More news from the Advanced BC Course!

"The JONES Snowboard team"

Quick shot of my name up amongst the greats from the 'Jones' ISPO stand! I've been in communication with Jeremy about future developments of the range and it sounds like there's a lot of good things going to be happening over the next few years.

I'm particularly interested in helping with the development of the Splitboard range and we have some good ideas moving forward with regards this area. You can expect splitboards to be as light as and ride as good as a top end normal boards in the very near future. Watch this space!

I've been busy out amongst the high peaks again the last few days with my Advanced BC course.

On Wednesday we set off on an early start to hike and ride the Glacier de Tour Noire from the high Col d'Argentiere at just over 3500m.

On the atmospheric approach up the Glacier d'Argentiere.

You have to hike up the relatively flat Glacier d'Argentiere in the approach before reaching the base of the ascent.

Glacier Tour Noire runs just above the guys heads to the col on the top right.

It's a long climb, here we head up through the lower easier angled powder fields.

From the bottom the climb takes about 3 hours, the snow was deep and fresh and so I was braking the trail through wide open fields of powder (both up and down!).

The lower slopes are a nice angle and it gets steeper towards the top with some 2 nice 'steep and deep' sections between some quite open crevasses which are hidden from above so you need to remember where they are on the way down.

It was a beautiful crisp cold day and seeing as its full on holiday season out here, relatively quiet with only 5 other people on the mountain!

Daryl and Iain with boards back in riding mode at the Col d' Argentiere.

we reached the Col about 4 hours after putting the skins on way down at the start of the tour.

The ride down was epic, super deep, the steeps felt amazing high up and I even manged to stop lower down to get out my camera to snap a couple of shots of the guys coming down.

Iain in deep powder heaven!

Gwri carving down the lower powder fields.

Daryl reaps the rewards!

Big grins at the bottom!

An amazing trip and another first for me as with snowshoe teams I've never actually made the top before!

Thursday it snowed in the morning so we rode free freshies in Courmayeur and scored first lines off the top lift, the Arp as it openned just as we got there. A lucky score and some great fresh lines all the way into the Val Veni.

Friday was another big day, but the real icing on the cake. With fresh snow from the day before, we hiked out from the Arp in Courmayeur and climbed up Mont Fortin to score a superb descent of a hidden face that I found a few years ago when heli-boarding in the area.

Iain on the ride down from Mt Fortin

Daryl charging Mt Fortin.

Daryl moments before detonation!

Again, we had the mountains to ourselves and fresh lines all the way down to finish off another great week.

Not sure it can get much better than that but I'll keep trying!

Neil.

More powder and more splitboarding!

After a day of snowfall on Sunday the skies cleared perfectly for Monday and the first day of my Advanced BC course!

Monday we headed up the Grand Montets, against my better judgment as I knew it would be heaving with everyone trying to get up top for the 60cm of fresh rumoured to be up there.

With the small group ratio of 1 to 3 however, getting priority top tickets (even on a super busy day) wasn't to be a problem and we headed straight up to check it out.

I'm happy to say we weren't dissapointed, the rumours were right and we charged down the Lognan's glacier, fresh tracks for all and the run I've been waiting for for the last 7 weeks, Grand Montets in perfect condition.

After a cruise around nabbing some lines in bound we headed back up to find some more untracked lines on the Glacier, hit the stash on the way down and finished a perfect day in style.

Today, we were on route for a big splitboard tour up high but the weather wasn't playing ball so we headed around to the Val Ferret, my new favorite playgound.

Gwri on route for the top!

Daryl and Iain pushing a fast pace first time out on the splits!

We skinned up to the summit of Monte della Saxe in super fast time, some 750m of up in just over 2 hrs and had lunch looking out onto Courmayeur and the Italian side of Mont Blanc.

Touring along the summit plateau.

Arriving at the summit of Monte della Saxe.

We toured along the summit ridge for a bit to check out the best spot to drop in.

Daryl deep in powder heaven!

Iain at full speed over the rollers!

Gwri lays out a carve in the deep powder!

The initial slopes looked a bit wind loaded so we used caution until we were established on the face just below and then charged towards the valley. 750m (vertical) of pure untracked amazing powder!

I'm just getting more addicted to riding the Jones Solution 168 every time I take it out and if I get runs like this everytime I use it I think I'll be hiking everyday.

Mid holiday madness and we had the whole mountain to ourselves!

Another dream descent in the bag and a tricky river crossing to finish!

Not so bad!!

More tomorrow then!

Neil.

Splitboarding is the future, the future is Now!

My new favorite playground!

Wow, this is the future for me. Drive up a snowy valley, park the van, get out, hike and ride the mountain. No lifts, no people just you, your team and the mountains. The future is splitboarding and the future is now!

This was the last day of my first BC splitboard course and the day of our planned big tour exploration powder attack.

The weather cleared and the Val Ferret (Italy) was cloaked in a fine coat 30cm of fresh untracked powder waiting for our arrival.

I've been eyeing this line for sometime now and with perfect conditions this just had to be the day.

As the sun rose I grabbed my splitboard, touring gear and the dog and set off to pick up the guys.

