TEAM XTREME

A Canadian winter adventure

2011-02-16T11:48:00.006+13:00

We are enjoying our last winter in Vancouver BC. With only 2 more weeks left we are counting down the days until our grand canyon trip. Since visiting NZ for christmas, we returned to Canada with the intention of savouring the moment. So we have been making the most of getting "out and about" for a last true canadian winter...

British Columbia has a vast amount of back country terrain, there is endless opportunities for backcountry skiing...

Besides the skiing, we have been enjoying hanging out with good friends, eating good food and experiencing the "candian culture" of which includes curling, live music, watching the Canucks (ice hockey) game, film festivals you name it! (not that we have much photo footage of it, but heres something anyway)...

BC is such an incredible place we are going to miss it dearly. Thanks to all the crew up here for all the great adventures, it will all be missed!

Return of Mountaineering in the Cascades

2010-08-23T16:08:00.014+12:00

Because of the trip I did last year, I just had to sign up for more. It is a 10 day mountaineering seminar that NOLS offers their instructors. With it only being an hour and a half south I jumped in the van and headed back to the States. We organised gear the next day and took off for the hills.

This time round there were only 6 of us and an all female trip. You could just imagine the shenanagins we got up to. We managed to hit 3 peaks, travel a bunch on glacier, go crevasse diving, abseil of steep passes, have photo shoots and a whole lota a laughter - not to mention the blue bird skies every day!

The views...

The Camping...

The summits...

The people...

The skills...

The Marmots...

Summer Lovin

2010-08-07T03:54:00.010+12:00

Summer over here in Canada has been all go. Within 3 days of Jacqui arriving back from Australia we were on the road again, family included. We had Hillary(shauns sis), Helge, Ange (Jacs sis) and Mic visiting so we took them for a tickey tour around the rockies. Although it seemed like it was summer in Vancouver - it was not the case in the rockies, we had more snow than anticipated. But all in all it was an awesome trip and was great to be hanging out with the family....

Shaun Hills and Helge at the top of the chief - Squamish

Ange and Jacs Melinge Lake, Jasper - not quite thawed!

The Crew so excited about sunshine and Mt Robson!

Of Course we had to get them out on some whitewater action. This picture is now the face of Fraser River Rafting! what an action shot!

Within a week or two of saying farewell to the sisters we anticipated the arrival of Jacquis mum and stepdad...round 2.

Continuing on a simlar journey through the rockies we also went to the Calgary stampede. Yehaww what an event that was. We pulled out our western attire and tried to fit in...

Canada Day - Proud!

All dressed up and ready to rodeo

Cuckwagon races

Mandatory jumping shot

We then had a bit of time back at work with a mixture of Vancouver and Vancouver Island Locations. Shaun then got assigned some work in the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii) in northern BC for 3 weeks. So we jumped in the company jeep and drove north for 2 days, through the haze of the forest fires and into sandfly / mosquito territory.

A small piece of evidence of bug action...

Jacs planning our route

There's heap's of totem poles on the islands. We hired some sea kayaks for a day and found this one.

Good views all round

Apparently it's crab season up here. We found this (undersized) one while kayaking and didn't keep it. A couple of days later we went out 'crabbing' for real. Evidence of that is below, unsuccessful on the crab front though

Mid-day, mid kayaking rest stop on a secluded beach

Some pretty cool rainforest up here

Jacs got creative and made some bannana bread

It wouldn't be a rugged coastline without a few good shipwreck's I suppose

This lake is just down the road from where Shauns staying / working.

We finished off the trip by going to a local music festival, awesome music, food and people...what more could you ask for?

Where to practise your hauling skills on Vancouver Island and

2010-06-16T06:50:00.008+12:00

So I had completed my rock strength testing program on the Seymour Canyon formation and, beside losing my wallet (featured here on its last evening in my company, emotions emotions), I had nothing in mind (well there was a week of office work but...)

Shaunie was in Vancouver Island chasing Bald Eagles away from his favorite landfill, figuring he would get his weekend off.

Got some ideas from a local paddler and we met by Campbell River late on friday and carried on to beautiful Stary lake by Gold River. Everything finishes with River out here. It's gotta be a good sign

Team Bacon and Eggs started massive, supported by the fact I had forgotten the stove (lots of fuel though I should say in my defence)

We put in for the Upper Upper Gold river the next day where we found stuff we wanted to paddle

And stuff we didn't want to paddle

Paddling stuff is fun but sometimes, when you have a busy mind like mine, you feel like breaking the routine, looking at things from a different angle, giving yourself a chance to live the sport through all you sensors. I say no more...

Nice day finishing with our finest home brew, a strong purgating curry (most likely from hell), time to relax amongst the trees, listen to a bit of music and talk about the days and years to come.

My blurry pictures style hasn't quite found approval and support throughout the globe yet, but it is just waiting to happen, so I keep exposing people to it until they perceive the true apporximate and deviant depth of the concept. One day...

So we were sunday, and after two separate runs the previous day, we decided to take a look at Monkey Canyon for which we had a description that we cared to read very partially before putting in, so we would remain interested the whole way.

The first succession of rapids would normally be nice but with higher lows that desired and a tree right across we quickly came to an agreement.

Just after the narrows (which are very narrow by the way) Shaun led the way and jumped that fair jump behind his paddle and kayak, soon to be followed by his French buffer.

Things were good for a few more rapids, sun was shining, our muscles were feeling stronger and bigger than ever, but then the valley narrowed again with a distinct horizon line.

The rapid none of us remembered reading clearly about, with a no-return eddy as an only way to scout. The pool below and the rapid itself looked busy enough, and like I said we were feeling massive and strong, so we decided we were gonna do the glory portage on that one. After two unsuccessful bluffed out exits, a few ferry and hauling of kayaks along the river, we found the way

Back to the happy day with bark and mud in the neck, and hands heated by the hauling

You do it cause you love it.

Shaun just passing his "Root" commiting move

An Australian Advencha!

2010-05-09T19:01:00.016+12:00

Well it all started with a phone call... "do you want to work a contract in Australia canoeing on the Drysdale River?" "Sure...when?" "In 2 weeks..." So there I was boarding a plane (well multiple planes) to Broome Western Australia (north west tip). Upon arriving I was then asked to stay with the expedition and continue to hike with them for another 3 weeks... reluctantly i said yes..

Before we did anything else there was one thing we had to take care of first - scare the students at the croc park - check out these bad boys. As Willy my southern co instructor would have said " they will whoop your asss". Luckily these crocs are saltwater crocs (in which we were only in "potentially" in their area for only 4 days) We were mainly in Freshwater croc territory - in which we saw them everyday but they are pretty docile. Apart from one which chased after some students and rammed their boat...

So once we got our gear and food sorted we headed our way up to the Drysdale Station (8hour drive on a dirt road) putting on the river with 10 canoes, 39 days worth of food, 19 people, 220km to travel.

The river itself is a mix of class 1 - 5, with some very interesting rapids that look like they disappear into the trees (very hard to scout!). We ran some rapids...

We found various ways to "line" some of the rapids...

And there were some which we just had to portage around...

Everyday seemed like a new discovery, there was always something new that would be amazing. The insects and animals, the river itself, the amazing plant life...

We came across this amazing bat colony, we watched these eagles attacking the bats and flying off with them - it reminded me of the wizard of oz...

We did some days hikes to explore some of the creeks and rockart near the river - there is so much rock art in this area - some the oldest in the world! But unfortunately I am not allowed to publish these photos.

We were camping mainly on slick rock every night, some of the best camping spots I have seen. Its was super hot at the start of the trip as the rock would never cool down it would hold the heat of the 35 degree days well. But then we got a lot of rain which cooled it off. Sleeping under mosquitoe nets and the stars was a pretty special ways to end a great day

We had to deal with many medical issues - it was like we were running a clinic. Infections were the biggest of our concern, we didnt know it at the time but somehow a staph bacteria got into the group and several people kept coming up with boils. We had 5 evacuations (one student of which got evacuated 3 times)...

We caught the end of the wet season, which bought thunder and lightning storms in on a daily basis...but half way through the canoeing section the dry season kicked in and we no longer got any significant rain.

The classroom...

So after 39 days canoeing down the river, we met up with a NOLS truck and they picked up our canoes, gave us some more food and sent us on our way to hike back up the river for 26 days.

Unfortunately for us we still were not aware of this highly contagious bacteria amongst our group. Now that were hiking and getting more sweaty and dirty the bacteria had a field day...and I was one of the victims.

In total we had 7 people evacuated because of this infection, some peoples bodies could handle it some didnt...So after 5 days of hiking I had some nasty boils on both my legs, I jumped on a helicopter, then a 4 seater plane to fly us back to Broome.

I am currently still in Broome, hanging out waiting to be healed. I have been on 5 different antibiotics one of which was an iv. The 5th one seems like its doing the job nicely, at this stage I will be hangin out until the end of the week and then flying back to Vancouver to join in on the adventures with Shaun, Hills and my sis...so until then

A springy feeling

2010-04-29T13:22:00.002+12:00

OK people time to write a bit about life in Vancouver and around as the winter comes to an end. With Jacqui away, the boys have had lot to do to keep entertained and busy...well. Anyway, between work sessions, we have had a few visitors coming and bringing fresh news form other continents and good mood. Lately The Alaska crew lead by Chunk turned up.

It was quite good, once used to the colours

A trip to Edmonton allowed me to catch up with Heather, and meet her good friends. A road trip trip lead us to Jasper where we managed some good camping and a bit of climbing. Dried mango was on the up.

