Is it Winter or is it Summer?

Sunset from the Trient refuge before climbing the Aiguille du Tour (far Left) the following morning.

The temperatures and weather continues to jump between winter and summer out here in Chamonix on a daily basis.

The 166km Ultra Trail run that circumnavigates Mont Blanc started out last night in pouring rain and with wintery showers forecast all night, was canceled by the time the first competitors reached St Gervais due to dropping temps, mud slides and flooding. Nice!

Moody skies but beautiful colours over the Midi as we descend from the Tete Rousse.

I've just finished a 6 day Mont Blanc course which due to Strong winds high up never got higher than the Tete Rousse refuge.

Via Ferrata day down the valley at Passy.

We still had a great week however with an ascent of the Petite Fourche, the Aig du Tour in perfect condition on a perfect day, a Point Lachenal and a Via Ferrata day down the valley to finish.

I've just sneaked in a couple of days training on my bike, it feels hard again after not riding much but also good in a painful torture endurance kind of way, those who ride know what I mean!

I bumped in to fellow Guide, Jonnie Baird out on the bike yesterday evening, he's trying to get me to enter the local race up the Vaudagne, a hill climb time trial called the Les Houch'ard. The clue is in the title!

We rode it yesterday to try it out, I came in at 18mins 30 and I think the fastest time is closer to 14 mins! Obviously being a big guy, I'm more of a rouleur than a hill climber so I'll put it down to my size (and get out training every moment I get!!)

The time trial is next weekend, but I'm up the hill for the previous 6 days for another Mont Blanc week, this time with Dev Nayak and his brother Kris. Some of you might know Dev from Snowboard courses last winter. The weather is a bit mixed over the first few days with snow forecast down to 2000m but getting better after.

Snow to 2000m at the end of August, what's going on????

It's time to loan out your copy of Al Gore's movie 'The Inconvenient Truth' the World is trying to tell us something.

Following this MB week I am then working for GPM10 on my bike for 3 tours, the first is a Chamonix/Nice ride (which I did last year as a client with Andy Cook), the second is a 'Tour des Grandes Alpes' which takes in all the major Alpine cols and the third is a 'Coast to Coast' tour across the Pyrenees from Biarritz to the Mediterranean

I'll be more of a rouleur/climber after this little lot, shame the Houch'ard race is later!

With the mountains now constantly covered in fresh snow its hard not to start dreaming of hiking out for deep turns oand I'm getting quite excited about the prospect of the coming winter season and especially the new 'Splitboard' courses.

I updated the availability for courses on the web site the other day which caused quite an influx of new bookings so I'll update it again shortly once the new deposits are taken. A few more courses are either full or nearly full so keep an eye on the courses page if you're thinking of joining a course and haven't done so as yet.

Remember! Anyone booked onto a course with me this winter has 15% off any Jones Snowboard through the TSA, to take advantage of this offer contact Ruth for more details stating which board you're interested in and what size!

Ortovox will also be offering their usual deal to McNab clients so if you're looking for a Transceiver, shovel and Probe set up again get in touch and we'll pass on your details.

I also have a few transceivers, shovels and probes available for sale through the goodies page on the web site.

OK enough for now! I'll try to sneak out on the bike in between wintery showers but its not looking so nice out there today.

Even so, all is good in Chamonix!

Neil.

Back from the Dolomites return to the snow!

Wow, it's looking like winter over here in mid summer!

What's going on with the weather these days? Is there just a slight chance that Global warming is having some effect on the weather patterns as we now have snow down to the 'Mid station' at the Aiguille du Midi on the 15th of August!

Yep the mid station! so snow down to about 2600m in the middle of summer and the temps still dropping. Its cloudy and rainy out there this morning so it'll be interesting to see how low it dropped last night.

Is this the start of the next ice age? No doubt it'll be +30 c in a few days as it seems to go from one extreme to the other these days.

The Sella range in the dolomites.

I just got back from my Via Ferrata trip to the Dolomites last night. I had a great week there with my group of Irish clients with whom I have done Mont Blanc and a summer Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt. This year they wanted something a little less demanding but fun technical so Via Ferrata in the Dolomites was the perfect choice.

On top of a via ferrata in the Sella range.

We started out with a great sunny day and 2 warm up via ferrata peaks which were great. Day 2 we climbed one of the local peaks to a high altitude refuge making a loop around the Sella range.

Grand Canyon esq views in the Dolomites.

