Inversion

Finally Vancouver is out of the inversion. Lots of cool photos floating around of the city under cloud. 

Unfortunately one of my cameras is now a pricey paperweight as I damaged it beyond repair doing a long exposure in damp conditions.

Anyway,

I got the chance to climb Lions Gate Bridge (legally) during the inversion. In the morning the towers were sticking out of the cloud but by the time we made the long climb up the inside they had dropped so we did not have visibility. Would have made for some awesome shots for sure. Here are a few images from my Point and shoot.

Cheers.

Fall/Winter

I have not updated for ages.. I caught the biking bug back in August and have pretty much been on a mission since. Photography has slowed a  little as I  started focusing on riding as much as I can before winter drops the hammer. I went into last season feeling like a slug and I vowed not to let that happen again. 

Years ago I road raced throughout Canada/Parts of USA and lived in Belgium following the tough amateur circuit hoping to turn pro one day..I had a few results there but not enough to continue with that as a career option so I retired the road bike in 1992 . Over the years I maintained a decent fitness base through expedition racing and mountain biking but really focused on skiing/climbing as a passion.

In 2000 I was hired in the West Vancouver Fire Department and am stoked to have a wicked job in a great area. 

Summer 2009 Vancouver is hosting the World Police Fire Games which involves just about every sport under the sun at a very competitive level. This inspired me to start training again and see what level I can get back to in a season. Since August I've been putting on 10-15 hrs a week and with the fitness rising it's like a snowball effect.. Just want more.. It's difficult holding back when the weather has been great for riding and marginal for skiing. So I'll take the bike for now and when the pow fly's it might be the dreaded Nightly indoor trainer missions.

Anyway,

this is just a quick update, hopefully the next one it will be about some epic in the mountains shredding pow.. That bug needs  a fix asap !!

Camp DirtBag !!

This past weekend I joined a crew of 12 misfits and went on a mission up the Hope Princeton Hwy in search of some alpine mountain biking before the snow made it's 1st appearance for the season.

This was my 1st road trip in "The Executive". This unit is a sight to behold.. It's a 1971 RV in fresh off the lot condition.. bought for a song with all the old school amenities you could ask for including the shag carpet. Just wish the 70's fuel costs were included.

Anyway, with RV stocked we picked up a few stragglers along Hwy 1 heading for Hope.. There Might have been a refreshment or 2 stop along the way as we had to ensure hydration for the huge rides planned for the next couple of day's, Not sure how the hydrating was going cause I must have made about 10 trips to the can on the way.

  The Executive handled the long grades on the hwy like the veteran it is and before we knew it, arrived at "Camp Dirtbag" close to Manning Park.

The Debauchery had already started as we were the last to arrive but in good form we did our best to contribute to the Dirtbag roots that we all have in us. 

Someone came up with the idea for an early start that likely became a bad idea at some point.. because it was quickly forgotten. We let mother nature wake us up with a brilliant day of fall sunshine pounding in the RV. A quick pot of Cowboy coffee to warm the internal engines and remarkably everyone managed to be ready in short order for long day in the saddle. This is the 1st trip I've done in ages where I decided to leave the camera behind.  Dave Silver  Vancouver Island was with us and he was carrying the goods so I jumped at the chance to travel light..  http://davesilverphoto.com/

So we enjoyed 10 minutes of a flat approach and then the trail tilted up.. For 3hrs... The 1st 2 was middle ring mashing, generally non-tech climbing and as we passed through an incredible burned out Aspen grove ( gotta come back and shoot this both summer and winter) the trail steepened and we quickly got to see who ate their wheaties that morning.

Soon enough everyone was pushing and we were in the alpine among 1500 hundred year old Larch trees that were just changing color.. Once on the summit ridge we were forced to carry on blocky scree and was entirely unrideable. We ditched the bikes and scrambled an amazing peak with 360 view and spread some ashed from Fucker pants Fontaine who passed away 1 year ago on an adventure that went sideways.  YaaaFFFer !! love ya brother..

Back down to the bikes,  a quick down climb and then one of the most pinner 4000 ft decent I've ever done.. Non tech and super fast with some 90 deg corners that came out of nowhere.. Everyone made the decent with little to no issues somehow..

