Song for Sunday

Sketchy Saturday

AG in AB

Hey everybody, sorry for the delay since my last post. I've been fully intent on having a small edit for you to take a look at however I keep getting so involved in riding that I haven't taken enough video.

Things in Banff have been going great. I've just got a second job working in a huge outdoor sports shop on Banff's main street. It couldn't come at a better time since budget cuts have resulted in my hours at the CD shop being slashed to a pathetic 4 hours a week.

The town itself is really starting to buzz. With the beginning of February we start to move into high season so there should be plenty more people out here for the next few months. Olympic fever is sweeping the nation and every town has had themselves a party as the torch has passed through on its way to Vancouver. We managed to get a grip on one of the torches in Banff while a runner waited for the changeover of the flame.

didn't expect to ever hold one of these

With the Olympics only a fortnight away the excitement is building over here, just a shame that our British athletes may not even be getting a chance to compete.

After a ridiculously warm January there is high hopes of a massive dump of snow sometime in February. The rivers and lakes that were frozen solid in December are now melting and looking like they should look in April. This has been worrying but several local mountain-men have assured me we will be waist-deep in the near future. I hope they're right!

amazing ice formations due to the warm weather

As far as riding goes I have been using the lack of new snow to focus more in the park. I have been progressing well, building up to cork 5s and 7s on the 40ft kickers at Sunshine Village. I will have to step up to the 65fters soon which will be scary stuff. Hopefully by my next post I will have some good footage to show you. Sunshine are nearly finished the second half of the park. Once it's complete it will be one of the biggest parks in North America and it has plenty of quirky little features to mess around on, as well as some mean-looking jumps.

I haven't ridden in a few days now as a direct result of doing my best Sam Longmire impression in the park the other day. After increasing my approach speed for some 7s I went for a BIG misty 5 attempt at the same approach speed but forgot to slow down the rotation. I only have a photo of what happened but if it had been a video it would have looked very similar to Sam's infamous fall in NZ this summer. The only difference being that my point of impact was the top of my left ass-cheek rather than the base of my spine. Despite the pain I was pretty happy about that as I picked myself up off the floor at the bottom of the jump. I may not have been able to sit down too well for the last few days, but the season goes on. I'll be trying my best not to make that mistake again!

Oh boaby!! Still 15ft off the ground, add another 270 degrees to landing on the back. You get the idea

And so I end this post with a promise that I will take more footage before my next . It's snowing outside at the moment so hopefully my next few days will be full of powder slashes and park progression. Fingers crossed for an edit next time around. I'll leave you with a picture of Banff's saddest dog who, despite his miserly appearance, is actually delightful when approached!

I'm sad because I can't read Unbez

AG

Friday Forecast

Cairngorms

Sheiling platter and Car Park tows now open. Others on hold untill the wind calms down. VERY ICY AROUND CAR PARKS AND BUILDINGS Pretty Stormy at the top of the hill at the moment and blustery at Car Park level. All traffic via the down road as the link road is getting widened. Day Lodge Poma is off with an electrical fault and engineers are still working on it. We have a shuttle bus booked everyday so there will be the option of skiing back to the Ciste Car Park.

The Lecht

The Lecht competition will be going ahead this weekend!! if you fancy hitting up the rail jam make sure you are around the nursery slopes for a 5 o'clock kick off, if the kicker jam takes your fancy that will be kicking off on Sunday morning around 10am . All runs complete with hard packed snow with all nursery runs open, we are expecting white cloud and temperatures of -3 on Saturday, on Sunday the sun will be popping through to say hi every now and then, and temperatures are set to be a little warmer, so that should set the scene for the kicker, there should be a good crew of people there so hope to see you all their!!

Glenshee

All the runs have full cover of soft snow on a hard base. Outside the runs there are acres of snow especially Glas Maol and Carn Aosda giving great off piste for the more adventurous skier/boarder. There is ample nursery area.

Saturday should start dry and bright but cloud will increase by late afternoon. The wind will be light North-Easterly.

