Breche du Berard and a Glacier Petudes, awesome!

Just had a great 2 days riding with a Breche du Berard yesterday with perfect conditions both up and down followed by a heli drop up on the Trient Plateau today and an amazing descent of the Petudes Glacier variant again with perfect conditions for all.

I see my book has had its first mixed review on amazon but only in the case that it has goofy riders in it and not regular riders?

The idea is that you understand the concept of the pressure movements, how the board works, how the turn shape works and how the body works.
Combine the three and you have the Science behind Snowboard technique whether goofy or regular!! Its the feeling, the understanding and the concept that's important not which foot lead with.

I can take critisism if it holds value but lets face it, I revolutionize the way Snowboarding can be taught and someone complains because they ride the other way around and just for that gives it a 2 out of 5?

Get real!

Anyway, two more great days in the bag, I'll let the photos do the talking.

Hiking up to the Breche du Berard, Josh, Kev, Joel and Alessandro.

Josh powers a deep on on the way down from the Breche

Hiking up to the Aiguille du Tour above the Trient Plateau today.

Grom gets a nice line on the Petudes variant today.

Terje (or Jason) getting another first descent! Glacier petudes.

Kev gest a nice line on this ridge opposite me, Glacier petudes.

Allessandro at full speed making a rare turn!

Jason heads for the valley with so much fresh its confusing where to turn next!

Another big day planned for tomorrow!!

Bring it on!

Neil.

New week, new fresh lines to ride!

It's all work, work, work around here again with a new week beginning and more new snow just to top up what we had last week.

I started the week up at Le Tour with a few classics in the back bowls, great snow but hindered by bad visibility as the heavens opened and it started to dump down with feathery light powder. Great timing prevailed though as we hiked up to the summit of the Aiguille du Possettes for a perfect descent of the right hand variant of Possettes couloir with amazing fresh untracked snow for all.

Monday I had big plans to hit the Col du Belevedere again after having so much fun there last Friday. With the new snow I new it would be all filled in and waiting for some new fresh lines to be laid in there. We set off in fine weather, blue skies and sunshine only to have the cloud roll in and visibility drop to a couple of meters. I persevered with the Map and compass out but after falling into a couple of invisible snow holes we had to bin it and follow our tracks back out of there.

An hour or so later the sun came back and we spent the afternoon dropping fresh lines within the Flegere ski area boundaries, strangley untracked, steep and deep and ripe for the picking and the day was saved big time, an amazing result!

Today we finally got to head for the Col du Belevedere.

Heading up to Col du Belevedere above Lac Blanc.

This time all went to plan and we got around there in quick time. The lower was in great condition and the Glacier below pretty much untracked.

Grom on the 60m abseil/lower from the Col du Belevedere.

We dropped in cut below the foot of the Glacier and powered some deep turns into silk like powder. Having been there a few days before I knew the snow would be great and so hit it full speed digging deep as I could with the tail to power some powder plumes high into the air before cutting back through the white room in powder heaven glory. With my new strong legs from my squatts and leg work that I'm doing (in training for my biking) I was pushing hard through the tail of the board, man it felt good! I'm riding the salomon Burner 166 at the moment and it feels great!

Jason (sometimes known as Terje) below the foot of the Glacier.

Mark gets the goods.

Grom digs deep in the silk like fresh snow, amazing!

Another great descent in the bag and the exit down the Berard valley in easy condition, a great day all round!

Tomorrow I'm swapping groups with Dave so I'll be with the BC Intro group and heading for a Col du Passon. The forecast is good and I'm already phsyched for some more fresh lines.

Bring it on.

Laters,
Neil.

Another amazing Heli day, deep fresh all the way!

Woke up to blue skies and perfect conditions and a heli booked for a morning drop on the Plateau du Trient, what more could you want?

A smooth flight found us all alone on the Trient plateau. Once again no tracks lead the way up to our lunch spot below the Aig du Tour and so a bit of trail breaking was needed. Today Ralf was up there joining us with his BC Freeride Group and so I shared the trail breaking with him and one of his group Adam who is out here doing the season.

Ralf's team take a turn at the front with Adam in the lead.

My BC Intro team, Jo, Simon, Gavin and David.

We made light work of it as a team, had a look into a few monster crecasses on route and had lunch looking out over the beautiful peaks on the horizon such as the Matterhorn, the Weisshorn and the Dent Blanche.

After our stop we readied ourselves for some steep and deep untracked powder riding. With some 2000m of untouched vertical descent awaiting us we headed off, my group towards Glacier Midi Des Grandes whilst Ralf took his guys over to the steep Couloir Nord du Pissoir. Having checked out all the options on the flight up we knew that everywhere was going to be good and with no tracks anywhere on the mountain we were once again spoilt for choice.

Gav starts the big descent heading down Glacier Midi Des Grandes.

Once again Jo is a contender for shot of the day as she heads onto the steeps in full flight.

Simon makes his bid for shot of the day with this beautiful deep backside turn in full flow.

