Fantastic!

What a great week!

Another perfect Off piste clinic with a great group of guys and great snow, this followed by my first bike ride of the New year (Saturday) and then today a quick outing on the Jones Solution splitboard up to the Col du Tour Noire with UK Freerider Will Hughes and European Jones head honcho Rob Etienne.

The Off Piste week started off with some fresh snowfall to liven things up. A great day off the top of the Grand Montets to start things off, some steep and deep days in Courmayeur, a first lines all day type day at Le Tour and another great day off the top of the Grand Montets where the snow is still good (although now getting pretty tracked out).

Giovanni brings the crazy banana thing to the Jones convention!

A great team on the course this week, a bit of a Jones convention as you can see but then if you can't beat them you might as well join them and so far everyone who has ridden one has ended the day with a big smile upon their face.

We rode some great lines and found some good fresh snow.

The last few days however it's been getting pretty warm, yesterday I headed down the valley for a spin on the bike with fellow addict Jonny Baird.

I'd kind of forgotten how hard it is riding up hill and as we started off on the Domancy climb which is pretty steep, it was a dive in at the deep end and hold your breath type of affair. I managed to pull through and we had a good ride in mild temps and sunshine!

With a BC Intro starting up tomorrow, I thought that today I'd better get out for a bit of a tour and try out the Solution Splitboard. As Freeride guru Will Hughes is staying with us at the moment I thought I'd drag him out to and so we set up the boards and headed up to the Col du Tour Noire picking up Jones Euro guru Rob Etienne on the way.

Will and Rob on their way up the Argentiere Glacier.

The Col du Tour Noire is above one of the big glaciers found up the Argentiere Glacier turning left after the Argentiere refuge and then climbing up the glacier there for a couple of hours.

Col du Tour Noire is up there at the back on the left!

Its an amazing area, you're really in the heart of the high mountains with the big North faces of the Droites and the Courtes towering over you, very impressive.

Passing the North face of the Courtes (on the right of the picture).

Anyway it was my first outing on the split board, and Will's too and so we we're quite excited to see how it was going to be.

I'd kind of heard mixed reports, a few horror stories about things not working or binding bits snapping and so at the end of the trip I can happily report that everything worked perfectly and we had a great tour up and a superb ride down.

Will on the way down, this bit was a bit wind affected but lower down the snow was great!

In fact I found a new line for the descent that I'd never ridden before, with good snow and no tracks so not so bad!

After mis-adventures with splitboards before I can happily say that the Solution performs well both up and down the mountain and rides much the same as the Flagship although obviously is a bit heavier and maybe a little softer on the edge.

Will who normaly rides a 156 rode the 164 (as did I) and had no trouble at all with and in-fact said it was as easy to turn as his regular board and actually I think he might have stashed it somewhere as he was mumbling something about me not getting it back or something like that.

Anyway, another great day and a BC course starting tomorrow. We could definitely do with a bit of new snow now and it looks like we might get something towards the end of the week.

I'm looking forward to this week, a bit more exploring around in the high peaks is never a bad thing.

If you're coming out this winter get training those legs!

We've got riding to do.

All is good in Chamonix!

Neil.