Zombie Land

I feel like I just escaped the plot of a horror movie. Or as Kimberly appropriately said lets get out of zombie land! A closed gas station, with no others for 30 miles in either direction was the location. To truly get a feel for the sketchiness of this place, gas was priced a dollar more per gallon than anywhere else we have seen in the US, and upon peering in the window a sign said local calls only was placed above a string tied to a can with a cow skull sitting next to it. Lastly today’s business hours were 8:00 to 12:30 then 3:30 to 5, this is a gas station right off the interstate with exit sings saying gas and food… someone needs to get better.

The Cast included Marilyn and Myself, Jonny from Chicago who like us had his gas light on, Kimberly from Sun Valley who had luckily just stopped to clean her windshield, and last but certainly not least the group milling about a decrepit RV with the plan to wait till morning for the gas station to reopen. That plan wasn’t sitting well with Jonny or us and luckily Kimberly didn’t feel like letting us make the local news with the latest triple homicide. So she suggested we all pin it back down the high way 30 miles to the nearest gas station. Needles to say I didn’t think we were going to make it! On the drive out to BC my car barely got 400 km to a tank, and after a new air filter I was luckily to get 500 km. Now with my car fully loaded, gas light on, and the odometer reading 560ish… lets just say I was a little nervous but with Kim following in case either of us ran out of gas we all barreled down the highway. Now, I know that you all are saying why would you be barreling down the highway when your are trying to conserve gas... all I can say is we were just sticking to the plan, pin it to win it.

Finally with the gas station exit in site we see Jonny pulling some questionable maneuvers around an RV. At this point I could feel my car starting to sputter, the exit came just in time and upon reaching the gas station Jonny informed us he was coasting on fumes since the highway explaining his shoddy driving. We all rejoiced and thanked Kim. If around Sun Valley Idaho visit Kimberly’s B&B The Spruce Inn, located in downtown Hailey. The final odometer reading was 612 Km; good old green peace green didn’t let me down. We have had some kinks so far in our courtship but I feel we are starting to understand each other’s limits.

I I know Robby is going to blame it all on me… but I don’t want to get type cast as a guy who runs out of gas. All I can say is for close to 50,000 kms of road trips in the last two summers two close calls isn’t too bad.
Note to everyone no matter how good the book your reading is, never let your tank go below ¼ of a tank. This is an unspoken rule I have learned from the master of all things car related, Mr. Pickard.

Finally Starting to Get Caught Up

So much to tell since our Chilcotin adventure! After getting back to Whistler late Sunday night I had a message from T bag that Tyler and I both worked Monday morning at 8:30, ouch! That week Tyler, Matt, and myself hit the bike park hard to let our legs a rest from the pedal fest incurred in the Chilcotins. The big bike highlight had to be the full day of bike park laps, followed by an evening loop of RDS we scored after some rain making for perfect conditions (soft, slick, and steep), followed by burgers and beers a Dustys Pub. It was Matts first time down RDS and in his own words “there is no way you can be prepared for what your getting yourself into”, said with a huge smile on his face!



As much fun as the riding was my body took a beating. As they say when it rains it pours, I had done well with injury’s all season and I guess it was just my time. Crash 1 involved a dust cloud and me blowing a berm, resulting in a shredded upper left side. The next days crash had me heading over the bars into a pile of rocks… again with the left side but the lower body taking most of the damage this time (I also had two flats and ruined a new tire on this ride, not a happy camper!). After one day of managing to keep the bike upright, I was hit with the third and final blow, after a few laps of a rebuild to Dirt Merchant I came up short on the new creek gap and went down hard ripping ligaments in my right rotator cuff and left thumb. Lets just say I looked in rough shape with a sling on one side and splint on the left. Although not ideal, if I was going to get injured that was the time to do it, with Marilyn arriving in a few days and me heading home in about a week.



The day finaly arrived to pick Marilyn up from the airport and after a short but nice visit with my Aunt Tiny in Vancouver I arrived just in time to greet her in the terminal. We spent a lovely afternoon cruising around Stanley Park and the Vancouver Aquarium. Later we meet my Aunt Lois where she treated us to a delicious diner at the Fish House. If ever in Vancouver I recommend this place to anyone who enjoys seafood. Other highlights of our time in BC include beautiful day sightseeing on the peak of Whistler, and a picnic at the train wreck.





