tomᵗᵒᵐ

✨ Feeling incredibly honored ✨ to not only have mine and @dirtsloth ’s story, “Echoes of Thin Air,” featured in the @bikepackingcom Journal 13 but to also land the FRONT & BACK COVERS of this edition! 🤯 This piece dives into our journey riding the Huascarán Circuit in Peru—a raw and unforgettable adventure that pushed us to our limits at 5,000 meters above sea level. It’s a story about the challenges we faced, both individually and together, and the breathtaking beauty that made it all worth it. Huge thanks to @bunyanvelo and the incredible team of editors who helped shape this story into what it is. To @dirtsloth , you’re the ultimate riding partner and your cover shot is the best! And to Peru, thank you for the jaw-dropping landscapes that left us speechless at every turn. If you’re subscribed to the Bikepacking Collective, I hope you love the story and photography. If not, consider a subscription and join us on this wild ride! 🚴‍♂️ 📸 Front Cover @dirtsloth 📸 Back Cover @adventuresbycycle 📸 + 📝 A mix of digital + 35mm film by us both #Bikepacking #Adventure #Peru #HuascaránCircuit #HighAltitude #OutdoorStories #Travel #cyclinglife

once upon a time i rode my bicycle in mexico and took some nice photos. this week, some nice people over at @bikepackingcom deemed those photos nice enough to award them bronze for ʙᴇꜱᴛ ᴛʀɪᴘ ᴘʜᴏᴛᴏɢʀᴀᴘʜʏ of 2024 🫨!! all i can say is wow, it’s incredible to have my name on that list amongst so many i look up to. a list packed with excellence in photo, video, writing, and art. you best head over to @bikepackingcom site and take a look at the outstanding work of the other winners too. woww 🥹 anyway, here are some of my personal favourites from that trip, including a few that have been prisoners of my hard drive til now. and yes, you know i had to pack that 20-slide carousel full up, sorry 😅 link in bio to the story: ᴛʜᴇ ᴇʙʙ ᴀɴᴅ ꜰʟᴏᴡ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴀᴊᴀ ᴅɪᴠɪᴅᴇ thanks for being here, thanks for looking 😇✌️

fog season in vancouver 😶‍🌫️… 🚳?¿ i don’t only take pictures of bikes and bikepacking. actually, i mostly don’t. although i’ve been super priveleged to take my bike to some really insane places, i’m more likely found riding around vancouver alone, with a camera (or three), no route, no strava 😱, and no particular destination. just hours of roaming the city, wandering, exploring, not knowing where my next turn is until I see an interesting alley or something catches my eye down a random street. and i stop often, to take photos of anything and everything. why? for the enjoyment of creating pretty pictures of what is essentially nothing — for finding beauty in the ordinary. oh, how romantic 😆 but i never share any of these images. maybe it’s because i doubt anyone cares, at least not most of you seeing this, who are here for the bikes and adventures. or maybe it’s because I’ve just never thought any of it was good enough. but who knows, maybe i’m wrong so here are some selects from a few foggy days we had last week. if even a couple people enjoy them, that’s better than them rotting in the abyss of my hard drives. and if you don’t like them, i encourage you to leave some hateful comments below. it’s the internet, after all 🫠 📸🤓 — a7rv • 16-35 f2.8 gm ii • 50 f1.4 • 70-200 f2.8 gm ii… because incredibly, my 30-year-old point and shoot film camera does not have 8-stop ibis for shooting handheld 0.4s exposures in the dark, lol

🏔️ A final glimpse of the route that stole our heart — The Huascarán Circuit, Perú 🇵🇪 Perhaps you’re wondering if pedalling a bicycle uphill for two days straight to an altitude of 4900m (16k’) was hard. It was. Both times. And this was just a warm up lap — we’d go on to do it countless more times over the following weeks on the Perú Divide. Why? Not just for the landscapes that made our heads spin as much as the altitude sickness, but because all that 𝘶𝘱 comes with a whole lotta 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯. And that down was damn good. If you’re a reader of the Bikepacking Journal keep an eye out for a full story (and cover photo! ☺️) from our time on the Circuit in the next issue 📖 @bikepackingcom