Team french was put together after a hard hang over day back country skiing in the gullies of Mt Seymour and it was decided that a ski ascent/descent of Mt baker was on in up.

After an average first day getting up past the tree line in the rain and the blizzard without my shell, the skies open and gave us a perfect summit day (well, it surely was cold and windy but it worked alright)

MegaPouascaille et Jeff

Luc teh Duke in good style

Our campsite for the night, which proved to be a horribly windy place the next day, but hey.

Luc finding the stinky goat cheese in his backpack on the way down, while Jeff excuses himself for a short nap.

Good times.

Gareth, Shaunie and I went to the Chilwack Kayaking Festival last weekend, which gave us a good opportunity to remove the dust from our party apparel and give our hips some exercise. Once again, we didn't leave unnoticed. Gareth had his first proper river trips and came back very pleased, despite an expressive hangover. The Rastafari was quiet on the way back.

Hillary McC is around this weekend to visit and making most of a beautiful Vancouver in the sun.

Happy days.

Hope you guys are having fine moments and hope to hear from you soon

Winter Roundup

2010-04-12T08:28:00.009+12:00

A dark batch of Homebrew to wash away the winter blues

We haven't put any pictures up for a while, here's a bit of what we've been up to over the last few months...

Winter arrived and we did some skiing, here's some pics from a trip Luc and I did to a backcountry hut, some whistler pics and one from Silverstar Resort.

Brew Hut

Mt Brew

Luc, Brew Meadows camping

Rhys at Whistler

Rach, Rhys and Jacs at Whistler

Silverstar Resort

Then the Olympics came to town. It was pretty good fun mingling with the crowds and cheering for Canada...

Your mate

Jacs hard at work during traffic patrol duties

I know someone who works at the Olympics and has two thumbs

The weather has now started to get warmer, that means the paddling season is kicking off again

East Fork of the Lewis River, Washington USA

Norrish Creek, BC

I had to go down to Reno recently to present a paper at a conference for work. I figured while I was down there I might as well fill in some time and check out the local area. I ended up catching up with a friend from high school and skiing around lake tahoe for 3 days. Not bad...

Quality Vancouver Sunrise from Cypress Mountain

USA & Mexico

2010-01-12T16:08:00.010+13:00

I'll admit it's been a while since I got back from this part of the world but have recently moved into a really cool new flat up on the hills with fellow Xtremer Em and associates Titty and Debs and it's time for the update!

After spending three months kayak instructing in North Carolina I headed down to Miami, the Florida Keys and Mexico before flying home via San Diego.

Unfortunately technology failed me and I lost a fair few photos from Mexico and San Diego but managed to have some great times, particularly in Mexico diving with whale sharks, snorkelling in cenotes (underground rivers), drinking Sol and Corona on the beach and checking out the infamous Cancun nightlife.

After a decade you'd need a holiday too...

2009-12-04T06:00:00.015+13:00

Shaun back from the Island, Jacqui back from her frolickings, we were finally reunited and we realised it was our 10 year anniversary so a holiday was in order. We wanted warm, we wanted dry, tickets to Vegas were on special so Vegas it was! Watch out Vegas here we come again...

Vegas by night - The Strip

Splashing out on a new climbing rack, we were ready to break it in. We spent 3 nights in Las Vegas, by day we dominated the climbing scene at Red Rocks. Night time events included catching up with Hadley (a friend from uni), going to a Cirque du Soleil show and winning a total $50 on the pokies! No we did not hit up the chapels – maybe next time!

Next stop Joshua Tree National Park, Mojave desert, California. Jumping in our Mazda 3 hire car we hit the road south into the desert. After a 4 hour drive we arrived in the park and set up camp. Days were warm evenings cold and the climbing was excellent (just as we had heard). We spent 4 days exploring the parks monzogranite boulders and fields of Joshua trees (which isn't actually a tree but a family of the yucca plant).

Shaun

Mazda 3 - Mojave Desert

Joshua Tree National Park

Jac's - J Tree

Jac's dominating the roof

Shaun - J Tree

Lots of boulders

Blue skies all round

What a star

After flying back from Vegas we headed down South to catch up with Chris. He'd organised a sweet long weekend away for thanksgiving in a backcountry hut with a whole bunch of good people. We hauled in 2 kegs of beer, 3 turkeys, a turkey deep fryer, lots of vege's, a couple of pumpkin pies, 32 party shirts and good smiles all round. We were ready for action.

The walk in usually takes 2-3 hours, towing our 'sleds', it took us 6 brutal hours

Once at the hut, the first job was to ensure everyone had a party shirt

Next on the agenda, 3 turkeys to cook

Team Xtreme, supervising the turkey cooking process

The hut we stayed in, seriously cool.

By day, the skiing was also fantastic. We were super lucky with the weather, snow by night - sun by day.

Shaun climbing up through the forest

The entertainment was superb as well. A mandolin and harmonica duet was entirely appropriate.

The entire weekend was super good fun. 28 great people hanging out in the hills with great food beer & wine. We're back at work now, Jac's up at the ski hill and Shaun at the office. We're waiting for a big dump of snow now!

Calf Muscle sharpening in Croatia

2009-11-27T02:58:00.008+13:00

So I was getting to the end of my unbearable holidays. I returned to France after the Alaskan trip and enjoyed two weeks of solid family time, catch up conversations, good food, time with the little ones, which proved to be very regenerating.
But my calf muscles were not getting anything out of all the cheese and delicious meat I was ingesting. More and more frustrated, they started to bother my dreams, penetrate my thoughts, turning my life into a restless exitless mare. I faced the issue and borrowed my parents car to hit the road and visit friends in the alps (yes I visited Frank who has remained an accurate version of himself. We even went boating) southern part of France and Italy, where my cal muscle ordeal was to find an end.
In Trieste, I met Angus, and quickly after a few vinos in town, a plan was set, gear, good mood and refined conversations were packed. We were going for a few days of cyclo-touring in Istria, Croatia

The weather forecast was saying poos and wees, but having brought enlightenment and luck with us, we care for none of that. Instead we enjoyed warm windless autumnal days.
Here Angus enjoying Gothic remains under the protective shade of an old-friend-oak.

The first day consisted in cruising gently through colourful windy roads on the hillside, crossing small villages full of character
Nights camping in the country were interesting with nosy noisy dogs giving us personal serenades more than once a night. It is good to know that farmers start their day at 5am in the dark and sing alone for their animals in the paddocks in Croatia. That also helps with sleep. Here Gus's freeby bike front break's cable decided to dislodge itself, which inevitably forced him into a straighter trajectory that wanted in the following turn. I was struggling to not piss my pants when recording the moment.

in Labin, enjoying a monster lunch under the impressive ruins of the roman coliseum.
Reaching the more touristy shore, we follow coastal tracks for some time.

Cute colourful villages refurbished for the German tourists.
Limsky Fjord
Looking for campsites in the dark darkness

Last day, on our way out of Istria, at the step of the finally climb to the border. Determined not to take the risk to take booze with us through the border we agree to part with our bottle o rum in the most honourable manner. After finding a romantic location (you would have recognized a building site, that even had a smoky fire), we do what we have to do.
Things are a little harder than before on the bike after this interlude, more particularly when Gus tries to find his passport at the border and drops both his wallet and bike before displaying a barely excusing smile on his face...
We return Trieste and quickly apply firm discipline to our lives by keeping it moving as timely and effectively as possible on our way to the first apero bar, then resto, then other bar...anyway we return victorious and singing.
The next morning see me with a lot of road to do to Switzerland and a schedule to keep to, but no car keys....
After two hours of fucking around making plans, Gus took over my brain and put it right. The keys were found where they were last put and joy comes back to my life.
I can take anyone on the calf muscle now. I have no fear. you gotta do what you gotta do.

Project Now #3 - CANADA BC!

2009-11-14T12:50:00.016+13:00

Em made a quick arrival in style and we went straight to making a plan...

PHASE 1: Place Glacier

After a warm welcome at the airport with party suits and afros we were quickly on our way, truck loaded driving north to Pemberton. One would never expect to fall asleep gazing at the clear star filled night, and wake up to a thunder bolt crashing down and setting the bush on fire at 6am, but it did!!

After our intense and intrusive wake up call we hit the trail (well we had to find it first). Taking us straight up the guts of an awesome waterfall we ended up surrounded by alpine lakes and large granite boulders. Finding a two man hut and a weather station we were quite content sitting back watching the sunset and mountain goats passing by.

PHASE 2: Rocky Mountains

Upon returning to Vancouver we made a quick turn around switching out the truck to the van and acquiring an additional party member: Gareth, The G Shizzle, Giraffe, Bubba G, however you chose to call him.

And then there were 4........

Driving East, Kelowna was our first stop: Dave Aubreys (Thanks for the dinner Dave it was awesome) to share some past time stories and good food. We continued on our way past Revelstoke and searched for a campsite at 1am. Never ideal, especially when you hit a massive rock and get a flattie and then proceed to throw a toad in the mix - Thanks Chris!!

Our first destination was originally Glacier National Park (Canadian not American) but they sent us to Yoho National Park, who then sent us onto Kootenay National Park..... because of the long weekend things were getting booked up. We decide to make the most of the Gong show of tourists and do what we do best, PARTY SHIRTS....

Doing a day hike from Moraine Lake to Paradise Valley. We prepared adequately so that we wouldn't loose each other (in the crowds rather than the bush)

What do ya reckon Em?....I think she concers

..............

