Blog

Seasons change!

Posted by Julie-Ann Chapman on May 15, 2012

Well I hate to say it but I think its pretty close to summer now in the Coast Mountain range. We hit a whopping 32 degrees Celsius in Pemberton yesterday! I took my sled deck out of the truck, tucked away the sled in the garage and whipped out the bocce ball set,bikini and started to ride my horse Luna Rocket a lot more! For all you die hard sledders out there, there is definitely still some snow up top right now, good for climbing and exploring, its just a bit of a bitch to get there now with having to drive 30km up the road and cross a couple of creeks and run offs.

In all, wow, what a rad season it was this year. The snow was insane, got some rad pictures of buddies having fun, and many laughs were had. Mr sunshine could have showed his face a little more but I shouldn't complain because we actually had snow this season compared to a lot of places around the world. (This coffee I'm drinking right now is pretty tasty, just to let you know ;)

Even though my sled is put away (and for sale for those shopping around for a great sled see my ad on Craigslist if interested), I'm still a busy bee working away to make my business of all girls snowmobile clinics - She Shreds Mountain Adventures - a huge success. Its a lot more work to get a business like this started off in this area, but I'm determined and so excited to get this dream of mine in action that its getting done no matter what!!

Lots of other things are happening on the sled side too even though its summer. I'm working closely with 509 creating a great catalog and calendar for them. Also working closely with Slednecks and Frontier Films, I submitted a couple shots for their cover of their new DVD so fingers crossed one of the boys makes the cover!! Another thing I have been working on is the new Freerider Snowmobile Magazine. They are coming out with a North American English version for next year!! Woo woo! Ill be working closely with Hans creating great articles and taking awesome pictures for it. Can't wait! For those of you who haven't picked up their latest issue, please do! Its such a beautiful, high quality sled mag!

Thanks for checking in, I hope everyone had a killer winter! I might be slowing down on the posts seeing its summer now, but Ill still be keeping you updated and posting a couple of my summer adventure pictures on my facebook page. As the girls sled clinics start to unroll with info Ill be posting all of it on here and the new She Shreds Mountain Adventures facebook page. Have a great start to summer everyone!

Shes tucked comfortably in the garage between 2 of her buddies for the summer

Summer bocce ball sessions have started! Photo: Alyssa Berard

Took the bike out of the garage for the summer! Photo: Matthew Mallroy www.Joydigger.com

My dad, aunt and uncle came for a visit couple weeks ago. Soo nice to see them, I was pretty happy :) miss you guys already! Love you dad! xx

My uncle and I jumped off a bridge! Photo: Marc Vezina

Luna Rocket got her manicure and shoes put on for the summer, my dad got some rad pictures of it. Photo: Marc Vezina

Summer fun with Ellen and her horse Jake and my baby girl Luna Rocket

Jake couldn't resist a pee by the rushing river

Luna and I

River cuddles

I love where I live! Pemberton is so beautiful! Good place to have dinner that night.

Freerider Snowmobile Magazine

Posted by Julie-Ann Chapman on May 15, 2012

So stoked to be working with Freerider Snowmobile Magazine. Right now its mostly a Swedish magazine, but starting next year they will be doing a North American English version! Stay tuned for the most high quality sled magazine out there! Ill be working closely with Hans and Freerider mag creating awesome articles next year! Get stoked! Check out their latest issue....

Cover

Contributor intro

Coast Mountains article and pictures by Julie-Ann Chapman

Coast Mountains Article part 2 by Julie-Ann Chapman

Coast Mountains article part 3 by Julie-Ann Chapman

Ski-Doo summit review by Julie-Ann Chapman

Alpine Assassins

Posted by Julie-Ann Chapman on Apr 22, 2012

Almost 7 days ago the Alpine Assassins crew from Tahoe California arrived to Pemberton BC with hopes to "get shit done" for their film for this year. They picked up Eric from Adrenaline North West Productions in WA along the way to help a brother out and do some filming for them, what a nice guy! Tahoe's season was a complete bust this year from what I hear. The boys were saying they were only able to get out a handful of times because the snow was so minimal. With Pemberton and Whistler's reputation this year of getting record snow dumps, they decided to checked their bank accounts, pack up their bags and head to Pemby for some good times in the snow. They rented the raddest little place up the meadows called Green Water Resort, check it out if you're in Pemberton next and want a beautiful, affordable place to call your home for the stay. Since they have arrived they have managed to accomplish quite a bit I would say. You always want to get more done at the end of the trip, but as long as you get something, you're stoked! It was an awesome week filled with fresh pow, sunny days and well, I would be sneaky without saying that, yes, there was a couple rainy days in there too. Hopefully next week brings some more snow (fingers crossed) and some more blue birds. Such a fun week sledding, enjoy the pics!

