Since the February Bootleg Canyon Race I have tried to step up my training, preparing for the up coming race season. My approach to training is diverse, which some people call cross training. I play lacrosse, workout at the gym , dig new trails, and of course ride the bike.
Lacrosse has started, and I have practices on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Practice is fairly easy but I use muscles and neurological-paths that would not get used doing anything else. This takes up two days that I would otherwise be going to the gym. One time I went to the gym after Lacrosse practice, and it was not so bad. Now I don't really have specific days when I go to the gym but just go when I get the opportunity. But really, its been hard to get to much training in due to all the other things going on.
Back in December Mr. Anderson came to me with a proposal to build a pump track at the school. I told him that I would like to build one, and so he and my dad started to talk about it through email. Nothing happened with the pump track for quite some time, until about 3 weeks ago. We ended up getting approval from the principal and the vice principal. We began construction without Mr. Anderson because he had surgery on his shoulder and he was down for the count. So with a little digging and then a little more and a ton more we finished the track. It took us all of about a 2 weeks to complete it.
After about a week of riding it, we where notified that it was going to be torn down now, because it is a liability. It is kinda hard to make a case that it is a liability when Mr. Anderson's five year old road it great, and to get going up to any speed you have to be quite the bike rider. So as usual, it is people that don't have a clue about what a pump track is that decide that it is too dangerous. My dad tried to fight it buy notifying polititions such as the Mayor, to try to get them on our side. Sadly though the track was destroyed before we could take action.
Some of the trails are dry enough to ride most of the time now so I can finally sharpen my skills back up on the bike. I Street has drained out quick lately so you can ride it even a day after a storm. Sections of I Street are better now than they were all of last year, but a few spots have not been smoothed out yet so it can get a little moto like on a hard tail. Someone put a lot of work on both the step down to step up and the I Street line. Over all I Street has been quite good.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
The Future of Gravity Mountain Biking
My dad and I headed down to Bootleg Canyon for a race on 2/18/11. Bootleg is a bike park that is 30 minutes from Las Vegas, Nevada just outside of the town of Boulder. Prior to the race I spent a few days sweeping the snow off my pump track and doing general track maintenance. I got one day of pump-tracking in and doing drills, and then we were off. Not much practice but it is a low priority race and we went to learn more about the bike and our race preparation.
When we got to the race venue I was amped to go ride. After I survived the sketchy shuttle and a 10 minute hike, I was at the top. Right off the top the course is a steep and gnarly section. I was trying a new Leatt neck brace which was too tight and it made it so I could not look up. It took a long time to get down but I got down none the less. My new Transition TR450 was feeling really really good. About 5/6 of the way down my dad was standing on the the side of the trail and I dropped off my Leatt with him. I took three practice runs which were focused on exploration of the track and lines. It was really surprising how well the TR450 rode. My old bike (Turner DHR) was smooth in the rough but it was pretty much just going were it wanted to. With the 450 the rider is able to put it where they want it to go. Being able to put your bike where you want it is super key in a DH race so you can get on or create the best line.
The next day I met up with Cody Kelly, who is an amazing BMX, 4x, and dual slalom racer from Utah. He is just starting to really get into DH racing, and he is quite skilled. Really his only weakness is that he only weighs 120ish pounds so he has a hard time keeping his momentum over the flats. We took quite a few runs together and spent about 20 minutes examining the top section, looking for the lines with the most exit speed. It was really nice having someone with me to bounce lines and ideas off of.
On race day I had a plan to make one practice run to see how the track has changed, and spots that were getting blown. A couple of berms were pretty blown out, by my race run they would be really blown, so I made some mental notes.
As soon as I got down to the bottom I went into total chill mode. I plopped myself down on our chair and began to look for food. When my dad and I were chilling and talking about race strategies he noticed that the people parked next to us had a lot of electronic gear. We watched as they unpacked what turned out to be a remote control helicopter, and a nice one at that. They were there with sicklines to film the race by air. I will be checking up on sicklines every once in a while to see if the video is up.
I did a bit of a warm up at the bottom, then went to the top for my race run. I do not remember much from my race run, except that I caught a kid and he let me pass, which was nice. I placed 5th out of 5 but the 2nd through 5th times were all within less than 4 seconds. Had I raced my lighter wheels I could have been on the podium. The kid in first smashed it and was about 19 seconds in front of me... I need to start ramping up my training.
One of the reasons why gravity mountain biking is not a popular sport in the US is because it is hard to film, the riders are here one second then gone the next. Helmet cameras are good for filming the whole course but do not show an accurate depiction of how scary, steep, rocky, and fast the course is. Zip-lines are also used but they are not realistic in a race scenario. The prospect of being able to follow riders down the course with a RC helicopter is a cool idea and I really think it could push the popularity of this sport to new highs.
