Snowboarding - Log file, Mathias

Year 2003		Show without notes		Powdergun | Normal board | Skiis
Date	Area	Terrain	Conditions	People
5 Jan	La Grave	Off Piste	Superb	Rayner, Andrew and John
		Possible the best day ever in La Grave. Snow is plentyfull this year and there were no people at all.. Found my wallet
1 Jan	La Grave	Off Piste	Superb	Alone
		Fantastic day. Ton of Powder. Lost my wallet

2002

Date	Area	Terrain	Conditions	People
28-31 Dec	Les 2 Alpes	Piste/Off Piste	Visibility bad, snow good	Céline, Paola, Snoop Dog, Rich, Ralph
		Couple of days of boarding, skiing and raclette.
14 Dec	Val Thorens	Piste	Not bad	Rayner, Jeff, Paola, James, Joanne
		Not that good
13 Dec	Chamrousse	Off/On Piste	Great	David Rayner
		Good day
24 Mar	Villard de Lans	Randonne	Superb	Alone
		Superb day - sun, no people, plenty of snow and just such a fantastic place. Took my randonee skiis out and after some good downhill speeding I climbed one of the exposed peaks which rewarded me with a stunning view over the whole of Europe: Mont Blanc, La Meije, Mont Aiguille - hell I'm sure I could even see people on Elbrus in the distance. This place is excellent for randonee and the conditions were perfect. Did loads more spotholing (spotting potholes)
23 Mar	La Grave	Off piste	Good and bad	Alone
		Really good above 2400 m, really crap below. One million people. Nice sunny day. La Grave has not been on for it this year.
17 Mar	Villard de Lans	Piste	Great	Martin
		What a place! The Vercors equivalent to La Grave. Fantastic to surf around surrounded by limestone and the added speleological interest (holes everywhere) makes this place my favourite skiing spot of 2002.
10 Mar	Val D'isere	Piste	Fantastic	Céline
		Nice Sunday with Céline on the slopes. Sunny, pleasant and good fun.
3 Mar	Les 7 Laux	Off/on piste	Superb!	Céline, Andrew, Annabelle, David
		Finally! The snow is here. Excellent conditions. I rented parabolic skis and was enjoying these babies quite a lot. Céline had quite an epic on the last run nearly having to spend the night in a telepherique (or jump). Maybe she'll share the story one day.
25 Feb	Val D'isere	Off/on piste	Good	Thomas Øvlisen
		Lot of fresh new snow still without much of base though. It was pretty good though and we did the excellent Cugnai off piste run a couple of times.
9 Feb	La Grave	Off piste	Suboptimal	Alone
		Snow had fallen and there was actually a good bit of powder. But no base at all, making boarding extremely dangerous. First I shreded my board quite badly and then afterwards I nearly broke a rib in a really bad crash which has put me out of action for a bit. We need much more snow.
2 Feb	Chamonix	Piste	Catastrophical	Alone
		Terrible conditions all over France so far this year. In desperation I headed North, and although a beautiful day the snow is just on an all time low. Very bad. Had to leave the PowderGun in the car.

