snow biking

I've been out on the MTB quite a bit lately. While its still freezing I've been trying to get up Inwood hill as much as possible. Inwood park is awesome because its one of the only 'wilderness' areas in Manhattan where you could actually get lost. You can find a lot of strange things there. Once Rhiannon and I were there at 9:00am and we found a Hispanic guy passed out face down in the forest. We thought he was dead at first but after poking him with a stick he came to and assured us that he had just partied too hard the night before. Anyways, here's something that almost got caught in my drivetrain yesterday:



weird.

The snowy trails are packed now from hikers and cross country skiers, so they're great for mountain biking. However, yesterday's barely freezing temperature meant that the snow is thicker, and sticks to the tires more. I was having issues with both my tires filling with snow and wandering about, and I spun out a few times trying to do some climbs. It ALMOST made me want studded tires, but I know those have limited use.

I recently found out about a crazy ice race in Montreal called COUPE DES GLACES. It looks awesome, and if I DID have studded tires, I would want to give it a go. Its on Valentines day this year. Check out the video:



Another fun looking snow vid I saw recently reminded me of doing the Rossland winter carnival downhill snow race in BC. Except MORE EXTREME. This is intense:



That's a pretty massive back flip. I noticed he's using older Nokian Gazzaloddi mud shedding tires. Perhaps if I got some of those for the Shasta I could really conquer Inwood.