The Winter is coming!

Riding up to the col du Vars - day 3 Chamonix/Nice GPM10


I'm just back from 2 more cycling trips with GPM10, the first, the Tour des Grandes Alpes saw us ride the famous Tour du France climb of Alpes D'Huez before we then headed off down to Nice again. Some bad weather and cold conditions plagued us on the first couple of days and then as we hit the Med the temps soared and the sun shone. Another great ride and the fitness was starting to show its face.

Straight after this we headed over to Biarittz on the West coast from where we rode across the Pyrenees on a Coast to Coast trip ending up back at the Med. The climbs through the Pyrenees are generally steeper than the climbs in the Alpes but shorter and with my biking fitness coming on form I really enjoyed the terrain down there and felt strong in my legs, fast in sprints and strong on the climbs. I suddenly found myself able to follow strong riders up hill where normally I'd have been dropped behind, I even got to the top of some good climbs in contention and sprinted for glory on a couple of nasty mountain top finishes and roads sign sprints against riders that would normally have left me spitting dust.

The form feels good so something is working!

Again the weather was a bit mixed for the first couple of days with some of the peaks around 3000m getting some snow and temps of around 2C in the mornings. As we hit the Med again the temps were higher and the sun began to shine. It was a great 4 day trip, hard riding and a great group of guys.

I'm now back in Chamonix, so catching up in the office and I'll obviously be getting out on my bike as much as possible with friends and hitting some of the local rides to try to keep my form progressing and prepare my legs for the winter season.

As we drove back up from the South I was amazed to see how much snow had fallen on the peaks above Grenoble, Chamrousse looked winter white! And with the peaks around Chamonix being quite a bit higher and slightly further North I was quite interested to see how conditions would be looking this far ahead of the start of the winter.

The view up to Mont Blanc from lac du Passy today. Dome du Miage looking winter white on the right with the classic Armencet Glacier descent visible in the sunlight far right.

Today, has turned into one of those prefect Autumnal days where the sky is clear blue, the sunlight low and bright and the trees are just starting to turn. The mountains however are in winter shape! Snow down to the Mid station of the Midi and on the peaks of the Aiguille rouge and the peaks of the Fiz across the valley from us and above Servoz. This snow will melt back but the Aiguille du Gouter is deep in winter snow and the Glaciers are looking well covered and really winter white.

Beautiful, and I must say a little bit exciting already on the start of the run up to winter!

Course bookings have been flying in whilst I've been away! Ruth just took 5 seperate individual provisional bookings in the car whilst we were driving up from walking the dog around the lac du Passy! I've not updated the web site yet but things are looking pretty full now and there's already waiting lists forming on quite a few courses, especially Tech Clinics and Off Piste clinics which I think is a good sign that people are really starting to take an interest in how they ride and in their progression, Good on you!

I've also just changed the new BC Freeride course to a BC Intro course 4th to 8th of April as all the BC Intros are already full and have been for a while now and interest is high! Its a good time of year for BC riding so if you've been waiting for info on BC intro spaces give Ruth a call or send in a booking form. (www.mcnabsnowboarding.com)

I've also just recieved a load of info and photos of the area we'll be exploring on the Greenland expedition 22nd April to the 5th May and it looks amazing so I'll post some shots and info for the trip in my next post. I think there is now only 1 space left on the Greenland trip.

Anyway, all is good in Chamonix!

Start getting excited, the winter is a coming!

Neil.

New BC (classic) Freeride course on line!

Just back from a 4 day cycling trip from Chamonix to Nice with GPM10.

the weather was excellent for the trip and as we are now into the inter season in September the roads were exceptionally quiet making for a great trip and some quality riding.

The air is getting noticably cooler out here now, the snow is creeping down the mountain and sticking around and the Glaciers have that winter fresh whiteness about them. The Autumn colours are on their way and you can almost smell the winter approaching.

I've just put on a new course at the begining of April.

Due to popular demand, I have now added another classic BC Freeride course from the 4th to the 8th of April. The idea behind the classic BC Freeride course is riding, riding and more riding, so check out the web site at www.mcnabsnowboarding.com and go to the courses page for more info and to make a booking.

We now have about 16 spaces available on courses for this winter so if you are planing on joining one of our weeks then fill out the relevent booking form and send it in to Ruth asap.

A lot of you have been taking advantage of the 15% off Jones Snowboards deal through the TSA so a lot of you should be powder hungry this coming season. I'm getting very excited about riding the new Flagship with its big mountain freeride shape, design and feel and also looking forwards to getting out on the Solution splitboard and exploring all the possibilities that this mode of BC access will open up for snowboarding. Yep, very excited indeed!

