So, after a December which had all of us here, including myself,

reluctant to leave the warmth of the white dot chalet and mount our

shiny new ski's, for fear of all the rocks, the last few months have

turned out to be a lot nicer! I was actually super impressed with the

how the sticks held up in the early season, our general billy goating

around rock faces and tree stumps, or as we prefer "adventure skiing",

isn't exactly easy going on the planks, and even following a good few

full-on yard sales, with skis, poles, hats, you name it, all over the

shop, all because of some gnarly rock hidden under the surface, still

had none of them big holes with core chunks and edge missing that we

all love to have on our favourite skis. Happy days!

After

that the start of January was amazing, the snow gods gave us all a pat

on the back and it dunped and dumped, so I had some great days,

exploring some of the steeps, glaciers, couloirs and just generally

crazy lines that give Chamonix its reputation as a freeride mecca. With

Kai and Niclas on their Redeemers, and Maria and myself on our

Preachers, we all agreed, more from the big grins and screaming like

children, that the ski's kicked ass wherever we took them. Between the

ski's and riding with these three, it certainly gave me some of the

runs i'll remember for a long long time!

In Mid-January it was

time for the team photoshoot, which was a great week, nice to all get

together and bounce ideas around, and to get out on the hill and push

eachother to get the best shots we could, which meant whiplash, black

eye and a bloody nose for me. Standard behaviour when i'm snow giddy.

Sadly,

not every week can be that good so come Febuary I spent most of the

time juggling working (a lot!) and getting on the hill whenever i could

to make use of the best snow, which turned good a few times, put up a

few photos of kai and me from then. Hopefully with it getting quieter

now there'll be time for a few late season comps, some more shooting,

basically some more playing around on the hill!

Got to say a

huge thanks to the guys at Fall Line Bootfitting. Both for their

support with my equipment for this season and between them keeping me

safe and teaching me about mountains here, it's a different world from

most of the freeriding i've done in the past.

Anyway, got to go

get some rando bindings, there must be some untracked snow to find

somewhere, looks like touring season is upon us!

Catch you all later.

Steve