The drive home has been amazing so far with sight seeing in Seattle, the stunning coastline of Oregon (words cannot describe it, you need to see it for yourself!!!!), and a quick dip in some natural hot springs in Idaho. More to come on the drive home once I sort through the hundreds of photos accumulating on my camera.



I have mixed feelings about leaving but I know I will be back so that has been a big help. I have already heard of one epic ride I missed and it wasn’t even 24 hours after leaving... whether or not my shoulder would have allowed it is another story. Tyler and some buddies from work biked up the ski hill and camped out overnight on the peak then descended back to the village at the crack of dawn before the mountain opened for the day. Tyler is truly living the good life… “My life is your vacation” is the saying that comes to mind when I think of him these days. It was a great summer of riding buddy and I can’t wait till our next adventure! Have a fun and safe winter in Whistler. Although a recent late night phone call (4 am PEI time) tells me I have looking forward to getting schooled at Brookvale in my near future. I won’t name names but this is a direct quote “I have been hammering out some B vale laps lately, and I’m gonna beat you at your own game benny!” is what was said and I say even with my gimp arm to bring it on!

I’m in no position to complain as I had an amazing summer, although my recent injuries keep me from bagging a few rides on my to do list: yummy nummy, hey bud, the new kyber pass entrance, comfortable numb (I know that one is pathetic), and lastly tanquil lake… I guess that means I know what I’m doing next summer. It was great to reunite with some old friends this summer and great to make some new ones. A huge thanks to the crew at Summit Sports for taking us under their wing, you know where to go if ever in Whistler and in need of anything bike or ski related.

So MUCH to tell..... so little time!

Sitting at a truck stop in Oregon. Haven't updated in forever as I have been exploring the west coast with Marilyn, am/was broken (video was all shot the day prior, but I plan to ride fisher creek tomorrow), and am lazy. Will update soon with a full account of the last little while!

Whistler Edit from Ben Crook-Hanna on Vimeo.

... till next time

Chilcotin Adventure

The Chilcotins never disappoint! Guaranteed are lung busting climbs, beautiful views, and unexpected adventures. Tyler, Matt, and I recently spent 3 days riding and camping at spruce lake aka paradise. The plan was to leave Whistler Thursday morning and return Saturday evening. Everyone knows I always try to pack too much into my days and Wednesday was no exception. It was Caleb from works birthday so we headed to Pemberton to ride a trail named wild bill. Bill was wild and oh so sweet. Classic pemby, the trail was steep and deep. I planed to pack for the trip after the ride and before work… but the ride was longer than expected and a delicious feast at Sushi Village ate up more time than I had. It wasn’t until later that we found out we were to meet at Tyax resort with our gear to load up the floatplane for 8 Thursday morning. This made for a late night of packing in order to make our 5 am Whistler departure a reality.



Surprisingly enough the hurly road (rough logging road) didn’t murder green peace green. But, Matts bike took a beating. The road was so rough that his fork adaptor snapped off the bike rack causing his bike to fall onto the roof of the car. Luckily the bike was unscathed and we continued on our merry way. Upon arriving at Tyax we began to meet the rest of our riding group and unload the gear. With the gear now ready at the floatplane it was time to begin the ride up to Spruce Lake where we would be camping for the next 2 nights. My main focus on the 2-hour climb was to keep my eyes from wondering off trail to the beautiful meadows, steams, and mountains, causing my bike to follow me off trail on more than one occasion. After summiting windy pass (as the name suggests it was very windy) we were treated to fast smooth single track all the to the camp. Once the camp was set up, trail stories were swapped and the next days rides were planned. I also put my new fishing rod to the test… catching nothing, penny thinks I fail and shouldn’t be able to call myself an Islander now. On the other hand the Douger taught Tyler well as he managed to catch a little pinner on the catch and release program.





