The nights are getting colder

As the nights get colder and snow starts sticking at higher elevations, I feel less inclined to make the long road trip to the mountains to ride my bike, and my thoughts turn to skiing. Here is a look back to last spring, capping off a great season that saw me shredding Highwood in October and November, and having the races of my life at Worlds and Nationals. Things will be tougher this year with 400km of crowded winter driving between me and the mountains, but I am determined to make the most out of my weekends and continue throwing down on the SMCC circuit!

Spring skiing on Pinkbike

More adventure + Devon River Raid XC

Slackcountry biking. As absurd as it sounds, I was thinking about all of the chairlift access mountain bike mountains around here and many of them have a trail that leaves the patrolled boundary. Call it a great way to finish off your day! I don't think many are as long and hard (that's what she said!) as Kicking Horse's (Maybe Khyber Pass in Whistler?).

At first, I was a little angry that the mountain is not too keen on allowing uphill traffic, even after they close for the season. But then I remembered that "The Separatists" had won some gift certificates. What a great way to spend the day: casing some jumps, hitting some stumps, and then cap it off with a hike-a-bike to a super long descent.

Loading up the bikes in the Gondola. The Marin took quite a beating as the trails were quite rough after a dry summer

The trails were ROUGH, and I was taking quite a beating, I could even start to feel the death grip setting in midway down the first lap! Okay, they are pretty long laps. Getting a lift to the top is fun, getting beaten up: not so much.

At the top of the grassy knoll aka T2. A different perspective in the summer for sure! Some steep hiking to get there.

My partner struggling, wearing body armour and carrying a heavier bike

 Unfortunately, I did not really possess the skill level to really make the most out of the trail, and I did a lot of walking. It's definitely more of a hiking trail, but I could see how a skilled rider could get down some sections. It seemed that every time the trail got fun, that the next section would force me to walk my bike. After quite a character builder, We were finally at the logging road, and able to rip the upper Canyon Creek descent (Lower Sir Donald, LSD). This trail is fun, and a great contrast to the blown out and rough nature of the KHMR trails. Steep sections that were not loose, okay, maybe I should tighten my lips about this trail!

As we didn't have a car waiting in Nicholson, we cut the descent short and returned to Cedar Lake, then I finished off the loop by pedalling up to Kicking Horse. My whole body and my mind were sore!

A tough day for sure. The Golden Cycling Club is planning on officially sanctioning the trail with the goal of having a descent from the top of KHMR down to Nicholson. I'm in no position to discuss what that will mean for the nature of the trail, but in its current state, it is best left for the more skilled and adventurous riders looking for a great/challenging way to finish off the day!

The body was sore for a couple of days after. All of those isometric muscle contractions while riding downhill are not something that I normally experience. Fortunately, I was all rested up and ready to race the River Raid XC in Devon on the weekend.

A fast course, mainly consisting of doubletrack, but with some steep singletrack climbs and a tight, but straight descent. I was feeling pretty good and was able to ride the steep climbs every lap with the odd dab or two. I ended up in 4th, just shy of the podium.

I took some notes from the winner of the Kicking Horse hill climb.

I really did have a job interview! Then I met up with Bill at Moose Mountain on my way back to Canmore. We were going to do SHAFT and Special K, but I broke my rear maxle on SHAFT. I had my Xprezo with me, so we salvaged the day with a lap of Shoulda.

And then a Baldy + Hector downhill ride a couple of days later.

Some great riding, and I need a little more rest. I'm itching to get to Revelstoke for some alpine hike-a-bikes to cap the year off properly.

My favourite ride

Since my last post about riding, I made a video:

Riding all over the mountain. on Pinkbike

A repeat of last year but with slightly harder access and better weather!

We rode a good chunk of the climb, but there was lots of pushing to do. Great views!

tight steeps!

My favourite shot. A great view of the Ghost River valley.

After some beautiful scree riding up top, the trail descended into some looser rocks, still very driftable!

Yeah, the t-shirt and elbow pads is questionable style, well, gotta keep that skin intact!

Finding the trailhead was a little tougher with most of the landmarks and trail markers washed away in the June floods.

June floods also washed away a diversion dam, which made for some fording!

