Maps and My Tracks

As I said here, I used a wicked app on my phone called My Tracks while we were in Les Deux Alpes recently. An added bit of niftyness about it is that you can upload the maps to Google maps. The last point has the various stats about the route (max/avg speed, etc) which is also quite nifty :)

Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6

Into the Wild

We watched Into the Wild last night. This is the first film in ages that I have watched and thought was very good! It's based on a true story and definitely worth a watch.

And here's the bus... what a memorial...

"Happiness is only real if shared"

Last Few Days in Les Deux Alpes

Over the last few days of the session I didn't really get time to do a day by day blow of what was going on. Needless to say, it was ace :) The sun stayed shiny and the conditions held.

It was so crazy hot! At the top of the glacier (3600m!) it was 10 degrees and 24 degrees in the town. I was amazed at how well the snow kept. It so often is hard and icy in the morning and then dead slushy in the afternoon. It only really got slushy on Thursday and Friday and even then wasn't particularly bad.

The other peeps staying in the hotel were dead good. There was the obligatory annoying couple, but they were suitably ignored. We played poker, drunk beer and generally had a laugh.

Nic continued to produce the goods on the mountain and for the first time there were moments when I had to ride at a good pace to keep up with her. We spent an afternoon with a couple of lads who were in our hotel (Martin and Gabs), so I did a bit of GoPro videoing of them. Gabs pulled off a superb face plant, so there could be a £250 from YBF on it's way ;)

We had such a great time. Although the mountain isn't that big, it is high and we would almost certainly go there again.

Roll on next season! Well, at least after a bit of surfing first ;)

I've got a video coming soon - more likely to be YouTube than Vimeo ;)

Day 2 in Les Deux Alpes

So following on from day 1, day 2 was much the same. Great sunny weather with good snow and superb visibility. There were a lot of red faces about from the day before and some major money had been had been invested in sun cream!!

I managed to rig up the GoPro on the front of the board and got some cunning footage. I'll get some put up on YowTube, when I can be arsed to edit it ;) I was a bit worried about it falling off - and it did a couple of times. It came of the first time when I landed a jump and the second when I was motoring on a  bit. No damage though!

I used a wicked app on my phone called My Tracks. Takes a GPS reading and shows where you've been, speed, distance, etc. The novelty of this ace! And I couldn't believe that in half a day we covered 28km! So I'm going to set it going hopefully for the full day today (although we're starting late today).

There was ace boarder cross track that was being used for a race. So we didn't get to go on that (maybe today), but the training cross track was open and Nic was well loving that! Rock 'n' roll :)

Day 1 in Les Deux Alpes

Had a really good day today :) The sun has been shining and our initial worries of lack of snow were quickly put to bed when we took the lift up the mountain. Although there wasn't  really enough snow to easily make it back down to the town, there was plenty higher up

Nic has done amazingly well today - probably the best she has ever done. Confidence was good and with it an improvement in skill.

I took a massive stack on one of the first few runs. Ouch! Bruised my chest and jaw. My right shoulder could be better - starting to really stiffen up now - a bit more stretching I think ;)

Only managed two piccies today which was a shame as the weather was so brilliant - batteries weren't charged! But planning on taking the GoPro tomorrow.

Oh and I have done a super job on waxing my board. Possibly the best ever! It ran better than it ever has. Sweeet.

St Paddy's Day - 2011

I'm pretty sure that yesterday was the first time I celebrated St Patrick's day. We had an excuse this year (thanks Melissa). So Uncle Knob Head sorted out some t-shirts for us and we sampled a couple of G's :) Nic had some home-made Baileys (basically just whiskey and cream!). The Dubliners were played all night. That added a certain something to it ;)

Highlight of the evening. Well, that would have been the IRA attack in the living room with the threat of being "toe" capped (I think it was supposed to be have been knee capped!). Thanks Lorraine for a truly unique entrance wielding an axe and tripping over the dog! Classic!

Oh yeah - we ate potato too - raw of course :)