Off to get high

So we are off again, we are going to go do some alpine climbing. trying to get high in the mountains and stay there fir a while to try and get some altitude in our bodies before we go to India.

So expect billions of photos over the weekend when we return.

The Mega

Didn’t have any time to write the blog over there, as I was either tearing down a hill gripped on for dear life, or asleep trying to recover from the previously mentioned activity.

First off though was my birthday. We all went out on mass for dinner

Birthday boy on the night. Lainie decided because it was my birthday that she was going to freak me out by pulling funny faces and scaring me…. and it worked.

I thought i would definitely put a picture of her up here as a sort of pay back!

As the evening progressed things got gradually worse ( as can be seen from above) – the rest is a fuzzy mess that is best left unrepeated and unwritten.

So onto the practicing of the race courses. We had two races to do, the qualifier and the main race. The qualifier track was a shorter course but faster and more DH bike orientated. The race course started up at 3350m on the snow and ice and we had to ride across a glacier then through the rock field into the alpine meadows and then down into the tree line to a small village called Allemont at 730m. Killer.

Come the day of the qualifiers we are all feeling a little nervous and excited of what is to come, a few of us less than others having previously raced this race 2 years ago. Frank at the start line of the qualifier. It is a Mass start of 200 riders all going hell for leather for a small line into a bend. Very scary and fun at the same time if that is possible. To cut a long story short we all did rather well in the qualifiers, all placed well and no one had any major spills. Below is the video of Frank’s and Euan’s Start of the Qualifier….. see it for yourself and imagine being in that!

Lara just coming through the finishing line. She did amazingly and I was very proud of her as she only had got her DH bike about 8 months ago and flew down the course!

So all done with the qualifiers. We all felt a little beat up and tired. Onto the Main race. For those of you who ride bikes I am sure they will have heard of this race and it’s reputation. I can confirm to you it is totally justified and correct. It is 100% crazy, not in a extreme mental sort of way, but more a ‘who the hell came up with the stupid idea’ sort of way.

So here we are at the top of Pic Blanc (3300m) at 6:45am freezing our proverbial tits off. Due to the volume of people taking part in the race you have to go up very early to get the snow on the glacier as hard as possible, great. It was at this point that Lara’s fear really kicked in. The idea of lining up with 90 other women and riding down a glacier as fast as possible seemed to loose its appeal. Scott being the good friend he is kindly offered to take her place and race with the women. hmmm, good try Scott. So they all lined up and the starter gun went off and all the girls went hammering off down the hill.
The lady at the front is 10 times Downhill mountain biking world champion and Gold medalist at BMX’ing, so you can see the pedigree of the women there.

It was at this point it was time for all us men to get wobbly knees as it was getting close to our turn. we all sat there and said we were fine, but truth be told we were all bricking it!

we all lined up and as soon as the gun went all nerves went, it was race time! it is all a bit of a blur, but all i can say it that is was blur of sweat , pain, breathing out of ones arse and complete and utter brilliant fun for around and hour and a half.

Me at the finish. Not sure of the results yet as they are not out, but we all did ourselves proud. Non of us near winning but the world’s best are here doing it so we were never going to win. We do know Lara’s result. She came 38th out of 80 women, Seeing that just under half of these women are seasoned racers or sponsored racers with teams looking after then and there own websites etc… she did amazingly well. better than all us blokes really. shhhh but we don’t like to give her a big head!

The finishers. Scott was there as well but he was that broken he was lying at our feet!

The big question is ….. what is next, how do we top the Mega Avalanche!

back to getting wet

Been a while, not sure where to start as we have done quite a lot. So I suppose first off we went back to the Lac de Serre Poncon to have another go at wakeboarding. Scott and Adam have never done it before and excitement and nerves where both equally high. Scott went first.

I think his snowboarding skills helped him out as he had no difficulties at all getting up and going. After a few enemas later he was loving it but his go was up.

Next up was Adam. I actually think he had done it before, cus the bugger just stood up

and turned with no difficulties what so ever. He even got a jump on the go as well.

He was loving it and then he got a little bit cocky and pulled out the best slam of the day…..

Then it was my go. The water was a very still compared to the last time we did it so I progressed quickly and finally managed to jump the wake. Loved it, something I think I could get into.

