Weekend adventure -Big Mountain Style

Somewhere out there in the lower mainland of BC is a mountain, one I briefly and recently caught wind of, a mountain that serves up some sweet singletrack. Yes, your mouth is watering and so was mine.

It just so happened that a large crew of us were headed to Vernon for a stag for the weekend, a small select 2 of us decided to burden ourselves with an extra bike and an extra ride.

A bother yes, but you haven't really scratched the surface of earned turns until you tackle this behemoth of a mountain.

The profile looked good, the trail looked amazing and so we headed up; up the trail, up up and still further up. This trail Mt Outram is what I would call a serious adventure- granny gear climbing right out of the gates punctuated by pushing, followed by more pushing and 2. 5 hours later we crested the alpine to the edge of a small tarn.

We were crushed, perhaps we pushed too hard, perhaps it's just that hard, but Matt Ryan (no slouch in the climbing devision, think Pantani) and I reached our limits on this outing. We relaxed at the top, drank some water and soaked in some amazing views. But as with all good things it had to end, we were 'Stag' bound, totally exhausted and knew a weekend of bike parking and beers was at the end of our next 3 hour drive. So it was with heavy legs (completely blown quads) and tired bodies that we exited the alpine, but not before....,, Woooooooo Hooooooo for 30 minutes of sweet (overused adjective) singletrack descending - amazing!!

And so tasty after every turn has been sweated into, 'Sweat Equity' at it's finest.

The question must be posed though - 2.5 hours of pushing for a 30 min descent, was it a worthy trade off -if you like to suffer, want the most challenging climb ever, have more time on your hands, or just plain want a tough adventure then this is the mountain for you - Tagged and Bagged, this is our kind of outing.

Just keeping you posted on the good stuff.

Cheers

Dre

Brian Lopes and Richie Schley on the North Shore

Well I thought we were going for a shore shred, but such is not the case when you get a bunch of power house riders all in one zone.

It's always great to have people like BL and Schley visit us here on the North Shore in our own backyard. Wade and I were the congenial hosts while Richie had good friend James and Lopes brought his friend Joe. Along with us were Czech Rob and Italian Ali, both toting camera's, this is where the 'ride' went sideways.

Rob was doing a documentary on the life and times of Brian Lopes while Ali was shooting Marzocchi product and riders, coincidentally we were all riding Marzocchi so a great opportunity to smash quit a diverse crowd of disciplines together.

Wade took us on a backyard tour, and as we wound our way up the mountain we discussed the true vision of the shore, how to capture it and blend it into both of the photographers job descriptions.

Up Dempsey -Bramear, across the Baden over the new 'stairs of dispair' dispair no longer, and into Lower Ladies, aha. The boys from Cali and around the world were stoked; to see the work of Digger, get up close and personal with some classic old shore was just too much. Bam the camera's started firing and I thought 'oh my god this is gonna be the extent of our ride!', not that I minded, but I had me heart set on a wee pedal.

Across to the 'crater' with stories of the legends of the shore and sure enough there was enough momentum to drag this motley crew up a little higher, phew. So we chatted some more and pedaled up to the freshly re-done Ladies.

The afternoon wore into early evening as the light faded out and all shooting became impossible, the last click of a camera was shot on the famous teetertotter over the swamp, and finally it was time to 'pin it'. Nothing like having a couple of bro's on your wheel as you descend you favorite trails home. Actually we ended up back at Wade's kicking in the alley swilling beers. Now that's a day at the office, and if anyone else wants to come and visit they will get the same backyard treatment we give everyone - a damn good time.

Off to a weekend of riding in Vernon, get out and pedal.

Dre

GPS Richie's Rally

A lot of up yes sireeee

So I checked the 'stats':

29.5 k and 4450 feet of climbing, Richie is a sick man for making us do it, results subject to change, all unofficial etc etc.

1-Ariel Lindsley

2-Matt Ryan

3-Dylan Wolsky

4-Richie Schley

5-'Dre' Hestler

Rip-n-it-up since forever

Dre

Ride Don't Slide -RDS

Well the C-workx is over and all that's left is industry or those with some extra time off. Before heading back to Vancouver Paulo from Costa Rica and I decided to hit the bike park one more time, maybe we could squeeze just a wee bit more fun out of an amazing week.

Upon arrival at the plaza (base of the lifts) I bump into Richie Schley, Brian Lopes, a whole gang of Marzocchi peeps (Bryson, Lil B, JP, Ronnie) and Team Giant. They have organized a trip to the Peak and then were planning on hitting one of the trails into Creekside (the other side of the mountain), Ride Dont Slide. As mentioned yesterday my jump skills need work but my trail skills are fine, wanting to show Paulo as much of the good stuff, we jumped on the group and viola - another 'Sic' ride. In fact that pretty much stoked my DH fire, woooaaa what a trail, what a group and what a ride.