So....the people unpacking the heli and photo gear next to us? Turns out that their names are Luke and Crissy Waters and they are from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Check out their website Onlocationaerial, its pretty cool. When you look at the heli footage you are seeing one of the pieces that will increase the popularity of our sport.
Crissy setting up the camera.
Luke working on the chopper.
Here is a quick video of the helicopter on a test flight over the Bootleg parking lot.
And finally the sicklines video with some of the heli footage edited in. You can see how the perspective helps the viewer intuitively understand the severity of the terrain.
Nevada State DH Championship 2011 - Bootleg Canyon - SickLines from Sick Lines on Vimeo.
When we got to the race venue I was amped to go ride. After I survived the sketchy shuttle and a 10 minute hike, I was at the top. Right off the top the course is a steep and gnarly section. I was trying a new Leatt neck brace which was too tight and it made it so I could not look up. It took a long time to get down but I got down none the less. My new Transition TR450 was feeling really really good. About 5/6 of the way down my dad was standing on the the side of the trail and I dropped off my Leatt with him. I took three practice runs which were focused on exploration of the track and lines. It was really surprising how well the TR450 rode. My old bike (Turner DHR) was smooth in the rough but it was pretty much just going were it wanted to. With the 450 the rider is able to put it where they want it to go. Being able to put your bike where you want it is super key in a DH race so you can get on or create the best line.
The next day I met up with Cody Kelly, who is an amazing BMX, 4x, and dual slalom racer from Utah. He is just starting to really get into DH racing, and he is quite skilled. Really his only weakness is that he only weighs 120ish pounds so he has a hard time keeping his momentum over the flats. We took quite a few runs together and spent about 20 minutes examining the top section, looking for the lines with the most exit speed. It was really nice having someone with me to bounce lines and ideas off of.
On race day I had a plan to make one practice run to see how the track has changed, and spots that were getting blown. A couple of berms were pretty blown out, by my race run they would be really blown, so I made some mental notes.
As soon as I got down to the bottom I went into total chill mode. I plopped myself down on our chair and began to look for food. When my dad and I were chilling and talking about race strategies he noticed that the people parked next to us had a lot of electronic gear. We watched as they unpacked what turned out to be a remote control helicopter, and a nice one at that. They were there with sicklines to film the race by air. I will be checking up on sicklines every once in a while to see if the video is up.
I did a bit of a warm up at the bottom, then went to the top for my race run. I do not remember much from my race run, except that I caught a kid and he let me pass, which was nice. I placed 5th out of 5 but the 2nd through 5th times were all within less than 4 seconds. Had I raced my lighter wheels I could have been on the podium. The kid in first smashed it and was about 19 seconds in front of me... I need to start ramping up my training.
One of the reasons why gravity mountain biking is not a popular sport in the US is because it is hard to film, the riders are here one second then gone the next. Helmet cameras are good for filming the whole course but do not show an accurate depiction of how scary, steep, rocky, and fast the course is. Zip-lines are also used but they are not realistic in a race scenario. The prospect of being able to follow riders down the course with a RC helicopter is a cool idea and I really think it could push the popularity of this sport to new highs.
So....the people unpacking the heli and photo gear next to us? Turns out that their names are Luke and Crissy Waters and they are from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Check out their website Onlocationaerial, its pretty cool. When you look at the heli footage you are seeing one of the pieces that will increase the popularity of our sport.
Luke working on the chopper.
Here is a quick video of the helicopter on a test flight over the Bootleg parking lot.
And finally the sicklines video with some of the heli footage edited in. You can see how the perspective helps the viewer intuitively understand the severity of the terrain.
Nevada State DH Championship 2011 - Bootleg Canyon - SickLines from Sick Lines on Vimeo.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
A Wasatch December To Remember
This December has been the best skiing/snowboarding of any December that I can recall. My dad, who has been ripping up Snowbird and the Wasatch since 1976, agrees that this has been the best December. Prior to the solstice my dad and I were able to ride North Chute at Snowbird. To put this into context, North Chute was never open during the 09/10 season.
A major storm cycle started the same day as winter break, and lasted 17 days, until the day school started back up. That is more than 2 weeks of day after day, foot plus deep pow. The first day of the year that we rode the entire day, from first tram to 4:00 pm Peruvian to 5:00 pm Chickadee was December 29th. There were low crowds, and lots of wind. Each run we would go to the same spot, and it would be filled back in so we could not see our tracks from the previous runs. At two in the afternoon we dropped into Candleabra and the left side was mid chest deep with no tracks. Unbelievable.
