Climbing San Jacinto & Some Pics from NZ

Well I head to Canada for a 2 weeks of Mountain Biking tomorrow. Its very exciting that's for sure. Vic who lives in Vancouver will be our Tour Guide for a few days at Whistler before Jabez and Gareth who are flying in from Welly & I head on an 8 day Freeride tour visiting numerous locations across interior BC.

My bike although not ideal (its not beefy enough)is all packed and ready to go. I have put some 1300gram tires on it to beef up the rims and add some weight for stability. Hopefully it will be sweet. Still I will be surprised if I don't break the wheels on the S-Works. We shall see.

Anyway a couple of weeks back I headed up San Jacinto. One of the larger peaks around SoCal and a lovely spot. Even if just for the reasons of getting well up out of the smog. The Peak is at 10800ft and the climb itself was a bit over 5000ft. Tabetha had a great time and I am slowly moving Americans who have never been up local climbs and rides to the Kiwi Outdoor way of life. She is planning to take one of her friends up it in a couple of weeks so its working 1 American at a time :-)
I can't wait for Winter. There will be some great cramponing around some of the local peaks.



I was bored one afternoon so ended up flicking through most of my pics from NZ. I have put up a best of selection on Picasa and below is a slide show of the 400 odd pics. They date back to my first year at Uni in 2001 and many of you will remember many of the trips and events. Its strange really. Being away from NZ makes you think of home a bit and going back over the pics really made me a little homesick. Esp some of the tramps and roadtrips. When I go back someday it will be a little odd that's for sure.

The pics themselves are roughly in chronological order and start with shitty scans through to better pics as I have got better at them and had better cameras.



Anyhow until what should be a great update after my Canada trip enjoy.
Kurt