The Cypress Curse is known to either break a newbie’s bike, or break a newbie’s body on their first ride. Thankfully, two of us newbies broke the curse! I did not break myself, nor my bike and I couldn’t be happier! Thankfully, our fearless leader did not mention the curse until AFTER the ride, which surely would have sketched me out.
I finally rode Cypress mountain. It has always been this big scary mountain that only the advance riders dare challenge. All runs are black or double blacks, with their blacks being steeper than those on Fromme or Seymour. I had hoped to ride it next year, but I didn’t think I would make it this year. It was this beacon of beauty framing the Vancouver skyline, whispering to me to come play. Finally, after much consideration, I accepted the challenge. We rode Pre-Reaper to Blind Skier to Sex Boy. If you look at the map, along Sex Boy trail, for the 5th photo point, you will find my favourite challenge along the trail. It is a beautiful, natural puzzle that involves absolute skill and precision to ride. I didn’t ride the entrance, but as soon as I walked past the chundery craziness of the entrance, I rode along the edge alongside the mossy goodness and off the end of the ledge around the corner (past the RHS of the frame). I hope to ride the entire rock, including its entrance, the next time I ride through it.
Cypress definitely has its own character. It seems that there are a lot more natural puzzles on Cypress than on Fromme and Seymour, which I find interesting and hope to conquer more of them. I really like that it seems less ridden (and perhaps more exclusive). Likely since it is a bigger mountain with more trails, that it balances out the traffic so the trails are less worn. I love the loaminess of Cypress. I love its smell. Even in the rain, I could sit back and appreciate the trail for its incredible beauty. There were quite a few instances that I thought, ‘wow, this would be an amazing shot right now’. I can’t wait to get back up there and really learn its intricacies.
There is one trail, called Wild Cherry, that is a triple black diamond. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of a triple black diamond. I suppose that is what would be considered an experts-only trail. We rode up to the trail head and walked down several 100s of feet to get a feel for its insanity. There are so many crazy steep rocks that roll for way too long for me to even consider rolling off of. There is no way I’d even attempt it, perhaps not ever. It was great to have a look, but man I would not want to see someone fall off the rock.
Today, VIFF finally released a sneak preview of most of the films that will be showing during this year’s festival. I’ve been anticipating the release for some time, so I was excited to finally pick up my copy at the local bookstore Bizz Books, that specializes on film, theatre and television books. I will spend my evening pouring over its contents and highlighting the films I want to see during the festival. This year’s festival is October 1st until October 16th. It is my goal to see at least ten movies this year; twice as many as last year. I will reveal my choices once I’ve purchased the tickets.
Tonight, I met up with a friend to participate in my first yyoga class. YYoga describes themselves as follows:
At YYOGA we provide more than yoga. We provide an experience that encourages you to achieve a sense of balance, integration, and freedom that improves the quality of your life. We support your commitment to healthy living.
Whatever your level, whatever your goal, we welcome you all to be inspired, practice yoga and enjoy freedom. Together.
Their website is really well done, with a lot of very valuable information, that is well laid out. It is easy to navigate and find the information that I’m looking for. I really appreciate the teacher bios and I think they did a great job with the photographs.
My first impression of their studio was that it is a beautiful centre. They did an amazing job on the interior and it really appeals to my minimalist style with a nice decor of wood, glass and white walls. It was very fresh and clean. I really appreciated the free tea and the lounge as I waited with a book for my yoga partner to arrive. I wish they had more lockers and more locks that worked.