On our last run on P-dog, we stopped for a second and watched some bro bras huck some cliffs on Baldy. Further down the mountain a couple of the same baldy bros were stomping around on their skis in the woods to our right. They were packing out a jump. We sat and watched them for about 5 minutes, then they hiked up, and hit their jump. It was pretty minimal. More bros came and hit the jump as well. I traversed over and hit the jump, then proceeded down to the bottom of chickadee. The day was so good that my dad and I took two chickadees which had about 5" of new snow on it. The idea was floated around of staying up the canyon because it was fairly obvious it would close. By the time we got home the canyon had already closed and did not open until late the next morning.
My favorite day of the month was the 30th, the day we went up north, (Which I can not tell you specifics). The day started off with a long car ride, north ward bound. We packed five of us into our truck, and we were off. When we were driving up the canyon, we checked out all the good lines, and they looked sick. Mental note for later in the day and yes we got them fresh fresh fresh.
Exiting the car we were met by a very chilly wind, and I was grateful for my down jacket. It was a bit of a goat rope getting our tickets, and our fingers nearly froze trying to get our passes on our jackets. There were lots of people. My dad said it was the most people he has ever seen there. No worries though, we were dialed into the rhythm and the lines. We bombed down a cat track, and got some fun pow shots on the edges. Riding up the chairlift, we talked to a Ice coast tourist, who was an interesting fellow. My dad and I got off the lift, rode down a little ways, popped off our boards, and with a little hike turned a regular day into the dream. The whole day was amazing, we got a lot of good snow, every run untracked. We continued to ride commando road shots long after the resort was closed making for a very long day.
The new year brought an end to the storm cycle and we decided a little bc kicker action was in order. On New Years day we went up to the land of no snowboarders and built a kicker on Flagstaff Ridge. My dad has been snowboarding all the south facing terrain across the road from Alta for more than thirty years but if Oh-no has his way that will come to an end.......sad. Oh-no wants to build a lift in the most popular backcountry access area of the entire Wasatch. Here is a short vid from that little kicker session.
A major storm cycle started the same day as winter break, and lasted 17 days, until the day school started back up. That is more than 2 weeks of day after day, foot plus deep pow. The first day of the year that we rode the entire day, from first tram to 4:00 pm Peruvian to 5:00 pm Chickadee was December 29th. There were low crowds, and lots of wind. Each run we would go to the same spot, and it would be filled back in so we could not see our tracks from the previous runs. At two in the afternoon we dropped into Candleabra and the left side was mid chest deep with no tracks. Unbelievable.
On our last run on P-dog, we stopped for a second and watched some bro bras huck some cliffs on Baldy. Further down the mountain a couple of the same baldy bros were stomping around on their skis in the woods to our right. They were packing out a jump. We sat and watched them for about 5 minutes, then they hiked up, and hit their jump. It was pretty minimal. More bros came and hit the jump as well. I traversed over and hit the jump, then proceeded down to the bottom of chickadee. The day was so good that my dad and I took two chickadees which had about 5" of new snow on it. The idea was floated around of staying up the canyon because it was fairly obvious it would close. By the time we got home the canyon had already closed and did not open until late the next morning.
My favorite day of the month was the 30th, the day we went up north, (Which I can not tell you specifics). The day started off with a long car ride, north ward bound. We packed five of us into our truck, and we were off. When we were driving up the canyon, we checked out all the good lines, and they looked sick. Mental note for later in the day and yes we got them fresh fresh fresh.
Exiting the car we were met by a very chilly wind, and I was grateful for my down jacket. It was a bit of a goat rope getting our tickets, and our fingers nearly froze trying to get our passes on our jackets. There were lots of people. My dad said it was the most people he has ever seen there. No worries though, we were dialed into the rhythm and the lines. We bombed down a cat track, and got some fun pow shots on the edges. Riding up the chairlift, we talked to a Ice coast tourist, who was an interesting fellow. My dad and I got off the lift, rode down a little ways, popped off our boards, and with a little hike turned a regular day into the dream. The whole day was amazing, we got a lot of good snow, every run untracked. We continued to ride commando road shots long after the resort was closed making for a very long day.
The new year brought an end to the storm cycle and we decided a little bc kicker action was in order. On New Years day we went up to the land of no snowboarders and built a kicker on Flagstaff Ridge. My dad has been snowboarding all the south facing terrain across the road from Alta for more than thirty years but if Oh-no has his way that will come to an end.......sad. Oh-no wants to build a lift in the most popular backcountry access area of the entire Wasatch. Here is a short vid from that little kicker session.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Mr. Anderson visits I Street
During the spring and fall, one of the physical education teachers from my junior high school, organizes a series of Friday mountain bike rides. The teachers name is Reid Anderson. What makes these rides special is the opportunity is open to all students regardless of experience level or even if the student owns a bike or not. If a student does not have a bike one is provided by the Salt Lake Bicycle Collective.
