The winter returns!

Another great week comes to a close and another begins.

A great week last week, quite varied conditions, a great team, a great laugh and some great turns.

A good couple of days up the Midi riding powder in the Vrai Valley Blanche, a days hiking in the Periades which was great and then to top of the week another great day riding some very nice fresh snow in Courmayeur and a bit of a powder day up the Grands Montets with some nice big drops into the 'Stash' taken by all.

The weather has been very changeable, one minute its freezing and snowing, the next its warm and raining or the sun is out. We're getting some good riding conditions as a result (above 2000m anyway) and the forecast looks like we'll be getting regular top ups for the coming week and beyond.

The snowpack has been a bit dodgy lately to say the least. The winter started off pretty cold with a shallow snowpack, the cold conditions at the beginning of the season caused the early snowpack to become unstable with the growth of big crystals known as Depth Hoar. The season has been cold, very cold and the snow although cold and fresh was never really abundant and so never really deep. As such with the arrival of the warm spring weather the temperature has quickly driven the moisture in the snowpack right through to the base layer very quickly, the large dry crystals rapidly absorbed the moisture and collapsed to the base, the moisture then running along the ground causing a loss of cohesion and the full depth wet slides that we've been seeing up to just under 3000m!

With massive fluctuations in temperature the norm at the moment prudence is the key! things are forecast to cool down again this coming week and more snow is also due so there will be for sure some good times to be had but make wise decisions as always.

I'm starting a 3 day Off piste clinic this week followed by my first rest period of the winter with potentially 4 days off! I've been 6 days a week hard at it everyday since just before Christmas and my body is due a bit of time off (unless of course the conditions are epic!). The next 3 days should be great though, I don't think you could really ask for better Off Piste conditions than we've got at the moment and even a bit of sunshine to go with it tomorrow so all is good!

We'll be putting together our course dates for next winter very soon and I should be able to post a provisional calendar online mid April so keep checking back for details. As far as trips and things like that go I'm thinking Kashmir again in Jan, a BC freeride week in Switzerland (Zermatt or Andermatt) somewhere in Feb, maybe a touring week over in the Ortler Alps in March and then either Kamchatka or Norway in April. Also I'm very keen to run another Greenland expedition style adventure which maybe possible in May next year, slightly further North than we ventured last time but the same style of trip.

So many possibilities and so much to ride and see its difficult knowing how much to try to fit in so I'll see what response we get for these different ideas so if you're interested in any of them let us know and we'll start some provisional waiting lists.

All is good in Chamonix!

Neil.