Morzine and Les Gets 09

Our mini trip out to see Chris and take some shots was, quite frankly, awesome!

Our flight out was early and after several hours packing up my new ride the night before, I was impressed with just how tidily Jon had managed to pack his - Marzocchi fork bag helps here, no doubt.

Anyway, bleary eyed, we took off giving me that early morning adrenaline kick, as I'm becoming a worse flyer... Touch down was sweet and soon I was embarrassing us by getting the trolley stuck in the arrivals door exit whilst people openly laughed at me, great what a start. We were sped up the hill by Skiidy Gonzales transfers, nice, and soon rebuilding our bikes at the chalet garage at Chalet Claire Matin (Chris and Kate's awesome chalet - www.mountainspaces.com)

We got straight into it and not knowing exactly what was open in terms of lifts, got straight up Pleney and rode down it a few times!



After a few runs and a bit of thought, we popped over to Les Gets, knowing that its down hill on the road, if Chevannes wasn't open, but it was, so a quick introductory before cruising home on the crappy inter resort trail and into Monty's for a beer, before C&K arrived early, from work.



The next few days saw a bit if rain and then scorchio sun, so we had the full range of trail conditions from sopping and greasy to dusty on the last two days. Chris was able to get out every day in the mornings and we had all of Tuesday riding and Kate made an appearance too!



Mt Chery, Pleney and Chevannes were all that were running , but that really didn't hinder things as we had an absolute blast and would have to say, rode reasonably quickly, not being overtaken by anyone. How Chris manages to ride his hardtail with dj forks and still be reasonably quick is beyond me, he's going to have arthritis.


Dave about to use up the suspension on Mt Chery.




Jon and Chris on the 4x.


Little wall ride on the green run back into Les Gets.

The trails were excellent this year and didn't suffer too badly from braking bumps, due to the early season, which was great! Some really nice additions to the Chevannes run made it the most fun for me, whilst Jon was digging the steep shoots of Mt Chery and riding them fast - I couldn't keep up and was permanently in his dust cloud...
We stopped off a few times for some filming and photos and generally had an excellent time. The only problem was that I kept on destroying bits to do with my rear mech and really noticed how vulnerable the long cage version that came fitted to the Remedy is - new short cage will be fitted. Apart from that, the odd puncture and breaking a spoke on a particularly large step down, we were pretty good and the Remedy proved that its not only light but a real propper all mountain bike.


Chris in the park on Chevannes.


This hip would be awesome if it had a lip...


Sunset over St Jean d"Aulpes.

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catered and self catered holidays in the french alps

3 lift wonder.

Just got back last night from our little sojourn in St Jean d'Aulpes with Chris and Kate, so here are some atmos shots before I do a post with all the rad pics on it!

HOT HOT HOT!


Nice view from the top of Mt Chery.




Lift gurning.


Chris and Kate's seriously nice pad.


Amour.


Gritty hard tail action.

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catered and self catered holidays in the french alps

Dorset Climb

I drove down to Pompey on Friday arvo, to take advantage of Daryl's flexi time and we headed straight over the Sandbanks ferry, picking up a court summons, to start a very wierd 24 hours...


We'd planned to do a spot of sport climbing at Winspit, bivvy at the crag and then carry on early o'clock the next day. This started well, with a bit of a leaden sky and some rain dodging, we managed to get a few nice routes in before feeling the fatigue and finding a nice 'cave witha view' for cooking up some din dins!





We then toddled off up to the pub for a few ciders and crossed paths with a group of people coming down. We duly carried on and enjoyed the atmosphere at the pub and the Morris men all getting drunk. We then headed back down, only to find that the group of people that we'd met on the way up were a group of Poles from London, having a party, so we were offered vodka and joined in!



Several hours later and after we'd promised half of Poland that we'd teach them to sport climb, we dug our bags out of their excellent hiding spot and bivvied down, somewhat ready for bed. The next day I felt awful (stomach bug, not hang over, well maybe a bit) and could hardly walk, let alone climb, so after a few aborted attempts, I gave over to belay only, whilst Daryl dug deep and did an excellent route to finish - probably the best he's done outdoors - and only completed because there were people watching.

I was so ill that I had to stop driving on my way home and it knocked me out for the entire weekend. Still don't feel 100%. What did help was a four hour ride yesterday where I really did get to grips with the new Trek. I'm LOVING it!


Daryl on the newly bolted route. Excellent!


Oh, remember that its CASH ONLY on the sandbanks ferry and don't point out to the jobsworth that you can use a card for any amount anywhere these days...

The Beast is BACK!

Thats right, back on the bike!!!



After much deliberation, price ups on Santa Cruz Nomads and general can I, can't I, I bit the bullet and managed to buy an 08 Trek Remedy 8, which my LBS had been using as their demo - but had only been out a handful of rides. As a result, I'm really pleased as I have an awsome and very fast steed again!




The Gerbil gets airbourne...


The new Bombers are prime for this stuff.