Normally after school on Fridays a bus takes all the students up to Red Butte Gardens and we ride the shoreline trail . This provides plenty of options so we can split up and ride different trails, based on ability level. My best riding buddy, Christian Wilson and I, convinced Mr. Anderson to try a different launch point for one of the rides, I Street.
On the day we were supposed to go to I Street it rained and the contact from the bike collective canceled the ride due to the possibility of mud. No worries though, my dad came through and we loaded up our bikes into the back of the pickup and headed off to I Street with Mr. Anderson.
While Christian and I went straight to the jumps, my dad and Mr. Anderson did a quick trail ride over to the bobsled. Mr. Anderson had never had the opportunity to ride the bobsled before and my dad decided that showing him one of the best trails in Utah was a high priority.
When they returned to I Street we showed Mr. Anderson around all the different jump lines and he was impressed by all the different lines and the work that had gone into making the place. He had his camera with him and below is a short edit of the clips he filmed.
Mr. Anderson is an example of an outstanding educator and community servant. He dedicates hundreds of hours of his own time every year expanding opportunities for kids. In the winter he runs a cross country ski program similar to the bike program. Our community is lucky to have people like Mr. Anderson and I am grateful for his efforts as well.
Normally after school on Fridays a bus takes all the students up to Red Butte Gardens and we ride the shoreline trail . This provides plenty of options so we can split up and ride different trails, based on ability level. My best riding buddy, Christian Wilson and I, convinced Mr. Anderson to try a different launch point for one of the rides, I Street.
On the day we were supposed to go to I Street it rained and the contact from the bike collective canceled the ride due to the possibility of mud. No worries though, my dad came through and we loaded up our bikes into the back of the pickup and headed off to I Street with Mr. Anderson.
While Christian and I went straight to the jumps, my dad and Mr. Anderson did a quick trail ride over to the bobsled. Mr. Anderson had never had the opportunity to ride the bobsled before and my dad decided that showing him one of the best trails in Utah was a high priority.
When they returned to I Street we showed Mr. Anderson around all the different jump lines and he was impressed by all the different lines and the work that had gone into making the place. He had his camera with him and below is a short edit of the clips he filmed.
Mr. Anderson is an example of an outstanding educator and community servant. He dedicates hundreds of hours of his own time every year expanding opportunities for kids. In the winter he runs a cross country ski program similar to the bike program. Our community is lucky to have people like Mr. Anderson and I am grateful for his efforts as well.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Teton Pass
In September Grand Targhee Ski Resort in Alta Wyoming, scheduled a dh race, and we were going. When my dad, my friend and riding buddy Mackay Hare and I were driving up there, we could see the Tetons from a ways away, they were covered in snow. It was September and the Tetons had a foot of snow! I remained optimistic, but my dad was not. A race down a snowy and muddy track would be way fun, it would be like a European enduro. Riding in the mud is very different. It makes an ok course into a very fun and technical one.
We got up to the Grand Targhee parking lot, and it was as expected, snowy. After eating a bit of lunch and checking out a suds and spuds festival, we went to the people in the ticket office. They seemed optimistic about the race as well. We also learned that their was less snow on the Jackson Hole side, and that the trails over there should be fairly dry. Mackay remembered riding some trails on Teton pass, but we did not know exactly where they were. It was our only option to ride, so we bombed up and over the top of Teton pass. When we started to drive down, we watched for a trail entrance. Someone saw a trial, by a dirt parking lot, and we pulled in. After a bit of walking it turned out that this was a biking trail, and a sick one at that. At the start of the trail there was a little sign that said Jimmy's Mom, just below that their was a 15 foot boulder, that had a step up and a step down off of it. We hustled back to our truck, and Mackay and I got all our gear on and went down the trail.
The trail was fun, but a little traversey. It spit us out on to a gravel road, when we were going down the road, we were paying close attention to the sides to make sure we did not miss the trail. We found a trail head, but it said walkers only on it. About 100 feet away we found another trail head, and this one said Power Line Jumps, which sounded good to me. About 15 seconds down the trail we we stopped at a rock drop, it had about 3 different lines you could take into it which lead to 2 lines out. Futher down the two trails merged, and there was another drop which was followed by some jumps. After about 40 seconds of jumps and drops the trail cut left and back into the woods. We came to another road that split with a uphill 4 wheeler track and the road. Mackay, who had ridden this trail before knew that you had to go up the 4 wheeler track, then it comes to the trail again. We hiked up the dirt road and came to the trail. This trial had lots of jumps, and drops as well. We came to the parking lot at the bottom, and guess who was sitting their waiting for us, my dad.