From the lake we drove further into the mountains. Found a camp site and went out to a restaurant that was run by the French version of Peter Stringfellow. After Adam and Scott feverishly searched the restaurant for further rooms with poles in them and disappointingly found nothing we went back for an early night as the wakeboarding had exhausted us.
Next Day up with the sun, and set off for Les 2 Alps for a day on the bikes. The sun was shining and it was shaping up to be a great day. Another great day was had on the bikes, Lara was flying

(me chasing the wife) and I even got a go at some of the smaller jumps.

Might try and build up my skills and confidence for some of the bigger ones. Think I need to eat some of Adams brave biscuits as he went straight for the big one and nailed it. Hats off.

Now we are in Alp D’Huez getting ready for the mega avalanche……. Gulp

More DH action

So woke up this morning with my body aching, obviously the crash from yesterday had taken it a bit out of me. So I decided I was going to take it easy today on the bike and take some pictures of people. So off we went to Orciere Merlette and up the chair lifts. When we got to the top of the chair lift, Lara took a while to work out that she had forgotten something.

So down once she had gone and collected her bike, we were off. Lara really improved today and was really flying down the hill. I think it could be something to do with chasing Scott and Adam down the hill.They even did the odd jumpA great day was had, and my body was soon feeling better by the end of the day so I think I shall be out riding again tomorrow.

PS my vote would is for the ninjas! They are well ‘ard!

Adams Arrival and poor bike handling skills

So as more and more friends arrive, this must mean the fast approaching date of the Mega Avalanche. The big race of this summer on the mountain bikes. So yesterday Adam arrived.

He arrived in some fancy party gear that i think he had been wearing to a ‘Specialist’ club the night before.

So off we went to Les Orres, as we have not ridden there yet. Was great to get out on the DH bikes again, the tracks were great. We all got on really well and speeds and confidence improved as the day went on.

Above is me on one of the drops on ” No4 Black”. I slightly over cooked this one, came into it with way to much speed and completely missed the landing ramp and flat landed it. Due to this, I then decided it was time to crash in spectacular fashion and Adam (who took the picture above) very nearly got taken out. If it was not for his cat like reflexes and his ninja like roll I would have got him a treat. Thankfully I was not hurt due to the amazing amount of skill compensator’s that I was wearing!

A great day. Following on from yesterdays photography motivation, we had a brilliant thunderstorm last night. So I thought I would have a go at capturing some lightening. So I got all my camera stuff out and set it up. Then the storm just abruptly ended. Bugger. Next time

Time to be a Do’er rather than just think about it.

So I have decided that I need to play more with my camera, I spend a lot of the time on the Internet looking at pictures and thinking about photography so it is time I actually did some of it rather than think about it.

So tonight, I give you my first attempt at macro photography and water droplets.

This is just a starting block, but I really enjoyed doing it and have some more ideas for different takes on this time old classic of Macro photography. It will take some time, as this one took some time to set up and to actually capture!

Passporte De Soliel

After being in Chamonix, we headed over to Champery in Switzerland to take part in the Passporte de Soliel. Which is a ride that entails us riding around the whole Porte de Soliel region.

It is about 75km long in length, but thankfully most of the climbing is done by these:Lara and friend Rob on one of the lifts. It was a great day, the weather was kind to us, it was threatening to rain all day but stayed dry. With just under 6000m of descending it really gave the forearms a work out and was great to ride the trails in this region, which went from tiny alpine single track to world cup downhill tracks. Lara ” shredding” it. Screams of “WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE” Could be heard all over the valley!

An event i would thoroughly recommend to everyone.

Climbing in Chamonix With Chris and Rowie

So we headed off to Chamonix to meet up with Chris and Rowie. Was great to see them again, and they were both on very good form when we met up with them in a bar late on Wednesday night. Unfortunately we had a little too much to talk about so had to stay int eh bar a bit longer.

Waking up Chris said he felt like death. So what better to do than go climbing in hot sun.

So we went to a little crag called Le Joue in the Chamonix Valley. Lara set off all eager and energetic,I set off all energetic and eager. Then the sun really came out and it resorted into some of this type of thing and type of thing. As the day got hotter and the hangovers properly kicked in, we spent what turned out to be a lovely day relaxing and doing the odd bit of climbing.On the top of one route, i saw something in the far yonder distance. I pointed it out to everyone, but they said I looked like a nonce…..