Chamonix Snow Report – Jan 4

Some kids will never learn

I went to bed last night with low expectations after checking the forecast but woke up this morning to a nice surprise – falling snow. Chamonix-meteo.com is calling 10-20cm at 1500m today, while snow-forecast.com is a lot stingier with 4cm at 2438m with 15-20km/hr wind from the southwest and 25-30km/hr from the west at 3840m.

This weekend saw knee-deep and light on Brevent with snow all the way to the bottom and, from what I experienced, a surprisingly solid snowpack. Top of Grands Montets is still showing closed for today. When it opens it’s gonna be good.

Tuesday – Chamonix-meteo says 20% sun, snow-forecast shows partly cloudy

Wednesday – Chamonix-meteo – 20% sun, snow showers. Snow-forecast – cloudy, snow showers

Thursday – Chamonix-meteo – cold, cloudy, light snow. Snow-forecast – same

Friday – Chamonix-meteo – very cold, light snow. Snow-forecast – 10-15cm at 2450m

Üllr Finally Receives Long-Awaited Delivery of New Headlamp. Shines Light Once Again on Chamonix.

Shoulda waxed the cross country skis.

Now I know that all of you have been losing sleep over the absence of the Insider lately and for that I sincerely apologize. But with the Horny Toads embarking on their first undefeated season in over 70 years I figured I better get myself back to the land of the free, home of the armed and dangerous to root the ol’ alma mater to their rightful spot in the college gridiron national championships. Did I also mention that all three hometown schools – Abilene High (5A), Abilene Cooper (4A) and Wylie (3A) are in line for state titles in their respective divisions? And that sureshot Heisman Trophy winner, Colt McCoy, is from nearby Jim Ned? Ahhh, it’s a rare opportunity to represent Abilene and more importantly (because despite everything you’ve just read I’m not actually all that into football), to gather around a table to give thanks for our abundance of good fortune – good fortune not limited to but eloquently represented by Ol’ Deuce’s truly unsurpassed beef tenderloin.

And did I also mention that when I left it was more like summer than winter in Chamonix and there wasn’t a cloud on the horizon? There was some bad mojo hanging over the valley that manifested itself in a fat high pressure system and despite the small but passionate crews at MBC, Elevation and Chambre 9 imbibing copious amounts of magic elixir and doing their best snow dances Üllr remained aloof, steadfast in his recalcitrance.

But as of this morning all that’s changed and there’s finally a layer of lovely white slippery stuff on the ground and it’s still coming. Who knows what changed Üller’s notoriously cantankerous mind. Perhaps he’s had enough fun with our beleaguered little valley and will switch continents to wreak havoc on the BCS rankings. Don’t we know that he loves himself  an upset so if we can just get him to double down on Nebraska over UT next weekend then the Horny Toads will have a shot at the National title. I never thought I’d ever say this but … Go ‘Huskers!

Wishin I was there at this very moment for more than one reason. photos: LLMJ

Tease Me, Snowboard – Nice Try

OK, I’m back in Chamonix and yes, the Calanques is an amazing place to climb. Yeah, yeah, it’s a little polished – OK, it’s a lot polished – but that only means you focus harder on those placements, right? I mean, what’s so bad about trying to edge on a bit of teflon-coated glass when you’re climbing in swimming trunks and you’ve got a beautiful blue Mediterranean sea to fall into?

Anyway, back in the mountains now with a bunch of great ideas for content so stay tuned and hopefully this lovely new teaser from People Creative will keep you occupied while I delete my Inbox. Hang on until the end for the killer bail section.

Question du Jour: why can’t ski vids be more like snowboard vids with less cheesy voiceover and mo’ betta’ soundtrack and bail sections?

Tele Teaser Tuesday – Flakes

I know I’ve been promising and it’s finally here. A long-awaited tele teaser to serve as a reminder that you can’t be slacking this autumn or your skinny thighs are gonna pay in November when it comes time to drop knee. Flakes is the latest from a crew called Powderwhore and with a name like that you know this vid’s going to be good. Good as in how about that amazing line at 2:00.

So here’s what the boys say about the new flick:

So while we were on the road showing “The Pact” we thought we should choose a title before we even start filming and make a movie that has a recurring theme throughout. We decided we liked “Flakes” and thought we could play up the flakiness of these people we ski with, who devote their lives to telemark skiing. We also thought if we fail at showing the flakiness we can always just say we called it flakes because of snow flakes.

When the snow started to fall last winter we reverted back to the days of old where all we want to do is ski. So we didn’t end up capturing too much flakey behavior. What we did manage to capture was by far the most beautiful footage we’ve ever shot. What we thought was going to be a light hearted movie turned into a sort of art flick. Don’t get me wrong the whole movie isn’t that way at all but a few segments are very different. We still have the PW humor that will always make it in our movies.

Go the Powderwhores! And as for me, I’m heading out for a few hundred lunges before dinner. Two months (hopefully) and counting…

www.powderwhore.com

Suffer Well (UTMB remix)

I thought I’d had enough of this silly over-hill-down-dale scamper they call the Ultra Trail but then I saw some vids that did a darn good job of showing what these mentalists go through and so I thought I’d make one last post. But this is it. No more short shorts after this, I promise. Not on men anyway. If they happen to be subtly concealing the svelte hips of some kind of glamazon snow princess well then I guess I could make an exception… UTMB start, sunset, headlamps on. No picnic on the Ultra Trail. Cold, dark, wind, rain – Jornet Kilian at the top of one of the first passes followed by morning fog and finally … sunshine. Kilian crossing the finish. Homey doesn’t even look tired. Second and third place finishers Sébastien Chaigneau and Tsuyoshi Kaburaki still on the trail, looking strong. Story goes that Kaburaki got lost for 20 minutes in the fog before happening upon Chaigneau and finishing the race together.