Oh Bear!

Back from Bear mountain now. Our first day there seemed more like the end of winter, 15C on the hill and sunny. I managed to forget my lil' digi's battery charger and home and had to rely on taking pics for the blog with my iphone. the weather didnt hold up as nice for the remaining 4 days there, it actually got progressively worse, to the point that we got a foot of snow over night and just in time for us to come home.

If you haven't been to bear mountain, imagine the drive from Vancouver to Whistler, the way the highway used to be. It's basically a one lane each way road with enough turns to make you go dizzy, the thing gets closed constantly due to rock slides and bad weather. Our only option was to take the back road, which by the way is not much better and takes an extra hour to get thru. After buying some chains for the rental van tires we headed down the road, it was insane. Nomis So Cal rep and all around awsome guy "Chicken" drove ahead in his 4x4 Jeep Cherokee with bald tires, which made the all wheel drive basically obsolete. Halfway thru the drive Chicken hit some black ice and slid straight into this F350 truck parked on the side of the road.

We couldnt stop our van either but Cartwright managed to stay on a snow bank and thus maintain some control. Fast forward about 30-40 minutes later and while driving down a snaky road, this pick up truck coming upwards the opposite direction lost control about 40 ft away from us and skidded right into our path. Cartwright again with some crazy Nascar skills managed to drive around the oncoming sliding truck and avoided a head on collision. Somehow we made it past the snowy roads and back into the dry weather of Ontario, California, no one missed their flights and we didnt get to use the insurance coverage we had on the van. Trip over? not quite, after flying into Seattle to pick up Cartwright's truck and drive to Van we stopped at this Mexican place to eat, I managed to get food poisoning and a few hours later ended up in the hospital with an IV stuck to my arm. Now i'm drinking Gatorade like it was water to get my electrosomethings up again.


Good thing I was in canada for that. Now I gotta rest 'cos i got a shoot to do tomorrow with Spy Optic's new shredder...


Andre, not bad for an iphone pic...

Simon, night sesh...

Simon's signature jib...