Exactly. I spent the last 2 days sledding in 120cms of storm powder in Revelstoke. Sorry but the violin solo gets drowned out by BRAAAAAAAAAAAP!

Honesty and integrity in broadcasting...found!

Oh that's right, the whole world is blessed with the Columbia watershed. Outside BC where the earth is a little flatter, you can't do that. Coal is king because we have lived our entire lives with the expectation that we can walk into a room, flip a switch and have the light turn on. That's called base load, power that's being used somewhere all the time. Wind power? Pssh. Nobody told you that those windmills only produce on average 25% of their installed capacity and that lack of online reliability is why in Alberta only permits 5% of generating capacity to be wind powered. That way a gas-fired peaking plant can pick up the slack if the wind stops blowing to prevent brown outs. Unless the government subsidizes wind power it isn't economical because installation costs per kWh are too high versus actual output. Over my dead body. Don't believe me? Maybe you need to look into power pricing. Let's take a large hypothetical situation where the green crusaders all got wind power installed instead of the big evil coal plants. Someone would have to pay to install 4 times as many wind farms as we actually need because our electricity demands do not decline when the wind stops blowing. Now if the wind is blowing we have 4 times as much power as we need and it's dirt cheap. Who is going to pay for this and not be able to make any money( or even get their money back from it)? jon-15 has a point. Google Kinbasket lake. I'm all for Hydro power where it's feasible but it's not free. Just because an energy source eliminates emissions at the point of use doesn't mean there is no impact at all. You're just passing the buck so you can live in a dream world. Electricity is not magic, it all has to come from somewhere.

Um, sorry Eldo. Natural gas IS a fossil fuel. And besides that, we do many other things with it like make plastics. Unless you use a cryogenics (that even sounds expensive because it is) unit at every gas plant you can't recover the ethane from the gas stream. To add to what Gabor has said, people also don't consider the total energy and environmrental impact is of manufacturing hybrid cars. Maybe have a look at what goes into mining and refining copper, lead and lithuim. Some folks need to get their heads out of the sand before painting oil as an energy pariah.

It's unfortunate that you guys are going to lose your local trails and all the sweat you put into them, it's good to see that you have the pride to take a stand. I'd be choked over the inconvenience as well. But on the whole, what is it that you stand for when push comes to shove? If the BCIT guys wanted to shut down the trails for their beaver study would you be slagging them on the internet and summoning a letter-writing campaign at the eleventh hour as well? A big evil company makes for a convenient target for criticism, but outfits like this submit their applications in the interest of their business and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Ever consider that they found the area appealing because it will also provide easy access to equipment, materials and workers? If you got a job there for a handsome wage would it be such a big deal anymore? In a time when there are too few people working and costs of living are rising, this operation could be an economic driver for the area for generations. While we love our trails, the fact that a few ribbons of dirt have been cut across the landscape does not make it hallowed ground. Hipocrisy runs deep; if the sierra club tried to shut down your trails you'd be fighting them tooth and nail but when someone else wants to dig in the sandbox the mountain bikers are environmentalists all of a sudden. Go figure. When(not if) the trails get plowed, this will eventually turn into something good for the Sumas area riders. The hardcore guys will be galvanized by this enough that there will be more organization, a new location will be found to rebuild and in a few short years it'll be a distant memory. The next couple years will be a little thin but The trails will be back for the same reasons they were built in the first place: you guys just want to rip. Negative prop me all you want, but do remember that mountain biking is still a fringe sport and we're little more than a special interest group. Freeriding isn't free.

You know what they say, it'll be a cold day in hell when they cancel a national.

Welcome to the matrix.

I remember going to two of those Overlander Overender races. The history of downhill in Alberta did not start 4 years ago. Hinton at the time was the only race with a course comparable to what we could race in BC back then. It's the dark years between 2003ish and 2006 that make its comeback more exciting though. If there is something to be proud of from the past, it's that national junior championship that the late Craig Short won in 1999.

Remember kiddies, chicks dig guys who wear protection.