We got some great video footage too so that will join my other footage from pervious weeks which I'm trying to find time to edit into a best off the season so far vid. So much footage to sort through though this season as every day has been amazing.

What a season, it just seems to get better and better and more snow is due next week!!!

Going to do a big tour tomorrow in the Aiguille Rouge, a col du Belevedere I think, a nice hike up to a beautiful col above the frozen Lac Blanc. A 60 meter abseill down the other side and a great powder decsent awaits.

Work, work and more work that's all I seem to do!

Neil.

Another fine day in the office!

After a night of continuous snowfall the day dawned bright and clear drawing us out and upwards for a big descent of the Valley Blanche.

Whilst much of the lower Chamonix valley was shrouded in mist for most of the day the peaks at altitude were clear and the snow conditions light, deep and untracked.

With an early start we made an amazing descent down the massive slopes below the Gross Rognon before heading on down to practice some Crevasse rescue skills lower down on the Mer du Glace.

Jojo gets the line and shot of the day!

Whilst Jo's dad Dave doesn't do to bad himself!

The powder goes on and on as Gavin digs deep.

Simon kicks up a storm, check out how light that powder is!

Another great day in the bag and a heli drop booked for the morning.

Work, work, work... That's all i seem to do these days!!!

Neil.

Only Mad dogs and Brits get the goods on a storm day!

The weather has been threatening to change the last few days with snow forecast that never materialised allowing us to hit some great riding at Le Tour on Sunday and a Pas du Chevre yesterday.

Today the Snow finally rolled in and its dumping right now with 20 to 30cm due over night on top of 25cm that has fallen this afternoon.


Not one to be put of by a little Scottish weather, today we hiked up the Grandes Autannes through the storm to bag another untracked fresh descent of perfect powder! There were a few moments on the way up were I could see that the team were begining to wonder what the hell we were up to as the weather slowly came in and we still climbed ontowards the summit.


With the smell of fresh untracked powder in my nostrils though I carried on braking the trail until we finally rounded the summit ridge to cast our eyes on the goods.


Whilst not perfect visibility it really wasn't that bad and anyway the descent from the Grandes Autannes is just a massive rolling powder field so there's not that much to see anyway!


With the wind blowing hard over the ridge above I checked the snow pack for slab before heading out for some glory turns. The snow was once again perfect and the descent amazing!

No people, no tracks!! A great result for the busiest week of the season and a bad weather day to boot!

With the new snow falling thick and heavy it looks like tomorrow's going to be another day of riding the steep and deep. Might be a Helbronner (Glacier Toule) or a Midi (Valley Blanche) day or even a hike in the Aiguille Rouge.

So much to do its hard fitting it all in!

Get your fill,

Neil.

Blue skies and perfect powder!

Final day of the week for my custom BC freeride group who have just had one of the best weeks so far of the season.

This week has been all about riding fresh lines, untracked powder fields, drops and jumps, big mountains and steep couloirs, we've had it all and most of it right off the lift with out ever having to hike for it!

Its been a mad week with lots of snow and all though it is the first week of the holidays it has been surprisingly quiet.

Today we hit La Tour from the Vallorcine side. I had thought we might go to the Grands Montets and ride Pas Du Chevre off top tickets but the wind was loading that face, it looked busy and with -18 degrees at the top and a wind chill on top of that it looked non too pleasant up there. In the end it turned out to be a good decision as the top remained closed until mid afternoon and Le Tour was an untracked wilderness awaiting.

Bad vis over the past couple of days had obviously kept people out of the big Off Piste and Backcountry areas which normally get hit quite quickly so once again our timing was perfect and we scored fresh lines all day without too much effort.

A final descent down Possettes Couloir proved ot be the perfect end to a perfect week, more snow is forecast and a new week begins.

I'm loving my snowboarding more than ever at the moment, every week seems to bring something new and just keeps on getting better and better.

So a new week begins and I can hardly wait!

Neil.

Every day should be like this!

Another amazing day of perfect powder, just when you think it can't get any better it just does!

An amazing day on the Grands Montets with moxed visibility to keep the crowds away and amazing powder in the Lavancher bowl and off Top tickets!

I love these days were the bad weather keeps the crowds away or keeps everyone on the pistes and only those that know the area in white out conditions can get away and find the goods.

We scored some amazing runs in Lavencher where the visibility wasn't too bad and the powder was amazing plus a couple of perfect descents off top tickets on the Lognans glacier just left of the Rognon both with which we hit clear spots and perfect visibility.

The last run we rode from the top of the mountain all the way to the bottom via the Rognons glacier, the hotel face and finally out onto the bottom of the Argentiere Glaciet to finish up at the Cremerie (a run that I haven't done for ages due to it rarely being in condition) and scored fresh tracks all the way.

Its so rare to get the Grands Montets so quiet when its in this good condition, I still don't understand how it happened but it was pretty amazing, fresh tracks all day right off the lifts, I haven't had a day this good up there for years!

Just when you thought the season couldn't get any better it does!

How will we ever be happy with less than perfect conditions, perfect powder and no crowds and no tracks anything else will just not do, life will never be the same again?

Neil.