2001

Date	Area	Terrain	Conditions	People
11 Nov	Tignes	Piste	Windy. Good snow	Danny, Dale, David, Sam
		First run of the season. Excellent to get out and surprisingly good snow all considering. Can't wait to get the powder gun out for real.
10 Nov	Vallon du Diable	Randonee	20 cm snow just covering ground	Alone
		Went on a ice inspection trip to see if anything is forming for the coming season. Very cold, very nice rando (skis), but no ice yet
14 May	Chamonix	Glacier	Perfect sun - very warm	Alone
		Got the randonee skis out and revisited the Grande Jorasse basin where Fred and I had been 7 years ago. Went up to Refuge Lascaux (2450m) and headed back. Brilliant trip. 6 hours.
29 April	La Grave	Off piste	Sunny, slushy, avalancy	Alone
		Definitely the last run of the season. Lovely day, lots of sunshine but quite desperate snow conditions. I was almost caught in the biggest avalanche I have ever seen - I was completely alone on the whole "Vallon" side just catching my breath right under La Meije. I hear a "crraaaackk", look up and boy oh boy oh boy, the whole serac fall is coming down. Absolutely mind-blowing to watch (map). It was just getting bigger and bigger in classic avalanche style - you know, developing this huge cloud of snow thundering down toward the valley floor right where I was standing. I waited a few second admiring the spectacle and then I was like "okay, that actually looks like a bad job" and I started the engines and got further away while I could. I stopped some 500 meters further down and looked up again. Like some big disgusting animal the avalanche rapidly ate its way down the face and 30 seconds or so later engulfed the place where I had been in cloud and debris. Eventually it reached where I now was but was now a mere wind of snow. Absolutely fantastic to see. All other stuff was very avalanchy as well, but nothing as major as that baby. If only I'd brought my camera. I switched to my skiis midday but changed back to the gun after one desperate run.
22 April	La Grave	Off piste	Sunny, fresh snow, warm, perfect	Alone
		Brilliant day. Worked on trying to jump the big serac thing on the left of the drag lift in the top. It's a massive drop and the landing is not very steep so you really gotta go for it all the way. I was there a couple of times but didn't do it. Even Tigers has limits. :-) - I successfully did my usual cliff jump on the left of the telepherique which is always amazingly adreanline pumpy.
21 April	La Grave	Off piste	Cold, snowy, cloudy	Alone
		Woke up. Looked at the webcam. Looked good. Headed off. Scrounged my way to a free lift ride. Conditions was pretty desperate actually. Fresh snow but very cold and the base was rock solid (not good for the big air landings). Also the avalance risk was quite obvious very high and I was glad to reach the bottom in one piece.
13 April	La Grave	Off piste	Bit more run up, but still good	Martin
		Superb day. Excellent big air jumps and some really pumping carving. Absolutely shagged afterwards also partly because of heavy drinking at the previous night with Martin, Christian and forty bottles of bottles of vodka.
12 April	La Grave	Off piste	Deep and plenty of fresh stuff	Martin
		Gnarled around a bit to figure out what the best descend would be with the access to P2 being unskiable. Perfect weather and only few people.
8 April	Serre Chevalier	On/off piste	Pretty good.	Peter, Pernille, Sanne, Søren
		Plenty of untouched snow, but weather a bit unstable. Good fun.
6 April	La Grave	Off piste	Run up	700 others
		Derby de la Meije, a yearly off piste race of festive proportions. Came in 84th in the my category - time 12m 33s (from the very top 3550 m down around 1600 m). Here is a copy of the results. Next year I'll win.
18 Mar	La Grave	80 cm pwdr	Best ever (in La Grave)	Alone
		Steep aaaaand deep. Did my favourite left side (facing the mountain) exclusively. Lot of queing in the lift unfortunately.
17 Mar	Alpe Duez	50 cm pwdr	Snowy	Alone
		Did some excellent cliff jumps. Visibility was poor but due to heavy snowfall.
10 Mar	Courchevel	Mixed	Very mixed	Sanne, Paola
		Despite quite crazy conditions (fluffy snow, sun, fog, snowstorm, rain, slush - all in a day) we managed to get some good stuff done. Good jumps.
11 Feb	La Grave	50 cm pwdr	Excellent	David, Annabel
		Dave/Annabel joined me for the evening and we had a good day skiing/boarding. Still plenty of deep snow.
10 Feb	La Grave	50 cm freshy	Best so far (in La Grave)	Ralf
		It had snowed a lot the previous day and we arrived to a perfect morning. Perfect snow, lots of it, no people.
4 Feb	La Grave	30 cm pwdr	Excellent	Alone
		Ice climbed Saturday and it then snowed 30cm during the night and Sunday was a real treat on the gun. Excellent cornice surfing on the Vallons side. I think I've found my favourite line in La Grave. If only the lift didn't close so early (4pm). I was the third one down the slope in the morning though!
28 Jan	Grandes Montes / Chamonix	Off piste	Very good	Alone
		Still powder left from the day before and an excellent snowdepth, soft and perfect for trying some festive jumps.
27 Jan	7 Laux	Piste	Frustrating	Paola
		It had snowed in the morning, and the bastards closed the top bit (avalance danger) so I was confined to the piste. :-(
26 Jan	7 Laux	Off piste	Good	Alone
		First time in the local ski resort. Good potential.
21 Jan	La Grave	Off piste	Pretty good	David Rayner
		Only fresh powder on the very top section - really good stuff. The lower parts was icy and tricky on the Powder Gun.
14 Jan	La Grave	Off piste	Perfect	Alone
		Bought a Swell Panik Magistral board and had the most amazing day in La Grave. 10-20cm of fresh powder under clear blue sky.
2 Jan	Alpe Duez	Piste	Damp	Ralf
		It changed from rain to snow mid day. We should have stayed one more day
1 Jan	Alpe Duez	Piste	Not ideal	Ralf, Andy, Joanne, Rich
		Highlight of the day was the lunch in the Marmotte Restaurant

2000

Date	Area	Terrain	Conditions	People
30 Dec	Alpe Duez	Piste	Not ideal	HP dudes
		Spend the New Year break in Alpe D'huez the closest big resort to my new home in Grenoble
January	La Grave, Chamonix	Off Piste	Pretty good	Klammer, Jesper
		A week to check out the powder in Chamonix and La Grave. Great trip together with the skiers Jesper Ritzau and Lars Klammer. No trip report. No photos. But we have a fully edited movie (9 MB!)

1997

Date	Area	Terrain	Conditions	People
January	Val d'Isere	Off Piste	Good	Alone
		Did the Col de Palet to Champagny run (alone!). A bit irresponsible in retrospect. Desperate on a snowboard.

1996

Date	Area	Terrain	Conditions	People
December	Chamonix	Off Piste	Good snow, not the best visibility	Fred
		We only had three days as the following days was ear marked for Christmas purposes. There where a lot of nice offpiste riding

1995

Date	Area	Terrain	Conditions	People
Feb- Mar- Apr	Chamonix, Val d'Isere, La Grave	Off Piste	Superb	Mostly alone
		Spent two months in Chamonix, one week in Serre Chevalier (and La Grave) and one week in Val d'Isere. The off piste conditions in Val d'Isere was unbelievably good.