Winter is here, its official!

These days are here!

Well we sledded the girls to school this morning, the van is stuck/parked at the bottom of the hill and winter chaos reigns!

It always takes a couple of days for us to make the full transition from Autumn to Winter. All those little winter preparation jobs you've been putting off suddenly need doing all at once and with all the snow lying around become twice as difficult. Anything left out in the garden is now gone until the spring, out of sight out of mind, well at least everything looks tidy again out there with its new blanket of winter whiteness and you need to search out all those snow shovels, car scrapers and essential winter items that you'd forgotten all about. Thankfully it snowed a couple of weeks ago so we had a warning shot and most things were pretty much ready to go.

Jeff, our brochure cover star the last couple of years, called yesterday (as he's out here in Chamonix for early December) to see if he should pack his mountain bike. Yesterday I said, maybe get it ready and see nearer the time, this morning I had to tell him to put it away, the snow is here and it dumping down. I'm setting my bike up on the indoor trainer today and it'll possibly stay on there now until spring. I might however nip over to Annecy for a quick ride this week if it clears up over that way, I'll probably get out for a tour on my skis though so we'll see.

Anyway the general vibe is that winter is here, there's a load of snow dumping down and things are looking good. I'm going to maybe head up for a wee slide up at Le Tour when it clears, but at the moment the roads are deep in it and getting covered as fast as they can clear them.

I read this week in a French paper that Mont Blanc had shifted some 26meters to the East! I guess this is over quite some time, but the French were quick to point out that the summit is still in France? It has also lost half a meter in altitude but is still a tad over 4810m (the actual rock summit is some 18m under the summit ice cap) the summit is also said to rise by 1cm a year! I was up there loads this summer and never even noticed!

Course news: I'm thinking about running a Snowboard touring week over in the Ortler Alps mid April. It looks prety good for snowboard touring as its mostly hike up and ride down rather than traversing a lot like the Haut Route. I'll keep you posted but if anyone is interested in something like this maybe get in touch and I'll see how the interest looks before I plan it out. Otherwise I'll maybe just go and have a play over there myself?

Anyway it looks like we're going to have a great winter and I'm really looking forward to it. There are a few places left here and there, but things are filling quickly now so if you're inspired to get out and ride with us get in touch sooner rather than later.

All is good and you can get excited now!

Neil.

The peaks look amazing!

These days are coming, oh yeah!

The skies cleared today after a few days of bad weather to reveal the jagged peaks above the Chamonix valley coated once again in a fresh coat of white icing against a perfect blue clear sky backdrop, Amazing!

Its gotten a bit colder again and the snow line dropped down to about 1400m. It was a bit milder with the sun out today and so its gone back up a bit but the mountains are looking pretty white again and there's more bad weather coming so it looks like this is the start of it.

i keep thinking I've been out on my bike for the last time each time I go out but I managed to get out for a pretty big ride today with a couple of friends and felt good and strong as we headed down the valley to Passy and then up to Plan Joux for a bit of a work out. As long as there's no snow on the roads down there I'll keep getting out, loving it!

On the courses front things are getting pretty full through Jan and Feb, a few places are available on the Feb Tech clinic 21st to 28th (come on I can't believe you're all riding perfectly already, this is the course everyone needs to do!) Things are then pretty full up until the end of April when I have a free week available for either a group booking or I'm looking ast maybe putting on a new Snowboard touring type course. I was looking at offering the Haute route as a course but its a bit of a high level traverse so its not ideal for snowboarding so now I'm looking at a few alternatives. I quite fancy doing a couple of tours around the Grand Paradiso in Italy and a friend told me about another spot that sounds interesting in Italy too so keep checking back for more news on this venture.

I also put on a couple of new 3 day courses with a Backcountry Intro and another Off Piste clinic just before the Mont Blanc summits week which finishes off the season.

For those wondering what the conditions are like towards the end of April, I think this is one of the best riding times with long days, a good snow base and beautiful sunny weather.
April showers means there is frequent fresh snow up high and the North faces can still hold good cold winter snow. I've always had some good turns at the end of the season, it one of those things, just when you think the season is done it goes and snows its ass off.

Anyway, I'm feeling pretty excited now about getting out for a slide so next time it snows I'm out there.

Until then I'll pound the pedals some more..

Take it easy,

Neil.

More news from Chamonix!

These days are coming!

Its got a little milder out here since my last news piece, this is good in a couple of ways as it'll settle the base of the winter snow pack quite well and also its warm enough to get out training on the bike and I've been getting in some good long sessions in over the past week or so. The legs are feeling well strong now and I'm quite excited about getting out on my board to see how it feels once the big snow falls start to drop, I'm not sure my legs have ever felt this strong before!

