New Denver Mountain Biking

Last summer my goal was to ride up Idaho Peak from New Denver. That was fun last year and a couple of times this year. This year I wanted to ride from Retallack on Highway 31A over the Stinson/Reco Ridge and down in Sandon and then up the Idaho Peak road and down to New Denver for an awesome epic day. It was. Lots of good climbing ( 3000m ) and lots of good descents. I think I'm fine for next year. Andrew ( in the photograph ) is the willing participant.

Back in New Denver

Flying back to Canada I landed in Kelowna and met up with my brother, Ian and his entourage. Ian was on his way to visit Sara and I in New Denver so I caught a ride. We had the gang for the next three days and enjoyed the fine summer weather at the beach.

Check out this handsome bloke

Oliver is 3. This was the first visit that I have had with Oliver. A very friendly and lively young lad he is as well. It was a pleasure to spend some time reading and playing with Oliver. Well mannered and fun loving as they all are. I look forward to seeing them all again soon.

Tegan

Tegan is Cynthia and Peter's first child. The last time I met Tegan I think she was 3 years old - a little older now at 8. Very helpfull to her Mum and Dad and her younger siblings. Currently learning piano with my Aunt Rosemary. Tegan is also very busy with school, chinese dance and parties with friends.

Peter and Toby

My sister, Cynthia had the good fortune to marry Peter and have three awesome kids together. In addition to being a great father Peter is a teacher in Bendigo, a heck of a good golfer, kicks ass at "Call of Duty" video game, and gives his wife a run for the money at who's the boss in the kitchen. Toby is the handsome bloke helping out his Dad at the barbie.

Australia

For the last two weeks I took an airplane with my Aunt Rosemary to see an Eye Specialist in Australia and to visit my family. It's been awhile. I met Catherine, my brother's wife who both live in Melbourne. We walked all over town enjoying the winter weather, good chinese food and the various architecture and street art of Melbourne. Things have changed in the last 20 years.

Idaho Peak Bike Ride

The Idaho Peak bike ascent from New Denver was my goal for last summer. I ended up doing it a couple of times and look forward to doing all of the trails again this summer. It's 6,500 ft of vertical from New Denver. 30 minutes or so on highway 3A up to Three Forks. Another 30 to Sandon on dirt road. I think that's about 12 or 14km. Then the grind really begins. The next 12km ( almost 2 hrs ) are up the forestry road to Wild Goose Basin and on up to the parking area right on the ridgetop. The trail then follows the ridge to the summit or alternatively drops right off the south side on the Wakefield for about an hour single track descent, followed by narrow wagon road, followed by the main logging road up Silverton Creek for a total of 1.5 hrs descent. Ride back to New Denver - 10am.

We got married in Cuba too.

Went down to the beach and said our vows. Beautiful sunset and Full Moon. Beautiful bride and handsome groom.

Trinidad

We rented a car - no, not this one - and visited Trinidad on the southern side of Cuba. Lots of adventure driving on the local roads. The classic car is a 58 Chev. I think it's the newest of the old american cars to get down here since the American - Cuba standoff. The revolution is still popularized with postcards and t-shirts of Che Guevera and Fidel Castro at every tourist station.

Historical Havana

Lots of History in Havana. Old buildings which look unchanged and still a busy port. This photo is taken of an artist's rendition of the port of Havana in the 1600 or 1700's. It was pretty neat to be in The City of the Caribean.

Havana

Sara just loves to go on guided day tours ( just like tailguiding at Wildhorse ) and taking photos. We spent two days in Havana which was very cool, stayed on the 24th floor of the old Havana Hilton, went to the Tropicana for the show and saw all the sights.

Snorkelling from Jibacoa

We got up early a couple of days when the sea was calm and walked right down to the beach put on snorkel equipment and swam with the fishes and the coral reef. I think we had the fish for dinner too.

After Snow there is Sun

Sara and I zipped down to Cuba for two weeks for fun in the sun. Sara surfed the internet for a last minute deal at an all-inclusive resort at Jibacoa. You can see the resort in the background of this photo. Quite a different scene from last spring when I was on a 2 week ski tour through the BC Interior....

The Winter Blur

Wake up at 6, get hot drinks ready, get lunches ready, safety equipment. Breakfast and a coffee. Review. Check. Greet the days skiers. Paperwork. Radios. Check. Guide, TailGuide and Driver. 12 skiers - everyone accounted for. Drive 4km. Unload. Load Snowmobile. Snowmobile 30 minutes. Start SnowCat. Safety Talks. Load Cat. Unload. Ski Powder. Load. Ski Powder. Repeat 10 times. Load snowmobiles. Drive home. Go to Ymir Hotel. Drink Beer. Eat Dinner. Clean up. Check. Sleep. Repeat.

Great Winter.

Second Ascent for the Season

I walked up Wildhorse Peak once in December when road building preparing for the season just to get away from the sound of machinery. Chris, Gordon and I walked up yesterday to ski the south face. Beautiful knee deep powder through 2,400 vertical feet. Sunny skies and -12C. Only skied this one once before. We skied a few other lines and then came up to this point and skied back down to the valley bottom from where the photo was taken.

Winter is here

Sara and I skied at Whitewater on the groomers for Christmas Day. Skied three exploratory runs at Wildhorse and then the 29th and 30th of December in epic powder conditions. It was good to let the powder pour over the goggles and let the thoughts of snowcat maintenance, chainsawing, deisel tanks, clearing snow, shoveling snow, snowmobiles, invoices, credit cards, bank balances, safety equipment and a myriad of other thoughts slip into the past. Powder keeps ones thoughts simple, pure and present. Happy New Year.

Less Blogging more Working

OK. So, I've been out chainsawing new roads, driving deisel up to Wildhorse Pass, tradeshows, invoicing, emailing and on the phone. Yeah and sold the ROCA shares from the previous posts big pump up - actually just a fun bike ride, mostly up but the descent was good too. Actually we got escorted off the property...
It looks like snow is thick enough now that the roads are closed and the snowmobiles are being pulled out and checked over. The new Wildhorse aluminum snowmobile passenger trailers are in final stages of construction. Probably will be starting work on snow roads by the end of November. No pictures.

Ready for winter

Most of September and October has been raining and snowing. Managed to fly out the toilet barrels from the Yurts and cleaned them out. Loads of fun that one. Otherwise been working on extending the snowcat trails higher and further. I've hiked into Qua Yurt a couple of times working on replacing the roof and adding a deck. It was a little touch and go getting a helicopter through the weather and getting a team of 5 together on standby to get the job done. Ready for winter. Here's a new map for the yurt and catskiing with some of the updates.

Idaho Peak Paragliding Video

I did not get a lot of flights this summer, but I did get some very pleasant flights. This video was taken by friends from Switzerland who were visiting in September. Nice ridge lift again on this day.

The Roca Mine

After getting the inside scoop at the Bar we took a tour of the mine site. Lots of guys getting the job done. It appears that they will be ready for production in the fall. The tailings pond is nearing completion and they have moly on the ground ready for processing.