A quick update to the SA Travels !
I finally got myself free of airport hell in Beunos Aries after hours of delay's because of maintance delay's and overcrowding on a long weekend.
If it wasn't for the humour of tourists losing thier shit with demands that were completly out of anyones control, it would have been a long day.
Anyway,
I've been in El Chalten for 11 day's. I really hope I have not used up all my weather luck for the winter. We have had bluebird for 10 day's straight with moderate winds.
I think I've scrambled and trekked just about everything there is to do here. A big downer is I could not find a partner to do an Alpine route with. It's a little early in the season so there were not too many people climbing the amazing walls here. Last ditch effort I decided to hire a guide to climb with..Felt odd to hire a friend so to speak but I'm jones-in to get at something techy !!
Well i waited too long..No Guides !!
I hooked up with an Irishman, Noel O'Leary who runs adventure camps in Ireland, we did an amazing alpine scramble with incredible views..



I'm travelling with a super light sleeping system and i gotta say the Mountian Hardware Compressor pants are dialed..
Bivied up high 1 night and caught some climbers heading to Fitzroy..


Hanging out in camp after a long day is actually comfortable now..stoked..

@ the hostel last night a french girl asked if i could load some images from her CF card onto her micro drive using my computer. Seems like caught a virus from her :( of the software type..
I can't load my images onto the pc and it corrupts my CF cards. I'm spending my last full day in El Chalten recovering images and trying to sort out what the hell is going on with my pc.
I will miss the people I connected with down here, it was an amazing experienec and I hope i can come back sooner than later.
A great hostel is
http://www.condordelosandes.com/
Back to Santiago for part 2 of the trip.. shredding mtb's for a few day's before heading to Ecuador for some climbing and moto adventure off the beaten path.
CC out !

Fall on the Coast

Winter is more or less around the corner, every sunny day I feel the urgency to get out and soak it up before the Coast unleashes and we patiently wait to see the elusive snow line begin to drop to the valley floor in the Whistler area.


The ski/snowboard movie premiers are a weekly occurrence fueling the anticipation. The rush was on to shoot some projects that I've had in mind for sometime..


September started out unusually wet, the typical indian summer did not arrive until the last week or so of the month and extended into Oct.
After pinning it on the bike for the past 2 yrs some down day's were welcome to let the body recharge and switch gears into more photography, climbing and finding my flow on the mountain bike again. Squamish went off the charts this summer with trail maintenance and new creative lines snaking through some amazing 2nd growth forests. The link ups and variations are almost endless and only limited my how much climbing you want to do.

I feel like I've struck a balance this past 2 months with training and the photography. It feels good riding with the 50 lb pack or running up some crazy hillside to find a new perspective on capturing an inspiring image. I also found myself in situations that tested me physically and mentally.

I've put in numerous days in the high alpine shooting amazing athletes who are as fired up as I am to see what the coastal alpine has to offer this time of year.

The scenery is jaw dropping and with the summer fires behind us the air quality is top notch, allowing images to show case the endless peaks that disappear off in the horizon.

The athletes are tireless and I thank them for their endless energy and commitment to their sport.
Anyone I've worked with will call me out on my famous "Just 1 more time" especially as I get frantic with the fading light at the end of a day =)

It's so damn amazing to come home after a hard day's shoot and wait for the memory cards to dump the goods of the day onto the hard drive..No matter how shattered I am, I have to process a few to see whats going on.. If it was a good day, my energy levels ramp up and I process until I can't stare at the monitor anymore.

( In memory of Denis Fontaine and Richard Juryn ! )

Quick Catch Up !

Lots has happened since my last entry !
I was fired up going into last winter and really looking forward to strong imagery and skiing as much as possible. It started out as being an all-time year for me but then I developed some knee issues. Clearly it was getting worse so my only option was surgery. I was fortunate to get fast tracked in for Meniscus clean-up..
The rehab was riding the bike so not all was lost !

