Quick link to Winter 2003/4 report: [1]
[2] [3]
[4] [5]
[6] [7]
[8] [chamois
voice]
31st Jan 2004
WEEKS 7 & 8
SNOW AND CHALET REPORT
Les Arcs
The last 2 weeks have seen the best snow
we've had in Les Arcs for at least 4 years. It just
keeps on dumping. With loads of trees around Vallandry,
we've been out every day in the powder, just waiting
for the rest of resort to open up, once the avalanche
danger subsides. Everyone is on a massive powder high,
riding hard, partying hard and sleeping little.
Rob and Tristan have built an impressive
rail and kicker outside the chalets, and plans are afoot
for a Planet Subzero super park ... Some of the guys
have been on a free avalanche awareness course, and
the skiers have been making the most of the conditions
to run a ski clinic with New Generation. Rach and Smurfo
have been giving each other ski and board lessons. And
Susannah and Steph had a fab day out with the skibeat
crew ... with some sweet snow and couloirs down the
Valley of the Idiots to Nancroix.
Everyone's in mega spirits with all this
powder, really cold conditions, and Snowbombing (board
and DJ event) hitting Arc 1800 this week. With a massive
display of big air jumps on the flood lit slope, followed
by live acts every night, Snowbombing's been a big success.
Baz, Gaz and Alison have been setting the pace ... respect
for hangin in there and doing the walk pretty much every
night. Thursday was a huge one, with the whole of Vallandry
heading up en masse. Freestylers kicked ass and Smurfo
even found his name-sake cocktail in Benjys.
Some of the guys have been hanging out
in the board park, which is looking impressive now that
there's a good snow base to build with. Chris and Mike
are pulling some sweet air, and Sven's finally got the
hang of 360's (via arse, head and the helmet shop).
Chamonix
Like, was' happenin'? We got ourselves
some Mo-tee-vay-shun! Mornings are no longer as quiet
as a Jeffery Archer book-signing, but a hive of activity
with people racing each other out onto the slopes. Add
to this Ned's 6 day avalanche course (you thought he
talked a lot about avalanches before) and Sammy braving
a week's snowboard technical clinic, and you have one
active chalet.
Active, it would seem, is not quite enough for the
McNab School of Excellence, with Sammy being subjected
to a total technique re-appraisal. With her new, correct
'cowboy stance' we are hoping she will turn out to be
more Billy the Kid than Calamity Jane. Though having
shown more balls (or less sense) than her otherwise
male group, hopes are high.
Elsewhere, once the heavy 3-day snowfall had subsided,
and rumours of avalanche-damaged lifts proved untrue,
the local kicker was left in favour of the higher slopes.
As the powder-hungry hordes of Chamonix quickly gobbled
up the fresh snow, people became more adventurous in
search of the last remaining morsels. On one of these
forays Dan's helmet paid for itself when he used his
head for a brake.
This is acceptable behaviour within the collective
of aspirational model snowboarders (speed, air, booze-hungry
with scant attention paid to personal hygiene) that
has formed in the bars and on the slopes. The so-called,
'Team Extreme' or 'GC Crew' (don't ask), has its very
own initiations, codes and shared madness. Such peer
pressure can lead to taking on jumps beyond one's capability:
e.g. Neal's original launch-freeze-crash combination,
'Couch to Backside' (through destruction, creation);
it can lead to close encounters of a cliff kind (Le
Tour - Dan, Steve and Luke, nuff said); and it can also
lead to 48 hour drinking binges during which the word
'Dude!' must be uttered at the end of every statement.
One man in no need of peer pressure to perform daring
deeds is Dangerous Jake who continues to live up to
his name. This report brings you two more of his specialities:
the 'Double Ridge Straight-line' and the 'There must
have been a rock in that snowball because the window
smashed and now we are running from the gendarmes'.
As a skier I can't condone such behaviour - my illness
was merely brought forward by those ten pints and the
neck injury had less to do with that 15 foot cornice
and more to do with inclement atmospheric conditions…oh,
and for the record that wasn't me pole-dancing that
was a holographic projection.
Tignes
... watch this space for latest reports
from Tignes ...
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