Some Days Are Better Than Others
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Last season I made a trip to Flims/Laax, Switzerland, and stayed in a chalet run by Jason and his company, SnowMotions. It was a great trip - with SnowMotions making it better still.
Since then I've been hoping to get out there this season - unfortunately that's not going to happen. That stupid thing called money, or lack of, is getting in the way. Still, I've been keeping in touch with Jason and how his season has been progressing; he sent me these shots just last week - with the caption "some days are better than others". No arguments there :) It seems he and his crew have been finding some sweet powder!
Powder Heaven... by Dave Blackburn // Riders: Simon, Dwayne, Jason // Arosa
Labels: photo collections, snowmotions
Snowmotions.com
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Last season I went to Flims/Laax and rented accommodation from a company called Snowmotions. As it turns out, we got much more than just accommodation: they told us all the best places to go, showed us around the place, helped out with beepers, pointed us in the direction of reduced transceiver hire and organised a guided backcountry day in Lenzerheide. Snowmotions really added to the trip.
Well, Snowmotions have updated their site fresh for next season. There's loads of good information there, and to me, the most interesting is that Arosa and Lenzerheide will be linked by a chairlift, making them a connected area. I've heard good things about the freeriding in Arosa and I was certainly impressed with what I saw of Lenzerheide the day we did the tour. It's a great option, especially if you're looking for good backcountry riding.
They have details of freeriding packages, the safari tour that we did and heliboarding packages. The whole point is that they can help tailor-make your holiday.
Of real potential interest is the resort of Flumserberg. Snowmotions can help you set up a short stay (or longer) in a resort which could be the quickest access from the UK... check it out.
Oh, and check out the review of last season: there's a cheeky photo of me in there, and one of Martin also :)
If you're considering Switzerland, or you're looking for good backcountry riding I'd definitely consider Snowmotions. My experience before, during and after the holiday has been excellent - definitely recommended!
Labels: snowmotions
Backcountry Tour In Lenzerheide: Extra Pictures
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Back in March I posted about a backcountry tour that we did in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. Since then I've been sent some more pictures from the day, so I'm going to put them here. Looking back through the photos reminds me of what an amazing day it was...
(Click on the photos to enlarge them)
Labels: off-piste and backcountry, photo collections, snowmotions
Heliboarding With Snowmotions, Switzerland
Friday, May 11, 2007
I've talked about Snowmotions quite a bit over the course of this season - and with good right too. If you've been following this blog you'll know that a group of us spent two weeks in Laax/Flims back in March, staying in one of the Snowmotions chalets. One of the things that really made the trip great was the local knowledge, specifically off-piste and back-country knowledge, passed on to us from Jason - owner of Snowmotions. In fact this trip provided the majority of the group, including myself, with our first real taste of riding off-piste, something that I now want to do more and more...
One of the options available from Snowmotions is to have them organise a Heli-Trip. It's not something that we did while we were in Switzerland, but not long after we'd gone home, Jason and some others did a day with a heli. They passed on a quick review of the action, partly to make me jealouse I'm sure, but also to give an indication of what a heli-trip can be like. Here are some details and photos from that day... take a look, it really does look awesome.
- Date: 5th April 2007
- Location: Hoeffi Firn / Toedi, Switzerland
- Take Off: 8am Tavanasa, 20 minutes from Flims
- Altitude of landing points: 3000m and 3200m
- Conditions of north east hang towards Linthal: perfect, fresh cold powder!
- Conditions of Val Russein, south hang: powder to icy crust, to sulz, to slush, to no more snow. And a long walk out!
- Mountain Guide: Paul from www.alpventura.ch
- Heli firm: www.airgrischa.ch
- Cost: CHF420- per person for 2 flights, including an excellent mountain guide
- Verdict: great day out in high alpine terrain...
Thanks to Snowmotions for the info!
Labels: heliboarding, off-piste and backcountry, photo collections, snowmotions
Backcountry Tour In Lenzerheide
Monday, March 12, 2007
Yesterday, Sunday, three of us took a backcountry tour that started and ended in the resort of Lenzerheide. This was the first real backcountry riding that I've done - it was excellent.
First off, we were real lucky with the weather. It snowed a fair bit on Saturday and then it was a total blue bird on Sunday. Given the poor quality of the season in Europe this year, we picked a beauty of a day for a backcountry tour. Awesome.
We had to drive around 40 minutes from Flims to Lenzerheide, but with the morning traffic it was close to an hour. But that was no problem, all part of the adventure. It was pretty cool travelling to a smaller, less well known resort.
We did the tour with a group of 12 people, which is pretty big. There were two guides as well as Jason from Snowmotions who is well versed in backcountry knowledge/safety. He also has a lot of local knowledge, living very close to Lenzerheide. The average ability of the group was pretty good, nothing to slow us down really - it was only the size of the group that limitted us.
So, starting in Lenzerheide we did a loop that included five good lines, with maybe one of them being close to 40 degrees. Certainly the guides were a little nervous around that area. After the first loop, we were running behind schedule so we headed back up to the top and then rode back down into the town. The last run was great, I put a great line in on a fairly steep section and the feeling was insane. All in all, we covered close to 30 km of terrain.
Snowmotions set everything up for us - including the good timing with the weather, they'd been watching the forecast. I'm so pleased because I've thought about getting a guide a couple of times in the past but never really knew what to expect. Having someone else recommend something and then set it all up for you is great. A big thanks from the three of us who did the tour.
