Seventeen-year-old Linden Ladouceur makes ultra-technical tree riding and radical side-hill manouevres look like child’s play. He may be the youngest rider in Jim Phelan’s Thunderstruck videos, but Ladouceur is well on his way to sledding greatness.
Ladouceur was seven when he started riding utility sleds around the yard at his family’s home in Dunster, B.C., but from the day his father bought a mountain sled, the soon-to-be adrenalin junkie was addicted to backcountry sledding.
“We bought our first mountain sled in 2006,” said Ladouceur, “and (my dad) couldn’t pull me off it.”
Quietly honing his skills in B.C.'s Robson Valley, Ladouceur approached Phelan with a video, and two months later, he was asked to join Team Thunderstruck. Ladouceur appeared in Thunderstruck 10 and the latest video, Thunderstruck 11, aboard his stock 2008 Arctic Cat M8 Sno Pro and 2011 Polaris Pro.
Ladouceur rides a lot around his home in Dunster but he also spends time with the team in Revelstoke and Sicamous.
“My all-time favourite area is Eagle Pass (in) Sicamous, B.C., as it has every style of riding, few people and lots of snow,” he said.
When the snow flies, Ladouceur will be back with Team Thunderstruck for another season of filming. We look forward to seeing him flash across our movie screens in 2013.
