Category Archives: snow

bikes, city, Europe, event, family, friends, history, NZ, snow, travel, UK

2012 was certainly different

Leave a comment

For the first time in four years, I’ve managed to live in the same place all year and to be working for the same company at each end of those twelve months.  While this has given life a bit more stability this year, it hasn’t been without plenty of variety.  The event that influenced half of the year was having surgery on my shoulder to stop it dislocating.  Six weeks in a sling and six months before being fit to mountain-bike again was quite the upheaval – but it was all worth it as my shoulder is much more stable & predictable now.

Not being able to ride my bike did have the advantage of forcing me to find other things to do with my time & money.  Consequently, it turned out to be a bit of a travel year with twelve significant trips:

First up was an excellent week of skiing in the Alps with good friends

The day after the sling was banished, I finally crossed Rome off the top of my list – it had been there some time

The Pantheon was the highlight for me, followed closely by climbing St Peter’s Basilica

A week in Turkey was mostly spent in Istanbul, where the architecture continually impressed

Hot-air ballooning early morning in Cappadocia rates near the top of all I’ve done in the last three years away from NZ

Prague – with Te Puke school friend, Levi, a long way from Fairhaven Primary

The country was gripped by the Olympics late summer, great to be around for that

I was lucky enough to take a last-minute spare ticket & made it along to watch some of the mountain-biking – quality athletes & a great course to be a spectator

The highlight trip of the year was finally heading back to New Zealand for a whirlwind two weeks of thirtieth birthday parties (mine), a wedding (not mine), and tripping all around the country & spending time with dear family & friends (not to mention meeting quite a few additions that have arrived in the intervening three years).  There was also the added bonus of the physio declaring my shoulder fit for gentle exercise – so I managed a bit of mountain-biking and a ski too.

Treble Cone, near Wanaka, is a spectacularly beautiful ski field it turns out

These photos don’t come around as often as they should – excellent to have all the family together

Shortly after NZ, a work trip to Italy sprung out of nowhere – I managed to tack Venice on the end

Gorgeous city for a day – but I found the lack of trees, grass and bikes a little disconcerting

Pleased to finally make it back briefly to Edinburgh & even see the sun

I’d waited a long time to see Sagrada Familia, after hearing Dad’s stories – it didn’t disappoint and was, in a word, incredible

Watching football with eighty-odd thousand Spaniards at Camp Nou; Barcelona crossed off the top of the list

Still managing to explore England a fair bit, mainly the south – Leeds Castle (in Kent) was one of the most enjoyable visits

Fancy that, a summary of my year & no mountain-biking pictures, that should change next year – here’s hoping.  In the last few months I have been riding a fair bit (even though my bike-commute is short, the miles add up), but it’s pretty flat & wet (for now, or perhaps always) around here so the riding isn’t too exciting.  Work will be changing a bit next year too; I managed to be a process engineer of sorts for a year but am now moving into a different role scheduling the site’s production, amongst other things.

So that’s about it for this year – thanks to all who had me to stay, travelled with me, helped while my shoulder was out of action or simply kept in touch.  I’ll have to take this opportunity to wish all a merry Christmas and the best for the New Year, as I’ll be incommunicado then – Egypt will be off the list by the end of next week.

bikes, engineering, family, friends, MTB, NZ, snow, travel

NZ Visit – Southern Week

1 Comment

Continuing the multitude of too-brief visits, I said my goodbyes to Elizabeth & Cara at Wellington airport & flew south to Timaru where Dad & Adele were waiting for me.  With not having seen Dad in the three-plus years I’ve been away (two and a half years for Adele), it was great to see them again.  It’s a relatively short drive down to Oamaru and amongst poring (& laughing) over family photo albums we headed out to the Brydone (was there another choice?) for a meal.

The fleeting visit to Oamaru over (it’s never been home for me), we headed down to Dunedin to pick Mum from university (only eight months since I last saw Mum in London, but of course great to see her too).  It was an afternoon’s worth of leisurely driving through Central Otago to get to Adele’s place in Wanaka.

Adele gave me heaps for taking this photo through the windscreen, so I should share it

We stopped in St Bathan’s for a quick look at the old mining town (bypassed by the highway, so it’s pretty quiet) and a pint in the pub.

This passes for an old building in NZ, nice pub it was too

We were about a day out with the timing for the skiing, missing the biggest dump (60 cm) of the season just.  Still there was plenty of spring snow to play in for Wednesday afternoon.  High winds dictated that we go to Treble Cone – alas only half of their chairs were running.  When I say half, I mean one – a little smaller than the skifields I’m used to over this side of the world.

