January 24th WashoeVally NV, 9:00 am Ken Evans and myself (Duncan Lee) loaded up with John Helemerin his Big Foot cab over 4 wheel drive diesel pusher R.V. with the Full Throttle Tahoe enclosed trailer.  We were heading to McCall Idaho to ride better conditions than Tahoe.  9:30 Reno NV, get a phone call that makes us pull over at the GSR parking lot.  Kenney from North West Motorspors  is in Revelstoke B.C. and says its off the hook deep and we need to drive straight there.  After we thought about it for about oohhh 2 seconds we said, “Revelstoke it is!”  We had planned on not needing our passports for McCall so we had to scramble to round them up.   Luckily Dennis Troy is a dope friend and he brought mine down from my house in Truckee, John and Ken drove back their houses and grabbed theirs,  during the passport round up Brian (Bling Bling) called and decided to join the trip if we were going to Revelstoke.  So we picked up Bling Blingand pulled out of town at 1:00pm.  The nice thing with Johns cabover is that we could take turns driving and sleeping so we could rally straight there, a cool 20 hours is what the i phone said.  After two 50 gal tanks of diesel and a long night we were at the 20 hr mark, and about to the Canadian border which was still at least 4 or more hours to Revy. The roads had changed from dry to wet to snowy through the wee hours of the night and we could since we were getting close.  We finally pulled into the border, then spent a 45 min ordeal explaining that the stickers on the side of the trailer”Snowmobile Rentals  530-536-8774″ were for Lake Tahoe snowmobile rentals,  Full Throttle Tahoe, where Ken and I work.  The patrol man didn’t seem to get it and kept asking us if the sleds in the trailer were rentals.   About 5 times we told him that they were our personal sleds and we were going to ride some deep pow and kill it.  Then he asked about sled registration, which if you live in Nevada you don’t have, this also was confusing to him.  I think he finallygave up because he let us through and said to bring our titles next time.  Wow for a minute I wasn’t sure if we were getting in.  It felt good to be in another country withour sleds, in route to some of the best riding areas around.  The trees were filled withsnow, the clouds were low, foggy at times.   The roads were thick withgloppy snow and ice and  making it a bit sketchy driving this heavy rig with the Canadian truckers flying by.  We found a coffee shop in Castlegar to grab some breakfast and at hot cup of joe.  Some patrons were telling us about how it has been snowing and they have the most snow in town that has been in 30 years.  Since we were rolling without a road map and only with i phones and we only made one wrong turn, I found us a Canadian map to get us to Revy.  We were on the final stretch and one ferry crossing to go.  John and Ken found this hot spring that was on the way  and only a few miles from the ferry, so we stopped for a relaxing dip.   We got on the ferry with the rig and pulled into Revelstoke a shot bit later.  Kenny that was up there had booked us some rooms at the Peaks Lodge and was there to great us.  This place was dope! Restaurant bar, fuel, and riding to Boulder Mt. and Frisby Mt.  right from the front door.  Fresh snow all over, covered trees, roads, cars, and buildings.  We knew the riding was going to be all time 6,000 plus feet above the lodge.  After a while John Heston and Philip Yribar with 208 productions out of McCall Idaho, who heard we were going to Revy, showed up and we all got ready for tomorrow’s ride.  It must be have been a good call to go to Revy instead of McCall if these guys came up too. 

 Day 1:  We woke up to cloudy sky’s and phat snow flakes falling.  More pow piling up so we went into the Peaks restaurant for some breakfast, geared up, fueled up, and rode out! A nice trail that started to climb, and the snow got deeper as the minutes passed.  On the trail we saw about 20 other sledders, then Philips new polaris assault began to act up and sound not so happy, was it the 500 foot elevation we started at? My sled was not too happy without changing the main jets.  So after a bit of wire chasing and plugging and unplugging we rode up to the “cabin” which was at about 6,000 feet with an open meadow and even more sledders.  We were in the clouds at this point and it was still dumping.  The snow had gotten better and deeper, now riding off the path was only for the adventurous.  Philips sled continued to have issues so he turned back to see if he could fix it that day so he could ride the next.  We hooked up with a guy named Homer and he had 7 other sledders with him.  So now it was , Me, Ken Evans, Kenny, John, Bling, John Heston, Homer, and these other guys.  So Homer, knowing the area and given the foggy clouds and 10 foot visibility, lead the charge up the trail to the top, across areas we couldn’t see, down and up and around.  Then we hit a treed meadow and took a break.  It was a bit of a stuck fest but so good and deep.  The only problem was not being able to see the terrain.  Any bump would pitch you and you were already pinned to stay afloat.  We all had a blast, but couldn’t film much.  We made it back to the Cabin area making a loop.  At that moment we saw the clouds lifting and sun was starting to poke through.  We got a lucky afternoon/ sunset where we went up top and found some unreal terrain that Ken and I were scoping for the next day.  The sun was setting and it got dark quick.  We then made the journey down the mountain.  Made it to the Peaks Lodge and went for some dinner.  After some good brews and killer buffalo burgers at The Great White North we called it a night and crashed out so we could get to work the next day.