Day 3 we climbed a steep Via Ferrata with technical walls and steep ladders, great fun! We had an exploratory wet day visiting a mountain drilled with tunnels from the first world war. The Austrians and the Italians literally fought a war inside the mountain as the Italians dug up through the rock to try to blow up the Austrian gun emplacement on the top. The Austrians heard them coming and dug counter tunnels to try tp blow up there tunnels and it kind of went on like that. Anyway, you enter a small dark tunnel at the top or bottom of the mountain (with helmet and head torch) and spiral up through the whole mountain top to bottom or vice versa exploring various diversions tunnels, window galleries to ledges on the rock face, living quarters. Its all pretty amazing really and pretty much left as it was so you can be in there for hours just exploring these steep dark tunnels until you find your way out. The rain stopped in the afternoon so we did a short via ferrata in a gorge in Cortina passing behind a big waterfall which was also pretty good fun.
The weather stayed pretty grim the next day but we took advantage of a dry spell and climbed another big Via ferrata up in the Sella Mountains that finished at a mountain refuge. This was a great climb but the rain came in hard towards the end and the hot chocolate was well earned up in the hut.

The final days ridge climb as the cloud comes in. look carefully and you'll see people climbing along the ridge.

On the last day we headed up above Cortina to where cliff hanger was filmed and did a great Via Ferrata ridge climb, starting off in the sun before the cloud came in.

The Cliff hanger bridge, big drop in the canyon!

We crossed the exposed cliff hanger bridge and descended just before the storm came back in, great timing!

All in all it was a great week and one that I might offer next year to an open group so if you're interested in a Dolomites Via Ferrata week next summer let us know and we'll stick your name down.

Of course I took my bike along, the roads over there are amazing. super windy, smooth tarmac and slightly banked corners. We stayed in a village called Corvara which is surrounded by some great cols to ride up. Unfortunately I only got out a couple of times as it was pretty wet in the afternoons most days. This would be a great place to do a road cycling trip too.

Anyway, back to Chamonix. I have a couple more weeks of guiding here now. A 6 day Mont Blanc course starting mid week, so i'll be up wading around in the winter snow in a few days. I think the forecast is to improve so fingers crossed and It'll be very beautiful looking up there anyway with all the fresh snow.

Winter courses are filling up fast. I'm toying with the idea of putting on another Advanced BC course at the end of March (in my free week) as we're getting lots of interest for one so watch this space.

Right time to get out on my bike!

All is good.

Neil.

Summer Snow!

Just down in the Valley from another successful Mont Blanc summit (via the Cosmiques 3 summits route). Again conditions were interesting as we fitted in the ascent via a 1 day weather window that opened up the possibility of reaching the summit during an otherwise pretty unstable week of rain in the valley and lots of Snow up high.

We left the Cosmiques at 1:30am after the usual 1am breakfast. It had cleared during the night and a beautiful starlit sky illuminated by a crescent moon (complete with meteor shower) cast the heavens. At least 30cm of new snow lay on the ground and the steep slopes needed some caution due to an unusually high (for the summer) Avalanche risk.

With so much snow trail breaking was going to be tough so, using experience, we stalled a little on departure and let a few teams take the lead to plough a good track up the Tacul. I was pleased to see a new bigger ladder in place (see previous news) across the huge crevasse that now splits, near enough, the whole face of the Tacul in two and with a good track infront we made good swift progress up and over to Mont Maudit.

Here we unfortunately caught up with and passed the last of the trail blazers and so I ended up ploughing a furrow from here up to the fixed lines (which where now buried) on the head wall and onwards to the summit. Moderately strong winds kept the temperatures down and filled the air with skin freezing freshly blown snow (good for the exfoliation of the skin, which is obviously what keeps me looking so young and healthy looking).

The summit was a little windy but sunny with perfect views in all directions.

The descent was pretty straight forwards, 2 full rope length raps on the Maudit headwall, the ladder still in place on the Tacul and then the long hard slog over the Midi Plateau and up to the lift for the return to Chamonix.

Another well earned and satisfactory Mont Blanc ascent (only 2 more to go this summer!)

I've not been out on my bike as much as I'd have hoped for recently due to my previous illness and bad weather. although I did sneak a quick ride up to Flaine the other day which involves a 20km climb up to the Col above the resort. I head off to the Dolomites on Sunday for a week of Via Ferratta Guiding and so will try to get out for a ride before hand and will maybe take my bike with me just to keep my legs in condition for after this busy Mtn Guiding period.

Ruth now tells me we have 5 McNab Snowboarding weeks provisionally full this coming winter and a fair few of the others nearly full!

I still have a week free in at the end of March/beginning of April with the possibility of either running a classic BC Freeride course, something for a Private group or if there is demand we could possibly sneak in a Russian Heli trip to Kamchatka (this is a £5000+ trip so if anyone is seriously interested they should let us know asap. I'd only run this trip if there is a full group of 6 interested).

