Hurtin' for Vert 2009 - Part 1 of 4Part one sees the gang in Revelstoke, B.C. riding Martha Creek and then Keystone at Standard Basin. Rough trip plan was simple - meet in Revy on Wednesday night, then get up and ride on Thursday. Obviously nothing is that simple, but our group is well versed in how trips work and we were locked, loaded and caffeined up and on the trail before noon. High alpine riding here we come!
Check out all the amazing pics inside, and some words on the trip too!Words by Tyler Maine (unless otherwise noted)
Pictures by
Margus Riga (unless otherwise noted)
Revelstoke -
To those that have not been to
Revelstoke or that do not follow snow trends in the winter, well then you need to take a trip to experience the town and once you've finished reading part one, you'll likely book a ticket or hop in your vehicle and head there on your own too. Not only is the snow grand, but the biking is world class. You will not find any lift access in any of these stories, but if you wish to earn your vert, than you will appreciate what we got ourselves up too. Don't worry though, we did use trucks and vans and maybe a helicopter too over the course of 4 days, so it wasn't all about the pedal up - yet!
The Revy leg of the trip was put together by Lorraine Blancher and Reg Mullett, both with lots of local knowledge and a keen eye for great rides. Lorraine destroyed her knee days before the trip while competing in Whistler at Crankworx (noticing a trend with hurt riders and Whistler) and was unable to join us on the trails but graciously opened her house to our posse of riders. Our crew of riders consisted of Andreas Hestler, Wade Simmons, Margus Riga, Dave Burch, Simon Stevenson, Matt Brassard, Manfred Stromberg, Mario Lenzen, Matt Ryan, Johnny Smoke, Reg Mullett and Myself for the whole trip, but we made friends and had others join at various points in the rides. Ian and Nicole Stewart as well as Casey and Elinor Brown joined us for Martha Creek and Ian and Nic stayed on for Keystone too.
Martha Creek - Dist 11 km Descent 4750'Martha Creek - Pic by Smoke
Pic by Pat
Pat's GPS seemed to record something different than Smokes?
Ride number one for the day was Martha Creek. Most folks camped 3km from the summit, while a few of us trickled in from town. It’s best to start any road trip with a HUGE shuttle/descent to set the pace for the coming days and what better way than to start us off above alpine.
Pic by Ty
Pic by Smoke
Pic by Ty
Pic by Ty
Pic by Ty
Pic by Smoke
Pic by Smoke
Pic by Ty, flats were a common 4 day theme
Pic by Nic
Pic by Smoke
Pic by Smoke
The recovery of the vehicles and camping supplies after the Martha ride allowed us to get some lake time in, eat, fix flat truck tires and keep the dogs on a leash until we all headed up to Standard Basin for the Keystone ride.
Pic by Ty
Pic by Ty
Pic by Ty
Keystone at Standard Basin is along the same style of ride as the Seven Summits in Rossland (which we’ll be visiting in a few stories from now), high alpine All Mountain Bike riding at its best.
Keystone - Dist 22.5 km Descent/Climb approx 3000' round trip (I'm surprised too, check the profile).Keystone at Standard Basin
We didn’t pull out of the parking lot for the trail head until 4PM and I had been told it was a 4 hour round trip. Needless to say after 2 hours on the way in, I was not at the cabin, so I turned around at that point to be sure that I got out in the day light. The rest of the crew was able to bang off the whole point to point and return and we all rolled out as the sun was going down. If these pics don’t make you want to ride, then you'd better re-think your life priorities.
Pic by Ty
Pic by Ty
Pic by Ty
Pic by Ty
Pic by Ty
Pic by Ty
Pic by Ty
Pic by Smoke
Pic by Smoke
When I look at this picture it tells me stories and I want to sit down and hear them
This worries me!
What dreams are made of
Pic by Dave
Pic by Dave
Pic by Dave
Pic by Ty, Smoke's van is closing in on half a million kms and it faithfully drug us around the mountains.
Darkness fell as we rolled off the mountain and back towards town. The original plan to drive to Nelson passed as we were all too tired and just wanted to eat and sleep – thankfully the Village Idiot (Restaurant) had food and Lorraine was still cool with our dirty smiles in her house for another night.
Big thanks to Lorraine for all the hospitality on this leg of the journey, to Ian, Nicole, Casey and Elinore for joining in on the rif raf rides for the day too and to Reg for his input on the trails that we should tee up while in town. And Smoke for the shuttle action in the
Bush Pilot Biking Van.
Check out the Hurtin for Vert Riders here.
Any good trails up Boulder, Hall Mtn, Begbie, McCrae, Griffin, Turtle etc ?
Revelstoke BC is heaven on earth !
If only those punks knew. I was amazed at the speed at which the crew was descending gnarly terrain on small bikes. Way faster than than the average "freerider". You gotta figure that we had a full range of bikes on the route from the first day, and that Dingo on the Stumpjumper was challenging the front of the pack almost the whole time. With Reg and Wade in there, you know that's pretty damn fast, and there weren't a lot of big breaks in the group either.
I've got another version of events for you and a Nice Interactive Map.
Damn, that's the most sweet series of articles, really dives in to mountainbiking, as it is to us all - riding and enjoying!
and this word is used a lot , but this is the true defénition of it.
i LIVE in Revelstoke, how i do love it here