Jared Buettner’s insane passion for adrenalin has landed him on sleds, ATVs and dirt bikes his whole life, hitting some of Alberta’s most challenging hillclimbs, single track and dune riding. Whether he’s charging up a mountain or ditch-banging on the farm, Buettner pushes himself and his machines to the limit with a skill and enthusiasm he can’t wait to pass on to his young children.
Buettner hails from Red Deer, Alberta, where he and his wife, Melanie, explore the terrain on dirt bikes (he on a Husaberg 570 and she on her Honda CRF 230) or with their two boys—one and two years old—tucked safely into a four-seater RZR.
The pair look forward to the day the boys will be old enough to tear up the trails on their own machines. Korbin, who just turned two in December 2012, will be learning on his Oset electric trials bike.
“He has already mastered the runner bike, and once (the weather) dries up a bit more he will get introduced to the Oset,” said Buettner. “And of course we will be a sledding family in the winter.”
During the summer months, Buettner and his family camp at Big Horn Dam, Brule Lake near Hinton, Alberta, and at a number of top secret spots along the Forestry Trunk Road. Whether they are heading out alone or with another family, it’s always a family riding affair—with the older kids on 50s, the babies hitching a lift with the moms in the RZR and the dads riding dirt bikes.
Summer adventures
Last September the clan camped out at Brule Lake, where Buettner and a friend hit the sand with paddle tires, pipe, chip cranked all the way up and a full tank of avgas ready for fun.
“I learned a couple of new fancy techniques in the sand,” he said. “It reminded me so much of mountain sledding, as I was free to go wherever I wanted on the sandy hill and was not bound to just driving down the trail.
“We did a lot of drag races up the big hill that weekend, lining up four to eight bikes at a time, hitting fourth gear and wheeling all the way up the hill. There was a guy on either side of you catwalking, with our handlebars about one foot apart.”
The Husaberg 570 performed—Buettner did a third-gear drag race start from a standstill at the bottom with a six-foot run at it and was doing 80 kilometres per hour on the back tire, grabbing fourth gear before the top of the hill.
“It was a pretty fun but intense situation,” he said.
Growing up on wheels
Buettner first experienced his love for speed at the tender age of one, out sledding with his mom carrying him in an infant backpack.
“I can remember at a very young age sitting on the front of a sled with my cousin Tina Thomas—who is now a rider for Thunderstruck—racing vehicles on the highway while we were in the ditch, telling Tina to go faster,” he said.
Some of his earliest memories of riding sleds around the farm, ditch-banging and revelling in his family’s stories of mountain riding fuelled the fire that led Buettner to acquire his first mountain sled later in life.
At 10 years old, he jumped on his first dirt bike and quickly built his skills. Financial limitations meant he didn’t always have the newest bike, but he always pushed his machines to the limit.
“I learned the importance of working, so I could save money for parts and get out riding,” Buettner said.
He mastered jumps and freestyle tricks at the local track, he did highmarking and sidehilling at various gravel pits, and honed his technical skills on single track in Alberta’s Rocky Mountains.
After an injury in 2004, Buettner took to a Raptor sport quad for a few years until he was well enough to get back on a bike. These days, he hits challenging off-road single track in the Rockies and in the summer explores the wilderness, having ridden the west country from Cochrane to Drayton Valley.
“The majority of my biking has been done in the Rocky Mountain House area and south to the Sundre area,” said Buettner. “I try to stay on more solid ground, and climbing hills, catwalking, single-track trails and riding my bike where people think it’s not possible to go.”
Buettner dreams of racing one day, locally or with sponsored support.
“I would like to race hare scrambles or enduro, where longevity, consistency and speed are a must,” he said.
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