Otherwise I'll take the week off and go ride!

There have been a lot of calls from people asking about which course they should do. Some people seem a little confused by the progression and I think quite a few people don't opt for the Clinics as they feel the level might be too low and they won't be stretched enough physically and Technically.

The basic run down goes like this.

The Tech clinic is about Technical perfection! For me it is the one course that everyone, no matter how much riding they've done, should do and I have seen many good riders come through and become great riders from attending this course (some returning for the same course more than once!). The week is about breaking down and rebuilding your riding so that you understand what you're doing, why you need to do it and when you need to do it in order to ride efficiently and effectively anywhere on the mountain. The Tech clinics go from Piste to Off Piste and build the foundations you need for everything you do on your board. This is not a low level course and often I find that those that have been riding the longest have the most to learn!

If you want to progress to the upper levels of the sport this is definitely the course to choose!

Ok, so then we have the Off Piste performance Clinic!

This runs on a simillar program to the Tech clinic, (being a Technical learning course) but focuses more on the line you take and your flow with the mountains natural terrain. The Off Piste clinic is the perfect progression from the Tech clinic as the previous technical understanding gained on the Tech clinic would be very beneficial. However, on the first day we will break down and run through the how's and why's of perfect snowboard technique and so those without the previous experience of the Tech clinic will get an accelerated learning progression thrown in for good measure. The Off Piste clinic takes you from Piste to Off Piste to easy access Backcountry and explores how you look at and flow with the natural terrain of the mountain.

Again this is a technique based course offering you some great high level riding whilst breaking down and rebuilding your riding and above all else exploring how you look at and ride the mountain. Riding Off Piste is all about the line you take, controlling your speed to flow with the terrain through the line you ride. Once you have the correct technique and technical understanding of how Snowboarding works this course will help you develop how you look at and use the mountains terrain.

The Backcountry courses are all 'beyond Technique' designed for those that are happy with their riding and feel ready to take the next step out beyond the boundaries of the patrolled area to explore the amazing potential of the untracked high mountains.

The Backcountry Intro is not a lower level course than the BC Freeride course but is simply the first in our progression as it introduces the safety aspects involved with riding and hiking in this high mountain environment and covers, Avalanche search and rescue, terrain analysis, crevasse rescue and glacier travel and BC access techniques.

The BC Freeride course offers the same style course but for those that have already covered the safety techniques previously mentioned and already know what to expect when it comes to getting out and about in the Backcountry.

Our other BC courses specialize in different aspects of riding in the Backcountry or explore new regions or new possibilities.

On all our courses we will cover Avalanche safety and rescue drills and you will be issued with an Ortovox Avalanche transceiver.

Hope this helps clear things up?

All this snow is getting me excited about riding, maybe we should do a pre season week in Les 2 Alpes again? I hear its going to open for a week in late October, anyone interested??

All is good in Chamonix!

Neil.

More Mont Blanc - is fast and light the way to go?

I'm back to work now up in the peaks after an easy July where I got to ride my bike a lot and generally enjoy some Chamonix summer time.

I did a couple of Mont Blancs in between some big rides and ended up feeling pretty strong and fit right up until I was about to start work again and got hit by an un-friendly case of the Gastro.

4 days later I emerged over 4 kilo's lighter just ready for my next Mont Blanc work!

Any one looking for a weight loss program the Gastro is like a rage running through the system.
Fast and light? Not so fast but a lot lighter! Not recommended as a training program.

It's taken about a week to recover and in the mean time our youngest daughter Loren (nearly 3) also got it and ended up in the hospital for a few days. Ruth and Manon seem to be immune but Ruth obviously hasn't been in the office for a while.

All is now well, we're all recovered and the office is operational again!

I guided Mont Blanc from the Cosmiques yesterday, it was a bit windy up high and cold with fresh snow blowing about after a storm the previous day.

Mont Blanc du Tacul is getting a bit complicated with a huge crevasse blocking the route quite low down on the face. A ladder has been put in place for the crossing but since it was put in the crevasse seems to have gotten wider and the ladder barely reaches now. I was a little worried that it might not still be there on our return but it was albeit barely so I'm not sure how long this route will be accessible. Without the ladder crossing the crevasse would be a major undertaking and near impossible for most.

Mont Maudit is also quite technical at the moment with about 50 meters of steep ice climbing up towards the top.

The wind was blowing hard from the col du Brenva up to the summit and a big lenticular cloud started to form over the summit as we climbed the final slopes. the wind never got so bad that I felt we'd need to turn around so we climbed on and made the summit albeit in a bit of a white out so the view wasn't amazing!