I decided to go pinner on the bike and build on last seasons fitness. I set some goals for the coming spring and summer.
I was a little surprised that my form was not stronger after having a good year prior. I did a lot of suffering in the spring series although I was pretty happy with a top 15 in my favorite race- Matsqui Roubaix, not bad for a washed up retired bike racer.
After that it was mostly strong moments rather than results that would have to keep me motivated.
Personally I had a great ride at Tour of Delta, with a couple of Pro Tour riders present and continental pros forcing the pace I did pretty good. I was strong enough for a top 10 in the blistering criterium but got slowed up by a pileup with 4 laps left. Finished the road race which was my goal being a difficult finishing circuit.
I did my 1st masters race which was the Canadian Nationals and finished up 3rd overall in a bunch sprint..I thought I had shot my bullet after riding solo for 20km and then got caught by group of 20 mid-point through the race..
Not many races left in mid August and I was in full burn out mode and looking forward to switching gears. I started climbing again and completely stoked on that. My imagery has picked up and I'm getting at it as much as possible. Alway's looking for something creative to document from behind the lens. It feels good to balance my passion for photography and doing the things I love to do. The cycling background seems to have given me a great base to keep up with the athletes while packing the loads..



Check this link-
http://vimeo.com/14074949
I've watched it about 5 times and it puts a chill down my spine. I find it incredibly inspiring and really motivates me to be out there more, experiencing as many new things as I can from behind the lens. Sharing my vision of how I see new things in relative difficult to reach places stokes me.
I'm looking forward to the fall, one of my favorite times of the year. I can't believe how fast time is moving. before we know it, we will be smiling ear to ear while picking west coast pow out of our teeth.
"Quote- Dark Side of the Lens"
If I only scrape a living, at least it's a life worth scraping for !!


Getting amongst it =)
Cheers,
Chris

Sept or is it Aug ??

Fall is here or is it ??
Record temps and the trails are tight with some moisture..
Last race of the year was Cheakamus Challenge and I pulled the pin out of the Canyon..Done racing for the year.. Looking forward to adventures this fall and winter. Going to ramp up the photography again, hopefully get into some rad zones with it.
Got a new bike, a killer 5x5 that kind of does it all, climbs well and rails the decents.
I did a climbing shoot yesterday and I have not been on the end a rope for well over a year. In the morning we walked down a sloping slab on the 3rd peak of the Chief in Squamish to the rappel.. That was pucker as fuck.. 1 mistake big pancake.
Then we rappelled to the climb.. I leaned out over the edge on rappell and my huge packs waist buckle exploded because it became loaded ( everything was safe, just the buckle was tensioned with with my bodyweight when I leaned back on my rigging ) just about shat my pants !!
Light was shit so images are not great..Chilco shotz 2. We did a mish up to Lorna lake and had an amazing ride out.
Cheers,
Chris

2009 World Police Fire Games ! Double Deuce !! XC and Road Race

Ahhh,
A little shamesless self promotion... After years of taking photos of other people it's weird throwing images out there of myself.. Thanks Brian Green !!
Anyway,
The 2009 WPFG attracted over 10 thousand athletes from around the world. Every sporting event under the sun was held over the 10 days and all levels competed from weekend warriors to retired pros in their sport.
When the games were announced to be held in Vancouver I decided to compete in Mountain bike and Road racing after more than 18 yrs out of real competitive riding.
Starting last Aug I started my base building logging 20 hrs a week with training camps in Hawaii (most amazing place to put in winter miles..East Maul loop is a must do) mid winter and California in the spring.
Cycling B.C grandfathered me a Category 2 road liscence and Pro-Elite MTB liscence.
By the time the games rolled around I had about 45 plus races in my legs with mixed results. I had an early peak in March and was riding really well considering the amount of time out of the sport. Mid-April I had my 1st bad race and realized I was burned out. Went down to Peru for 2 weeks of fun MTB and thought it would be a restfull break but with the altitude and riding with 10kgs of camera gear I came home more tired than ever.
I took a week completly off the bike and felt better but still not the same tireless legs I had for the spring months. It was survival mode now, trying to figure out how to get the form back. Sometimes it felt like I needed to do more to get things done other day's walking stairs was a chore. I sided with more rest for the week heading into the Test Of Metal MTB race and then started stepping it up 2 day's prior. I was stoked to ride into a solid 9th Pro/Elite with a small mechanical that took me out of a group of 4.. I nipped their wheels at the finish but ran out of road.. Killer finish seeing those boy's looking back at me, stressing out as I closed the gap..
After Test back into the funk but had some good day's mixed in.. Just not getting results.
I went down to Bend Oregon as my last Prep for Fire Games and rode the Masters Category for the 1st time. 4 Stage race that ended up being as hard as anything else I've done this year. 2 time USA pro champ along with a number of National champs from USA and Canada present so it was full gas in every stage. No results there but rode ok and came home feeling stronger and motivated.
From there I had 9 day's to rest until the games and I mixed easy road rides with soft laps of the Whistler Cross Country course to get used to it, generally riding @ the hotest point of the day to get used to Whistler heat. I helped the organizer with some suggestions to dial in the course, mostly just to add some more zones for passing to keep flow going to those events.
My 1st race of the games was due on Aug 4th and on Aug 2nd I got the wicked 24 hr Flu.. That thing knocked me on my ass. I lost 3kgs in fluids ( mostly out the back side) and doubted racing all week. The day before the crit I was able to walk around without passing out so I went up to one of our local lakes and went for a swim.. the cool water seemed to revive me so I went for a quick ride and decided to go to the crit and maybe start it..I woke up feeling pretty good so I gave it a shot. There were not many Open men in the crit but it was still pretty fast and with everyone watching each other, trying to figure out who were threats it was looking like a bunch sprint. I could tell I did not have the deep snap because of my sickness but made some solid efforts to form a small group but everything got reeled in. Last lap last corner I got boxed in and took a dicey line tagging a pedal.. Kept the rubber side down but lost my momentum and ended up 5th behind Spain/Belguim and
3rd place Guy Biggar from Delta Fire Dept.. he has been on a tear this year, amped for the games and would have enough medals by the end of the week to sink a boat.

