuing down through the Albertan. I'm sure there's a perfectly good reason why the designer chose to omit Soft Yog's and Devonian Drop, which were super popular during the Iron Lung. Apparently I am not the only per son who thinks this course doesn't live up to its potential. It should be a good course for me as it has lots of climbing, few long technical descents to lose time on.

A big ride planned for Saturday as we rolled out from the CNC, getting bludgeoned by roots on the way to Banff. After being challenged by both the up and down of the Stoney Squaw trail, we could feel the bonk coming on, so we stopped for some burg's at The Eddie. Delicious!

Stony Squaw Hill Climb from cody canning on Vimeo.

After our feast, we chilled on the Goat Creek trail back to Canmore, and ripped some technical singletrack back into town.

On our final day, we decided to explore some of the trails on the opposite side of the valley, which led to more fun. The legs were definitely feeling the efforts of the previous 3 days, so a little break was req'd before riding another lap of the course. Part 2 of the ride, we set off with a fast group of XC skiers, collectively known as the "Fort Mac Crew", that is after witnessing the creation of a new hit single (the key to a good hit is good autotune).

XC skiers always seem very fast, and provided me with some good motivation. Fast riders behind me, fast riders in front of me. I crashed pretty hard the corner after gapping some logs, but instead of getting rattled, I was back up and ready to rip!

After a potato cannon "demonstration", we headed home, sad to leave Canmore, but happy with some good riding behind us, slightly improved technical skills (for me at least) and some big races coming up. We missed the closing of the BASS PRO SHOP, which was a little disappointing, but we saw the epicness looking through the windows. 'Till another time...

Spectating National Championships

2010-06-29T16:56:00.006-06:00

We will let the conspiracy theorists argue over whether this post is about the National championships of spectating, or me spectating the national championships.

Armed with my Alberta MTB Racing cowbell, I headed down to Hawrelack park in the morning, for what would be a very long, relaxing day outside.

Gave back to the community by volunteering for the women's race in the morning at the top of Emily Murphy hill, which consisted of me sitting in a chair in the shade, ringing my cowbell when the pack went by, and doing my best Bob Roll when answering questions from n00bs. I had a police officer with me who let select cars through and turned back the n00bs who were trying to drive down to the park, so I didn't have to do anything. After enjoying a macchiato from Da Capo, and a sandwich from Fresh Start served by a cute girl, I went out to ride a lap of the course with the full road closure.

Met up with some Hardcore teammates, and watched the men's race. I decided not to race, but I saw some cat 3's and 4's who man'ed up. Within a couple of laps, I could see them falling off the back. I did a couple of cat 2 races last year and got shelled, and the race was as long as the longest ride that I had ever done. After a fairly active first couple of laps, the race lulled, but then I realized that they were only halfway done! Then I saw lots of fast Albertan riders get dropped. Definitely glad I didn't race today!

Pumped to see some Alberta rep. in the break of the day with Spencer able to stick in until the end to claim 14th. Although the pack was whittled down, there was still a select collection of Alberta riders who finished the race. Dom Rollin put on a show for the crowd with an impressive pull but as a strong pro tour rider, he was heavily marked.

Cool race, would be cool to have it in Edmonton next year, I would try to get ready for that. Interesting to hear the opinion of the public on that one! Props to Sheldon Smart for beating Rob Jones to the athlete interviews!

Weak sauce...

2010-06-23T17:10:00.004-06:00

Well, this is a blog, so I am allowed to voice my opinion...

UCI allows disc brakes for cyclo-cross, reduces maximum tire width.

Congratulations to all you old fat riders who enjoy the novelty of owning a cyclo-cross bike. You may now have more options for 130mm disc hubs, disc compatible frames, and improved road lever disc brakes. Whoopdeedooooo!

Are there even any racers at the elite level who would want to add over a pound to their bikes so they could have brakes that are too powerful for their now maximum 33mm tires?

Speaking of tires, WTF?

While I am at it, I don't feel too bad for those who own TT bikes or components that are banned now that the UCI has started to enforce the 3:1 rule. If you have the money to throw at a cutting edge frame that will probably get ridden a maximum of 10 times per season for the purpose of gaining an advantage on the competition, I don't really feel any sympathy. As an engineer, the aerodynamics and technology are interesting, but the line has to be drawn somewhere to level the playing field.

