Yesterday I took my mountain bike along the 7 summits trail.

This is a legendary singletrack  route in BC and deemed “Epic” by the IMBA.

It basically traverses the Rossland mountain range and gets right into the high alpine terrain.  The route is 37km in length with 1200m of climbing and nearly 2000m of descent.  The whole route is just perfect singletrack.

As a mountain bike route is combines great scenery, punishing singletrack climbs and a amazing amount of descent.  This is no cross country route, you really need a capable all mountain bike to get the most from this route.

Our group had a couple of mechanicals, and 2 people dropped out at the halfway point. All in it took 8 hours- probably 5 hrs riding and 3 hrs fixing things or taking rests.

The Weather was just about OK, a couple of rainshowers and about 8-12 degrees.

My top kit choices for the day were:
Deuter Speed Lite 10 litre pack, the smallest pack I could get away with.

Marmot Windshirt Fantastic top, kept me warm and wicked the moisture away. Packs away easy too.

This is easy the best long distance MTB route I have done. Still sore today. None of the pictures do any justice to the downhill trails, just come and experience them for yourself.

For more info and some much better pictures see this link: More details here.

Thanks to Kevin, Martin, Tracy, Lou and Laurie.

Pics below:

Top of the first Climb, Mt Plewman in background, this is great ski touring terrain in winter.

View towards Old Glory.

Looking back Granite Mountain, the main ski hill for Red Resort.

Amazing Trees at top of Mt Plewman

Just Pass Record Ridge.

Lots of Winter 2009 and Spring 2010 products have been reduced in price and added to the sale pages as our Winter 2010 deliveries begin to arrive. Everything at 30 – 40% off.

Most of the new sale items are from Mountain Equipment and Marmot, so there are some great deals to be had on good kit.

Facewest Clothing Sale Page

When in the clothing sale categories, hover over the thumbnails to preview which sizes and colours are available to save yourself time. Hope you find something you like

Long Climb from CP4 to CP5

I ran Sedbergh Hills fell race on sunday in glorious conditions and had a totally shocker. I’m not really sure why my performance was so bad but half way around, even with what I thought was good pacing, I completely melted down. I had cramp in places I’d never had it before and felt like I hadn’t eaten for 12 hours. I resided myself to walking home, not even a strong march, more of a sunday walk and just about managed a downhill shuffle at the finish. Found this photo on the FRA forum which totally sums the situation up.

It’s now Tuesday lunchtime and I think I have the sorest legs that I have just about ever had. I know Sedbergh is a tough race even though it’s only 14 miles but this is ridiculous. Hoping for better things at the Mountain Trial!

The Kootenay’s is a region of mountains  in the South East corner of British Columbia, Canada.

It is home to some fantastic MTB terrain, and has had a remarkable number of very well built trails.

If you are used to UK trail centre riding areas such as Glentress or Dalby then this place will blow you away. The riding is a mix of crosscountry loops and shuttle accessed downhill style descents. 2-3000ft descents are the norm here.

Highlights:

Eli Sim in Nelson is a great ride. It takes about 50mins to get to the top by a fireroad then you get a great fast flowing descent with plenty of intermediate stunts.

The Awakener
This is a route near Castlegar, BC, a great mix of advanced trail types

The wildlife here is amazing. So far I have seen 5 bears, all have been fairly relaxed so far and just slowly leave the area when they see/ smell you. Today in Rossland we watched one climb a tree searching for food. Other wildlife seen recently include Ospery, Deer, Marmots, Bald eagles, Mountain sheep, Humingbirds, Chipmunks and Beaver.

Bear seen slinking away in Rossland
Rossland Riding

The terrain here is not really any different to areas of the Alps. The difference is the huge effort local riders and clubs have put into the trail building which results in beautiful riding trails with plenty of oppurtunites to rip it up and improve your riding. If you love mountain biking this area is a must see.

I’ll post some more links to vids shortly when I get my helemt cam working properly.

With all the rain recently and many members of staff on holiday there has been a limited amount of outdoor activities among staff members recently. However James and I managed a day climbing at Tremadog last weekend, and I’ve managed to get out locally and in the peak.

Climbing Short Circuits at Ilkley

Desperation at Stanage