I feel that this is the last big mild spell before the winter snows set in so this is it. The next time it dumps I'm all about the board!

There's one piste openned over at Verbier last weekend which is quite impressive for this time of year, quite a few people hiked up Le Tour last week after the fresh snowfalls and had a quick slide about. When it next snows I think I'll head up there and see how it looks, maybe take the dog out and give him some ski biting exercise.

Things are looking pretty busy for next winter, I have put on a couple of new 3 day courses towards the end of the season with a '3 day Off piste clinic' followed by a 'New' '3 day Backcountry Intro' course which should be pretty good. These 2 courses could either be taken individually or one following the other which might be quite a nice way of doing it with 3 days Off piste technique followed buy 3 days Backcountry riding!

I also have a free week of the 11th April which would suit a group booking so if anyone is interested in getting a group of friends together for this week let us know and I'll design the week to suit your needs.

Lots of the Jan, Feb and March courses are filling up now and Ruth is busy filling in gaps so if you're still looking to get out and join us give her a shout. I think there are still spaces on a couple of Tech Clinics and then the new 3 day courses I mentioned earlier. There's a couple of spaces still available here and there on other courses but lots of interest so get in touch if you spy something that says it still has space and you want to join us.

If anyone has tried to contact us but has had trouble with e-mails being returned please give us a call or try us on info@mcnabsnowboarding.com. I think this should all have been rectified now but we did have a bit of a technical problem last week with the older mcnabsnow'sports' e-mail address's.

info@mcnabsnowboarding.com should be working fine now!

Hope you're all getting excited about the winter,

laters,

Neil.

New Snow, New courses and New Q&A blog!

These days are definitely coming!

It's been snowing most of the last week above 2000m so the mountains are looking pretty white up there and it definitely a good start for the winter season.

I managed to get out on my bike a couple of times riding down in the lower valley and making a good circuit up towards Megeve and Plateau d'Assy. the sun came out the other day as I rode with fellow guide Jonny Baird and headed up to St Nicholas an beyond until we hit the snow line. It was great to be out and my legs felt super strong so this bodes well for the start of the winter.

I've been answering a lot of questions on technique, equipment and mountain awareness lately and so thought it would be a good idea to start a kind of blog/forum sort of thing so that you can ask questions, I answer them and then others can read them and post comments if they feel it relevant. Saves me answering the same questions over and over and you can join in, post your comments and add to the discussions. This will be a regular feature linked to the web site but for now you can find it here - Q&A Blog

I've also added a couple of NEW courses towards the end of April as I moved Kamchatka to 2011.

In its place I've added a NEW 3 Day BC Intro course , this will be the first 3 Day BC course I've ran and is designed for the experienced Off Piste rider that would like to take the first steps into the world of the Backcountry but doesn't have enough time for the full 6 day experience.

I've then completed that week with a 3 day Off piste clinic as these are filling up fast. With this course being at the end of the week it would either suit someone looking to do a few days warm up on their own before joining the course for the end of the week or someone looking to start a long weekend.

Last but not least I've got some Ortovox F1 transceivers to sell off so check out the goodies page on the McNab Snowboarding site.

For more info on these courses contact Ruth in the office.

Things are looking good!

Neil.

Winter hits Chamonix!

These days are coming!

So it seems that winter has arrived here in Chamonix!

The Snow line is rapidly dropping down the side of the mountains here in the valley, now down within the tree line at around 1500m. We had 20cm at 2000m yesterday, another 20 to 30cm today and again tonight a similar amount is forecast for up in the mountains. It looks like its going to continue through the weekend and so I guess the winter has just sneaked in and taken over.

This is good for the mountains which were exceptionally dry this summer, the strong winds up high at the moment will help bridge over the crevasses, hiding them under a thin layer for now but starting the base that will allow us to ride up high in all the great spots once the snow base is good and deep.

I've been busy training on my bike since getting back from London, my legs are feeling strong and this bodes well for the coming season. It's still an ok temperature for riding in the lower valley so I'll not be putting it away just yet although I'm now starting to think about searching out my winter kit and if this continues I'll be heading out for a slide before too long.

We've been experiencing a small problem with our e-mail server this last week, I think it has been cleared up now but if anyone has not received a reply to an inquiry then please check your junk mail folders as someone recently found their reply had gone into their spam folder? If still nothing e-mail us again or give us a call on the office number between 9am and 12 noon.

Ok, all good over here, hope you're all looking forward to the coming winter.

Start getting excited!

Neil.