As a cyclist and an engineer, I would rather see the time trial as a true test of who can throw down the highest sustained power while in an aerodynamic position and who can pace themselves; with the engineering effort focused on optimizing the aerodynamics of a standard road frame. No disc wheels, no expensive frames and handlebars.

Suffer Solstace

2010-06-20T19:31:00.010-06:00

Down to Bragg Creek this week for another Alberta Cup VTT race. I must have been living under a rock because I did not know that it had been monsooning in southern Alberta the whole week. The course was pretty much a river, but fortunately the mud was not very cohesive. Flatted during the preride as I did not have enough Stan`s in my tire (Stan`s WILL be the solution to the BP leak). Didn't get to see the Banff crit as Bill didn't want to go. Bill is a closet suffer enthusiast, he just doesn't want anyone to know about his forbidden love!

Not a huge field, but enough "pack fill" elites (ha I will make some good pack fill when I upgrade). The legs weren't feeling very good at the beginning of the 1st lap (longer/harder warmup req'd.), but I got into the groove quickly. Felix was off the front, and there was another Bow rider within arms' reach. But I am not a great descender, so I lost huge chunks of time on the descent. Rolled in 3rd place with some "competitive" lap times so I am happy. It is no secret that I love the courses with lots of climbing as I find that I can push myself harder.

Lots of draw prizes, and good awards thanks to the organizers; Deadgoat! Nice work Mike, Steve, and Andre on the Hardcore elite sweep!

Hardcore to the MAX

2010-06-14T20:04:00.003-06:00

Ever since I joined the Hardcore cycling club last year, my riding has improved greatly. Training rides and other club members motivated me to improve both my technical riding abilities and my fitness, though I still have a ways to go!

"Style coach" Steve Martin's bike setup always seems a couple of years ahead of its time, with the emphasis on smart component selection. When making changes to my bike for the remainder of the season, I did my best to employ some of his ideas:

Iron Lung

2010-06-13T20:43:00.006-06:00

(diagonal number plates are the new black)

The weather finally broke, and we headed down to Canmore for another stop on the Alberta Cup. Arriving with little daylight to spare, we set out to pre-ride the brand new race course which was automatically awesome by virtue of being a Canmore nordic centre race course (okay, I agree, you could probably still make a very lame course at the CNC). I knew that the ride would be short, so I hammered hard (probably a little too hard) to loosen up the legs.

After eating an entire 500g package to tortellini, I hit the hay. The next day, we all enjoyed the main benefit that comes with being in the higher categories: later starts. It was hot, so I kept the warmup short. I was incredibly nervous for the start: 50 racers in expert, some Olympians in other sports, I was expecting to do well, but I just had no idea what to think.

I had a really good start, but my descending was weak sauce, so I would get caught, or have to hammer after every descent. I kept the pace hard for the rest of the race with my jaw dropping when I saw that the 2 leaders had already finished before I had even started the lower part of the course on my last lap! I was 6th, but I gave it everything I had and threw down some blistering lap times (calculated with my trusty excel spreadsheet), and that was all I really wanted...

Another relaxing evening in the mountains, then back to the CNC in the morning to go watch some sick twisted individuals (or relay teams) ride for 5hrs, then I sampled some more sweet CNC singletrack!

"YEAH...NO MORE CAT 3"

2010-06-06T18:13:00.007-06:00

With a 2nd place in the Pigeon Lake road race, I have finally accumulated enough points to make it to the elite road level. But first, a little rewind to the previous weekend:

After a nice easy recovery week, I headed down to Canmore to see my brother, and to ride my bike. I am so thankful that my parents were smart enough to buy a house in Canmore, and not some lame lake in central Alberta.

Saturday was spent pimping out my bike (a future post to come). Then a short and muddy ride of the new Highline trail. Sunday was spent riding some trails from past World Cup and Canada Cup courses (late 1990's) at the Canmore Nordic Centre (CNC, home of next weekend's Iron Lung race). The CNC is one of my favourite places to ride as the trails are awesome (rooty, technical, flowy, challenging; now that I know where all the good ones are), and you can ride for as long as you like. It just got a little cold when it started to snow...