We buzzed back up and took another run and this time met some older locals who told us about another trail called the parallel trail. It started higher up on the pass and joined the Jimmy's Mom trail down by the powerline jumps. It turned out to be a pretty sweet trail.
That same night, Mackay had a plan, more like a social agenda. For a thirteen year old kid he sure knows a lot about the Driggs area. He probably should run for mayor. First stop showers and clean clothes. Then it was off to Teton Thai.
My dad, having sampled Thai food in all the West Coast cities where thai cuisine is outstanding, was just a little skeptical. Mackay, however, is a very smart kid, and we figured that all his hype about Teton Thai had some reasoning about it. Inside the resteraunt there were lots of people, and it was going to be a long wait, but we luckily got a seat at the bar. In front of us there was a cool opaque glass panel. My dad likes hot food, and he quickly asked questions about the 1-5 heat scale. After our waiter gave him the lo down, he ordered some kind of noodles with a 4 on spice, which was supposed to be really hot. We got our food, I ordered soup with a 1 for hotness. My soup was great, and dad seamed to enjoy the suffering that his noodles brought him. I tried one of his noodles, and yes only one. It tasted amazing, but the flavor was soon over taken by burning. I ate some more, and the flavor was once again followed by overwhelming heat. Thankfully the heat was calmed by water, and I felt relieved.
Mackay's next thing to check off from his agenda, was to go see his relatives. I felt sick earlier in the day, and I stared to not feel so good again on the drive over to his relatives. By the time Mackay had directed dad to the house in the dark, (which means Mackay has some serious navagation skills) I was in no mood to do anything. So I made the decision to stay in the truck and try to sleep. I do not know how much time passed, but lying in the car must have done a bit of good. I heard a bomb, and turned my head out the window to see a big firework light up the dark sky. Then another and another, I could see a dude running around in the field about 100 yards away lighting fire work after firework. Each time a morter exploded it would light up the ground and each time the light would dim, I could see the outline of the Tetons against the pitch black sky. Evidently this friend of Mackays is one of the largest fireworks distributors in the US and his display did not disappoint. Once the party was over, Mackay and my dad came back to our truck. Mackay seamed a little bit disapointed that I didn't come and enjoy the party, but I was feeling seriously sick. We took the road back up to Targhee and crashed at our hotel.
The next day we awoke to a bluebird sky. The people in charge of the race called it off for reasons that did not make sense to us but we were psyched to go back and ride the pass some more. On the way there we met up with my bro Christian and we hooked up for some runs on the parallel trail with Mackay, Christian, my dad and myself with Christians dad driving shuttles. Around 1 or 2 in the afternoon we were forced to call it quits because Christian ate it on the hip jump, broke his jaw and got a concussion to boot. Teton pass has some sweet trails and I can't wait to get back to ride the Lithium trail.
A short video of the powerline jumps.
We got up to the Grand Targhee parking lot, and it was as expected, snowy. After eating a bit of lunch and checking out a suds and spuds festival, we went to the people in the ticket office. They seemed optimistic about the race as well. We also learned that their was less snow on the Jackson Hole side, and that the trails over there should be fairly dry. Mackay remembered riding some trails on Teton pass, but we did not know exactly where they were. It was our only option to ride, so we bombed up and over the top of Teton pass. When we started to drive down, we watched for a trail entrance. Someone saw a trial, by a dirt parking lot, and we pulled in. After a bit of walking it turned out that this was a biking trail, and a sick one at that. At the start of the trail there was a little sign that said Jimmy's Mom, just below that their was a 15 foot boulder, that had a step up and a step down off of it. We hustled back to our truck, and Mackay and I got all our gear on and went down the trail.
The trail was fun, but a little traversey. It spit us out on to a gravel road, when we were going down the road, we were paying close attention to the sides to make sure we did not miss the trail. We found a trail head, but it said walkers only on it. About 100 feet away we found another trail head, and this one said Power Line Jumps, which sounded good to me. About 15 seconds down the trail we we stopped at a rock drop, it had about 3 different lines you could take into it which lead to 2 lines out. Futher down the two trails merged, and there was another drop which was followed by some jumps. After about 40 seconds of jumps and drops the trail cut left and back into the woods. We came to another road that split with a uphill 4 wheeler track and the road. Mackay, who had ridden this trail before knew that you had to go up the 4 wheeler track, then it comes to the trail again. We hiked up the dirt road and came to the trail. This trial had lots of jumps, and drops as well. We came to the parking lot at the bottom, and guess who was sitting their waiting for us, my dad.
We buzzed back up and took another run and this time met some older locals who told us about another trail called the parallel trail. It started higher up on the pass and joined the Jimmy's Mom trail down by the powerline jumps. It turned out to be a pretty sweet trail.
