Monthly Archives: April 2013

Winter in ‘fat lady still not singing’ shocker

Posted on 30th April 2013

It might be the end of April, but winter still refuses to loosen it’s grip on the Chamonix valley. Fortunately May looks like it’s going to start with higher freezing levels, some fohen wind and a bit of sunshine which will hopefully help shift the snow from lower down, whilst sorting out the higher mountains for some spring ski touring!

It’s not stopped folk getting out on the bike though, so below’s some shots from some recent rides around the valley with Sandy and also Spencer from Chamonix Bike Rental who has some great plans for the biking community in … [Read full post]

Posted in Trail conditions , tagged

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside. Finale Ligure.

Posted on 23rd April 2013

It’s been a long snowy winter here in Chamonix and spring is yet to make much of an appearance. A trip away to the sun was called for, so the car was laden with people, tents, climbing gear, bikes, our best pizza eating bibs and we headed south to the Italian Riviera.

I try to keep road trip stuff to less than an hour from Chamonix but it’s only 3 ½hr down to Finale, and as it’s so good down there it seems fair to bend the rules. Besides, it’s Italy, the country made for bending the rules.

The last … [Read full post]

Posted in Road trip , tagged

Risoul Deval (turns out the deval IS in the detail…)

Posted on 19th April 2013

Across the world, the end of the ski season is marked by weird races thought up by, usually drunk, ski bums who don’t really want the snow to melt, but if the inevitable’s going to happen then they might as well have fun doing it. Hence the “Peak to Pub” multi sport carnage which takes place annually from Mnt Hutt to Cairngorm.

Risoul’s been running the Deval for 9 years now, which involves an off-piste ski from 2500m down to the resort at 1800, then a 10km ish enduro bike down to the River Durance at roughly 900m where the … [Read full post]

Posted in Race, Road trip , tagged , , , , ,

Melt. Freeze. Cycle.

Posted on 6th April 2013

Ah, the birds are singing, flowers poking through the grass. It must be spring, and so the bike has been dragged out of the cave it’s languished in for the last 4 months of winter and I’ve been back in the saddle.

Of course, this being the mountains, no sooner had the sun come out and the snow melted then it started to dump with snow in the valley and the big skis came back out of the locker again. This pattern will be set to continue for the next month or so, but at least it means we get … [Read full post]

Posted in Trail conditions , tagged ,