Overall it was an excellent day. I learnt alot, progressed some, we took a little bit of film and most importantly, we had a lot of fun. It was a real adventure. Starting with the drive to Lenzerheide, heading into the backcountry, being close to Arosa, spotting the peaks of Davos, meeting new people, talking with the guides, laying down fresh lines - excellent!
I definitely want to do more backcountry in the future. I'll definitely take another tour with a guide. I think I'd want to pay more to have a smaller group so that we can cover more terrain - but there's no complaints for this introductory tour. If it's something you've been thinking about my advice is to give it a go. It will open your eyes. Amazing.
I'll post the footage when I get a chance...
Labels: off-piste and backcountry, snowmotions
Blue Bird Day Today - Awesome
Friday, March 09, 2007
Today was a blue bird day - clear skies and the sun out. I reckon there was about 15 cm of fresh snow up there, maybe 20 cm in places. It made an excellent change from the last two low-visibility days.
So we spent almost all day riding off-piste. In Laax/Flims there are off-piste areas on the piste map, which is pretty much what we stuck to.
Early on we caught a few fresh lines, but later in the day the snow was still good, real good. It was great fun. We got a small amount of footage, which was cool. Again, I'll probably be sorting that out later on when I get back.
There's the chance that tonight will bring around 20cm of fresh snow and maybe more during tomorrow, making it overcast. In fact, some of the people here are planning to take tomorrow off, which if I follow suit, will be the first day that I've taken off since I started riding.
But there is some method to this madness. To start off with, we're heading out this evening, actually just about now as I write this. It's gonna be a late night. Also, with our first allocation of a 6-day pass running out today, and the possibility of a bad weather day tomorrow, having a day off in the middle might not be a bad idea.
But the key is Sunday. Sunday is scheduled to be a clear day, with fresh snow due to the fall tonight and tomorrow. What's more, we're setup to do a guided tour on Sunday, with around 20 - 30 km of off-piste covered. Maybe resting up is a good idea?
From what I've heard, oragnised through Snowmotions, this Safari Tour should be excellent! I should have more to say on this as I know more. We'll be beepered up, shovels, probes etc. I can't wait.
But let's not forget today, it was a sick day riding...
Labels: snowmotions
Ka-Pow!
Monday, March 05, 2007
Fresh powder. Laying down fresh tracks. Awesome riding today.
We had a complementary tour/guide from Snowmotions today. We tooled up with ruck-sacks, shovels, probes and tranceivers - although we didn't do anything with any real risk attached. In fact, for many in our group of six off-piste'rs, this was an introduction to riding in deep stuff.
Given that, we all did remarkably well. For sure there were tumbles resulting in boards being burried, but that's all part of learning how to ride off piste. There was one section that required a fast, straight line, and we all came out on the other side. Great stuff. A little bit of waiting was nothing compared to the feeling of six friends riding through the powder on a blue bird morning.
Having the tour today turned out to be excellently timed. For the whole morning the skies were totally clear and the sun was out. Today was also the first time that the glacier in Laax has been open for a while. Of one of the lines we did today, our guide had only been able to ride it twice this season. Lucky.
The clouds did come in around noon, and when that happened it got a fair bit colder and the visibility was aweful. It kinda put an end to our session. In fact the last route took a fair while with low light and heavy snow.
We took a little bit of footage today, which was nice to look back on, but there wasn't that much. Now that we've seen some good spots though we should be able to re-visit them and get some video.
All in all an excellent day. We've seen some great areas that we can safely ride by ourselves, and we're sure to go back to. We've also had an introduction to off-piste safety and got some good local knowledge. Sick.
Labels: snowmotions
Just Landed
Saturday, March 03, 2007
We've just landed in the chalet - it's pretty damn cool. Chilling out at the end of the journey, kicking back on the most comfortable bean-bag/sofa ever, sipping on a beer and updating my blog, it's all good.
Well, almost all good. We've had a bumpy start to the trip: Ciara's snowboard bag was left behind in London, which is apparently fairly common for BA's London to Zurich connection. Not good. At best it's going to arrive first thing tomorrow morning - I just hope we don't end up renting for the first day.
And the snow. Well, there's loads of it, but it's warm, which is making things quite variable. Lower down there is rain. Up on the top there's almost too much snow. Apparently, some of the lifts aren't open because there's a lot that needs to be made avalanche-safe. I'm intruiged to see what the first day is gonna be like. No complaints though, I'm stoked.
Snowmotions picked four of us up from Zurich for our transfer, which worked out great. We got the low down on a lot of local knowledge on the way to Flims, which is just what you want. Jason, the guy in charge, has been super helpful. On first impressions, I can't recommend Snowmotions enough.
Right now I'm hooked up to the wireless connection in the chalet so updating should be pretty easy throughout the stay. That's all for now. Gav.
Labels: snowmotions
Laax, Switzerland, March 2007
Sunday, October 29, 2006
It's on, two weeks in Laax next March. I'm looking forward to this big time: great park, great terrain and The Brits is on while we're there. Sick.
I'm going to mention the chalet company that we're going with - SnowMotions - because the owner has been really helpful. We'll be staying in Flims. If you're thinking about riding in the Laax area it's worth checking the website out. I pretty much knew nothing about staying in Laax, so all the help I received was great.
Labels: snowmotions
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