4am and waiting

I said I'd take Fred to Geneva airport this morning at 5am for his flight to Morocco and his pre-season holiday. I got up at 4am and had a bath and something to eat, struggled into various random items of clothing then set off to pick him up from a centrally agreed point in Les Houches.

I was kicking myself actually, feeling really tired even though I'd gone to bed really early the night before. Anyway I sat in our designated meeting place at 4.50am rubbing the sleep from my eyes. At 5.15am I made my first call to his mobile but no luck. It just rang out. I tried every 10 minutes for the next hour but each time it just went to voicemail. Dangit. By 6am I was starting to get really worried. I'd driven around Houches in the hope of spotting him if his car had broken down on the way in or something. Still no luck.

I ended up driving the long way round to Vaudagne, the small mountain village where he lives - 20 minutes of narrow, winding, snowy mountain road. All the time keeping an eye out for signs of an accident - in case he'd slipped off the road or something. The easy route to his place was roadworked and so had to detour around. I've got to say I was pretty nervous - being tired and with scarily difficult driving conditions all the while worried in case Fred had had an accident. I pitched up to his place but there were no lights on and his car was in the driveway, but there was still no response on his phone and the front door was locked.

By this stage I was shattered. I'd been driving and waiting around for over an hour and a half and I figured that I'd done all I really could have short of breaking into his house. Besides, I'd tried ringing everyone up (his housemates, etc) with no success either. It was at the stage where he'd have missed his flight if we left together and maybe he'd grabbed a lift with someone else or something and put his phone in his hold luggage?

Well I eventually slid back under the sheets at 7am and woke up at 9 with a sleepy, annoyed Fred saying that his phone alarm hadn't woken him up and neither had all the missed calls! At least he was safe and well though! He managed to book another flight for Thursday so I guess we'll go through it all again then!

The boy owes me now though. Big time!

Freezing Cold

For the past 5 days the temperature in Chamonix hasn't risen above -4°C. In fact it's dropped down to -15°C in the night sometimes. That's pretty nippy by any stretch!

I had to do some chores yesterday and needed to dig Merv out of the snow in the morning. 2 feet of snow all over the lad requiring moving. Unfortunately I misplaced my gloves the other day and was in a bit of a hurry so rather than getting some snowboarding gloves, figured just to dig him out with the tools at hand. Bad mojo. I think I got a bit of frostnip in my right hand - after 4 tries of digging away the snow with a broken ice-hockey stick and a scraper the size of a fingernail he was free. A couple of weeks ago he would have been stuck solid but his new snow tires gripped as they should and he was released onto the freedom of the road.

After doing my bits and bobs, I decided to get a new pair of gloves from town and spent a few minutes checking out the vast array of winter handwear in the various shops. I love France and the French have a differing style but there's some seriously hideous fashionistas that obviously choose the clothes for some of the shops here. I actually found a pair of woolen leopard-print gloves, some black leather gloves of the type frequently appearing as part of serial-killer garb on CSI, rubberised (WTF?!) winter gloves for the more deviant man/woman about town. Of course there were some nicer options too. I went for a pair of black woolen fingerless gloves that are convertible to mittens with a fleece inner. Very warm and very funky.



I've got to dig Merv out again tonight to go down to Tinks'. Time to test them out.

Seriously snowing

It's booting it down with snow at the moment. 15cm forecast today and 15 tommorow. The forecasters have got it wrong though, there's way more than that.

Crampons, Mark and I went for a beer at Chambre Neuf this evening chewing the fat about the snow, winter adventures past and enjoying being in a bar of people smiling infused with the most natural high in the world. Sitting there talking with Mark and watching the snow fall will rest in my mind for a long time. A really long time.

I snapped a quick photo of the snow falling in my garden.

Le Petit Balcon Sud

On Sunday Tinks and I decided to have a wander through the forest and up to the Petit Balcon Sud (the small southern balcony). It's an area that sits on the southern side of the Aiguilles Rouges - the chain of peaks that rises up as the northern wall of the Chamonix valley but higher up the valley than Chamonix itself.

It was beautiful - snow in the forest and clouds hanging in the valley. It was a spectacular walk meandering through the trees and looking around at the trails of wildlife in the new snow and looking down at the valley. Luckily the clouds cleared as we approached the highest point of the walk and we saw all the way up to the highest peaks of the Mont Blanc Massif on the southern side of the valley.

The most incredible views shifted in and out of view of the clouds and happily I had my camera to snap a couple of photos. One of the most incredible things was to stand there with Tinks and point at and name the various peaks that stood proud and majestic out of the clouds. We were both speechless at points though and just stood there together in the snow looking at the mountains with the awe-inspiring, amazing views sink in. To top it all off, there was high wind at altitude creating spiralling vortices of cloud on the lee side of the peaks.

The Aiguille Vert (left) and Les Drus (right)


The Aiguille d'Argentiere

The First Dump

It came yesterday and the night before - big soft flakes falling endlessly from the sky. The valley got blanketed in a soft layer of snow plastering everything from the valley floor up to the highest peaks. Walking around at night with snow creaking underfoot for the first time really kicked home that we're moving powerfully and smoothly into winter.

Tinks and I went down to Sallanches to do some jobs yesterday. Unfortunately the garage was closed to get snow tyres for Ka, but we managed to go shopping to the big supermarket there, Carrefour. Loading the bags into the car with the air full of snow was really amazing. We managed to grab a quick hot chocolate in town as well after a really nice walk around, wandering about in a beautiful old French town in the mountains - very romantic.

I managed to grab some thermals and a pair of snow boots from Quetcha - ready for the next big snow. That looks like it's going to happen tomorrow or so. I'll grab Ka and get the snow tyres fitted so at least Tinks will be safe and sound. I'm just pleased we got Merv sorted out beforehand!