Still, with the setting above the lake, the snow-capped mountains surrounding and the high country not covered in snow – Treble Cone is one of the more beautiful ski areas I’ve skied at.  As this was my first ski since the shoulder operation, I was keen to just test the shoulder out gently for the afternoon.  (Bizarrely, the guy that hired me the skis comes from the same village that I live in here in the UK.)  Being mid-week & partially closed, the ski area was pretty empty and Adele & I had a good time on & off piste and I was well pleased with my shoulder.

Wednesday was set aside for tiki-touring.  As we got close to Lake Hawea, we could see a big storm rolling in from the west across the mountains.  We quickly did an about turn and headed south for a very pleasant day exploring old Cromwell (the town was flooded when the Clyde dam was built) and old hydraulic mining sites around Bannockburn.  There was a good hour-long stroll around the old mine workings – the gold was in the sedimentary rock & extracted by what was basically washing the side of the hill away with deluges of water.  This involved rather ingenious & large systems for storing and then directing the water to where it was needed.  The landscape was strangely reminiscent of the badlands of both Alberta & South Dakota in some ways.

Part of the mining area – original height would have been slightly higher that that on the right of picture

One of the bigger reservoirs & not a very interesting photo

That storm really did roll in that night as we were going out for dinner & the rain was still pelting down early in the morning.  The time that I was awake that night was pretty much spent thinking that I wouldn’t get to go for a mountain-bike ride with Adele (who thankfully has finally discovered while I’ve been away that MTBing is pretty cool) that morning before we headed back to Dunedin.  But peaking out the curtains at seven o’clock the sky was strangely clear.  I hustled off to rent a bike – I wanted a bog-standard hardtail but the shop was so disorganised that I ended up with a softtail 29er for the price of a hardtail, score.

Riding from home, we were quickly climbing up the Sticky Forest.  My leg work at the gym while shoulder was recovering seems to have paid off, the hills weren’t much of a problem – although that may have been those big wheels turning.  The trails had drained pretty quickly & we stayed relatively mud-free. We skirted around the edge of the lake to Albert Town before crossing the Clutha River.

The object of the crossing the river was to get Deans Bank Track – a recent DOC project.

Wonderful get-up borrowed from Adele – my old Dobies shorts & a commuter jacket

A few switchbacks to get up on to the plateau before north-west

Pretty spectacular spring morning ride

It’s a well thought out loop & I imagine a very fast loop if it’s properly dry – we had a good time checking it out.  Once again I was pleased with how my shoulder stood up to its longest ride in a long time.

Heading back to Albert Town, you can just make out the new trail down there

So that was a great ride out, about four hours and interrupted only by Adele somehow managing to gouge her big chainring in to the top of her calf – still don’t know how she was able to do that while riding uphill.  Back to Dunedin that afternoon, coincidentally good friends the Careys (where I had one of my 30th celebrations) were down visiting (youngest daughter) Fiona – so that was a good excuse to have another meal out, not too mention seeing James & Becca (I lay the blame of me moving to Canada for a year firmly at their feet – not that I’m complaining about that).

We even remembered to have a family photo, I’m sure I’m not that much taller – must be the cowboy boots

Goodbyes were said Saturday morning (best I don’t dwell on that too much) & I was back up to Auckland for a final pack, check progress of Andrew & Shelley’s kitchen and then fly back to London via LA.  After years of people saying how much of a hassle security is at LAX when in transit, it turns out that is all false – we didn’t even have to go through security again, unlike at Hong Kong.  Home Sunday, back to work the next day to find that I was being sent to Italy the following week for work.  That was a real shame.

Europe, friends, snow, travel

Three Valleys ski week

Leave a comment

It was a little late in the season, but I finally got to go skiing this winter when a group of eight of us headed into the French Alps last week. With a teacher among us, we had to go during half-term which made things busier and a little more expensive. But I was more than happy to have someone else organise everything for a change & just pay my pounds – thanks Anna, you did a splendid job. Sunday was spent flying from Bristol to Lyon, picking up our rental van (which turned into a minivan & a car as someone had wrecked our van previously) & driving the couple of hours east. We had a pleasant little detour through small villages on the outskirts of Lyon before the satnav was taken off “avoid tolls” & we hit the motorway. We settled into the chalet that evening – pleasingly for our appetites & not so advantageous for our waistlines, it was fully catered.

