Photo Every Week 2012

After managing a full 365 photos in the One Photo Every Day challenge in 2010, and an aborted 365 in 2011 that turned in to a One Photo Every Week, I decided to stick with a One Photo Every Week again in 2012.

My favourite photos each month are those below:

Jan: Burg Frankenstein


Feb: Ice Sculpture


Mar: Mushroom


Apr: Sunny Sunday


May: Wasp


Jun: Liechtenstein


Jul: Nutter


Aug: Lapwing Lodge


Sep: Meadow


Oct: Red


Nov: Art?


Dec: Oooh, Powder!

There is also a full slideshow of all 52 photos.

Skiing Tignes (2nd try)

About the same time last year, I visited Tignes for the first time, as part of the snowHeads Pre-Season Bash. Back then the place was basically grass everywhere, except for the glacier, and the "Double-M" red run down to the Valley, and that was largely man-made and icy snow-cannon snow.

Originally I had thought about visiting Meribel for a ski clinic, but decided to return to Tignes, again on the snowHeads PSB. This time it paid off. It basically snowed all week, and significant numbers of runs were open, although some lifts closed from time to time due to wind etc.

I put my name down for a handful of lessons too, since I'd not been on any for a few years. 1 Moguls/Bumps clinic, and 3 group lessons for mainly piste performance. Glad I did - lots of things to practice on the next bash in February (and a private weekend in January).

Eventually (ie Thursday), the Sun did start to make a brief appearance. The powder was rather epic, and it was time to make best use of the visibility.

And then it became nearly a bluebird day.

There'd better be a PSB next year! I'm going back!

All skiing pics for 2012-2013 are here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/104347553800437592244/SHSkiing20122013

Ski Amade

So it's the end of October, Graham says he has 2 days of leave to use up, then Nicky says "ditto", and then well so do I.  Thought that would be the end of it, but within a few days we'd booked a trip to Radstadt in Austria to sneak in a quick warm-up ski trip before the snowHeads Pre-Season Bash, with Pete, Jamie and another Graham along for good measure.

I sussed out that there's a train direct from Darmstadt to Radstadt, once per day, so booked that on bahn.de there and then.  Rather convenient being able to get to a ski resort with no changes, no airport carriage charges and no autobahn jams.

We stayed at Haus Susanne run by even more snowHeads, where some of the others had stayed previously, in winter and summer. From there the best option, given that it was still November, was to drive 15 minutes up to Obertauern for the skiing.

The rental car, brand new, blacked out windows, 7speed automatic, full screen satnav:

The crew - Graham, Jamie, Pete, Nicky, who's hiding behind Angela, and Graham:

And proof that Austria is not too low to snow:

All skiing pics for 2012-2013 are here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/104347553800437592244/SHSkiing20122013

IRW 2012

Well doesn't August come round again so quickly?  It certainly doesn't seem like a year since the last IRW, but the calendar doesn't lie.  This year was my 20th attendance, out of a total of 21 IRWs, and like last year, was based at the scout camp just outside Paisley.

Sun/Mon/Tue
A handful of us turned up early, so the first couple of days was setting up, and a trip in to Largs for the day, like last year (partly to waste loads of 2p coins in the arcade).  Then it was the event proper...

Wed
Only flew an Estes Rampage on a C6-5. This was a kit that I'd won in a raffle somewhere. Flew pretty well and drifted a fair way, but was found OK.

Thu
Just spectating.

Fri
Flew the Rogue Aerospace Interdictor spaceplane on a C6-5. This is one of my favourite kits, but sadly is now out of production, so I'd rather not lose it. There are pdf plans available though.

Next up was another flight of my old L2 cert rocket, the Rebel Pirate on a Pro38 I285-10 (Classic). This must have just caught on the rail a bit, and part of the airframe was broken near the rail buttons. Flight was good though, and was easily found.
Finally, I had to do a flight of the Art Applewhite 7inch Saucer, on a D12-0 again. These are such simple kits, can fly in any weather, and prep time is minimal.

Sat
Just spectating again.

Sun
For the first time in years, the Estes Black Brant flew, again on a D12-7. This used to be my most flown rocket until that record was taken by Art Applewhite kits. The nozzle ejected, though, so the thrust was very low, but since the Black Brant weighs so little, it actually flew and landed safely.

