Thursday, May 10, 2012
bike season
Friday, April 20, 2012
A winter of adventures
Post worlds Catherine and I went up to the Yukon and did a 6 day canoe trip with Daniel, it was supposed to be 4-5days but we had a tank of a canoe and didn't always paddle as hard as we could. We did the Dezadeash river from the lake to Haines JCT. The first day we had 6 foot swells in the lake, and luckily it was a tail wind or else we would have capsized for sure. We also did a few cool hikes and saw lots of Dall Sheep up in the mountains.
Canoeing hard with Daniel |
Fresh fish on the fire |
Six foot swells on the lake, we camped here because we got pushed into shore. |
Dall Sheep |
Lunch break near Kluane National Park |
Next up was back to Canmore for a fall filled with fun mountain bike rides. I also got a ton of trail work done on the Nordic Ctr trails - big thanks to the help of the Katimivik volunteers! Catherine and I also achieved her goal of summiting 12 peaks in the fall, so we had lots of great scrambles to the tops of mountains. From there the snow fell, or we made it at the Nordic ctr, and xc skiing started Oct 15 (mtb riding was still good until Dec). So I did tons of xc skiing and then I got into back-country skiing and got hooked.
Summit of Cascade |
Crazy carpeting down from Chester Lake, yes it was fun - 10 min at 20km/hr = massive headache though as we went headfirst most of it! |
Dinner on top of Rundle Mountain with Catherine, overlooking Canmroe |
Back country skiing or ski touring is where you take the best part of tons of sports/adventures and put them all together. You find an interesting and beautiful place in the mountains, skin up and explore, and then downhill ski back down, usually in untouched powder. The biggest danger is the avalanche risk, so Catherine and I took a course just after Christmas to learn as much as possible about snow and terrain, and since then I have been learning from friends and the great outdoors.
Catherine and I back coutry skiing with my parents during their visit |
Nicholas DH skiing during our trip to Kicking Horse and Revelstoke |
Ski touring Suprise pass, first run we went around Fariview Mountain and came through the pass and down lookers left, 2nd run we skinned up the col to the right |
My groomer, Piston Bulley 100 |
XC skiing with Catherine's parents, dress code was red coats and grey boots! |
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
World Championships
So after the Val Di Sole world cup the Canadian team traveled to Champery Switzerland. We took the train there and it was neat going through the twisty mountain passes and lots of tunnels, and other times it was very hot and sweaty sitting on the train. Eventually we got to Champery and head coach Dan met us with pizza - which were very well received by everyone as we had mostly missed dinner.
Yes, the Subaru Justy still exists in Europe - lots of clearance and 4x4!
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Val Di Sole
So yesterday I raced the Val Di Sole World Cup. It went way better than I expected considering my “wicked” (sarcasm intended) lead up during the week before.
This is me with the fat lip, fat face, swolled eye, and a "bird beak", yeah, I felt awesome...
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
TransRockies
This year I raced TR3, the three day version of TransRockies. It was a super competitive field with top racers from Canada and the USA. And best of all it was all on sweet Fernie Singletrack.
Steff, Magi, Catherine, and I all stayed with Marni and Andre's place - many thanks for putting up with our mess and smelly bike clothes.
Day 1 was a time trial and I went out second. I had decent legs but nothing amazing, Barry Wicks was my 2 min man and he caught up to me, so then I stuck with him and finished up 4th. Day 2 was a much better day, I had way better legs and felt pretty good. We were in a lead group of 6 and were directed the wrong way by a course marshall, we rode up the hill for about 6min and then blasted back down, apparently another 20 people did the same thing but did a loop, so it didn't really matter since all of the top 30 got lost. From there we had to pass a ton of people and eventually caught my wife who was leading everybody at that point! On the big climb Neal attacked and Max went with him, and Steff and I rode our own pace. We did a good climb and then bombed down Porky Blue, a crazy steep 1000m vertical descent down into the valley. Steff and I then worked together until the finish where we had decided to wait until the end to sprint. I lead out and the finish straight was longer then I expected, so I started too early and he came around to get 3rd and I was 4th. Catherine had a great day and won the women's, by enough to take the overall.
Racing
So, I've been racing my bike all over the place these last few weeks.
After Ste Anne was Windham World cup, I had a great race there and finished 9min back from the leader and 41st, 3rd canadian. From there we flew out of Albany NY on a tiny plane and all our bikes were lost for 4 days.
The next weekend was Nationals, and I had another good ride, not as good as at the world cup but decent none the less. I felt pretty good and duked it out with Morka for the last 3 laps. It was super fun because we went so hard and fast, but he got me at the end and I was 6th.
Next up was Edmonton Canada Cup, this one was a bit crazy. It had poured rain all week and then the sun came out the day of the race, so we had the worst of all worlds. The mud was so thick and sticky that we had to run about 1km per 6km lap. The running was so slippery that you had to dig the toe spikes or heel spikes in to run on flat. I had a good race and finished up 3rd, with enough points to win the overall Canada Cup series!!! Catherine won her race and won the overall- so we are the fastest married mtb couple in Canada! Big thanks to Terry and Dianne who let us stay at their place, fed us great food, and brought the whole family out to cheer us on!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Hot racing!
Can you see the flames on my arms?