The New Ice Age is here!

I'll start by wishing you all a very happy New year and I hope that 2012 will be a great year for us all.

2011 wasn't so bad, so maybe, like with most things, the more we practice the better we get.

So winter came in quickly this year, 3 months of clear skies changed, within a week, to giving us more snow in a couple of weeks than we had all last season.

Having already completed 4 weeks of work before Christmas, my season feels already well underway and on Monday (2nd of Jan 2012) I start the long haul with courses running everyweek right through until our final Mont Blanc ascent the first week of May! Long Haul makes work sound like a bit of a trial, but of course my job is Snowboarding so I'm looking forward to every day of it.

The last few days it has snowed about a meter here in the valley. This is perfect as we already have a great base layer and this will cover up and fill in all the rocks and holes that were still poking through. The Avalanche risk is obviously very high at the moment, Chamonix is on lock down with not much open this weekend but when it settles and bonds it'll make things perfect for the rest of the seasons Off Piste and BC courses.

I'm very excited about riding this season as I have a new Jones 160 Hovercraft, which is absolutely amazing to ride! I can't wait to get into the trees in Courmayeur on this board it'll be so much fun. I also have my new Solution Split 168XL which is a little stiffer than last years and almost rides like the Flagship.

I scored a couple of amazing descents on this board already this season with a super deep and fresh line through the dream forrest on the Grand Montets followed by a split and skin out. I then followed this up with a hike up to the top of the Herse chair, which hadn't openned yet for the season, the piste wasn't even pisted yet, and scored an amazing descent down the Italien bowl and the Hotel face with no one else around and not one track anywhere. This run was one of those OMG! runs which I wished I'd got on Video which in turn promted me to go out and buy a 'GO Pro". This in turn promted me to go out and buy a helmet to stick it on (so now I'm riding in a helmet, for all the wrong reasons). As such I have produced my first short movie clip showing a short days Splitboarding. Unfortunately the light was a bit flat but you get the idea and can watch it here on the McNab Snowboarding Face book page or here if this works?



I'm looking forward to seeing what footage I can get this season, its about time that I caught on camera some of the amazing lines and stunning places that i get to ride in so watch this space for more videos this season (if I find the time for the editing!)

The Jones Flagship has been stiffened up in the nose this season, this stops the slight chatter at speed that was evident a little last season, I've not ridden this much yet as i've been either splitboarding or running Tech clinics on the piste in which case I've been riding my Hovercraft 160 or most recently my new 164 All mountain Twin, which I'm actually loving at the moment for playing and jibbing about on. This board is so easy to ride, almost to easy, sometimes I almost forget if I'm goofy or regular on it...

I'm still trying to keep fitness up for my cycling. I started Track cycling at the Velodrome in Geneva in the Autumn and became immediately addicted to it. It kind of suit me as there's no hills and its quite sprinty. I won my first race, the flying lap TT, came 2nd in a couple of others and normaly place top 3 in the masters cat which isn't so bad for a first timer with absolutley shit race tactics, I'm normally at the back of the bunch when everyone sprints for the line!

I'm going to try to keep the track riding going through out the winter with some evening and weekend sessions, but we'll see how my legs hold up as with all this snow the Snowboarding is going to be pretty full on.

Anyway, that's about it for now. 2011 was a fantastic year and if all goes to plan 2012 will be way better!

Lets all do our best to make it so!

All is good in Chamonix!!

Neil.

Deeper and deeper! The winter is on!!!

So after 3 months of blue skies the winter has stormed into play and it has now been snowing pretty much everyday for the past 2 weeks!

I'm just back to Chamopniox after my first Tech clinic course of the winter. The first couple of days went well with bad vis but great snow and some good work being done by the team with big technique changes and vast improvements from the word go.

It was good to get this work done early on because the weather then fully came in and it started dumping like I've not seen for years.

We then spent the rest of the week making the most of the massive quantity of deep powder on offer as the storm increased in volume and intensity.

Day 4 was the best day, zero vis but perfect powder everywhere and we lapped top to bottom scoring freshies all day.

With so much snow now falling the Avalanche risk was getting serious and slowly Tignes was starting to shut down with only a few lifts left running by Friday and the Storm still increasing in intensity.

By now there was over a meter of new snow in resort and things were getting serious. The road out of Tignes was closed sporadically due to Avalanches and for a while it looked like I'd not be able to leave!

With Ruth's Christmas Party scheduled for Friday night I was under orders to tunnel out of there myself if the road remained closed which was starting to look like a distinct possibility.

Tignes ground into a gridlock on Friday afternoon, the avalanche risk now on a scale 5 out of 5.

In the end with UK Freerider Will Hughes in the van with me we escaped in a convoy heading down from Tignes to Bourg St Maurice which normally might take 20 minutes but in this instance took a solid 2 and a half hours! Traffic chaos and serious Avalanche risk, we kept out transceivers on for that part of the drive!

We arrived in Chamonix with the Christmas party in full swing and proceeded to get stuck in for some catching up. havin just driven for 5 hours and not eaten since midday this didn't take long at all. A great party for sure!

It's been dumping in Chamonix since I got back here and it's starting to get pretty deep in valley now after it having rained quite high most of last week. Up high there is now a serious amont of snow and unfortunately most of the Chamonix Ski areas are now shut due to high Avalanche risk.

Fortunately Les Houches and some of Courmayeur is open for business and tomorrow I start work with 2 private clients who are training up for a Splitboard exped to Afganistan!

Its forecast to snow on and off most of this week with some more big snowfalls due towards the end of the week.

Les Houches tomorrow though and then we'll see what happens. Conditions are a bit serious for BC touring at the moment so we'll probably be confined to just riding the deep fresh powder off the lifts!

I've not been cycling at the track now for 2 weeks so am feeling a bit of withdrawal syndrome. I missed a big race meet today but needed a day of recovery after a hard week of powder riding in Tignes and a big party night last night.

I kept up training in Tignes hitting the gym in the evening for some serious squatt and speed training so it'll be interesting to see if I can go any faster once I get back on the bike.

In Tignes, I rode the new 160 Hovercraft for the first time. It is amazing!

everynow and then you come across the perfect tool for the job in hand. When that job is Freeriding and ripping the mountain apart then the Hoevrcraft just happens to be the perfect tool.

What an amazing bit of kit, the 156 was epic, the 160 blows the doors open and a new world awaits!

Total inspiration, what a bit of kit that is!!

Right, got to go get things ready for tomorrow, the Hovercraft, ABS pack, snorkle and flippers.

All is good in Chamonix!

Neil.