When we did this ride last year, it really set me off on a mission to find some great descents. I'll never be able to ride the gnarly steeps, but I do enjoy a long descent that travels through many vegetation zones. I rode a lot of great trails, but this one stood out for not being too intimidating, taking me through some awesome terrain, and of course, being non stop fun for the whole descent. The 90 year old trail flows well, better than some recently built trails designed with "flow" in mind. Maybe back then, they knew something we didn't!

Trans Rockies Canmore pictures

I went for a stroll with my camera and stumbled upon a bike race.

more pictures here

Kicking Horse Cup

Well, I won the series last year, so I had no choice but to REPRESENT. As I was still tired and looking for a full night's sleep after a long drive back from the coast, I decided to skip the prolouge. Last year before the hill climb, we climbed to the paraglider launch on Mt. 7 and threw down a lap, but after a relaxed morning in Canmore, all I had time for was a very short mountain shadows rip before skin suiting UP for the hill climb.

I was feeling confident, knowing how I finished last year, and knowing that I should be stronger this year. The format was slightly different for me because I started with EVERYONE, not just the 5 or so U30's. After a flat rollout filled with lots of sketchyness, the big guns were all eager to get away by upping the pace on the 1st big ramp after the bridge. Fast old guy Olaf attacked and everyone in the group, including me underestimated his ability. I went next, but it was too little too late and along with another rider, we tried our hardest to reel him in. In the end, I rolled in 3rd, even a little slower than last year. Wind? CX bike? time spent on the flats? who knows.

getting up near the front to avoid the sketchyness and set myself up to follow the attacks.

The 60ish km road race is fun, especially with a hill capable of causing selections. I went in with the same game plan as last year, which due to what I think was a stronger field, was not as effective, but led to the same eventual result (I was close to "winning" last year). I again liked the Aussie pursuit format, it provided incentive to keep the pace high early on, and then race through the shrapnel from the older groups on the way to the finish.

outsprinting  the sketchies

So in all, 2 age group wins, wish I could have had a shot at the prolouge. Great event, great prizes, fun racing formats.

Meanwhile, Bill had been crushing self powered Mt. 7 laps and we were going to do a half lap before returning to Canmore. Unfortunately after a steep section, my front brake failed. Bill took one for the team and lent me his bike for the final singletrack: "I've already been down this twice".

After a big week of mountain biking and some racing, the legs are tired and it's time to relax!

great draw prizes!

Zest tour 2013

It was time to pay the grandparents a visit.

Kelowna: Made an attempt on Little White. On a hot 35C day in Ktown, it was nice to get up high! We ended up taking a wrong  route above the KVR and were climbing up a sun-exposed gravel  4wd road instead of the correct trail  through the trees. Once below the KVR and into the Myra-Belleview provincial park network, we descended Crawford to Hillbilly for a fun descent,  though I had to get used to my 26" Marin Attack Trail after spending a couple of months on the 29er. About 300m vertical from the bottom, the heat really set in, which changed our moods from failure to more opportunistic. An Okanagan lake dip was on order!

North Shore: After a short and sweet stop at granny's in Burnaby, we set off for the North Shore, a classic mountain biking zone. We climbed up Old Buck, Baden Powell and Mushroom trails with the intent on starting off with a Pangor lap, but a rock had other plans and got caught up in my rear derailleur after getting flicked into it by my tire.

Bent, with no cage spring tension. This Shadow is more like a Shadow minus

Bill enjoyed his lap, even hitting up Empress after. With a short, but expensive stop at Cove Bikes and some parking lot wrenching, I was back in business, and we headed up again, this time with the goal of trying out a new trail we had been informed of below the classic Dale's trail. There has been a lot of talk about the changing nature of the bike trails on the shore: Some argue that the movement is "dumbing down the shore", while others would like to open up the sport to new riders, impress land managers, and I'm sure lower their monthly expenditure on rear wheels and derailleurs.

In short, I enjoyed the trail with it's smooth transitions between short technical features, but Bill was not impressed with the meandering lines and almost too desperate addition of flow of the trail. Then the trail spat us out in no man's land: along the Bridle Path hiking trail, which required lots of (surprisingly enough) hiking to get us back towards our car. We pushed up and enjoyed the steep Applicator trail and on to the parking lot.

