Great Splitboard touring course last week with fresh snowfall on Sunday night running through Monday setting things up nicely for another week of tracking out fresh lines.
Mondays video
After a riding day on the Grandes Montets on Monday we got stuck into a splitboard initiation day for those new to this art of travel. Unfortunately the word was out that the place to ride was top tickets Grandes Montets (probably partly due to the fact that I posted my Video of Mondays riding on the Chamonix Facebook page which saw it get 1200 views in the evening) and so we didn't get the early start that we needed and spent 2 hours in the queues trying to get to the top. We didn't get to start out for the Col du Tour Noire until 11:30 and so had to cut the tour short half way up the Glacier des Amethyste. The ride down, however, wasn't so bad.
Video of Tuesdays trip.
On Wednesday, with a good forecast we set out for a 2 day touring trip around the Col du Grand St Bernard. Perfect conditions saw us hike up to the col west de Barrason with a superb ride down on the first day, a night in the Hospice, followed by the fantastic tour of the Drone on day two.
Col des Barrason on day 1.
Tour du Drone day 2.
Near the top of the Drone day 2.
A great ride down follows!
Unfortunately I forgot to take the video camera but got a few nice shots with my phone!
Friday we headed out for a local tour with the Col des Autannes. Happily surprised to find deep cold fresh snow over the other side of the Col and some proper deep turns awaiting. Again, gutted I forgot the camera but wasn't expecting it to be so good!!
Hiking to the col des Autannes.
Freshies await on the other side!
The snow was very good!
everyone gets the goods!
The weather is now warm and stable, proper spring conditions and great cycling weather so on Saturday I headed out on the road bike for my 3rd ride of the year. Quite a big outing with a couple of friends who have obviously secretly been hard at it on the turbo's all winter and a proper besting for me. Managed to keep up, the top of the hill came just in time and it kind of felt good to dig into the physical torment of cycling again starngely making me want it more and more.
Another splitboard touring week coming up, a warm up day tomorrow and then off for a couple of 2 day trips so all good. The weather looks good for the week so looking forward to it…
Until the next time, take it easy!! (unless you're on my Mont Blanc trip later in the season in which case get training!!!!
It's full on Spring conditions here in Chamonix this week, blue skies, sunshine, high temps and spring corn snow…It's definitely got that playtime sort of feel to it up on the hill, slushy bumps and jumps all over the place and a totally jib style of riding on the cards.
I have a 3 day tech clinic this week so have been playing around Le Tour yesterday, Brevent and Flegere today and will hit up the Grandes Montets tomorrow, should be fun!
Last week I had an Off Piste clinic running. To help things along it snowed at the weekend and on the first day, so gave us some great riding conditions as you can see in this quick clip from Tuesday on the Rognons Glacier.
I didn't film much as I we were to busy riding and making the most of the fresh snow, the day got better and better and we finished with a superb line down through the crevasses on the left side of the Face from top tickets in super deep and untracked snow. I forgot I had the Camera otherwise I'd have got some great footage for sure.
We also had a great run off the Aiguille du midi, not really my usual outing for an Off Piste clinic, but the snow up high was so good that we had to make exceptions and it was well worth the effort.
Anyway, it was a fun week which we finished off with a quick slack country hike around from Col Cornu to the Col above the lac Noire.
Hiking to the col du lac noire
As it had been warm all week and its an easy tour I'd not expected anything special and thought it would be pretty tracked out. After breaking trail on foot through some deep cold fresh snow though I started to think that maybe we'd be about to strike gold. The descent had about 20 ski tracks down it, all of the skiers had stayed out right and the whole of the left was untracked and super smooth. I initially thought that maybe it was just dust on crust on that side and that there would be a good reason that everyone had avoided it but thought I'd just give it a quick look see.
It turned out to be perfect powder so I just kept on going and could hear the guys (girls) whooping it up behind me.
A nice touch and a great finish to the week!
The week preceding this I had a BC intro course running.
Conditions were a bit trickier for this week and the fresh snow was harder to find.
The snowpack had had a big freeze thaw running through it at the weekend with lots of serious avalanche activity taking place. It had since re frozen and the air had cooled with a Northerly wind running though the valley. Not the best conditions, a spring snowpack but the air not yet spring enough to melt out the corn snow conditions. It to a little while to get to grips with it but it soon became apparent that up high the snow was still cold and in some places fresh and so we ventured up the top of the Grandes Montets and spent time up high riding the Glaciers up there.
The Aiguille du Midi also turned up the goods, the snow cold and untracked down my special variant before a 'planned' crevasse rescue session down on the Mer du Glace. We also toured up the Argentiere Glacier towards the Col du Tour Noire but had to turn around before the top as we ran out of time. I'd not been up that way at all this season so it was nice to get up there and check out the conditions, I love being up that way surrounded by the big North faces of the Droites and the Courtes, it feels like you're properly deep in the mountains, yet you're only an hours hike away from the Rognons descent off top tickets.
Anyway, all in all another its been a great couple of weeks!
I managed to get out on my road bike at the weekend for my first ride of the season. I bumped into a couple of friends and so my easy first ride turned into a little bit of an uphill besting session. My legs felt ok and I was quite surprised to find my form wasn't as bad as I thought it would be having not touched my bike for nearly 2 months (except for a track session a couple of weeks ago). I have 4 days off the snow after tomorrow (a 3 day course this week), my first rest period since November so I'll try to get out on my bike again if this weather holds out.
After this week I have 3 Splitboard touring weeks coming up, this should be great as I'm up for a bit of an explore and so will try to get out to some new areas if the conditions allow. I'll be getting the maps out this weekend and having a look at where to go and what to do.
3 weeks touring, then Lyngen and then Mont Blanc so a big hit now on the Splitboard! Infact tomorrow might be my last day of riding on my regular set up so I'm going to take the Hovercraft 160 out for its last spring ride!
I've been ridding the regular Flagship 164 the last couple of weeks, it's stiffer this year than last year and I've had a great time on it!
Also pleased to report that after 3 weeks of abuse, my impression of the 'Sweet' outerwear is still as good as it ever was, this kit simply rocks!!
Col des Barrason on day 1.
Tour du Drone day 2.
Near the top of the Drone day 2.
A great ride down follows!
Hiking to the col des Autannes.
Freshies await on the other side!
The snow was very good!
everyone gets the goods!