Kootneys National Park was well worth the stop. Doing an overnight hike on the Rockwall trail once we decided to take the long way out which proved to be quite spectacular. Waking up to 20cm of snow made it more exciting and hiking through the blustry winds and climbing over 2 alpine passes...

Next stop Banff hot springs to thaw out...which is where we met up with some dodgy raft guides from Canmore one named Si the other named Reefton.

Si and Reefton then showed us what was what in Canmore. Float trip down the Bow river, moose tours, climbing and a good old catch up.

A float trip down the Bow river prooved to be quite entertaining

Well the jump shot seemed like a good idea at the time

Stop looking - we found the moose on the moose tour

Jacs and Em climbing at Grassi Lakes, Canmore

After getting what we called "stuck in a eddy" it was time to eddy out and hit what we have been waiting for...Bugaboos Provincial Park. The place everyone keeps raving on about - and so they should it was such a magical place!

Em showing us where to go - Bugaboos Provincial Park

Porcupine proofing your car is essential to keep the little critters chewing on ya brake hoses

A pretty magical spot

To give you a perspective this is our campsite

After the Bugaboss we needed to make our way back out to the coast. Mapping out our route we planned a way to see more of the province. However with an unfortunate mishap reagrding Emmas undies and a massive U turn our plans changed some what and some more hours driving through the night had to be done. We still managed to explore Golden through to Revekstoke and up to Lillooet down through Squamish, to check out the Ashlu river which is currently getting dammed.

After a good feed of sushi it was time for Chris to move on out and get some shoulder surgery. Me and Em unpacked and repacked the van to head into Phase 3...

speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil - Actually Em was just hiding the spinach in her teeth, Shaun was proving he was clear.

PHASE 3: Vancouver Island
Time to go visit the man himself Mr McCracken. Heading up to the top of the Island Shaun was working up in Port McNeil. Making the most of a roof over our heads we cooked up some good food (including Blackberry choc mud cake!) and soaking up the cultural atmosphere in the area.

This is a first nations cemetry, totem poles instead of gravestones

After a few days catching up on sleep and keeping clean - it was time to get back out amoungst it! So we hired some sea kayaks in Telegraph Cove and paddle down Johnstone Strait - where the largest population of orca whales lives (well apparently orcas are dolphins not whales so we now refer to them as killer dolphins). Wild life was abundant seals, dolphins, birds on a log and of course we got to see the orcas!

"What do ya reckon about Russia?" " Sounds like a plan - there are some more birds on a log!"

Ems bed with a view, watching the orcas swim by while waking up has got some bonuses about it

After the seakayaking it was then time for Phase 4...what we have been waiting for!

Phase 4: Climbing: Squamish and Seattle styles

Heading back down to Vancouver we made our hastiest turn around yet, and aquiring a man who goes by the name of Tim Sikma (another kiwi friend who "happens" to be in the area). Hoping to have ems shiny new rack delivered by now we had had big plans to climb in Squamish for a week. However due to the failure a successful delivery we were unable to break in the new gear and were limited in our options - but we still made the most of an awesome couple of days.

After a few days of soaking up the sun and scrambling around the granite we headed on down to Seattle for a rescue mission of Ems gear. Catching up with some of Ems friends we had a great time of eating good food, drinking good beer, meeting awesome people and even got in some climbing at a place called Index to break in Ems new gear.

cough cough Em this is where you put in some photos cough

After Index it was time for Em to catch a plane back home...so we finished off with a spectacular farewell lunch next to the water in Vancouver and sent her on her way. It was a great month exploring the province and as usual making plans for the next adventure..Project 4 will be here before you know it, were thinking Russia! So until then....

Dad, I dug another hole - it's filling with water

2009-11-08T07:25:00.010+13:00

I'm almost finished up 3 months of work at the Northern end of Vancouver Island, BC. My role was the site engineer constructing a new landfill and a massive treatment pond.

Port McNeill was where I was based, this is the view from my house.

There were lots of tree's to clear and swamp to remove before we started

Once the site was clear of vegetation we had a hole lot of earthworks to do. We did some massive reshaping of the landscape.

About half the excavation was made below the water table which gave us quite a challenge. About 5km of sub surface drainage pipe was installed.

Most of the earthworks went off without a hitch, there were of course a few mishaps though...

A little bit of pipe to transport all the nasty water.

The new landfill area was lined with a thick plastic liner then capped with about 1/2 a metre of sand & rock for drainage.

The treatment pond was a similar process, the pond is lined with a thick plastic and now it's filling itself with the winter rain.

Stoaked to be heading back to Vancouver for the winter. We've just moved into a new house - Me, Jacs, Luc and our aussie buddy Gareth. Looking forward to some good winter missions in the next few months thats for sure.

Sailing Alaska: a beard in the wind

2009-10-27T21:24:00.019+13:00

So, we left each other not so long ago as the Tokimata sailing crew, including my very kind self had gone past Geographic harbour and the Eastern side of Kodiak Island. Yet, we weren't quite done with Alaska and our sailing trip. Here are quite a few photos from the second leg of the trip.
(the First 3 photos are not mine, they are not- explicitly-permitted-courtesy of Ella S., our boat girl. That's why they are sensibly nicer than mine and that is also why they focus on Danny Boy)

Danny and Ella gone for a stroll find beautiful boulders to deal to.

On our way to Kodiak, we stopped in a small bay on Rasberry Island and our skilled fishermen did a halibut massacre. Danny went to shore and returned with berries. We ate really well for a few days.
We then got to Kodiak city, attended the famous local rodeo, met some cool locals who we spent most of the week with, having hikes, diners and parties around the place. Here having a mad dance during a pizza party.
Jared sympathized with the fridge. Here smiling at it sleazily.
IN the mean time Danny our skipper having read lots of sailing adventure books, grew an overwhelming affection for the old Peter Blake and, not satisfied with the impossibility to exchange admirative words with him in this life decided to shape a moustache in an attempt to share the feeling.
Doug Haston and Chris Bonington happened to come over for a visit. Always a life shaking experience to listen to the mountain tales.
Our life style became increasingly captivating for Michelle and Ashley who very quickly adopted the Tokimata dress code and attitude. Here after 4 days in our company: natural
BUt we grew bored of the city and as the weather improved we took our chance through the gulf of Alaska from Kodiak: piece of piss, just 5 days and we'll be there, did we think.
Well, near enough indeed, but only on the scale of things. Here exploring the Bainbridge Galcier after we had to change course and hide from bad weather the first time.
Some smooth hiking around
Here enjoying a G&T with ice chipped from the hard crust of the glacier, photo taken by a bacteria growing in a beautifully Bombay -Sapphire-coloured- ice-water-puddle.

Later on, elsewhere, with the grin of adventure on my sweaty face
J-dog working the anal diagonal
Exploring sheltering bays along the alaskan gulf (here around Prince Williams Sounds) as we carried on being maltreated by the weather. Taking the skiff to shore would open the beauties of mother nature to us. Fine creeks, deep green mossy forest floor, fish-rich creeks, berry fields. It was all there. Plenitude and serenity.
Sun and ice, smiles and peace...
Killer wales hanging out on a fresh morning
It was then time for Yakutat, a funky community of fishermen only reached by the sea, where we found shelter during the Equinoxe storm. After being warmly welcome by the locals on the first night (the hardest thing was to find the pub in the dark rainy night), Dandini and Jimmy gave a go at surfing in the ice cold waters of the entrance of the bay
Yakutat Bay also hides in its guts the Hubbard Glacier, a tidal monster at the confluent of three valleys. Tokimata got anchored as close to the ice cliff as deemed safe and a short exploration of the area started. During our time there, mighty big ice towers kept collapsing in tremendous noise, disturbing briefly the oily surface of the water. Danny having lost at Toep, our newly introduced card game (thanks to Trif's natural talent at picking the goodness out of elsewhere), he had to face his punishment and try out one of the emergency suits in the genitals-tightening sea water, which he did with a great smile.

Here doing the first and probably last ascent of the nicest looking iceberg around at that time.
A little more sailing took us further East until rough weather once again forced us to find shelter in Latuya Bay. We got there in awful weather which really added to the character of the place. This is the bay where in 1958 a landslide triggered a huge tsunami that shaved the opposite hill up to 500m elevation before flushing out taking three fishing boats by surprise with it. One of the them survived the surf and got the most thrilling ride over the spit on wave of mixed mud and logs into the sea. It is also a great looking place with dramatic glaciers and great salmon hand fishing.
A mighty waterfall flowing out of the bottom of a glacier over a bluff into a steep narrow gorge. The spray on it edge cut my first breath at the top of the hill. Rocks would constantly be spat by it. yoooouuu
returning to the skiff before further explorations
Jimmy proudly carrying the fruit of his skilled hand fishing. A neat silver salmon
We finally got the OK sign from the huge bar closing the entrance of the bay after 4 days and sailed south to the entrance of the inside passage around the corner , past the Fairweather Range. One clear, warm and beautiful day spent on the deck enjoying audiobooks and amazing views.
Dandini, a happy larry.
It was then Jimmy's turn to lose at Toep and go clear the propeller, check and brush the anodes in 7 deg water. Yup.
Bears everywhere

The inside passage eats of the Alexander Archipelago is a different place, protected, misty and varied in its similarities, if you catch my drift.

We met Gene and Curt by Tanakee hot springs. They took us with them when lifting their crab pots. Well it turned out to be a good idea. We spent a night blowing mighty fire crackers, drinking G&T and feeding ourselves crab up to the eyes. We had crab for breakfast lunch and diner for a few days. Good on them.

