Sep/090
Autumn 2009
It feels like autumn has started up here in the mountains. The temperature has dropped 10 degrees and suddenly it's time to wear a jumper. As usual with the change of season I've got a cold & a nasty cough. Still - the sun is still shining and September is always lovely here in Chamonix. The tourists have mostly gone and us who live here can enjoy the end of the summer in peace.
It's time to start winding up the gardening project in readiness for the coming winter. Not quite time to start getting the ski gear together yet - there's still 3 months at least before we can ski, but my thoughts are starting to turn to snow. And booting it.
Aug/090
Summer ending in Chamonix, VTT or MTB
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.
Jul/092
Most dangerous of dangerous sports
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
Apr/090
An unexpected powder day
Well, maybe not totally unexpected. The weather forecast and the fact that it dumped a load of snow right down to Chamonix town yesterday gave us a fair idea that the skiing on the Grande Montets would be good today.
What felt odd was that for the past week the weather has been glorious sunshine and very warm. There's almost no snow left and I've frankly been sitting in the garden getting a tan. The idea of skiing at all has been a million miles away.
So four of us with hangovers climbing into ski gear at 9am this morning felt unusual, even though we've been doing it for months. And it WAS good. Proper Chamonix powder skiing. Of course it got heavy and bumpy down low, but skiing the front face of the Aiguille Verte was as good as it ever is. The cloud had cleared almost completely from 10:30, rendering the day a few rungs short of epic.
Now come the end of season parties. Tonight's offering is La La Land at the Podium bar in Chamonix. Rumored to be playing are Transglobal Underground. Trouble is, everyone's thinking of skiing tomorrow, seeing as it's still snowing a bit up top.
Apr/090
Rifugio Guglielmina (mountain refuge)
Spring marches on at pace, melting all the snow and bringing out the shorts and T-Shirts. But the skiing is in it's final flourishes. Last week a I went over to Alagna, Italy with a group of friends. It takes a few hours to drive: through the Mount Blanc tunnel and down into the Italian Aosta. So we bought a half day's ski pass and had a great afternoon booting around in the slush, getting our bearings. But instead of skiing down at the end of the day, weskied over to the Guglielmina refuge and stayed there for the night. It was stunning. As good as the Bonatti Hut I stayed in a few summers ago. 50 bucks for accommodation, dinner and breakfast seemed a bargain for the experience.
Due in equal measure to the amount of wine we'd all managed to consume the previous day and the inclement weather we shelved the plans to go touring the next day, hung around by the fire for a while in the morning before skiing back down to the valley floor and heading home. There's probably loads of these refuges to stay in all over the alps, and I'm going to make a point of finding and staying in the nicest ones.
Apr/090
Out of the habit
It seems I've got a little out of the habit of writing this blog over the past month. I reckon it's time to start writing it regularly again. I've been taking a little time off from work, thinking through and planning what direction I want my work to go when the winter ends. I think I'm anxious to get back to work. That little monster sitting on my shoulder whispering in my ear that I'm not earning any money and that I can't go on like that for ever is getting less easy to ignore.
Spring is what's on everyone's minds in Chamonix at the moment. The winter season is very busy and hectic. It's hard on a person both physically and mentally - even if you're not working. The prospect of a little peace and quiet is attractive. I would hate to feel I was wishing the ski season away but I'm glad it's April.
There are still a few more weeks of Spring skiing to go. Some ski-touring, some afternoon slush sessions and plenty of sunny days. Then on around May 7th or so there's the closing party and the season is done. Time to put the boots away and move all the skis down into the cellar for another year.
Mar/090
Boss Des Bosss 2009
Boss Des Bosses day has come round again. I'm starting to feel more of a part of these seasonal milestones now I've been here for a few years. This is only the 3rd time I've seen the event, but this year marks it's 20th anniversary. For 20 years teams of seasonaires from all over the Alps have come to Chamonix to compete in a head to head moguls competition.