next focus was the MTB Cross country so the following day I went to Whistler to pre-ride the new course. The new additions were great and I was feeling about 90% now so super motivated to race..
RAce day 90 riders were on the line and holeshot was going to be important..Looking around it looked like there were a dozen guy's or so that were true rippers but I've also learned to never pre-judge or presume so I was going full throttle.
Gun went off and I fell in second wheel for the 1km lap to allow the field to sort itself out before the tight singletrack of Lost Lake.
It was pretty clear this was going to be a race between 2 of us and we rallied super hard for the 1.5hrs well clear of 3rd place.. Maybe it came down to who made fewer mistakes but Raymond Hall a Pro out of Oklahoma Fire rode a great race and hit the finish line 26 seconds in front of me for the W on a 29er !!
SOLID RIDE RAY !!
I had dug pretty deep and was definetly concerned about my recovery for the Friday Road race.. I missed my scedualled massage and made some panic calls through Whistler and Squamish and finally got hold of local ripper himself "Mike Charuk" for a killer massage..Next up.. fuel the engine..
Pasta and a big old Baseball sirloin for din din..
Next morning I arrived at the road race super early and went for a 1.5 hrs spin to loosen the legs and warm up. The day was cool compared to what Vancouver has been through and more or less welcome but I do enjoy the heat !!
Gun went off and a small group charged full gas but the peleton would have none of it. Except 1 Italian dude dangled off the front and crept away up the road. I considered going but did not think he was a solo threat judging by the size of his legs..looked more like a sprinter than anything else...Never Judge !!
3 laps in his move was looking serious as he had a 1 minute gap with the main group fluctuating speed and reluctance to go pinner for any length of time. With 35 km to go I popped away and quickly put time on the peloton and was soon joined by the winner of the crit who was from Spain. We worked together getting within 30 seconds of the leader but as we looked back we could see the main group single file ending our effort.
The effort ended when they reeled us in and the Italian started to put time on us again, ( He was an absolute monster out there) , . A solo counter attack was put in from a guy from Barcelona and he quickly rolled away with everyone unwilling to close it up.
With 7km to go we rolled over the top of the 1st climb and the pack was more or less strolling along, seemingly resigned to a bunch for 3rd.. nobody wanted to be the fool to do an effort before the sprint.... Cept for me !!
I knew I would be crushed in a sprint so I pulled the famous non-attack !!
I sat on the tops of my bars, looking non-threatining and just spun away from the group. As I got further away I quietly dropped into bigger and bigger gears until I was 53-11, in the drops chewing on the bars looking to put distance on myself and the Peloton. Damn 5km feels long especially in a head wind. I was stoked looking down at my speedo and saw 44 km an hr in the head wind.. Meant I had legz even though it felt like I was crawling. I quickly caught the guy from Catalonia and we worked together for a short bit.. He kept saying in Spanish 2nd place, 2nd place.. I was not sure what he meant for sure, whether he wanted 2nd or what so with 1.5 km to go I jumped away as a bit of a test an could see he was just hanging on for what he could get. I soloed in for 2nd behind Italy and he hung on for 3rd just in front of the Peloton..
Stoked !!
It's a wicked feeling having a plan actually come together for a good result !!
Thanks so much to :
My Partner Julie who puts up with either my resting or riding..it was her idea to go to Hawaii and that set me up with a great base for the season.
Ryderseyewear.com
Trek/Redtruck
Corsa Cycles in Squamish
Tantalus Bike Shop in Squamish
Simons Bike Shop on Robson
Zoltan (Best damn massage period !!
LOCAL 1525 WEST VANCOUVER !!