Anyway, I leave this afternoon for another bike trip to Nice. This time we start with the ascent of the road up to Aples d' Huez which was made famous by the Tour de france and is I suppose thee classic alpine hill climb for road cycling. We will then ride through the Alpes following the tour des Grandes Alpes route finishing once more in Nice on the Promenade des Anglais right on the sea front. Following this I head over to Biarritz on the West coast from where we'll be riding back across to the Cote d' azure through the Pyrenees which should be beautiful at this time of year and which have just seen the passing of the Vuelta d' Espania cycling tour.

My legs are starting to feel cycling fit again after a busy period of guiding off the bike and up in the peaks of Chamonix. I broke the cranks off my bike last week which is either a testimont to my leg strength or just a show of my bad maintenance skills, I suspect unfortunately it is the latter and fortunately the incident occurred once we had arrived in the city of Nice and so I could scoot to the sea front and the hotel.

Ok, I'll be away now until the end of the month so in the mean time start making your winter fitness preperations, get those squats going and get out on your bike or running so there's none of that, 'I was going to get fit' excuses this winter. Ruth has also reminded me to inform you that we'll be away towards the end of October for 10 days (holiday!) so during this period the office will be closed (we'll post more info for this nearer the time).

Right, back to it!

All is good in Chamonix!

Neil.

Greenland! peaks, snow, sea ice and Polar bears.

Greenland... The Fine Art of Polar bear evasion!

The Northern lights lit up the skies for about an hour every night from bang on 8pm.

We gaze down into another untouched valley, no houses, no settlements, no tracks, just mountain peaks, Snow and Ice and in the distance the frozen sea and towering ice bergs that look like super tankers lining up to come into port.

Every now and then we come across paw prints in the snow, small animals such as arctic fox live here in this frozen winter wilderness, other animals must also live here, the foxes must eat something but so far we've seen nothing.

Damian arrives at another unridden summit.

We scale peaks and feast on the amazing views that fill the skyline in every direction. From these high vantage points we plan out further peaks to climb and tours to follow, big loops that will give us great riding, high peaks and that will explore the unknown and open up even more possibilities for the oncoming days. If we have planned it right our loops bring us back via a final ride down the wide open and completely smooth Glacier to where we are camped a few hundred meters above the sea ice, a few small sleeping tents surrounding our big communal mess tent. Tiny dots amongst this immense landscape but a reasonably comfortable home on the ice for us during our visit to this amazing and relatively still unexplored country.

Unexplored valleys and peaks surround us and big descents are to be found everywhere!

As we reach a new summit or crest a new ridge and look down into another new untouched and unexplored valley we all scan the landscape for signs of life. Amongst the Whiteness we scan for signs of the Polar bear. The local Inuits have warned us of their ferocity and recommended that we carry a rifle with us at all times. Whilst we would all love to see one out here in the wilds we all also know that if we were to come across one, even at a great distance, the bear would already have us in his sights and would be hunting us having been able to smell us and our camp from many miles away. Back at camp we make jokes about how the bear could just simply cover his eyes and nose and sit outside the tent invisible. The clever bear would watch our activity and then simply hide behind the giant boulder and wait for us one by one to go over to the toilet there. Apparently the Polar bear is a cunning hunter, once he's on your scent there's nothing much going to put him off and the thin walls of the tent aren't going to slow him down so much.

We have a shot gun, which we have decided not to carry with us but which is close at hand in the camp. When we're out we carry flares, something to distract and give us a bit of time. Apparently every bear loves to watch a good firework show before lunch and anyway, we don't all have to be able to outrun the bear, the real competition is amongst out group, we only have to be able to out run or out ride each other. The old joke about the guy putting on his trainers in front of a hungry lion and his friend saying, 'you won't out run a Lion mate!' to which he replies,'I don't need to out run the lion dummy, I only need to be faster than you!' runs pretty true here too.

Apparently if a Polar bear wanders towards camp we should first fire a warning shot whilst it is still some distance away. If it continues to approach, calmly reload, wait until the bear rears up at close quarters and then shoot it calmly in the chest for the kill shot. When weighing up the possibilities of this or popping a quick shot into the leg of the slowest member of the team whilst running away the odds for taking on the bear aren't the best option. I decide to keep the shot gun hidden away pretty close to me, all of the team are pretty fit and quick off the mark so I need to keep the advantage.

Obviously I'm joking right!

