SkiBike Tour 2012-13 - Flaine Bluebird Day
Posted: Thursday 31 January 2013 by Mark Kinnon in Labels: 2012-13 Tour, D.I.Y., France, SkiBike
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Today had a much better start than recent days, anticipating icy conditions first thing, we enjoyed a more relaxed start to the day, as we munched sweet breakfast waffles, the view from the balcony revealed crystal clear Alpine blue skies and dazzling sunshine. Today looked like it was going to be a good day.
We wanted to head high, back to the area around the top of the DMC cable car where the snow was likely to have remained powdery and fresh. We put in a number of runs with Andy and Carl spending a lot of time working on headcam videos.
As anyone who has worked in television or movies will tell you, such things take a lot of time to set up and a lot of time is lost hanging around. This can be frustrating if you don't "look at the big picture"and my patience was beginning to wear thin by the early afternoon.
We headed into some new territory and made the mistake of heading down the Minos piste. A great run at the top, with lots of crusty snow, this is only my second time on such a surface and I am already feeling more confident. Unfortunately we met our Waterloo further down on the Jade piste which was steep and had the consistency of a skating rink. We all struggled (some more than others!) and only Andy made it down unscathed. I was able to discover that the end of the handlebars can be used as a brake to stop you once things have gone decidedly pear shaped and you find both you and your skibike sliding down a slick sheet of ice.
Andy and Carl took a rest break, whilst I headed back down the same run, looking for a "Northwest Passage" off piste itinerary to reach better snow. I was successful, once I followed some well worn tracks through a charming wooded area filled with Silver Birch trees.
We then met up with two local SnowScoot riders and made some spectacular late afternoon runs on empty pistes at sunset. If you could only bottle such moments of perfect oneness for times of need!
We wanted to head high, back to the area around the top of the DMC cable car where the snow was likely to have remained powdery and fresh. We put in a number of runs with Andy and Carl spending a lot of time working on headcam videos.
As anyone who has worked in television or movies will tell you, such things take a lot of time to set up and a lot of time is lost hanging around. This can be frustrating if you don't "look at the big picture"and my patience was beginning to wear thin by the early afternoon.
 |
| SkiBiker Carl on camera |
We headed into some new territory and made the mistake of heading down the Minos piste. A great run at the top, with lots of crusty snow, this is only my second time on such a surface and I am already feeling more confident. Unfortunately we met our Waterloo further down on the Jade piste which was steep and had the consistency of a skating rink. We all struggled (some more than others!) and only Andy made it down unscathed. I was able to discover that the end of the handlebars can be used as a brake to stop you once things have gone decidedly pear shaped and you find both you and your skibike sliding down a slick sheet of ice.
Andy and Carl took a rest break, whilst I headed back down the same run, looking for a "Northwest Passage" off piste itinerary to reach better snow. I was successful, once I followed some well worn tracks through a charming wooded area filled with Silver Birch trees.
We then met up with two local SnowScoot riders and made some spectacular late afternoon runs on empty pistes at sunset. If you could only bottle such moments of perfect oneness for times of need!
 |
| Spectacular late afternoon runs on empty pistes |