Whistler Adapative Sports Program- going to be a guinea pig!

[Viggen]

getting Gripen back on the bike in Banff with his wife before getting him back onto the DH bike


Stopping outside of Lilloet on the drive. Rained most of the way but cleared into a beautiful drive on the Duffy, which is now one of my favorite roads.

Whistler Patrol let us and our coach. Sylvie Allen of Whistler Adaptive Sports, load an hour before the general public for an easy warm up and equipment test on B'Line which was a great help! Hopefully an early load on Monday to try to get us on a solitary A-Line lap!


Gripen sporting his warning sign before dropping into Krank it Up.
We got quite a few double takes when others actually read the sign on his back.


Myself sporting the contrasting colors to give Gripen a target to follow. We worked out a system of verbal cues that i would call out as i led the way to let Gripen know whether turns were bermed or flat as well as upcoming features such as lip locations, rolls vs drops, rhythm sections, and bad brake bumps.
Trying to call out the cues while still paying attention to my riding was surprisingly exhausting mentally by the end of the day. Legs wanted more, brain did not. Gripen felt the same way, and led us to ice cream instead of another lap during the first day the extended play craze occurring on a sunny Saturday at the whistler bike park (= lots of people in the village).

By the end of the day we had done 5 laps on Krank It Up and Gripen was making most of the landings. We even caught up with and had to wait for some people

Today is a relax day and some mellow xc here in squamish including a half nelson lap.

Again, props to Sylvie Allen of Whistler Adaptive sports,Whistler/Blackcomb for tickets, and the Whistler patrol for their help and support. It has been much much appreciated.

Updates to follow on Monday!

[forty]

this thread = stoke to the max!!!!!!

[grskier]

awesome!

Nice work

[grinch]

Haha this is awesome. Sounds like good times. Wasn't very long ago Sylvie was a crusher. No doubt still is. "Draggin people in" ftw

[mntlion]

not bad for a blind old man Keep up the good work

[smslavin]

fucking awesome. stoked for you.

[Gripen]

Went out for Squamish XC adventures today and rode Powerline Plunge and Hoods in the Woods. Definitely struggled a bit though the techy stuff and drew some good blood but had so much fun after realizing I couldn't pin like before. It'll come though.

Back to the park tomorrow!

[Gripen]

A-Line laps. Check!

Not making many of the landings there yet but working on it! Ninja Cougar and Karate Monkey were quite the challenge but got it done with only one crash.

[eldereldo]

A-Line laps. Check!

Not making many of the landings there yet but working on it! Ninja Cougar and Karate Monkey were quite the challenge but got it done with only one crash.

Great, maybe I'll try those with my eyes half shut. I crash more than that and I can see where I am going!

[shirk]

Awesome stuff.

[GordonShumway]

Hey, were you up there this past Saturday (6/15)? If so I saw you up there as we were getting off the gondola. I wish I would have known it was a fellow maggot, I would have said hi. We were blown away you were up there riding, very inspirational that you're up there chasing after it and not letting anything get in your way. Very cool

[Gripen]

Hey, were you up there this past Saturday (6/15)? If so I saw you up there as we were getting off the gondola. I wish I would have known it was a fellow maggot, I would have said hi. We were blown away you were up there riding, very inspirational that you're up there chasing after it and not letting anything get in your way. Very cool

Yep that was us! Red jersey for me and bright green with orange panel for Viggen.

We. Have some more pics we will post up tonight.

[Viggen]

Gripen and I have been meaning to get another update to the thread last week, but other stuff came up, like major flooding in southern alberta including Gripen's home in canmore.

Our second day at the bike park was awesome! Got another early load which allowed us to warm up on Krank it Up before getting on a slow A-line lap before the general public showed up. It was very beneficial to get a good inspection and build some confidence before trying to ramp up the speed. We managed two A-line laps and were very fortunate that monday was a lot less busy than Saturday was, but Gripen was making about half to two thirds of the landings. He was stoked! Also got in a Ninja Cougar and a Karate Monkey lap and two or three more Krank it Up laps before Gripen was exhausted. I took off for a few laps of my own on dirt merchant, a faster a-line, a great b-line, and one final Krank it Up.




Have a couple of action pictures, but they are on Gripens phone and will post them up later when i can get them.

All in all, Whistler was awesome and many many thanks go out to Sylvie for working with us and for whistler for the early loads and tickets. I will definitely be returning, hopefully really soon.

We took off on Tuesday to get back to Canmore as Gripens wife had moved the entire house to their new place across town while we were gone. She is a saint!
I stuck around on wednesday to help get them settled in the new place, with a plan to leave thursday to head back to montana.

4:30 am a firefighter was pounding on the door telling us to evacuate as Cougar creek new bank, normally about 100 ft behind the house, was now only thirty or so feet away and eroding quickly.

(This picture is a few houses up from Gripens. His is still standing and they will likely be able to move back in at some point.)

long story short, we were evacuated for two days with all roads into and out of Canmore closed, extending my vacation by a few days.


Gripens place did not wash away, but was flooded with about 2.5 ft of water which left 3-4 inches of mud when it receded. Bikes survived but were a bit muddy. Been a hellava vacation! Gripen and his wife are going to head back to montana with me in next day or so and give round two of adaptive DHing a go down in Whitefish along with plenty of flowy XC.

[Gripen]

resurrecting this thread as my wife and are trying to get out to ride Whistler with the Adaptive program again August 25-29ish still trying to get plans all hashed out. unfortunately viggen won't be joining us so I'm going to have to work with a new guide, but think we can make it happen. it'll be my wife's first real DH experience as well so it's bound to be interesting!
if any mags want to take a lap with me, it'd be rad to ride with some of you guys! like I said, still working on details of dates and guides and such with Whistler Adaptive for the the park but, we are also planning to do so XC in both Whistler and Squamish area, I've done a fair amount of riding in Squamish but none other then at the park in Whistler, hoping to do a little of both!

[XtrPickels]

FYI.
You're the man.
That is all.

[bennymac]

just seeing this thread for the first time. "Impressive" doesn't do it justice. Maybe "Bad-Ass"?