The Love

After Friday Frenzy - the traditional end of week gathering of the various boys and girls - of last night, I woke up this morning with a peacefully dozing Tinks. I got up and popped the kettle on for the first fruit tea of the day and sat myself in front of the computer to check up on breaking world events, the latest project developments, if someone had overtaken my iSketch and most importantly, the weather and snow conditions of the mountains in the valley.

The resulting information was good, very good - no natural disasters around the world, no panic emails reporting broken code, sitting atop the iSketch hi-score table and a solid half metre of snow topped with a beautiful layer of fresh on the Grands Montets. Things were shaping up well.

A few texts and phone calls around to the boys resulted in being picked up by Mark from the center of Chamonix and meeting up with various boys and girls up the mountain. We duly set off with Mark a little worse for wear as a result of the exertions the previous night and arrived at Argentiere as hyped up as if we'd consumed a heady cocktail of Red Bull and sugar cubes the entire journey.

No queues at the bottom cable car and small pockets of friends meant that an impromptu meet & greet session followed and with everyone beaming from ear to ear we jumped on the lift and headed up to Lognan. The only open higher lift from there was the Martmottons chairlift so up we went struck dumb by the incredible snow and shifting cloud dominating the passage upwards. There was pretty much full coverage of the mountain - thin off-piste but some really good windblown sections.

We ripped the thicker off-piste to the left-hand side of the piste initially from the top of the Marmottons lift before rejoining the route and riding on some really good soft snow back to the mid-station and then joined a late-arriving Crampons for another few blasts down the same route. It was really good - we all skied like shit, but hey - first full day back, what do you expect? The beauty was that for every bad turn, bad trick, bad jump, there were two great ones. And some of the powder to the side of the piste was really, really good. The summer drought of fresh snow was seized and broken in two and everyone helped themselves again and again.

It's a great feeling to ride on a really quiet mountain where you keep bumping into friends and laughing and smiling and seeing everyone beaming ear-to-ear, all enjoying the situation regardless of any external factors - very pure riding. It's great to be there with your friends who just love to be there. Conversations on chairlifts always conducted with a smile tugging at the corners of the mouth, laughing commiserations for those falling over underneath the lift, cheers ringing out for people on the piste really ripping it up or landing a slick trick. Just awesome.

Crampons and I joined up with another group of friends after a quick coffee at Longnan then had a few more runs before a final run down the Pierre a Ric home run right down to the mountain and onwards for an apres-ski beer in the Elevation bar. Just a perfect day. I'll admit the really low visibility that drifted in and out was like being in a horror film sometimes, some pistes were as lumpy as the mid-Atlantic and there were patches of seriously icy snow ready to catch the edge of the unwary skier. But I had an absolute blast. And all the guys we rode with had a blast too.

We're all going back out tomorrow with snowshoes to get some untracked powder. I can't wait.

Nose to the grindstone

Got so much work on it's untrue. It's great to be a busy little squirrel hoarding nuts for the winter, this is exactly the position I want and need to be in. I've written a list of things that I need for this winter season and am ticking items off as I earn the money to buy them.

Essentials
Year's lift pass

The big one - just under €700 this time round. Expensive isn't even the word. Still unless I suddenly turn into a combination of Spiderman and Superman we're going to need one.

Avalanche transceiver

A fairly necessary bit of kit, my one's not looking very healthy at all and it's nice to have one to stay alive. I have a feeling it blips when it should blap and vice-versa. This isn't good.

Avalanche shovel/probe

Important for keeping mates alive. My shovel is cracked and I don't really want to be finding out it's not up to the task whilst digging out one of the lads. Better get one in advance. My probe is wonky (it bends to the left by about 8", vicar) and so this requires attention as all the riding buddies are stick thin and this would miss 'em.

Goggles

After having gone through 4 pairs last year (well technically 3 but the last pair have a cracked lens) these need replacing. Also I remember swearing a lot when they fogged up. We'll be trying to avoid hitting trees, dogs, other skiiers, chairlift supports this year with a pair of crystal-clear goggles.

Gimme gimme gimme
iPod nano

After an unfortunate incident slamming into a quarterpipe at the end of last season, my long-loved iPod screen got cracked. It still works but only plays tracks in artist alphabet order. I listen to A LOT of AC/DC and Aerosmith and The Animals these days. It's not essential to have a new one, but I'm going to miss listening to music whilst riding. I've got a backup plan for this tho which involves going to Carrefour and buying a cheapy mp3 player.

Riding trousers

It's generally acknowledged that I have a pair of the coolest snowboarding trousers in the whole of the Alps but unfortunately they're starting to be built of more gaffer tape than material these days. I do have a spare pair, but they're old. Hmmm, I can get another half-season out of the pair of them I reckon. Just wear an extra pair of long johns and deal with the frostbite on my giblets by soaking in a nice warm bath at the end of the day.

Snow booties

Need some footwear for the winter. Last year I missed out on purchasing a pair of insulated wellington boot type snow booties. This year we're gonna have 'em to keep the feet dry and the toes toastie. They don't look stylish but then neither do I, mind you I don't particularly care!

Snowboarding boots

Yeah mine are missing some essential bits. I'm going to try to fix them but to be honest they need replacing at some stage soon. Going to see if I can find a pair of last years model on sale. Something bling baby.

Snowboard

Rodney the Rocket (my main board) and I had a wee bit of an accident last year and we cracked his tail rail. This isn't good but I did ride him for a while after without any serious repercussions. He needs to man up and take the punishment for the first part of the season until I switch to my other board (which I've a feeling I'll snap as it's very spinney) or purchase a new one. I predict I'll be blogging about purchasing a new board 6 weeks into the new season!

That's pretty much it for the gear. Merv needs a service and some snow tires and whatnot but that's going to get done shortly.

Merv the Swerve

A while ago I bought a white Renault van called Merv (Merv the Swerve to give him his kennel name) and have been using him as transport for myself, friends and boards around the valley. It's actually pretty necessary to have a car here as although the bus services are pretty good they don't exactly run to a perfect schedule nor do they last very late in the evening. In fact you could easily get stranded somewhere in the valley!

The day after my birthday I went riding with Fred and Pierro up to Brevent/Flegere and drove everyone up there in Merv. It was a fantastic day with incredible weather and was really good to get some of the final riding of the season in.


Pierro standing next to Merv.


Loading up with boards and people (taken over my shoulder).


About to head out of Les Houches in beautiful conditions.


Looking back to the Les Houches ski area.

Pierro even brought a little camera with him for some video moments:

Me popping a tweaked grab.