Going to Canada is such a nice reprieve from our normal Southern California lifestyles. Nice people, nice weather (at least two months per year), and fun wheeling. But more and more off-road accessible areas are being shut down in Canada every year, and in turn neighbors are helping each other by opening up their private lands to off-road adventures. Lee Shonert has been operating his 4x4 park for 11 years, and this is his fourth year hosting the Alberta Safari Challenge. This year we were lucky enough to get up to watch, thanks to Juston and Jenn Northcott, who had been contacting us for some time to get up into Alberta to see all the commotion. Mark Cybaluk and his 2,500-pound buggy walked home with First Place in the 37- to 42-inch tire class, while Cory Hansen drove home with the 44-plus-inch tire First Place. Big tires, big motors, and heavy feet were in no shortage. We even saw a couple past Top Truck Challenge competitors. And all the while we never saw an igloo. That's really a joke between us and the Canadians: While we were in Edmonton, Alberta, Canucks kept coming up and telling us they didn't live in igloos. What are they talking aboot? They don't think we resort to stereotypes for lame jokes, do they, eh? Lee Shonert divided the Safari Challenge into two groups to keep things moving on event day. Mark Cybaluk was one of the first to twist up in this river gully. This Rocky Mountain Off Road buggy was still running Toyota axles with full hydraulic steering and big Baja Claws, and seemed to do so with great success. It goes to show that with a little finesse you can do it with lighter-weight axles.Lee Shonert divided the Safari Challenge into two groups to keep things moving on event da Josh Darling was just wanting to show off his 11/42-ton running gear and point out the fact that he seemed to be keeping it all together, even with those big Swampers. Now if he could only keep it on all fours and all together....Josh Darling was just wanting to show off his 11/42-ton running gear and point out the fac Dr. Dave is known for his exemplary driving skills, and has actually won this event before, but this last hole was a toughie. We saw many a driver cream into this little wall while trying to make it out. It was almost vertical and did a good job of either dismantling steering systems or dumping vehicles over on their side. This CJ went over shortly after this pic was snapped.Dr. Dave is known for his exemplary driving skills, and has actually won this event before The Canadian 15 (Edmonton) Service Battalion came out not only to lend a hand winching people out this day, but also to practice their vehicle retrieval skills for training. See? What you learn in this mag really can be useful in everyday life, or at least military life.The Canadian 15 (Edmonton) Service Battalion came out not only to lend a hand winching peo Dave Green was doing just fine in his four-wheel-steer Unimog-axled, 12-valve Cummins-powered buggy up until about this point. A little mishap caused the hydraulic steering setup to tear off the front 'Mog axle and leave the big Baja Claws pointing at each other. Again, the winch anchor came courtesy of the Canadian military.Dave Green was doing just fine in his four-wheel-steer Unimog-axled, 12-valve Cummins-powe You can see how gooey the mud up in Edmonton really is. Check out how much the rear Boggers were packing up on this solid-axle S-10 mud truck. And this wasn't just a mud pit. The mud met up with a steep little hillclimb that had most guys stumped that day as they tried to get mud-packed front tires to stick on a steep grade and pull the truck up while the rears would sit and spin in the goo.You can see how gooey the mud up in Edmonton really is. Check out how much the rear Bogger They warned us about not getting too close when this guy took off, and we'd heard that line before. But we played it safe and listened to our hosts, and we were glad we did. Rumor has it that he just installed a 300hp shot of nitrous to give him about 900 hp to let loose on the ground. With that much power brewing in his Blazer, all Dean Folk could do was hold onto the wheel so he didn't fall out, and hope he didn't land in the crowd. The K5 bounced onto its side almost immediately, but Dean didn't let off the pedal and the underwater spinning Swampers caught a little mud and launched the K5 back onto its wheels.They warned us about not getting too close when this guy took off, and we'd heard that lin Clark Wolford gutted the drivetrain of a Caterpillar to build his big CAT buggy. You might also notice the Canadian license plate on the back of that thing. Street-legal?! Sheesh. And we're stoked when we don't get fender flare tickets....Clark Wolford gutted the drivetrain of a Caterpillar to build his big CAT buggy. You might Up here in Alberta, buggies aren't built so much like rockcrawlers, but instead more like monster trucks, and they're just about the size of them too. Clayton Kraatz's monster tube-chassis romper is suspended on Night Stalker monster-truck shocks that give 26 inches of front travel the way he has them set up. A V-drive sends power from a rear-mounted engine all the way down to the 49-inch Iroks.Up here in Alberta, buggies aren't built so much like rockcrawlers, but instead more like If something goes wrong, water hazards can be very... well, hazardous, as Tim Dzaman almost found out. His 'Cruiser took a nosedive when getting into the hole, but then did a little pirouette on its front bumper before coming down like this. Had the 'Cruiser landed flat upside down, this would have been a race against time to get him out before his own clock stopped ticking.If something goes wrong, water hazards can be very... well, hazardous, as Tim Dzaman almos This judge was so careful about keeping everyone out of harm's way that it was hard for us to even get a picture off of this '79 Bronco with some airborne Boggers. We got him back by putting one of our stickers on his chair before he sat down.This judge was so careful about keeping everyone out of harm's way that it was hard for us By Jerrod Jones Enjoyed this Post? Subscribe to our RSS Feed, or use your favorite social media to recommend us to friends and colleagues!
