Mount Porsild

Mt. Porsild is the tallest peak at the South end of Kusawa lake.  At around 8500', its one of the higher peaks outside of Kluane.
Malcolm and I had tried to bag it a few years ago, but were weathered off.
So, with a good weather forecast, we loaded up the boat and headed up Kusawa to give it a whirl, but this time to do it in a day, so that we didn't have to hump heavy packs up the miserable approach.

Getting into the alpine.

Following gully's make for the easiest way to access the plateau.

Porsild makes its first appearance.

We stayed right on the talus ridge, and thence to the summit via the snow fields.

Thunderstorms and rain threatened all the way to the top.

The sky cleared giving us some great views into the coast ranges.

Someone put some work into the summit cairn.

A fast and easy descent.

Nice.

Ski descent anyone?

A very cool little north face on it.

A last glimpse.  12 hours round trip with ~12000 feet of
elevation gain and loss made it feel like a fairly full day.

Loaded up and heading home.

Kusawa Lake Hiking

My old buddy Roger and his friend Dean from Kimberly BC arrived back from their motor bike trip through Alaska.
We had planned a trip up Kusawa lake to explore, hike, and give them a chance to have a look at one of the most incredible areas of a place loaded with incredible spots.
So off we went even though the forecast looked grim.
The weather turned out quite nice, and we had some great hikes.

The lads with Ark mountain behind.

Mt Porsild, a trip objective later  this summer

The Dall Sheep havens of GMZ 7-21

An idylic campsite.  Dean Chatterson photo.

The weather turned to what they predicted on Saturday morning, so we loaded up and headed back avoiding the wind and rain that followed us back down the lake.

Farewell to Ark mountain.  Dean gazing into the Coast Ranges. 

Grey Ridge

Spent the day with some old friends cruising around the alpine on Grey Ridge.

New Frame

The last frame I built before I sold off my frame building tooling was this 29er frame and fork, with eccentric BB so that I can run it single speed or geared.  I had Toxic Design Lab in Vancouver paint both the frame and fork.

Finally got it built up and off on the trails.  Rides sweet.

Mt. Perkins

Yet another gem in the Whitehorse area that sees no traffic, even though its right next to one of the most poplular hikes in the Whitehorse Hikes and Bikes guide.
Over the last month, we have had some friends from NZ staying with us at various times as they flew into and climbed Mt. Logan.
The last two, Mark and Chris from Queenstown, had a couple of days to kill before flying back to NZ, so we went out to the cabin on Friday night, enjoyed a lovely warm summer evening, then bagged Mt Perkins the following day.
Swims and home made pizza on the deck followed.

Another picture perfect Yukon evening

Heading up



Still lots of snow in the alpine



Gazing into the coast range

Kona wanting to herd Dall sheep



Looking down towards Needle mountain



Another FatBike

Not so long ago, I was building a few bike frames.  It was fun, and satisfied a creative itch (not to mention trying something I had always wanted to try).  However, the market for Steel hardtails in Canada is pretty slim, so I sold all my frame building tooling to Russ from Portland.
Recently, he sent me a shot of his just completed winter bike based around 160mm Chris King hubs.
At the time, I had a dummy axle made for building around a 160 CK, as it seemed like the way to go, but now that more companies are going 170mm (like Salsa and Phil Wood) it might make more sense to head over to the 170mm axle.
Regardless, Russ did a bang up job on it.  I'm trying to get him to build me one for next winter.