That same night, Mackay had a plan, more like a social agenda. For a thirteen year old kid he sure knows a lot about the Driggs area. He probably should run for mayor. First stop showers and clean clothes. Then it was off to Teton Thai.
My dad, having sampled Thai food in all the West Coast cities where thai cuisine is outstanding, was just a little skeptical. Mackay, however, is a very smart kid, and we figured that all his hype about Teton Thai had some reasoning about it. Inside the resteraunt there were lots of people, and it was going to be a long wait, but we luckily got a seat at the bar. In front of us there was a cool opaque glass panel. My dad likes hot food, and he quickly asked questions about the 1-5 heat scale. After our waiter gave him the lo down, he ordered some kind of noodles with a 4 on spice, which was supposed to be really hot. We got our food, I ordered soup with a 1 for hotness. My soup was great, and dad seamed to enjoy the suffering that his noodles brought him. I tried one of his noodles, and yes only one. It tasted amazing, but the flavor was soon over taken by burning. I ate some more, and the flavor was once again followed by overwhelming heat. Thankfully the heat was calmed by water, and I felt relieved.
Mackay's next thing to check off from his agenda, was to go see his relatives. I felt sick earlier in the day, and I stared to not feel so good again on the drive over to his relatives. By the time Mackay had directed dad to the house in the dark, (which means Mackay has some serious navagation skills) I was in no mood to do anything. So I made the decision to stay in the truck and try to sleep. I do not know how much time passed, but lying in the car must have done a bit of good. I heard a bomb, and turned my head out the window to see a big firework light up the dark sky. Then another and another, I could see a dude running around in the field about 100 yards away lighting fire work after firework. Each time a morter exploded it would light up the ground and each time the light would dim, I could see the outline of the Tetons against the pitch black sky. Evidently this friend of Mackays is one of the largest fireworks distributors in the US and his display did not disappoint. Once the party was over, Mackay and my dad came back to our truck. Mackay seamed a little bit disapointed that I didn't come and enjoy the party, but I was feeling seriously sick. We took the road back up to Targhee and crashed at our hotel.
The next day we awoke to a bluebird sky. The people in charge of the race called it off for reasons that did not make sense to us but we were psyched to go back and ride the pass some more. On the way there we met up with my bro Christian and we hooked up for some runs on the parallel trail with Mackay, Christian, my dad and myself with Christians dad driving shuttles. Around 1 or 2 in the afternoon we were forced to call it quits because Christian ate it on the hip jump, broke his jaw and got a concussion to boot. Teton pass has some sweet trails and I can't wait to get back to ride the Lithium trail.
A short video of the powerline jumps.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
2010 Whistler Crankworx Part 1
The last two summers, I have had the privilege of going to Whistler. This year, the experience was enhanced by the fact that I got to to race in Crankworx. Crankworx is to mountain biking what the pipe masters is to surfing.
Whistler village alone is impressive, blocks and blocks of eateries, and stores, with apartments above them. Walkways in betwen the multi-use buildings, where flocks of tourists wander. Becoming familiar with the village is useful, but not very easy. All the buildings look very similar, so it was useful for me to learn a few land marks within the village. Our condo was located about a 2 minute bike ride and a 10 minute walk from the Fitzsimmons lift. So..... I did not have a choice whether or not I was going to learn how to get from point A to Point B. Getting lost wasn't as much of a goat rope as expected, because, if you got lost then most times you would find something really cool.
The trails at Whistler are 2nd to none, and like the village, they are easy to get lost in. Getting lost on Whistler mountain was awesome, and no matter where I found myself, there was a sweet trail, right in front of me. My favorite trail, that I have found, is A line. A line created the word flow, it was not like a lot of trails back home which are 2 dimensional, the Whistler trails are 3d. Up, down, right, left, and everything in between.
We were in Whistler for almost two weeks, five days of which were involved in Crankworx. Lots of people back home say "I don't want to go to Whistler during Crankworx, because of the crowds." If your not there for Crankworx, then you are missing a lot of Whistler. If you want to avoid crowds, then just hop on Garbanzo, where there is never any line at all. It is cold up there, so we just wear more clothes. Here is a shot of Blue Velvet, one of the easy trails up on Garbanzo.
You can meet some interesting people riding up the chairlift. My dad rode up the chairlift with Brian Lopes and didn't have any idea who he was. One of the best experiences of my life has been riding with Brendan Fairclough, Clay Porter, and Joseph Smith. I met Brendan on the long chairlift ride up to the top of Garbanzo. He was going to a photo shoot, wearing a thin T-shirt and skinny jeans. I could see in his eyes that he was colder than ice. Brendan, another young gun and I were the only people on the lift, and we got some good talk going. Another time I got to ride up the lift with Troy Brosnan, he was an interesting fellow. We talked about the Canadian Open DH course, and all the sweet trails. Troy is a ripper, he did a sweet job at all the Crankworx races. He also happened to win the junior world cup and world champ title later in the summer.