Day 2:  We awoke again to the same weather of snowing gray sky’s.  But the bonus was that town usually has a cloud cover and up top can be clear because top is around 7,000 feet above us.  So we got going, Kenny had a backup sled that he let Philip ride so he could come up and film, because his Polaris will need some more than quick fix when dealing with electric ghosts.  Through the cloud layer and to the top where there were even higher clouds, bummer.  Visibility was better than the day before but now super flat light where if you were standing on a 10 foot drop you couldn’t make out the landing, was it flat? was it steep? was there a bump?  So we rode on and scoped out the rest of what was close by.  We found a kid named Dustin on a 146 xp.  He took us to some killer wind rolls and we jibbed around.  I blew a belt mid whip turn down and it blasted a hole through the plasicunder the clutches.  Not so good when its deep pow, now my clutches were packed with pow and they were just spinning on the belt.  After 3 heavy duty zip ties, 1 red bull can, and a whole lot of gorilla tape, we made a patch so I could ride the rest of the day.  At that point John Heston felt his seld running funky.   He has been doing lots of tuning and testing with his Polaris RMK 800 with boondockers turbo trying to use the best recipe of parts and power to make it rip.  Which it was until it sucked a reed.  So Heston and Philip needed to roll out.  The light was still flat, and there were some hills to make to get to the trail down.  Helmer, Bling, and Kenneywent with them to make sure they made it to the trail.  Myself, Ken Evans, and our new buddy Dustin went further to check out what was to be had.  We ran into Homer and hiscrew again, then Helmer, Bling, and Kenny caughtup with us. It was off the hook, we went to sugar bowl, Bull pen, turbo hill, and a bunch of other zones that I wasn’t concerned about their name but the terrain was dope.  The clouds never went away, it snowed on and off, and wind picked up a bit.  We found this lil drop and Dustin wanted some action.  He went up and was scoping it out, picked a line and started to walk back to his sled.  The cornice broke, it wasn’t a huge one but he dropped about 7 feet and clung to the crown.  He wouldn’t have been buried but it does remind you that when its deep, anything can happen.  Ken and John went up and tossed him a rope to pull him up because it was a vertical wall and he was just standing there.  After some good riding and playing the ol fuel light came on and Dustin wasn’t sure how much he had either.  We then went to the peak to catch sun set. 

 Amazing view when the sun gets below all the clouds and lights up every peak with a alpine glow that was unreal.  Another day on top of the world riding some epic pow.  We rolled into the Peaks Lodge had dinner and passed out.  One more day ahead of us.

DAy3 we were not in any rush, I missed breakfast withthe crew so went in and ended up sitting down with the owner of the Peaks Lodge Alek.  He is one hilarious guy, loud and comical.  We had a great talk and I explained what Alpine Assassins is doing for our 2011 film.  So look for the segment on the Peaks Lodge.  We will be heading up there again with more of the team.  Alek decided to take us riding at his secret “Sexy Honey Hole” as he called it.  So we fueled up loaded up and got on the road.  It was the same direction we were heading back to the states so it was perfect.  I can’t tell you where or what it was called, but I will say that it was the best day of riding on the trip.  Just Alek, John Helmer, Bling Bling, Ken Evans, and myslef.  It snowed all day on us but the trees were calling us.  So we boondocked our way around and picked apart various areas of side-hills and tec lines.  Super fun.  Found some big cliffs for next time that we will definitely be dropping if the conditions are good and the visibility is available.  We only saw 4 other selds that day and found out that its more of a locals only area, which would explain the looks from the other sledders.  But not to worry my Canadian friends your secret stash is safe with us.  We got back to the truck around 5, loaded up, tossed the wet gear in the trailer and set the cruise control for a 27 hour drive back.  Yup  the diesel didn’t turn off until we hit Bling Blings, and unloaded everyone else.  What a week, thank you Kenney at nwmsrocks.com, John Helmer for the dope rig,  Alek and the Peaks Lodge in Revy, and Bling and Ken for all pitching in for a great introduction to riding in Canada.  I will be there every season from now on!