The Trans-BC Enduro: a 6-Day Adventure with Athlete Jess Freeze

August 22, 2024

Jess Freeze sat down with us to describe her experience at the 2024 Trans-BC enduro. It is a 6-day all-inclusive mountain bike adventure in the infamous British Colombia terrain. Part of the entry goes to the local clubs in each community they ride in. The organization gives back over $15,000 each year. Since Megan Rose has been running enduro events in BC as of 2013, she has given back over $135,000 to the trails and communities throughout BC. For more information, go to the Trans-BC website and sign up for the 2025 series!

Thanks for coming in, Jess. Could you tell me a little about yourself and where you’re from?

I’m Jess, freeze. I am actually from Jackson, so I’m a little bit of a unicorn around here. Besides biking, I spend most of my time in the emergency room at St John’s, where I’m a nurse.

What brought you back to Jackson? And how long have you been riding?

I moved back to Jackson after college and started dipping my toes into mountain biking that summer. My now husband, then coworker, asked me if I rode mountain bikes, and I had been once before. So I said yeah and showed up to ride a Black’s Canyon on my dad’s 20-year-old Kona hardtail with the rim brakes. I made my way down and had a good time, so I slowly started working my way up from there.

So you just finished the Trans BC enduro; what initially made you want to start competing?

I started competing in racing in 2021, starting in the Montana Enduro series. I had a group of friends who wanted to do that race series, and it was still awkward COVID time. So we thought, you know, it’s an outside event that we can all go to together, camping, that kind of stuff. So got into racing that way, and then started doing more and more races, and then did the Trans-Madeira last September, which our group of friends was really excited about. And so I got back from that last fall and signed up for the Trans-BC. After the Trans-Madeira, I thought, I don’t know if I want to do a six-day mountain bike race again, but about a month went by, and I was really excited about it again.

What was your first race like? And was there any barrier to entry for your first race?

The first race I did was in Big Sky. The very first stage was the Revenge trail at Big Sky. I tomahawked down the waterfall and got to the bottom. I had ridden it the day before, successfully for the first time, but that little extra adrenaline from the racing aspect got to me and made me go faster than I thought. I crashed almost every stage of that race but ended up on the podium. That was pretty exciting and surprising.

You just finished the Trans BC Enduro. What were some of the highs and lows of the event?

The Trans-BC was way more technical and steep than anything I had ridden, let alone raced in the past. So, it was definitely an intimidating race. We had ridden a couple of days before around the Fernie area, where the first three days of the Trans-BC took place. So I got a feel for what it would be like. Thankfully, I had a good first day, but the race was all blind, meaning no one had practiced the trails before. You don’t know what you’re going to roll up to, which, for me, was probably a good thing because you’d come over like a steep roll and look at the bottom, way down there, and think, I can’t ride this, but you’re already halfway down before you decide that it might be outside of your ability level. Racing blind has helped me overcome a lot of fear and the tendency to grab a bunch of break right when it starts to get scary. So, the blind racing has helped my mountain biking a ton, and I’ve enjoyed racing in that way.

After the first day, I looked at times, and I was in a solid third place, which was very surprising to me. So that was definitely a high. I thought I’d go up there and, you know, all these pro racers from Canada, France, everything, and it was I had no idea how I’d stack up, so I was pretty excited to see my name up there at the top of the list.

The high for me, beyond that, was probably day four. It was the gnarliest day of racing, really steep and technical terrain. That was probably the best day of biking I’ve ever had. I was just in awe that I rode some of that stuff that day. So that just felt really good.

Lows, I definitely hit the ground a few times. But what I’ve come to find out after the six day mountain bike race is limiting those crashes is a huge part of having success. You’re racing for six days straight, so you’re going to make mistakes, but staying off the ground and keeping your body feeling good is super helpful.

How was the representation of female riders at the event?

I would say the representation of female riders was probably about 10%. They ran the event this year for six days with an option to do a three-day race, so we had a bunch more folks join us in the second half of the event, but there were probably about 15 women and 150 men. From our group from Jackson, it was nine boys and me. So there was not a lot of feminine energy, but the first gal I saw biking up the transfer to the first stage, I just went right up and introduced myself. I ended up riding with this gal, Mo from Colorado, the whole event. So it was few and far between when it comes to ladies, but a really awesome group of girls willing to show up and do these things, you know you’re going to get along.

How does the terrain up in British Columbia compare to the Tetons?

Yeah, the terrain is similar in a lot of ways. There are a lot of rocks, and they tend to cut their trails a lot steeper than what we do here. I used to think Lithium up on the pass was steep, but now I know that that’s kind of beginner terrain for those Canadians; they make insane trails. Toby Creek, which was our fourth day, was a brand new bike park area. No one had ever ridden the trails, so they were excited to know how it was.150 racers were put down there to dig out the trails. But the terrain is similar: rocky and more rooty than here. However, I felt comfortable and confident versus when we did the Trans-Madiera last year, where we just had slippery roots. I felt way more at home in Canada, which was awesome.

You recently got a Santa Cruz Nomad at the beginning of the season. How did the bike hold up for you?

Yeah, I picked up my Nomad about a week before we left for this trip. Thankfully, I did about a week of riding in Montana on the way up to the Trans-BC. Things were still melting out here. That was late June, early July. So I hadn’t had much opportunity to ride the Nomad on the pass, but I got up there and was so excited about the mullet. The smaller back wheel for a smaller rider like myself was super helpful. I would come up to a steep drop corner and say, “Oh, there’s no way I’m gonna make that,” and then just pop right around and somehow make it out the other side. That small back wheel really helped me out, especially on the steeps. And the Nomad was excellent. The whole trip I had no mechanical issues, which was awesome. I am pretty excited about the transmission drive train; it worked great for me. Six days of hard racing and didn’t have any problems.

Do you have any more races lined up this season?

I’ve got the Caribou Jack race on Saturday, and then I’m going to do the Rendezvous Enduro out at JHMR in a couple of weeks, and that’ll be it for the racing this season. Maybe eyeing up something in the Pacific Northwest in October, but otherwise, ski season is almost upon us.

Jess, thank you for your time, and congrats on placing at Trans-BC.

Thank you!

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