We headed to Leavenworth a couple of weeks ago to snap some shots with Paris Gore. Every time I go to Leavenworth, I’m blown away by the hospitality of the locals and the epic descents that wait at the end of long, burly shuttles. I was super impressed to see that the trail network has evolved there since I last visited and there are even some loops that involve reasonable climbs to access. If you haven’t been to Leavenworth before, go. Now. Stop at Stevens Pass on the way and make a point of shredding the bike park there.

Complete double ranges! We were lucky that my team manager at Norco lent Gunner a bike so we could be all matchy-matchy for shooting with Paris.

Gunner smashes a corner on Xanadu, Paris experiments with the long lens on the way up.

Jill and I landed POD on Pinkbike while we were down in Leavenworth. Paris took the photo.

Gunner takes a picture of Paris taking a picture of me. Pinkbike posted it (Paris did).

Next: the first Phat Wednesday of the year, amidst much controversy and talk. I love when people get fired up about this local league – it means they care. And they really, really do.

- Leishner

It’s been full on, but it’s been awesome. I’ve been to the Sunshine Coast for a sick trip with Norco and the entire team to ride, shoot and eat great food. The Whistler valley trails opened. And then the Bike Park opened. Let’s just say it’s been allllright. Here’s a little edit that came out of our trip (of many photos and other edits to come, I’m sure) by our team manager, Jonathan Duncan. For the record, I love hanging out with the folks on the team. Obviously the staff are amazing but the riders on the program are so dialed. We are all super diverse and everyone is a shredder. I also feel pretty honored to be part of such a stacked women’s team. Love Jill and Casey. Such legends.

Here’s another couple of snapshots of life so far:

Aurum build:

Building my amazing 2013 Norco Aurum. Full Shimano/Saint build, Rockshox suspension, Kenda tires, Gravity cockpit, WTB saddle and rims. Full shredder.

And lately:

Clockwise: shredding with coach Jordan in Whistler, Jackson waiting for the Bike Park to crack, shooting with The Boss Finestone and deep in the hurtlocker at Crossfit (photo by Katie).

Next up: Leavenworth on the Range with Gunner and Paris. Bring on summer!

-Leishner

My first Sea Otter was pretty darn fun. I flew down to San Jose on the Wednesday before the event and drove in with Katie, which made the trip even better. It was rad to have the on-hand support of the Norco crew during the week. I stayed with the team in a house in Monterey that week, trained every day with Miss Casey Jayne Brown, Zander and Lee (loved that) and got to know the ‘fit kids’ (Hayley, L’Espy and Guthrie) on the team. Was awesome getting to know everyone I hadn’t spent time with before and Pete, Jonathan, Havvy, Dustan and Chris from Norco had us dialed all week.

Because I’ve never been to Sea Otter before I really felt like I needed to work harder than the average bear to dial the course in. The course is pretty easy overall but being fast on it is both fitness-based and dependent on your comfort with letting your bike run fast and loose. The ground is super hard there and it was a fine line between overshooting jumps, two wheel drifting and actually laying on the ground (I did – hard – while towing Casey into the only real jump on the track and scared the sh*t out of myself for a couple o’ days – got the sweet black bruise on my ass and lingering hip flexor injury to prove it).

In the end I pulled a 7th, which wasn’t a mind blower but not embarrassing either. I’ll take it – the field was stacked and that result is satisfying, especially considering the fact that I buried myself like a true rookie by overdoing the laps in training (I averaged about 5-6 hotlaps a day and stupidly did 4 race speed laps right before my race run – I just started having too much fun!). It was awesome to have the on-hand advice from Chrissy (TaG Cycling) during the event; I think I’d have stayed on the ground after that crash on the Friday had it not been for spending the winter crushing weights with coach Jordan and the rest of the crew at Crossfit also. Hah.

According to MTBR's John Shafer, this rider's name is Jackie Swider. Pretty sure it's me though. I love Johnny Rempel in the blue tshirt laughing at me.