Blew up at the Tuesday night race hanging on to the leaders after a very fast first lap (by my standards), but gave the sufferface a good workout to keep my position. The legs were a little fatigued the next day, but not enough to prevent me from "cleaning" the McNally hill for the first time on my 3rd try...now they were really fatigued.

And that brings us to Sunday's road race: A fairly active first lap (out of 4), but it seemed that anytime I even thought about putting down 400+ watts there was someone on my wheel. Probably a combination of my weak sauce attacks, too early into the race, or someone really did not want me to go off the front. Silly riding on my part. Andre had gotten away with a fast group of riders, who I tried to bridge up to, but unfortunately just ended up eating away at the gap...to my teammate! Unfortunately, a strong pull by a strong rider brought back the breakaway.

Toned it down for the next laps, but a breakaway had gotten away while I was chilling at the back. Crunch time and my teammates Josh, Andre, and even Mark buried themselves on the front to bring the break back. Going into the finish, I was not placed very well within the field, and was worried that this would turn into another midpack finish. However, there were a lot of hurting legs in the final uphill sprint, and I donned the sufferface and pedaled squares with my legs starting to cramp to take 2nd place.

My teammates (Andre, Josh, and Mark) did a wonderful job sacrificing their legs to give me a shot at the win and I am very thankful! How will I return the favour? Cat 2 is a huge step up in speed, so I will need some time to upgrade the engine, but I am pumped to be able to pin on the 2 digit numbers that just scream "fast".

Sadly, we were reminded with the unfortunate realities of road racing: there had been huge crashes in the cat 5, and the women's groups leaving numerous broken bikes, and even some broken bodies :( . Healing vibes ++++++, but I wouldn't blame them if they never returned to road racing.

Bacon Race

2010-05-23T18:47:00.007-06:00

A good week of preparation with a Tuesday night race and Wednesday group ride, then an extremely lazy Saturday where I took my position on the couch all day, only getting off for a short ride to loosen up the legs.

As it had been raining, I was expecting a mud fest and was not very stoked. Riding in the mud can be fun, but sometimes it gets to a point where you are at risk of doing serious damage to yourself or your bike. But I got to the course and was looking at some of the riders from the earlier start, and they had NO mud on them, and their bikes were clean! So I was pretty excited. I didn't pre-ride the course but it was similar to previous years and BONE DRY (Alchemy? a gap in the Continuum?)

Got a good start, but Brian Robinson pretty much rode away. I was sitting in 3rd with a bit of a gap to the rest of the field, right behind a rider who was pretty strong (but I caught him carrying his bike over a log). I was getting a little sketched out as I was having a hard time seeing roots buried under a layer of dead leaves. So after the previously mentioned log, I saw the rider in front of me hit something but ride away cleanly, and then all of a sudden I was on the ground, and I hit my knee on my bike. I had hit a little hidden stump!

After I crash, I am usually a little ratted, but I started riding better on lap 2. Slipped into 5th, but managed to hold on and take 4th just before the finish. Not a great race, but a good race as it is my best result in Stoney Plain yet. With a couple of races in my legs, my form is a little better than previous years (where I have a history of bonking at this race), but I still haven’t been able to dial in the course. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a real fun course and a well organized race, I just haven’t been able to put together a solid race here!

Good to see Brian finally having a good MTB race, we were bugging him last week about sandbagging. The expert field is really competitive right now; it seems that there is a large group of riders who are all capable of taking a win! I’ll never get to Elite!

Oh yeah. And I would like to take this moment to thank all of my fans. It is amazing how many people I hear cheering for me during the race considering that I am not very talkative!

'Cause it's 1-8-7 on....my stomach?

2010-05-16T19:00:00.012-06:00

Excellent race today for me at the Perogy race in Terwillegar Park. A new course this year, and there was much discussion about the removal of the Fireman's descent that was the main feature of the course from previous years. The new course was fast with a couple of short, punchy climbs.

I biked there with plenty of time to chillax in the shade.

