May 25 - Sea to Summit! Cypress Turns

In Vancouver we are fortunate that our local mountains get an enormous amount of snow which tends to stay around well into June. This made grabbing some quick turns for May wasn't going to be a problem but I needed to put in some road miles after working all week. The fear of a 200 mile day looming scares me into training even after a long week. A plan was hatched to combine a road ride with a ski. Not just any road ride but a ride from the ocean all the way to the top of Cypress ski area.

The ride up Cypress is by no means that hardest climb on the North shore but it is a worthy climb and for those who follow cycling it would be a category 1/2 climb in the Tour de France. With short pitches over 9% it causes your legs to scream for mercy.



A little over 2 hours from the time we left the car we were back putting our ski gear on. We weren't the only ones skiing either.  As we skinnied up Mike realized that he forgot his skins! Rookie move but he soldiered on and bootpacked the whole way.


With great views of the lions and Howe Sound  we clicked in and capped off my most unique ski day ever! Sometimes you have to get creative with your activities to keep everything exciting. A pretty cool way to have a 5000ft day!



Full write up and pictures http://bit.ly/KUutFQ or powdergangster.ca