2 more amazing weeks of BC powder riding have just flown on by!

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.