Big Mountain "Ride Big Peru 2009"

The title is a complete understatement.. Ride Big.. Everything else is really just an appetizer compared to the massive descents we hit on this trip.
Dean Payne of BC bike Race http://www.bcbikerace.com collaborated with Chris Winter of http://www.ridebig.com/ to bring 10 friends together to head to Peru for mountain biking in one of the most amazing zones on the planet.
I'm usually not one for organized trips and tend to do the "guy" thing and travel with no itinerary or guides.. Well this trip was completly streamlined with the help of Chris's great partners in Peru and they showed us the goods in a super organized fashion so time was maximized eating/drinking, taking in the culture and of course gobs of riding over our 12 day's adventure.
Soon after arrival in Lima and greeted by Wayo, (our bike guide in Peru) we were quickly testing the local Ceviche and Cervezas while building our bikes that thankfully all arrived intact and no panic searches for bike parts was neccessary.
Wayo was the XC and DH champion of Peru and has been exporing the deep corners of Peru and was going to show us the plum lines that took over 10 years of networking in the high mountains of the Andes. Good luck going it alone !!
Day 1-
The jet lag was minimal as the time difference was only 3 hrs so we were all chomping at the bit to see what this landscape could throw our way.
Day 2-
Soon we were on the deluxe 12 seater and heading out into the smog filled streets of Lima in search for the streamlined route to the mountians. Today was to be a stretch the legs day and a chance for Wayo to see how the gringos managed their bikes before we got down to the bidness over the next few day's.
The landscape was decievingly large.. We wound down a dry river bed in a wide valley and took in the views of the arid side hills.
The 2nd night we discovered a taste of the incredible food, again Wayo made some fine suggestions and we fueled up for the 1st real big day in the mountains.
Day 3-
The alarm fired off at 5 am and we were all up scrambling to find coffee, chow some breakfast and get the bikes loaded for the 6 am departure of our bus trying to beat the rush hour traffic out of town. The shuttle was about 4 hrs and had some great scenery along the way. It wasn't long before we started ascending and the views gave us an idea of just how big of a downhill we were anticipating.
The highpoint of the day was going to be 60 km descent from 12 000 feet to 8 foot swells in the out skirts of Lima. Rumoured to be the biggest bike descent in the world.
The landscape here is very arid and can be dusty but we hit it just right with enough moisture on the surface to rail the descent. We had to bear in mind that any form of rescue was unlikely so everyone kept the showboating to a minimum..


Day 4..
Another huge day ahead with a long pantshitting shuttle to San Pedro De Casta @ just over 10 thousand feet. Ok.. I'm a climber and exposure does not bother me but I'm also a bit of a control freak when it comes to someone I don't know driving a bus 6 inches from 3000 foot cliffs.. High anxiety and some quiet dry heaving were the order for the shuttle.. In the end it added to the experience but not sure If I would drive that road again..
From here we were greeted to our next form of shuttle...Horses... Holy shit.. My body armour was on..It was roughly 2 hrs on horse back on at times narrow trails with some good exposure to the MARCAHUASI Stone Forest.. This area had a very sacred feel to it as the ruins dated before the incas..
All told we descended 10 thousand feet and experienced top notch cutlture and rode a ridiculas amount of amazing single track.
Day 5-
We were supposed to fly to Cusco but low cloud prevented any flights from departing. We spent the day with Brents fake dog poo freaking out the tourists..
Day 6- Huchuy- Cusco
One big ass climb to nearly 14 grand before gravity took over, I had nearly 14 kg of camera gear on my back so good X's were had.
this trail was a sacred valley inca trail and had diverse culture and changing landscapes, from open big mountain to narrow lush slot canyons. STUNNING !


