Mont Rogneux

With 10 or so days since the last snowfall, Petter, Ben and myself make the shout for Mont Rogneux. This mountain thats oppersite Verbier and a face that I have been wanting to ski since my 1st season here in 2006/07.

The boys checking it out

After a 3 hour skin/snowshoe from the top of Bruson we reach the top of our couloir - 800m verical non stop run. Awsome run, a bit sketchy in places because of the variable snow. Caught it on a GoPro and will upload a vid soon.

maxxin relaxxin - Just nailed a 3 hour hike up to 3000m

La Clusaz Radikal Mountain FWQ4* Comp

 Pre-dawn Posers - Claire about to Win the Open to qualify for the 4* comp

Took a few days road tripping over to La Clusaz in France for the first comp of the euro freeride season. Didn't work out the best for me finishing up 17th and failing to make the final, again. Dissapointed and the same result as last year at this comp. Was and awosme trip away tho, but a little unfortunate with the snow conditions being easily the worst we have had the whole season. Im sure Freeride competitions attract shit snow! Stoaked with how Claire went Qualifying 3rd and making the final in her 1st ever qualifier comp, taking out some of the top ranked girls on the way. But even she charged a little hard on her final run having a little woopsy (sending it big!) and ended up in 6th place.

Riders face check

McGregors new move

Me sending it. Not enought to please the judges...

Claire getting technical - and about to send a big cliff with a dislocated shoulder:)

Verbier crew - Cristoffer Granbom, Claire McGregor, Vinny Rayner and Smirnoff Mike

Awsome to see a big crew over from Verbs, and stoaked for Verbier rider Seb Jam who finished up 3rd in the snowboarding. Also big ups to Kiwi Abby Lockhart who ended up taking out the chicks snowboarding. Wicked to see Kiwis on top!

The Damage :)

Verbier Shred!

Good Morning Sunshine - Our digs in the heart of Verbier

 With Decembers storm's leaving us with copious amounts of snow its time to have some fun in the sun and SHREDDD!!!! Amaizing snow conditions.

YEOOWWW!

Sexy backside of Mont-Fort

The kids day out

Vince

Cristoffer Palmquist

Claire hucking

Trip to Nice

Dan & la moche!

On the 2nd I boarded the plane in Geneva and took myself off to the Nice in the South of France. I Spent an awesome couple of days maxing and relaxing with long time friend Olivia.

No snow to be seen

Bon appétit

Santé!

Post rosé climbing castle.

This turned out to be a perfect Detox spending all morning in the jacuzzi and all afternoon hiking in the hills overlooking the Mediterranean coastline. The 20 degree T-shirt weather made a pleasant contrast to the frozen swiss alps. 

Mid winter in the Med

Had a fantastic couple of days but couldn't wait to get back to Verbier or the 4th and shred some more pow...

Happy New Year from Verbier!

Gave NYE a good crack and was stoaked to see in the new year with good mates Tim, Cara, Fanny,  Vinny and the rest of the squad. Despite convincing myself I was going have and easy one this year and take myself to bed early I still managed to find myself in the Casbar as 07.00 ticked by.

Bonne année!

Don't be careful what you wish for!

Snow...

It is hard to believe that only weeks ago I was boarding not snow, but the plane in sunny Christchurch with reports that europe was experiencing its the warmest autumn in 150 years. No snow on the alps had yet been reported, and nightmares of last years warm dry winter showed potential of reoccurring... but this was not to be.

Snow...

and more Snow...

I finally made it to Verbier - Switzerland, at midnight on the 14th December (grâce à la seule M^me-taxi-Dellea!), there had been a dusting of snow a week earlier but there was only remnants present in town when I arrived. This night was also when the snow storms arrived. On my first afternoon, already enough snow had fallen to safely ski the trees back to the resort. By the following day all lifts were closed, and upper parts of the village were being evacuated because of the avalanche risk posed by the shear volume of snow that had been puked! And in the days and weeks that followed it has just kept coming! There were reports that more snow had fallen in the space of 2 days than in the entire 5 month season last year!

A short clip from my first week up here... 

And with any breaks in the weather that we have had we have certainy made the most of this amazing start to the winter. However we have had to share the snow over the busy festive period. I can't wait until the new year when the crowds of punters recede. With the snow base we now have, any amounts of fresh pow goodness will be epic fun.

And some mountains, sun and a snowboard.

With both my point and shoot camera and my ContourHD head cam now on the blink, photos/videos are minimal, however rumours have it that along with alot of new snow, the new year will also bring some GoPros and a brand spankin new DSLR! So I'm hoping for some sick photos to come.

Merry Xmas morning bluebird - about to shred some Mont-Gélé Fresh! :)

You can never be too prepared - vince with matching blu-board/blu-pills

Me & Claire - Christmas Day Hangover fun

Me, Vince, Ian and Claire getting a couple of turns in before Christmas Dinner and just before my Headcam died.

Headcam was on it side by accident, but I think it actually gives a fair reflection of how I was feeling after certain xmas eve celebrations...

Xmas Banquet

Vinny bout to score some post Xmas-lunch Pow

At least someone knows where to go...

Backside Mont-Fort runout

First couple of weeks have dissappeared already! I guess I must be having fun?!

Burnt to a Crisp.

I can't wait to go snowboarding! After enduring nearly 30 hours of bugdet airlines I'm currently in a holding pattern in the UK where I have been for the last week or so staying with friends and Fam. Despite Europe and the Alpes suffering from the warmest autumn on record (meaning 0cm of snow yet!), there is a storm brewing on the horizon and I will be on my way out to Switzerland any day now so could time it perfectly.

Koh Phi Phi, Thailand

On the way out to Europe however picked up some great sun burn (for the first time in years!) from my 6 days in on the beautiful Thai Island of Kho Phi Phi. Almost halfway between NZ and Europe it would be rude not to stop, so I spent 6 days of sun, sand and snorkeling all day, and buckets + beach partys all night...

Next Stop... Switzerland?