🍂nutmeg norrr’easterrrrr ‘24 what a place! what a time! if you’ve been following my travels over the past few years you’ll know i’ve been fortunate enough to ride in some pretty incredible places, and the riding in new england/nutmeg country/southern connecticut/romanceland is right up there with the best of it i had far more fun than should be possible in 2½ days. the sun couldn’t have shone harder, the fall foliage couldn’t have been prettier, and i made SO MANY new friends, of whom i captured almost no photos of — sorry, still luv ya’ll! 😵‍💫💛🧡 i did manage to collect enough snapshots to cram into a 20 slide carousel though. film only, cause it’s just too fun. it’s by no means a comprehensive coverage of the event, but i hope you enjoy the scenes and moments that did catch my eye. and you know i missed both chances to get a shot of ron in the fixie scorcher race, he’s just too fast 🔥😅 HUGE mega massive thank you to ronnie @ultraromance and tenzin @badd_buddhist for all their efforts in making this such a special event 👑 🤙 until the next one✌️ 🎞️📸🤓: fuji klasse s & olympus stylus epic // mostly portra 800, a few fuji 400

🎞️ Huascarán Circuit on 35mm Film 📸 In addition to all the “serious” camera gear we hauled through the Andes, we each brought an old point-and-shoot film camera to stow in a feed bag. This let us capture the fun and spontaneous moments where there’s no time (or energy 😮‍💨) to pull out the big cams. These tiny toy-like cameras are a mere 7% the size and weight of our digital photo gear, but we think the results are at least 100% as charming 😇. We’ll never do another bikepacking trip without them. Let us know if you can see the difference! 🧐 For the nerds 🤓: 📷 Olympus Stylus Epic 35mm f2.8 🎞️ Portra 400 & 800 🏞️ Scans by Tom @dirtsloth : DSLR + @negativelabpro

🏔️ The Huascaran Circuit: Where every pedal stroke at nearly 5,000m feels like breathing through a straw, but the reward? Standing between Chopicalqui (6,354m), Huandoy (6,395m), and mighty Huascarán (6,768m) - the ancient guardians of the Cordillera Blanca. It’s a route that takes a lot, but gives so much more. Me and @dirtsloth both had some challenging times on the route, but looking back, The Huascaran Circuit might just be the best bikepacking route we’ve ever ridden. Route Beta: 🗺️ Huascaran Circuit, Peru 📍 Portachuelo Pass (4,767m) 🏕️ Wild camping at 4,500m 🌡️ Temperatures ranging from at +20°C to -12°C 🏃‍♂️ Watch out for soroche (altitude sickness) #BikepackingPeru #HuascaranNationalPark #CordilleraBlanca #AndesByBike #BikeTouring

📍 Golden hour in Huaraz: Where market vendors hawk their wares beneath the watchful gaze of Peru’s snow-capped Cordillera Blanca. The streets pulse with life, vibrant ponchos weave through narrow alleys and weathered smiles tell stories of generations lived in the shadow of these giants. Before @dirtsloth and I tackled our 2-month Andean expedition, we took the time to slow down. To acclimatise. To let our lungs adapt to the thin mountain air, and to document these quiet moments that often get overlooked in the rush for epic landscapes. 📸 A mix of digital + film by @dirtsloth + @adventuresbycycle 🎞️ Portra 400 + 800 📍 Huaraz, Peru (3,500 masl) #StreetPhotography #PeruTravel #Huaraz #AndeanLife #FilmIsNotDead #35mm #PortraFilm #CordilleraBlanca #DocumentaryPhotography #MarketLife #TravelPeru #PeruVibes @visitperu @peru.explore @everydayperu @peru

