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.