SkiBike Tour 2012-13 - Les Carroz Rendezvous With Fabrice
Posted: Tuesday 8 January 2013 by Mark Kinnon in Labels: 2012-13 Tour, D.I.Y., France, SkiBike
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Plan A for today was to meet Fabrice Mercier at Les Carroz around round lunchtime and get in a few hours on the slopes, ensemble, as they would say here. Fabrice is the cousin of Seb Baix one of the movers and shakers of freestyle skibiking way down South at Isola 2000. Fabrice lives nearby at Sallanches, but had already missed out on earlier jaunts because his young lad had caught a virus.
I had just arrived at Morillon and got my ticket when the phone rang, he was now going to miss today's ride because his wife was sick. Perhaps tomorrow things will be better? The morning was pretty still chill and crisp, so following the pattern of recent days I donned ski kit and had a quick run over to Flaine to see what conditions would be like. I think the warm weather and holiday traffic has really taken a heavy toll on the snow at Flaine. To my surprise the runs down to Les Carroz and Morillon were in much better condition. I was also surprised to find that some of the "difficult" red sections were much easier than the "intermediate" blues, presumably down to excessive traffic.
Having fully scoped out the routes, I returned to the car for a snack and change of sliding mode. Once this used to take ages, but now everything seems to fall into place and the process only takes about 15 minutes.
I found the most enjoyable runs and spent the afternoon fully exploiting them in what was becoming a skibiker slush fest, for the record they were; Combe (Les Carroz), Marmottes (Les Molliets) and Sairon (Morillon) all flattering easy, fun blue runs.
On my way home I made a detour and checked out the location of the flat that will become the SkiBike base camp for a couple of weeks in February, more about this later. I am very much looking forward to being 15 minutes from the ski stations and not 1 hour and 30 minutes away in Geneva.
I had just arrived at Morillon and got my ticket when the phone rang, he was now going to miss today's ride because his wife was sick. Perhaps tomorrow things will be better? The morning was pretty still chill and crisp, so following the pattern of recent days I donned ski kit and had a quick run over to Flaine to see what conditions would be like. I think the warm weather and holiday traffic has really taken a heavy toll on the snow at Flaine. To my surprise the runs down to Les Carroz and Morillon were in much better condition. I was also surprised to find that some of the "difficult" red sections were much easier than the "intermediate" blues, presumably down to excessive traffic.
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| I returned to the car for a snack and change of sliding mode |
Having fully scoped out the routes, I returned to the car for a snack and change of sliding mode. Once this used to take ages, but now everything seems to fall into place and the process only takes about 15 minutes.
I found the most enjoyable runs and spent the afternoon fully exploiting them in what was becoming a skibiker slush fest, for the record they were; Combe (Les Carroz), Marmottes (Les Molliets) and Sairon (Morillon) all flattering easy, fun blue runs.
On my way home I made a detour and checked out the location of the flat that will become the SkiBike base camp for a couple of weeks in February, more about this later. I am very much looking forward to being 15 minutes from the ski stations and not 1 hour and 30 minutes away in Geneva.
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| SkiBike base camp for a couple of weeks in February |