Splitboarding and fresh snow!

Great day today in Courmayeur (as ever!) and my 84th trip through the tunnel!


We hiked up the ridge from the top of the Arp to the small summit above and dropped into the Val Veni with fresh lines down the steep face behind for all. I rode the 168XL Flagship today, and with the deep fresh up top it was in its element and felt amazing!

Man, I just love that board!!

We started the week with a short Splitboard intro tour in Courmayeur, hiking out away from the lifts before dropping some fresh turns down into the woods before splitting again and hiking back out.

Moody skies but great snow, splitboard intro session!

Hiking out of the woods after a nice fresh run into the middle of nowhere!

Very good snow, lots of fresh but poor visibility.

Big lines out of the Youla Couloir, not the best shot but I was too busy riding to get the camera out!

We then finished the day with a couple of laps down the steep couloir that splits the cliff band below the Youla top station, very Nice!

We followed this up with a tour up and over the Col des Autannes.

Mark prepping for Greenland on the col des Autannes tour!

Liam leads the charge for the top of the col des Autannes on Crampons.

A great day out, a fantastic tour with some classic splitboard touring before donning crampons for the final climb up and onto the ridge.

Rich (I think) on the upper wall from the Col des Autannes.

The upper bowl of the Autannes descent, moody skies but great riding from way up the back there and miles more to come!

A great descent down with good soft snow all the way to Trient.

We've then spent the last 2 days again over in Italy riding freshies off the lifts as its been snowing quite a bit over there. Yesterday we rode laps on the Youla couloir again as the visibility was in and out but the snow was great.

Today there was quite a lot of fresh snow again and we did a great run off the top of the Arp as I mentioned earlier.

Tomorrow we're hoping to get out touring again so we'll see what the weather brings us. I've been customizing my split set up, I've got the bindings dialed in now with new straps and a Cartel highback (spoiler) and they are starting to feel good. I've also cut about 1cm off the rear voile puck (the grey thing that the binding slides onto) so that I can center the binging better, loosing some heel overhang whilst at the same time allowing me to lengthen the base plate of the binding for more foot and toe support. Looks like it'll be good so I'll let you know!

The Solution in working well and all the guys are stoked with them this week but everyone is in agreement that you need to dial in the bindings so get to work!

The temperatures are up and down a lot at the moment and we're coming in to the spring Avalanche season with fresh snowfalls and crazily rising temperatures. Today we saw a few quite big heavy loose snow slides on the lower slopes so keep your eyes open and ride with care!

I'll leave you with these shots of us on our heli day last week on the Pin d'arolla. Cheating I know but a great day out anyway!

Heli drop on the Pin D'Arolla!

On the summit of the Pin D'Arolla with the Matterhorn behind!


Oh and Ruth has informed me that the splitboard course 28th March to 1st April is now full again!

All is good.

Neil.

Splitboard course this week!

Back on the splitboards this week after a great BC Intro course last week which saw us ride some amazing snow off Mont Nix (see last weeks blog) and get in a heli day with a drop on the Pin d'Arolla on Friday.

This was my first heli drop in a long time and although it was great, I did feel like a bit of a cheat!

Yeah right! for about 2 minutes!!

No seriously though, I have to say I much prefer to get out on the splitboard and get away from the classic spots and the Pin d'Arolla descent although good has become a classic and was pretty tracked.

Things are changing quickly out here. Year by year yesterdays secret spots are becoming todays classics and are getting tracked out quicker and quicker.

Anywhere that has easy access is the first to get it and unfortunately Heli access has become easy access!

There's still plenty out there but the best riding and the best lines are those that are hidden from the masses and take a bit more effort to get out to.

Anyway, this week I'm back on the splitboard and loving it. Yesterday we went over to Courmayeur (yes again!) where it had snowed, to do an intro session on the splitboards. With a massive queue for the Youla we decided to split the boards and get hiking. We hiked up for about an hour stuck the boards back together and rode freshies down into the woods below before splitting them again and hiking back out to the lifts. A great run with no one around on a very busy day.

We then managed to get a last lift up the Youla and rode the big steep couloir that splits the cliff face below it with great snow and fresh tracks from top to bottom.

Today with a mixed forecast and strong winds high up we toured up and over the Col des Autannes and had a surprisingly good run down to Trient with good snow all the way down in to the valley before the regular semi commando finish.

