Another great couple of weeks have flown on by!
A Backountry Intro course with a group of regulars, a great week of hiking and riding with a great group. The snow was pretty good after a fresh dump over the weekend, highlights of the week were a hiking day to the Breche de Berarde (see my movie of the days tour) and a hike up the steep and unrelenting Grandes Autannes for a superb descent to Trient.
This week I had my first Splitboard Intro of the season, again a group of regulars all up for something good, no holds barred! After an intro to Splitboarding day at Le Tour we kicked off with a snowy tour to Lac Blanc with the intentions of crying on around to the Col d'Encrenaz. Unfortunately the weather turned us around but then cleared for a superb decent in deep untracked fresh all the way back to La Flegere.
The next day, again under moody skies we completed the tour to the Encrenaz and after 4 hours of breaking trail in deep snow the weather cleared and we were treated to an epic powder descent down to the col d' Montets, the light remained a little flat but the descent was still amazing fun (see video clip!)
So the guys were totally fired up now for something better, but how do you top that?
With a bluebird forecast for the next day anything was possible….So I called the heli and at 10am we were airborne en route for the Trient plateau. A beautiful flight, made even better due to the fact that as we needed 2 flights in total, I got to do my first descent in the heli in order to load up the guys for the 2nd flight. I've often watched the heli's descend after dropping us off and thought that it looks way more fun on the way down! Well I can now say that it is, man those things can drop pretty quick and after telling the pilot that i'd never in the heli for the descent before he really showed me what it can do!
Anyway, once we were all dropped on the mountain we toured over for my classic Glacier de Grandes descent. I did this the weekend before with a Private group but not with great snow conditions and so I was pleased to see that things had improved greatly with the latest snowfalls. Still not bottomless powder but its starting to get there (see latest Vid clip).
After a great week of splitboarding we opted for a riding day in Courmayeur to finish the week. The weather forecast wasn't great for Chamonix but we had a day in the sun riding some great snow down into the Val Veni for a couple of laps before heading through the trees and into the valley to finish off the week. A great day made all the better as we came out of the tunnel into the Chamonix valley to find gloomy skies and drizzle.
It'll be snowing higher up though and I have a BC Freeride week about to start to lets hope it tops things up and we can start all over again!
unfortunately I've had to put the Velodrome on hold at the moment as I'm hiking and riding so much and haven't got enough energy for the track! I'm still trying to turn the pedals on the rollers and getting the squats in so hopefully the legs will still hold some power when I get back onto it. Got to pace myself though its a long season and the snow is great and I don't want to burn myself out like did a couple of weeks ago. For the moment I'm more than happy to be hiking and riding in the mountains so Bring it on….
On the courses front, we are getting a lot of enquiries still and have substantial waiting lists for most courses. Keep checking back on the web site as people do cancel for various reasons and Ruth will keep things updated. As far as I know (I'm on a need to know basis week by week) we have one plc left on a Splitboard Touring week and one place left on my Norway trip to the Lyngen Alps so if you fancy either of these give us a shout.
All is good!
neil.
Saturday 28 January 2012
Saturday 14 January 2012
Another week of great Off Piste!
Another great week of off Piste riding in the bag!
last week I had a Private group for an Off piste week, a group of friends all looking for the same vibe and so we could basically do what ever we wanted (or whatever I wanted as it works out).
Great!
We started out with a fantastic day at Le Tour riding the back bowls and a great car park face run finding superb snow even though the wind over the weekend has stripped a lot of the powder away!
Tuesday we hit Courmayeur for the ususal tree runs and a big hit in the Val Veni, which although wind affected was still in great riding condition.
Next we hit up the Grands Montets and with the group starting to get their form going we did a top tickets on the Argentiere Glacier followed by a fantastic Pas du Chevre descent to Chamonix.
We did some Avalanche transceiver work and a Possettes Couloir variant on the Thursday and then for the piece de resistance I dragged them out touring for the final day with a great Backcountry day out to the Aiguillette des Houches and down to coupeau.
All in all another great week...
I now have a Heli drop to contend with tomorrow, another private group for the day, so I'll head up tot he Trient Plateau with them and see what's looking good.
This is followed by the first of my Backcountry Intro of the winter which I'm really looking forward to. The conditions at the moment really suit touring out there in search of the goods...fantastic!
I put some course availability on line last week, things are changing all the time so keep checking back, I know Ruth is in contact with quite a few people juggling dates etc at the moment and I'll keep updating things as I know...I'm kept on a need to know basis with these things so just take it one day at a time and get to concentrate on finding the goods out on the hill...
The perfect world!
