I am staying up in Charlies chalet for a few days as the guests have all left. I woke up yesterday to see blue skies and what appeared to be a good layer of snow. I got to the lifts a little late 9.30am but was pleased to find bottomless powder, snow over the head conditions AGAIN!!! What a season we have had. The only thing we are lacking is a good bit of warm sun, but we are doing a European tour starting the 20th so should get some sun then!

The Geeks came out this week (Dave, Jon and Tim alphabetical order!!). Had awesome snow all week so they all really enjoyed it even if Jon is a bit indecisive about which foot to put first!
We had a meter of fresh snow on several days so the barry white was out in full force! I dropped them back to Geneva on the 30th..

Robin came out last week which was a good laugh. We went to Avoriaz to visit one of his friends which was a good day, the snow wasn't as good as here though but I wa simpressed with the ski area. They have alot nicer mountain restaurants than flaine.

Yesterday (friday) Robin was leaving at 1.45pm but the snow didn't care about that! It absolutely dumped down, and I took robin out to do some off piste tree runs and stuff which I think he enjoyed. Local knowledge definately helps!

Everyone was saying today was going to be horrible weather no lifts open etc. I woke up to blue skies and the knowledge we had about a meter of fresh yesterday. So I went out for first lift and met Rod and we did some amazing powder, deeper than I have ever done literally up to your neck in places!

We did crevapie (spelling??) which is a steep slope between two cliffs it was amazing, and load sof other stuff. We then went up the 8 man towards les carroz and notices the drag lift wasn't working which takes you upto the top of a black and offpiste area. Rod knew a way around the back so we walked up for about 20 minutes. At the top we traversed very high along a very steep part of the slope. Then headed down taking photos and enjoying the amazing powder!

We got to the bottom and the lifty said they weren't opening the lift as the slope was too dangerous. Which generally means for holiday makers, he made a comment about my board and said it looked good on that when we came down! He told us just to walk around the back again to get to it!

It started to cloud over at this point and it looked like the snow was coming back so I stopped at that point! A good 3.5 hours of powder in sunshine that I hadn't expected!

Love it!

We have had a nice amount of snow recently, about 40cm over a few days. So we got a good few runs down some of the off piste such as Pente de Joule etc. Had the barry white out (swallow tail) so had some great runs. Did Gers a few days which was really good, the first time amazing it was pretty much bottomless powder and blue skies. Last time wasn't as good there was an ice base about 15cm down which was quite inconsistent, and death cookies all over the place (balls of ice). But on the steep it was great!

When you look at it for every 10 times I have been out, 1 has been a powder day. Flaine really is an unknown gem. We have the most snow out of anywhere in the alpes (other than Chamonix round the corner), we have 240cm at the top. Val d'isere has 117 , Val Thorens the highest in europe has only 120!

I love it when I hear people say isn't flaine that ugly resort with only a few bars, why would you go there? If only they knew about the amount of snow and off piste options we have here!

Quite a few of the French race team have grown up trained here, as well as one of the best extreme boarders in the world. There must be reasons for that!

The locals are happy with all the holiday makers going to the fashionable resorts such as Courcheval and Val I.

With the inept flaine marketing department as it is I think that is very likely! Brilliant!!!

So the cold weather isnt due to hit us for a few days so in the meantime we have a mixture of rain and snow. Sat in Blackside with david for the morning looking at different bindings the ones I wanted were 300 euros, with the current Euro rate this makes it about £225. Thats a lot considering at the beginning of the season they would have been £190. Anyway I went home and found them on the Snowboard Asylum for £150 including delivery.

Its crazy I am in the alpes ordering snowboard equipment from England as its cheaper!!!

I went out for a couple of runs but the snow was so heavy and sticky it was like wet flour that had been compressed! Horrid....

The lifties were being complete twats today aswell. I got told not to shut the door on the eggs (fair enough) and then told to take my bag of at the 6 man. When I told them I wear it everyday they just pointed at the sign! They must have had a lifty meeting where someone stuck a rocket up their arses and told them to do their jobs! Rant over!

We've had no new snow for three weeks which has felt like an eternity.
The first week it was very cold so extreme hard pack and ice which was pretty challenging. I had a lesson with serge and hes corrected my technique, stopped me turning my shoulders, and got my back knee into a better position.

I then had to go back to England for a meeting, went really well and got some more work out of it plus made a good business contact/partnership. Had a few boozy nights, one in London with Robin and Dave Ray. Then another two at the weekend the first with Clara and John and the next with all the cricket guys, Rob, Pete Philly Downsey, AP etc.