Glen Coe

All Runs have an excellent cover of soft snow. If you are going to head across to Glencoe be sure to bring cash as their card machines havent arrived yet.

Forecast for Sat 6th Feb - 15-20mph South easterly wind. Possibly one or two snow flurries. Visibility may vary during showers.

Nevis

After a stormy spell at times on Friday the weather looks better for the weekend.
Most runs are complete and the upper mountain has a wide cover with plenty of snow between the runs providing off piste areas.
Snow conditions were soft today and may firm up with a bit of fresh snow.
Good skiing for lower abilities around the top station and on Linnhe and Alpha runs.
Back Corrie may open this weekend, but will be assessed daily.

Terrain Park has various features including rookie rails, a rainbow rail, a double c rail, tyre, kicker and rollers.

Recommendation:

The lecht is the place to be for all things freestyle, however if you fancy a change of scene and a good old freeride then Glencoe seems to be fairing out to have the best conditions, wharever you go have a great time, and make the most of this fantastic season we are currently experiencing. woooohoooooo.

Duthie's Diaries: Beer and Loathing

Over the years, I've made no secret of my disdain for this kind of thing:

click this picture at your own risk

Yes, the promise of distance from that skin-crawling world of 'the apres lash' is one of the reasons we decided on a season in Brides. A visit to notorious apres-ski magnet The Rond Point seemed to confirm our suspicions that Meribel could be among the worst offenders.

Was this really fair, though? There was only one way to find out. After getting wind of a Brides-Meribel return bus trip, I gathered a crack team of highly qualified investigators: K-Don, borderline alcoholic; Hamish Duncan, co-inventor of DeathWish (more of which later); and Ali Bayne, last seen at the Stirling services in 2008 after a week-long Austrian powder/booze binge.

The following is accurate to the best of my knowledge.

7.30pm

The plan was to essentially crash the Crystal Holidays' weekly Meribel bar crawl, jumping on their 8pm coach from Brides and returning at 2am. With the resort's reputation for extortionate prices, it seemed the best thing to do would be to frontload with the local fizzy wine from Moutiers (guaranteed messiness at a seasonaire-frendly 1 Euro per bottle). After a few rounds of DeathWish for good measure, we headed along to the bus.

8pm

We met the coach, and the rep who'd kindly agreed to ferry us up the hill. The journey was uneventful, save for the man who spewed all down the emergency exit stairs midway through the rep's speech about the terrible things you'd be in for if you spew on the bus. His excuse that the French food was disagreeing with him would have been more believable had it not also clearly impaired his balance, as well as his powers of speech.

9pm

Leaving the visibly miffed rep to deal with the invalid, we headed into the first pub. With a hipflask of rum about his person, Hamish played it fiscally safe and only ordered a pint of Coke, but still ended up getting stung for five euros. The barman, hailing from rural Perthshire, rebuffed his protests with the explanation that "we're in Fraaahnce, it's expensive don't you know". Fortunately we conned our way into some hand-stamps which brought the price down in each pub, and so we carried on.

9.30pm

In the next bar we settled into some Travel DeathWish. In short, DeathWish is the bastard offspring of Play Your Cards Right. Travel DeathWish substitutes playing cards with credit cards, driving licenses, blood donor cards and the like, with no change to the rules. The potential for losing all identification and monetary sources while playing is half the fun.

[Everything a bit of a blur from here on in. My guess is that we were playing Meribel Bingo: take a drink every time you hear the words "proper", "Facebook rape" or "lush". Fast forward to the penultimate bar, wherever it was, in the wee hours]

??.am

Charged with getting a round in, Kyla comes back with pints of a questionable purple colour, which put paid to any more serious discussion about the merits of a night out in Meribel. After those we were as good as on the floor, and there was nothing else to do but sit back, steady ourselves on the table, and attempt to tolerate that other bane of resorts such as these: the British covers band who seem to believe that no-one's heard Kings of Leon's 'Sex is on Fire' enough times yet.

1.30am

Dick's Tea Bar. Your guess is as good as mine.