Down the channels from there was Baranof Island with its wicked hot springs spot. In the cutely set up settlement we met again cool locals who gave us ice creams and beers, and hiked up a neat trail to enjoy the highly rated springs amongst beautiful trees on the side of G4 rapids.

White tails everywhere...

A few days in Petersburg connected us with some young and entertaining fishermen sorting their boats out at the end of the season for the winter

Creek St, the refurbished whorehouse concentration that early settlers had a lot to do with. It is now-a-days owned and operated by the ferry companies and shuts down completely in the off season.

Jimmy then decided to leave us to catch up with his bro in Seattle and it became obvious we would have to party. Northern Lights was the theme (a fantasy tale). Here Aurora Borealis, an Oxford scholar and the Elythiometer in working order.

The Tartar warrior with his demon on the shoulder

The gypsian who wacked his ass doing a 360 of the edge of the pontoon

Lee the navigator who ended up in the cold waters of the marina after a daring climbing endeavor on the next door boat in the marina.

Spending a day cruising around Ketchikan we check out some decent totems.

Luc, like most people can pretend he is a skipper. He does it well on this following picture.

Our progression through the inside passage ended up leading us to Prince Rupert, where after 2 months on board I figured I could not make it all the way to Victoria due to a booked flight to France and the need to spend time with my family. I lamely left the crew after a few beers and games to catch the ferry to Vancouver Island where I caught up with Shaun in Port McNeill for a hike and a visit of his work site.

The heights of Prince Rupert

60 days working in the mountains...

2009-08-25T04:29:00.013+12:00

Well I am now back in Vancouver after a summer fulled with mountains, lakes, snow, wildlife, lightning, sunshine, bushplanes, hiking, fishing, bush wacking and a lot of laughter...

I have been working for NOLS this summer. I started in the Beartooth Mountains in Montana. 30 days of hiking. This area next to Yellowstone NP is quite spectacular, being around 9,000ft - 12,400ft in elevation made for an exciting trip. Having lightning storms roll in 10 days in a row, we perfected the art of lightning drills. Having endless lakes with crystal clear water made fishing an easy task. Tackling steep terrain, snow and boulderfields was an every day occurance. The Beartooths truley are an amazing place...

Frozen Lakes

Resupply by packhorse

My first fish on a fly rod!

The classroom

Upon getting picked up by bus after 30 wild days, I was handed a letter from the staffing office asking if I wanted to work a contract up in Alaska....tomorrow. So within 24 hours I was on a plane headed to Ancourage, and straight into briefing for the next trip. I hiked both in the Wrangells and the Chugach Ranges here is a snippet of this vast and amazing country...

The far distant "cloud" (to the left) down the valley is actually a glacier

Grizzly tracks not only fresh but frequent...

Resupply by bushplane next to the tonsina glacier - this plane is made out of fabric!

Classroom inside the 3 person tent - we got a lot of rain

All female Instructor team - high five!

Alaska is an awesome place to explore, it is consatntly moving with rock fall, glaciers and the wildlife...we saw a tone of wildlife including black bear, dahl sheep and even a wolf on the full moon (which is pretty rare to see). Oh and the blueberries just topped it off...endless supply!

Well until the next adventure...

Yukon and Alaska meet Team Extreme

2009-08-07T08:26:00.030+12:00

The following is a combination of the literary aptitude from Luc and Shaun. Photos are care of Luc, Gareth, Shaun and Chris. Enjoy!

A tale of greatness and magics. A confrontation between some of Earth's massivest Strengths.
A team facing two contiguous territories. Yukon wanted to face Team Extreme. Yukon met Team Extreme. Alaska felt neglected, so it got included.

Shaun the Faun, Chris Von Riss, Gareth Son of McBeth, Luc the Duke populated Rastafari the van for 3.5 weeks with the added company of Ellen d'Eben for 3 days.

With more than 10,000km to cover, driving obviously constituted one of our main activities, before tramping, swimming, party-shirting, commenting on the world and kayaking (although everyone realises that, a few years down the track we will refer to this trip as a premiere first descents kayaking expedition through the most remote part of Alaska).

We left Vancouver with a rough plan: We had 3 days to get to Whitehorse & pick up Chris. From there, do a hike somewhere in the Yukon - its a big place surely we can find somewhere to go walking... Hit the Dawson City Music Festival (Northern Yukon). Cross the border to Alaska and do a longer duration hike in Denali National Park. Finally fill in some time and then drive about 4 days back to Vancouver. With a solid plan like that how could we not have a good time? Luckily we kept a captains logbook of daily happenings so that we could share it with you fine people...

Phase 1: "Vancouver to the bears and beyond - but no further" (Whitehorse)
'Twas the night before departure and with an early start looming Shaun and Luc made sure they were well prepared. Gareth was nominated as first driver so that Shaun and Luc could go party with some old Christchurch buddy's. With such a good preparation it was only fitting that we were on the road at 6:31am ready to rock and roll.

The 3 days drive to Whitehorse were long but by no means tiresome. We kept ourselves entertained along the way by having themed days throughout the trip. Themes such as: Wing it day, Electrostatic day, No swear day (push up punishments), double day, no teeth day, all kept us well entertained. We camped, fished and swam at some awsome lakes & rivers throughout BC as we drove up. Shaun caught a delcious little trout for breakfast on the first morning and cooked it over the fire. But we were all really just getting excited to pick up Chris in Whitehorse and get out into bearcountry .

Shall we camp here fallas?

Lunch

The Rastafari complete with wet weather setup

We passed this random spot on the way up. Apparently this is where all the stolen signs end up... In the photo is Ellen who we shared 3 days with.

Luc's so xtreme that he can drive a dozer without even sitting in the seat.

We decided it would be a great idea to race up a steep sand dune about 80-100m high. Not easy after 3 days in the van. The 3 of us were weezing and could barely stand at the top. We're so extreme...

As is becoming custumary with Team Xtreme these days, we picked Chris up in full party attire - party suits and shirts are a must on any xtreme trip...

Whitehorse Airport, 2am

Phase 2:
The first real mission of the trip was on. We elected to hit up Kluane National Park in South Western Yukon. We paid a quick visit to the park ranger to pick up some bear proof food canisters and were off. The van was super excited about getting stuck into the Yukon so we said "nah" to the highway and took the river route instead. It was about this time that Luc introduced us to his new motivational quote "Put ya calf on your neck mate". It should be used in situations similar to where you would tell someone to pull finger and get moving. So next time you fell like telling someone "Come on buddy, get on with it" Just tell them to "put their calf on their neck" instead. Insightful.

The Rastafari "putting its calf on its neck" and getting the job done

The hike itself was great. We got up quite high and achieved some fantastic views. It was a great warmup for us, especially after 3 days in the van. We were out for 3 days on this trip and were privvy to a late afternoon thunderstorm happening all around us one afternoon. Our campsite high on a ridge provided almost endless sunlight as it only got truely dusky dark for about 2-3 ho

Happy faces at the start of the hike

Basecamp. A good photo to send to Bruce for promotional puproses

Gin camp. High levels of wisdom got reached that night as you would expect.

Getting higher

Glissading down (it was sideways in reality. This is what you can achieve with commitment and speed)

Phase 3:
Next on the hitlist was the Dawson City Music festival. To paint the picture of the atmosphere here, consider that everyone who attends has driven at least 300-500km to get there. The town is tiny and is located on the banks of the Yukon River. None of the roads are paved, it's reminiscent of a cowboy ghost town with leaning wooden buildings everywhere. The music played is everything from Acapella to rap to german techno to string bands. All sorts of people, all ages and everyone is friendlier than your local fish and chip shop owner. We had a blast. The party suits were a hit, we got interviewed by tv stations and old ladies wanted our autographs. If you ever get a chance to attend this event definitly take it.

Which way is the party?

It's the Dawson Robot Dance

Proud and luminous

Chris selling his soul to the tv crew

Random Girl: "Look, if I tilt my head back a little you can see up my nose"
Shaun: "Argh - It's a mullet. Help!"
Na, this girl was actually quite cool, her and a few friends paddled for a few days in canoes down the Yukon River to get to the festival. I think that photo's hilarious.

Camp Dawson. Party shirts and sun. Note the exercycles in the left of the photo. The toys at the back are a rigorously accurate reproduction of the ferry "terminal" errected by two young kids who we ended up socializing quite a bit with.

Shaun - 24km/hr warming up for the record (which he held against Oliver and Stu our two contesters (age 4 and 7 but they were good))
Luc - Mach 10 (but sometimes it is just not enough)

After Dawson we followed the top of the world highway accross the border to Alaska and onto Denali Nattional Park. The park is massive. You can only drive a small ways ino the park and from there you are required to use a bus system which runs through the main valley. To have an understanding on how big this place is, it takes about 6 hours on the bus to get from one end to the other. We jumped on the bus and travelled about 3 hours into the park. You just tell the bus driver where you want to get off and he'll literally drop you on the side of the road to start your hike. It's a good system and the strict permiting system meant that we only saw other people on the first and last days of the 5 day mission - pretty impressive for a popular national park.

Our mission involved walking up a riverbed for a day to get to the confluence of two glaciers. We camped there and did a few day missions up to some saddles and down into the glaciated valleys nearby. It was an amazing 5 days, plenty of animals, ice, solitude and reasonably good weather. The photos will tell the story better than I can:

Team X...