Day 7- Brent Martin, David Norona and myself rented motorcycles and did a 450 km circuit to some remote hotsprings. A highlight of the whole trip as we caught a lifetime of amazing culture and festivals on this 10 hour enduro.. sketchy roads and crazy bus drivers kept us a alert all day.. One mistake big pancake on some of those roads..
Day 8-Patacanch to Pumamarca

35 km downhill with huge views and some lush narrow single track dropping into some inca ruins and some small villages. We had and amazing customary lunch in a small dwelling. The locals arrived to show us some of their incredible hand made crafts.

Day 9-Lares Inca Trail. Another Sacred Inca path.
One of the best in the Andes. Starts at over 14 thousand and passes through different ecological zones and narrow slot canyons.
The trip was fast paced and not many moments to realize just how amazing this area is until we got home and sorted through hundreds of images and video. I put this trip at the top of any list of "MUST DO IT'S" Go down there fit so you can really enjoy your time and soak it all in.. Hey Gringo...do yourself a favour and learn some spanish ....

Cherry Blossom Classic.

Recently I dropped down to Mt Hood area to compete in the Cherry Blossom Classic  Pro/ Cat 1-2 road cycling race.

It's been 18 yrs since  I Last raced at or near this level.. I've been working my ass off since Sept preparing for this season, now 25 lbs lighter and  starting to feel like a fighter again..The British Columbia circuit has been a good intro back into the scene and this stage race will be the real deal. 

3 day’s/ 4-Stages in The Dalles Oregon. Some of the circuits used in the Mt Hood Classic used.

Stage 1, 140 Road stage, 4 laps of a  circuit.

 The circuit was  super windy 4500 feet total climbing (Garmin).  I started the race keeping in mind Pro Team Bissel has 4 riders here and LandRover Orbea has 6 along with some other teams/riders I know are solid.
 There was a break right of the gun and I decided to just sit near the front and wait it out as Bissell had no one in it. Sure enough they came to the front and started attacking and countering.. Fun stuff, super fast in the gutter styles. The Break got up to 2 minutes before Bissell started throwing down. We hit the longish climb 6-7% and  the break was down to 20 seconds. A few jumped across and I was right there but I hesitated cause I thought there would  be no way the peleton would let it go.
 It Did!!..
 We hit the winding decent in big cross winds (45 km+ head/cross winds) and no one was willing to do anything. Over the next few laps I tried a few times to instigate but  got shut down, which made no sense as the race was way up the road @ this point.
 Oh Well,
 My legs were still good..Just need to dial in decision making/timing???

Day 2, Morning- 12 km Time Trial.

Out and back 4% grade out, very fast on the way home with some techy sections, narrow bridges.
Had a mediocre TT,    No loss in GC for me so it is what it is. I hit the wrong function on my Garmin @ the start and let myself get occupied with dialing it in. Soon after the start I turned around and my 30 sec man was closing in. That idea quickly made me find my head space and  pull away. Oops.

Evening Criterium- 60 minutes
Bad crash in the women's final delayed our start so they cut our total time down. Made for a fast night, I don't think the speedo went under 47 km hr. I was not interested in a bunch sprint so I jumped away with 1.5 laps to go. Group hesitated, I got a gap and the final Prime with 1 to go and got caught with 400 ft.  It was hopeful but coming into the last corner I could sense the train of doom.

Day 3- 145 km  Road stage,
Garmin 7400 feet of climbing,

The highlight of the stage was the  3x up the Cat 2- 11 km climb with sustained 6% and some sections tilting briefly to 10%. Bissell had 2 guy’s in the top 3 GC so they rode tempo which worked in my favor cause it meant no attacking on the climb and I could focus on 1 thing, “Surviving”..
1st lap up people were popping off the back and I was able to just hang on over the top. Jerseys zippered up we hit one of the most memorable descents I’ve ever done, we were hitting 90 km hr and I watched a guy get high speed wobbles,  front Wheely his bike for about 100 feet, I almost lost the group hammering my brakes to avoid him, just glad he did not eat it, would have been really ugly. .One dude did crash and broke 6 vertabrae/broken ribs, bruised liver. Thankfully No spinal issues so he will be ok in the long run.

The last 5 kms of the decent had about 10 hairpins, I tried not to think about my gluing job on the tubs.
Unfortunately I lost the plot 2nd time up the hill with about 2km to the summit and could not link onto whatever was left of the group for 3rd time up, I settled into a small group and we picked up shrapnel on the run home.
80 starters Pro-1-2, with 52 finishers.
I was 32nd,
 fun 3 day’s of just being a bike racer.
Chris