2am

It was all over and we boarded the bus back to Brides. The next day was a time for reflection, as well as suffering. Was Meribel's nightlife all that i expected (and feared) it to be? The short answer is yes.

However, to paraphrase the Bible, there is a time to laugh, a time to cry, and a time to get absolutely rinsed and knock several lumps out of your mother's pride. Any environment where it's mandatory to get between six and eight hours of exercise a day should always have the option to undo all the good work later on. Amongst the crowds of punters in any apres-ski bar, you will find scores of folk who love their sport and take a well-earned swally after a solid day's riding. The only ones I've got qualms with are those who are happy to let the boozing take precedent as their skis/boards are neglected. It's been said a hundred times before, but still: you can get drunk anywhere, but if you're in the mountains, you have opportunities that are not to be missed. Hats off to the likes of Chris Hazeldine, Julian Leighton, Chris Rettie, Ally Gray, Bruce Robertson, and all the other shredders I've met who can prop up the bar with the best of them, but can still be found on the hill the next day. I raise my glass to you.

Duthie

Friday Forecast

Cairngorms

been bullet proof all this week, more snow drifts and extreme weather has ment that the gorms was closed today. The next two days have foretasted winds up to 25mph with temps as low as -3.

Lecht

Some of the Unbez and Kaplank crew were up shrapling the Lecht today and said the pisted runs were had some fantastic snow!Winner! With three 15ft booters in a row, which is good for the mega booter Nick and Neil are preparing for there comp up there next weekend I think. Forecast is light winds.

Glenshee

Good cover with everything expected to open. Cloud is likely to pick up in the afternoon with a frosty clear start to the day. a SE 5mph winds expected with temps about +1C

Nevis Range

Good cover higher up, patchy but can ski back on the rabbit run. Tomorrow sunny and mostly dry with NE winds at 10mph and about 1C.

GlenCoe

Expected to be sunny, a small risk of snow flurries with a NE wind reaching 20mph.

Summery:

Hit up the Lecht for some park rat action!!

BP's adventures...

Alrite folks, how is everyone? I know im not one of the lucky few who are away enjoying the time of their lifes doing a season, but I still thought I would contribute to this online community we have set up. Firstly, happy new year to you all! I hope 2010 brings you all you wish for, unfortunately I was not in Scotland, or Ireland for that matter, over the new year period as I was lucky enough to be shredding in France. A certain mr rumbles offered me a couch to crash on for a week over the new year period, and without a shadow of doubt, I was booked up on the cheapest airlines, Val di’sere here I come…new years came and went like a blink of an eye and before I knew it, 2010 had arrived, which meant one thing, I only had 2 days to catch up with Ben “killer” kinnear! Out of my slump, I got and kitted up and on the adventure over to Tigne I was. Needless to say, he was a little worse for wear, but we still got some turns in, and to my surprise we met up with little Emmet Strachan, super stoked to say the least, that kids rips! Emmet and Ben roof drop

2^nd of Jan rolled round, and we were all up, bright eyed bushy tailed, ready for some schralping! Emmett and myself were lead by our own personal guide, Ben. He knows the place like the back of his hand, after scooping out a few wee cliff drops and side hits, Ben took us to a mysterious place known only as the hidden valley. A large gully, with a snowboard and half track which twisted up down round and around you really had to be there to understand, im sure Emmet will describe it well, as he tore through it with no hesitation…

And before I knew it night had fallen the chairs had frozen and I was due for an early morning start to embark on another new adventure. Italy!

After receiving my BASI level 2 snowboard instructors qualification a mere 2 months prior, I was about to teach for the first time on the mountains! It was rad! Working for a company called Interski, in the resort called Pila in the Aosta Valley. Nice wee resort, but with it being so quiet the off piste was untouched and the tree lines were some of the best id ever seen, not to mention the park, it was dope, not too big, by no means too small, and well maintained. I had a couple hours shred at the end of each day to hit up these features, and ohh did I enjoy!