Setting up for departure!

We'd recce'd the line from the Helbronner the day before and with boards in split mode started touring up the valley floor beside the Ski du fond track until a bridge over the river allowed us access to the mountains the other side.

From here we left the valley floor and started following a summer trail up the hill.


Me and Jake the dog break trail.

The weather was perfect, the views immense, just us and the silence of the mountains and the dog out in front breaking the trail.

Just you and your efforts, the silence of the mountains and a clear mind!

Jim finds tunes into the rythm of the mountain.

After an hour of following the summer trail we branched off into the unknown and started to make our way up through glorious powder fields in search of the our chosen descent line.

Not a bad view from our lunch spot!

After a bite to eat in one of the best lunch spots I've eaten at we transformed the boards into riding mode and prepared for the ride.

Simon powers down the mountain, last training week before Greenland, he's ready!

Gwri gets deep in it!

But Adam gets deeper!

With the dog charging behind, only his head visible in the powder, we carved our lines down the crystalline powder, the perfect line with a bit of everything, open rolling fields, some steeps and some high speed carving through open bushes to finish right back at the bridge where we started.

A great end to a superb week and the start of endless possibilities.

I now have the Advanced BC week coming up, a 1 to 3 client ratio which means we can move faster and go deeper and steeper.

Not the best conditions here in Chamonix but Italy is good at the moment and there's mixed weather forecast for this week with the chance of more new snow both here in Chamonix and again over the other side of Mont Blanc in Italy and so hopefully we'll be able to get the Splits out again and get out amongst the peaks for some further exploration.

Looking forward to it!

Other News:

We still have a couple of spaces available on the last Splitboard course 28th March to 1st April, if you fancy joining us give Ruth a shout.

We already have a lot of interest in next years 2012 courses and Ruth is compiling waiting lists, I'll try to put the new schedule online towards the end of May.

Next winter we'll be adding a New 'BC Splitboard Intro course' and a New 'BC Splitboard Freeride course'.

The 'BC Splitboard Intro course' will run along the same lines as the Splitboard courses this season and the BC Splitboard Freeride course will be designed for those that have already attended a Splitboard course this year.

There's quite a lot of interest in a Kamchatka Heli trip next season, if you're interested in this let us know as I'll only run it if there are definitely enough people interested. The costs of the trip are something like £4500 plus you need at least another £1000 for extra Heli time if the conditions are good. You've also got flight on top of this so you're looking at a £6000 trip.

Kamchatka offers some of the greatest riding on the planet in my opinion but obviously it comes at a high cost. If you're interested in this let us know and start saving.

I'm also looking at more splitboard 'Deeper' style trips to Greenland and Norway so watch out for more info as the plans come together.

A lot of interest in another Mont Blanc ascent (start getting fit if you're up for this) and maybe a Splitboard Haute route towards the spring next winter.

There's a lot to fit in so I'll run the programs with the most interest so let us know what you're interested in.

I know its a long way off and we've not even had the best of this winter yet, but some of these trips are pretty expensive and are long term goals for a lot of you so this is a long term heads up on what I can put on the program for next year.

Let us know what you want!

All is good, hope you're getting your fill!

Neil.

Fresh snow at last!

The clear skies have finally let up and the clouds rolled in to bring some fresh snow at long last!

After some 7 weeks of dry crystal clear skies we finally have some fresh snow to ride, not here in Chamonix, but as seems to be the norm this season, through the tunnel in Italia.

It seems we live the wrong side of the mountain this season, I've been riding in Italy more than I've been riding in Chamonix this season as the conditions through on the other side of the tunnel have simply been consistently better.

Not good in terms of tunnel costs but way better in terms of getting in some good turns on the board, so well worth it at the end of the day.

So I'm running my first splitboard week this week, I've been looking forward to this for quite a while, hoping to get out and get in some good touring and some new exploring. After 7 weeks fo sun, perfect conditions for the touring, the weather has turned and so we've had to make do with riding fresh powder all week instead.

Well you can't win them all can you!

Getting set for our first tour.

We started the week with sunny skies and set about getting used to the splitboards with an easy tour. There were some funny antics going on as the guys leanred how to and how not to perfom their first kick turns when skinning up hill, but at the end of the first day everyone was both stoked and surprised at how well the Splitboards performed both up and down the mountain.

Simon gets some surprisingly fresh turns at Le Tour!

Adam on the Jones Solution getting some fresh turns on day 1 at Le Tour.

We started off at Le Tour where after 7 weeks of now snow we actually found some very good turns in crystallised untracked cold snow, Nice!

It then started snowing in Courmayeur so we headed through and rode epic powder in the trees Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday I rode the Flagship 168XL which I now love. On Wednesday with the snow getting steep and deep I broke out the Hovercraft 156 again and had an amazing day ripping tight lines through the trees with the guys screaming close behind.

Today, we had a bit of a tour from the Helbronner planned, but as we got to the top of the lifts the cloud came in so we opted for a run down Glacier Toule instead.

Simon, James (in lovely matching kit, yes I've been selling off some jkts) and Gwri get the goods riding the Splits on Glacier Toule.

