Its time once again to head north to Canada where we meet up with Tyler Wilkes. Based out of Vancouver Tyler is within driving distances of both the lift serviced north american mecca (Whistler/Blackcomb) and the Backcountry touring Mecca (Rogers Pass) and endless options in between. With almost 20 years of riding experience he finds the perfect blend between free riding and ski mountaineering. I was able to take a few moments to talk with him about what its like balancing school and riding.
Name: Tyler Wilkes
Primary Location, Home Mountain, or Home Range: My hometown is Vancouver, BC, Canada. I spend most of my time riding in and around the Whistler and Duffey Lake areas, and Rogers Pass near Revelstoke, BC.
Age: 23
Primary Solid Board: An old Ride Decade
Primary Split Board: It has been a Prior Khyber for the past 3 seasons, but I just sold that and I’m looking to buy a Prior Spearhead to replace it
Preferred Binding System: Sparks
Boot: Burton Driver X
How Long Have You Been Snowboarding ? I’ve been riding since I was in grade 4…so that makes it 16 years
How Long Have You Been Splitboarding? Going into my 4th season
What Compelled You to Begin Splitboarding? This is a story I will never forget. To make it short, I was on a mountain biking trip in the summer in Revelstoke with a couple of friends of mine who are huge into ski touring as well. On one of the days, we decided to take a break from the bikes and go for a hike in Rogers Pass so they could see what some of the terrain looks like in the summer (it’s a national park so you aren’t allowed to mountain bike, otherwise we would have! Hiking is so inefficient). So the hike we did hiked straight up a ridgeline up to a viewpoint over top of the Great and Asulkan Glaciers. For the next half an hour, we sat up there and I listened to Lee and Sharon point out every single peak, line, and area they had skied over their 15+ years of backcountry skiing. I sat there listening and looking with drool coming out of my mouth thinking about the possibilities. So that was it, I made my mind up that I was going to do everything in my power to get a splitboard before winter so I could get in on that action even though I am a poor university student. Thank god for student loans…
Most Memorable Glacier Travel: In late April of 2009, I went out on a mission to ride Mt. Fitzsimmons in the Whistler Backcountry. Fitz is one of the most sought after lines in the area, because it is a pure north facing 800m+ glacier decent of a beautiful constant slope of almost 50 degrees. The trouble is hitting it in the right conditions…so after a few days of warmer temps and late season stability, we headed out to do it as a day trip (bad idea). We started skinning from the roundhouse lodge at whistler at about 730am, and didn’t finish the 18km approach until about 3pm. The snow en route was firm, but north facing stuff was still in great shape so we were all excited to ride one of the best lines of our lives. I won the rock-paper-scissor contest to go first…lucky me. So at about 3:15pm, I dropped in giddy like a little school girl, only to realized on my first turn that there was an awesome 3cm of powder hiding ice as hard as a hockey rink. The entire face was a sheet of ice, and I was committed. It was probably the scariest 2 minutes of my life riding down that thing. Everybody made it down in one piece with legs shaking and knees aching. Then we got to finish off the 18km return trip. We ended up back at whistler village at about 11pm after 3 hours of alpine skinning in the dark. Luckily the world ski and snowboard festival was going on and they had fireworks going off to celebrate our return. The total for the day was over 3000m vertical and 36km distance, all to ride a hockey rink on a 50 degree angle.
Gnarliest or most Extensive Approach for a Single Line: see above story!
Ideal Backcountry Day: I’m all about the adventures and long days. Nothing beats a huge day with sun, stability, and preserved pow late in the season
Favorite Backcountry Meal: My specialty – backcountry mac n cheese.
Favorite Piece of Gear (and Why): my helmet – I’ve had way too many concussions in the past
Favorite Place You’ve Travelled: Revelstoke. The ski resort is steep and gnarly, the backcountry terrain around there is world-class, and the mountain biking is unreal in the summer. My dream place to live when I finish school!
Sponsors: Mom & Dad
Print/ Movie Appearances: I show up on www.sharonandlee.net quite often because I ride with them, but and I was on the front page of splitboard.com one time, but other than that nothing!
Local Causes You’re Passionate About: Mountain biking in North Vancouver! We have fought a battle with local governments for the past 10 years to preserve riding in the area. After 10 years, things are finally looking to be in our favour.
Other Stuff You Do: I have volunteered to maintain the mountain bike trails in North Vancouver since I was 15. Almost all of the trail work here is done by volunteers.
Website/Blog: I’m working on a site called “Don’t waste your time splitboarding in BC”. Don’t worry, it’s not as cynical as it sounds. I got the idea from an old hiking guide, which basically subjectively rates every hike in Vancouver and has accompanying directions. It’s easy to go grab some of the backcountry ski guides here and head out, but lots of these rides have awful approaches/exits for splitboarders. My goal is to get people some info on the best routes/places specifically for splitboarding and hopefully help everybody avoid the 3 hour death marches out of creeks and skid roads that are no fun on a splitboard. I think that would help a lot more people in the area get into splitboarding. Look for it sometime this winter!
Here is one of many great TRs by Tyler
