There were 10 of us biking in Les Houches this morning. Ruth’s birthday you see, so we thought we’d celebrate by booting it down from the Prarion lift on our bikes.

Mel from the Office bar showed up on a bike she’d borrowed from a mate which looked like a toy compared to the full suspension downhill rigs we’re all riding. Watching her come off it a few times made us all consider giving her our body armour, but that would be a chivalrous step too far. She did well, though and even went up for another run.

It’s fun biking in a large group like that, although with a lot of bikes the chances of something breaking is quite high. We got away with a single puncture between us, no broken bones and a bit of a tan.

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The lifts are coming to a close for the summer, and I’ve finally finished my first headcam film. I haven’t quite got the hang of it yet – I need to mount the camera on the helmet better. I’m looking forward to using this technique for skiing this winter. Skiing is much smoother and should yield much better results. Having said that, this little vimeo film isn’t too shabby for a first attempt.

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My new toy was delivered the other day and I’ve spent a happy couple of days messing around with it. I bought an ATC3K Action Camera off t’interweb. Perfect for capturing those special high adrenaline danger death sport moments. And it was only a hundred quid.

It records 640×480 footage at 30 frames per second onto an 4GB SD card. That means up to about 2 hours of recording time. With no need for moving parts or an LCD screen, power consumption is kept to a bare minimum, so you probably could record for 2 hours on one set of double A (AA) batteries. It’s waterproof too, and fairly hardy.

My second test of mounting it on the handlebars of my bike and cycling down to Les Praz yesterday showed some real promise. The footage is a bit shaky because of the vibration of the bike, and I’ve speeded it up a bit to make it a bit more interesting. But here’s the full ride from my house in Le Tour to the Paradis Des Praz along the lovely Balcon Sud river path. It’s not an extreme ride by any measure. I wasn’t wearing any protection at all, just booting it an having fun.

Le Tour To Les Praz on the bike 175% speed from Listingslab Productions on Vimeo.

I’m going to pull the best bits of the footage out, and put them all together with some more information, perhaps mixing in some of the time lapse I did the other day to create a kind of tourist information film which will end up on youtube. While it’s in production, the test renders will go onto vimeo.

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I’m going to use the word VTT instead of mountain biking from now on. It’s French for Vélo Tout-Terrain & it’s quicker and easier to say and to write than Downhill Mountain Biking. French style VTT is more me I think.

So I went to the Grand Massif the other day. Camped over night at Flaine I managed to try 3 different lifts in three different villages: Flaine, Les Carroz and Samoens.

My last run in Samoens was sunny, long and epic but I’d say the best terrain is in Les Carroz. Which is handy because it’s also the closest when driving from Chamonix. Carroz has got dedicated VTT pistes which walkers are not allowed on.

For a very reasonable 15 euro-bucks a day (or EUR 50 for the whole summer season if you’re so inclined), you have the use of 5 or 6 lifts within a roughly 50km radius. This opens up the idea of using lifts to do a downhill mountain biking tour for people who don’t really want to have to wear body armour.

View VTT in the Grand Massif in a larger map

In Flaine I got a puncture & fixed it by the side of the track in about 5 minutes. Was quite chuffed. Firstly that I actually had a spare inner tube and a pump with me, but also because….. well I don’t think I’ve ever changed a bike tire before. And it was either get it right or push the bike 10km downhill.

A great 2 day break from the busy life I lead in Le Tour and I’ll be going back a few times this summer.

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I’ve had a go at lot of dangerous sports in my time. Scuba Diving, Parachuting, Surfing, Climbing, Skiing and Paragliding to name but a few. All of those have their own particular risks of death and injury, but without doubt the most dangerous sport I’ve ever done in terms of risk of catastrophic impact injury and broken bones is downhill Mountain Biking. I’ve blogged a bit about the kind of body armor we use, but you can’t protect every inch of yourself.

After Sunday’s outing in Les Houches I have got one of the largest bruises I’ve ever had in my life. My more experienced biking partner Fred convinced me to try jumping my bike over a couple of fallen tree trunks on the steep single track we were descending. I failed spectacularly to do this, instead crashing the bike and wrecking my unprotected thighs on the pedals and rocky ground.

A couple of days later and the best bruise is looking like this. Doesn’t hurt though. Further proving what a double ‘ard bastard I am :)

Mountain Biking Bruise

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Spring inter-season is finally over here in Chamonix. Over the past few months I’ve been both resting after skiing all winter and working very hard to develop my business in the down time. I haven’t written much about business recently, but that will all change soon enough.

I judge summer season to have started properly because the lifts are running again this week. I bought my summer pass and took my new bike up on Le Tour lift for the first time. Brilliant. I know it’s dangerous and I’m probably going to break my collar bone before the summer is out, but downhill mountain biking is such a buzz.

I’m wearing full body armor: shin guards, gloves, helmet & full upper body protection with a back plate. I’ve got a decent bike with suspension and most importantly I’ve got a lift pass and live right at the bottom of the the Le Tour lift system which access not only the Domain De Balme, but also Vallorcine, the Col Des Montets and there are even tracks right down to Trient in Switzerland. I’ve found my sport for the summer. It’s not quite as much fun as skiing, but it’ll keep my adrenaline levels up until the snow comes back.

The vegetable garden is going great guns and I’ve even started to eat the first produce. The radishes are amazing little buggers – from seed to table in about 3 weeks. The radishes and some beautiful baby spinach leaves have been the first food I’ve grown and eaten. All from seed. I’m actually quite proud of my veg patch. I’m always banging on about it in the pub and anyone who comes round the chalet is immediately given the tour.

First produce from my kitchen garden

In other news: I blew up my van. Bugger. It’s not as bad as it sounds (or looks) I hope. I think I just ruptured a coolant hose and all the horrible, corrosive, nasty cooling water spewed out at 100 degrees C all over myself and the van’s paintwork. It’s in the garage in Les Houches getting sorted and I’ll probably pick it up in a day or two. I’m quite looking forward to the 20km bike ride (almost all down hill) to go and pick it up.

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