Anyways, the love is in the valley in a big way. As Tinks pointed out, everyone's in a great mood and there are big beaming smiles everywhere.

Snow!

It's snowing! Wahey! Not heavily but there's flakes in the air and the snow line has dropped down to around 1600m. The boys and girls are getting increasingly animated and there's big love in the air due to the falling white goodness.



Mark from All Mountain Performance has just managed to get a new equipment deal from Völkl with skis, poles, bindings, boots, jackets, fleeces, trousers - for all his instructors too. It's a great deal with lots of goodies and so he's now got loads of unusable gear his previous sponsors. I'm going to take a pair of skis off his hands to use this season methinks.

Tignes Roadtrip

Mark from All Mountain Performance and I shipped off to Tignes on Wednesday to go rip up the high glacier they've got there. It was awesome, damn cold but awesome.

We set off from the center of a very cold Chamonix (registering -4°C on Mark's car's thermometre) at just past 7am. We were loaded up with cold pizza for breakfast and had orange juice and danish pastries to put some energy into our bodies during the 2 1/2 hour drive down. A few detours, getting stuck behind trucks, some extremely hyperactive conversations and a pit stop at a pharmacy to load up on cold medication later we pitched up at the base of the funicular railway at Tignes. One of the good things about Tignes is that you can drive up pretty high. We drove up to somewhere around 8,000 feet before needing to switch transports. It was cold though, damn cold and all manner of fleeces, glove inners, warm socks and thermal undies were employed to stave off the poking bony fingers of chill.



Of course Mark and I looked totally pro falling out of his people carrier (fully badged up with AMP logos, etc) with pizza crusts and cigarettes in our hand. We looked especially pro because the rest of the car park was full with national ski racing team transports from around Europe. They use Tignes as their base for pre-season ski training.

Off we trotted up the the glacier via the awesome funicular railway that runs inside the mountain. Popped out at the top around 12,000 feet and immediately felt the effects of altitude. I've got to admit I was kind of shitting it feeling a touch breathless just walking around to get to our next lift. I hoped I'd acclimatize quickly and be able to get on with the skiing. It was really cold up high, I'd guess around -10°C with high winds and lenticular clouds around the tops of the peaks near and far.

It obviously hadn't snowed for a while, massive sections of the glacier were just plate glass ice with no snow at all. The dark, forbidding depths of the glacier contrasting with the white, groomed runs they sat inside. With more than just a minor concern for proper riding technique hanging over our shoulders we made our way up the T-bar lift to the top of the first run. Small crevasses were to be avoided being dragged up the ski lift, and if you're a snowboarder then being dragged for 800m up a slope by the inside of your thigh by the lift is not a great deal of fun. "Things" can get pinched and that's a killer. Imagine being led around by your gonads - it's a similar feeling.

We clipped and strapped in at the top of the rain and set off, shaking like a shitting dog with being nervous from it being the first run for many months. The high winds were blasting ice chips around the place like freezing daggers and I was pleased to be wearing my snood to cover my face. Slow and easy for the first run - a few slash turns in the cumulated snow on teh piste corner blown their by the wind and we were both feeling a lot better.

We had a roam about the available ski area for a few runs after - keeping the board as flat as possible when going over the sheet ice sections, more slash turns in the soft snow, a few ollies and flatland tricks. Things were really starting to come together. The nervousness had faded away and we were really starting to get into things. All the time of being on the lifts or stopping on the pistes we could watch the most incredible skiers training and they were FAST. Fast like you'd never believe. Because we could ride next to their courses it was pretty special being able to watch these fluid bullets hurtle past at speeds easily over 60mph+

A quick hot chocolate break to warm up and the temperature started to dip as the day wore on. We blasted a few more runs, starting to throw down some backside and frontside 180's and really picking up speed. God it felt good.

Several hours after we arrived, we were done in - tired, happy and with the warm feeling of apres ski. We chipped back down to the transport, peeled off the gear and made our way home. Unfortunately we'd rather underestimated our energy levels and were like zombies initially in the car. 3 cans of Dark Dog energy drink later we were bouncing off the walls, laughing and joking and chatting the whole way back to the Elevation bar in Cham for a traditional apres-ski beer.

All in all a fantastic day. My gear kept me warm, happy and content. Theere was enough snow to keep a smile on our faces the whole day and for ages after and I'm still chuckling and feeling the love as I type.

Both Mark and I are hyper now to get the season underway in just a handful of weeks. He's back to Tignes to do some pre-season race training courses next week and I might just see if I can slip off over there for a day's riding. The body's a little bit weary from the exertions but it feels great to finally be back on a board.

The Godfather in one minute

Thought this was really clever - very cool. It's a The Godfather Part 1 condensed into a funny play.

Damn damn damn damn damn

Woke up this morning with my throat red raw coughing and hacking away, nose running and constant sniffing. A couple of hours later and I feel even worse. Attacked by a bloody head cold. I decided to not go to Tignes for a variety of reasons, uppermost was that I don't want to get any worse. So here's the steps taken to cure the cold:

1) Put on thermal underwear, 2 t-shirts, hoodie, winter jacket, hat, gloves, scarf after warming on heater before venturing outside to obtain €50 from the bank

2) Wander down to supermarket and find fresh orange juice

3) Purchase low-preparation healthy foods from supermarket (dried apricots, sultanas, couscous, humous, bread, cucumber)

4) Co-ordinate trip to supermarket with trip to pharmacy to get vitamin C and zinc tablets as well as any other interesting-looking things to kill cold

5) Create comfy video watching environment with excessive duvets and pillows

6) Download Point Break and sit back and watch the cheese

I'll let you know how the treament goes.

Snowboarding Sunday

Tignes tomorrow.

Yes! Get in.