More fresh lines in untouched powder!

Very weird day yesterday!

With rain in the valley and moody skies things didn't look so good but after a night of rain down here things would obviously be good high up so we headed off to the Grands Montets to join the masses battling it out for fresh lines off top tickets.

With 30 to 40cm of fresh up top this must surely be the day everyone has been waiting for and so I expected big crowds and big queues.

So I was pleasantly surprised to find no queue and so thinking maybe things weren't so good after all we headed up top. Poor visibility was obviously keeping most people away but with my bad vis sensor on we headed left of the Rognon for a blast down the Lognan's Glacier in amazingly deep snow and no tracks. Amazing!

Again no queue at the bottom, weirder and weirder, run number 2 had good vis with the sun coming through and again no tracks and no people?

I began to realize that this was a very special day when run number 3 again provided fresh lines for all and again no one around!

Its a rare thing to ride laps on top tickets all day with no queue and still be getting fresh lines right into the afternoon!

An amazing day and totaly unexpected so how do I top that?

Well today with clear skies in the morning and storms forcast for the afternoon we headed up for a tour over the Col des Autannes. There aren't many tours you can do with the present conditions that ride into the lower altitudes or the valleys and still have snow, I had thought to do the Col du Passon but at the last minute I went with my instincts and changed to the Autannes which proved to be the right choice as there is no snow towards the bottom of the Passon anymore, just what looks to be a heavy commando finish even by my standards.

There's not much snow up at Le Tour anymore either but for our day it was perfect and with everyone else riding the icy piste and no one else touring we headed up in to the peaks.

Tell tale storm cloud cap Mont Blanc as we head into the peaks.

We made very good time up the initial slopes in split mode with couteau (ski crampons) for the steeps. the snow got progressively deeper as we gained altitude and by half way I was doing some serious trail breaking and working hard.

nearing the top of the middle couloir, some of the guys are just starting up the boot pack below.

At just over half way we gained the steep couloir and put boards on out packs and donned our crampons. A good half hour of steep trail breaking later we gained the upper slopes where the going got too deep for on foot and so we went back to skinning on the splits.

The snow pack was getting a little precarious up high so I followed an old avalanche path upwards for a while until it again got to steep and we went back to crampons again.

A weak layer of Graupel in the snowpack sounds the warning bells!

With some seriously weak layers in the snowpack and a perfect layer of Graupel (hail) I decided to avoid the exit couloir and head up for the safety of the rocks above which added a spicy ending to our climb, made all the more atmospheric by the rapidly approaching storm.

Just starting the steep spicy exit up the rocks, very atmospheric!

Once over the top it started snowing a little as we changed back to riding mode but the sun came back out as we got our boards together and the descent looked perfect.

I was a little wary of snowslab into the intial steep slope and so made a fast cut across to a safe zone to check stability and then dropped in for yet another amazing untracked powder run!

I stopped off to get some shots as the guys flew past and then we charged into the valley below with no other tracks anywhere to be seen!

Craig charges the upper slopes, full on fresh!

Carl in powder heaven!

Simon getting his fill!

Frodo (phil) a long way from the shires!

Still a long way to go and no tracks to follow!

It got a little sticky down low and the exit road is starting to get a little bare in patches but we pretty much rode all the way to just above the village of Trient with out problem.

As we rode out we looked back up at 'Glacier Midi des Grandes'. Its a long time since I last rode that big descent, in fact I think I was with Keith (rip) the last time I rode it so it must be 2 seasons ago and we got the shot that is now heading the home page on the web site!

It looked amazing today, unmissable infact and so the heli is booked for tomorrow morning Finhaut to Trient plateau at 8:45 and fresh lines will be ours from top to bottom.

It's raining outside right now, so snowing up high! A little powder top up won't do any harm up there!!

Bring it on!!!

All is good!

Neil.

More splitboarding! Col du tour Noire today!

Great shot of Phil charging the Amethyste Galcier on the Jone Solution splitboard today!

Mixed weather over the weekend and snow up high brought good conditions for the first day of this weeks Splitboard Intro course which saw us riding fresh lines in Courmayeur (again!) on Monday. Rising temperatures saw some interesting condition changes in the afternoon with some heavy wet snow slides going off on all aspects were ever it was steep enough for the snow to slide.

We stared with a good transceiver training session in the Courmayeur Arva park before heading out to ride some trees (a bit sticky) and then the Youla couloir, which was perfect!

in the afternoon we rode of the summit above the Arp, again good snow down towards the Val Veni couloirs and then the snow got a bit heavy, although still fun to ride.