I had a start position on the front row, or at least I thought that I did, until everyone scrambled to the line after the Elites started. Off the start, I proceeded to ride by everyone, except for two leaders (winner Mack Carson...on a cross bike. Nice ride!) who were riding away. At the end lap 1, I was sitting good, closing in on one of the leaders, and had a gap on the chasers behind me.

...WHEN SUDDENDLY, going through the feed zone, I could not see anyone holding my bottle of blue Gatorade!

Oh shit, I thought I had someone feeding for me...no I don't want someone else's water; I need my 'rade in this heat!...hey this looks like my bottle bag...same bag, but it's not mine...okay, someone is offering me someone else's 'rade...let's go!. And after stopping and getting off my bike, I got passed by all the chasers....

So lap 2 was similar to lap 1, where I had to work my way up through the other riders. I was angry, and I took my anger out on my pedals. I moved into 2nd after one of the leaders had a mechanical, and held on through the finish, with a couple of riders making some threatening late surges. Ended up with some sick swag from River Valley Cycle.

My stomach was hurting all race, it was like there was a Holy War being fought in there, or my stomach was getting murdered (hence the 187). Didn't seem to affect my legs too much; the legs were feeling good! 187 also happened to be the number I seemed to see the most today when looking down at my heart rate monitor.

Can I take your picture?

2010-05-11T18:03:00.017-06:00

Back in Canmore last week enjoying my last days of freedom before I start a summer of working.

The spring freeze-thaw cycle was well underway so there was no better time to a nice tour through the mountains. Surpr1se Pass, near Lake L0uise was the destination. Woke up at 4, and started walking up at 6:30 with Bill. Travel was fast on a supportive crust as we alternated from skinning to bootpacking when necessary (skinning on the trails, bootpacking on hard crusty sidehills and steep uphills).

In the upper reaches of the She0l valley we were looking for the couloir that would take us to the other side. There were a couple of other couloirs leading up to the top, but only the furthest one out fit the guidebook description (broad couloir leading up to a notch in the skyline). A couple of skintracks that had been blown over confirmed this. Small rocks (pebbles) were coming off the walls of the couloir as the ice melted, so we decided to get going before the rocks got bigger. Booted up the couloir, got the skis on, and prepared for our descent down the other side to Lake L0uise.

Bill dropped in first, and my ears were ready for the sound of skis on hard snow, but I heard nothing, instead seeing some blower cold smoke. When my turn came, I enjoyed making large, lazy turns through the soft snow, which turned into dust on a slightly supportive crust (it was supportive if you were "light" on your skis), and then a last section of old avalanche debris and some hard snow.

We made our way to the trail that wraps around Lake L0uise. We were getting some strange looks from people as we were walking in ski boots with skis on our packs. As we were nearing the Chateau, a family from Taiwan came up to us and asked us if they could take a picture with us. More funny looks ensued, and we got back to the car at 10:30, probably the earliest that I have ever finished skiing.

The Sadd1eback pass area is pretty cool, will have to go back there later to harvest some corn on the south facing slopes of Fa1rv1ew mountain. Unfortunately, no pictures were taken as Bill was unaware that his camera was in his pocket!

After a nice relaxing afternoon, the time came to cook supper and we opted for hotdogs in the backyard firepit.

"those embers are still pretty hot, maybe we should cook our vegetables on there too?"

Did some riding at the Nordic centre, riding the Canada Cup course from the previous years (possibly this year's nationals course?). It's dry, get after it! Let's show those in La Belle Province the REAL Alberta Advantage!

Cruisin' the Coulees

2010-05-08T21:50:00.014-06:00

Once again, a group of mountain bikers made the pilgrimage; making the long haul trip in the chase of an imaginary currency: points.

Lethbridge was the destination, and Jon B's Civic was the spaceship with Mike B and I in tow. High school style gossip followed by making fun of each others taste in music followed by more gossip.

I kept with my past pre-race rituals of eating as much as an offensive lineman the dinner and the breakfast before the race.

