Just heading over to Tignes in a few hours for the pre season freeride clinic, looks like we're in for a lot of snow again this week so should be a great ride!

Winter came in pretty quickly in the end, after a slow build up and a great Autumn winter hit hard with about a meter of snow in the valley in the first week of December! It's pretty much been snowing ever since.

 

Courmayeur was first to open and provided some amazing riding. I headed over there with my mate Tosh and fellow Jones Team rider Luca Pandolfi and rode lines in solitude that we'd normally have to wait until late jan/feb to ride.

A few days later the Bochard on the rand Montets opened for the first time this season, again we were there for a massive locals only day, its amazing how quickly the mountain still gets tracked with only a coupe of hundred local skiers and rider up there. Everyone knows exactly where to go and ski and ride so strong. Another great day and riding with friends who I've not ridden with for years.

Next I headed over to Diableret with Luca to ride with the boss (Mr Jeremy Jones) and some of the Jones crew. We checked out next years kit, which looks amazing…

 

and rode some of the freshest lightest powder with an inspirational crew…Jeremy, Chad Perrin (global brand guru), JF Pelchat (one bindings guru) and LucaPandolfi.

 

With not many lifts open the 2nd day we hiked, again the ride down was crazy good.

Jeremy and Chad talked us through the new range, which as I've said looks amazing and also we looked at the new Jones pack which look bomb proof and include a Snowpulse compatible 30L pack which should be nice!
 

After the meeting we headed back to Cham, with long time friend Jeremy Sladen, head honcho at the TSA with us with plans for some more fresh riding in the morning. With mixed weather though and knowing there weren't many Jones boards left unsold this year, instead we quickly headed to the Jones factory for a raid and I grabbed a load of new splits for the test fleet whilst Jeremy grabbed some 164 Carbon flags for the The Snowboard Asylum shops…these are like gold dust this year so if you want one get in touch asap!

For the Split fleet this season I have a selection of Twins, a Hovercraft, a Mothership and the Solutions all in Split versions.

I'm heading over to Tignes in a couple of hours for the first of my Freeride clinics. There's about a meter of snow forecast this week so its a 'Snorkles are us' week and I'm packing some seriously deep conditions kit right now.

Right, I'd better go get my packing done, should be a great week with a great crew!

All in all not a bad start to the season…

yeah, not so bad!

Bonne fete a tous!

Neil.