Pinkbike gave me and my bike some love at the 'Otter. Race run by Margus Riga on Pinkbike.

The other really cool announcement at the ‘Otter was the release of me and Jill’s cover on Freehub Magazine by Paris Gore. Love it and am thankful for being invited on that trip to Orcas Island with Katie, Strand, Shorty and Jill. We collaborated on the story inside the issue and I thought it turned out pretty well. It’s worth checking it out!

Photo by Paris. This is pretty cool, if you ask me. My first cover!

Next up – a big camp on the Sunshine Coast with the entire Norco Team. Looking forward to getting away with the nicest group of people maybe…ever?

- Leishner

I’m not sure if it was three years of ski patrolling that made me more stoked about my bike when the snow starts to fall, but I’m embracing it these days as much as my friends call me out on it. I’ve had a couple of less than magical shreds down in Squamish but it’s always been from my need to chase the dragon of that one good day. Here’s what it looks like when I can be asked to stop and pull the ol’ iPhone out:

Smiles for miles. Especially if it's sunny. This is rare these days.

I'm always scared of cougars when I'm on the Alice Lake trails by myself...but I wasn't scared enough not to get this moment in panoramic.

The other thing that has popped into my newsfeed is the new Pemberton Enduro Series. Kinda cool actually…I may/may not check it out but I love that there’s a community of shredders willing to take the time to put something like this together. This week’s course looks short and grunty – but they’re getting such great prizes, it’d be hard to just not do it!

This is worth checking out. So much work has gone into it already! --> on.fb.me/XjpDu2

And next up…A trip to Austin, Texas for the SXSW Interactive Festival for “work”, more bikes…maybe some ski!

-Leishner

I rocked over to Seattle with Reuben Krabbe a couple of weeks ago to hang with Katie Holden again. Been feeling the need to get on my bikes more and more these days but the weather has (obviously) not been in favor of that around here and it’s tough to make the time when I’m down to the normal person 2 days off per week all the time. That said, Katie, Reuben and I got some good hang time in together on that trip and Reuben took a couple of shots with his crazy infrared camera along the way. The purpose of the trip wasn’t solely shooting – but you can’t keep a man from his art, now can you?

Katie takes a mean photo on her iPhone. So much so that now that when I ride with her, I don't even take my phone out of my pocket because there's no point. She's a sure bet for Instagram shots; Reuben takes care of the publish-worthy bangers.

We hung out with Katie’s mom a lot during the trip too. She is a pretty great lady. She fed us super well and had really cool stories from her years of work as an ALS nurse. I kinda think she was one of the main highlights of the trip. Stoked to go back and hang out again!

Nothing new. Reuben, always with the risk taking. Not as scary as his Deep Summer climbing tactics (mostly because this time I didn't tie him in)...but still...

Overall, I’d say the trails around Seattle/Isaquaah are worth hitting up. I think a few more laps on them would make me feel like a hero and I’ll always welcome the opportunity for that to happen on my bike!

Pretty faces. Mine especially.

-Leishner

Looks a lot like this around here lately:

Fernie spin bike (TaG's kick way more ass), Fernie Crossfit upper right, Crossfit Whistler lower right. This has been my nerd-alert life lately.

I haven't ski toured a lot these days (pretty much stopped altogether once I was patrolling full time), but this was a good day. Skin, climb, ski...repeat. With some old friends on a blue bird inverted day.

Shameless selfie. No time to worry about my arm shadow in my face or to make sure I've actually got the inverted clouds to my right in the shot. Well...at least I tried?

Reuben Krabbe alone with his work before the Arc'Teryx Deep Winter Photo Challenge presented by Goretex. He's such a detail guy...I thought this moment was pretty cool. Congrats to Reuben last night and to Russell Dalby, Andrew Strain and the other photographers who busted ass to give us a great show!

Next up…hopefully more biking. Cuz that’s still a favorite of mine.

-Leishner

New year, new job, new team! Norco has announced their 2013 roster for their Factory team and I’m on it! I’m so happy to be working with the amazing team at Norco Bicycles for this year. They are true riders; they care about the sport, developing the sport and keeping kids like me and you shredding. There are some great brands backing the Factory team up – but for now, I just wanna say – thanks!