My first impression of the management of their studio is that they’re still trying to find their rhythm. Having just opened weeks ago, they’re not quite organized. When I arrived, there was confusion at the front desk as one instructor couldn’t make it to the class they were scheduled to teach, so another teacher was on their way to substitute, but was delayed by traffic, so another jumped in to save the class. Once the front-desk discussion completed, they turned their attention to me so that I could fill out a waiver form and a bunch of first-time details including having my photo taken (a little unexpected). Once completed, I was shown to the lounge to wait for my friend to arrive (with a free pass). I felt forgotten for the 45 minutes and uncertain where I would de-water having drank too many cups of delicious tea. By the time my yoga partner had arrived, the woman at the front counter had already finished her shift and had gone, so I had to reexplain that I still needed to submit my free pass card. Really, I could have just walked into any of the classes without having paid. The changeroom was crazy busy and I felt overwhelmed by the number of chattering women. The studio should stagger the class start/finish times so the changerooms are not so busy. Once changed, I headed towards the “Earth” room for my class. However, the class was relocated to the “Wind” room, but the previous class, a spin class, was still rolling their bikes to another section of the room, then covering them with a large curtain, while we tried to set up our matts dodging the rolling bikes and trying to find an empty spot on the floor out of the way of the moving bikes. I placed my matt on the floor in the same direction as everyone else, but then we were told to turn our matts 90 degrees to face another direction, but then we were told to move our matts to form a circle. Ugh. It was a mad frenzy immediately before the class was about to start. Finally, our instructor started the class, but there was so much chatter and noise leaking into the studio from the waiting area outside, that I couldn’t hear myself breathe. It was a bit of a stressful experience to begin a class that is supposed to bring inner peace and calamity after a hectic day at the office. I think I will wait a few more weeks before returning.
Last night, I hiked the grind with the same group of colleagues that climb weekly. I was feeling pretty good during the climb and actually had hope of beating my personal best of 48:02. I knew it was going to be tough, but I climbed on, passing this guy and that, that girl and this, onward and upward. However, I didn’t finish under 48:02, but it was a close 48:11. At least now I know my personal best wasn’t a one-time fluke.
I just returned from a few days of playing in the Silver Star bike park. What an amazing couple of days. The weather was absolutely beautiful and perfect for good riding. The hill and village were serenely quiet; quite unlike the craziness of Whistler, particularly given that the last time I was there was during Crankworx. Seldom did we arrive at the tail of other riders, or other riders landed on our tails. We had plenty of time to session the many structures and stunts before giving them a try.
Wednesday after work, we loaded up a tiny Subaru STi. If you’ve never seen one of these little rally cars in action, I suggest the following video. Imagine two bikes, three people with their riding gear, casual gear, food and booze for three days all piled into this little guy:
It was a tight fit, but man can it fly! I’ve never been in such a high performance vehicle, driven by such a capable driver. I won’t tell you the speeds we hit, but nothing I’ve ever imagined, yet it felt unbelievably stable and controlled as it gripped around corners at break-neck speeds. I can now fully understand the allure of a rally car.
We arrived late Wednesday night. We were all exhausted even though it was only mid-week. A couple of hours and glasses of wine later, we called it a night ready to take on the day.
Thursday morning, we were up to enjoy a large, delicious breakfast before heading down the mountain with our bikes. One of the riders was familiar with the hill, and is an expert rider, so the rest of us filed behind him fully trusting him to lead the way down the dusty trails of goodness. The trails on Silver Star are absolutely amazing. I’ve ridden quite a bit of Whistler, which has really cool natural features, with big rocks and big drops, but Silver Star is an amazing mountain on its own. We started with an easy enough trail to get our heads and bodies into the game. The flowy berms on this mountain are nothing I’ve ever ridden. They are so clean, with one berm snaking into a bowl, scooping into another berm, so perfectly banked, with enough height to really absorb the speed of the grade. It’s an amazing feeling to smoothly flow from one into the next, over a spine, into another, hit a jump before a corner, into another corner, flying through the air off of another jump. There’s absolutely no thrill like it.
Our second run was called LTG, or “Low To The Ground”. As its name would imply, all the stunts along this trail are low to the ground (less than a few feet high). This takes out a big debilitating fear factor for me. I was really happy to completely clean a ramp onto a skinny, onto another skinny, up a teeter, onto a bridge, onto another teeter, then finally onto a bridge, on my first attempt! Yup! Wow, what a feeling of accomplishment. Had the structure been another foot or two off the ground, then I would have been way too sketched out. After this structure, we rode down to a series of four teeter-totters! Yes, you read that correctly, four! Imagine riding up a teeter-totter, pausing on the fulcrum until the weight of your body and bike lowered the second side of the teeter, then riding down the teeter only to have it slam onto the ground before having to ride up the next teeter, then repeating this three more times. Not to mention these teeters were skinny at only 6 inches wide to start.
