After a few little flurries of snow in the valley the weather has been pretty settled for a while now and lot's of the snow is starting to disappear as we await real winter to properly start. This hasn't stopped me getting out on skis and over the past ten days I have been out on the skis five times and out running just the once.
One of the best ridge runs near Cham but way too short
The weekend before last I headed off to Tignes with Guillem to do some touring in that area. Due to it's high elevation there was plenty of snow for us to play on from the car. The first day I managed 1600m ascent in just over 1hr 40mins. I must admit I found it pretty hard going. Guillem is pretty strong at the skimo stuff so for me going at a pace just slightly faster than I am used to was quite hard work for me but I was happy with the amount of ascent on day 1.
Cold start in Tignes
Day 2 we planned to do more fitness work. We set off from the car with head torches at 6am with a plan to summit the Grande Motte then have a little explore. However once we arrived near the top of the lift station at Tignes we were told by the ski patrol that we could not go any further as they were doing avalanche control above. The weather on the entire skin up was bitterly cold but we were greeted with stunning views in the morning light gazing around at all the fresh untouched snow that had fallen overnight. Guillem was over to see some friends from the Spanish World Cup Team but given that they are all stupidly fit and fast I spent the rest of the morning skiing back down and skiing back up again and got in another 1600m on my already tired legs from the day before. All in all a great weekend away from Cham and some really nice skiing.
Zero visibility and cold! Awesome morning,
The Wednesday after Tignes was an evening skin up Le Tour with Guillem and Graham after work. It was only 800m but it was a cracking clear night and really not that cold and we were happily surprised to find some boot top powder just next to the piste to enjoy on the descent. My ascents haven't exactly been the kind of metres you will find from a lot of others out doing skimo(Ski Mountaineering) races but I am happy for now just slowly building up to some much bigger days in the next few weeks and months to come.
Below is Guillems soon to be Oscar nominated short film of our little Le Tour outing.....next time he will clean the lens...
Friday I ran the 9km back home from work at night and loved it. I have really eased back on the running now as I try to get into shape for a big winter of skiing so it was nice to get the trail shoes back on and have a blast along the river back to the house. I felt great and really just wanted to keep running for hours more but I am going to try and rest the running legs this season as much as possible in the hope the skiing will keep me strong enough come Easter to start pounding the trails again.
Tete Du Balme with Laurent
This past weekend was spent doing yet more skinning. This time up at Le Tour. On Saturday myself , Guillem and Laurent did a great little loop of the Le Tour ski area and managed to get a good 1200m ascent and then on Sunday I headed back up with Sandy for another little short 800m outing. I'm feeling pretty strong on the up hills at the moment but I really need to work more on technique and speed if I plan on doing any proper races this winter and not finish dead last. Given the start I have had on skis so far I am pretty confident I can go from strength to strength in the coming months.
Top of Aiguilette Des Possettes
In two weeks I find out if I am lucky enough to be drawn into next years Western States 100 or Hardrock 100. Both draws take place on Dec 6th and I will be glued to twitter hoping my name comes out of one of the hats. I have a 4% yes that's a 4% chance of getting into Western. Hardrock has 1900 applicants for the 146 places available so my chances of getting into any of these races is very very slim but fingers crossed. Obviously Hardrock is the one I want the most but I won't complain if it's Western. I have been thinking a lot about next summer. My mind wanders through many ideas and changes very often but I am thinking if I do not get one of those two races I might stay in Europe next summer and do some shorter distance stuff here. I would love to run Ice Trail Tarantaise(France) , Zegama(Italy) and Tromso(Norway) and if I stayed in Europe then this would be possible. I do still want to head to the States again but maybe just for 2 or 3 weeks if funds allow. I really wish I can be at Leadville(August) again to pace but would also love to race The Rut in Montana , Flagstaff Skyrace in Arizona and The Bridger Ridge Run also in Montana but these are in Sept and Oct and I just don't think I can manage three months again without work. I am sure my mind will be changing a lot over the next few weeks but nothing will be decided properly until Dec 6th.
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