Jon has been building up his sweet little Stinky in prep for our four day Alpine assault next week, and getting in the practice down at Woburn when he's not been working. Very nice the build is looking too, with some nice new hope hubs and brakes, its mostly complete. Fast too, Jon put me to shame on the trails he's been running and neither of us can wait to get out to see Chris. BOOOYAAA!

WE DID IT!!!!

Edinburgh Marathon 2009 and we all made it!!!

Here's a sneaky pic but I will do a proper post next week as I am hectic at the mo! Thanks for the pic Amy!xx

What do you mean it's May!!

Well it's done, Kate and myself have just completed our first winter season. We are both completely exhausted but unbelievably pleased with how it's all gone.

The last 6-8 months have been so far removed from anything else we've done and it's all gone in a complete blur despite the near vertical learning curve. Joe Public can be a funny old sausage but in general pretty much everyone we've met so far as guests have been really friendly and easy to look after.

It's not been easy meeting people as we've been so busy and spent the first 3 weeks running on pure fear with the odd shot of adrenaline whilst feeling like the squeaky clean new kids on the bloc every time we met someone who was in their 4billionth season and owns 8 chalets and the south side of Morzine.

It is getting easier as we settle in to the way of life and I think summer will help as it's easier to meet people living out there year round as we're not so busy and there are less seasonaires (who I swear were all about 16 years old and had unfathomable fashion sense, good god I'm getting old, yoof of today, wasn't like that in my time, isn't the music loud in here). Also don't quite feel like the new kids on the bloc and having done reasonably well feel like we aren't just talking the talk.

Snow-wise we couldn't have been luckier, every 10-days to 2 weeks it snowed heavily on demand and even with our limited time to get on the mountain we still got our fair share of powder so the guests must have been loving it!


muchos white and powdery stuff

The worries of running your own business never quite disappear even when your on 'holiday' but on the other hand I can't remember the last time I was bored or was wondering what I was going to do with my life! Given the choice we'd be working on some property over the summer but we need to wait another year or so before anyone will consider lending to us as a business so it's all attention on the summer market for biking, walking etc.


parapenting email shot

It's pretty tricky trying to include everyone in your marketing for fear of alienating a certain group i.e. too much of a downhill 'too cool for school' biking image would put familys off but at the same time we might end up not appealing to anyone.

Once some of the general marketing is out of the way I'd like to concentrate on the biking bit more, it seems daft not too as it's so much fun out here. I'm looking forward to riding just as much as I was looking forward to boarding. Really looking forward to exploring the unknown bits so we can hit them up as soon as people come out for a visit, as long as we put Finter in charge of leading the way lest I fall foul of the long arm of the Gendarme for 'le illegal guiding' punishable by beheading on the guillotine.

It's been good to catch up with everyone although way too quick and I don't think I realised how much I miss having everyone around as we we're so busy. It's been really good to have Rob down the road as we haven't even lived in the same country for about 3 years never mind within walking distance. His experiences also make me want to make sure we never turn into anything like some of the flaky clusterf*ck holiay and tourism companies out there that seem to survive and take peoples money depsite having their heads secured firmly where the snow doesn't fall.


summer leaflet


alternative summer leaflet

Have just got a copy of photoshop on trial and have got a little bit carried away!! The first 'brown' leaflet is going on a textured rough card/heavy paper and just playing around with the second design. T-shirt desgins on the way although not to be worn whilst-
riding like a gimp
struggling uphill behind finter (that'd be me then, boarding not good for stamina apparently)
making a menance of oneself round pompey (ahem)
wearing any items of lycra
er.... list could be much much longer.

Peace

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catered and self catered holidays in the french alps

Beast of the East

Just had my first blast on the Beast of the East. Sweet little retro hybrid that I got given by Steffi's brother. Its great! I did an hour trip and then a 45 min run after with Ant... All part of the training.

Will give it a service and post some pics.

Oh Bugger...

Have been riding midweek recently with Jon, down at Woburn, enjoying the light in the evening and the rather fine and sunny weather that we have been experiencing! Lots has been built down there lately and we've been having a blast.

During a reasonably tame trail section, I was very surprised when I heard a 'ting' on a small drop down and then the rear end of my bike fell away over the next jump... Turned out I've destroyed the weld on my rear swingarm and it snapped! Even worse, I've since found out the Spesh don't warrenty this part as they consider it suspension related! Adam is coming to the rescue, but I'm a bit peeved, to say the least...



Anyway, I was set to ride today, so hired a Trek Remedy from my LBS and was thoroughly impressed. Barring a few minor tweaks so it would be set up as I liked (Shorter stem, less upsweapt and wide bars) and it would be pretty awesome trail machine.



Having said that, it didn't feel as solid as the Enduro, having what I can only describe as a 'plasticy' feel that I put down to the lighter build spec. Very chuckable though and it also felt fast on the ups and downs. The Lyrik fork was quite awesome, basically and I want one!

I rode with Jon, who has recently re-entered the riding scene with a Kona Stinky custom build that he is loving and Stu, one of Rob Bowles' friends from Uni - rob was scuppered by a knackered rear mech. Sun was out and it was nice to have a chilled trail/sesh ride, stopping off here and there for some photos, cake and jumping off little things.