welcome

Welcome once again to beautiful British Columbia Alpine Assassins

alpine

In the alpine

1st day build

First day jump build

death trap

The death trap I built for Eric and Tyler sitting in it to give it some depth perspective....Totally thought he would just dig his nose into the wall and get stuck, but he didn't :( The pooolaris blew right threw it.

short

Duncan Lee coming a little short on the step up....whoops!

short

Duncan Lee coming a little short on the step up....whoops!

no hander

Duncan Lee - No hander

shoot

A rainy off day hanging around Green Water Resort shooting guns!

shoot

A rainy off day hanging around Green Water Resort shooting guns!

jump

Ken Evans getting a bit of air time

duncan

Duncan Lee breathing some fresh air

hold on

"Hold on cupcake, let me drop you over here to film this"

ryan

Ryan Oddo sending it

retardo lens

Busting out the retardo lens and shooting snowmobiling on the moon basically

duncan

Duncan Lee airing

ryan

Ryan Oddo

ken

Ken Evans shooting some pics

building

Building an insane step up rock gap

stoked

Ken Evans stoked "Ive been waiting for this day all season"

set up

Setting up the step up

step up

Ken Evans going big

massive

Ken Evans going MASSIVE!!!

Photo published in On Snow Magazine

Posted by Julie-Ann Chapman on Apr 16, 2012

An awesome 2 page spread of mine published in On Snow Magazine!! Stoked! Rider: Chris Brown. Spring 2012 Volume 26 issuse 6 page 2 & 3.

OSM Publication

A couple of new videos!

Posted by Julie-Ann Chapman on Apr 09, 2012

I would just like to thank Dave Norona from Ski Doo and PY LeBlanc from Slednecks for editing a couple of videos for me! Enjoy!

Spring time sun and smiles

Posted by Julie-Ann Chapman on Apr 09, 2012

Whistler is going off with the sunshine these days! I have accepted the fact that the deep champagne pow is done for the year but man has mother nature helped with that acceptance with the beautiful sunshine she is shining down on us! This past week has been FUN! Matt from joydigger.com has summed it up quite nicely in this article (part 1) he just whipped up. Click here to read whats been going on in Whistler the past week. Stay tuned for part deux!

Sick day fun crew beautiful view of Mt Cayley

Choppa Choppa 1-9 with Mt Cayley

Grant Clarke going pretty big

Clint Miller going pretty huge too. Photo cred: Grant Clarke

Me trying to go as big as the boys! Photo Cred: Grant Clarke

Clint Miller

Mikael Berntsson and Maria filming for Frontier Films

Gene Simmon's daughter Sophie Tweed Simmons and Nick Marshall stopped by to say hello!

A super sick day!

Posted by Julie-Ann Chapman on Mar 30, 2012

Dan Treadway texted me the night before, 9pm to be exact as we were just getting back to the trucks from a rad mission that day to the Callahan, asking me if I wanted to come riding with him, Kalle KJ Johansson, PY (filmer from Slednecks) and Dave Craig (filmer from Fontier Films) the next day. I hesitated a bit when he told me the time - 7:30am. But when he told me he had a sick drop he wanted to do over a glacier and that the sun is on it only in the early morning I said "see ya there". Its so cool no matter how tired you are one morning, when the sun is shining and you have the funnest crew to go sledding with, you don't even feel tired once you get on your sled. IT WAS A SICK DAY!!!! Unfortunately the glacier wasn't doable to do a drop off of, but Dan was still able to get some sick pow slashes beside it! I was able to hit a couple fun hits in between taking pictures of the boys going off....Here is a little edit PY LeBlanc from Slednecks put together for me (click me)

Dan Treadway about to hit the eject button

Dan treadway eject button

Dave Craig filming the boys for Frontier Films

Dan Treadway and the mighty glacier

Kalle KJ Johansson boosting

Kalle KJ Johansson pow slashing

Py LeBlanc filming for Slednecks

Dan Treadway

Dan Treadway and Kalle KJ Johansson

Kalle Johansson and Dan Treadway

Dan Treadway boosting the 2013

Me! Photo credit: Dan Treadway

All girls snowmobile clinic - A HUGE SUCCESS!!

Posted by Julie-Ann Chapman on Mar 20, 2012

I am just blown away, seriously a dream come true. After months of planning and organizing the 1st Annual All Girls Snowmobile Clinic in Whistler BC was a true success. The day started off with all the girls meeting and greeting at the Brandwine parking lot signing their lives away on waivers.

Click here to view a video of one of the beginners Jaydi unloading a sled for the first time. She borrowed her snowmobile from a good friend of hers, Andrew Jackson, which is seen teaching her how to unload his sled!

We did a quick briefing on how to use their beacon's followed by a beacon search in knee deep powder on the side of the parking lot. The winner - Leah Gillies - found the beacon in about 3 minutes and won a Tracker beacon donated by BCA.

