We were off to France on April 9th to experiment the french alps. I think Bruce irving nailed it on the head when he said that the alps were some serious mountains and that Canada couldn't compare with with terrain available. I think he'd be right.
Standing on top of Brunel you can appreciate how steep it can get and the amount of elevation you have. And then again this is not even the highest peak.
What I love about the Cham valley is that it has lifts all way down the with a free bus running it's whole length. Potentially if you had a great buddy, lots of avy training, and rescue gear, the whole valley is yours to explore. Of coarse this is april and it on a bad season. But you can imagine snow right to the bottom.
It nice little chilled town. The french aren't a paticulially friendly lot, We've seemed to have been ripped off a couple times as the locals poach on the tourist quite abit. There didn't really seem to be any refuge for snowboard bums to save some cash especially for the last week of the season. I know home always have 1/2 lift tickets and food available during the spring and summer months. Let me tell you, I was shi*tting out whole bread sticks by the end of my vacation
Accomodation is readable available with lots of hostels in town. 13 euros at it's cheapest but make sure you re confirm the price in writing and when you first arrive. as our accommodation jumped up 5 euros/night because of a misunderstanding, not to mention they kicked us out earlier than they said they would cause they decided to close for the season.
Our gite was nice however. very old and rustic european.
Me and Fran had a great time. A well needed trip. My first snowboarding in over a year.
This is jimbob, a friend from Bristol who lived in chamonix for over seven season. solid rider he was showing the mountain.
It quite funny actually. when you havn't ridden for a while. All you want to do is ride the terrain and explore.
When your doing a season and spring time comes, all you want to do is ride the park. dissappointed cause thats all the Agentierre crew wanted to do. I guess you can't blame them since they are there all the time.
Me and jimbob billy goating to get some fresh. I recon the chiminey hike is scarier,but this one is definatly longer. The snow in the shade at elevation did not decompose, so it was nice to get some dry packed powder.
The run gave access to the glacier. I have always wonder what Overloard glacier looked like.
The park was fun. It not as well maintained as home and it's a bit mellow pitch. I think the park designer know how make a good park though. Lots of interesting stuff. The skills were still there but I was a little out of pratice.
Franny admitted to having fun in the park aswell.
It's shame about the rails. All of them were slated and falling over. I really didn't see anybody sessioning them at all. Oh the Quebecois would be disappointed in the motherland.
That was my trip so far.
I really want to go back since it quite a short trip from bristol. about 4 hours and £450
thats $900 canadian including lift fraud. haha.
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Published by soulridercrap: 9:18 AM
Updated On: 4/29/2007 at 9:56 AM
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