Whistler village alone is impressive, blocks and blocks of eateries, and stores, with apartments above them. Walkways in betwen the multi-use buildings, where flocks of tourists wander. Becoming familiar with the village is useful, but not very easy. All the buildings look very similar, so it was useful for me to learn a few land marks within the village. Our condo was located about a 2 minute bike ride and a 10 minute walk from the Fitzsimmons lift. So..... I did not have a choice whether or not I was going to learn how to get from point A to Point B. Getting lost wasn't as much of a goat rope as expected, because, if you got lost then most times you would find something really cool.
The trails at Whistler are 2nd to none, and like the village, they are easy to get lost in. Getting lost on Whistler mountain was awesome, and no matter where I found myself, there was a sweet trail, right in front of me. My favorite trail, that I have found, is A line. A line created the word flow, it was not like a lot of trails back home which are 2 dimensional, the Whistler trails are 3d. Up, down, right, left, and everything in between.
You can meet some interesting people riding up the chairlift. My dad rode up the chairlift with Brian Lopes and didn't have any idea who he was. One of the best experiences of my life has been riding with Brendan Fairclough, Clay Porter, and Joseph Smith. I met Brendan on the long chairlift ride up to the top of Garbanzo. He was going to a photo shoot, wearing a thin T-shirt and skinny jeans. I could see in his eyes that he was colder than ice. Brendan, another young gun and I were the only people on the lift, and we got some good talk going. Another time I got to ride up the lift with Troy Brosnan, he was an interesting fellow. We talked about the Canadian Open DH course, and all the sweet trails. Troy is a ripper, he did a sweet job at all the Crankworx races. He also happened to win the junior world cup and world champ title later in the summer.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
2010 Whistler Crankworx part 2
While we were in the midst of Crankworx there were many dealers showing off their new bike products. One of these people was Dave Turner, the founder of Turner Bikes. They were demoing the new Turner DHRs with the DW link. Dave noticed me as I rode by their tent on my Turner and asked if I would like a free t-shirt. While getting the shirt I realized what was happening at their tent. I got my dad, and together we filled out a little paper work, then I found myself demoing the new 2011 Turner DHR. The bike was strange, not only because they had skinny 26" bars, but also because of the DW link technology. I have never ridden anything like it. It felt like the top 4" of the suspension had a 600 pound spring, while the lower part of the travel seemed normal. I think some of this was caused by having too large of a spring, but it felt like it cornered and pedaled nice.
Whistler is thick with bears, and I mean covered. It is ordinary to see three or four a day. No worries though, these bears are happy eating berries and not humans. One day while cruising down a fairly well traveled run, Rock City, with my friend Tanner riding behind me, we came into a meadow, and out of nowhere I saw a black shape the size of a big raccoon. It literally came out of nowhere, and before I could act, it was under my bottom bracket. This thing which turned out to be a bear cub, gave off a half screech half growl. I could feel its fur on my leg, and as fast as it appeared it disappeared behind me. Later when I discussed this incident with Tanner, he mentioned that he almost hit the cubs sibling. I think that a lot of people have misconceptions about bears, and they think that bears are ferocious animals. This is not the case at Whistler. The only time bears can be a big trouble is when you have food in your pocket, or if you pull a messing with sasquatch on the bear. Whistler bears have easier ways of getting food than chasing around a padded up mountain biker traveling at high speed.
I entered 3 races while at Crankworx. The dual slalom, the Garbanzo downhill, and the Air downhill, in that order. The dual slalom was the hardest course that I have ever ridden. The top was like a super tight steep pump track, with a mandatory air. You had to be super on top of it to even get through the top section. The first practice day, I was struggling. After the first section there was a strait with more mandatory air, which if you didn't get the upper part right, you were hosed on. To add to the pressure, there goes Gee Atherton, or Mick Hannah just shredding the berms to pieces, and making the course look extremely easy. On my second try at it, I got into the second section, and cased a roller double. The case ended up burping all of the air out of my tubeless tire. I don't know about this tubeless hype. My day of practice was over. Luckily, I still had another day to dial up the course. The next day I was prepared mentally and physically. and started to make progress on the course. The top part you just had to focus on being smooth, and after you come out into the strait, speed was the name of the game. The track swept right on 2 big berms, then left, and then into one of the most fun jumps I have ever hit. The jump was a 12' floater, with a really smooth landing. After the jump you had to get on the brakes for a tight turn, then a small triple followed by a mogul field. Two more berms put you at the finish. Super fun course.