Had some nice family meals and caught up with the folks which is always nice.

I flew back into Geneva to 15 degrees and sunshine I got upto the mountain to find it was warm up there too. The hard ice conditions I had left had turned to almost spring conditions and lots of soft slush which has been great fun! My new boots form Snow and Rock are really good, loads tighter so its all good...


Looking at the forecast we are due about a meter of the fresh stuff in a few days so can't wait for that!

Today was the first Ger day of the season. Ger is a large bowl, with one difficult drag lift out and one black piste down. No one uses the piste as it is all about the off piste! Its approx an 800m verticle decent and it only opens the day after heavy snow and they have dynamited most of the avalanche prone areas.

David and I had a coffee at the top of the DMC looking out over Mont Blanc, and chatted to a few lifties trying to work out when it was open. We got the word and headed over and waited at the top with some of the other locals.

Once open we traversed accross a pretty steep slope to get away from rocks etc, it was hairy in places with a minor avalanche starting behind me. As I am heavy and cutting a gap of snow out, the avalanche can either be pushed from below me, or more worringly slide from above.

Fortunately it was nice soft snow that hadn't been wind blown so wasn't slabbing.

Then is was all go jump and straightline for a while, absolutely bottomless powder and flying it was a great run, theres quite a few bushes at the bottom area so good fun to avoid!!! At the bottom, we joined the queue for the drag to get up again for one more quick go before everyone else heard about it and tracked it out!

There was a swiss ski instructor that had been teaching for 30 years, and he reckoned it was the best skiing he had ever done. The sort of conditions you wait 10 years for unless you live in the resort, or have a helicopter! Gave me quite a smug feeling knowing I get to do this several times a season!!!!!

We went up the drag and did another run down the other side, really steep and I must have been doing 50-60mph at some points as it gets to about 60 degrees. Its good flying past everyone at twice the speed, not something I could do on a normal snowboard you need the swallow tail for extra stability, one bump or a crossed track and I would been in trouble on my normal board!

Gotta love days like these.

No not the usual one after a curry and a few beers, the 40cm of fresh snow type.

The best things about saturday morning power days is:

-the tourists are all going home, or haven't arrived.Its almost worth getting up to see there miserable faces when they see loads of fresh snow and can't use it!!Harsh!!

-The road into flaine is usually shut for a few hours or impassable

-Most seasonaires are working

It basicially means I have pretty much all the first powder runs on pretty much all the pistes and good off piste! Which is what I did today, Barry White (the swallow tail) and I headed out at 9am and its now 12 , so a good three hours of powder.

Finished off on Pente de Joule which is a reasonably steep bit off offpiste which you have to enter through a rock gulley... Bit later got taken out by some french idiot as he reentered the piste as I was heading home. Gave him a torrent of abuse and then sped off....

It was lush, just picked up a fresh baggette and it is now time for a bolognese sandwich!!!

Gotta love mountain life!

Edit: Later I watched England vs Wales. First half we were awesome we showed what a team we can be. Wales are extremely poor, and for us to throw the game away was poor. We lost it they didn't win it. I expect an extremely strong come back against Italy.

So I've basically spent the last week working 10 hour days to finish something off. Its great being in a ski resort, as even when you work a long day I still have an hour or two left over to go boarding, so man aged to fit in a few powder days, anmd headed down to Samoens with Charlie. We did a closed piste which was great at the top but sheet ice near the bottom, had to sharped my edges after that!
Afterwards got far to drunk at the Tropical party at le white, had the worst hang over and din't get out of bed untill 5pm the next day, but I was celebrating some sales on my new service....

Today was glorious, met up with David for a few hours it was hot and sunny and the pistes were beautiful. Not too soft, not too hard just right for flat out fun!

Headed down to Cluses with Charflie afterwards so she could go to the dentist, still feel sick from the winding roads and her cornering!

Heading out to meet Johno later, who I randomly bumped into on the bus, he lives with Pizii an ex uni mate and we met in Wales in the summer!

Thats all for now!

Yep its snowing again and we are predicted 25cm overnight.
Today was good, went boarding with David, Carolyn and of course Charlie! It was cool but I only planned to head out for a few hours and the light looked ok so didn't bring my goggles. It started snowing and the light got bad so had to board down from the top of the DMC with snow in my eyes and no vis! Oh well.

I worked for the rest of the afternoon, and added neutral as a classification type to the service I run.