My ski bag had been packed to the gunwales with all the warmth I could find as I nervously watched the icy grip winter had over Europe in the preceding weeks, but Monday dawned clear and a chilly -15ºCish – not the more than twenty below that I had feared. We piled in to the back of a Landrover (reminded me of a rather bumpy journey from Kathmandu towards Chitwan fifteen years ago) for the short run up to St Martin de Belleville & our access on to the slopes of the Three Valleys (Les Trois Vallees if my French was any sort of good). Billed as the world’s largest ski area (interconnected by lifts & slopes before anyone starts picking nits), it wasn’t long up the ridge before one could start to be amazed by the size of it. There are eight resorts connected by over a hundred and eighty lifts, & 600 km of trails. If that isn’t enough – there is so much terrain off-piste, that I’m still not sure I can comprehend it. I’m pretty sure that I rode more lifts in one week than there are in all of New Zealand.

We had quite a wide variety of experience in our group & it wasn’t long before we started to separate. I spent Monday with Andy & Rich trying to remember how to ski properly – turns out it’s just like riding a bike. Both Rich & Andy had been to the Three Valleys before, so I was happy to tag along & get my confidence back. We mostly stuck around Les Menuires & Val Thorens for the day (here’s a map).  It was a gorgeous, if a little cold, day with good views that I couldn’t get enough of. With half-term there were a few queues, but not as bad as we had feared – & there was always somewhere else to explore further from the crowds.

We managed to get back to where Spike (our host) had dropped us off, in the morning, well before the lifts closed & it wasn’t long before we heard the others had miscalculated just how long it took to get back from Val Thorens & were stuck well up the valley when they missed a lift by two minutes. It sounded pretty cold (well, colder – it was pretty cold to start with) once the sun dropped & they were faced with finding a bus back down the valley.

Surprised to find that I wasn’t aching more after more than nine months off the skis, it was a slow start to the day as there was general faffing around waiting for James (a manager of the chalet) to show a few of us around. Most of our group had to head back to meet others for lunch leaving Andy & I to explore some more interesting runs & a bit off-piste. That slowed me down a little; over lunch in Les Menuires we met up with John & Rich (who had gallantly been giving a little boarding help to Sally, a beginner in our group).  The afternoon was a little more relaxed as with so much terrain, there are inevitably flat bits – which tend to slow boarders down more.

The great weather didn’t continue into Wednesday – but that was fine as it snowed all day & it was still coming down for most of Thursday. Visibility was pretty poor on Wednesday morning particularly – I had a good few falls for no apparent reason as my inexperience showed through. At least Rich has the excuse of failing eyes for not being able to see anything when the light is flat. Still we managed to make it into Courchevel for lunch, somewhat inadvertently – where we feasted on hamburger buns, a wheel of the cow cheese & bananas as we sat on a stack of pallets outside the Spar (little supermarket). With a good whiteout & still two valleys to get out of before getting close to St Martin, we made a beeline for what turned out to be the emptiest run we’d seen yet. Maybe it was just the clouds, but there was no one up the top of Roc de Fer.

Rich being visible on an otherwise low-vis day

Proof from Rich that I was actually there skiing – no idea where this was

It wasn’t long into the week where the change in diet, exercise intensity & who-knows-what-else had me fighting off a sore throat & cold. Somehow, it never really turned up with more vengeance than a runny nose – unfortunately, Rich got hit a bit harder & had the morning off while Andy, Anna & I headed out into Thursday’s clouds & fresh powder. Anna was keen to get to Courchevel & Andy & I hadn’t seen all that much of it on Wednesday – so we stayed relatively low and got some good runs in by lunchtime. The slopes were emptier with the clouds sticking around, so we got more of the fresh powder to ourselves.  After an over-priced chocolate crepe for lunch, we headed over to Meribel to play off-piste in the trees & generally have a bit of a laugh. There was finally some reward for me having lugged around big skis for the week – I didn’t hit any trees (not through much doing of mine, I might add).

It’s hard to get a photo of Andy, good or otherwise, as he was always in front

The trees were looking pretty too

After getting back to the correct valley, we messed around in the new snow on the huge off-piste expanse below the Jerusalem run.  This proved extra amusing as we still couldn’t see much and the snow was quite variable depending on where the wind had got to.  But there was just enough light to be able to see each other hilariously falling over – thanks for not crashing into us though, Anna.  That was the best day yet – great to be skiing continually good distances (on the days the GPS trackers were with us, we were covering between forty & fifty miles) & with two much more experienced skiers than me, I was slowly improving.

With that weather gone, Friday was back to being gorgeous & just for a change it was remarkably warm – owing in part still dressing for -10ºC. With John in tow as well, we first headed back off of Jerusalem to see if we could do any better with a bit of vision. Funny how being able to see things helps a lot.