ahoyyy MADE-EEEE ⚔️🏴‍☠️ i’ve finally had some time to decompress and reset after the hectic @made.bike show last weekend, so here’s a few words about the experience and an array of BTS snapshots! we’ve got a mix of digi and 35mm film captures by @coyote_socks and @downtofun , a crew shot by @thepaperclip.cc , and a few shot by myself on the rare occasion i had a spare brain cycle to think about stills. the decision to attend MADE was one of haste, and the idea to shoot a three-part video series for @bikepackingcom was even more last-minute. @downtofun and I buddied up in his lil 3-door rav4, while @tacos_and_tailwinds joined @coyote_socks in the big ol’ delica. we crammed the four of us, four bikes, and a whole heap of camera gear into a cozy little 2-bed motel room and got straight to work. the pressure was all-the-way-on all weekend long (and much of the following week 😵‍💫), and while there’s a lot we’d do differently next time, we pulled through and created something we’re pretty stoked on given the circumstances! it was an unforgettable experience, to say the least. some highlights for me include taking a wee tumble and gouging my knee proper deep (ok, that’s a lowlight), the industry party at the @chriskingbuzz HQ (check out that 1975 proto headset, chris’s bike, and the counterfeits!), the Tom Ritchey brazing demo, @swiftindustries group ride, and meeting way way wayyyy too many cool people to list — but I can’t not give a special mention to ronnie @ultraromance of the esteemed @ronsbikes and @ultradynamico , and of course the brass daddy cjell monē of @monebikes ! superheroes ARE real. if you aren’t already burnt out on all the excellent MADE coverage from everyone else, you can find our series at the link in my bio. leave a comment if you like, but we won’t read them cause yt comments are bad for the brain. and be sure to check the articles on the bikepacking.com homepage, featuring coverage by @paul.kalifatidi and vignettes by @coyote_socks ! lastly, it’s a little early to say much about this, but if all goes to plan i will be at MADE again next year — but as an exhibitor! stay tooned for more on that soon 👀✌️

some from the archive since big changes are comin for my fave bike ever 🐣 "is that ti??" i have answered "i wish" to that more times than this bike's wheels have gone round, but dreams do come true! ✨ titaniiiiiyummm and more cool bits coming soon 🙈🫡 #26aintdead #26inchlifestyle #savetherimbrake #vintagemtb #90smtb #mtb26 #twentysixthclub #thesupplelife #steelisreal #retromtb #26inchpirations #26thclub #bikerebuilds #unracer #vintagebikes #steelvintagebikes #retrobikes #rideslowdiewhenever

glorious gabriola 🫠 my first bike tour ever was a trip to this quaint little island, and it's always a treat to go back. last weekend a small group of us spent a couple nights there in what really was a quintessential gulf island bikepacking experience. absolutely wonderful singtrack that somehow always seems to go downhill, otherworldy sourdough from the farmers market, effervescent intertidal zones, swims, sunsets, and sandstone formations galore. all fuel for a weekend of endless smiles and fond memories that will have us coming back again and again 🥰 shoutout to @eri.stahl and Oli for letting us join in on all the fun and for the A+ navigation 👑🍻 #bikepacking #slowtravel #biketocamp #singletrack #gabriolaisland #bikepackingadventures #fromwhereweride #biketrip #ilovebc #rideyourbike #thesupplelife #rideslowdiewhenever

swift campout. when else do you get nearly sixty people to all go on a bikepacking overnighter together? not often. well, actually never. i took some pictures, but only of @tacos_and_tailwinds @coyote_socks and a chicken. and i wrote a poem: swimming, sunshine, and skids sweet singletrack a litre of hummus + 18 pitas sleeping on the sand new season, new friends ok so its no poetry but it does summarize the weekend nicely. its all those things, plus the people. the people are what make this event really worth going to. if i rode with you, chatted with you, laughed with you, or shrouded you in a cloud of skid dust, or whatever else, thank you! i wish i captured more moments around camp, and portraits or riding shots of others, but nothing ever really goes as planned does it 😵‍💫 @kissingcrows organized and hosted this year. for that they get a tremendous THANK YOU🙏 ohhhh and if you noticed that the images are moving and feel some kinda way about it, DMs are open for hate mail 💌. just tryin stuff ✌️ #biketocamp #rideyourbike #biketravel #bikecamping #explorebybike #swiftcampout #singletrack #thesupplelife #rideslowdiewhenever #fromwhereiride #bikepacking #getoutdoorsbc #partypace #explorebybike #bicycletrip #forestbathing #sunshinecoastbc #pnwadventures #dirtbagsonwheels #fujixt5 #xf16mmf14 #xf56mmf12 #xf90mm #xf35mmf14