I'll be joining the likes of Darcy Turenne, Nick and Zander Geddes, Ryan Leech, Jay Hoots, Mislav Mironovic and Lee Jackson on the Norco Factory Team for 2013 (and others - including Casey Brown on the Dirt Norco team and, of course, Jill Kintner is back with Bryn Atkinson on Team Norco International). A lot of this is thanks to all of the support Fanatyk Co has given me over the years and the rest is thanks to the family at Norco Bicycles.

I also want to take a second to thank the brands who worked with me in the years up to now: RaceFace, POC and Maxxis have been huge supports to date and I can’t say enough about how much I have appreciated their support.

Humbled and driven for 2013.

-Leishner

They say the worst kinds of blogs are the ones that aren’t updated consistently. I guess I’m giving myself a failing grade these days. So much has happened in the last two months since I last posted, but at the same time it’s pretty hibernate-y around here. Been doin’ a lot of Crossfitting, working and hanging out. Eating different food and lining up my program for 2013. Some pretty cool announcements are on their way, including sponsor updates.

I got the chance to hit the road with Strand last week and join some of my favorite bike athletes to shoot with Paris Gore on Orcas Island in Washington state. Katie Holden really spearheaded the trip with Paris, but had Strand and I shredding with Katherine Short and fellow Norco athlete, Jill Kintner too.

Paris took this shot of us at the end of the trip. A favorite. L-R: Jill, Strand, Shorty, me, Holden.

Overall, the trip was worth it. We’re all pretty active in social media so the photos in this post have been seen by a lot of folks already – the real gold is in Paris’ memory cards from the shoot. I loved riding the 2013 Norco Range Killer Bee (650b wheels) and made some good jokes, especially with Jill and Shorty, who I’ve not spent that much time with until now. For the record, Jill is one of the most impressive technical riders I’ve ridden with – maybe ever. I suppose Olympic BMX medals are proof of that. Obviously the rest of us aren’t exactly slouches either, and I loved the mix of all of us together. I’m not big on the rah-rah girl power thing – but I do think that athletes – regardless of gender – who throw down in their sport are pretty rad…it was cool to be in a crew of ass kickers for the weekend. Paris was the perfect photog to throw into the mix with us and got some great material out of our short time out there.

Holden's little pic stitch of our first day out.

Next up: a trip to Fernie to hang with the Leishmaniacs. I’m bringing skis and will be training like the coolest kid in town while I’m there.

-Leishner

It’s been a pretty strange month around here. The new job at WB has been fun but pretty major compared to my typical October routine (which is usually a trip home, a bit of riding and a lot of recovery). I’m still adjusting to sitting on my ass at a computer all day but what I’ve actually been doing so far has been pretty fun overall and I’m pretty pumped about sinking my teeth into stuff like Crankworx 2013, even though it means no more racing at the festival (which I’ve come to terms with).

Now that I’m something of a weekend warrior with a “real job”, I’ve been finding ways to get ready for riding next season and getting the most out of time on my bike. Last weekend Gunner and I headed over to Victoria to visit his family and to try our hands at the “Dumpster Dive” Super D at the Hartland Dump, hosted by Pro City Racing of Victoria. We only arrived the day before the race so it was pretty tricky to learn a 9-15 minute course with no lift in such a short period of time without cooking our legs, but it was a pretty fun and quick way to take a shot at a format I’ve never tried before. In the end, I was the only “Expert” (highest level) woman at the race, so it was really for fun – which is good, since I had a few off the bikes and was generally a bit sloppy all around. It might have been one of the funnest race runs of my life though – such a rad atmosphere with the local community and crowd on the sidelines. My run took around 12 minutes, which is largely explained by silly crashes and little misses here and there. Gunner had a full high speed crash that twisted his bars and he still ended up 7th in the Expert crew – I thought that was pretty great.