Usually at this time I am at the Perdrix Noire, I've got to be honest I am pretty fed up with the beer price,easy listening music and general lack of atmosphere. SO I am boycotting it at the moment. £4 a pint is unnecessary, they wonder why people only buy one and make it last. I am sure they would double their profits if they dropped it from 6.60 to 4 euros a pint. Its 4.80 down in Les Carroz and that is also a ski resort, so why the extra 2 euros!

Flaine isn't some posh resort like Courcheval, (I mean look at the multi story car park like architecture), although the owners of the new nightclub twinned with one in Courcheval seem to think it is.

15 euros a drink, f*ck off.

I think they are going to land themselves in trouble, people generally come here as its near to Geneva, the snow record is excellent and it was tradionally cheap. Now people are leaving here thinking the ski area is good, but it is too expensive so don't come back. They need to have a long hard look at their marketing, is aiming for the family market really where the money is? I don't think it is. Who spends more, five 20-30 somethings, or a family of five with only two adults...

Anyway I have been discussing with David getting a few bands from Chamonix to come up and play in the Diamond Noir...... Flaine is crying out for an Apres ski bar, with good bands to fill the 4-7pm area. Try telling the French that, they just don't get it. Maybe we need to send them to Austria........

So it snowed more than predicted, I woke up this morning and there was a good 20-30 cm of snow. So I headed out with the Swallow at 8.40am and got the first lift up, the resort was dead as expected for a saturday. So I did the new 6 man chair a few times and single handed trashed Faust, it was great fun the pristine powder looked a right mess by the time I was finished!!

I then headed over to the eggs and did a few runs there, by 11.30am I was pretty tired so headed back home , I worked for the rest of the afternoon, and currently have Leinster vs Toulouse on in the background....

Charlie and Jonc have headed out for the last lift, but I think I'll wait till tomorrow, its still snowing lightly and vis was pretty bad today so the off piste should still be good for tomorrow. Theres too many rocks, trees, cliffs and crevasses to do in the flat light today, well at a speed worth doing it at anyway!!!

So tomorrow AM should be pretty good....

So finally France Telecom have sorted out internet for the appartment. So I can actually work without having to go to the pub and use their wifi, which is a pain in the arse!

Also have my slingbox working pretty well, I say pretty well because the connection seems to vary between 200kbs and 700kbs when it is supposed to be 1mbs, so the Virgin Media picture quality varies but its still watchable.

So tommorow is change over day, when the old tourists leave and the new ones arrive. It means the longest day of the week for alot of the Seasonaires. I usually help Charlie for a few hours to help reduce the foul mood she always gets into, also I get 20 euros for my trouble.

The one caveat is if it dumps with snow friday night there is no way I am missing out on the first tracks before the tourists arrive! We are predicted 20cm today down to 1000m so guess where I will be at 8.50am tommorow morning!! Standing in between three lifts to see which opens first, with the trustly swallow tail so I get the untracked powder!! Its usually trashed by about 11am I'll have to stop at 10.30am and head upto the Chalet to help Charlie then!!! Oh well!!

Had a pretty good business call via Skype to the US yesterday, lets hope I get the business!

So I've been pretty lame about updating this journal so far, mostly due to France Telecom still havent installed broadband in the appartment. Apparently they need to relay a cable in the couloir (corridor) so needed permission from the syndicat!

So I got to an agency and they wrote a letter which I then need to show to France Telecom boring..............................

Whats not boaring is it dumped a load of snow down above 1800m, it was raining lower which was a bit rubbish. But I took the swallow tail out with David at 9am and got the first run down the eggs, faust and a few of the other runs. It was a 4/5 avalanche risk due to the wind and wet snow so didnt venture off piste there is loads of rocks as we need more snow aswell.

It was quality, loved it. Three hours of that and that was my work out, now Im working in the pub!!!

I promised to be good and update this more often!!!

Also its day 6 if my dry Janvier, I fancy a beer after a day like that but must resist!!! The excange rate has gone tits up since last season so it is now 4 pounds a pint! So when I do drink I drink at home and drink demis(halves) in the pub!!! Hello sailor!

Well its been an awesome summer. Did a load of mountain biking and got into kite surfing in a big way, so much that I am bringing my kites to the mountains for another season of fun fun fun!!!!

Yes thats right its that time of year! Heading back to Flaine for 4 months of boarding, kite boarding, drinking piss, beating the froglets in the 6 nations and maybe even a little work!