I was given a beginners group of 15 – 18 year olds. Although sometimes frustration being stuck on the baby slope while there are so many fresh lines to be cut it was still great to watch these kids learn, improve and enjoy something new. After 3 days, I was able to introduce them to a chair lift, and we were able to explore the mountain together.

Overall it was a great experience to be able to teach in the mountains, and it has on strengthened my urge to get away next winter for a proper season!

Until then I have to focus on finishing uni, some pics and a wee edit to follow shortly...

Wills Westbeach Wednesday

Westbeach European Airtimes - Episode 1

Some sick footage from Will Nangle and the Westbeach lads killing it in Morzine!

Loads of Snow up the Gorms

Song for Sunday

Sketchy Saturday

Ben signing in

Hallo, wie geht es Ihnen from Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland! If Duthie was concerned about his stonking delay, don't know of a word that beats that to describe my delay in getting some words on this!

Typing this in a pretty cool youth hostel in Lauterbrunnen, looking out onto a band of 1500ft plus cliffs, where the local farmer has banned base jumpers; apparently fed up with scraping up the failed attempts from his cattle troughs! The infamous north face of the Eiger looms above those cliffs, with pretty drastic scenery all around this vally. The terrain is amazing, nothing very mellow - so running a BASI level 1 is fun but we are going to struggle to find some central dream-friendly area..

No excuses for no posts till now. Been shredding, lots. Based in Tignes for the season, teaching and training - but all mixed in with nuff free shred-turns. After a weird start to the winter in Dublin of all places, on a revolving dry slope - Tignes has provided some sick conditions, albeit in between some lengthy storms. Re-discovered some of the lines in the trees, found some new drops, rocks and hits, and even a couple new couloirs this season, yeah! Its one of those places you'll never know inside out; so much terrain and so many options will keep you hungry for more.

Had a few guest shredders out and about in Tignes, which is always rad. Looking forward to a few free days after this course in Avoriaz, then moving onto the mecca that is Verbier for two weeks. Can't wait to hit the amazing Medran area of trees over there, and obviously take in a couple of polo matches with Randolph and Percy.

The dream machine that is Rachel, see right, has been steadily transporting myself and crew around the alps. Check her out outside our pad in Tignes.

Will sign off for now, but with the full intention of taking more photos and vid - and getting some stuff up here. Sweet.

Shred on abody and lets hear about it!

Will Nangles Edits

Rowan Coultas Avoriaz day from will nangle on Vimeo.

Will Nangle has kindly allowed us to put up some of his edits so check these oot. Hopefully this edit will inspire you Groms. We'll try and keep you updated with Will and the Westbeach team out in Morzine.

Westhill Golfy Sesh

A wee vid in Westhill from Natalie Riley and The Aberdeen Groms shredding it up at the Golfy in Westhill.

Snow Vid

Snow Clones Featuring Casey Wrightsman from Mike Benson on Vimeo.

Friday Forecast

Cairngorms

Closed for Friday and looking unlikely to open this weekend, due to massive snow drifts but it will be rad when it opens again.

Glenshee

Most runs have full cover of groomed packed snow with the West facing slopes having the best cover in years. There is ample nursery area and lots of snow. The moderate wind will freshen towards the end of the day.

Glen Coe

Due to high winds the centre will be closed Friday, and weather is looking worse for Saturday.

The Lecht

All runs complete with new snow. Ample nursery areas.Tows will operate subject to demand.

Nevis Range

Gondola and beginner lifts opening with the best skiing to be had in the Goose gully.

Work in the park began on Boxing Day and they've pushed snow from the Aonach Mor summit down to the Spectre run. There might be for a very large kickers.

Recommendations for this weekend Glenshee and Lecht

Duthie's Diaries: Down and Out in Brides Les Bains

Don't expect any riding news in this post. Here's why.

After many, many delays, and a draft-erasing laptop malfunction, here's the latest from Brides les Bains. Mostly on my mind since the last update: work.