Green meadows above the glaciers

Lots of cool & weird plants The North Branch of the West arm of the Upper Upper Upper Ice Cold Creek, which got first descented in July 1994 by an experienced portaging party (that is also the first reported encounter with the Girls from Area 23 who, as most people now-a-days know are recognized for their boob flashing communication signals. Despite our engaging attempts they failed to meet their appointments with us twice)
Caribou
Running repairs, if it can't be duct - it's f&%$ed

Mr Squirrel, our nextdoor neighbor. Luc nearly destroyed their home early one morning...

Nice legs, the pants really bring out the colour in my eyes

The man, the legend - Gareth, Son of Macbeth
Mt McKinley - North America's Highest

We then took off South and spent a night with some friends of Chris's in Anchorage. They cooked us a massive meal, treated us to all sorts of goodies and best of all, they had a hot tub with a view of Anchorage and it's surrounding mountain ranges.

From Anchorage, we were in search of more adventure. Luc was looking everywhere for it:
We found it in Valdez, a small town on the shore of Prince William Sound.

Even the drive in was spectacular, massive hanging glaciers coming right down to the road. Prince William sound is best seen from the water. So we grabbed the only patch of sun we could find and took it with us as we hired a small boat for the afternoon and explored some of the fiords.

The best thing about Valdez however was the sea life. It was teaming with Salmon. We got a 24hr licence and started fishing. Within seconds we had our first bite and within minutes we were realing them in.

Thats a school of Salmon right offshore. We wearn't allowed to fish at this site as it was to close to a spawning stream, still the fishing 500m away was pretty easy.

Our first of manyThis guy was chowing down on fish too. He knew an easy meal when he saw one.

After about half an hour of fishing, Luc got sick of waiting for a go on the one rod that we had, so he started "dipping" with the net just off the rocks. Sure enough within a few minutes he pulled two fish up out of the water! It turned out that this was actually the most efficient way for us to catch fish. For the next three days we ate our bounty, very delicious.

And thats about it. After Valdez, we had a big drive back to Vancouver which was also awsome but alot of time in the Rastafari. Super good trip with an awsome crew, cheers fallas.

Mr Grizzley says Cheers too

The road goes on forever, but the party never ends

God Bless The Op Shop

2009-06-30T14:51:00.003+12:00

Well the op shop has never failed me before and it didn't this time either. Check out this link to see tight and bright in all it's glory!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/video/video.php?v=101355621559&ref=mf

And don't panic - all of this glorious attire will most definitely be heading home with me

Peau peau

Mountaineering in the Cascades

2009-06-15T09:27:00.008+12:00

So I have just finished up a training trip with NOLS mountaineering in the North Cascades of Washington State. We went out on a 9 day trip on the Elderado and Inspriation glaciers. We had some amazing weather but as usual were tent bound for 3 days. Here are some photos of what we got up to...

Taking a break roped up

My first lead on rope, me on the summit belaying in my rope team.

Kitchens

Making the most of being in a cloud...crevasse rescue

Yours truly

Checking our line up the right hand ridge on Eldorado

Me summiting Mt Eldardo

Mt Eldorado...If you look close enough you can see us going for the summit

At the summit of Eldorado

Mount Primus....dominated that one too

So there you go, just a wee snippet of the 500 odd photos that were taken...Going back into the field in a week for about 30 days so until then...

And of course we celebrate our return in style!

Simba and Reefton come to Play

2009-05-28T13:41:00.010+12:00

Well I have arrived back in Canada, with grettings from kiwis left right and centre, it was hard to believe we wernt in NZ. Si and Reefton had arrived a few days earlier and were keen to show off their new set of wheels..

(The holdy...errr...falcon...err....foldy well really its a tarus)

With boats ready to go Shaun showed them the hot spots of North Vancouver, the local runs down the road.

Shaun on the Seymour

Si on the Seymour

We then decided being a long weekend, well do what kiwis do best - go tramping! Yup I think it was the first time I ever saw Simba wearing shoes that wernt made for the river. So Shaun, myself, Si, Reefton, Dangerous Dave and Megan hit the stein valley.

Reminissing old times over some tea johnny sugar

Theres nothing like a smokin hot day cooling off in the snow melted rivers

Si was a little uncomfortable about living in bear country, so I gave him some pointers in how to sniff them out

The kiwi catcher taking on the Fraser River, this was how we had to get to the start of the trail

So it was a good weekend had by all. Unfortunatley us kiwis are going our seperate ways once again. Si and Reefton are now in Alberta rafting out of Canmoe and I am heading on down to the States first Washington then Wyoming...I'll keep you posted

Project NOW: Kiwi Styles

2009-05-24T10:38:00.020+12:00

This is a tale of two littl' kiwi birds living in the 'now'.

The 'now' began on Friday 13th after we had dealt with the only necessary reference to time - picking Jacqui up from the airport. The ladies and Crusty proceeded to the old stomping grounds for some Phuket Thai and after a failed attempt to kidnap Crusty for the weekend we set about packing for the coast.

Finally with KT on board we departed chch at the leisurely time of 'now' - needless to say it was very dark and the only evidence of all the Christchurch hordes headed to the wild foods festival was the trail of empty alcohol bottles and lack of toilet paper at all the public toilets dotted along the way.

We were greeted by Beans (the dog) when we finally arrived at Viv's place and quietly set ourselves up in the living room for the remainder of the night.

Morning rolled around and it was time catch up with the crazy Frenchman, who we found busy in the kitchen at Dyls place. We formulated somewhat of a plan for the day and then the three girls in mismatched attire headed to Hoki.

Tag in Jacs:
So no shit there we were, getting run over by two drunk guys on a bike while trying to get some rest. How were we supposed to know people would be using the track at 3am! It all started with a simple facebook message - "I'm coming to chch". I was greated by big hugs and smiles by Em and Crusty at chch airport. Having feasted at our local "phucket" thai we got on the road and headed for the coast.

This is where project NOW all originated from. The time is now, not before, not soon, but NOW! Live in the moment soon became our philosophy.

Waking up on Viv's floor in Greymouth we rolled into action. We hunted down the crazy French man to find out the plan of attack. All we found was him up to his elbows in baking at Dylan's. So we took the lead, jumped in the car and headed to the infamous wild food festival. After buying dodgy tickets we got in at a bargain rate!

Tag in Em:
We headed straight for the creme de la creme or should I say Jacs dragged me. She should have listened, pickled huhu grubs are a very acquired taste which our sophisticated palates did not appreciate. After that we pretty much ditched the "wild" part and spent our day in the sun missioning, eating cake and ice cream, and drinking gin.

We migrated to the beach for the evening, playing games and guitar around the bonfire. As the fire burned low it was time to sus out a prime sleeping spot. So with sleeping bags in tow the search began. Key criteria being away from drunken idiots where we could sleep uninterrupted till mid morning. We headed out of town across the Hoki river and found the perfect spot, on a historical trail sheltered by trees (but still with a view of the stars). We made sure to allow room for any early morning walkers but didn't think it would be a problem. The girls were lulled to sleep by french bedtime stories about the last time Luc slept out under the stars and had the rather unfortunate experience of being run over by a mountain biker.

We slept soundly until approximately 3am when two guys on a bike....

Tag back in Jacs:
....came by full throttle. KT being the speed bump and Luc being the landing pad. We all looked as confused as each other!

Waking up to even more confused faces walking by we moved on to the Grey river, where another story was created. No details are needed, but let's say it involved a camera needing some white water rescue..... it was a successful day with some good fun to be had.

With another week before starting work I had some spare time on my hands and so it was that project NOW continued with Em and others by my side....

The itinerary for the next week went a little something like this:
Sunday Night: needless to say it was a late night getting back from the coast - typical "now" time

Monday: I had to go to work, but Jacs cooked me an awesome dinner and then we hung out with Gaz and Maiju over a pot of tea and some chocolate

Tuesday: I finished work at midday and missioned it up the Hurunui with Jacs and Sarah, some good timing had as meeting up with a crew of the lads just as we were getting on the water. After some fun times on the river and a cheeky beer at the pub we headed back to town for dinner and a movie with wee Ben.
Wednesday: Another day of work, then meet up with the girls for some yoga before heading out to Topkapi for some dinner with the crew (Jacs, Gaz, Maiju, Jono, Crusty, Becky, Ben and Rach). Then round to wee Bens for desert.

Thursday: The guts of project NOW gets underway. after another short day at work for me, Jacs, Crusty and Jamie picked me up at 3pm and we headed out into the wilderness. First stop an afternoon boulder at K-Hill. Then off to Andrews shelter to camp for the night.

Friday: (i could have been at work but instead) we had a hearty breakfast before heading out to hit up Big Bailey for what promised to be some super sweet scree running - we weren't disappointed. Another night camping at Andrews shelter, this time the crazy frenchman and Dylan joined us.

Saturday: Back to K-Hill and eventually back to chch. Out to dinner with some of Jacs NOLS crew (where we planted the seed for stage 2: Arapiles). Then off to the Temuka and the farm.

Sunday: dropped Jacs at peel forest for a week of work before heading home to catch up on some sleep.
....
Friday: Jacs gets back in town and we celebrate with a few drinks at the flat.

Saturday: we pulled together a sweet crew to hit up the hurunui before Jacs had to fly out in the wee hours of the morning.

Project NOW: Stage 1 - Done and dusted! Now for a few pics.

Three rather mismatched girls (KT, Jacs & me)

It wouldn't be the Wild Foods Festival without a little huhu grub action!
Jacs is always full of good ideas.... but honestly Jacs, pickled?!?

Turns out not so pleasant an experience!

Luc on form and dressed up, as usual

Not too sure to be honest - but good times!