More rain in the valley last night but again more snow up high and blue skies this morning so we headed up the Grand Montets, rode pretty good powder down the Lognans glacier, good and soft although pretty tracked underneath. We found a few good lines on the way down then headed out onto the Argentiere Glacier and changed to split mode to begin the long tour up the Amethyste Glacier towards the Col du tour Noire.

Starting out up the Argentiere Glacier.

The Beautiful ambiance of the high mountains.

Then it starts to head up hill!

There were a few teams out ahead as we headed up but with a crafty shortcut before the top (as the clouds were starting to boil up from the valley) we managed to cut in and get fresh tracks all the way down the left hand side.

Loads of room and loads of fresh snow!

Craig gets some fresh turns!

Carl charging!

Simon gets his fill.

Dermot diggin deep.

I also explored a variant exit down the left earlier in the year and so knowing this we headed hard left at the bottom towards my secret exit which proved to be in great condition and completely untouched.

Bob leads on down my secret exit, Beautiful backdrop!

Any of these tours up the Argentiere Glacier are big days out on the hill and the guys did well for their first ever splitboard tour and for some their first big 'McNab' BC tour.

A few tired legs tonight though so probably an easier riding day tomorrow!

We'll see!!

All is good!

Neil.

Col du Belvedere splitboard tour!

Chris Johnke gets some fresh turns in the Airguille Rouge!

The last day of last weeks Splitboard course dawned bright and clear and with 20cm or so of fresh snow up high in the Aiguille Rouge we set off for a tour of the Col du Belvedere.

Crampons on and splitboards at the ready! The tour begins!!

The route traverses around from the top of the floria lift to the summer refuge at Lac Blanc before heading straight up crossing the frozen lake to the high col above.

It's a beautiful tour both up and down, here we are above lac Blanc.

Nearing the col du Belvedere.

It is a perfect Splitboard tour, not too steep or technical on the climb so easily accessible with out ski crampons and without to many steep or tricky kickturns on route.

From the col you have a steep North slope to negotiate to access the Belvedere Glacier below and the North facing slopes that lead down in to the Berarde Valley.

The ascent is quite long with some walking in crampons early on to negotiate a steep traverse above a cliff band, as things mellow its time for the splitboards and from Lac Blanc to the top is about an hour and a half of steady skinning.

For the descent we tied 2 ropes together to give us 70m of rope assisted descent.

Chris on the lower!

I lower the guys down using a standard Italian hitch which Allows me to easily pass the overhand knot that joins the ropes together. After 70m its time to unclip from the rope and negotiate the remaining steep face below.

I normally ride the face bringing the ropes down with me, due to icy and rocky conditions I was cautious on the upper half of the descent with my Ice axe firmly grasped and ready for emergency use before riding the lower half which had good snow on it.

Once down off the steeps we had unlimited access to untracked fresh snow all the way down into the Berarde valley.

Liam charging into the Berarde valley!

Mark's last fresh turns before Greenland in April.

Kinnon gets his fill!

Rich charges the lower slopes.

Sean leads the charge to the bar in Le Buet!

A bit of a Cammando exit as usual down to le Buet but a great day out!

This week I have a 3 day Off Piste clinic and so have been over in Italy again making use of the good snow base over there. Tomorrow I'll head high on the Grand Montets hoping to find cold snow off top tickets and down the Lognans Glacier.

Its been Spring time temps this last few days, big melt freeze cycles on the sunny slopes but good cold snow on the North faces. Some quite big wet snowslides the last few days as things warmed up but getting more settled now but with rising temps and the search for freshies heading out towards those hidden untouched North faces, watch out for the deeper weak layers buried since the cold temps of January.


Not much snow depth low down in the Chamonix valley now, the Golf course is now completely clear!! But up high things are filling on a little better with the first of the spring showers last week.

Still not much cover up in the Valley Blanche and the latest snowfalls won't add much stability to the weak snowbridges up there and will make them harder to see so be cautious out on the Glaciers for sure.

Blue skies, warm temps and spring snow!

Not so bad!!

Neil.

Splitboarding and fresh snow!

Great day today in Courmayeur (as ever!) and my 84th trip through the tunnel!


We hiked up the ridge from the top of the Arp to the small summit above and dropped into the Val Veni with fresh lines down the steep face behind for all. I rode the 168XL Flagship today, and with the deep fresh up top it was in its element and felt amazing!

