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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Christmas dinner went deliciously well. Everyone had a great time, drank too much & enjoyed the goose. I thought all that cooking would put me off the kitchen for a while, but it seems not. I’m just enjoying having a kitchen so much, I’m making all kinds of things. I haven’t eaten out for weeks.

Now it’s those weird few days between Christmas and New Year which I quite like. I like that you never know what day of the week it is or whether the shops are open or anything. It gives me the chance to think things through and make a plan for what I’d like to achieve in the coming year. Most of November and December were taken up by moving house and getting everything set up for Christmas etc, and now it’s time to get back to work. It’s proving hard after such a long break, but I’m feeling a little antsy about not getting stuff done, so getting my head down and getting back into some work is a priority for my peace of mind.

Ski-wise It’s the busiest week of the year for the Chamonix Valley, with punters swarming the place. But I’m a step ahead of them. I’m up early and on the Le Tour telecabine before everyone shows up. I boot it around the Domaine de Blame for a couple of hours and ski back home for breakfast by the time the queues have built up too much.

The weather is incredibly cold. -12 C that early in the mornings. With no new snow for a week or two and some periods of high wind, the ski conditions are a little boiler-plate but It’s a good chance to make friends with my new Voelkl Mantras, though. They’re a proper handful – a full 10cm longer than my previous longest skis, but now I’m starting to show them who is boss, they’re rapidly becoming my favourite pair of skis.

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This morning was the best morning’s work I’ve had for many months. The alarm went off and I was out of the shower and out of the door before 8:30am – almost like I’ve got a proper job! I was on my way to meet Mark from All Mountain Performance to drive down the valley to the Tecnica warehouse in Annecy. AMP is sponsored by Voelkl, Marker and Tecnica again this year and it was time to pick up the equipment. Skis, Boots, Bindings, Instructor uniforms, hoodies, T-Shirts and even a snowboard or two – it’s all free when you’ve got a great sponsorship deal like this.

The Tecnica warehouse was amazing – stuffed full of all the kind of equipment I find exciting these days – and the Voelkl marketing bods looked after us well. I’m so glad I went along.

So I’m pretty much sponsored by Voelkl this season. I’ve got a brand new pair of Voelkl Mantras (191 cm) with Marker Baron bindings to ski on, a new jacket, ski trousers etc – even a couple of decals for the side of my van, which is going to look well bling! In return for all this great gear I’m going to be a walking (or skiing) advert for Voelkl & make them look great in all the photos and films I take and make this year.

I’ve never skied on a brand new pair of skis before. They’ll be propped up against the wall in my living room for a few days while I admire them before I take them to the shop to get them drilled and the bindings mounted. What do a brand new pair of skis look like? They look fucking cool :)

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It’s different at the start of the winter. Colder, more rainy & in some ways, much more fun. But you have to remeber when you last skied. For me it was back in May 2008. The Grande Montets end of season party. Fancy Dress on ice.

Chamonix Freeride Day 2008 from Chris D on Vimeo.

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It’s nearly October and the weather in Chamonix is turning wintry. There’s still a long way to go before the first snows come in late November or early December, but it’s in the post. I’m probably watching too much ski porn (Warren Miller films & Helly Hanson’s Happy Happy mostly), but I can feel the old obsession coming back. I want to go skiing.

All Mountain Performance had some great news last week. The sponsorship deal with Voelkl has not only been renewed, but actually extended. That means more skis, more clothes, more everything. It also means that I’m included in the sponsorship to an extent. This season I’ll be wearing Voelkl clothes and skiing on a pair of Voelkl Matras fitted with a pair of Duke Marker Bindings. The aim is to have just one pair of all mountain skis which I ski on exclusively. No more separate touring skis or different skis in different conditions.

And also it brings the number of pairs of skis I own to a ridiculous 6. I might think about buying a new pair of boots though. The old ones have done well for 4 seasons, but are starting to feel a little bit wellington boot-like. It’s time to talk to Jonny and Kai of FallLine bootfitting.

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When I moved to the valley a few years ago I made a decision not to get involved in building websites for local businesses. There are a lot of businesses here, and a lot of entrepreneurial people running them. But there’s very little money. To live here and earn a living is hard and everyone is on tight margins. Jobs are not well paid and I felt that the risk of screwing up personal relationships by working at mates rates outweighed the benefits of competing with the other web developers here.

I still feel that way, but here is an exception. All Mountain Performance’s new website went live yesterday. Several months in the making, I created this website for my friend and business associate Mark Gear. It’s a fully featured drupal website designed to build a community behind what I feel is the outstanding ski coaching business not only here in Chamonix, but in the French alps as a whole. I’m proud to be involved with this company. I have been taking photos and making films for them for the past year and will continue to do so during the coming season.

Please help us – sign up for an account, write something in the forum, comment on a photo or video & if you’re in the market for this kind of thing – book yourself a course or private lesson and come and ski with Mark and Simon this season.

But for me, and Listings Lab I’ve created a website here that is scalable and dynamic, perfectly SEO’d and ready to make a real impact on the businesses bottom line. I’ll be adding ecommerce and other features in the coming year and I can finally start to move on from the role I’ve been occupying for the past few years – that of a web developer to the role I’ve chosen to move into in the next phase of my career – that of Marketing Director.

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