I was starting to feel better on the bike, and we just had to do a quick Executioner-Dreamweaver lap on Fromme before catching a ferry to Victoria. I loved Fromme. A nice, easy road climb up and some awesome descents!

Bill, in his natural element

"does it at least  look cool?" "kinda"

Sunset ferry ride. A must-do

In Victoria, we enjoyed excellent hospitality thanks to the other grandparents, and checked out the Mt. Work/Hartland zone. Mountain bikers in Victoria have it tough, with a large portion of their riding contained to one area 20km from the city. They have lost entire riding zones to questionable development (Bear Mt Golf Course being the main culprit. Boycott them if you love mountain biking...).  I've heard of other trails that can be connected to Hartland through the Highlands or other parks (Thetis Lake?) and Sooke, but there is not much information available on those connections. Anyways, we enjoyed riding the countless rock slabs. We rode a suggested "advanced" loop (little face-switchbacks-twister-snakes and ladders), thew in some other trails (lumpy, jelly roll, mindbender, dave's, trillium, who's your daddy, night shift, skull trail) and Bill even got in some gnar on "birth control". It seemed like endless Razor's Edge!

Our trip was short and sweet and we were headed home the next day, but not before a quick rip at Vedder, near Chilliwack. The Fraser Valley would be a sweet place to call home with lot of excellent biking and skiing options, without the clusterf*** that is Vancouver. On Vedder we rode 2 cents to Turd Ferguson to Dilemna and were surprised by the smooth trails and jumps that were just begging to be ripped fast. I came into a corner a little too zesty and laid 'er down. Fortunately, came up with no damage. 

Finally back home for a short stop before the Kicking Horse Cup road races in Golden!

Stoked to Get Spanked 2013

I had so much fun last year, and the 24 hours of adrenalin entry fee is a little too steep for someone who is underemployed, so I returned to Revelstoke to throw down at Mt. MacPherson!

Same great course as last year with a mix of everything: singletrack climbs, gravel road climbs, lungbustingly steep climbs, followed by some fast, flowy descents, and some tough singletrack. The field was a little deeper this year with some fast guys skipping out on 24HOA and of course, lots of local rippers. Armed with my Xprezo W-29, I felt really strong and smooth on the singletrack climbs, and was a little quicker on the descents, but I still lost time to better riders there.

I grabbed the holeshot pretty much uncontested and was able to stay out of trouble, but maybe I kept the throttle open for a little too long as others were able to impressively throw down equal lap times for the 2 laps, even with the temperature getting close to 30C!

After my slow fade during the race, I rolled over the line in 6th place, and then enjoyed my Begbie beer and the inexpensive burgers and fries. I've got a bit of work to do on pacing and descending still!

but I won my age group!

And got a sweet Shimano backpack!

Great event, thanks to Skookum Cycle and all of the sponsors. Put this one on the calendar for next year, or pay $1500 to do it in the Singletrack 6...

Perogy XC. Back in Edmonton

Back in Edmonton for a race, staying for some ...er.. weight reduction. It has been a nice change riding the trails that I grew up on, and everything seems easier, not sure if it is my new 29er gobbling up the roots, or my riding skills that have developed after a year in Canmore. Sunday was the Perogy XC, the Provincial Championships for this year, but for me, just another race.With some solid results and lots of riding in the past couple of weeks, I was feeling strong.

Course: The course was twisty, tight, and punctuated with some steep climbs. I think it was an awesome test. Although all of the elite field were on 29ers, I think with all of the tight cornering, a 26" bike might be better off for sprinting out of the corners, that is, if you can carry speed through the corner as well as you can on 29.

Engine: The steep climbs and constantly accelerating out of the corners really taxed me today and I was maxed out and could do nothing when riders rode away from me, except try to keep them in sight.

Technique: I think I rode great today, I focussed on riding smooth. There were some sections where it felt like I was riding terribly, but then I would emerge from the singletrack with a rider in sight. Carrying more speed through the corners could help me.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sangudo/sets/72157634570021387/with/9253709730/

TSN Turning Point: Corners, corners, corners. Great course, you needed the engine for the steep climbs and you had to know how to ride your bike.