Man, I just love that board!!

We started the week with a short Splitboard intro tour in Courmayeur, hiking out away from the lifts before dropping some fresh turns down into the woods before splitting again and hiking back out.

Moody skies but great snow, splitboard intro session!

Hiking out of the woods after a nice fresh run into the middle of nowhere!

Very good snow, lots of fresh but poor visibility.

Big lines out of the Youla Couloir, not the best shot but I was too busy riding to get the camera out!

We then finished the day with a couple of laps down the steep couloir that splits the cliff band below the Youla top station, very Nice!

We followed this up with a tour up and over the Col des Autannes.

Mark prepping for Greenland on the col des Autannes tour!

Liam leads the charge for the top of the col des Autannes on Crampons.

A great day out, a fantastic tour with some classic splitboard touring before donning crampons for the final climb up and onto the ridge.

Rich (I think) on the upper wall from the Col des Autannes.

The upper bowl of the Autannes descent, moody skies but great riding from way up the back there and miles more to come!

A great descent down with good soft snow all the way to Trient.

We've then spent the last 2 days again over in Italy riding freshies off the lifts as its been snowing quite a bit over there. Yesterday we rode laps on the Youla couloir again as the visibility was in and out but the snow was great.

Today there was quite a lot of fresh snow again and we did a great run off the top of the Arp as I mentioned earlier.

Tomorrow we're hoping to get out touring again so we'll see what the weather brings us. I've been customizing my split set up, I've got the bindings dialed in now with new straps and a Cartel highback (spoiler) and they are starting to feel good. I've also cut about 1cm off the rear voile puck (the grey thing that the binding slides onto) so that I can center the binging better, loosing some heel overhang whilst at the same time allowing me to lengthen the base plate of the binding for more foot and toe support. Looks like it'll be good so I'll let you know!

The Solution in working well and all the guys are stoked with them this week but everyone is in agreement that you need to dial in the bindings so get to work!

The temperatures are up and down a lot at the moment and we're coming in to the spring Avalanche season with fresh snowfalls and crazily rising temperatures. Today we saw a few quite big heavy loose snow slides on the lower slopes so keep your eyes open and ride with care!

I'll leave you with these shots of us on our heli day last week on the Pin d'arolla. Cheating I know but a great day out anyway!

Heli drop on the Pin D'Arolla!

On the summit of the Pin D'Arolla with the Matterhorn behind!


Oh and Ruth has informed me that the splitboard course 28th March to 1st April is now full again!

All is good.

Neil.

Splitboard course this week!

Back on the splitboards this week after a great BC Intro course last week which saw us ride some amazing snow off Mont Nix (see last weeks blog) and get in a heli day with a drop on the Pin d'Arolla on Friday.

This was my first heli drop in a long time and although it was great, I did feel like a bit of a cheat!

Yeah right! for about 2 minutes!!

No seriously though, I have to say I much prefer to get out on the splitboard and get away from the classic spots and the Pin d'Arolla descent although good has become a classic and was pretty tracked.

Things are changing quickly out here. Year by year yesterdays secret spots are becoming todays classics and are getting tracked out quicker and quicker.

Anywhere that has easy access is the first to get it and unfortunately Heli access has become easy access!

There's still plenty out there but the best riding and the best lines are those that are hidden from the masses and take a bit more effort to get out to.

Anyway, this week I'm back on the splitboard and loving it. Yesterday we went over to Courmayeur (yes again!) where it had snowed, to do an intro session on the splitboards. With a massive queue for the Youla we decided to split the boards and get hiking. We hiked up for about an hour stuck the boards back together and rode freshies down into the woods below before splitting them again and hiking back out to the lifts. A great run with no one around on a very busy day.

We then managed to get a last lift up the Youla and rode the big steep couloir that splits the cliff face below it with great snow and fresh tracks from top to bottom.

Today with a mixed forecast and strong winds high up we toured up and over the Col des Autannes and had a surprisingly good run down to Trient with good snow all the way down in to the valley before the regular semi commando finish.

Looks like we might get some snow tomorrow, more over in Italy than here (no big surprise there, I think its a conspiracy to keep me funding the MB tunnel) so we'll head over there again with the splits and see what we get.

should be good!

And finally, we have had a cancellation on the Splitboard course running the 28th March to the 1st April so if anyone is interested give Ruth a call or email.

All is good!

Neil

Amazing lines in deep fresh today!