This years Greenland trip. scheduled for the end of the season, early May, will see us explore a new area some 800km further North into the Arctic circle than our last trip in the region known as Liverpool land. Accessed by a full days Skidoo journey, our tent village base camp will provide us with a home for 8 days of hiking, riding and exploration in this rarely explored and far less ridden landscape.

After our last amazing trip to explore a tiny piece of this incredible land I simply knew that I'd have to go back and so have been busy working out the logistics for this new trip ever since. As with all our courses for the coming winter, places on the Greenland trip have been quickly filling up and only 2 places now remain.
So if you have a sense for adventure, a quest for exploration are fast on your feet and have a good pair of running shoes give us a call, but remember this...

McNab on Polar bear watch

...the shot gun is mine!

I'm only joking of course!

All is good in Chamonix,

Neil.

Perfect conditions for my last MB of the summer!

The sun sets over Glacier du Tour.

I'm just down from my last Mont Blanc of the summer season.

Dev and Kris all emotional on the summit of Mont Blanc!


My self, Dev Nayak and his brother Kris set off from the first lift off the Aig du Midi at 8:10am yesterday with clear skies and a great weather forecast and headed up over Mont Blanc du Tacul (icy lower down but good up high, the crevasse that needed a ladder for crossing has now started to close and a bridge has formed) over Mont Maudit which was in great condition (the final steep ice wall is quite technical but has good steps in the ice) and then through the col du Brenva, up the mur di Cote and the final slog up to the summit where we stood at around 3pm.

It was quite windy up high and cold but never too bad and we had the summit to ourselves before descending down the classic route to the Gouter refuge from which we descended this morning.

Petite Fourche, the first alpine summit for Dev and Kris!

Prior to the ascent we had perfect conditions climbing the Petite Fourche and the Aiguille du Tour for the acclimatization training days.

Early days and big smiles on the way up to the Petite Fourche with the Chardonnet in the background.

Dev and Kris are both new to mountaineering, Dev having experienced some high mountain pursuits on a BC Snowboard course last winter. After 300m of ascent on Mont Blanc du Tacul Kris stopped and said 'enough is enough, I feel terrible!' to which I replied, 'remember this feeling, its the best you're going to feel all day!' Yep, mountaineering is such an enjoyable experience and that's why we do it.

Anyway, they both dug in deep and after a 7 hour ascent stood on the top of Mont Blanc in perfect conditions so nice one guys, a great effort!

Mont Blanc is, I think, one of the most under rated mountains in the Alps. I often hear people saying that it's not that hard and not technical etc. I've been to the summit near on 60 times now and not once have I stood up there and thought, wow that was easy! Anyone who has actually climbed it will attest to the hard work involved in climbing it, only those that haven't been to the summit will ever say that it is easy. Its a high mountain and in perfect conditions its hard work but quite straight forward technically. However, the conditions are often harsh and changeable and its very often a serious mountain with a hard earned summit. If you want to climb it don't under estimate the effort involved!

Tomorrow we'll go and climb in the Aiguille Rouge before the guys head off tomorrow night. After that I'll be back out on the bike to get fit for the coming tours that I'm riding with GPM10 and maybe I'll do the Les Houch'ard time trial on Sunday if I can fit it in.

Looks like we're in for a bit of an Indian summer, it beautiful out here at the moment so should be a great Autumn.

Ruth is busy taking bookings for the coming winter and tells me that another 3 courses are provisionally full and just awaiting deposits before I can take them off line. Quite a few people are now taking advantage of the 15% off Jones Snowboards deal through the TSA so it looks like a few of us will be riding the same boards next winter.

I'm really looking forward to this coming winter now, last season was so much fun and next season has so much potential! It feels like things are starting a fresh each year, my enthusiasm just keeps on growing as we explore new places and new levels of riding.

I'm looking forward to blasting through the trees in Courmayeur, digging deep fresh turns at the back of Le Tour. I'm looking forward to exploring new hiking possibilities with the Jones Split board and accessing new areas of endless untracked fresh. I'm excited about riding the classics down to Trient, Col du Passon, Pas du Chevre and dropping over into the Berard Valley by one of the big cols like the Belvedere or the Beaugean. Deep turns await in the Valley blanche, over on the helbronner and up the Argentiere Glacier to access the likes of the Glacier du Tour Noire which is perfect for a day out on a split board.

Then there's all the new spots to explore given the right conditions and this is going to be the season of getting out there and getting the goods.

Yep I'm well excited about the coming snowboard season so I hope you're all feeling the vibe and getting in shape ready to get the goods.

Of course, that's all along way off yet so time to get out on the bike and get some good pure down to earth suffering done first, in a good way of course!

All is good in Chamonix!

Neil.