In the end, I rolled in as the 7th and last finisher, another DFL, but "only" 5.5minutes behind the leader, much closer than I thought. The field is deep that is for sure!

Pedalhead did a great job organizing, stepping up with a great atmosphere, great prizes, food and got some significant media attention.

http://globalnews.ca/video/699855/bmx
http://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=960859

Anyways, I'm feeling like standard road trip Pete, where I try to ride as much good trail as possible whenever I am somewhere different! GO

Fernie Riding

Well, we survived the flooding unscathed, and like many other people in Canmore, it took a little more than rain to keep us off the trails! The trails here shed water and drain like sieves, so we were able to get back on the trails only a couple of days after the major rain event. The trails avoided the devastation of Cougar Creek, Exshaw, High River, and Calgary, with just a few washouts that I'm sure will be repaired within no time!

Riding with Xprezo rider Matt Hadley. He's enjoying his S-650 . 27.5" wheels are definitely interesting. Do the wheels accelerate fast enough to make a difference? Can you still float over rough singletrack with ease?

Hitting the gym! Great place to work the core!

Town spirit was amazing. People volunteering to fix the trails and gut basements, offer up places to stay, donate items. The Canada Day parade was still a GO with huge cheers going out to the crews who helped Canmore recover!

After a couple solid rides on greasy dirt, everything was back to tacky on Thursday, about a week after the start of the rains. However, we were off to Fernie, where Bill was to race the TransRockies Fernie Enduro. I opted to skip this event: it was nice to have a break from racing, and while the timed descent stages and point to point racing creates fun racing, the entry fee was a little more than I wanted to spend given my current under-employed status. It was also nice to explore some different trails.

Fernie is a place that I don't normally ride, but where I need to ride more often. It is 4hrs from Canmore, putting it at similar distance to great riding in Jasper (haven't been), and Revelstoke (maybe my favourite place to ride). But coming from Edmonton or Calgary, Fernie is just as far away as Golden, and Invermere, which although they offer some great riding, I don't think it compares to Fernie! 

Fernie has a large variety of trails in numerous zones that are all accessible from town! Over the course of 3 days, I was able to ride a great sampler of awesome trails. I pre-rode sections of the enduro course: Verboten (steep, rooty, the hardest trail I rode), Project 9, Mushroom Head, Red Sonja, Hyperventilation/Extension, and then I added on a bunch of other great trails: Ridgemount, S-bomb to Brokeback, Swine Flu, Kids Stuff/Splitting Bears/Hessian. So much great singletrack was enjoyed and there are lots of trails to check out for next time!

Up high on the stupid traverse. The only thing stupid about this would be missing it on a trip to Fernie!

There were lots of steep climbs that definitely tested my ability to push my 26 tooth little ring. But they got me to the top very quickly and I was able to crush 500-600m vertical laps in under an hour! With lots of roots and steeps, dry weather is certainly a must to make the most out of a trip. I found that my Xprezo handled the trails fine.

I had a great time and I was able to ride in all of the zones. Bill also had a great time riding a pretty fun course, but his experience was marred by timing errors, getting stuck behind slower riders on the sections he really cared about (the timed descents), and a lack of draw prizes!

Course marking of questionable quality

The enduro is certainly a cool format and it opens up racing to a completely untapped demographic. But there are some kinks that need to be worked out before I feel it is worth shelling out that kind of money: Verboten was the hardest descent but it came first. There were stories of a bit of waiting before dropping in so that riders could enjoy a clean descent, but still glory passes had to be made. It seems that timing errors led to one of the stages being cancelled in the results. As well, with the top 3 just a little over 30 seconds apart, one has to question the accuracy of the zone4 chip timing system with a supposed range of 15 meters. Accurate results and clean (well marked, great trails, free of both rider and other traffic) courses are really what separates racing from just going for a ride.

Skimo-er Niall. First MTB race?

Hardcore guys giving Bill the cold shoulder

The start. The riders going for the overall still had what looked like a relaxed start with no wacko (me) sprinting off the line. The "enduro" riders rolled off the line in their easiest gears.

North Shore Mountain Bike Association (NSMBA) has stepped up and all of their toonie races are the enduro format. It's pretty cool that they could get something going at the midweek level. It would be nice if someone here would step up and get something going. I'm slightly interested, but I'm more of an XC guy and wouldn't be a strong enduro rider.

