Sep/090
Mass biking
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.
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.
Aug/090
Playing with a new toy > the ATC3K Action Camera
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 640x480 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.
Aug/090
Ouch.
British holidaymaker killed in Chamonix mountain biking accident
Gendarmes confirmed today (Saturday) that the body of a 60 year Briton was recovered yesterday after a mountain biking accident in the Chamonix valley on Friday.
The man, who was on a camping holiday with friends, was found by hikers early Friday afternoon and gave the alert to the Gendarmes. It seems the victim hired the bike the same morning and was on the Petit Balcon Nord in the Argentiere area when he somehow fell. The Petit Balcon Nord is a popular biking and walking route along the valley floor which is not considered technically that difficult.
Rescuers found the bike and then the victim, some distance away. The Gendarmes are waiting the results of a post mortem, but it is believed the man fell between 50 and 100m, hitting trees on the way down.
It seems there were no witnesses to the accident and the man was biking on his own. The rescue helicopter was scrambled yesterday afternoon to recuperate the body.
Jul/092
VTT in the Grand Massif
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.
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