MOUNTAIN LIFE - Coast Mountains | Summer 2018

SUMMER 2018 MLCM 55 B racing into the wind, I shift from side to side to ensure my footing is secure and peer over the edge. The entire buttress is littered with lines that look like instant death, but from the air I’d noticed one that could potentially be ridden. Looking down from the top, I realize it’s way steeper than I anticipated. Vertigo washes over me, testing my balance as I stare into the chute. Even so, I’m frothing to get into this line so I hastily clean up the top section with a pickaxe, but as daylight fades into late afternoon I cut my inspection short and return to the top. Placing a false sense of confidence in a maybe-too-soft gravel corner, I tip into the line assuming, hoping really, that I can rip it top to bottom. Not so. Careening down the scree-laden slope, I approach the soft turn much faster than expected. Prepping for a two-wheel drift, my inside foot drops off the pedal as my tires dig in and grip. Coming in way too hot and clinging to control while navigating the rocky moguls (boulders) through the bottom section, my bike bounces sideways, ejecting me in slow motion. I smash into the jagged cobbles of the shoreline and ragdoll into the mighty Fraser River. Soaked and battered, I quickly realize the magnitude of an injury this deep in the backcountry. This is the subsequent end of my riding season… PLACING A FALSE SENSE OF CONFIDENCE IN A MAYBE - TOO - SOFT GRAVEL CORNER , I TIP INTO THE LINE ASSUMING , HOPING REALLY , THAT I CAN RIP IT TOP TO BOTTOM . NOT SO . Thirty seconds to the bottom, 30 minutes back to the top.There's no easy way out. JUSSI GRZNAR