A bit of a crew, Eden and JJ joining in with the cool kids

Good times in the sun with the crazy French Duke...

Some river action! Jacs stoked to be back out on the water

Me stoked to have found my camera! Good work team!

Pretty..... sunset on the west side after a saweet weekend

K-Hill styles - Booyah

Shadows and light...

So good to be back bouldering

Crusty getting it done!

Cards by candlelight... the ladies show crusty whats what (hot chocolate + tim tams)

Big Bailey in all it's glory

Crusty!

Flying high....

Team XTREME!!!!!

More xtremeness

Ahhhhh..... yes life is that good!

Taking a tea break on the way up

Who'd ya reckon won the rock rolling comp?
You're Xtreme Jacs

Ohh..... the aniticipation

The ladies on top of the world

Nice views from the top

Just for you Chris! (Jandels and all!)
......still, can't quite top the Owyhee

The jandels only came out for a short section
.... then it was time to take on the beast

Jamie giving it a go

Jacs with her arse on fire!

down...

.... and she's still smiling about it!

The end of a sweet day...

for the xtreme crew!

The Hurunui Kids

Debs, Matty, Gaz, Ben Robson, Wee Ben (I know - sometimes he does actually go paddling!), thee Jono Ramsay, Maiju (first time on the river), Jamie, Me and Miss Jacquiline Berry...

Love ya Jacs! Awesome times on Project NOW miss! Bring on Stage 3: Canada!

Project Now Pt 2: Arapiles, Victoria.

2009-05-16T04:20:00.008+12:00

What do you get when you put Emma and Jacqui together? A whole lot of schemming and then BLAMO before you know it your sitting on the side of the street looking like a homeless person...

It all started in NZ really, but Emma will be posting something about that in good time. All I can tell you is that eventually some how myself, Emma and this dodgy NOLS'y Ben, found ourselves sitting on the side of the road in a town called Horsham trying to find a ride to Arapiles with 2 loaded trolleys and a bouldering mat - I mean how hard is it really?

After many looks of "sorry mate" or "you've got to be kidding!" We managed to squeeze into a car with all our stuff and arrive at the infamous Mt Arapiles with grins from ear to ear and sweat dripping from all directions... We set up camp in the pines and headed on out to give Em the ultimate tour of what was to come for the next week of extreme mishaps...

After a touch of bouldering we called it a day and turned back to camp salivating for a refreshing GnT!

We set out to climb the next day with the intention of only climbing climbs with at least a 2 star rating, and so we did in fact I think every climb we did had at least 1 star on it.

Ben ripping it up the first climb Hornpiece *** 14

After a couple of days climbing we managed to find another dodgy NOLS'y to tag along in the adventure, Scott. His evil twin decided to join in on a group photo:

We continued climbing everything Araps had to offer, single pitch to multipitch and even a really good bouldering session. Good rock, beautiful scenery, good people and delicious food and vino...we spent the week indulging in the life of a araps climbing bum and boy it felt good...

Emma attempts "the sqeeze test" Lucky for her she lubed up beforehand and slithered through quite nicely.

We had to get the token jumping shot, by this stage me and Em had worked it down to a fine art.

oh the sunsets

Sleeping under the stars seems like a fine idea in this place that says theyre in a drought...unfourtunalty the annual rain fall decided to visit that night and we were sent running with our tails between our legs

After a solid week of climbing it was time for Em and myself to head home - I then decided I wasnt ready to leave, having no where really to be I decided to stay. But unfortunatly a conference was calling out Emmas name in Wellington and she had to part. We bid her adue and then prepared ourselves for the following week, step one a tarp...

A fine piece of shelter building if I do say so myself

Sharing some fine vino

Scott tackling the 2nd pitch of the infamous watchtower crack*** 16

A view from half way up

Mr Latto, climbing super hero

Me taking on Quo Vadis** 19, 5th pitch

Lunch time

The boys insisted on these crack climbs - I wasnt so sure...

If you look hard enough you might be able to spot Ben leading up Tanins*** 19

And there is was 2 weeks of some amazing climbing, never wanting to leave we had to drag ourselves away. Until next time Arapiles!!!!

Tuatapere Represent

2009-03-30T21:02:00.009+13:00

Summers coming to an end and I'm currently sitting in Auckland waiting for my US work visa before heading to a warmer climate. The last mission before leaving the country was a tramp on the new Tuatapere Hump Ridge Track. Although it doesn't exactly have the "Xtreme adventure" aspect of tramping it does have wine glasses at the huts, gas fires, amazing views and good honest days tramping which is just what was required for a family affair aimed at reuniting cousins. Don't have much stime to tell the story but suffice to say the tramp is SAWEEET and well worth the effort (plus you get to go to Tuatapere!!!).

Below are also some photos from a cheeky roadtrip to Karamea over easter where we cooked pancakes at pancake rocks, checked out the caves and arches at the top of the Oparara River and Nicole fired up Maruia Falls which was great to see.

Enjoy

Sugoi Shitage! The land of karaoke....

2009-03-23T17:24:00.022+13:00

The land of Karaoke seems small from above. Squeezed into the tiny frame of a 747 window. But even from here it looks entirely unfamiliar and I revel in the feeling of the unknown....

The more of life I experience the more I am lead to believe that the best adventures spring from unplanned plans, "poorly planned, badly executed" (direct quote from MCP) springs to mind. After mentioning to a good mate Tofa that I might head over to Aussie in February to visit, I was told to meet him in Japan for some snowboarding misadventures. And that's exactly what I did!

My flight into Tokyo was on time so I figured I had just over two hours to entertain myself in the airport before I would be seeing Tofa's big cheeky grin. From there surely we could just figure out what we were up to and if not at least I'd be in good company. The plane hit the tarmac and we were invited to turn our cell phones back on. The txt comes through almost immediately "My flights been cancelled"

Here I go again!!

(coz true to all past performances I have organised exactly nothing of what happens once I get through customs and into an unfamiliar non English speaking country)

Memories of nights spent alone in random bus stations in Argentina come flooding back to me and I contemplate how little effort it would have been to sort out accomodation for the night before I left the comfort of my own home. But on second thoughts where is the fun and adventure in that and what difference does it make now....

Bring on Tokyo on Friday night! Solo!

(snowboard in tow)

.....credit to Tofa, he sends me the number of a mate of his who arrived in Tokyo the previous night. So all was not lost... I just had to negotiate the Tokyo underground at 6pm Friday night with all my luggage and find some guy named Chiz.

Okay... so there is just too much I could write about my Japan adventures. So here's just a bit of a run down of all the good times (all of it was good times) and some of the pics to go with.

Chiz starting to enjoy an early start after missing our bus - twice!

Filling in time between buses

We eventually got the whole crew (8 of us) together in Hakuba (little thanks to JetStar who eventually dropped Tofa and Sam off in Osaka instead of Tokyo....same country I suppose). Hakuba is about an hour away from Nagano (still on the main island of Honshuu). We spent our first week here nestled in the mountains surrounded by ski resorts. With fresh snow blanketing the town and providing days and days of spectacular riding and the craziest face shots of my life.

The crew..... finally all together!

Some sweet views after a wee hike

Cortina was by far the pick of the bunch and our days here we characterized by ridiculously early mornings running / boarding through the streets scoffing down dry peanut butter toast trying to make the train at 6:30am (the Japanese run an efficient ship and the trains run on time pretty much down to the second.... even given our best efforts to try and hold them up to get the whole crew on). We would spend the morning hitting up the fresh lines on the field then hit the back trees (note: trees are out of bounds in Japan, roped off with signs to keep out, along with regular reminders over the loud speakers... something about being removed from the field without mercy. however this works in our favour, as this provides sweet fresh tree lines all day for those who are willing to keep a keen eye out for the patrollers and duck the ropes at the appropriate time). At lunchtime we followed the Japanese custom of eating then sleeping, but we showed them how it's really done. they just put their head down on the table, we spread ourselves out on the floor under and around the tables (to the giggling of the surround Japanese). After a quick power nap it's time to hit the trees again and as the day wears on we get more and more cheeky progressively hitting the tree lines directly under the chairlift.

Early morning run.... and feeling it!

....but well worth it to play in the magical land of Cortina!

Amongst the snow at the top of Cortina

Good times!

Oscar and Rory stoked after hitting the back trees

Mandatory river crossing to get out again

Me and Rory loving life

Sam almost waist deep in the good stuff

Sam getting amongst some cheeky tree lines

Typical evening... the crew chilling at the backpackers after a sweet day on the hill (Photo: Tofa)

On my birthday we decided to take a day off riding and went missioning around Nagano taking in the sites and sounds.

Our first taste of Nagano and the Japanese enthusiasm for bikes (unfortunately you can't rent these guys)
(Photo: Tofa)

Cruising the streets

Tofa working on his accounting skills (sorry buddy no matter what way you look at it this country is expensive!)

Temple.... (hidden Buddha included.... but very illusive)

Birthday lunch (Photo: Tofa)

...followed by birthday ice cream

More good times hitting up the local cuisine before the crew goes it's separate ways (even I started to get amongst the food ... raw fish and all) (Photo: Tofa)

So after a sweet solid week of snowboarding Tofa, Sam and I headed out on our own. Missioning round between ski towns and taking in some of the sights along the way. Nozawa Onsen was a sweet little town... and here we developed our taste for the Japanese style accommodation and the infamous Japanese karaoke. We eventually made it to see the snow monkeys (after missing only a couple of buses). We had some sweet chill times in Myoko Kogen, wandering the streets, eating hard boiled eggs, trying out the various Japanese chocolates and of course hitting the slopes.