Once we got down the steps onto the snow the skies cleared and we had a great run down the middle of the Glacier in super deep powder.

Gwri in full flow!

Adam deep in it.

Xavier loving the Jones Solution in the deep snow!

Lower down things started to warm up a bit and so with the Avalanche risk rising we headed on down and over to Courmayeur with the splitboards where I had a new line in mind which I'd never ridden before as I didn't ever fancy the walk out. Now with the splits on our feet we dove straight in there and found an amazing deep fresh untracked powder line with some great pillow lines for a finish. We then split the boards down and skied out of there, Great!

I finally seem to have the Splitboard sussed in terms of performance. It's taken a while, but today this afternoon I finally had it riding and feeling like the non split Flagship and now I'm just super excited about the possibilities this is opening up.

With the Splitboard thing, you definitely have to spend some time getting the whole binding thing right. I'm riding the Spark R&D binding but have customised them to work for me and now have them set up just right and they now feel and work great. I've also worked out today that my board rides and feels better if I ride a wider stance than on my other Flagships. As the board is softer, you don't really want to use the middle of the board too much and so with a wider stance I can bend/flex and carve the tip and tail into and out of the turns much more effectively and it works really well. I also dropped my front foot angle 3 degrees to 18 which produces greater outward pressure through my front foot, my rear foot is somewhere around -9 which gives me great power to the rear contact points of the board. I think my stance width is now around 72cm (I ride 70 on the Flagship) and it feels pretty comfortable and powerful.

I'd definitely recommend you try a wider stance than normal if you're riding a splitboard! Some of the guys widened theirs too with the same results.

Anyway, tomorrow we're off on an exploration tour somewhere up the Val Ferret, a line I've often looked at and now have the opportunity to check out. It's the same aspect and altitude as the amazing powder run we found this afternoon so fingers crossed it'll be a good one.

All good!

Neil.

And finally we find it, Fresh lines for all!

After 5 weeks of blue skies and now new snow, today we finally scored some proper fresh lines after a swift hike up Mont Nix above Courmayeur.

I've been keeping my eye on this line for sometime now and today with everyone up for the hike I finally got to get stuck in there and check it out.

As I had suspected, the snow was still good, cold, fresh, not wind effected and most importantly untracked over a vertical drop of about 500m.

Once again I took out my splitboard which I'm getting totally dialled in now and really enjoying both up and down the mountain.

I'll let the shots speak for themselves as finally I took my camera out on the way down too!

The guys heading up Mont Nix, breaking fresh tracks in soft cold snow!

Me making easy work of it on the Solution Splitboard!

Sweet turns at last! Darren gets some fresh.

Andy all alone with no tracks to follow!

Neil Sykes drops in, all good!

Joel gets stuck in with some nice turns!

Andy getting deep in it, well almost!

And there it is, all tracked out... the search starts again!

Hope you enjoy the shots!

I now need to find some more secret spots, the search continues...

Neil.

More sunny days!

5 weeks after the last snowfall and there's still lines to be found if you look hard enough!

The fine but cold weather continues here in Chamonix, the last snowfall is now a distant memory, but with blue skies and sunshine the visibility is good and the days are long and stable.

Luckily for us here in Chamonix the weather has been cold and clear and so the snow has stayed cold and crystalised on the North and North East facing slopes and if you can find a rare untouched spot you can find enough nice turns to make your day a good one.


Laura looking a bit lost with no tracks to follow!

Fresh lines, however, are getting hard to come by and its now time to go exploring away from the ski areas in search of places rarely ridden.

Luckily I have a BC Intro this week so the option for hiking is back on the table and I feel the urge to search out and ride some new spots that I have been researching for past couple of weeks.

Exploring the high peaks is all part of the game so it'll be nice to get out and away from it all again. This BC Intro week is followed by my first Splitboard week of the winter so I'm quite excited about seeing what we can get up to and heading out to spots that up until now have been out of reach.

We'll see!

Last week I ran an Off Piste clinic, which with the conditions as they are is probably the hardest course to run at the moment.

The pistes are good, so we did quite a lot of technical work, but Off Piste the good snow is hard to find with out making it a full on BC day and the hard and technical conditions got the better of a few members of the group as the week progressed. In the end it became a bit of a survival of the fittest challenge whittling us down to a ratio of me plus 3 by the last days riding!

Laura getting in some hard earned fresh lines and loving it!

Pete giving a cheeky wave as he powers into a rare fresh Off Piste line!

We scored some fresh lines as you can see here, they were hard fought for but well worth the 20 minute hike out effort.

And so we have another week of clear skies forecast this week, no fresh snow, but we're going to make the most of the stable weather and low avalanche risk to go explore some new spots so all good!

Today (Sunday) I ventured out on my road bike down the valley where it was 13C and pretty warm in the sun. I felt pretty good, well kind of, if you consider spewing your lungs out whilst hitting your maximum heart rate whilst cycling up hill in a way too big gear for hours on end to be in your comfort zone!

I make it sound very appealing I know, but its good in a strange way!

No it really is!!

Right enough waffle, time to chill and eat curry before the BC week begins.

Looking forward to it!

Neil.