It took several attempts for me to make it over the first teeter onto the second, then finally, as I was riding up the third, I fell off, straddling the fulcrum with my bike as my body flew over the handlebars and sure enough, the bike came crashing down on top of me. Ugh. From such highs, to such lows. I was completely sketched out after that crash and was afraid to do any structures for a few runs. However, a few berms, wall rides and skinnies later, I was feeling a bit more like myself again. Unfortunately, that meant missing out on a few, but I needed to gain some confidence back.
Close to the end of the day, we were trying to get in at least one and a half more runs, so we had to burn it down the mountain to make the last lift at 4:30pm. We ended up ripping down a black run called World Cup, absolutely flying through the air, hitting crazy air on some of the crazy jumps. I bottomed out my shocks a couple of times on that run having flown much higher and further than I had anticipated. We made it down the mountain in a shocking 14 minutes. I don’t know that I’ve ripped down so fast before, but wow, what a thrill!
For our final run of the day, we attempted a double diamond. Yikes. It was definitely a crazy run with a lot of really loose blades of rock. It was super slippery and super steep, but we all made it out alive. There was one super steep, long rock face that didn’t leave much room for error, particularly since it ended on a ledge, on a corner, with only about two feet of room for a landing and no room for error. Of course, only our most advanced rider attempted it. One look and there was no way I was riding it. I took the easier route after watching one successful ride down the face.
By the end of the final run, we were all famished and couldn’t wait to enjoy a fantastic pasta dinner to carb-up for the next day of riding.
Our second day of riding, was amazing! Although our bodies were a little worn, we were more familiar with the trails and had a night to sleep on the skills and knowledge we had acquired the day before. For some reason, I’m sure there is a psychological and/or physiological reason behind it, after sleeping on newly acquired skills they seem so much more solid. We were killing it. We were cleaning a lot of the skinnies, riding high along the super long wall rides, smoking the banked, double-S curved wall rides, and riding the many options along the trail, even those that I had rode around the previous day including one over a creek and several along a few high logs. Height always freaks me out, so do creeks. We rode a suspension bridge over another creek that flexed and waved when riding it. However, my biggest success of the day was my first gap jump! It was about a 1.5 to 2-foot gap which was also about 2.5 to 3-foot drop. I have a difficult time judging distance when I’m riding, so my guesses have a margin of error. The other big success of the day was a structure that was 3-tiered, each jump getting bigger and bigger until finally a 3-foot drop at the end. Eek! I can’t believe I landed that baby. Amazing. I was giddy with joy!
The other riders went on to do some even crazier stunts. They rode another series of three jumps, with the second being a gap and the third being a huge drop. I’m sure it had to be a 4 or 5-foot drop, easily. Crazy! There was no way I was even going to attempt it. Once committed, there’s only one way down and no turning back! Which was primarily the reason why I stood on the sidelines recording a video until they were satisfied with their jumps.
For my last run of the day and of the trip, I chose the last double black that we had yet to ride - Dag’s Downhill. It was super steep, super technical and super fun! I really enjoy the steeper technical rock. I love the puzzle of picking a clean line and perhaps having to adjust it as I make my way down. I look at rocks so differently now. There was one drop that was unexpectedly bigger than I had anticipated when I jumped off of it, but I landed it, with not the most grace, but I stayed on my bike, which is the most I could ask for. I retired a few runs earlier than the other riders, as I was completely spent. I just couldn’t hack the burn in my legs anymore, not to mention my forearms were losing all strength and the blisters under my calluses were screaming at me. I finished the run and rode back to the room to heat up some super delicious chili after a hard day of playing, while the other riders finished a few more runs before calling it a day.
Here’s a shot of the sunrise on the last morning at Silver Star; it was sad to leave, but my body was finished.
I’ll have a video update to this post once it is ready. I don’t think I’m on the video pulling any stunts. I get nervous when others are recording and I usually goof it up, so I prefer not to have the camera on me, especially if I’ve never done the stunt and I’m hesitant and nervous to begin with. Anyway, you’ll get a sense of Silver Star from the video and the crazy stunts that I aspire to complete. Stay tuned!
