McNair Snowsports

The mountain officially shut on Tuesday 8th May. My last ride was on Monday and what a day. Headed up to the top of the Grande motte glacier, then traveresed and took a short hike round the back to the west face. This starts at an altitude of around 3500mts – guaranteed lung burner when your hiking at this altitude. There had been a good 30-40cm of fresh snow on this face and it hadn’t been ridden. Stability was good but you have to be very careful on this pitch as there are exposed (and hidden) crevasses and seracs to navigate around. The snow was fantastic, dry winter conditions. After the west pitch we then traveresed onto the North face below the main seracs and continued our decent. The decision was then made to continue our tour around the Dome de pramacou. The snow was definitely on the change on the eastern face as we hiked uo, but we caught the North, sheltered face before it had been exposed to the sun and higher temperatures – perfect untracked snow again. This took us all the way to 2100 and Val Claret. Not a bad decent of 1400mts all in Fresh untracked winter snow on the 7th May!

Although Tignes still has another 7 weeks of riding until the resort closes, summer riding is not far away and I really want to maximize the top quality conditions Tignes glacier offers in the first few weeks of the summer season. The Glacier opens on the 22nd June 2012 and the first course starts on Monday 25th.

The courses on offer are designed for Level 2 / Level 3 BASI Instructors wishing to progress their higher level riding, whether it be for a personal or a professional focus. The 3 weeks on offer are designed to build skills from 1 week to the next although each week has it’s own independent focus, therefore giving you option to pick and choose what suits you best. Basic course outlines are below, with more details to follow:

Week 1 (25th-29th June 2012) – Centering your Core

This week will focus on your balance and posture, grounding your riding and promoting efficiency and effectiveness no matter what you are doing on your board. This course is imperative to all riders and has proved to be the most eye opening and beneficial training for Level 3 to date.

Week 2 (2nd-6th July 2012) -Freestyle coaching

Focused on the performance criteria and requirements needed for Lv 3 and Freestyle coaching module. Massed practice and coaching sessions in the Tignes Glacier snowpark.

Week 3 (8th-12th July 2012) – Building Performance

Understand how to build and create pressure so you can actively change your performance at any given moment. In an nutshell, start to inspire others with your riding

As with all my group coaching courses, numbers will be limited to a maximum of 6 riders. Initial course fee is £350 for 5 days on and off-snow coaching. Accommodation, food and lift pass packages to follow.

For more details or to book onto the courses, please contact me at: neil@mcnairsnowsports.com, or call +33 (0)677 577 860

Last Friday I joined a team of 3 others to complete a charity challenge in Sainte Foy. The challenge consisted of hiking and riding La Foglietta in Sainte Foy 3 times in one day. This has never been done before as the average round trip is 4hrs and it is very physically demanding. Not only were we to complete this 3 times in one day, but each descent would involve a different discipline – First alpine skis, then telemark skis then finishing with Snowboarding. This was all in aid of raising money for “The Smile Train” and “The Kariandusi Kenyan School Project”. The challenge was the brainwave of Nick Walker and my role was initially to train Nick to a competent level of Snowboarding to complete that leg of the challenge. Nick then invited me to join him and 2 other guides to help him complete the event. We stayed the previous night in the high mountain hut at 2600m so we could start our first accent at 6am the following morning. Conditions were challenging due to the high temperatures, but through grit, determination, blood and sweat, we completed the challenge just before 5pm the following day. We are still waiting on the total sum raised but we believe that over 80,000 euro’s has been raised through sponsorship.

Here is a small video diary I have put together from footage of the challenge.

Foglietta big snow challenge

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Seeing as I have been riding without highbacks for the past 2 years, I thought it was about time to write some views on the matter. Firstly, why? Well my main reason is the freedom that this gives you. Modern snowboard boots give you just the right amount of support and if you can stand in the right place, stack over your board and use your core effectively then there is actually no reason to block the ankle with a highback. Mike Ranquett is the real pioneer of this movement and has written a great article that explains the history of the highback.  I had used it in the past as a  training tool to promote good posture and balance but until Dave Lee lent me his board to test I hadn’t actually thought of riding without highbacks full time. Dave was riding sans high back and after a few runs I was totally hooked. I could bore you for hours with the pro’s and con’s of highbacks, but ultimately it doesn’t matter. To me, quite simply, it gives me more freedom and doesn’t harm or hinder my snowboarding – it makes it more fun. There is no other reason to ride besides that. Forget the hype, the bullshit and all the other propaganda, if you fancy a change, a new sensation on your board, try it. You’ll either like it, loathe it or sit on the fence. Ultimately, don’t make a decision until you give it a go – plus you can throw down some uber rad laybacks!

Now that the no highback movement is gaining pace, several brands are releasing no highback bindings or bindings which give you the option of riding with/without. This means that the 2 current options of either sawing the highback off with a jigsaw or just completely removing it may well be a thing of the past. Not that this matters but sometimes the heelcups can be too low or not padded, therefore give your boot more wear and tear than necessary.

So far I have seen the sample of switchback bindings which seem really simple, getting rid of all the fancy add-ons that sometimes aren’t necessary, and allow you to construct your own binding in the shop. You choose all the parts you want and build them yourself. If you don’t want a highback, you don’t need it, but there is a piece that you add into the heelcup which prevents your foot from being further back in the binding.

The second binding I have seen is the artec binding, which comes without a highback, but a slightly raised heelcup with protective rubber on the inside. Really simple and effective and for the true no-backer. Finally, the latest NOW binding looks really rad as has a new hinge technology to replicate the movement of a skateboard truck. It cants slightly between the toe and heel edge and also has the option of removing the highback without compromising the heelcup. With or without, your foot sits in exactly the same place on the binding.

Check out the photos below, taken yesterday at Snow Avant Premiere (French board test) In La Clusaz, France.

During the BASI pro-development course in Zermatt last week, James put this mini-edit together. Most of the riding is of Lewis Somvico, with a spattering of James and myself in the mix. Drop-shots and MFM butters were the call of the day. Fun times

OK, been locked down in resort for the past 3 days with torrential rain storms which is never good in early November – If only the temperature had dropped then the shredatron would have been on. I have to stay I wasn’t expecting much when the glacier finally opened today, but did I get a surprise. Lots of cold fresh snow all over the show and the Brucie Bonus came at the end of the day when we decided to try and right to the bottom of Val Claret. The wind had been heaping the snow into the middle bowls of double M, and the snow cannoned trail at the bottom hid all the rocks. You would have never guessed this is possible when you look at the photo of the snow line. Merci Mr+Mrs Sweet for an epic shred today – still smiling!!

Alright,

Just got back from a week in Hintertux, Austria. Main reason for being there was a get together for the BASI trainers conference. Headed over a day early and what a result. 55cm fresh, super cold snow. Epic for anytime of year let alone start of October. Thrashed around with Ben K and bumped into a few old and new friends, Tyler Chorlton and Dom Harrington to name a few. Great afternoon session with the crew, cheers boys.
After that the week was mixed in terms of weather, torrential rain on 2 days and sunshine in between that. Not good for all the teams out to train in the park, but we had fun developing the product, learning new jibs, trampoline sessions and afternoons in the pool and sauna. left sore, battered, bruised and hungover so nothing new!
Got a couple of weeks back in Tignes (snow due Wednesday) then a trip to Zermatt mid November before the training courses start.

Neil