I've had a bit of Bronchitis this last week so have laid off the cycling in order to recover. Just starting to feel a bit stronger again now so will tie in a bit of leg work this week to see how I progress. With working everyday it might be the case that added track nights push my body a little to far into the red zone so I need to find a balance that fulfills my needs...
Oh and by the way, if you didn't see my last video 'powder hit' you van now find it on the Jones Snowboards web site here
Anyway, all is good... need to organize things for the heli day tomorrow so I'll catch you all later!
Neil.
last week I had a Private group for an Off piste week, a group of friends all looking for the same vibe and so we could basically do what ever we wanted (or whatever I wanted as it works out).
Great!
We started out with a fantastic day at Le Tour riding the back bowls and a great car park face run finding superb snow even though the wind over the weekend has stripped a lot of the powder away!
Tuesday we hit Courmayeur for the ususal tree runs and a big hit in the Val Veni, which although wind affected was still in great riding condition.
Next we hit up the Grands Montets and with the group starting to get their form going we did a top tickets on the Argentiere Glacier followed by a fantastic Pas du Chevre descent to Chamonix.
We did some Avalanche transceiver work and a Possettes Couloir variant on the Thursday and then for the piece de resistance I dragged them out touring for the final day with a great Backcountry day out to the Aiguillette des Houches and down to coupeau.
All in all another great week...
I now have a Heli drop to contend with tomorrow, another private group for the day, so I'll head up tot he Trient Plateau with them and see what's looking good.
This is followed by the first of my Backcountry Intro of the winter which I'm really looking forward to. The conditions at the moment really suit touring out there in search of the goods...fantastic!
I put some course availability on line last week, things are changing all the time so keep checking back, I know Ruth is in contact with quite a few people juggling dates etc at the moment and I'll keep updating things as I know...I'm kept on a need to know basis with these things so just take it one day at a time and get to concentrate on finding the goods out on the hill...
The perfect world!
I've had a bit of Bronchitis this last week so have laid off the cycling in order to recover. Just starting to feel a bit stronger again now so will tie in a bit of leg work this week to see how I progress. With working everyday it might be the case that added track nights push my body a little to far into the red zone so I need to find a balance that fulfills my needs...
Oh and by the way, if you didn't see my last video 'powder hit' you van now find it on the Jones Snowboards web site here
Anyway, all is good... need to organize things for the heli day tomorrow so I'll catch you all later!
Neil.
Friday 6 January 2012
Amazing start to 2012!
Wow, what a start to the New year!
So I've just completed my first course of 2012, a tech clinic, normally one of my tamer level courses, concentrating on perfecting Snowboard technique and usually Piste based for the most part. Conditions kind of provoked a different approach however so after a run through the essential elements of Snowboard technique; Control of line, understanding Board technology and design, pressure control and Bio mechanics on the first morning...we we're kind of 'forced' to quickly head for the shred!
After tons of snow all day on Monday, Tuesday dawned clear! Grand Montets (not usually my first choice on a powder day due to the crowds) called me in and so we headed up for a big day of Powder riding. A bit of a jump into the deep end for the guys after we'd only just covered the basics of perfecting Snowboard technique the day before, but they handled it well and man did we score some good lines with top to bottom Lavancher and a run down the Glacier off top tickets!
Check out my 'quick hit' video to see how the day panned out!
Wednesday we headed over to Courmayeur. I thought we should do a bit more technique so kept it quite strict in the morning and really drummed the essentials into their riding. After a couple of hours we started to see some great changes taking place so basically it was then time to dive off into the trees for the afternoon, mess up their newly found technique again but score some more great powder lines!
With massive amounts of snow falling all day on Thursday we headed up at les Houches. Again we worked some technique in the morning and now things were really starting to come together and the guys were riding well. I started to link in longer and longer runs and by the afternoon everyone was ripping and the snow was getting super deep.
Thursday evening I headed to the Velodrome for some cycling action, it was a kind of test to see if I'm going to be able to keep both sports going (snowboarding and cycling) through out the winter. My legs were pretty tired, the cycling adage of 'if you can sit don't stand, if you can lie down don't sit' doesn't anywhere say, if you can ride your Snowboard all day at full power you don't need to sit or lie down...just get on your bike...
yeah I was pretty much exhausted by the end of the session so will have to have a re think about how I'm going to keep this side of things progressing...maybe one less super squatts session mid week?