Kootenay Krusher

I didn't have a great race last year: dropped chains, missed corners, and getting stuck behind slower riders on long singletrack trails. I was determined to rebound and have a better race in 2013.

I bet they got a good deal on that arch!

The course was almost the same beautiful but punishing course as in previous years, but with some added new sections, a new start loop, and  the removal of a short loop at the north end of the course. I think that the changes improved the overall rideability  (less ridiculously steep up and down) and raceability (better selection before the 1st singletrack) of the course. Conditions were very similar to last year with the short, steep descents being nice and loose!

The field wasn't as deep as in previous years, but good battles were still had. The singletrack sections are long, and it was funny to see a guy get heckled after he attacked on the hill leading into the 1st singletrack, but then held up a long train of riders while letting Mike S float off the front.

I was feeling strong on the singletrack sections and could take it easy on the climbs as I rode along with a chase group for the 1st lap of the race until they pulled off and were replaced by their relay partners! I was alone for the 2nd lap, keeping the intensity high with the hopes of catching Mike, while confident that being smooth over the singletrack and hammering the climbs would fend off any chasers. I guess I have to go harder off the start as I ended up in 2nd.

My Xprezo W-29 seemed to take most of the sting out of Nipika's notoriously rough singletrack and allowed me to enjoy the views of the Kootenay and Cross rivers and the Rocky Mountains, and find the flow in the trails. Overall a great event with great support from the community (sponsors, volunteers, venue).

After the race, we headed to Invermere, slayed some grocery store pizza (the BEST road trip food), and checked out Panorama's XC race loop. The trails would be nice if they weren't trying to build houses in the middle of them!

Bill was ogling the dirt chutes!

Sunday, we had an awesome ride in Invermere, slaying the Kloosifier and Johnson trails. Kloos' is a loop of some fast singletrack through a desert landscape while the Johnson is a little more shaded and technical. Both trails served up a great dose of canyon views, excellent berms and great descending considering how easy the climbs were. Highly recommended. Peter is tired!

The end of ski season...? Stoke dump.

I guess it's been a while since I last updated about skiing, other than my Wapta in a day experience. For those following along on Facebook, this is probably old news.

Spring felt fairly casual this year and we were able to ski some cool stuff.

Late March self powered Miner's Lap!

An exploratory ski into my favourite zone in K-country

Chris and Bill came up to Canmore for some Easter fun! It was really warm and it seemed like the skiing days were numbered

Skiing off a summit you can see from the highway and then into a fun glacier run?

Bill showing Chefren how it's done!

Booting up Narao left hand, but not quite topping out.

Then the storm rolled in, we retreated to a classic Kananaskis zone and continued to get some great skiing.

We were able to ski many neat variations. The lines are short so it is possible to ski lots of  them!

High winds, dumping snow, are you sure it is spring?

I was fortunate enough to be able to tag along on a multi-day trip to "check out the snowpack" for the summer nordic ski team training centre. Unfortunately, we didn't have the best visibility or conditions, but we were still able to get into some cool, rarely skied areas.

Playing on the Beatty bump

The next weather window came AFTER we got back and I had 2 really fun days at Chickadee.

Using the bike to pick up the car was way more fun than walking last year

Then I did the Dolomite circuit and Wapta in a day. Next a return to a fun line I skied with MT and Bill a couple of years ago.

Scott, another convert to the light(er) and faster game.

Spine powder 8's! Lots of slough!

Shut down by visibility/wind yet again on the FHR. There's always next year...

Oh, winter isn't done yet.

classic end of season Nakiska powder!

Yet another day at the Nob! 

Some great corn skiing days. I rolled over 100 days of skiing this season.

We really nailed Ptarmigan with great corn conditions. Maybe a little too soft down low.

The approach didn't suck with plowed roads up to where there was a reasonably supportive crust.

And winter is not giving up without a fight!

Getting some great turns on Eiffel

It was a great season. I raced and trained well, and I was able to ski some cool things. We had great conditions at Highwood. I had awesome races when it counted. Stability was good this year.The boards may come out again if rain down low means snow up high. I should have a video on the way if I ever get around to editing some of video I snagged.