Nobody knew what to expect as the course had changed from previous editions due to a snowstorm earlier in the week. We were greeted with a short lap (<15min) with a couple of climbs, but none of the hike-a-bike sections of previous Coulee Cruiser's. Oh yeah, and lots of that type of mud that makes you feel like you are riding on a flat tire. A quick scan of the start list revealed some big guns (Stef Widmer in the elite race) but many unfamiliar names. A lot of fast elites though, so upgrading would be difficult.

I guess my warmup was insufficient because on the first climb at the start, a group of three (including eventual winner Jon B) got away. I rode in a chase group close behind, until the beginning of the 3rd lap (out of 6 for the expert race), when I figured that we needed to be going a little faster if I wanted a podium spot. I dropped off my chase companions, but faded before I could close the gap. Meanwhile, Jon had broken away from the other 2 and would cruise to victory, except that he was struggling on the descents after he dropped a contact lens. Got passed by Ryan C, who was also hunting for a podium spot, but came up short. A really close race as the leaders were in sight at the top of the climbs on most of the laps.

Seeing sport winner John C another expert rider behind me, and Stef almost lapping me was motivating, as I held on for 5th with an easy sprint.

A good showing for the Hardcore Race Team: Mike B. in second behind Stef in the elite race, Jon B. with the win in expert race, me 5th in the expert race, and John C. powered away for the win in the sport race.

Claimed some draw prizes, and we were off: more gossip, insulting each other's taste in music, followed by more gossip!

A tight expert field, and a good reminder of how important getting a good warmup and hammering off the start is.

Velocity SR May 1-2, Canada, Road-UPT (ProTour)

2010-05-02T16:36:00.005-06:00

...okay, well ProTour is a bit of an exaggeration, but it is always comical to see how seriously people take time trials (in terms of equipment), when there are only like 8 TT/yr, and the equipment is pretty much for racing only! If I organized a stage race, it would have a Merckx TT, where you would have to do it on mass start legal equipment. That way, the BEST time trialist would win, someone who has the power and knows how to suffer and pace themselves, not the person with the Swiss bank account and wind tunnel time.

Seriously, I am just complaining about how much I suck at TT's, as the aero equipment probably does not make THAT much of a difference... (seconds, when I may be losing minutes). Ya, ya, I suck at TT's, just like I did last year and the year before, and it something I should probably improve as it will help me in other events.

Other than that, some pretty average racing on my part. I felt strong at the end of the road race, I just was not confident enough in my sprinting abilities. I love the races where the pack is slowly whittled down and only the best riders are left. Gutter riding or hills, no one can hide from the suffering!

Post exam week

2010-04-29T21:02:00.008-06:00

Finished up 3rd year engineering,

2 races on the weekend, both weren't great, the legs are probably in need of some rest.

Then off to Canmore for some relaxation. Plenty of jobs here in the various shops, but are they "engineering related"?

Weather and Bill's work schedule (but not my training schedule...) cooperated as we were able ski powder in a top secret location where the skin tracks are already broken in, there is a warming hut at the top, and the powder is bottomless:

hammerred out about 1600m. Plenty of tip diving on my short 177cm Volkl Mantra (Too light for the 184 said Kevin from Out of Bounds, the worst ski shop in Edmonton, which is full of a bunch of mediocre shops)! Trying to think of the perfect all around touring ski, and they were right under my nose...er in my garage (Salomon AK Rocket).

Also found out that I am getting a free trip to Norway at the end of October to go launch rockets. Life is good, if only I had a job...

South Park

2010-04-24T22:13:00.002-06:00

I absolutely love South Park!

The creators aren't afraid of anything, nothing is out of bounds but I don't think it ever crosses the line. Everything that is wrong in this world they make fun of!

I have never been butthurt after watching South Park.

If you get butthurt watching South Park (i.e. a member of a specific group that they are making fun of), maybe you should stop and re-evaluate your life and ask yourself "why are you taking life so seriously?" Don't you ever laugh AT yourself?

Hardcore Big Ring

2010-04-18T14:10:00.003-06:00

Starting off the MTB racing season early this year, you never know what to expect of your form.

The heavy hitters took off at the start and were long gone, but the battle was being fought behind. I rode away from the chasing group after working my way up to the front, and spent the rest of the race trying not to let them catch me. It worked out for me in the end.

finishing in 5th

It's fun getting back into the rhythm of suffer/recover opposed to the constant suffering of a skimo race.

