ADAM CRAIG’S BLOG

BC Ski Trip straight to Giant Team Camp

(Editor’s Note: U.S. National XC and Super D Champion Adam Craig writes about going from a heli-skiing trip in the mountains of British Columbia straight to the Giant Mountain Bike Team Camp in southern CA. “Talk about paradigm shift…” Adam’s MTB racing season begins with the Pan American Championships in Santiago, Chile March 21 and 22.)

This winter had already been a refreshing exchange of bike-time for other types of play-time. I figured before proper bike season reconvened I’d squeeze in one more trip in the play-time category. The opportunity for this presented itself a few months ago in the unlikely form of an old New England kayaking buddy. Greg Hanlon literally wrote the book on “steep creekin’” (“wicked brookin’”?) in New England (“Steep Creeks of New England” by Greg & Sue Hanlon); we’ve paddled and mountain biked together on plenty of occasions as I crisscrossed the northeast in my formative years. Never skied in each other’s presence, though. With this information in mind I naturally jumped at the chance to join him and his wife, Sue, along with seven of their friends, on a week-long ski trip to the Mount Carlyle Lodge in the Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia. It was a good call, obviously, despite an uncharacteristically thin and volatile snowpack in the interior Canadian Rockies.

The time leading up to our meeting date in Spokane flew by and I found myself scrambling to make it to Hood River to pick up some essential supplies at Dakine and go for one last essential MTB ride at the Syncline before dark. The next morning I rocked up at the airport to a motley and highly excitable crew of prospective shredders. Tom, Mike, Jim, Ellen, Jake, Tom, Greg, Sue and Thomas were all there with all their gear and a visible stoke to get to the hills. We completed the obligatory last Mexican Lunch somewhere in the northern sprawl of Spokane and high-tailed it for BC. A few hours later we were strolling down the hill from the Alpine Motel in Nelson, looking for some local culture and maybe the pub. Skies were clear and it clearly hadn’t snowed in a long time. No bother though, other than Mike’s stand against ever “skiing tracks” everyone seemed happy to be out in the mountains and we all enjoyed a good dinner after a huge grocery shopping session.

The Helicopter flight into the Carlyle Lodge wasn’t until Sunday morning so we had to figure out something to do on Saturday. How about go skiing? Fortunately, Whitewater ski area is just up the street and has great backcountry available from its parking lot. We linked together a great tour with surprisingly good snow and bright sunshine. The day finished with the two aggressively type-A personality’s of the group, myself and Thomas (the Swiss guy), finishing with a classic coulouir off the summit of Mount Werner.

Next morning we were at the “helipad” (really just a field at the end of the Kaslo “Airport” eagerly preparing our gear and awaiting the distinctive thump-thump of the heli approaching. By the time it did approach, Greg, who would be our hutkeeper for the week, had helped us divide up all of our supplies and we were ready to start the flights in. A sling load went first, which contained all of our food and a bunch of propane to keep us warm and dry for the next week. Perfect.

Our home away from home for the next week ended up being pretty, well, plush. Nestled between Mount Carlyle, Prospector and Misty Peaks at 7200”, which is just about tree line, was our Lodge. It was about the size of my house, sleeping comforts for ten, propane stoves for heat and cooking, running water fresh from the snowpack up the hill, a sauna down the hill, a teched out outhouse and even a Pee Stake. We unloaded our food, high fived and set about doing some Avalanche Beacon drills to sharpen up the group skill set. After a bunch of that and some business stuff with Hut Boy it was off for a ski.

Thomas, Tom, Mike and I set out for high ground to get our bearings before an impending storm closed in for a few days. We found them on the summit of Mount Carlyle proper after a good scramble up a rockfield. Not a bad place we’d chosen to spend a week -- 8000’ish peaks all around and with skiable lines in all directions. We picked on that was marginal off the summit to satisfy our exposed steep hardpack needs for the next few days of pow shredding. Back to the cabin and time for dinner. This was shaping up to be a good week.

Monday morning we woke to 6” of fresh snow and decently clear skies. Another day to tour around and figure out just how awesome it was in our ‘hood. Turns out really awesome, dropping down to the Mount Heyland Basin we found and climbed a classic 1500’ couloir, getting shut down by steepness and rotten snow just shy of the summit. No matter, a bunch of steep turns in a 15 foot wide granite walled chute returned us to the valley floor. While chatting with Greg in the Sauna later that night we learned that particular line hadn’t been skied according to anyone’s memory. Tom, Thomas and I figured we’d call it “Daigle and Day-Glo” in a nod to Tom’s last name and my obnoxious green pants. Swiss guy didn’t do any of the bootpacking (although he did break the majority of trail all week) in the line so no naming rights for him… Pretty sweet day out.

Then it snowed. Lots. We skied a couple feet of pow in the trees for the next few days, having a pillow hopping good time in the process. Then it got clear. This drew us back up into the high alpine, although cautiously. There were a few weak layers in the snowpack with lots of fresh on top of them. Natural avalanches were everywhere and we had a few skier triggers but overall were able to ski a bunch of rad stuff with real nice views for the last two days of the trip. Fun.

And before we knew it we’d eaten most of a week’s worth of food for a small army, played lots of Cribbage, ran out of booze and skied from breakfast to dinner for seven days. The Heli flew into a storm on Sunday and plucked everyone from the lodge (Except knee injury victim Jake and I, who skied/snowmobiled out to ensure our exit regardless of grounded choppers) and dropped us back in reality, a week on and no idea whatsoever what had happened in the world recently. It was a time warp that I hope to experience annually.

The reason I had to make it out of the Selkirks on a schedule had nothing to do with not wanting to spend the rest of my life holed up there but more the fact that Team Giant Camp started on the Tuesday in SoCal. Talk about paradigm shift…

The location for Team Camp was new this year. Instead of the usual program involving a few days in the Giant US Offices neighborhood of Thousand Oaks, CA we retired north to the Tehachapi Mountains separating the San Joaquin Valley from the Mojave Desert. This off the beaten track corner of Cali is home to Woodward West. It’s an action sports summer camp featuring all kinds of skateparks, gymnastics, freeride and DH mountain bike trails and a bunch of other ways to have fun and excite yourself. We’d be here for a solid week training, taking photos and video, hanging out with some media folks and getting used to our sweet new bikes. Not a bad plan, if a bit different from the previous week in BC… The days flew by here in a similar fashion though. We did it all. Skatepark and Foampit sessions at night, photos, bike setup, rides, massage, meetings, eating during the day. Carl and I worked on our 360’s into the foam pit, pretty much getting them dialed… I got to ride a proper X Games Vert ramp a bit. Scary and rad. The freeride, DH and Slalom tracks out the front door provided entertainment for any spare moments, complemented by our Canadian Freerider buddy Kurt Sorge who showed us what was up… He never came on “must find singletrack at all costs” ride missions with us so we could return the favor though. Come on, Sorge… Some of those missions proved fruitful. Ones like exploring the Keysville trails north of the area we can talk about and ones that involved finding sweetness close to home we’ll keep a bit quieter… You CAN find good trail pretty much anywhere, just for the record. There was even a classic rally car practice area close by that we made good use of. Maybe a bit too good a use of, I’m pretty sure the Wheels of Teal will be back in action soon though… Oops.

After an action packed week, everyone left camp with a smile and a bunch of new stuff to get us through another successfully entertaining season of racing and riding bikes. Hats off to that.

Thanks to everyone who makes it happen. I guess its racing season again!