Boo!
Ok, well it's not that bad, it kind of settled the snowpack a little, as in everything slid!
We've had loose snow avalanches to full depth low down in the valley and a massive assortment of Slab avalanches up high.
This doesn't look so big but that crown wall is 2 meters high!
Just below the top of the Herse on the Grand Montets there are an assortment of perfect example slab avalanches.
You can just see the rocks on the scoured ridge above and how the slope has been cross loaded over the ridge.A scoured ridge above a sheltered wind loaded slope with a 2 meter crown wall and perfectly smooth sliding surface presented by the old snow surface, affected by the cold clear days in November.
The Face on the Glacier above the Herse has also slid with massive crown walls and over towards the Chardonnet there are perfect examples of loose snow slides starting on steep rocky buttresses and triangulating outwards until channeled into the valley through the gullies below. Low down these are full depth, so its interesting to be able to see the affect of altitude on the Avalanche activity with the colder temperatures higher up affecting the snowpack very differently from lower down.
I've just been writing about all of this stuff this last week, so it was interesting to see it all on the mountain exactly as it should be after a big snow storm, some wind affect and then a massive temperature increase.
Not all the snow dissapeared though and up on the Herse I scored some really nice turns down the face under the chair lift. I'm not really into riding Off Piste so much at this time of year because the snowpack is still quite thin, but here with a little caution there was some very nice riding to be found.
Ruth came up with and rode the Grand Montets for the first time in 8 years! Is that's what having kids does to your riding? It was the first time we'd ridden together in 8 years as its the first year that both our girls are in school and we could both find a little time to go play.
We had a great day and I'm happy to say she can still ride very well so if you're calling up for info or bookings be ready for her to rabbit on about how good she is!
I was out riding on my new Jones 164 Wide All mountain Twin for the first time. It's a really nice board to play around on, super easy to turn.
It has camber under foot and rocker tip and tail which helps it just float effortlessly in the powder but it also brings the turn initiation points (contact point) closer to your feet. This makes turn initiation super easy and it took me a little while to work out that I didn't need to move pressure so far up the board to start the turn. The rocker makes it initiate turns like a much shorter board but then once its in the turn and on the edge you have the full edge length coming into play so it has the stability of the given length.
Its a nice concept and it seems to work well.
For me and my wide 70cm stance the 164 is about as small a board as I'd go and I found it lacking in stability at super high speed which is where the Flagship comes into play. For an 'All mountain' board for jibbing about on though it does exactly what it says on the packet!
My legs felt super strong, I've been stacking in the squat sessions and building up some leg power on the turbo and it seems to be paying off with top to bottom runs not a problem!
Anyway, we had a great day and I came of the hill super stoked about the season ahead.
Yeah, I am just loving Snowboarding right now and there's more snow and even some sun on its way for the weekend.
We've had a few spaces come available this last week due to cancellation. You guys need to be more careful riding your bikes on all that snow and Ice over there in the UK, you should know better!
Check out the updates and availability (www.mcnabsnowboarding.com) and also I've been getting quite a few inquiries for the Q&A blog so check those out though the link on the web site home page.
All is good in Chamonix!
Neil.
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