Looks like we might get some snow tomorrow, more over in Italy than here (no big surprise there, I think its a conspiracy to keep me funding the MB tunnel) so we'll head over there again with the splits and see what we get.

should be good!

And finally, we have had a cancellation on the Splitboard course running the 28th March to the 1st April so if anyone is interested give Ruth a call or email.

All is good!

Neil

Amazing lines in deep fresh today!

Fresh lines today for Mark in prep for Greenland!

Once again we're getting some fine and settled weather here in Chamonix. This means great weather for riding and touring but little in the way of fresh snow, the last snowfall being now over 2 weeks ago.

Spring is in the air for sure, last weekend I got out on my bike around the hills above Annecy with my friend Mark who runs GPM10.com (Alpine cycle training), the weather was perfect and we rode up and over the col du Marais linked in with a circuit of the lake and another climb to finish a perfect 80k circuit. My legs felt pretty good for the time of year so hopefully if I can keep myself going and not get burned out I should be going well for the spring riding season.

This week I'm running a BC intro course. We started out with a day on the Grand Montets with a couple of laps off the top, the snow was cold but wind affected and firm, 'technical riding conditions' as I've deemed it this season.

We toured a classic Crochues Berrard on Tuesday which was good. The descent was fun, good cold soft snow but pretty tracked as you'd expect on this classic 2 weeks after the last snowfall. You could find some clean lines here and there and we had a good charge about and a great day out.

Wednesday we hit Courmayeur for an easier riding day, rode off the Arp into the Val Veni, which was good and then some ofthe steep couloirs in the trees and a nice finish down a new untracked line that I've discovered this season.

Today we were in for another touring day and so headed over to Courmayeur again (my 67th trip through the tunnel this season!) to hike and ride one of my favourite lines over there on Mont Nix.

The Jones boards are out in force as usual, Brian leads the hike!


Mark and Steve nearing the top of the climb!

Sean hikes onwards surrounded by a sea of powder!

The snow was untouched and perfect and we hiked up pretty quickly heading up to the col just below and right of the main summit.

From here we rode the North Face all the way into the valley.

It was epic!

Steve nabs 2nd drop whilst Brian is busy faffing!


Brian charges the fresh, moments before un-intentionaly nearly riding off a cliff drop

Sean with a classic toe side carve!

Dani just loves the hiking! Here he regretably has to do some riding!

One of my best rides of the season as the snow was perfect all the way and the line just kept on flowing.

Lee still cranking fresh turns all the way to the bottom!

I made one stop for Photos near the top and then we rode the rest to the bottom in one!

We rode the sloping ramp above Dani right from the top of the mountain!

The hike out to Dolonne took only half an hour and the classic descent of the Dolonne was surprisingly good with not too many tracks and some good cold fresh snow in the upper half.

We have a heli booked for a Pin d'Arolla drop tomorrow morning so an early start in on the cards. I've not dropped on the Pin for a few years (the last time I was up there was guiding a haut route summer trip) and so it'll be interesting and I hope the snow will be good.

Will let you know!

All good here.

Neil.

McNab snowboarding on Facebook!

At the request of a good number of you guys I have finally succumbed and started a McNab Snowboarding facebook page!

Hopefully here you can post your shots, give some chat and keep in touch with us and each other? I think that's how it works so we'll see.

Find it and get on board!

I've just finished a 5 day Tech clinic which was great. A good group, all keen and up for it. We ran through the Science of perfect snowboard technique before exploring how to match your line to the terrain and work with the mountain rather than fighting against it.

We spent he final day riding the slack country (Off Piste) at le Tour with a finishing run from the Tete du Balme right down to Trient.

There's some good snow out there, it's pretty tracked just out of bounds and in the popular spots but it looks like there's some to find if you're willing to work for it.

I have a BC Intro this week which should be good and a BC Splitboard the week after so will be keeping busy out amongst the peaks in search of untracked powder lines.

I just received some sample kit from the new Billabong 'Advanced' range which I'm now helping develop.

Billabong were one of my first proper professional sponsors back in the mid 90's and I rode for them for a good number of years. They're a pretty chilled out dedicated boards ports company, best known for Surfing I guess, but have been in the Snowboard industry for over 20 years and so are not new comers to the business and our very own home grown snowboard legend Jenny Jones rides for them so I'm in good company!

