Professional photographer Dan Barham has just left after a week of mtb photography in the Yukon. The weather cooperated and I think we can expect to see a few Yukon shots grace the covers of mtb magazines in the near future. Keep a look out!
We have a little over one month to go for our 2010 season and it has been great. Tonnes of new faces from all over North America coming North to check out the riding. One of my favourite parts of the business is watching the evolution of “Yukon Time” for our clients from down south. Life is pretty laid back up in the Yukon, mostly due to our endless days of sunshine. We aren’t in a rush! It is cool to watch how quickly people start getting in the groove of ‘it will happen when it happens’.
Another busy week coming up for Team Boréale. Good times!
We’ve been riding with Dan all week, showing him some of our highlights for singletrack around here. I do find it amusing that we take him to spots that we, as riders, think are beautiful and picture worthy and he just rolls on by without a glance. Then, in the middle of apparent nothing-ness he stops and says “I can shoot here”. When we get back to the yurts and check out the pictures - they are amazing! As Tony said earlier today, that is why he is the professional and we are not. If you are ever searching for a photographer that has the eye for perfection, contact Dan. Great guy!
Today we shot on Montana Mountain on a trail called Mountain Hero. In the alpine for hours and then descended through various stages of the boreal forest ecosystem. It is an amazing trail, hard work greatly rewarded by fast downhill singletrack. Sylvain showed us a few new spots today on the downhill, including a 1910’s silver miner’s outhouse with a stunning view of endless mountains and lakes. Wow!!
I think we successfully capped the day with a maple syrup fondue and a glass of wine. Oh so civilized!
Well we are pretty lucky here at yurtville. We have pro mountain bike photographer Dan Barham up here for a week of shooting. Today was day 2 and it was long. We first touched the saddle at 10.30am and got off it at 10.30pm. Now, we did a have a few breaks (Dan sleeping on the couch, Marsha eating a burrito…) but we were definitely tired at the end of the day. Yukon Red beer never tasted so good!
It has been an incredibly active past three weeks at Boréale’s yurtville! We had an amazingly successful Ride and Reach mtb and yoga retreat led by pro rider and overall super person Ryan Leech. I will blog more details soon. Guests, now friends, came from Iowa, Utah and Saskatchewan to ride our Yukon singletrack and stretch in the midnight sun. Ryan and Sylvain kept the flow going all day and Chef Kate rocked the dinner atmosphere each evening with photo shoot worthy meals! We have posted some pictures on our facebook page.
Immediately following we had a locals weekend with Ryan. It was a lot of fun, I heard more laughter and cheering from the main yurt yoga session than I ever heard before! The group conquered track stands, skinnies, jumps, climbing and of course, wheelies! Saturday night was a great Arctic Charr bake where the Yukon Brewing products were flowing, instruments jamming and everyone was having a great time.
Since that time we have been meeting tonnes of people from around North America who all came up to sample the singletrack around Whitehorse and Carcross. Most are coming through our wicked deal called the Weekender, but others came through our all inclusive custom packages. $250 per person for all the delicious food, shuttling, guiding and accommodation. Pretty awesome!
I am about to hit the hammocks on the bluff with a cool Yukon Red beer in hand. Another busy week coming up!
We had a great group up from Vancouver last week. Here is a great trip report from one of the riders! We still have a few spots available for this summer if you are interested in sampling the Yukon gold!
http://markcunningham.posterous.com/mountain-biking-yukon-style
Today is day one of our Ride & Reach retreat with Ryan Leech. Everyone arrived in Whitehorse yesterday in time to watch Ryan do a trials demo in front of one of our local bike shops, Icycle Sport. After all the bikes were assembled & Yukon Brewing beers were sampled, we sat down to share stories over a fantastic dinner.
Today started off with a few perfect Midnight Sun coffees and a morning yoga session led by Ryan. As a certified yoga instructor, he led the group through an energizing session that allowed both the beginners and more advanced practitioners to have a great start to their day. Sylvain is leading the group out on their first taste of Yukon singletrack. Today’s ride headed out from our Yurtville to the trails on Grey Mountain. We’ve got a great group here for the next week and are stoked to be sharing our part of the world with them!