Frozen Stiff(ee)

Nowt to report from planet BV, just a couple of nice images of the (snapped) Cove Stiffee frame that forms the gate into the BV garden covered in frost. Happy New Year to all and give us a shout if you fancy a ski this winter as there is more snow than we can remember for many a long year!

Snow, man!

It's been a while coming, but we finally have a covering of white over them thar mountains. A pretty decent covering at that -Sam was even caught online searching for telemarking tips in preparation. Les Arcs opens this Saturday so it couldn't have come soon enough!
I'm even looking forward to a bit of skiing this winter although I have to admit I'm slightly apprehensive with 2 dicky knees and a lot of pregnancy relaxin still floating about in my ligaments. I'm more into the coffee/vin chaud at the top of the mountain type of skiing anyway, so fingers crossed my body can cope with that! We've still got plenty space at the Snowinn this winter if you fancy a bit of skiing or boarding action this winter.
As you can see from the photo there were 2 mini Morrises who were very happy to see the snow too. Rowan had a tantrum when we made her come back in. And yes, the snowman is a Jambo. (Sam is making me point out that a Jambo is a supporter of Hearts FC, - jam tarts, therefore jambo. My dad's fault).
The snow does however, put a full stop on Sam's mountain biking and trail exploring for the time being. 3 days ago he could have done sketchy dismount & today you can't even go along the bike path to Bourg St Maurice!

when trail exploring goes bad...

It took a 2000m climb to get to the top, but the line on the map looked so good I knew it was going to be worth it. From the summit at just over 2300m down to the valley floor at 500m, a wiggly little line that spoke of flowing meadows dipping into textbook nadgery switchbacks, albeit with some tight packed contours that looked a spot exposed... Sitting there above the pressure inversion that had filled the valley, and the morning's climbing, with cloud I felt pretty sure this was going to be an epic day and an epic discovery.

The first 20 minutes were textbook alpage traversing - beautiful singletrack that flowed nicely with the odd stream crossing and rocky section to keep you trying. Then the trail took the fall line down the mountain and for the next ten mintues I was sure I was riding the next classic trail. It was so good I was shouting as I descended, wishing I'd brought some friends out to ride it with me and share the moment.
At this exact moment the forest started a gradual transition from larch and pine to a more deciduous mix of trees. The trail was still okay if a little buried under leaves. Then it got a bit more buried, and a bit more still until it was pretty hard to actually spot the trail. The problem here is that leaves fall in autumn and then stay frozen all winter. When they defrost in spring they dry out and sit there all summer. The buggers just don't decompose fast enough! By now the trail was nigh on impossible to follow, with the whole forest floor just a very steep mess of broken branches and leaves about 30cm deep covering loose rock, loose earth and the odd mine shaft. I'd given up on riding by now, having lost any sign of trail a long way back. I was pretty sure from the map there were no small cliffs beneath me so just resorted to sliding down the more gentle sections with the bike beside me and then chucking it ahead of me and down-climbing on the steeper bits. By the time I reached the van I was pissed off, bleeding and tired, wondering what had happened to the amazing trail I'd started on...
Still, that's the exploring process for you I guess. Better than night shifts in a plastic spoon factory! Anyway, there's another line down that looks like it might be promising too, so all hope is not lost for linking in the top section. Having said that, I might go back and run it from the bottom, so that if and when it all goes pear-shaped at least I'm not left lobbing my pride and joy off big ledges, hoping it doesn't bounce out of sight into the valley below!

Season's end, baby Théa's beginning...

It's a girl! Born on Sept 13th, weighing as much as a large domestic cat or a juvenile badger and looking as cute as can reasonably be expected for a human being who'd just done what she had, Théa Nancy Morris completes the Bikevillage sticker set. She and Lyndsey are now back at home and everyone is doing splendidly well, albeit in a slightly tired fashion.