This weekend I am off to see Maximo Park (pete's cousin) with Pete, Rob and Geoff. Then Monday night an early Christmas dinner with my family and then I drive out on Tuesday!

Apparently it is dumping out there so I CANT WAIT!!!

BRING IT ON

It was quite sad saying goodbye to the mountains today! The snow is all melting and in a way it looked like the mountains were dying! The nice clean looking snow turning to slush and mud. Oh well back to sunny angleterra. I got a taxi with Sian and Will and they have just left for their flight. I'm sitting in Geneva airport at the moment waiting for mine. Its going to be really odd sitting at home and not having the option to grab a board and head up the mountain, but Im going to get an ew bike and kite surfing kit so should stay busy this summer!

Ill definately be back for more boarding season action!

Au revoir pour maintenant!

Neil and James left bright and early today.
I helped Charlie tidy the chalet, then we headed out for a board at about 3pm. It is really slushy and slow by then though, and its like 24 degrees. Ive never boarded in a t-shirt before and it is great, unless you go off a ramp and screw the landing up as you end up with burns down your arms! Apparently its the crystals in the snow!

We had a BBQ in the evening and Sophia came over as Adam had headed back to the UK, had a few glasses of wine and passed out!

Neil and James have come to visit. We had a great day boarding, I was still practicing for the snake run, which is a boardercross trpe thing but you go one at a time and are timed. It was a bit colder than I expected it would be but still pleasant.

Yesterday I did the snake run I did it twice and averaged at 56 seconds, the winner was 44 seconds so I was a way off. He was a pro rider, most people were in the 47-51 second mark. I was extremely nervous as at the start there was a queue of 20-30 people all French so didnt have a clue what they were talking about. But I was generally pleased as they were all french guys either pros, or lived on the mountains.

I beat Karen aswell by 5 seconds and shes done 10 seasons so I was generally pleased, I came about 70th out of 80, which I was pleased with for my first ever competition.

They had music a BBQ and beers for 2 euros at the bottom and that was a goog laugh, there were people waxing their boards and chaning bindings etc so taking it really seriosuly, quite a few were smoking weed aswell!!!!

Last night there was a BBQ for Neilson so we headed up, it was a good laugh and much alcohol was had by all especially Charlie!!!

Today I signed out of Appartment 812 Residence de grand massif, and we moved upto Charlies Chalet. There are no guests here, and its a 6 bedroom chalet, 4 bathrooms with a Sauna, and massive terrace with views across the mountains.

We popped down to Les Carroz for a bit, then came back had a bbq and wine and watched Bad Boys and chilled out. Its lovely to have a load of space again after being in a tiny appartment! It was 24 degrees aswell, tommorow it is due to be 25 which is amazing snow boarding in the heat!!!

Been practicing carving on ice and hardpack today, getting better, so that was good fun . David was telling me ski theory and I was converting it to board theory but it makes perfect sense.

A lot more tiring though....

Had another lesson with Serg today, was pretty useful he reckons I dont bend my knees enouigh when carving, which means I slide a bit and loose speed. By the end of the lesson I was carving much better. Did quite a few jumps too which was fun.
Then went out with James for a bit, was pretty knackered by this point, so only did about 4 hours boarding.

Entered for the snake run comp on saturday sounds fun there will be about 100 competitors, dont reckon I stand much of a chance against the resident frenchies but it will be fun.

Ljfind has hit 125000 users a day which I am very pleased with,its also in the top 10000 sites for traffic in the world and doing better every month....If this carries on I will soon be able to take over the world ......mwah ha ha ha

Went out today with Tom and went off piste and made a kicker. Its not massive but is on a resonably steep slope so you get about 1 meter of air, more if you go faster. Was doing 180s of it and have started finding them quite easy, well I land 90% of them.

Annoyed me a bit to see Tom do a 360 off the side of the piste thats my next target, got to catch up!!!!! Mind you Karen has been trying to do it for 10 seasons and she cant I reckon Ill hav it down in a week or so.

It got really slushy late on which was good fun jumping off bumps and messing around. Charlie came out for a bit and is startign to go faster, I stop for her less now as an incentive to make her push herself more!!!

Getting the internet today was an effort, went to the Diamont Noir had a pint the internet wouldnt work, went to get the lift it was broken. Went to the next lift and then finally got to the White!!!!

ANyway might take my camera out tommorow and get some photos of the kicker and me!!!
It was hot today t-shirt was enough, but wore a coat anyway for extra padding...

Rained a bit earlier but just april showers, was snowing higher up... Thats all folks...