Off to La Grave tomorrow

On Sat, 24 Mar 2007 07:21:33 -0000, "Weathercam"
wrote:

I think that, about two years ago he was on the probationary thing guides
do, working with a qualified guide.

Known as an "aspirant"

Yes. In fact, he still is - just going through the final stages now.
We also had a chap called Jon Bracey guiding our group, who was
excellent, and is apparently a renowned climber. He'd apparently only
done 4 days on a snowboard in the last 5 years (after previously doing
a couple of seasons), but it must be like riding a bike, as he just
strapped it on and ripped off!

have a good trip in La Grave, you'll get to love
the traverses in the woods back down to P1

ha! What a pain they were. To be honest, conditions down by P1 were
a little marginal, especially when we did the main route on the skiers
right from the top (i.e. a right to left traverse back to P1), where
there were some bare patches. And the moguls - the size of VWs! But
the upper sections, especially on the glacier, were very good.

Because we didn't get any fresh in La Grave, and it was snowing in
Montgenevre, we also spent a couple of days there. A fairly
unremarkable resort normally, the odd weather meant it was getting
dumped on, and we had some great off piste runs there with only 15
minute hikes from the top of the lifts.

We also did a big hiking day from the ‘Col du Lautaret’ up the
‘Glacier de Combeynot’. This was about 1000m of vertical which took
us about 3 hours. The descent was excellent, but I can't help feeling
that hiking up to just ride down again is not my thing. More
helicopter use, perhaps back to Russia, next year, I think.

We stayed at the Skiers Lodge, which I know you've used before. A
great venue, with good food and excellent atmosphere, tho perhaps the
rooms could do with a refurbish (not that I'm bothered by such
things).



--
Champ
neal at champ dot org dot uk

On Sun, 25 Mar 2007 13:04:39 +0200, davidof
wrote:

Weathercam wrote:
Been having a discussion back here, and is McNab a UIAGM qualified guide ?

He, or his guides, must be if he is in la Grave or the Gendarmerie would
McNab him faster than an out of control snowboarder.

Just that we were looking at a few images from his site

could you give a link?

Here : www.mcnabsnowboarding.com

The a link to his photos on flickr there - unfortunately flickr is
blocked from my work now (grrr) so I can't check them myself.

I admit some of the shots show some ragged old groups. One of the
problems with guided groups is group size and timing and that sometimes
means keeping clients closer together than would be normally considered
sensible. It is a judgement call that sometimes goes disasterously wrong
- such as with La Traviata/Revelstoke avalanche.

Well, all guiding is a question of judgement, no?
--
Champ
neal at champ dot org dot uk

On Mon, 02 Apr 2007 12:44:19 +0100, Champ wrote:

On Sun, 25 Mar 2007 13:04:39 +0200, davidof
wrote:

Weathercam wrote:
Been having a discussion back here, and is McNab a UIAGM qualified guide ?

He, or his guides, must be if he is in la Grave or the Gendarmerie would
McNab him faster than an out of control snowboarder.

Just that we were looking at a few images from his site

could you give a link?

Here : www.mcnabsnowboarding.com

The a link to his photos on flickr there - unfortunately flickr is
blocked from my work now (grrr) so I can't check them myself.

I've told you before - www.cooltunnel.com. Sometimes it's slow or
completely unresponsive, but most of the time it works fine.

I admit some of the shots show some ragged old groups. One of the
problems with guided groups is group size and timing and that sometimes
means keeping clients closer together than would be normally considered
sensible. It is a judgement call that sometimes goes disasterously wrong
- such as with La Traviata/Revelstoke avalanche.

Well, all guiding is a question of judgement, no?

"Within guidelines".

As you know, we (Ski Club) do our version of 'guiding' all over Europe
and North America, including off-piste, but are allowed to do so
largely because we're able to point the authorities to our intensive
training and constantly-updated guidelines.

--
Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club.

On Mon, 02 Apr 2007 14:37:53 +0200, Ace wrote:

The a link to his photos on flickr there - unfortunately flickr is
blocked from my work now (grrr) so I can't check them myself.

I've told you before - www.cooltunnel.com. Sometimes it's slow or
completely unresponsive, but most of the time it works fine.

Didn't work last time I tried it - will give it another whirl.
--
Champ

On Mon, 02 Apr 2007 21:41:53 +0100, Champ wrote:

On Mon, 02 Apr 2007 14:37:53 +0200, Ace wrote:

The a link to his photos on flickr there - unfortunately flickr is
blocked from my work now (grrr) so I can't check them myself.

I've told you before - www.cooltunnel.com. Sometimes it's slow or
completely unresponsive, but most of the time it works fine.

Didn't work last time I tried it - will give it another whirl.

Hey, it works!

I have to say, Neil McNab has posted some great photos of the trip at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcnabsnowboarding/. I'll even forgive
him mispelling my name :-)
--
Champ
neal at champ dot org dot uk

--
Champ
neal at champ dot org dot uk

Cool photos. Looks like conditions were great at both la Grave and the
Lautaret. Must have been some effort climbing up there.
The Derby de la Meije start this week. Anyone doing it this year? Last
year best guy did 1900m vertical down from 3550m in 5 mins 40 sec. Mad
stuff when you know the place.

On Tue, 03 Apr 2007 12:10:59 +0100, Champ wrote:

I have to say, Neil McNab has posted some great photos of the trip at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcnabsnowboarding/. I'll even forgive
him mispelling my name :-)

Looks pretty cool. But some of the hikes look a right pain without
skis and skins. 'bout time you had another ski lesson, I reckon.

--
Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club.

On 3 Apr 2007 04:32:10 -0700, "French_Skier"
wrote:


--
Champ
neal at champ dot org dot uk

Cool photos. Looks like conditions were great at both la Grave and the
Lautaret. Must have been some effort climbing up there.

It was! Three hours for 950m of vertical. It pretty much used up all
the energy I had

The Derby de la Meije start this week. Anyone doing it this year? Last
year best guy did 1900m vertical down from 3550m in 5 mins 40 sec. Mad
stuff when you know the place.

Mad indeed!
--
Champ
neal at champ dot org dot uk

On Tue, 03 Apr 2007 14:01:36 +0200, Ace wrote:

On Tue, 03 Apr 2007 12:10:59 +0100, Champ wrote:

I have to say, Neil McNab has posted some great photos of the trip at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcnabsnowboarding/. I'll even forgive
him mispelling my name :-)

Looks pretty cool. But some of the hikes look a right pain without
skis and skins. 'bout time you had another ski lesson, I reckon.

mebbe. But as I really don't see me becoming a good enough skier to
come down some of that terrain, I'm currently seriously thinking about
split boards - skin up, board down.
--
Champ
neal at champ dot org dot uk

On Tue, 03 Apr 2007 13:58:01 +0100, Champ wrote:

On Tue, 03 Apr 2007 14:01:36 +0200, Ace wrote:

On Tue, 03 Apr 2007 12:10:59 +0100, Champ wrote:

I have to say, Neil McNab has posted some great photos of the trip at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcnabsnowboarding/. I'll even forgive
him mispelling my name :-)

Looks pretty cool. But some of the hikes look a right pain without
skis and skins. 'bout time you had another ski lesson, I reckon.

mebbe. But as I really don't see me becoming a good enough skier to
come down some of that terrain, I'm currently seriously thinking about
split boards - skin up, board down.

You've been thinking about them for the last five years.

Which reminds me - I'm thinking about putting a group together for
some mountain guide action in Engelberg next season - you up for it?

--
Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club.