Anna doing a better impression of someone not falling over off-piste

Wanting to see the big wooden ram off the back of Pointe de la Masse, we made our way over there again. Almost there we stopped & sunned ourselves over lunch (masses of deckchairs was something I didn’t get used to seeing – it skiing, it’s supposed to be cold):

Andy had had his eye on a big unmapped area off the back of the ram for most of the week.  After some discussion, it was decided that we would all head down there.  We weren’t too sure where it went, but figured that it would take us roughly back to Les Menuires.  It was a good variety of moguls, powder, worn tracks  & eventually a groomed run that dropped us a thousand metres to the valley floor.

Val Thorens is down there – the highest ski resort in Europe apparently

John & Anna in front of one of the many random summer building dotted around the area

Towards Les Menuires

Perhaps these two weren’t the best influence on my skiing after all – relaxing on one of the last runs of Friday

After sweltering a lot of Friday as we worked harder off-piste, it was definitely well worth shedding a layer & even going so far as to ditch the goggles & don sunglasses for our last day on Saturday. Saturday is the traditional change-over day for ski packages, but we were travelling Sunday to Sunday – this meant that we missed the crazy traffic off the mountains & got a day of bliss on empty trails. Andy & I were keen to head for the highest point (& also one of the edges) of the Three Valleys to end our stay – somehow, a slowly recovering Rich was convinced to join us.

But first – the group photo: Andy, Rich, Anna, Becks, Marina, Sally, me & John

Heading out for what would be a stunning day

This cable car took us part way to the highest point – there were only about a hundred skiers on it

Mont Blanc

We eventually got to the summit of the ski area, just below Pointe du Bouchet, at 3230m.  The runs out there were empty & we just had to head up twice as the snow conditions were fabulous.  On one of those chairs up, something clicked in my head while watching much-more-elegant-than-ungainly-me skiers.  Working hard to keep my knees closer together, my skiing took a step-change & the rest of the day was great as speed, control & smoothness improved.  There was another great big run back down off the ridge that that large cable-car above serves, before we lunched in the sun in Val Thorens.  The afternoon was spent in Meribel, as Andy & I had neglected it somewhat for most of the week.  With one last frenetic run down Jerusalem, we wound up what was the best day’s skiing of an excellent week.

That’s a bit of a mammoth post, but if you couldn’t tell – it was an incredible week in a great ski area, with fantastic snow, good weather & an excellent group of people. I’m well pleased that my skiing improved suddenly & even more chuffed that my shoulder stayed put. It was one of those weeks of such intensity of activity & enjoyment that remind me why I’m so far from home – something that will be well up on the highlights list of my travels & that I’ll be able to tell stories about when I finally return to NZ. Pretty close behind the Mara. On that note I should probably go to bed – thanks are well in order for all those that made that week.

bikes, Canada, family, friends, MTB, national park, roadtrip, snow, travel, USA

A little on the late side

Leave a comment

So, I never quite made the time to compose a Christmas letter. This will have to do as some sort of missive for me to sum up the year & wish you all happy holidays. 2011 was separated into distinct thirds for me. The first of those was the end of my year living & working in the Canadian Rockies. That spur of the moment decision to go & bike & ski in the mountains for twelve months still rates as one of the best of my life – I had a great time with fantastic friends; the snow was good too & my skiing could do nothing but improve with all those consecutive weekends on the hill.

The middle of the year – the end of a long winter & the first of summer – saw the completion of a long held dream. That was, a roadtrip around the West (USA) with a bike in the trunk/boot visiting many of the famous riding spots & national parks. My aunt, Valerie, joined me from Australia & we managed 22000 km (almost 14000 miles), 13 states & 2 provinces and an awful lot of quality mountain-biking (for me). Scenically, the highlights were Bryce Canyon & Crater Lake National Parks. As always when I visit the States, spending time with old friends & making new ones stays on top of the many memories.

Naturally, it was tough to leave close friends & the beauty of the Bow Valley; the last part of the year sees me finally starting to get around to what I left home for two and a half years ago. That is, to get a job & settle in the UK for a while and take full advantage of the proximity to Europe. I’m back process engineering for the first time in four years at a small rubber factory on the edge of the New Forest (not far from Southampton at the south of England). Mum’s been over here for the last three months at university, so it’s been great to see her every so often. The hospitality of extended family (some of whom I’m still only meeting now) helps to lessen the distance from home – as does Skype & 1p/min phone calls.

That’s this year – 2012 will not be nearly as well planned out or active for that matter. I’m down to have surgery sometime on my shoulder (to tighten it all up – two dislocations this year), so that will curtail the biking & skiing a lot. That will just mean I have more free time to explore this part of the world. I’ve finally got an invite to a wedding (first since leaving), so I’ll be back in NZ for a couple of weeks near the start of September for what will be a flurry of visiting much-missed family & friends.

Best wishes for the new year.