The Rogue Aerospace Interdictor got another outing on a C6-5, but this time the shockcord snapped.  The nosecone and streamer landed about 100m away, and was found very easily, but the main body tumbled down end over end and was lost... or so we thought. Eventually it was found about 2 hours later, so will be fixed and flown again :)
Since I had 1 spare D12-0, I decided to fly the Art Applewhite Saucer again, which as usual was a good flight.
After that, it was time for the traditional camp fire and BBQ.  Another ace inferno :) and another ace BBQ :)

Mon
Home time.

More pics can be seen here...
https://picasaweb.google.com/104347553800437592244/IRW2012

MTB Morzine

I'd skied in the Portes du Soleil many times before, but had never been there mountain biking. Until now :)

Stayed at a hotel near Geneva airport, just over the border in France, right by the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Then on the Saturday morning, headed towards Morzine, where we'd be staying at Flow MTB for the week.

Day 1: Les Lindarets
On the first day, we quickly built the bikes and took the lift up to Avoriaz and a trail down to Les Lindarets just as a sighter. That was our first realisation that the braking bumps would be insane all week. Finished with a descent of the Ardent valley, and along the river back in to Morzine. Even the path down to Montriond was rocky, and I was expecting it to be a nice smooth path used by bathers!

Day 2: Mont Chery + Col de Joux Plane
Just one lift up Pleney and ride down to Les Gets. From there it was 1 lift up Mont Chery, and then ride  up towards the ridge. Nice ride along the ridge to Mont Caly (nice restaurant there), and then most of the fun part of the ride is the trail running around the back side of Mont Chery. After this, we took the Chavannes lift back up the Les Gets/Morzine side, and rode round and up to Col de Joux Plane (of Floyd Landis fame).  From there, it was mostly descent, all off road, down to the Nyon plateau, and eventually the traverse in to Morzine.

Day 3: Col de Cou + Arete du Berroi
Up Super Morzine again, and the "Swiss Superhighway", and then up to top of Pointe de Mossettes. This chairlift seems to take forever, starts in France, and drops you and the bikes (or skis) off in Switzerland. From there it's a quick descent, and traverse, dropping almost 600m vertical over about 7km, and then a good old uphill techy rocky slog to regain half of that vertical over about 2km, up to Col de Cou and up on to the Arete du Berroi ridge.  The views up there were stunning, and the path was ace too, even if there was a sheer cliff about 1 metre away on the left!

Descent to Champery was fun. Skipped some singletrack, since we'd wanted to make up a bit of time, so clocked 65km/h on the way down in to Champery.
Took a wrong turn, so ended up on the DH run down to Les Crosets, which was fun. Then it was one more lift up, and the nice long 17km descent to Montriond again :)

Day 4: Portes du Soleil Loop
Startes similar to the previous day, but then went over in to the Chatel valley. The "Panoramique" trail was one of my favourites. Then a long gravel road ride to Chatel itself. Weather closed in a bit going up Super Chatel lift, so we decided to skip the blue loops over by Torgon, and carried on across the border again down to Morgins. Had lunch in Chez Gaby in Champoussin (a place I'd been to many times before when skiing). Then it was an ace terraced trail cut in to the side of the mountain back over to Les Crosets, and another repeat of the 17km descent to Montriond :)

Day 5: Chatel Bike Park
Did Panoramique and Serpentine a couple of times. The former is a bit jumpy, the latter, all berms. After lunch, did some of the GR5 trail, and then a blue run back down from Avoriaz to Les Lindarets. This time to get back, we rode along the ridge from Avoriaz, and did the steep rooty descent to Morzine. Needed to to a road side brake pad change though as things had worn out far too much.

Day 6: Plateau du Loex
Back over the Les Gets side for the last 2 days. Did the "black" XC loop which actually wasn't at all difficult, or long. Mostly was on easy fire road type track, although with quite a bit of climbing at the start.  After lunch we did one of the blue runs back over to Morzine.

Day 7: Mont Chery + French MTB Championships
Did a repeat of the Mont Chery loop, but with a variation from the ridge down to l'Encrenaz which gave lots of narrow singletrack with tight hairpins.  In the afternoon, we dropped the bikes of at the KTM stand. Thanks to Ffion Griffiths (staying at same chalet as us) for looking after them :) and then walked the French Championships DH course. Lots and lots of drops. Spotted Emmeline Ragot (who was also staying at the chalet) twice on practice runs.

All of the pics can be seen here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/104347553800437592244/MTBMorzine
Stats for the week: 293km total ride distance (excluding lifts), 33 lifts.

MTB Liechtenstein

I'd never been to Liechtenstein before, despite living only a few hours' drive away, and having driven right past it a handful of times. So I thought I'd use up one of the many 4-day weekends we get in Germany to go mountainbiking there.