Springtime in the Rockies

2010-04-14T16:58:00.007-06:00

Nothing beats ending an active spring day like sitting outside on the porch in Canmore. Spring is my favourite time in the mountains: The trails have mostly melted, the snow quality and stability can both be excellent.

Skiing in the spring is equally capable of delivering your best day of the season, or your worst. "Freak" storms commonly bring in 30+cm's of the white stuff (you know the storms that always seem to happen on the weekend, cancelling any long bike rides you have planned). This isn't your Kootenay or Coastal cement, this is pure Rockies blower. True Rockies skiers have waited through a thin, unstable snowpack for this time of year!

On the flip side, freeze-thaw cycles create crusty, death cookie conditions but can lead to a stabler snowpack if there is a good overnight freeze, though stability deteriorates during the day as snow melts.

As a kid, I spent a couple of spring breaks west of the Divide skiing slush and dodging rapidly expanding patches of ground only to return to wintery conditions. We made a video of one such day, if only SRT would post it!!!!

What inspired this post? Well I am in Canmore right now. I've been mountain biking on dry and tacky trails, and checked off a couple of lines in the Dive (Milky Way, Steel Pipe, Galaxy 6) all in the same day. All I have left to ski are Cream (now open, just needs one more storm), an aesthetic couloir looming above sweet and low; and Starb$'s, a steep rock riddelled face.

Will the Town Gully get skied this year?

Why I don't want to go HELL-icopter skiing

2010-04-07T11:23:00.012-06:00

Some of the original readers of this blog may remember that I made this video:

to enter CMH/Arc'Teryx's "What Inspires you to Ski Tour" contest. I wanted to go ski touring with the legend himself, Greg Hill, and getting lots of Arc'Teryx gear would have been sweet.

When I didn't win, I was a little disappointed and wrote this.

Well that trip is happening as I write this. Another fan of Greg Hill actually decided to pay out of his pocket to join Greg on this trip. And unlike Greg, who has sponsorship obligations, this fellow can complain all he wants about the trip because he paid for it! His website is here.

Sounds like this trip so far has been just low angle tracked out glaciers, and the guides scold you if you climb too fast as none of the other clients have ever stepped foot on a skintrack and they don't even know who Greg Hill is!! WOW. Doesn't sound like much fun for any self respecting skier! This sounds nothing like the latest TGR or MSP movie!

Heliskiing can cost around $1000/day, and even helicopter assisted ski touring rings in at $500/day. To me, unless someone else is footing the bill, that is just a big waste of money. There are too many variables that can turn your "dream" vacation into a colossal waste of money: snowpack, fresh snow, other group members, etc... Why would you pay the megabucks to ski low angle glaciers if the snowpack sucks, ski over other people's tracks if there is no fresh snow, or spend all day waiting for a rich millionaire who has never skied before?

Cat skiing is a slightly cheaper alternative, but at around $300/day, it is still pricy, although the skiing is usually a little better.

Still a lot of money to be spending on one mediocre day of skiing. Why not buy some gear (lighter/fatter/stronger/stiffer/etc...), or go on a skiing road trip with a couple of friends?

In retrospect, I am glad I didn't win. I got to spend a weekend with some good friends, get some good turns and push myself to the limit in a Ski mo race. Heck CMH probably chose a gaper to win the contest because the majority of other clients would be gapers!

So this is why I will never pay to go heli-skiing. Let the rich tourist gapers "enjoy" that. Just keep on selling those CMH Volkl Explosivs.

Easter weekend: The Resurrection...

2010-04-06T15:52:00.009-06:00

...of what? Winter was never dead!

Half price buffet Thursday at the Stoney Resort? yummy, it sure could have been my Last Supper.

Evening mountain biking session on Thursday:

Short day of ski touring on Friday. Man, what a Good Friday!

where's Waldo?

Ski Mountaineering Nationals on Saturday

Galaxy chutes on Sunday. If Easter eggs are white and granular then I found a lot of them!

More Ski Touring on Monday:

even did a bit of extra climbing so that we could lay down some Wiegele's on some low angle pow!

Keepin' it secular