Back to camp for more hydrating and Dirt BAg bro brahing for the next day's ride which ended up being an out and back up a long climb of similar style to the 1st day..

There is something about a dirt bag crew rat racing for 3000ft of fast decending that puts a perma grin on your face..

This one just might wrap it up for the alpine rides this year..Bring it on Ullr !!

Now everyone back to the office until next weekend..

Out.

Ridge "0" Rama !!

Went back up to the Chilcoltans of SouthWest B.C this past weekend for some huge miles and outstanding fall weather. This past August it snowed on us up there but not a chance this time.. Light packs (except for mine with camera gear)  Sunscreen and Chamois butter were the only thing we needed this go around.. Even the bugs were done for the year.

The day before we left I did a 6hr mish on the bike which definitely haunted me on the 2nd day of this ride. Generally it's  3hr push to the alpine in the Spruce area so there is no hiding if you don't have the legs..I pretended as long as I could, leap frogging from group to group getting shots.. Not easy when you got 3 pros in the group and one freshly retired hockey star "Trevor Linden" showing what they got. Had our share of mechanicals but everyone made it home for cold beers and a giant B-BQ at the cabin.

Anyway, Ridge "O" Rama is a must ride for the scenery.. 3hrs up, 2 hr hike a bike and 5000 ft buff decent is the added reward after straining your neck with the views for so long.

I complety ate shit on the downhill. Tagged a pedal on a stump at high speed.. Not often I hit the deck but this was a gooder., Kinda like getting suplexed by Hulk Hogan to the ground followed by a 30 ft slide into home in baby powder dust on my stomach.  What a freaking mess.. Camera gear was all good though.. and a fresh 20hrs on the legs...Yaaaaaaaa/

Lake Lovely Water

A group of friends went up into the Tantalus Range close to Squamish on this Labour Day long weekend. The range can be seen on your way to Whistler west side of the highway with the dramatic glaciers/gnarly ridge lines and some bad ass ski decents.

We took the jet boat up the Squamish river (Jay is the man !!) to the trail head and after wiping up the brown stains on our shorts from the Jet boat ride we hiked 3 hrs to the alpine meadows for a relaxing lunch and then we spread some ashes from a friend that past away last year in a kayaking accident..(yow, it's almost been a year).

The hike down  went by faster than I thought and Jay picked up in the Jet and dropped us off at the Watershed Grill in Brackendale for Pints.. 

Chow.

Death In the Arctic

(A  little bit dramatized by news but it was the real deal up there..)
This is an expedition I was involved with in Summer 2007. There has been renewed interest in this story with the Canadian Government funding a large expediton to Simpson Strait off of King William Island in the Arctic.  

I spent close to 3 weeks up there retracing the steps of the Ill Fated Franlin Expedtion from 1845.

Sir John Franklin set sail from London with 2 boats. 129 men and 5 years of supplies aboard set sail in the dream of finding the North West Passage.. They were never seen again !!!

Years later a story would unfold. Both ships gone, all men lost,  was cannibalism the final resort. What happened out there??

The key to the mystery lay inthe shores of King William Island. With their ships, the Erubus and the Terror, locked in the sea ice off the coast of KWI, all crewmen had to abandon ship and cross the ice to the island..

None survived and later rescue parties sent by Franklins wife found signs of cannibalism on remains found on the shores.

We went on an expedition with CBC and Outpost Magazine to try a North to South trek on the route that survivors would likely have taken base on Inuit tales.  We went to merely observe and document findings for future organizations.     http://www.cbc.ca/sunday/2007/11/111807_1.html

Spruce Lake

Did an amazing mountain bike trip last week to Spruce lake in South West B.C. Incredible alpine riding, long climbs, upwards of 3hrs, huge ridge lines (we climbed to the summit of the snow dusted peak  behind the rider and pushed/pulled and descended an epic 2000m .. Lots of reports of Grizzly encounters, and a little anxiety but we saw no signs of the bruins.. 

We had all kinds of weather thrown at us.. intense sun, heavy rain and some snow just as we arrived at a trappers shack.. Lit a fire and soon the shack was filled with wet mountain bikers.. arriving 1 at at time..

Soon the sky's cleared and off we went..

A few hrs later we were back at home base cracking beers & Partied down  until the bottle of Scotch emerged in the wee hrs finishing my night off and left me in my misery holding the couch down...