Boarder shred fest in the steeps A bit close for comforts, the story of the day for not just Shane, all of us! Normaly my posts mention International boarders and the trails that take me between these lines.  Today was slightly different.  Everyone knows that the Swiss Canton of Valais is full of great trails, and until today I thought that it's neighbouring Canton of Vaud was full of bad drivers, Freddie Mercury statues (Montreux), vineyards and a whole heap of money! However right on the boarder of Valais/Vaud is Bex.  That's pronounced 'bay' in French, not Becks like Posh n Becks for you vrai Anglais. It doesn't matter what Canton your in, in Switzerland public transport is top notch, and seeing as this place is near a ski town, the all-day travel card for mountain bikers is not actually too expensive at 28chf (€25).  A little research revealed a whole host of trails, but luckily Timmy was on hand to guide us today which was really ...

Exploring Aosta for the first time in 2016 Thats kind of a lie, we had a few experimental, yeah, experimental is a good word to describe the ski tour's that took place in Aosta Valley this winter. It was about time to get back there on two wheels and try out some new trails. Me and Wayne, my boss, didn't have any work so we journey'd over to search for more Aosta goodness.  The first objective of the day was achieved quite easily, cappuccino, at which time we also found our gelato stop for post ride refreshment. So it began as most Aosta rides seem to with a big climb on a quiet road that slowly makes it's way upwards through tiny hamlets, usually a mix of beautiful alpine houses and run down old sheds. Wayne was telling me how it was a burden to sit in an Aosta Valley Freeride minibus for 45 minutes-a-time when doing shuttle days. Didn't sound too bad to me... Lunch stop one was followed by snack stop 2, 3, 4 and 5 and then after a good few hours ...

A breakdown of early season riding conditions in the steeps  and deeps of the Northern French Alps Good! At the beginning of May there was still snow on the Peit Blacon Nord between le Planet and le Tour. Me and my Chamvan boss Wayne also found above Servoz and Chalet Ayeres that there was too much snow to be able to drop in from the normal trail head.  Once we were on the trail it super dry, leafy and fresh!  You couldn’t carry too much speed into corners as there wasn’t the grip for late braking manoeuvres. Cutting through the snow I was then lucky enough to spend the whole weekend riding at Saleve.  On Saturday morning whilst my friend did some extra University studies in Geneva I took the opportunity to check out some new trails.  What I found was deep leaf cover over cruisey trails, but with some nasty climbs out of them.  One might be worth a repeat with some enduro boys as it finishes in Esserts-Saleve... In the afternoon I...

Southern Roadtripping I’d just come off the top of Europe, Mont Blanc with a 2000 metre powder skiing descent, but Wouter was still after final plan ideas for meeting him, my Dutch guiding buddy somewhere in Provence. GAP was of course at the top of the list, being the most northernly town in the Provence Region, and having some very tasty dry and dusty trails! Read here about last years southern trip that put Finale Ligure to shame. Even though there is more than 6 days worth of riding in the Gapencais, we wanted to taste something else and I’d seen a nice instagram photo from the VTopo Crew riding on this weird “terre noire” (black earth) stuff earlier in the year that looked very inticing. The first day down south, my first major bike riding day of 2016 and I thought we’d get everyone going on some trails that I knew from previous trips over by the stunning Lac Serre Poncon.  Sitting having lunch in t-shirt and shorts at the end of April was a great feel...

Accompagnateur en Montagne After many years of training, I am now a fully qualified International Mountain Leader (IML) which opens up a whole new world of work opportunities. I am now able to lead hiking tours all over the world, but more importantly I have an outdoor qualification that is recognised and highly regarded by the French for hiking and mountain biking. The final assessment took place in the Pyrennees Orientales where we found great snowshoeing terrain.  We were tested on micro navigation every day during which we had to talk about various environmental subjects.  Animal tracks, tree's, geology, local area geography and other general nuggets of information.  Other area's covered included emergency rope work in snow covered terrain and multi burial avalanche transceiver searches (find and probe 2 units in 8 minutes, I averaged 4 minutes). Snowshoe assessment in the Pyrenees 2016

My bike has gone online to be sold today Ludlow blur   Hopefully winter will be hitting the Alps soon, but in the mean time I have been back in the U.K visiting friends and family. Me and my Dad hit up Mortimer's forest for our classic autumn ride checking out the new trails he's found.  There seem to be more each visit.  A great sign of the building community of trail builders in the boarder Counties. This past weekend I went to North Wales to visit some past haunts.  Over the last 5 years I had only visited North Wales to complete International Mountain Leader courses, so it was nice to be finally back how it should be, with a mountain bike. However, over those 10 years many of the trails have been exposed to all the finest weather of North Wales, and many, many bike tyres.  Penmachno was basically a solid stream, but a fun roller coaster despite getting soaked in under 2 hours. After a big meal, plenty of ciders and a slee...

My car was left at somebody else's house a few hours drive away. I could have gotten somebody to drive me around to collect my car that had been left near Aime in the neighbouring department of Savoie. I even had the idea to borrow a road bike and finally do the huge climb out of Beaufort and over the Cormet de Roseland. Instead the Tom's joined for a two day Oli-venture across the mountains.  There was hope for great singletrack, and I did warn them about some height gain.  It's just a shame many of the vertical metres gained where whilst pushing our bikes. Near the Col du Bonhomme looking into the Beaufortain We left Notre dame de la Gorge and pedalled for about 1 kilometre before the first section of pushing began.  And so it carried on for about 5 hours, ride, push, hike a bike, ride a little more and push even more.  Luckily we were fresh, the banter crude and the views in every direction were beautiful.  The views and sunset real...