In countries all over the world it is possible to find people who will endure long hours, cramped accomodation, simpleton bosses/underlings [delete as appropriate] and extortionate booze prices for the opportunity to ride in the mountains. The lengths people will go to for snowboarding has always been one of the things that justifies classification as more than just a sport. Blood, sweat, tears, privacies, dignities and a healthy sleep pattern are all sacrificed every season in exchange for shred time, and most of those who've done it would say it's a fair trade. After more than three weeks of denial about our cash flow situation, Kyla and I rolled up our sleeves and got grafting. For a bit....

A few days after Christmas, we got a call from a hotel in the town. They'd been forced to make a couple of sackings, and wanted us to help out over their busy New Year period. It couldn't have come too soon: our money was running low, and the conditions had gone from bad to worse. Rather than ride in the rain up in Meribel, we were happy to rack up some hours down in Brides. While Kyla turned over rooms, I joined the surreal shambles that was the hotel kitchen. As well as myself, the kitchen staff consisted of: an acting head chef (a locally-based Kiwi who'd agreed to do a few shifts); one of the hotel assistants, roped into cooking; the kitchen porter, effectively promoted to sous chef while i took his place at the plongeur; and the one remaining commis chef, lone survivor of the Christmas dismissals.

Kyla brings the New Year cheer, 1st January 2010

What followed was a whirlwind of improvisation, estimation and perspiration. The successes (surely some of the best 'throw it all in' soup ever made) were balanced out by a few failures (customers sending back mouldy chocolate mousse), but all in all the clientele were kept happy. There was time to snatch a couple of hours up the hill in the afternoon between shifts and, with the exception of a truly pisspoor New Year's Day, the weather was improving. The new chefs arrived midway through and soon had things working well, especially as things got quieter post-New Year. The regular staff were back on top of things, and we were let go. Again, the timing was perfect. Our friends Hamish and Nicola had arrived for their two-month stint, and we were keen to spend some time with them; a fresh dump had fallen all the way down to Brides; and in only eleven days of 10-hour shifts I'd very nearly recouped the cost of my season pass.

From now on I'll be getting one or two shifts a week to help with the busy times, which should cover food expenses while I get the rest of the time to ride. All in all, I couldn't ask for a better situation. Hopefully it'll last....

For obvious reasons, the next post should have a bit more shredding stories than this one, as well as tales of Meribel excursions, DeathWish and a whole lot more. Til then....

New Forum Vid

Sick New vid from the Forum Boys, pushing the creativity in snowboarding but not too impressed with the shit load of waste!

Duthie's Diaries: an apology

Not a real post this one, just a note to say sorry for the stonking delay. All will be explained when I finally get the next post up in the next couple of days. For now, here's Hamish Duncan venturing into the pow in this week's 'Spot The Legs' puzzle. Answers on a postcard....

Stay tuned for all the info on the last couple of weeks. Hope everyone had a good new year. Stoked to hear about all the snow times back home, as well as Ally G's adventures further afield. Keep it coming!

Duthie

Song for Sunday

Check out more from Rae and christian, they have some fine tunes to be listened to

AG in AB

Happy new year Unbezzers! Hope 2010 is going well for you all. Just a quick update before I come back atcha with some full-fat flava in my next post. So far it has been a great year for me. I've been breaking in a new pair of boots, rocking a new down jacket and most importantly... making full use of my new season pass!!

stoked to be holding this

Life in Canada has gone from awesome to mondo-uber-sweet since I can now jaunt off up the hill whenever I have the time off work. I will in fact be getting up to make the 7.10 bus up the hill tomorrow so that I can get a morning's riding in before work at 1pm. It's good to be highly active again, and especially to get some quality shredding in. I've had a mixed bag of conditions since getting my pass a week ago. A few days of warm weather with poor viz and a couple of bollock freezing bluebird sessions. I have still managed to cover just about every pisted run at Sunshine Village along with a good few runs in the park and a few laps of delirium dive (Sunshine's massive backcountry bowl).

I'm working on a wee edit for you guys to see what I've generally been up to. Should hopefully have it ready in time for my next blog in a week or so. Until then, keep shredding Unbezzers and enjoy that sweet snow in Scotland if you're there!

AG

Sketchy Saturday