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.