Enjoying the Japanese accommodation. Me and Sam getting amongst some Japanese tea. (Photo: Tofa)

Missioning round Nozawa Onsen (Photo: Tofa)

The team taking on some Japanese style karaoke (don't know if i've ever laughed so much in my life, if you ever get the chance, try it - but know that it will cost you, and just so as you don't complain about the bill at the end of the night expect to have video recordings of yourself played back to you (which is rather sobering) and achieves the desired effect of getting you to just pay and leave)

Tofa and me starting to get the hang of it!

On our way to see snow monkeys....

....nearly there.....

Booyah! found them. These little guys rocked (even after all my pestering to go see them and having to mission out of our way with all our bags missing two buses and having to walk into the mountains) (Photo: Tofa)

These guys just hang out in the natural hot springs (while the crazy humans take photos)

General shinanigans in Myoko Kogen while trying to figure out what the hell we are up to.

another misty day in Myoko Kogen

Wandering the streets...

...and eating hard boiled eggs (this clever Japanese man set up a little basin outside his shop which he pumps the natural hot spring water (which seems to be rather abundant in the mountains of Japan) into to boil eggs in. Goes down a treat with the passers by. Just pay the man 70 yen, peel, cover in kymchi and sea salt - delicious!!

The man himself!

Hanging out and eating to much (Photo: Tofa)

Waiting for the train to Tokyo

The bullet train (shinkansen)

We finished up the trip with the bright lights and endless nights of Tokyo.

Bright lights

Tofa!

Oohhh.... fish markets (a pretty crazy place early Saturday morning after being out all night, but we hooked ourselves up with some sweet fresh tuna, picked up some soy sauce and headed back to the hotel room for a feed)

....more fish (photo: Tofa)

A night out with those in the know (photo: Tofa)

Our last bright lights of Japan.... time to go home and sleep!
(photo: Tofa)

Trading Summer for Winter

2009-02-12T12:12:00.006+13:00

Well, just for a wee bit ........ giving up the sweet summer life here in NZ for a cheeky few weeks shred dogging in Japan. Catch ya's!

The good life .... a night under the stars and sunrise over Mt Cook

Back soon to enjoy more Aotearoa goodness. Peace, Em

The Canadian White Stuff

2009-02-10T08:44:00.004+13:00

We've seen some ups & downs over the last few months. Had some epic skiing & boarding during our time at Kicking Horse Resort. Plenty of snow and steep stuff to keep us entertained from day to day. Here's some pics.

Shaun at the top of Kicking Horse Resort

Some pretty, frosty trees

Some wicked ice Carving at Lake Louise

My mum & her partner Jon came over to visit for Christmas and stayed for 10 days at our lodge. I cut down the tree in the photo above and we all dragged it inside. Good times.

That's the lodge we were looking after, 10 rooms on the top 2 floors and a restaurant downstairs. Real swanky, $200 per night styles, and we got to live there as part of our deal. The gondola up the ski hill was about a 200m walk away.
Unfortunately our job at the lodge has come to an end and we're now floating. Jac's is heading back to Aussie for a bit shortly to do a bit of work there. I'm most likely heading back to NZ within the next few weeks. See ya soon!!!

Kiwi Summer

2009-01-26T08:17:00.011+13:00

So it's been summer across the Land of the Long White Cloud for a little while now, and damn what a summer it has been - scorching! Who knew it could get this hot in littl' old Chch. Anyways there has been plenty of missions going down most of which involve water in some fashion. So here's a couple of pics from the last weekend on the Coast.

A Low Lower Kakas

but still plenty of mud to be found

The view from above

Kayakers are always privy to some sweet swimming spots!
(the girls making our shuttle bunny Jono wait while we enjoy the sunshine)

The Lower Hoki

Just can't beat that west coast shuttle

The ladies...

and the guys

Jono taking a keen interest

2008-12-24T19:49:00.002+13:00

merry christmas ya all!

!GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS! -but the snow keeps melting and the rivers flow full!

2008-12-02T11:30:00.018+13:00

All pics by me (Nick Gordon) unless otherwise credited.

Spring is prime time to go boating in the south of New Zealand, so what better plan than to quit your job (again), spend your savings on a beat up old van, and go run the shit with like minded legends. Of course we could heed the advice of the wise economist, huncker down, save that coin and weather the financial storm… but there would be no Xtreme after Team if we decided that was the way to live. Booyah!

I charged on down to CHCH and picked up this sweet thing. I had bought her on Trademe a few weeks prior just going on the pics that had been posted... test driving is fully overrated.
The Homy in all her glory.

First stop the Upper Waiau for some long weekend fun time.

Hiking over into the Upper Waiau.

Views like this kept the crew ploddin. KT gettin it done.

And with an evening like this who was to know.... we were gonna get snow!

The resurrected bivvy after a catastrophic failure due to unexpected snow loading. Unfortunately there were no practicing engineers present so we could only blame the heavens.

We got snowed on at night, we were hailed on during flight, we were shouted down by the gail who hid outta sight... we dominated!

From Left: Ben, Coop, Rach, Mike, Viv, Me, KT and James strikin up a grand finale pose.

After a soak at Hanmer and a bit a shut eye Coop, Ben and I were off south to score some Waikaia treats. As usual we wern't disapointed.

Nick, Waikaia. Photo: Coop de loop Lambla

Runnin one of the burlier lines on the run, its actually a lot nicer with more water than less. We had a nice flow.

Paddler: Me Photo: Coop Lambla

The Waterfall of Death is a two tier drop which flows off the first 2.5-3m drop, takes a right angle bend to the right and then off the second 3-4m drop pictured below. A choice of three or four runnable lines off the first drop makes it a very funky rapid. I had a dodgy line getting shunted into the wall after the first drop and held there for some time way back in the shadows in the photo below. I managed to keep it under control holding rail and slowly ruddering to the position i am in in the shot below getting a hurried last minute boof stroke in to clean up the mess i was in. The others had mega lines down.

Me defying death on the Waterfall of Death after a hairy but upright line. Photo: Coop Lambla

Ben airin it out on the first drop. Coop to the left runnin that all important safety.

Ben Robson, sweet lines all day long....

Coop with a style line on the double drop.
1 of 2

2 of 2

We then rallied to Queenstown to get some of what the Nevis had waiting for us. On the way we showed QT what kayak scum is all about.

Quote Coop: "We couldn't afford a room at Rydges"

I was chargin on the Nevis, running a few apparently usual portages.

#1. Photo: Coop Lambla

#2. You wont believe me but I barely even got my hair wet. Bens got the film. Photo: Coop Lambla

#3. Photo: Coop Lambla

The runout to one of the many very continuous rapids on the river.

Sandy and Si spewin out the lines for us all day long.

But all good things must come to an end, unfortunately this was a pretty shit end for our day out. Sandy had run Big Brother (the top rapid in the pic below) among the other gnarl that was on offer only to pop his shoulder on some G4 boogy water. He swam some heinous little drops with his dislocated wing flapping around at the mercy of the rapids before getting to the side. Ben and Si paddled out the 40mins to call for a chopper. Three hours later and nearing nightfall we were stoked to hear the 'thunk' 'thunk' 'thunk' of the rescue chopper. We were greeted by a single policeman with "you must be in a lot of pain, sorry were a bit late!" No complaints from Sandy, just "no worries, get me the fuck outta here". So with his shoulder out for three hours and with failed efforts from Coop and me at relocating the shoulder, Sandy showed what a TC he is and hauled himself back up the river to where the chopper was perched on a massive rock (top left of the pic below). Sandy your the Man. Heal quick bro.

Sombre times. Sandy wrapped in a space blanket, Coop keepin his spirits alive and what was a sunny day turning into dusk.

We needed some cheering and the towns of Cromwell and Ross must have known. On consecutive nights we were greeted like kings and almost banished in the same instance. Coop decided he wanted to get real close to the action and drove onto the launch pad within 2 minutes of detonation. Lucky hes a smooth talker "oh yer sorry mister, we were just trying to turn around". And since when has a barrier ever meant keep out? sheesh!

Glorious!

Me. 'Showcase' on the Taipo. Photo: Simon Henson

I then made it back to CHCH, boasted to Nev about all the cool shit I was up to and then told him to get back to the study while I set off for round two on the Waikaia. Haha, I mustn't have made that easy for you aye bro. Cheers for puttin me up!

Kent Huxford on the Waterfall of Death. Much lower flow than last time.

Si had been lonely since his main bro Sandy was outta action. He was stoked to see me back in town and keen for some huckin. Si and I hit Nevis Bluff and Citroen while we waited for Ben and Kent to shimmy on down from CHCH and Wanaka respectively. The Waikaia was the go once again. Lower water meant we could clear logs from the cave entrance to get this little gem cleaned up and free flowing once again.

Si (Rudsy) with the massive over boof. If you look hard you can see light through the cave entrance above the falls.

Nev goes the big 2-1!

Art by Rach Saartoff, captured by me.

The next day Nev's flatmate Andy lined up the free diving catch of his life.

"Bugger!"

Nev and Gaz giving me that all important safety net from the eddy below.... the high five.
Photo: Rach Saartoff. Styx river, West Coast.

The last two weeks have been special with Nev and Rach rollin in the Homy with me. Always a mission on the mind, a smile on the face and a mean feed. Even eel for breakfast! Gosh, we did roll in style.

Ma 'Homys' Rach and Nev at the Crooked put in.

Wilzy showin us grandpas how the new school rolls... mad style. Crooked River, West Coast.