Last year Zermatt won. They won because they practiced and were also really good. Chamonix were second. Because they didn't practice. But they were really good. So we'll see. Either way, it's sunny, there's a BBQ & we've got a bag full of beer and wine to get through.
Tonight's parties in Chamonix mark the beginning of the end of the season
Mar/090
Weeks flying by
Looking at the last date of my last post, I see I haven't written anything for over a week. It's an indication of how fast and hectic life is here during the winter. The weeks are flying by, with the end of the ski season now firmly in sight.
We've had a lot of visitors to stay this year. The spare room is the office, so when people stay I'm away from my computer and that's one reason for the lack of blog activity. I love having people to stay and a visit from an old friend from university last week, catching up after 5 years or so was brilliant.
The other reason for lack of blogging is of course, skiing. March has been a snowy month again this year. We had a dump of over a meter at the weekend and some of the best powder days of the season over the past few days. I've skied in some of the deepest snow I've ever skied. Face-shots a-plenty (when you're skiing snow so deep that the snow sprays up into your face).
At this time of year the sun is also much stronger, and the temperatures rise. The snow transforms quickly, first becoming heavy, then chalky, then slushy toward the end of the day or lower down. Spring snow is a lot of fun, and ridiculous suntans are common. I've got a stupidly dark tan which stops at my neck.
There's still the end of March and all of April to go. The lifts don't stop running till the start of May. Now is the time for ski-touring. Getting up high into the mountains in the lovely warm weather to find the best snow conditions is what we're aiming for now. The crevasses on the glaciers are now well covered with snow bridges, making them safer than at the start of the season. It's time to start skiing the Vallee Blanche.
Feb/091
Tia and the Telemarks
After our visitors left at the weekend I had quite a few things on my to-do list. First was the cat. She had to go to the vet to get her rabies booster which is the last stage of getting her little kitty passport sorted out. She hates getting stuffed in her cat box and hates being in the van even more than that. Getting a rabies jab isn't high on her fun list either. But that's it now. She's fully micro chipped and inoculated and she could legally travel to England without the need for quarantine.
But as it turns out, she's staying with me for ever. I've discussed it with her first family, and the kids are happy with the arrangement except for their demand for a new Nintendo DS game as payment (they're only kids I guess). That and the fact that they're getting a new kitten and a dog to compensate. So Tia is mine now. I'm even going to get the details on her micro chip changed to me.
Next was sorting out my telemarking kit. It's a goal of mine to start telemark skiing this winter. It's thought by many to be the purest form of skiing, and also the most difficult. It's like normal (alpine) skiing with 2 important differences.
Firstly the heel is not fixed to the ski. This leads to what's called the telemark position, with the skis spread out and one knee dropped toward the snow. Secondly the skis do not release from your boots if you fall.
So I've sorted out my kit. I bought some second hand boots and bindings from a mate. I mounted the bindings on a pair of old Dynastar skis I was given for free last year. The boot liners needed re-molding to my feet and I needed to by a pair of knee protectors to stop me breaking my knee if the ski hits something at speed while the knee is dropped. In total I set myself up with all the kit for EUR 200. Not bad eh?
Now I've got to learn how to do it. I thought about getting a lesson to get started but then yesterday I found this website www.telemarktips.com. There are a few beginner videos on there which I reckon would be what the instructor would progress through so hell - I'm just going to get out there and learn it myself having watched all the videos.
By the end of this season I'd like to be able to do this:
Learn to Telemark in Powder from Chris D on Vimeo.
Feb/091
Bigger Better Faster Further More
It's snowing again. More powder, more skiing, more winter. Make hay while the sun shines has always been a favorite fable of mine and tomorrow is yet another powder day for us.
Today was also a powder day. It's snowing hard. Chains are going on cars and people are holing up for the snow that's in the post. Skiers are quietly slipping off to bed early without drinking too much. Being on the first benne on the GM at 8am would be special. But have you got the dedication to be there?
Whatever happens, that first bin/benne will be full. And I probably won't be far behind.