Everything hurts... Backflips!

Friday 28th: I write this three days on and I'm still aching all over...

Note: So I've never backflipped before. Ever. Not into an airbag / pool / on a trampoline / anywhere. And my skis weigh a tonne. So I was basically ignoring the two main pieces of advice for a first backflip; practice without skis to get the feeling and use light skis to make the rotation easier. Oops.

After weeks of persuading people it finally happened; kicker time. Tom Tom and I headed up Flegere early to choose a spot. We chose a spot on a roller skier's right of Index, above the crappy 3-man lift. The run out was seriously steep - perfect. After half an hour of digging Dan and Bertie joined us with a portable speaker. Another half hour of work with the music blasting and it was looking pretty good.

Not a bad spot

Dan speed checked first and his first comment was 'whippy'. I speed checked and it proper threw me. First wipe out of the day. Still, the kicker was definitely whippy. No more testing for me. Straight into backflip time.

Screwing up the speed check

Attempt 1: Few beers, music, psyched myself up and went for it. Surprisingly I... failed. Timed it all wrong and threw my arms before the jump, under-rotated and landed square on my back. Shit. Landing wasn't too bad though thanks to the heavy powder so was up and ready to go again.

Back first...

Attempt 2: Went straight back up. This time I got enough rotation but looked over my shoulder throwing me off axis. First real feeling of flipping. Cool. I can do this...

Dropping the shoulder

Attempt 3: Straight up again. Determined. Popped hard. Flipped. Landed. Collapsed face first in a heap screaming to get the others to get me out of my bindings. Serious pain in my right knee. Thought I'd done my ACL. Nope, my other ski was pressing right into my ACL. The others informed me that actually my ski had popped off on the lip, I'd landed on one foot, carried on down then fell. My ski was 5 metres above me... Felt like a right tool for shouting for help.

Pretty sure that should be on my foot

Break

Attempt 4: Asked TT what I was doing wrong, told me I was dropping my shoulder, look straight up, follow the hands. Went up confident that I could do it as long as my ski stayed on. Went for it. Boom. Landed. I washed the tails out so it wasn't perfect but I'm not surprised as the landing zone was shite by then (rocks poking through) so we called it.

Finally

Nice sequence by TT

In between my attempts Dan had an epic first non-airbag backflip attempt and threw it so hard he over rotated by at least half a revolution. TT hit some big grabs. Aidan joined us for a couple of hits. Richo went for a few and Tom landed a nice big grab. Pretty awesome considering he's only just started jumping.

Dan over-rotating

TomTom

Roberta

Tom going HUGE

Aidan

Landing absolutely trashed - rocky

Tom trying his best to headplant a rock

After Tom tried to cave his skull in on a rock we moved on and built another smaller kicker to the side. Dan almost landed a backflip but caught his tip and headbanged. Looked painful. I just grabbed it, didn't think it was big enough for me to get a full flip. TT tried a tamedog and wiped out sideways. Richo came close on a backflip attempt. He went again and landed... then washed the tail out further down. Respect. Last jump of the day I caved half of the jump in throwing me sideways. Took the hardest fall of the day. Couldn't move my thumb for two days, everything is still sore and shoulder feels loose.

TT tail-grabbing the mini kicker

Richo's successful attempt

Dan about to catch a tip and face-plant

Tom Tom slightly off axis...

Oh well. EPIC day. Definitely will be doing that again...

Photos were all taken on Tom Tom's camera by whoever wasn't jumping and edited by him.

Rognon Mk.15 or so

Tues 25th: Cosmiques was on the agenda again until we heard reports of a big slide and lots of traffic the day before. Instead Steve, Tom Tom, Robyn and I went up for another lap of Gros Rognon. For once the CDMB seemed to be on form... we were up the top before 9am - without queuing... No idea why seeing as it was a powder day.

Snow was incredible. It had settled a bit from the day before but was still really soft. Some aspects were wind-crusted but Rognon was sublime. We chose to hug closer to the rock than usual - more tracks but hopefully better snow. Still we got fresh tracks all the way down to the mogul-field. Big smiles. We saw three locals skier's right flying down the lip of the bowl that often slides - nothing. The snow was stable. From the mogul field I spied a complete lack of tracks down from the Requin hut traverse to the Seracs du Geant and persuaded the others to follow me down. Deep, soft, completely untracked, no rocks. Sublime. Took the train down for the first time in months and were down by 12:15.

'Retro' Steve

Photo of a photo of a photo...

Thin layer of cloud giving some spectacular views

Dropping in off the Requin traverse

Only tracks...

Our plan was for a single run to relax after yesterday. My right knee was feeling pretty tender and I didn't want to push it. But when the snows that good... no chance. We persuaded TomTom and Robyn to come back up with us. I decided to use my new touring setup to get used to the Dynafit bindings. Another excellent run. Still fresh everywhere. I lead off to the bowl we'd seen the locals on earlier. Great shout. Snow was excellent. Great skiing and some fantastic photos. I'd already spied a line further off the Requin traverse in case we made it up for another lap. Finding it proved tricky. The sun had uncovered rocks that were previously hidden making it hard to work out where I was from the photo. Almost (bit of an exaggeration) went off a huge cliff band... Another quick exit as we had to make the 3pm train down. Walked straight onto it. Win.