It's quite nice to have come full circle, I wanted to get involved with a brand that is involved in Snowboarding rather than help develop a mountaineering brand trying to get into the snowsports market and with Billabong starting a new advanced freeride range of outerwear aimed at the Backcountry freeride market, the timing was just perfect.

Billabong have a nice ethos, the guys are all snowboarders and surfers and they are fully into developing some good quality kit so I'm stoked to be back in Billabong product. Watch this space for updates!!

Big bike ride planned for tomorrow so enough chat for now!

All is good,

Neil.

More news from the Advanced BC Course!

"The JONES Snowboard team"

Quick shot of my name up amongst the greats from the 'Jones' ISPO stand! I've been in communication with Jeremy about future developments of the range and it sounds like there's a lot of good things going to be happening over the next few years.

I'm particularly interested in helping with the development of the Splitboard range and we have some good ideas moving forward with regards this area. You can expect splitboards to be as light as and ride as good as a top end normal boards in the very near future. Watch this space!

I've been busy out amongst the high peaks again the last few days with my Advanced BC course.

On Wednesday we set off on an early start to hike and ride the Glacier de Tour Noire from the high Col d'Argentiere at just over 3500m.

On the atmospheric approach up the Glacier d'Argentiere.

You have to hike up the relatively flat Glacier d'Argentiere in the approach before reaching the base of the ascent.

Glacier Tour Noire runs just above the guys heads to the col on the top right.

It's a long climb, here we head up through the lower easier angled powder fields.

From the bottom the climb takes about 3 hours, the snow was deep and fresh and so I was braking the trail through wide open fields of powder (both up and down!).

The lower slopes are a nice angle and it gets steeper towards the top with some 2 nice 'steep and deep' sections between some quite open crevasses which are hidden from above so you need to remember where they are on the way down.

It was a beautiful crisp cold day and seeing as its full on holiday season out here, relatively quiet with only 5 other people on the mountain!

Daryl and Iain with boards back in riding mode at the Col d' Argentiere.

we reached the Col about 4 hours after putting the skins on way down at the start of the tour.

The ride down was epic, super deep, the steeps felt amazing high up and I even manged to stop lower down to get out my camera to snap a couple of shots of the guys coming down.

Iain in deep powder heaven!

Gwri carving down the lower powder fields.

Daryl reaps the rewards!

Big grins at the bottom!

An amazing trip and another first for me as with snowshoe teams I've never actually made the top before!

Thursday it snowed in the morning so we rode free freshies in Courmayeur and scored first lines off the top lift, the Arp as it openned just as we got there. A lucky score and some great fresh lines all the way into the Val Veni.

Friday was another big day, but the real icing on the cake. With fresh snow from the day before, we hiked out from the Arp in Courmayeur and climbed up Mont Fortin to score a superb descent of a hidden face that I found a few years ago when heli-boarding in the area.

Iain on the ride down from Mt Fortin

Daryl charging Mt Fortin.

Daryl moments before detonation!

Again, we had the mountains to ourselves and fresh lines all the way down to finish off another great week.

Not sure it can get much better than that but I'll keep trying!

Neil.

More powder and more splitboarding!

After a day of snowfall on Sunday the skies cleared perfectly for Monday and the first day of my Advanced BC course!

Monday we headed up the Grand Montets, against my better judgment as I knew it would be heaving with everyone trying to get up top for the 60cm of fresh rumoured to be up there.

With the small group ratio of 1 to 3 however, getting priority top tickets (even on a super busy day) wasn't to be a problem and we headed straight up to check it out.

I'm happy to say we weren't dissapointed, the rumours were right and we charged down the Lognan's glacier, fresh tracks for all and the run I've been waiting for for the last 7 weeks, Grand Montets in perfect condition.

After a cruise around nabbing some lines in bound we headed back up to find some more untracked lines on the Glacier, hit the stash on the way down and finished a perfect day in style.

Today, we were on route for a big splitboard tour up high but the weather wasn't playing ball so we headed around to the Val Ferret, my new favorite playgound.

Gwri on route for the top!

Daryl and Iain pushing a fast pace first time out on the splits!

We skinned up to the summit of Monte della Saxe in super fast time, some 750m of up in just over 2 hrs and had lunch looking out onto Courmayeur and the Italian side of Mont Blanc.

Touring along the summit plateau.

Arriving at the summit of Monte della Saxe.

We toured along the summit ridge for a bit to check out the best spot to drop in.