Her arrival coincided with the last week of the season, so we got off pretty lightly there! A massive thanks goes out to everyone who came to visit in 2011 - we had an awesome summer with some truly epic riding, some even more epic banter at the table and lots of lovely new friends made, which is pretty much why we still love doing it eleven years in!
As ever, plans are afoot for new rides for 2012. I'm sporting a slightly sore wrist just now so recce' work is being done in porno shorts and fell running shoes. Just be glad there are no photos of that! The BV house is also getting some poshing up with another new bathroom so I'll post when that's done.
Right now I'm off to help Lyndsey's continuing celebration of her return to the world of booze with a lovely bottle of 2007 Pommard from Borgogne - thanks to John, Maddie and Andy for that one!
Cheers to all and here's to Théa and 2012!

Insurance for older riders?

Does anyone out there know of any companies who'll do sports/travel insurance for older riders? We've just spent an awesome week riding with Bob Grundy who, at 69, is a stronger rider than most half his age. Alas Bob's not having any joy looking for insurance for next year as most companies stop covering people at 70. Please give us a shout if you have any ideas!
On the plus side, I'm now looking forward to at least another  37 years of mountain biking - thanks to Bob for the inspiration!

Alpine nocturne

I went for an awesome nightride with our chef Thor this week. We climbed up onto the south facing side of the Tarentaise, so that's les Arcs and Sainte Foy you can see in the background. About 45 minutes of granny gear (or the 1x10 equivalent) grinding up a fire road to be rewarded by a stunning star-lit panorama over the whole valley and a pretty savage descent back into Bourg St Maurice before sneaking along Scary Bear Trail home. Now that's mountain biking!

We risked a fast 'n light strategy and took nothing at all with us bar the tiny camera and a couple of MTFU stickers on our top tubes. At this time of year zipping out for a ride without a huge guiding pack on is a real joy! The gamble paid off and we had about the best 2 hour ride you could ever wish for. With autumn approaching it's probably good to be honing the torch-lit singletrack skills anyway!

Run down...

In January I (Sam writing) signed up for a fell running race on July 30th called the 6000D - 60km long with 4000m of climbing and descending. It seemed like a good idea because the riding gets a bit dificult over the alpine winter whereas my studded fell shoes mean it's easy enough to get out, break an icy sweat and stay much warmer than you do descending on a bike at -15 degrees.
Then something beautiful happened - the sun came out, all winter! It was the best winter of biking we've ever had, with trails snow free up to 1800m. Needless to say running went on the back burner to such an extent that by the start of July I'd been on exactly three runs all year. Not ideal preperation for 1.5 marathons with the same height gain as doing Ben Nevis 4 times.

Cue the film montage sequence where the tune from Rocky plays as I try to get good at running in three weeks. I opted to let biking fitness take care of the ups and instead focus on preparing for the punishing downs. This involved getting on chairlifts dressed in my porno shorts (why are running shorts so short?) and wife beater for some uplifted running - I guess the bike industry would have a glib marketing name for it in milliseconds. Freerunning? I liked 'shoe-core' best.
Fast forward to last Saturday and there I was with nearly 1000 other weirdly dressed people in Aime town centre at 6.30am. Things started off a bit too fast for me but we soon hit the first steep climb and, since it went on for 30km and rose to 3050m up on the glacier on the south face of the Bellecote, everyone slowed down a bit!
The next 8hrs20mins went roughly as follows: Hours 0-5 - sweaty, pretty sore but generally manageable. Hours 5-6.5 - trying to pace the descent. Legs hurt a lot but nothing to stop you dead. Hours 6.5-8 - misery! every single step hurts and there's a half-marathon of them before the finish. Why oh why is there no freewheel on human legs? Crap design!
The last twenty minutes were just a very slow count down to the finish. If I sped up then my left knee and right IT band got ridiculous so the pace was less than sprightly. I crossed the finish line in 8hrs and 20mins, 183rd out of 850 finishers. All I could do was lie down on a field stretcher until the red cross started looking a bit too interested in me. I then managed to shuffle to the shade of the big church in Aime where I had to lie on the grass in a foetal position for about an hour until I could face moving again.
Would I do it again? Probably, yes. What would I do differently? Run a lot more over the months preceeding the event!