Steve's 'fat' skis left vs my 'skinny' skis

Robyn, Steve and Tom Tom following

Taking advantage of the new skis

Steve on the lip

Robyn dropping into the bowl

Tom Tom kicking up snow

Steve on the way down from Requin

Only tracks again on the second lap...

I nabbed lots of these photos off Tom Tom.

Winter's back - Le Tour provides

Mon 24th: Not skiing in a week - record of the season - left me gagging to do something interesting. Steve, Tom Tom and I were planning on doing Cosmique couloir should the weather allow. It didn't in the morning and we didn't want to wait around. So instead TT + I headed up to Le Tour with Robyn. May have been a good shout as apparently the Cosmiques had a big queue and and big slide (heard third hand).

We got up to a pretty dense whiteout and headed up to Tête de Balme, big surprise. Snow was really good with just a tiny bit of wind-crust in places. All three of us bounced down all the little rollers and tree wells, no breaks. I was determined to do something decent as it'd been so long since I'd skid. Chose a nice drop and hit it. First wipeout of the day. Almost made it but my DINs popped.

Low light snow

Tom Tom and Robyn killing it

Determined I tightened my DINs up to full (12 on Barons) and went for it again next lap. Let my core go but I rode out - pretty happy. 

Boom

Tom Tom's stitch

View from the chair

After this we just lapped the chair over non-stop for the next three hours. Met up with Aiden and some of the other boarders for a few runs. All of us were going for it, hitting everything of interest. There were a lot of falls all around. Definitely the most falls I've had in a long time. I blame the GoPro pole. I twisted both knees (not too badly) and ended up bending ANOTHER set of poles...

Sun poking through on our tracks below

Not again...

We headed back for a coffee and sitting down we realised we'd had enough. Better to call it before anything stupid happened. Powder, great company and another awesome day.

Cheers TomTom for the great photos.

Paddy's day / Man date

Mon 17th: Super late update: So I'd been working long hours for the last week with hardly any time off. Only got a quick evening climb in with Tom Tom (TT) on the Sunday. Paddy's rolled around and I was ready to go BIG. Robyn was away so I had TT all to myself. Started off with a lazy afternoon lapping the park. Nothing serious, just enjoying ourselves.

Gay arm

Weird camera angles

Tom Tom going lonnggggg

We started off on the beers at 1pm on the slope. After four hours we headed back to TT's for some apres, already a bit dehydrated from all the sun and beer (no water all day - big fail). Naturally it was a great idea to get on the straight rum (by 4:15) with a hearty chaser of many beers.

Tom Tom with Mont Blanc in the background

Awesome way to end the day

After another four hours of drinking we decided to head to Munster. Here my recollection gets very hazy. We turned up more drunk than everyone there which is quite a feat at 9pm on Paddy's day. All I remember is having a few burgers off the BBQ, many pints more and a MASSIVE hangover the next day. Truly awful. What a day though, so much fun.

Spring's here

10th-14th: No fresh snow for weeks and a high freezing level meant that all the snow is pretty much ruined. Not bothered about doing anything so just a nice chilled out week taking in the sun and heat.

Tues: Climbing and BBQ up at Gaillands with TomTom, Robyn, Sparky, Steve, Roberta, Dan (others joined later). Did a couple of nice routes to start with then TomTom and I went up a fun multipitch. Nice relaxed climbing, nothing too tricky. First time I've climbed properly outdoors. BBQ was amazing. Perfect way to spend four hours between shifts. No photos though unfortunately.

Weds: Headed up GM for a nice chilled out day organised by Tanzi with the them 'frocks and funk'. Naturally Dan and I chose frocks. Hot dogging the park in a dress was pretty weird. Threw some massive daffies / spread eagles. Not pretty. Got so many stares / shouts / laughs it was pretty funny, even the lifties were joining in. After a few falls messing around (none in the park), I started getting really cold so chucked my gear back on. I have no idea how, but apparently there were no proper photos of me doing this... next time maybe hah. LIES. Roberta found one...

Dan-ielle

Rich-ael

Happy days!

Thurs: Had a walk around town to check out the sales. Nothing decent at all. Took the bus to Argentiere then walked back. Took around two hours but I was in no rush.

Flegere home run looking pretty bare... haven't skied it once

Fri: Climbing at Gaillands again with Charlie and Jason for a few hours before work. Pushed myself a little bit more which was cool. Starting to get used to outdoors and find my rhythm. Really looking forward to doing some longer and more complex routes in the next few weeks.

Me leading

Jason belaying off his hangover

Charlie climbing

Jason, Charlie and Zac down below