Day two proved to be a little too adventurous and stressful for all of us as you will come to read Matts account of getting lost at night in the middle of nowhere, seeing bears, and spending 13 hours on the bike… We did a loop, which involved summiting Dear Pass. The views were amazing, the stream crossings were cold, and the hikers we ran into from Vancouver were whiners. After crossing one of the streams one of the guys said to me “try doing that with a 30 lb pack on your back” as I look back at him wondering what he thinks the 15 lb pack and 30 lb bike I’m carrying weigh… not the sharpest tool in the shed that’s for true!







We had two options for our day 3 ride back to the cars at Tyax resort. Half went out by way of a trail named Jewl , and the rest of us rode out by way of Lick. Lick is the trail we rode last year and it was every bit as good the second time around. It was funny when we started the decent, it was like I had ridden the trail a hundred times as I knew every root and rock, when in reality I had just watched our helmet cam video a way too many times haha. Although this was the perfect ride to end our trip with Dunken was the only one to make it through the ride unscathed. I fell in a stream, Tyler fell in a swamp, and Penny fell in a ditch.

The Circus Came To Town

Working all day and staying up all night has made me happy that crankworx is finally over. One of the most memorable moments over the last week of festivities had to be the Saint Deep Mountain Photo Challenge. This contest is modelled after the Arc'teryx Deep Winter Challenge which has been around for a few years now. 6 photographers are given 3 days to shot around Whistler with whomever they please and create a slideshow capturing each sport and the corresponding lifestyle. I have to say that I was completely blown away by the quality, creativity, and diversity of all the slideshows, but in my mind Jordan Manley (http://ww.jordanmanley.com/) was clearly the winner and the judges agreed awarding him first place. His show focused on the dedication of the whistler bike park trail crew and their tireless efforts to keep the worlds most ridden trails running day in and day out all season long. It was truly moving and perfectly captured the soul of what mountain biking means to me. I will post a link to the slide show when it becomes available. We were also able to catch the best trick and air DH competitions.



This guy got back up and tried whatever this was supposed to be again! But just ended up with the same result... oh the pain.





On the riding front I haven't touched my DH bike since it ate my shin last week, although I went on a sweet adventure the other morning. We are leaving for a 3 day camping trip in the Chilcotins Thursday morning, so in order to get some major vertical climbing on the legs I decided to re-ride The Khyber Pass. The only difference this time was instead of taking the 2 lifts most of the way up, I climbed from our front door. As one is not allowed to climb up the access roads through the park, I got an early 7 am start. It was a damp morning with fog engulfing the mountain. I made it all the way to the park boundary before a truck emerged from the fog telling me I wasn't allowed to be up there, although he wasn't going to make me go back down the mountain…. like I was going to ride down the fire road after hours of climbing! The fog was thick with at best 10 m of visibility. As I made my way out of the bike park, I started singing out loud along with my Ipod to alert the bear who frequents the area to my presence as I climbed. By the time I reached the trailhead the fog had burnt off and the visibility was much better. After a PB and J sandwich (with Island strawberry jam thanks to Alice and Emily) at the "The Stu Inn" I began the decent. The trail was in perfect shape with the damp dirt providing limitless traction. I proceeded to flow downhill with a big shit eating grin for the next 2 hours. I don't often go for solo rides but there is something special to be said for just being alone far off in the forest.









Matt recently got the new HD gopro helmet cam and here is a video we put together of us playing on the lost lake trails. In the video I'm riding a demo 2011 giant anthem 29er, i have to say that although those wagon wheels took a little getting used to on the corners. Once you got them up to speed it just devoured whatever the trail through at it. Was nice to finally get a chance to try out a 29er.

loSt lake loop from Ben Crook-Hanna on Vimeo.

The list of injuries is in no way slowing down with Tyler being the unsuspecting victim this time. I think I mentioned Tyler had crashed about a week back and had hurt his hand. Well it turns out he broke a bone in it so make sure you send all your healing vibes his way as the Chilcotin trip is fast approaching. I had a customer at the shop today baffled that everywhere she went you see people in casts and slings. Its getting late in the season and the dry conditions have claimed many a tired rider. A quick walk through the village is a good reminder to remain on your a game when out on the trials.

