Very hard to top Dft's last minute bike build the day prior, and our drive up to BC was uneventful, and went by pretty quick that first day. We made it up to Kelso, WA after 16 hours of driving. Tom and I then sessioned out in the back of the motel parking lot waiting for Craig, Andy, Steve, and Biggs to arrive. Manuals, wheelies, a mini rocky ride into the parking lot, and skinny training riding curbs etc. did the job after being cooped up all day in the truck. A big thanks to Chris for allowing Dt and I to crash that Wednesday night after the bike build.
Dt snapped this nice picture of Mt Shasta.
Land of skinnies, hucks and drops. Welcome to Canada.
Crossing the Fraser bridge after a 2 hour plus wait at the border crossing.
Our pad up at Whistler. What a nice place. Hopefully we can stay there again next year.
View of the mountains from the chairlift.
Our runs down the mountain the first day were limited to Crank It Up, Dirt Merchant, and A-Line. The trails were still drying out due to all the rain the night before. A big change in the weather from last year when it was bone dry and dusty. We were able to get in one upper mountain run down Freight Train, and hit a double black trail called Joyride. All of the wood and rock faces where a bit more challenging this year to say the least.
Dft on upper a Joyride drop. (Only riding picture I have of you. You'll be back next year going big. Heal up dude.)
Scott on the same stunt. He was landing down past the rocks, and throwing it with style! One of my favorite shots.
Me on the same drop.
Received this nice bruise on Lower Joyride riding down a ladder section. The ladder was wet and muddy and had two sloped sections with a flat segment in the middle. I guess Dft hucked off the flat area to the lower section to minimize the chance of losing control due to braking. We didn't see him, but he said it was a wild one. I ended up getting a 3/4 clean on this one, as I impacted into a tree. I stayed off wet ladders and rocks after this one.
Some Foc'er GLC action shots:
Craig
Liz -she can hang with the boys, and still ride after taking a big crash. One tough gal!
Jeff (hoping we have a shot of Jeff dropping the 10' DM line. He felt really confident on it. I didn't get to see it, but someone stated the the ground shakes when he lands.
My downtube after the first day in the park.
Day 2 at the park was a no go. Rain all day, and muddy trails do nothing for me. Scott, Jeff, Liz, and Cheri braved the conditions that day while I hooked up with Jim and his friend Ryan to ride outside the park in the Whistler valley. The conditions were wet, but the dense tree canopy kept some of the rain off of us. The woodwork on A River Runs Through It gave me problems, but Jim and I were able to clean a nice 8' high reverse drawbridge contraption, so we were stoked on that. Some shots that day:
Ryan getting ready to flip the sign to "open".
Ryan hitting the woodwork with skill. This guy is rode everything blind, and cleaned pretty much everything the first time. Real nice guy too.
Some shots on the Flank trail. Nice flow, high speed, and steep on the upper sections. I haven't looked at a map, but it goes up a ways. I bet we maybe rode a third of the trail, but it was still quite long.
Lower section of Flank:
Ryan and Jim on the hab.
Muddy 7 point.
Monday the sun was out, and trails started to dry out that afternoon. Scott started things off big. Some different angles on the the Octopus drop. A must for me next year if I want to go bigger. As usual, Scott likes to add some pizazz in the air. Nice job dude!
Most of Clownshoes was closed, but we were able to ride some of the upper stuff, and then hit the drop at the bottom.
Drop 1 of 2. The landing with the Roco was plush, as the transition isn't the smoothest.
Scott:
Berm shot on A-line. The berm has inlaid masonery blocks to rail on. Such a sweet trail.
Some shots on the bottom Gapotron.
Craig getting some airtime:
Scott:
A shot on the Kokanee box. I have some nice video of Craig on it as well that I'll post.
I don't need a caption for this.
A great trip, and it was too bad Tom got injured on the first day. He was a trooper hanging in there, and being upbeat about the whole situation. We'll do it again next year!
I've got a minute video file that I want to post, and I'll do a write up on the North Shore stuff tomorrow.
Dan