This is Jaydi Cilento searching for the beacon.

Then we did a quick talk on the avy danger ratings for the day and trail safety - surprisingly over 80% of the girls knew what the avy danger rating was for the day - high in the alpine, considerate at tree level and considerate below tree level.

Next we all geared up and headed up the cat track as a pack of 24 stoked ladies (and 1 man - Matthew Mallory who was our photographer for the day) and met in the main Brandywine bowl. The next little while was spent talking about basic safety in the backcountry. We covered everything from essentials to put in the back pack for outdoor survival, avalanche safety equipment, identifying avalanche terrain, slope evaluation, snow evaluation, good travel habits, rescue and first aid - what to do if you are the victim in an avalanche, what do to if you are the rescuer in an avalanche, searching for a victim and recovering a buried victim, etc.

Once everyone was comfortable with all the information and all questions were answered, we split up into 4 groups and let the fun times begin!! Each coach - Stephanie LaRoy Schwartz, Brandy Floyd, Katy Akerman and I took each 5 lovely ladies and began to teach them some technical riding!

The 4 coaches - Brandy Floyd, Stephanie LaRoy Schwartz, myself and Katy Akerman

Stephanie showing one of the ladies how to ride on uneven terrain

Brandy going to dig out one of the ladies - if you dont get stuck you are not trying hard enough :)

Amanda practicing her side hilling

Practicing some down hill pow carves on the new 2013, I think she might have fallen in love with the machine!

Carolyn and the new 2013, she fell in love with the machine too!

Practicing some downhill pow carves

Kat practicing her opposite foot riding "shit hooks" - killing it!!!!

One of the beginners - Louisa getting some pow shots!

wow there was some fun pow!

Melinda doing some uphill pow carves

Kat practicing some downhill pow carves around obstacles

Jaydi, one of the beginners, pushing herself out of her comfort zone just a little bit! She didn't get hurt don't worry, she was actually giggling!

After a short lunch break and the rest of the afternoon practicing technical riding skills we met back up as one group and talked briefly about how everyone's afternoon was. Everyone was sooooooo stoked and had improved 10 fold on their riding abilities and confidence. With sore bodies and huge smiles we headed back down to the parking lot at the end of the day. Everyone loaded their snowmobiles safely and confidently and proceeded to meet back at base camp to do some prize drawing. We had some amazing prizes go out to all the ladies. I would like to thank the following companies who donated amazing prizing for the clinic....

BCA, Ski doo, 509, Feet Hookers, CFR, HMK, Klim, Reusch, RSI, Gamma Sales, Valley Chainsaw LTD, Nesters Liquor Store, Slednecks, Blackbird Bakery, Jurli Ricker at SnowRide Adventures, Octane Productions and Amanda Zircino for her donation of two reiki massage sessions.

I would also like to thank the following people for their massive support for the clinic -

Shawn Wilson, Jeff Drummond and Katy Akerman at Blackcomb Snowmobile

Nelson Bastien at Powder Mountain Snowmobile Club

Jen at the Canadian Avalanche Association

Dan Treadway for lending me his 2013 Ski Doo

Also would like to thank snowest.com, Freerider Magazine, Sledworthy.com, Joydigger.com for all their help spreading the word about the clinic.

And last but not least I would love to thank with honor Stephanie LaRoy Schwartz, Brandy Floyd and Katy Akerman - my amazing coaches for the day! They were amazing at teaching and so patient with the stucks and digging! And Matthew Mallory from joydigger.com for taking pictures of everyone all day. Couldn't send enough thanks to you guys!

Thank you to all 20 participants who were part of the first annual all girls snowmobile clinic. I couldn't have asked for a better day! Everyone was so stoked and improved their riding and confidence 10 fold by the end of the day and nothing went wrong!

Make sure to check out my athlete page for all the other photo's from the day. If you are interested in next years clinics please send me an email and I will make sure to add you on my mailing list for all information on clinic's in the future. Happy sledding to you all!

All 24 ladies super stoked at the end of the day!!!!!!

Here are some of the testimonials for the day from some of the ladies....

"Well.....My upper body doesn't work anymore :) " - Louisa

"What a weekend in Whistler.... Spending the weekend with Julie Ann riding and learning a few new things. Gawd it's going to be hard to go to work today...:( thanks again for everything Julie Ann you rock!!!" - Melinda

"What a fabulous weekend! Great girls, great coaches, and great sponsors!" - Jen

"Thank you Julie-Ann ! It was such a great day!!" - Carolyn

"Thank you! It was awesome. Had such a great time - very sore too. Ice pack, glass of wine and bed for me!" - Kassia

"Thanks for a super awesome day!!!" - Amanda

"Muscles I never knew existed are sore hahaha" - Jaydi

Jaydi also had a school assignment to do on the clinic....here is what her assignment said....