Digging

If you go down to the woods today... well there wasn't a picnic or a teddy bear in sight, just a pick axe, some shovels and some saws. We recently got permission from a local landowner to put in some (hopefully) top singletrack to avoid some fireroad in the woods near BikeVillage.
It has been surprising how much building a 'legit' trail changes your approach to digging - no hidden entrances and lots more thinking about making it both rideable for more people and resistant to erosion. A good little learning experience! Hopefully we've suceeded in resisting the temptation to make it massively technical and as it beds in we'll see how it all holds up.

Whilst scouting out the route we found some incredible features to work with, from crumbled old mine workings to a freakish bit of forest spineology.

So far it's mostly been Thor (our erstwhile chef) and Sam, with guest appearances from friends Annie Le and Dan Darwood - thanks guys! About two thirds of the route is cut in and riding nicely, so with a few more big days work we should be there. We're planning a few trail days/barbecues to tempt volunteers so get in touch if you're in the area!

Our dream is for it to appear on the local maps one day... Now that'd be a good little legacy!

One month, four seasons

 What a month! The BikeVillage season is well and truly underway and we're all feeling buff because we've spent 3 weeks clearing fallen trees with trail saws. It all started when, in just 48hrs, the weather went from 27 degrees and sunny to a 20cm dump of fresh snow in Landry, on June 1st!

After the usual excited snow mountain biking sortie, happiness waned a bit as we realised that all the leaf-laden deciduous trees had buckled and broken under the weight of the snow leaving us with one mammoth trail clearing mission on our hands. The first week of BV was spent with us uplifting to trail heads every night, all over les Arcs, La Plagne and the Beaufortain, after the days riding to clear the next days' singletrack. Still, good for the moral fibre and all that!

Sun, snow and dust at the top of Magic Carpet

Life behind bars in the Tarentaise Valley

Happily, normal weather has now resumed with a return to some blue skies and dry trails. Long live summer! Next on the BV agenda is the arrival of our custom orange 'wife-beater' (husband-beaters also available!) vests. Photos to follow shortly...

Got wood?

Carpentry Fest 2011 is well underway in our new (very old) house. I've just finished building my first staircase, which was an awesome bit of glory work - four days starting from rough timber and it's all done. Beats breaking concrete hands down!

We've used Douglas Fir from the local sawmill, which gives a great pinky-red colour. Infact all the floors use it too. Downstairs you can see some slightly fiddly plastering and a Flintstones-esque woodburner. Just one more flight of stairs and a kitchen to fit and we're in!

That's all, next time I'll stick to riding news I promise!

Sun's out, guns out!

Summer 2010 saw the men of Bikevillage liberating their upper arms and shoulders by ripping the sleeves off their biking tops. It was a bit like feminists burning bras, just a lot more pongy...
Anyway, by the looks of things summer 2011 is shaping up in a similar way. I believe we have Chris Herraghty and Ewan Thorburn to thank for this phenomenon which started at the Trans Provence 2009.Like it or hate it, it looks like the beater is here to stay. Sam is even looking into getting some BV ones made up - watch this space!
As you can see from the photos, spring has definitely sprung. Temperatures have been up to about 28C - apparently the hottest it's been in April since 1946. The blossom on the cherry tree is out about 2 or 3 weeks earlier than normal and I have even managed 10 minutes in the hammock, snoozing in the sun.
Sam was out mountainbiking in les Arcs today, making use of the funiculaire & said he felt a wee bit guilty standing in his beater and shorts next to a family arriving for their ski holiday. It's been so dry & hot, some of the trails are as dusty as they get in the summer!

last refuge...

this week something odd happened - I actually went skiing. Third time this season and boy what a cracker - probably the worst off-piste conditions any of us had ever failed comically to ski in!

Still, it was always really a hut trip with a bit of skiing on the side and was absolutely fantastic fun. We headed up the Transarc out of les arcs and then skinned/snow shoed up under the Grand Col lift, following almost exactly the start to Sketchy Dismount. Then we peeled off the usual mountain biking route and headed to the Refuge du Mt Pourri. Forget bothy and think un-manned youth hostel - within half an hour the fire was blazing, the food was cooking (thanks Mansell and Lucy!), wine was poured (Mansell again) and the whisky started flowing soon after (cheers Ben!). Good chat, good friends and a fairly fierce head in the morning. Perfect!