Day 1 - Eschnerberg, Austria/Liechtenstein

This is more of a hill than a mountain, that crosses the Austria-Liechtenstein border. The ride was basically one from the the Liechtenstein Tourism site. Started from the Stadion carpark on the outskirts of Feldkirch (Austria) which was a few hundred metres from one end of the tour. To start with, it follows a road round the end of the hill, and then a road winding up the hill to St. Corneli (nice guesthouse and bar there, which would make a handy mid-ride stop if starting at the other end). There are definitely off-road alternatives to get there (I found one that was pretty good as a descent, or a technical rocky ascent).

Then it goes through some forest along the hill top, and drops back down to the valley, where it follows a main cycle path for quite a while, where it crosses the border into Liechtenstein. I think the old border signs have gone and there's a nature reserve landscaping in progress there, so now there's nothing to suggest you're in another country.

After a while it heads up the opposite end of the hill, which is largely off-road, mostly grassy farm track, past lots and lots of cows with cow bells.

Eventually it goes through some forest, mostly on fire road, and eventually descends on the the valley on the north side of the ridge for a bit. Then it heads up a number of hairpin bends off road, through more forest.

Eventually it comes back out on a road and crosses back in the Austria. No passport control these days. I think even Liechtenstein is in the Schengen area now too.

Day 1 - Bregenz, Austria

Stayed in Bregenz overnight, since the hotel there had reasonable prices given that it was a holiday weekend. They have a music festival every summer, with a huge floating stage, which changes every year.

Day 2 - Malbun, Liechtenstein

Given that the weather was supposed to be rain and thunder, and the ride I had planned was going to be a mega uphill leg burner in the mountains, I decided to go walking instead. Again, this was another route from the Liechtenstein Tourism website, this time starting from Malbun, the only ski resort in the country.

It started off as a sanitised footpath, then a bit of landrover track, then heads off a bit more cross country over meadows, and then starts to become a bit of a scramble. Eventually up in the clouds at about 1800m ASL, and still snow patches about in June!

Managed to walk past the Sassförkle, and was heading to the Schönberg summit, but the way was blocked by fresh landslip (I stopped there for a few minutes and saw more fresh rock slides) and more snow. The weather was beginning to turn too, so decided to head back down. Just as well, as the rain properly turned up half way down.

All of the rest of the pics can be seen here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/104347553800437592244/MTBLiechtenstein

Skiing in the Dolomites (again)

I had said I wanted to do something different this year, instead of the Dolomites, but ended up in Tignes for a pre-season bash. This meant I could go somewhere new *and* have a trip to the Dolomites on the usual snowHeads bash :)

Drove down to Innsbruck on the Friday, and met up with the others who'd arrived by car from NL, by plane from UK, and by train from Switzerland. Dined at the Stiftskeller, which was very good food for reasonable prices. Then it was off to Arabba first thing in the morning for a good half day skiing (which was very very cold).

Day 2 was off to the Hidden Valley and Cinque Torri. Needed a bus between the 2 since the usual ski run was closed. Shame it was a bit cloudy, since it hid the views.

Day 3 was an easy day out in the blue runs between Campolongo and San Cassiano.

Day 4 was a powder day, so we did a Sella Ronda orange/clockwise loop. Fantastic day out!

Day 5 was a bumpy mogulled bluebird day out to Selva and Ortisei, taking in the Val Gardena World Cup DH run.

Day 6 was the Marmolada day. Apparently it had been carnage the day before, but today, we just skied straight to Malga Ciapela, and got straight on the 1st cable car (of 3) without any queues. That was a first! The run down was excellent, grippy snow, and hardly any people :)

In the afternoon, it was time to play about on some Big Foot "skis" and snowblades. They certainly cannot be taken seriously, but are a laugh for a couple of hours one afternoon.

 

Day 7 Was a trip out to La Villa, taking in the Alta Badia World Cup GS run. At the top of Piz la Ila were some impressive ice sculptures.

Eventually went to Santa Croce for lunch. That's a 200m walk just beyond the end of the last lift on the piste map, but well worth it for the views.

Day 8 was snowing a bit again, and the last day, so we just went up and down the Portovescovo black runs a few times, then back to the Corvara side for some nice easy blues down through the trees, before heading back to Innsbruck.

Final Stats for the week were a bit down on last year, but the powder day, the blades and late starts didn't really help there:
130 lifts, 46336m vertical, 245km estimated slope length

The other pictures can be found here.