Slaving away for the MAN

The system was in shock sunday after putting in a 10 hour day at the new job. I had grown very accustomed to waking up around noon, hitting the trails, then lazing around for the rest of the day. Although I have to admit its great to have a little structure back in my life. If you haven't heard Tyler and I have began working for Summit Skis and Bikes. Its a sweet shop located right beside the chairlift in upper village. It didn't take long to get into the swing of things, lots of rentals and just chatting to customers. The customer base is a little different than I'm used too coming from the Island. The big trend this years in the bike park are Leatt braces ( a $500 neck brace), it seems quite common for a family to come in and buy their kids a brace and why not toss in a new Troy Lee D3 helmet they are only $600... At least its for safely equipment.

In the riding department, things have been great! Got to rip ride don't slide again and over post ride beers it was decided we would head up to ride a trail called The Khyber Pass (named after a famous mountain pass linking Pakistan and Afghanistan). After taking the lifts to the top of the mountain it was about an hour bike/hike to the trailhead.... then a few thousand vertical ft down! On our way to the trail we stopped at The Stu Inn, a memorial ski hut built for a skier who was killed in an avalanche quite a few years back. His friends built all the walls in the village then carried them up the hill using a groomer... a neat little piece of whistler ski history.









The last two days in the bike park have also been amazing! It rained a bunch more and conditions are prime. The upper mountain trails are blanketed in a thick fog, giving it that classic wet, slick, and misty BC feel. The lower mountain trails have just sucked up the moister leaving perfect tacky tails behind. Been bagging as many laps as possible, although gonna take the day off today as I ripped open my shin yesterday... and should really clean DH bike after ridding in all that mud.



The village has been in crazy mode ever since Crankworxs began last saturday. Crankworxs is a week long mtb festival and one of the biggest in the world. The village is swarming with company tents, live demo shows, and people. We caught the dual slalom event the other night. Gee Atherton took the pro mens win, while local favourite Micayla Gatto won the womans side. I'm off to watch the Canadian Open enduro so cheers for now.

DH Days of Summer

Tylers cross-country bike is still out of commission so the DH bikes have been in heavy rotation. Although we have been loving/killing the bike park on a daily basis, the park is hurting. Summer is in full swing with no rain for weeks (more on this later) crank works bike festival courses are getting most of the trail crews attention these days so the park is rutted and dusty. One of our many chair lift conversations turned to “so when are we gonna get these DH bikes on some fresh single track”. Not even 2 runs later we met up with the boys from summit bike shop and a 45 minute push off the beaten path later we were having beers at the entrance to ride don’t slide. The trail was incredible there were about 12 of us just flying down the mountain with bodies flying everywhere, we figured everyone had a least 2 crashes on the ride down. Didn’t mater one bit as the trail was just loamy single track with the odd steep shoot. Picture Kents Kamikazi freshly cut but 30 minutes long! The only downfall to this ride would have to be the 10 km ride back to the village on a 40 lb dh bike, but oh so worth it.





Other than that the only productive thing going on around here is that I finally managed to get an ok video put together of some riding in the bike park. Just a few clips from a run we did the other day, hope you enjoy and we will try to get some better videos together before too long.

Whistler Edit 1.0 from Ben Crook-Hanna on Vimeo.

As for it being so dry and such… It finally rained, and Matt on his first major ride got caught half way up a mountain in a hail/thunder and lightning storm. According to him it was not an enjoyable experience.



Yesterdays rain made for a dark/damp day here in Whistler and I couldn’t let it go to waste. Poor Tylers xc bike is still sick so I meet up with Dave from summit bike shop and he took me to a trail called train wreck, as it runs through an old wreck site complete with abandoned box cars. It was so cool! all the box cars are covered with amazing graffiti. Although not super long it was extremely fun and beautiful. The forest was alive, with the recent rain the forest was just radiating with lush green moss, floating steam in the trees, and the wonderful smell of damp cedar!

Quick trip to the island

Took a little break from riding over the weekend and ended up going to Victoria. But before I get into that adventure I have some great news. Green peace green (my car) has been fixed! One of the rear springs blew up on the drive out, although not surprising as we had the car loaded to over double the weight capacity. What made the $400 dent in my wallet a little easier to swallow was the bike ride I took while waiting for it to get fixed.