Daryl deep in powder heaven!

Iain at full speed over the rollers!

Gwri lays out a carve in the deep powder!

The initial slopes looked a bit wind loaded so we used caution until we were established on the face just below and then charged towards the valley. 750m (vertical) of pure untracked amazing powder!

I'm just getting more addicted to riding the Jones Solution 168 every time I take it out and if I get runs like this everytime I use it I think I'll be hiking everyday.

Mid holiday madness and we had the whole mountain to ourselves!

Another dream descent in the bag and a tricky river crossing to finish!

Not so bad!!

More tomorrow then!

Neil.

Splitboarding is the future, the future is Now!

My new favorite playground!

Wow, this is the future for me. Drive up a snowy valley, park the van, get out, hike and ride the mountain. No lifts, no people just you, your team and the mountains. The future is splitboarding and the future is now!

This was the last day of my first BC splitboard course and the day of our planned big tour exploration powder attack.

The weather cleared and the Val Ferret (Italy) was cloaked in a fine coat 30cm of fresh untracked powder waiting for our arrival.

I've been eyeing this line for sometime now and with perfect conditions this just had to be the day.

As the sun rose I grabbed my splitboard, touring gear and the dog and set off to pick up the guys.

Setting up for departure!

We'd recce'd the line from the Helbronner the day before and with boards in split mode started touring up the valley floor beside the Ski du fond track until a bridge over the river allowed us access to the mountains the other side.

From here we left the valley floor and started following a summer trail up the hill.


Me and Jake the dog break trail.

The weather was perfect, the views immense, just us and the silence of the mountains and the dog out in front breaking the trail.

Just you and your efforts, the silence of the mountains and a clear mind!

Jim finds tunes into the rythm of the mountain.

After an hour of following the summer trail we branched off into the unknown and started to make our way up through glorious powder fields in search of the our chosen descent line.

Not a bad view from our lunch spot!

After a bite to eat in one of the best lunch spots I've eaten at we transformed the boards into riding mode and prepared for the ride.

Simon powers down the mountain, last training week before Greenland, he's ready!

Gwri gets deep in it!

But Adam gets deeper!

With the dog charging behind, only his head visible in the powder, we carved our lines down the crystalline powder, the perfect line with a bit of everything, open rolling fields, some steeps and some high speed carving through open bushes to finish right back at the bridge where we started.

A great end to a superb week and the start of endless possibilities.

I now have the Advanced BC week coming up, a 1 to 3 client ratio which means we can move faster and go deeper and steeper.

Not the best conditions here in Chamonix but Italy is good at the moment and there's mixed weather forecast for this week with the chance of more new snow both here in Chamonix and again over the other side of Mont Blanc in Italy and so hopefully we'll be able to get the Splits out again and get out amongst the peaks for some further exploration.

Looking forward to it!

Other News:

We still have a couple of spaces available on the last Splitboard course 28th March to 1st April, if you fancy joining us give Ruth a shout.

We already have a lot of interest in next years 2012 courses and Ruth is compiling waiting lists, I'll try to put the new schedule online towards the end of May.

Next winter we'll be adding a New 'BC Splitboard Intro course' and a New 'BC Splitboard Freeride course'.

The 'BC Splitboard Intro course' will run along the same lines as the Splitboard courses this season and the BC Splitboard Freeride course will be designed for those that have already attended a Splitboard course this year.

There's quite a lot of interest in a Kamchatka Heli trip next season, if you're interested in this let us know as I'll only run it if there are definitely enough people interested. The costs of the trip are something like £4500 plus you need at least another £1000 for extra Heli time if the conditions are good. You've also got flight on top of this so you're looking at a £6000 trip.

Kamchatka offers some of the greatest riding on the planet in my opinion but obviously it comes at a high cost. If you're interested in this let us know and start saving.

I'm also looking at more splitboard 'Deeper' style trips to Greenland and Norway so watch out for more info as the plans come together.

A lot of interest in another Mont Blanc ascent (start getting fit if you're up for this) and maybe a Splitboard Haute route towards the spring next winter.

There's a lot to fit in so I'll run the programs with the most interest so let us know what you're interested in.

I know its a long way off and we've not even had the best of this winter yet, but some of these trips are pretty expensive and are long term goals for a lot of you so this is a long term heads up on what I can put on the program for next year.

Let us know what you want!

All is good, hope you're getting your fill!

Neil.