The cloud came in fully then and we descended back to the Midi in white out conditions which could have gotten interesting but the storm held off until the evening as forecast and we dropped below the cloud half way down the Tacul.

A good ascent and a well earned summit.

I'm back up there after the weekend so I hope someone has taken up a bigger ladder!

A couple of days off now to ride my bike again before Mont Blanc and then a Dolomites trip to guide some via ferrata which should be fun.

The Winter courses are booking up steadily, we now have 5 courses penciled in as full (places are only confirmed with a deposit payment) and quite a lot of the remaining courses are looking pretty busy.

There's probably a couple of bookings per day at the moment so we should be pretty full come the Autumn (which is our normal time to 'start' taking winter bookings!) We've had a Northerly wind stream blowing through the past week bringing some cooler air and mixed weather with fresh snow falls down to about 2700m this morning.

Looking over towards the Dome du Gouter the other day, from the final slopes on Mont Blanc, it looked almost tempting enough to get the Snowboard out!

Almost!

Still cool out at the moment but due to heat up again towards mid week so hopefully it will be good weather for my next MB ascent.

All is good in Chamonix!

Neil.

Summer and Winter News!

Wow, it's hot over here!

Even the forecast say 'Scorching heat!'

Andy Cook was just out for a few days riding on the bikes. We did some great tours, climbed all the big famous Cols and did a good few hundred K's in 3 days of solid riding.

We rode up the col du Rammaz to watch the Tour de France come past, amazing!

Those guys are pretty quick and whilst suffering in that heat they still maintain a look of absolute calm whilst pushing way beyond their limits. Very Impressive!

Since then, I've been up on the Mont Blanc again but didn't make the top due to strong winds.

I've another week on the bike now and then I have a busy period up in the mountains from the end of July up to the begining of September. Lots of work here and a trip to the Dolomites guiding some Via ferrata which should be fun.

I've quite a bit of writing going too.

I'm writing a monthly piece for Whitelines next winter, the Backcountry intro and info for the TSA catalogue and I'm also working on some ideas for a couple of books. One would be a kind of biog journey to where I am now and the other would be a Backcountry Freeride book.

All ideas at the moment, I'll maybe post a couple of chapters from the Biog on line and see what you think.

Ruth is now busy taking bookings for the winter courses which are looking very busy already.

Just a quick heads up for anyone interested in the Greenland trip, there are only 2 spaces left so get in touch asap if you want to join us.

A lot of the regular courses only have a couple of spaces left available and a few are already provisionally full!

It's great to see that you're all as excited about the coming winter as I am!!

Remember too, that if you book on a course you can get 15% off any of the 'Jones Snowboards' range through the TSA.

Quite a few of you have already taken advantage of this offer so we'll be ripping it up next season!

I'm very excited about riding the Jone Flagship next winter. Imagine riding a board specifically designed for the riding you love! Its going to take everything up to another level!

Ok, I'm going to get off before my mind starts running away with dreams of deep powder turns on my new board.

Arggh, to late!

All is good in Chamonix!

Neil.

McNab News from Chamonix!

Its a beautiful time of year out here in Chamonix. The weather is now summer hot, clear mornings followed by cumulus cloud growth in the afternoons can make for some pretty big electrical storms come the late afternoon evening, quite nice as it cools and refreshes everything, unless of course you're up in the mountain when its not nice at all.
Its the time of year for early Alpine starts and mid afternoon finishes up amongst the peaks.

I've been busy out on my bike again since my last blog. I did some more riding guiding with the GPM10 cycling crew, big days and good fun.

I also just did my 2nd ever road bike race last Sunday. A 110km circuit with 3 climbs, one of which was the massive Col du Madeleine from the South side which involves 1500m of altitude gain over 20km of switchbacks. (The Tour de France passes over it next week sometime! A damn sight quicker than I did no doubt!)

It was a great experience, well kind of?

The first 50km were tight bunch racing, quite intense and exciting, followed by a medium sized climb, 5 or 6k's where the group gets split and you have to power on to keep with the front group and not get dropped back. Some good down hill were my extra kilo's come into some use and then the second medium climb, this one about 8k's in which I dropped to the 2nd group to conserve energy for the big one to come.

At the foot of the Madeleine its every man for themselves and you just dig in and turn the pedals trying to find a sustainable rhythm. The climb was long, steep and under the heat of the midday sun it felt really hard. At times I felt like I'd not even make the top, everyone seemed to be in the same sh*t state or petty much, but a few Science in Sport Gels got me through and I only got passed by a couple of riders on the climb and even made up quite a few places.

The descent off the top was great and I came in a respectable 26th out of around 400 starters.