Team Epic... i mean .. um .. er..... prepared?? hmmm. Dando musta been shakin his head lookin at my sorry ass haul itself into the whirly bird. Funny where a handful've cash 'll get you aint it.

From Left: Nick Gordon, Wilzy Martin, Cooper Lambla, Nev Wilson, Mike Nash. Arahura River, West Coast.

-a big long story of epic proportions goes in this space but it's long... infact it went past midnight including a 111 call and SAR, but like i said.... its long, so ask either Mike, Nev, Coop, Wilzy or me for the low down-

Mike 'MacGuiver' Nash launching off Dent Falls, Arahura River. RIP Burnie.

To wrestle with the Homy and win is a feat only mother nature could pull off. "Wind so strong it peels gutters off a Homy and destroys Thule racks" its a myth that will be told through the generations of kayakers to come. At least we got two unreal runs down the Totara'bezi' at its wambezi-best. The rocks rolling on the bottom of the river bed actually sounded like thunder over our heads. Insanely good times.

Coops shiny new Magnum 80 once again showed us that its not afraid to tackle the big stuff be it on the river or the side of the road destroying fence posts as they got in its way.

We hauled another monsta cray from the depths. Stretched out he measured the length of an arm! Needless to say we dined very well once again. Bam!

Spied by Nev (glove and flipperless - Nev style) and hauled outta the depths by 'Action Man' Gordon.
Photo: Rach Saartoff.

With full bellies we headed off up the Perth.

The back of my head. Photo: Nev Wilson

Sam and Nev charging on the Perth River, West Coast.

The coast definitely delivers on the sunset front. Okarito, South Westland.

Thats been the most of my 5 weeks trippin around the south gettin some quality time with quality people in quality NZ. Bring on the summer time sunshine. Did someone say Crisis??

Cheers to all you that put me up for a night or three. See you again in Jan!

Nick and the Homy

Movember '08

2008-11-30T20:28:00.001+13:00

The time fillers

2008-11-14T12:32:00.008+13:00

Since we found out about our job managing the lodge, we have been in all directions filling in time before we start at the start of Dec...

We left Hope with our van loaded with all our stuff and another road trip ahead of us (minus one team member). Our goal was to finish exploring the Canadian Rockies, so we continued south east ish. We first headed to Kelowna to catch up with Dave Aubrey and check out his new place. Kelowna, Dave, Colin and Leslie were awesome to stay with and after a few nights of catch up we hit the road again, south to a town only 30min away, but because the road was closed it took us more like 2 hours (good thing we have off road tyres now!).

Oh the fall colours of the Maple Tree

So this town was called penticton and rumours were it hosted great climbing (Skaha). So we checked it out, lucky we had Daves local knowledge - otherwise im not too sure if we would have ever found it. With no guide book we just walked around and attempted stuff that "looked" like it was in our league. Which turned out to be a great day. Upon reitirng to the van in the car park and cooking up some dinner we bumped into a couple (also living out of their car) who were climbing also. They kindly offered to show us the ropes so to speak, and we accepted because they had a guide book and we didnt. Turns out they were a bit better than us (not hard to be really) and we ended up top roping some of the stuf they were getting on...

We climbed there for 3 days but barley scraped the surface, this place had endless amounts of rock still waiting to be climbing. We took photos of the others climbing guide and hit up some stuff more in our climbing range and also climbed to the tops for some views.

Penticton

The endless amounts of rock!

From there we continued South through the Okenhagen Valley towards Nelson. Luckily enough I got hold of some of my friends from NOLS and got to have some good old catch ups. Nelson was a great little town, we hiked around, shopped, went to hot springs in a cave, and drank a lot of tea. Shaun found his whole ski touring set up in a second hand store, and is waiting impatiently for some snow!

Waving good bye to my friends Roger and Jeff, we contiued to Golden - ready to move out of the van and into a room you can walk in and a bed you can sit up in without straining your neck. That night we had the best sleep in ages!!

Wait but it dosnt end there...we actually leave Golden the next day towards Banff and went to the infamous film festival, which was awesome! We then headed down to Calgary to visit some extended family of Shauns, Sue and Nigel. They had a house out of the city on about 22 acres, it was so nice to be out in the country, it felt like we were back in Canterbury. Sue and Nigel made us feel super spoiled and it was great to feel so welcome. We got to explore some of the foothills and the area.

Fresh snow, fresh bear tracks!

We also explored a town called Drumheller, which is located in this really interesting valley in the middle of nowhere in the praries. This town has the biggest dinosaue museum in the world. Turns out a lot of dinosaurs were found in the area...

Some of the landscape was pretty cool

This T-Rex was chasing us, but Shaun managed to shake him off just in the nick of time!

We then headed back to Banff for the final screening of the winning films and the awards ceremony, it was a really good night and was cool to see were it all starts from. Late that night at about 2 am we make it back to Golden...and here we are now exploring some of the local sights etc... and filling in time.

There is a local Wolf farm, which was uprisingly intresting - these wolves were huge! and so gorgoeus

We have been getting snow regularly but unfornatly the temps are not cold enough for it to stay, today we played around in excitement, shauns about to cane himself in the photo above..

So this brings us up to date in where we are at, we are happy to have a roof over out heads now and a full kitchen to cook in!

Just wanted to thank everyone who has helped us out on way or another - this has really made out trip! So thank you we really appreciate it!

well keep you posted on how the snow is going...

The Salmon River, Idaho

2008-10-26T13:02:00.004+13:00

Thought I might post some photos of a trip I did a while back, cause it was an awesome trip...

During the summer after working in the Yukon I did a training trip with NOLS in Idaho canoeing on the Salmon River. We did two 7 day trips on the middle section, this is a fun and forgiving class 2 - 3+ run with stunning scenery. It was a supper fun group, heaps of food and even more beer and whiskey! heres a few photos...

We camped on sandy beaches every night - no need for a tent, just roll out your sleeping bag and sleep under the stars (it was a change from the Yukon thats for sure!)

I introduced sock restling and it was a big hit!

Our first trip involved bringing a metal detector in search of a $20G wedding ring, we found it too, plus some other treasures!

We finished the trip at these hot springs on the way back - one of the best Ive seen I reckon! the hot water is those waterfalls.

Hope you enjoyed the photos...

The end of summer

2008-10-26T09:57:00.006+13:00

First things first, we now have team jackets! Woop diddy woop woop! We found these bad boys at a thrift store and they came embroided with our team name as well as official first aid crosses so now the phrase “Dont worry I'm a doctor” can be said with authority.

The last week or so has been quite slow for us. We've been driving around ski towns throughout the Rockies looking for winter jobs. We've checked out all the big name towns and ski resorts - Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper, Golden, Fernie, Invermere and have decided to stay here in Golden. The resort looks amazing – very little snow at this stage – but the 8 person gondola to the top of the hill will be a treat compared to NZ ski fields.

Heres a few pics from our touring around Banff and LakeLouise...

Lake Louise

Shaun is a good rock hiffer. Moraine Lake - Near Lake Louise

Jacqui is a good thinker, some would say an ideas person. Moraine Lake

Chris is a good pole dancer. Moraine Lake

Proud

The town of Banff

We've been camping just outside of Golden at a sweet spot by a lake. The campsite comes complete with a plentyfull supply of firewood and better still – a sweet rope swing. If the water was warm enough to swim this swing would be awsome. Hers a few photos from around the place

Early morning at the campsite, the air is crisp - so too are the icicles in Chris's poor excuse for a tent...

The swing. Good to go.

These are the two ways we could keep ourselves warm at night, chop the wood for the fire or sit practically on the fire.

We are now back in Hope (where we started from), we have come full circle. Waving goodbye to Chris this morning we have turned a new leaf, we hope we see him return for the winter!

We managed to get a pretty awesome job lined up for the winter in Golden. We will be running a lodge in the ski resort called kicking horse: www.kickinghorseresort.com the lodge itself: www.copperhorselodge.com is located on the other side of the road to the Gondola. We will be living at the the Lodge, which means we eat at their restaurant too! Were excited about the season, we still have a month to kill before its all go though, so we will be hitting the road once again. Were going to start South and head North finishing at the Banff Mountain Film Festival, in Banff itself!

Bring on the winter snow, here we come

Bung

2008-10-17T15:24:00.004+13:00

In the infinite wisdom of wikipedia: A bung is an apparatus used to seal a container, such as a bottle, tube or barrel. Unlike a lid which encloses a container from the outside without displacing the inner volume, a bung is partially inserted inside the container to act as a seal.

The most common every-day example of a bung is the stopper of a wine bottle.

In the infinite wisdom of kayakers: A bung is a rather useful little bit of plastic that allows the easy removal of unwanted water from a kayak when taking off the river and cleverly prevents ones kayak from filling with water whilst on the river (should you have remembered to put it back in).

The most common every-day bung is almost always left at home in favour of the much more cleverly engineered and buoyant goon.

Kayaking is also a sport which allows the participation of people with bung ankles (Nicholas will back me on this one). The ankle is fully inserted into the kayak and does little to seal the kayak from water, in fact some cool snow melt in the bottom of the boat is rather soothing on the bung ankle.

And here we come to the point or lack of point of all this rambling, that fact that my ankle is still bung and that I am taking up full time kayaking when I'm not too busy playing with my pet wind farm and that last weeks kayaking with the crazy french duke has yet to wear off and stop me from all this sheiit talkin'

Boat Recovery 101 (French Style)

2008-10-13T12:17:00.001+13:00

Nough Said!