The Sight all ready to go. We waited in the car for a long time on this freezing day to pedal back up for our run, but it was worth it.

There were about 60 people at the race last week and I was impressed by how many groms were out. Here they wait for the awards to start...

The event was super fun, well run and even with the little timing glitches they ran into, I’m so glad I went. I’ll do it again next year for sure. It was the perfect little event to motivate for training this winter. I’m back at Crossfit Whistler with Jordan Glasser and the crew and even though it’s been a couple of years since I trained there, I’m looking forward to it. I’m still working out some mega-kinks from a big summer, which will be smoothed out a lot  and fixed by still working with Strand Training in between, but I think being in a competitive environment every day in the off season should be good for me. I’m looking forward to having biceps as big as my calves like I used to (hah – not really).

Oh – and in my first week at the WB job, the upcoming issue of Dirt Magazine landed on my desk, which happens to have this little  image of me on Pura Vida by Reuben and a bunch of shots of Gunner on Up Up and Away.

This month's Dirt Magazine features an article on Whistler's secret riding spots by Seb Kemp and shots by Reuben. It's pretty awesome, so you should pick it up!

It’s going to be a strange winter away from Ski Patrol but I’m stoked to be able to train with some meaning and get ready for what is looking like a pretty exciting 2013. There are a few exciting changes heading my way – stay tuned for the updates!

-Leishner

Got a lot to be thankful for this season. I look back on this summer with a lot to reflect on but I appreciate all of the opportunities I was given to ride my bike and share my love of it with a lot of amazing people. I recently got a new job with Whistler Blackcomb as the Public Relations and Social Media Specialist, which is something that has forced me into a deeper appreciation of the help I’ve had from the people in my life. Kinda funny – the day I announced that I accepted the job on social media, I got this email from Emily Sabelhaus, who I coached last summer at the Dirt Series:

“I’ll bet you $20 you don’t remember me, but I’m going to write you this email anyway! Just wanted to give you a quick, but very sincere thank you for setting me up with the Range this season. It has been the PERFECT bike for me. At the risk of sounding very cliche, it’s changed my life for the better in so many ways! I stopped by Fanatyk Co this weekend to tell you this in person, but your buddies said you were still at Interbike… lucky!…

I love this photo of Emily Sabelhaus on what I think is the Peak trail on her new Norco Range. She sent this to me with her amazing note.

“Since coming home with the ‘Park Ranger’ earlier this summer, I’ve redefined the meaning of work/life balance (strong words, but very true). I moved to Seattle from Colorado last year, finished grad school, and got a new job…Then, on a whim, I took a trip to Whistler with my buddy Sasha. On another whim, we walked into Fanatyco looking for DH rentals for the day, and we ran into YOU! As you may or may not recall, you sold me the [Norco] Range that day, and it’s been bliss ever since. I still love what I do, but I am much, much more motivated to leave work on time at the end of the day to ride bikes with my buddies. This equates to better work/life balance, which equates to a happier, healthier me. I raced the Range a few times this year and had a blast, and I’ve met a new crew of phenomenal, like-minded ladies in the Seattle area that also love to shred, which makes me extra happy! Long story short, thanks for helping me make the balance happen ”

I doubt Emily can appreciate how timely her words were and how much I appreciated hearing from her. I’ve worked hard over the years to “do what I want” but to still earn the credibility I thought I needed to land the job I still can’t believe I landed last week. As exciting as this change in my life is, I had a moment of sadness at the thought of leaving my family at Fanatyk Co and at the Whistler Mountain Ski Patrol. Last year was so, so hard for so many people around me and for myself – what’s been especially great has been the outpouring of support I’ve had from my colleagues, friends, family and from my sponsors with this new change. I am so pumped that my “plan” worked out. I still can’t quite believe it, but I am stoked about this new chapter in my life – writing more, getting immersed in the culture of Whistler Blackcomb and being able to actually train full time when I’m not at work so I can still shred my bike next summer.

Amazing. And most of all, thanks to Andrew Gunn – the best dude in the world.

-Leishner