I've a long way to go I feel but its getting better everyday. It never seems to get any easier but I guess you always push to your limit what ever that may be.
All good though!

I've a week of riding with Andy Cook coming up before I head up Mont Blanc again next week and we'll ride over to Morzine to see the Tour de France flow through.

On the McNab Snowboarding front things are ticking along nicely. For those of you who didn't see the last news blog the TSA are giving 15% off Jones Snowboards to anyone who has booked a course with us next winter! Get in touch for details.

Also I put a classic BC Freeride course on 24th to 28th Jan last week (its potentially full already but only when deposits are in!)

I took the Lyngen trip off the schedule this year so as to focus on the Greenland expedition and stick to one big trip a season. In place of Norway I might now put on another classic BC freeride course if the demand is there so watch this space.

Ruth is now taking deposits for the courses. Remeber, your space isn't confirmed until your deposit has been paid, so if you've got your name down for something confirm your place asap.

The Tour de France is passing close next weekend as I've already mentioned and there's also a World cup climbing event on in Chamonix center next weekend so plenty to get out and see.

Alan Fielding (regular BC client, Greenland 08, Kashmir 2010) is out in the valley with a friend for some climbing and popped around for some insider info. Condtitions are good so I hope they get some good climbing done, I sent them off with a big list of routes to try.

All is good in Chamonix, hope you're all enjoying the summer!

Neil.

McNab clients get 'Jones Snowboards' discount at TSA!

Ok it's official, anyone booking on a 'McNab Snowboarding' course for this coming winter can get a massive 15% discount off any of the 'JONES Snowboards' range through 'The Snowboard Asylum' on booking their course (contact Ruth for more details).

As most of you will be aware by now, as of next winter I shall be riding for 'JONES Snowboards' as part of the 'Jones Snowboards' European contingent and helping on R&D.

This coming winter 2010/11 I have dedicated three Backcountry Freeride courses to the 'Jones Solution Splitboard' so as to explore the obvious potential that Splitboarding can offer to the BC aficionado. I also have one week of Snowboard Touring scheduled into the calendar and a BC Expedition to the East Coast of Greenland both of which will also run in favor of the 'Jones Splitboard' experience.

When not Touring I shall be riding the 'Jones' Flagship 168W. I rode with Jeremy Jones at the beginning of last season here in Chamonix when he was testing his first Flagship prototypes and they looked awesome. A few tweaks here and there and the end result looks very exciting in deed.

In much the same way as I am with 'McNab Snowboarding', the whole 'Jones Snowboards' range and Jeremy's whole ethos is dedicated to Freeriding and exploring the unlimited potential of Backcountry riding all over the world and I am proud to be part of the new 'Jones Snowboards' revolution.

I'm already very excited about riding the Flagship, a board that is specifically designed for the type of riding that I live for! How amazing will that be? I also think that the future potential for Backcountry riding and exploration offered by the Jones 'Solution' Splitboard might just be the answer to all our prayers when it comes to BC touring here in the Alps.

I'm a hard case to convince when it comes to Splitboarding as in the past I haven't had much success with it. In fact I found the going up to be great but the flex of the board too soft to make the descent worth riding. Jeremy assures me that these new 'splits' are stiffer and more versatile than anything out there and this must come from a man in the know! Also the new 'Spark r&d' bindings are a massive step in the right direction and are reported to increase the performance of the Splitboard by up to 30% from previous. This is a good thing as I found the older raised up binding system to be half of the problem when it came down to the riding performance.

Also as part of the test and development team I'm determined to get a working splitboard on my feet as soon as I can. So what ever it takes!

I was already greatly inspired to try a Splitboard again after touring around the 'Col du Grand St Bernard' with Alistair Davies this last winter. The potential out there is massive but the distances that need covering are just too great for Snowshoeing so all of this couldn't have come at a better time!

Is this the future? Just imagine the possibilities. Those that were out in Kashmir with me in January can only imagine what we could have got up to if we'd had the potential of 'Splitboard' access. Imagine going Heli boarding in Kamchatka but then staying on for a Peninsula crossing on Splitboards!

This just could be the dawning of a new era!

Anyway, you get the picture I'm sure and you can probably tell that I'm quite excited by the prospects of riding for 'Jones snowboards' next winter.

Ruth is now ready to take deposits for next winters courses and will be in touch with all those provisionally booked in to confirm your places.

To conclude then, if anyone booking a course is interested in this amazing discount deal on any of the new 'JONES SNOWBOARDS' range give us a shout and we'll sort it out!

Right back out on the bike, enough Office stuff for this week!

All is good in Chamonix.

Neil.