After arriving at canadian tire friday morning for my car appointment, the kind folks at the Tantalas bike shop let me stash my non-riding gear while I hit the trails. The sun was out and I meet lots of folks climbing up the fire road to access the beautiful single track that Squamish has to offers. I hadn't been on the xc bike for close to a week so the legs were fresh as daisies as I hammered out a solid 3 hour ride. I got the helmet cam on the go the other day as I have been slacking on making some riding videos but the footage I have gotten so far isn't the greatest. The trails are so rough around here the camera just gets shaken all over the place. I'll go through the footage and try to piece something together and get it up over the next day or so.



I spotted some lupines and I know how much Alice loves her lupines



Once back in Whistler Tyler and I hit up the bike for a few laps before meeting up with A friend of Tylers who was visiting the area. Sabrina and her friend Lyndsey are driving across the country. They were planning on heading to victoria sunday and we made the last minute decision to join them. On a side note I will never complain about paying the pei ferry toll again. The ferry to vancouver island not only charges a flat rate for the car it also charges an additional fee per person, and they also charge you going both ways! All in all it cost $230 just in ferry charges...no good. The only plus from the ferry ride was the marine wildlife we got to see. On the ride over we spotted some orcas and seals. So very cool to see out in the wild. We spent the day wondering around Victoria until we found a nice little beach to cool off from the heat. Then we began the trek back home. I have to say there is something that just feels right about driving back to Whistler, watching the silhouettes of the mountains rising up from the ocean is so peaceful.

Living that slow life

Things have slowed down a little over the last few days. Tyler and I were out for a ride on saturday and my body was not having it. So after taking a few days off to let the body to recover we headed out for a fun little ride. This was after Tyler finished playing doctor and pulled 9 stitches out of his leg. Then it was off to the mountain, it was raining a little which was nice as the mountain was getting very dusty. Here are a few shots from our ride.







Think I'm gonna try out the weekly DH race series this evening. It seems like a cool series, you pay $2 and get to race plus two beer tickets. Sounds like a good deal to me!

Good Bye Queens, Hello Chilcotins!

Been lazy the last few days so much to tell. The four queens finished up Sunday with probably the hardest ride of my life! We climbed in single track for hours only to ride down the steepest trail I have ever seen. It was craziness. Here is a brief exert from the blog mentioned below.

"Gravitron is a near mystical beast of a trail. Renown throughout the Sea-To-Sky Corridor as one of the most awesomely obnoxious creations of a diseased mind. Starting somewhere near the Sun it plummets like a broken elevator straight to the basement of hell. Imagine a f-ing steep ski line in the trees, but instead of soft fluffy powder snow, imagine dust, rock, roots, and a one way ticket to a soiled pair of underpants." - Seb Kemp

Overall, Tyler and I were very happy with how we did. We finished 31 and 15 respectively in the GC. We hadn’t rode most of the trails before so it was all new to us as we raced which adds and extra element of difficulty. Here is a link another racers blog for anyone interested in reading more about the stages, he has a great description of each days rides. Another link with some 4 queens pics and info.

That’s all old news now…. The current news is that I had an amazing adventure yesterday! I got a call from Penny asking if I wanted to join a group for a day trip into the Chilcotins. For those who don’t know of the chilcotins, it is a mountain range about 2 hours north of whistler in the middle of nowhere with the nicest alpine singletrack ever! Anywho, after a much to early 5:30 am wake up call we were on our way. Upon arriving we were told that our originally planned route still had snow covering all the mountain passes. Our only option was to take a float plane and get dropped off on the south facing side of the mountains. Riding in the float plane was really cool… landing was also scary as, but oh so smooth. All in all, it was an amazing day with great friends, unreal riding, float planes, and an icy cold lake swim and beer after the ride. I’ll let the pictures due the rest of the talking.











Ps – Matt is on the road to recovery and has rented an electric guitar, he has been sarinading us with sweet riffs since the minute he got it. Here is a shot of his new zipper!