I came into this winter with a firm plan in mind. I was going to clear all my work out of the way apart from a very small portion and concentrate as closely on skiing as I can. It might be the only winter in my life that I get the chance to do this, and I want to take the opportunity. That’s exactly what’s been happening over the past few weeks, and I can’t remember ever being happier.
Plenty of snow has meant plenty of powder days with friends on the Grande Montets, some pretty hectic crampons-wearing ascents of big mountains to access some amazing ski terrain and everything in between. I’ve been making ski movies with Mark Gear and met his intermediate skier group on the mountain to take a set of course pictures for All Mountain Performance.

Here’s a few photos from touring in the Baron valley the other day. On a perfect sunny day we climbed straight up the face of the mountain above the top of the Damain De Balme ski area in Le Tour, over the top and into the Baron valley. It’s North-Facing and so keeps the powder better. It’s also so difficult to get into that we had the entire valley to ourselves, with only 8 other skiers having been down before us. Fresh powder tracks for literally miles. Bit of a James Bond 5km bush-whack out at the end to Trient in Switzerland to catch the bus back to France. Ski touring at it’s best, it was a very good day.

Having friends staying for the past week has meant my office is in use as a bedroom which has further distanced me from my work. The four of us have literally been skiing all day, and playing Family Ski on the Wii in the evenings. It’s all about skiing right now and I’ve got the tan to prove it.

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Yesterday was sick. Even epic won’t suffice. On a blue-sky day, the top lift opened at 10am allowing access to the un-tracked powder which had been falling on the Grande Montets for 2 days. Mark and I had 4 top lift runs through the day, plus a Lavancher for good measure. It’s difficult to describe how much skiing that is, but it’s 4.7 vertical miles of powder. I’m shaking with adrenaline just writing this.

Even better, we make a film. Here’s the middle segment – the skiing. There are titles and plenty of advertising to come because I’m really trying to bring the quality of these films up to somewhere I can get paid to make them. I like the sound of that job. Filming from helicopters & that.

Powder Day on Grande Muir, Chamonix with All Mountain Performance Ski Courses from Chris D on Vimeo.

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Today’s one of those perfect days. There’s new snow. Soft snow, like our bruised knees have been crying out for. There’s not so much of it as means avalanching is a problem. So just skiing to as many spots you can find where you can just stand on your skis, look ahead, pick your line and ski down the the whole mountain in one go.

And what’s better than a powder day? One where all your mates are there too. Mark, Mattt, Pippa, Sean, and everyone. On a la banane.

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Video produced by Chamonet.Com

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for my mum & my sisters, really.

Human Mirror from ImprovEverywhere on Vimeo.
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I’ve never really been a hairy toed hippy. Nor a confirmed tree-hugger. But I have always been interested in the Greenhouse Effect. I was taught it at school.

Here in the Chamonix Valley one issue which makes a lot of headlines is the Mont Blanc Tunnel. Even though it costs transport companies over 150 euros per lorry they send through it, they still make up that amount in diesel on the sheer reduction in miles between eastern europe and Italy/The Balkans.

That is to say, there are a lot of trucks passing through this valley. More than you’d think. You certainly don’t notice it on a 1 week ski holiday.

What happens when, as for the past 2 weeks, you have a High pressure weather system stuck over the top of a very deep valley? Let me tell you what happens. There’s blue sky. And pollution. No air escapes when the valley’s in a High Pressure weather system. All those diesel fumes build up in the base of the valley. Up and up till they cover us, choke us, and most importantly…. they make us ill. I’d love to see the tunnel closed down forever for my own health.

So obviously there’s a lot of money involved. Someone built that tunnel exactly because it was going to be a gold mine. And frankly, us Chamoniards whining falls on pretty deaf ears. But as global fuel prices continue to slowly rise, what should we do with this amazing resource? This feat of engineering? This accolade to mankind’s ingenuity? Simple. Turn it into a train tunnel. Like the Channel Tunnel.

The French and Italian governments could re-nationalise the transport industry. Take it back from the mafiosi, and enjoy the many, varied reward. Cleaner air for me. Less emissions all-round for the planet. Money up the ying-yang. What’s not to like?

I’m thinking about getting into local politics.

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Buy more shit or we’re all fuc$ed

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This is a really nice, easy ski-tour, with the added option of being able to get the lift if you have a ski pass. My mate Richard didn’t. So he and his girlfriend Hannah skinned up the first bubble while Sarah & I went over to Trient to leave the van and make sure there was enough snow to ski to the car.

There was plenty. And it was a a beautiful sunny day.

So Sarah and I joined at the Le Tour mid-station and we all skinned up to Le Refuge De Le Tour. From there it’s a straight (hopefully) shot down to Trient in Switzerland.

A straight shot down the most never-ending gully. This is why people come to Chamonix to ski. Here’s a set of pictures that captures everything apart from the beer and medals.

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One of my main Achilles’ heels in working for myself is the paperwork. I’m just rubbish at getting it done. I quite often have unopened mail going back three or more months. The thing is, once you get into the habit of not doing it and you see that actually, the world doesn’t really fall apart if you don’t look at your bank statements or (god forbid) HM Revenue & Customs letters. Basically I work with email, instant messaging and the telephone. Paper means nothing to me.

I do actually own a filing cabinet and every now and again I open all the mail and stick it straight into the folders. I don’t really read it as I’m doing it of course. By that time, the letters are totally out of date anyway!

So after a few years of renting the Chamonix office, the paperwork was all in a mess. When I moved house I took all the paperwork out to be able to move the cabinet and planned to have one big, proper sort out of all my paperwork. You know…. properly get back on top of all my life admin stuff – make sure all the companies who need it have my new address, have a bit of a purge of old mobile bills from 5 years ago – that kind of thing.

And of course I haven’t started it till today. What a chore. And it’s been really bugging me too! Stressing me out completely that I’ve got this massive chore hanging over my head and I haven’t done it. Even now I’m sitting writing this blog post, procrastinating rather than getting on with it!

whatamess.

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Having lived in another village (Les Houches) for the past few years, Friday nights are quite fun to visit. Most of our friends live in Les Houches and thatès where we have the best lines of credit :)

So coming over to Mark & Mimi for dinner gives us a chance to catch up with everyone. And the van was fixed today, which means I am mobile again. Which is all. Nice.

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