From the Alpine to the big timbers and onto the river at the bottom of the Whistler Valley approx 4200 vertical feet of singletrack. Lets just consider this; you can have all the trail in the World but if you don't have a good crew to session it, it just won't 'shine'. Todays ride was glowing with exploding loam and steep rooty gnarl all at top, top speed.

Thanks for the ride boyz, that's one for the books.

Dre

Crankworkx 2010

Final event for the week of crazy-ness, Canadian Open DH. Best viewed at the 'Heckle Fest' Rock or from the chair above

These guys are ripping it up - going very, very fast. I took a couple runs on my new RMB Flatline and realized my jumping skill were a little rusty, but the trails skills were fine.

Caught Tippie with the Mega-phone pumping up the crowds, also the latest inductee to the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame with Schley and Simmons.

Darren Butler at the Shimano booth representing

Wade, Paulo, TKW (Shimano marketing guru) and I spun a couple laps in the famous Bike Park, then of course a couple beers at the longhorn, now thats a wrap!

See you all next year at the C-workx

Dre

Richie's Rally

Aug 14th, Saturday morning of the Crankworkx final. What could be better than a sweet run on the Whistler Westside Trails. The concept here is similar to what most rides end up being- ride up with your bro's (groups of 3 in this case) then the timing starts at the top of the downhill; this is usually where you throw down with your bro's and beat each other up. Richie picked 3 long sweet trails and we the intrepid pedalers were the guinea pigs.

9 am registration at Rainbow trailhead followed by sorting into groups of 3. I ended up with Arthur and Hugo a couple of fit, fun riders.

Trail 1 was up the North flank via Alpine to 'Billy's Epic', this I had run once the night before and once 4 years ago in the BC Bike Race

Trail 2 was up the center flank (for lack of a better description) into 'Cheap Thrills', this was the gnarliest and a trail I have not done in about 10 years.

Trail 3 was back up the center flank and into 'High Society' a sweet undulating ride with some breathtaking views and one that I had ridden 3 times in the last couple weeks so was actually ready for.

Off we went, me on my 2011 Slayer ready for action. Arthur put the hurt down on Hugo and I on the first climb, second climb and basically all day. He had been resting, while Hugo and I had been riding all week. No worries the Rally is mostly about fun with some DH bragging rights thrown in. We all came out unscathed, with big smiles in a total time of about 3 hours, tired and stoked we headed back over to the main village to watch the final slopestyle. The only way to really enjoy someone else's ride is to have your own in the bank.

A race, a rally whatever we did it was a fun day full of good times, good trails and tough climbs.

For next year stay posted on the Worca.com website and make sure you come on out for Richie's Rally a different style of fun.

However it happens, it's always good on two wheels, eh!

Cheers

Dre

A Photo-Shoot -RMB Slayer 2011

It's the time of year to get catalogs ready and prepare for the trade shows. All great products need to be shot, hopefully in their element and some emotion extracted from the experience. To me a photo-shoot is telling a story and in this case it was Rocky Mountain Bikes showing their re-designed 2011 Slayer.

We are always fortunate to work with some amazing talent in this case Sterling Lorence on the still camera and Ambrose Weingart on the moving pictures, both excellent fellows, good friends and top artisans in their craft.

We headed down to Squamish, Wade and I from Whistler and Ambrose and Sterl from Vancouver. What unfolded is a classic day of action: meet, discuss locations, begin shoot, adress the story line, shoot some more, get tired, get bored, sweat, eat lunch, move location, re-adress story line, ensure the shoot list is complete, get more sweaty, get hungry, watch the sun, look for opportunity and finally as the sun and the light goes down, celebrate a 10 hour day of bug infested, effort infused action.

But when you are working with talent like these guys, it's a day of hard work, given, but also when you consider the amount of productivity, very satisfying. Then we wait to see what comes out of the edit suit.

It's amazing what terrain we managed to hit, some amazing gems and again I can't say enough about the Squamish trails, the people that make them happen and how fortunate we are to be able to enjoy them.

Cheers to our team, Wade, Sterl and Ambrose and thanks to the community of Squamish for adding sic singletrack to the world of mountain biking. Oh and thanks RMB engineers for making an amazing bike that rocks the world of singletrack.

Next up it's flips, hips and beers at the Crankworkx festival, our own little trade-show here in the Pacific North West. Get on up to Whistler and enjoy the show.

Cheers
Dre