Anyway I pulled my legs together for Friday...Last Day,and what a f**king day!! After 1 meter 70cm of fresh snowfall recorded at the top of the Aiguille du Midi, the Grand Montets was again the obvious choice. An avalanche risk of 5/5 meant that everything was closed in the morning so we headed up to Argentiere to await the 10am news of what would open. I was surprised to find the car park at the Grand Montets pretty empty and there must have only been about 100 people waiting around to see what was going to happen. All good things come to those with a bit of luck and we didn't have to wait long and suddenly we were up top and deep in a meter of super light fresh!
The guys were ripping by this time and everyone was scoring fresh lines at super speed. Only the Herse was running so we hit up the Canadian bowl for first tracks a couple of times before spreading out and scouring the mountain for the steepest and deepest lines.
Check out my 'Powder hit' video to see how the day kind of looked!
A great week with a great group of guys who I now look forward to riding again with in the future!
Looks like I might need to get next years dates sorted out already?
All in all, it's not been a bad start to the New year!
This week I have a Private group of friends (all been out before) for an Off Piste week!
Couldn't be a better week for it for sure with the conditions we have and the forecast for some clear skies!!!
Maybe I'll be able to get the go pro out in some conditions where I can actually see something for the first time!
Anyway, things are good so far... Ruth has had a couple of cancellations on courses so will update the courses availability page today.
Keep checking in on availability as people do have to drop out for various reasons over the winter and you may still find what you want.
Right enough of my waffle...get out there and get on with it!
Neil.
So I've just completed my first course of 2012, a tech clinic, normally one of my tamer level courses, concentrating on perfecting Snowboard technique and usually Piste based for the most part. Conditions kind of provoked a different approach however so after a run through the essential elements of Snowboard technique; Control of line, understanding Board technology and design, pressure control and Bio mechanics on the first morning...we we're kind of 'forced' to quickly head for the shred!
After tons of snow all day on Monday, Tuesday dawned clear! Grand Montets (not usually my first choice on a powder day due to the crowds) called me in and so we headed up for a big day of Powder riding. A bit of a jump into the deep end for the guys after we'd only just covered the basics of perfecting Snowboard technique the day before, but they handled it well and man did we score some good lines with top to bottom Lavancher and a run down the Glacier off top tickets!
Check out my 'quick hit' video to see how the day panned out!
Wednesday we headed over to Courmayeur. I thought we should do a bit more technique so kept it quite strict in the morning and really drummed the essentials into their riding. After a couple of hours we started to see some great changes taking place so basically it was then time to dive off into the trees for the afternoon, mess up their newly found technique again but score some more great powder lines!
With massive amounts of snow falling all day on Thursday we headed up at les Houches. Again we worked some technique in the morning and now things were really starting to come together and the guys were riding well. I started to link in longer and longer runs and by the afternoon everyone was ripping and the snow was getting super deep.
Thursday evening I headed to the Velodrome for some cycling action, it was a kind of test to see if I'm going to be able to keep both sports going (snowboarding and cycling) through out the winter. My legs were pretty tired, the cycling adage of 'if you can sit don't stand, if you can lie down don't sit' doesn't anywhere say, if you can ride your Snowboard all day at full power you don't need to sit or lie down...just get on your bike...
yeah I was pretty much exhausted by the end of the session so will have to have a re think about how I'm going to keep this side of things progressing...maybe one less super squatts session mid week?
Anyway I pulled my legs together for Friday...Last Day,and what a f**king day!! After 1 meter 70cm of fresh snowfall recorded at the top of the Aiguille du Midi, the Grand Montets was again the obvious choice. An avalanche risk of 5/5 meant that everything was closed in the morning so we headed up to Argentiere to await the 10am news of what would open. I was surprised to find the car park at the Grand Montets pretty empty and there must have only been about 100 people waiting around to see what was going to happen. All good things come to those with a bit of luck and we didn't have to wait long and suddenly we were up top and deep in a meter of super light fresh!
The guys were ripping by this time and everyone was scoring fresh lines at super speed. Only the Herse was running so we hit up the Canadian bowl for first tracks a couple of times before spreading out and scouring the mountain for the steepest and deepest lines.
Check out my 'Powder hit' video to see how the day kind of looked!
A great week with a great group of guys who I now look forward to riding again with in the future!
Looks like I might need to get next years dates sorted out already?
All in all, it's not been a bad start to the New year!
This week I have a Private group of friends (all been out before) for an Off Piste week!
Couldn't be a better week for it for sure with the conditions we have and the forecast for some clear skies!!!
Maybe I'll be able to get the go pro out in some conditions where I can actually see something for the first time!
Anyway, things are good so far... Ruth has had a couple of cancellations on courses so will update the courses availability page today.
Keep checking in on availability as people do have to drop out for various reasons over the winter and you may still find what you want.
Right enough of my waffle...get out there and get on with it!
Neil.
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