Going to the chapel...



View? What view?



Just had another awesome evening ride with Guy from King of the Mountains (road cycling hols near Alpe d'Huez) up above Bourg St Maurice - a savage climb known as Two Scoops (of pain, naturally) which rewards you with some amazing views out over the Tarentaise valley and some bob-sled style singletrack up top, leading into some great nadge further down. Yum.

Bedrock berms. Quite useful!

The 1x10 set-up is working brilliantly. Climbs everything I can normally climb, hasn't dropped a chain once and was cheaper than getting a front mech. All good in my book!

What riding sweets for the Alps?

No doubt a common forum question, this week I've been mostly eating Morris' jungle ropes - a sweet/performance sport product named after me!

A great big thanks to Ian, Alan and Anne-Marie, who were out staying with us this week whilst skiing and boarding in les Arcs and la Plagne, for introducing me to jungle ropes, not to mention the Talisker! I'll never look back...

Today's ride was a textbook bit of alpine mountain bike exploring, running something like this:

1. Curious about feint track on map.

2. Eventually find it after a long climb and 30 minutes in a tiny hamlet getting barked at by big dogs and stared at by old women.

3. Pedal it. It's good for about 5 mins. Just as I think I've found something special, it gets choppy, then gets overgrown, then boggy, more overgrown and spikey. Then I find myself somehow stuck in the middle of a sea of thorny bushes with wet feet and a frickin' long walk out. Arms and legs scratched to hell, at least tubeless tyres are effective!

4. Cross another bit of 'awesome singletrack' (ahem) off the list, be glad I'm not stuck in the massive traffic jam of skiers down in the valley and pause for a wee photo.

Tomorrow I'm going to ride a familiar trail that I know wont evaporate just as it gets good!

Optimising the Five

After another evening in the basement the Five is almost tweaked to perfection. Almost. The 'patient' this time was the chain guide, a superstar components one (£11!). The top of the metal arm was touching the swingarm and stopping it from sitting nicely over the 32T set-up so out came the hack-saw and the file, off came an inch of metal and it's all sorted. The guide now sits perfectly in place and I even managed to fit one bolt through it into one of the ISCG mounts, so it's rock solid too. Two rides on and no dropped chains, pretty happy with that! All I need to do now is make a home-made dropper seat post for less than £250...

Man's best friend

This evening I popped out ridng with Ian, a mate who is now a Paris based photographer (visit his site) and whilst we were hitting Scary Bear Trail, a beautiful bit of ridgeline singletrack at the foot of the Beaufortain mountains, we met about the friendliest farm dog I've ever seen. He hung around and played with us and the camera for about half an hour until duty beckoned and he went back to the cowshed. A great little evening ride and just what was needed after another day plastering...

WInter trail riding - Mission trail

What a winter! Today I rode up to 1700m, something that's not normally possible untill late April. There was a bit of snow up top but it was well compacted so awesome to ride on - more grip than the saturated loamy patches inbetween!
The new Five is inspiring to ride on and the fact that so many trails are rideable is making this the best winter I've ever had out here, just don't tell any skiers I said that ;-)

The trail is called Mission trail, and if you look closely at the Five on its cross you'll see why. It's one we hardly ever do so you might not have heard of it - an amazing ride but there's one section of fireroad I still can't seem to avoid, hence today's little sortie. I'll keep y'all posted if and when the last piece of the singletrack puzzle comes together!

blog virgin

Sam and I have decided, against our better judgement, that we might just about have enough interesting stuff going on to warrant writing a blog now and again. It feels a little like homework that I'm not sure anyone will read!
Anyway, as it's a first for me, I'll keep it short. All is quiet at BV towers as I write this - Sam is plastering the new house with a helping hand from Ian, who's down from Paris for a bit of mountain air. Beware, you might think you're coming to Landry for a holiday, but you'll soon end up with one of Sam's old T-shirts on and a plaster trowel in your hand.  There is the reward of a sneaky little bike ride to do St Germain this evening though, it's not all hard work and no play!