"In the day and age where women are frequenting the back country more than ever, it is interesting to think a snowmobile clinic specifically for ladies has never been held. On March 18th 2012, Julie- Ann Chapman finally got to live out her dream. One in which, she had envisioned for quiet some time. Not only did she host, but she organised an amazing clinic. Twenty- four ladies from the west coast of Canada and the United States, of all ability levels; joined Julie- Ann and her team of coaches for an unforgettable day.

Meeting in the Bradywine (Whistler, British Columbia) parking lot, there was much excited as girls un-loaded (many for their first time) sled's off the backs of their trucks. Becoming familiar with their sled, everyone assembled with Julie- Ann for a quick run down of the day and an all too important beacon search. Then the ladies were off, on their six kilometre climb to the first bowl in Brandywine. The first part of the day was about the ladies gaining confidence and learning manoeuvres on their machine. The second half of the day allowed the ladies to venture round (in avalanche safe zones) practising hill climbs and powder turns on more challenging terrain.

Overall the day was a success! Filled with a lot of digging out of stuck sleds, a tonne of falls, unmeasurable learning and unlimited smiles and laughter. Julie-Ann held not only a day that is going down in history for female snowmobiling, but a day that the ladies will never forget, sore bodies and all."

Certified safe snowmobile instructor!

Posted by Julie-Ann Chapman on Mar 20, 2012

The past couple of days I was fortunate to be part of a course that British Columbia Snowmobile Federation offered here in Whistler. It was a huge fight to even get the course to happen, but luckily it went down and thanks to Nelson Bastien I was able to sneak in as the last student. With this course i can teach and certify people as "safe snowmobile operators" which will allow them to get jobs (example: BC Hydro, the military, etc) and receive insurance discounts. This certification will allow me to operate my women's clinics in a safe matter as well. Contact me if you are interested in becoming a certified safe snowmobile operator.

Our instructor Doug and the students

Safe speeds and maneuvers

Lunch break at the cabin

This is Doug. One of the raddest guys ever.

I am now certified!

Myself and Victor (in the back ground) as certified safe snowmobile operator instructors, and our 2 students - Alex Grady and Jaydi Cilento (Amanda Rose is missing out of the picture) as certified safe snowmobile operators.

9Lives Adventures!

Posted by Julie-Ann Chapman on Mar 20, 2012

Chris Brown and 9lives Adventures paired up to offer an opportunity of a lifetime! 9lives is a non profit organization that works so hard to be able to offer people with spinal cord injuries to do amazing adventures such as skydiving, bungee jumping, ATVing and now sledding thanks to Chris Brown! As we all know Browner had a MAJOR sled accident last year, which can be viewed here, and is so thankful about the whole outcome that he wanted to give back with a warm heart. He decided to offer 9lives to run a contest for three lucky winners to fly to BC and come ride with Chris Brown. The three amazing souls that won were Lonnie Bissonette from Ontario, Christi Rougoor from Ontario and Chad McPherson from Alberta. When Chris told me about this event that was happening I was absolutely STOKED to be part of it. Let me tell you, they were one stoked crew!!! It warmed my heart to see all the smiles and stokness through out the day! I was so thankful to be part of this. Here is a little write up one of the contest winners - Chad McPherson sent to me :

"I have to start by saying that the 9lives crew are awesome!! They put on a cool contest and made it fun and exciting the whole way. The 9lives crew themselves and the other contest winners were so fun to hang out with, we all got along and had a blast! The minute we got to whistler bungee we all were laughing and having a good time. The bungee jumping was insane!! I have never experienced anything like that before in my life, and it was an amazing experience. 9lives had set up restaurants and arranged dinners so we ate like kings the whole time too. We went out for dinner with Chris Brown at Earls and it was a awesome time ( u would know cause u were working! haha), with great food and people. The sledding was unreal, the snow conditions allowed us to have fun and ride hard! The PRO 800 sled they had for me was awesome, and handled perfectly. I have never seen snow or rode in conditions like that before, it was like the Slednecks videos you see on TV. Basically I had the best weekend of my life!! Just getting out of a busy winter in Alberta, and going to Whistler was awesome, but to do all the things 9lives had planned made the trip "epic". I want to thank 9lives and Chris Brown for everything they did for us!!!"

Please visit Joydigger.com for a full write up on the day.... And visit 9lives for further adventures! CNN also did a little write up of the adventure and can be seen by clicking here

Christi "the Lynx" Rougoor, one of the contest winners and myself with Alain Delarosibil on the right. Photo:Alyssa Berard

Lonnie show us how to do a handplant! Photo: Matthew Mallory

Chad showing us how its done when your a paraplegic Photo: Alyssa Berard