Fresh lines today for Mark in prep for Greenland!

Once again we're getting some fine and settled weather here in Chamonix. This means great weather for riding and touring but little in the way of fresh snow, the last snowfall being now over 2 weeks ago.

Spring is in the air for sure, last weekend I got out on my bike around the hills above Annecy with my friend Mark who runs GPM10.com (Alpine cycle training), the weather was perfect and we rode up and over the col du Marais linked in with a circuit of the lake and another climb to finish a perfect 80k circuit. My legs felt pretty good for the time of year so hopefully if I can keep myself going and not get burned out I should be going well for the spring riding season.

This week I'm running a BC intro course. We started out with a day on the Grand Montets with a couple of laps off the top, the snow was cold but wind affected and firm, 'technical riding conditions' as I've deemed it this season.

We toured a classic Crochues Berrard on Tuesday which was good. The descent was fun, good cold soft snow but pretty tracked as you'd expect on this classic 2 weeks after the last snowfall. You could find some clean lines here and there and we had a good charge about and a great day out.

Wednesday we hit Courmayeur for an easier riding day, rode off the Arp into the Val Veni, which was good and then some ofthe steep couloirs in the trees and a nice finish down a new untracked line that I've discovered this season.

Today we were in for another touring day and so headed over to Courmayeur again (my 67th trip through the tunnel this season!) to hike and ride one of my favourite lines over there on Mont Nix.

The Jones boards are out in force as usual, Brian leads the hike!


Mark and Steve nearing the top of the climb!

Sean hikes onwards surrounded by a sea of powder!

The snow was untouched and perfect and we hiked up pretty quickly heading up to the col just below and right of the main summit.

From here we rode the North Face all the way into the valley.

It was epic!

Steve nabs 2nd drop whilst Brian is busy faffing!


Brian charges the fresh, moments before un-intentionaly nearly riding off a cliff drop

Sean with a classic toe side carve!

Dani just loves the hiking! Here he regretably has to do some riding!

One of my best rides of the season as the snow was perfect all the way and the line just kept on flowing.

Lee still cranking fresh turns all the way to the bottom!

I made one stop for Photos near the top and then we rode the rest to the bottom in one!

We rode the sloping ramp above Dani right from the top of the mountain!

The hike out to Dolonne took only half an hour and the classic descent of the Dolonne was surprisingly good with not too many tracks and some good cold fresh snow in the upper half.

We have a heli booked for a Pin d'Arolla drop tomorrow morning so an early start in on the cards. I've not dropped on the Pin for a few years (the last time I was up there was guiding a haut route summer trip) and so it'll be interesting and I hope the snow will be good.

Will let you know!

All good here.

Neil.

McNab snowboarding on Facebook!

At the request of a good number of you guys I have finally succumbed and started a McNab Snowboarding facebook page!

Hopefully here you can post your shots, give some chat and keep in touch with us and each other? I think that's how it works so we'll see.

Find it and get on board!

I've just finished a 5 day Tech clinic which was great. A good group, all keen and up for it. We ran through the Science of perfect snowboard technique before exploring how to match your line to the terrain and work with the mountain rather than fighting against it.

We spent he final day riding the slack country (Off Piste) at le Tour with a finishing run from the Tete du Balme right down to Trient.

There's some good snow out there, it's pretty tracked just out of bounds and in the popular spots but it looks like there's some to find if you're willing to work for it.

I have a BC Intro this week which should be good and a BC Splitboard the week after so will be keeping busy out amongst the peaks in search of untracked powder lines.

I just received some sample kit from the new Billabong 'Advanced' range which I'm now helping develop.

Billabong were one of my first proper professional sponsors back in the mid 90's and I rode for them for a good number of years. They're a pretty chilled out dedicated boards ports company, best known for Surfing I guess, but have been in the Snowboard industry for over 20 years and so are not new comers to the business and our very own home grown snowboard legend Jenny Jones rides for them so I'm in good company!

It's quite nice to have come full circle, I wanted to get involved with a brand that is involved in Snowboarding rather than help develop a mountaineering brand trying to get into the snowsports market and with Billabong starting a new advanced freeride range of outerwear aimed at the Backcountry freeride market, the timing was just perfect.

Billabong have a nice ethos, the guys are all snowboarders and surfers and they are fully into developing some good quality kit so I'm stoked to be back in Billabong product. Watch this space for updates!!

Big bike ride planned for tomorrow so enough chat for now!

All is good,

Neil.