Putting the Remedy through the jumps...


Stu does it properly with added gurn.

Marathon Sponsorship

As most people who know us, know, Daryl and I were involved in a fall coming down from a climb on Snowdon earlier this year in appalling weather. Having both made very good recoveries from our various injuries, we decided to dedicate our marathon running efforts towards providing as much sponsorship money as possible to the Mountain Rescue service volunteers who risked their own lives in our rescue.

The whole of the MRT service is volunteer based and funded through donations from the public, so please sponsor our run in the Edinburgh Marathon in late May, as we are training hard and all proceeds will go to MRT.

We have set up a Just Giving secure donation page, to make donations as easy as possible:

www.justgiving.com/darylanddave

This is where you can find details of the excellent service that the Mountain Rescue volunteers provide in all weathers around the clock:

www.mountain.rescue.org.uk

Running is fun.

Fun Run. Thats fun. What Daryl and I did last on the Fri bank holiday was far away from that. We converged on Windsor Castle in very skimpy shorts and broke free down the Long Walk for a killer loop that saw us take in all sorts of wooded delights, one or two too many inclines and a gang of deer...

We got a bit lost and our intended route was 14 miles on the dot, but we ended up doing 15.5 miles and neither of us had a watch, so I don't know what the timings were. Poor show, I know. Anyway, both our groins packed in and the poor sods that were visiting Windsor had to witness us limping through town, bearing far too much thigh whilst soaked in rain and sweat, before changing in the multi-story carpark, which drew some very long stares from be-rangerovered mums.

In other exploits, I've been getting back out on the bike as there are people to ride with here in MK now that Jon's bought a new Kona rig and we are trying to ride at Woburn and Bow as much as pos. Pics will be back when the camera is put into commission.

Air time

Having spent much time windsurfing snowboarding and a bit of time mountain biking, one tends to get some air. I have pushed it with the snowboarding this year with the hungarian flatmate Matays who is just a little crazy and doesnt have so much regard for personla safety We have dropped some silly things. Cliffs windlips houses whatever can be found. Must say mostly only in powder as a stack early on in the season left me with a useless arm for 3 days.





Getting air for me is one of the best bits of the sport. Those few seconds when you are 10 foot above things and have a chance to look at the ground/ water and think S**t im a long way off the ground is one of the best feelings in my opinion. Surrounded by amazing settings this is what its all about for me.




matays just before dropping the satelight on the last powder day of the season.

Having had one last powder day. The descion was made between Matayas and I that we wanted bigger air. Something like 1000m and instead of a a few seconds air time how about 10 minutes. Bring on the parapante course.

Running off the side of a mountain with a large parachute strapped to your back is a pretty big rush especialy when its a solo flight and never havig done anything like it before. Two flights done now. Next step learn about thermals and instead of just gliding down catch the air up like a bird and stay higher for longer. Bring it on.

Due to snowboarding, windsurfing, surfing or parapanting not being included in ibrakeforcake at no time during these activities was any cake eaten during brakes! But thought I would let you know what goes on any way!





cake could be eaten during these activities!

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catered and self catered holidays in the french alps

Fun in the sun!

Tuesday night saw James Linford and I speeding North West towards the A5 and two days of intensive and stressful (for some) activities in the hills of the Snowdonia National Park.



James, the chap who first introduced me to climbing in my teens, was to retake the nav part of his Mountain Instructor Award, after a shortfall on his previous five day assessment earlier last year. Wednesday dawned very fine and we rolled out of Pen Y Pass at 8am and over to the back of the Miners' Track and the start of our hunt for obscure contours and minuscule rock outcrops.



This was a new experience for me as 'nav' to me normally means 'routes'. ok, ' ' overload. Basically, I learnt to really put things into perspective regarding whats on the map and whats on the hill and in a few hours I had really tuned into it Basically we spent time picking a random point and going to it, using a mixture of pacing and time calculations against map/real features to locate ourselves. One would choose a point and nav to it and the other would try to put the finished position on the map. Very good.

We were buzzed all of our time on the hills by Police and RAF helicopters, who were apparently looking for a Canadian chap who had gone missing on Sunday. I hope he does turn up ok. After a few hours of this practice in the Llanberis Pass, we headed over to Moel Siabod and carried on, enjoying the fine weather.



Tired, we returned to the YHA and had a huge dinner, read magazines and James prepared for his PYB assessment in the morning.

Having dropped James of at PYB, I headed off to Llyn Idwal and sped up Devil's Kitchen after a detour scramble up the very wet and slippery waterfall gully next door. Excellent! Ten headed up to Y Garn and ran down it, much to the bemusement of other walkers who saw a red faced and sweating man with boots and a rucksack, pretending to be a fell runner! Why walk when you can run?!





I should point out that the weather was exceptional and the views from the top, simply amazing.



After driving over to pick James up, he was in great spirits after having passed the assessment by a thin margin and being made to sweat before being given the ok! This put us both in a great mood and we headed off to Milestone buttress on Tryfan for a relaxing and fun climb up Rowan route, an easy and thoroughly grin-on-face inducing two hours!