A shot of Air Downhill start house.
One of the coolest people that I met at Whistler was Mikey Silvestri. He was raging on the dual slalom but ended up needing help with a flat. We helped him out, and let him borrow a pump. Naturally we started to chat with him and he turned out to be really cool. Later that day I rode up Fitz with Mikey and Logan Bingelli. Logan had never ridden Dirt Merchant, one of the most famous and fun trails at Whistler. Mikey saw this as something he needed to change. Mikey also invited me to ride with them, which was something I was not going to pass up. Getting off the chair, Mikey saw Kevin Aiello, and quickly convinced him to join our rapidly growing party. By the time we got to Dirt Merchant, we probably had 5 or 6 people. I was following Kevin, as we dropped in and over the first small drop. Boom, on the first jump Kevin threw one of the gnarliest whips that I have seen. I tried to do the same, but fell kinda short. We had quite the train rolling down Dirt Merchant, I almost killed myself a couple of times, trying to match Kevin's steezed out whips. We rolled on down, and into lower A line, but now we had changed our order, and I followed Logan, he was throwing some crazy scrubs, and I had a little trouble keeping up. Once we got to the bottom, we all dispersed to different places. Meeting fellow riders and shredding fun terrain is what makes Whistler so special. I am already getting really stoked for 2011 Crankworx.
Whistler is thick with bears, and I mean covered. It is ordinary to see three or four a day. No worries though, these bears are happy eating berries and not humans. One day while cruising down a fairly well traveled run, Rock City, with my friend Tanner riding behind me, we came into a meadow, and out of nowhere I saw a black shape the size of a big raccoon. It literally came out of nowhere, and before I could act, it was under my bottom bracket. This thing which turned out to be a bear cub, gave off a half screech half growl. I could feel its fur on my leg, and as fast as it appeared it disappeared behind me. Later when I discussed this incident with Tanner, he mentioned that he almost hit the cubs sibling. I think that a lot of people have misconceptions about bears, and they think that bears are ferocious animals. This is not the case at Whistler. The only time bears can be a big trouble is when you have food in your pocket, or if you pull a messing with sasquatch on the bear. Whistler bears have easier ways of getting food than chasing around a padded up mountain biker traveling at high speed.
I entered 3 races while at Crankworx. The dual slalom, the Garbanzo downhill, and the Air downhill, in that order. The dual slalom was the hardest course that I have ever ridden. The top was like a super tight steep pump track, with a mandatory air. You had to be super on top of it to even get through the top section. The first practice day, I was struggling. After the first section there was a strait with more mandatory air, which if you didn't get the upper part right, you were hosed on. To add to the pressure, there goes Gee Atherton, or Mick Hannah just shredding the berms to pieces, and making the course look extremely easy. On my second try at it, I got into the second section, and cased a roller double. The case ended up burping all of the air out of my tubeless tire. I don't know about this tubeless hype. My day of practice was over. Luckily, I still had another day to dial up the course. The next day I was prepared mentally and physically. and started to make progress on the course. The top part you just had to focus on being smooth, and after you come out into the strait, speed was the name of the game. The track swept right on 2 big berms, then left, and then into one of the most fun jumps I have ever hit. The jump was a 12' floater, with a really smooth landing. After the jump you had to get on the brakes for a tight turn, then a small triple followed by a mogul field. Two more berms put you at the finish. Super fun course.
One of the coolest people that I met at Whistler was Mikey Silvestri. He was raging on the dual slalom but ended up needing help with a flat. We helped him out, and let him borrow a pump. Naturally we started to chat with him and he turned out to be really cool. Later that day I rode up Fitz with Mikey and Logan Bingelli. Logan had never ridden Dirt Merchant, one of the most famous and fun trails at Whistler. Mikey saw this as something he needed to change. Mikey also invited me to ride with them, which was something I was not going to pass up. Getting off the chair, Mikey saw Kevin Aiello, and quickly convinced him to join our rapidly growing party. By the time we got to Dirt Merchant, we probably had 5 or 6 people. I was following Kevin, as we dropped in and over the first small drop. Boom, on the first jump Kevin threw one of the gnarliest whips that I have seen. I tried to do the same, but fell kinda short. We had quite the train rolling down Dirt Merchant, I almost killed myself a couple of times, trying to match Kevin's steezed out whips. We rolled on down, and into lower A line, but now we had changed our order, and I followed Logan, he was throwing some crazy scrubs, and I had a little trouble keeping up. Once we got to the bottom, we all dispersed to different places. Meeting fellow riders and shredding fun terrain is what makes Whistler so special. I am already getting really stoked for 2011 Crankworx.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)