Getting ready for the 2016 Swiss Alps trip.

[EddiePJ]

Hi Chris, I don't suppose that this area of Austria happens to be in your neck of the woods when you are out there? The views are outstanding.

I'm currently getting really bad withdrawal symptoms for the Alps, and would dearly love to be up in the mountains playing.

I have a meeting on Monday to try and push forward progress for my proposed world record setting challenge of reaching the Top Of Europe. The plan is to tackle the ride in 2018. I'd liked to have done it next year, but it is not to be.

I am back out in Switzerland next July riding again though, and I'm already counting the months down, and planning some serious climbs.
The toughest will be continuing up from Birg, to Piz Gloria. Toughest because I already know just how much of an effort that it was to reach Birg, and just how close that I came to quitting. From looking at Youtube clips submitted by hikers, that there will be plenty of carrying of the bike, so I'll be opting to use the hardtail this time.

I also want to ride up the Rothorn. Again I figure that if you can ride down it, then you can ride up it. No cable car for me.

I also had to abandon a ride up to the Männlichen because adverse suddenly came in, and it wasn't safe to continue. That one is now unfinished business, especially as I only probably had a couple of miles to go. I can do that one in an evening, so timing isn't so critical. It just needs to be a bright evening.
I'll have to upload a clip of the descent from the point that I did reach. The best part of 15 miles of continuous down hill!

This made shows some of the planned rides.

The yellow arrows show the main 2017 planned rides, and the red arrow, shows the World record attempt ride.

Perhaps I shouldn't be planning my future riding years, but 2017 is Switzerland. That'll kind of also be a sad one, as I suspect that it could be the last year that our daughter will tag along. Hopefully she will be just starting Balliol studying mathematics, and it'll mark 18yrs of our lives that have seemingly passed in a blink.
2018 UK- CH plus a week in the Black Mountains in Germany visiting relatives, followed by a week visiting old haunts in Belgium close to Luxemburg. 2019 could well be time to hit Austria. A country that I have yet to visit. As for 2020 who knows, but if I'm still able to, I intend to be somewhere in the Alps ascending mountains on an eMTB.

 

[chris130256]

No Eddie, that's a long way from the Serre Chevalier which is in France, just 8 miles from the Italian border. It does look great though but I think anywhere you go in the Alps is fantastic. I have a preference for the forested valleys rather than the lunar landscaped bare mountainsides though.

 

[EddiePJ]

I have a preference for the forested valleys rather than the lunar landscaped bare mountainsides though.

I've never given that aspect of riding any thought before now, but thinking about it, I am definitely drawn towards a more lunar landscape than a forested one. Having said that, on the rare occasions that I have ridden through a forest that has a tropical feel and look about it, I am always left in awe by the beauty and feel.
Interestingly only two evenings ago I sat and watched Seven: The BC Bike Race Movie, and was left thinking that it was close to being the perfect mtb riding terrain. Quite a contradiction from the preferred lunar landscape, so I guess that it must mean that I am just happy to be out riding anywhere.
Well anywhere that doesn't have too much input in respect of interference by man, which perhaps also explains why I am so happy just exploring animal tracks and trails. The further away from man the better.

 

[EddiePJ]

This thread is making me more and more determined to do a trip like this next year - I'm defiantly going to go there in 2017, pictures look awesome Eddie.

Have you had any further thoughts about heading off to the mountains in 2017?

Over the last week I have been getting very home sick for the Alps and have seemingly spent far too much time looking at Youtube.

I'm now thinking of sacrificing one of the rides that I had planned, in favour of riding here instead.

I have also been looking back through old photos and reminiscing about things. Strange how things change, and not always for the better.
I got thinking about aircraft both rotary and fixed wing, and just how much of a dangerous environment that it is.

Two years ago for example, I took this photo of a helicopter parked up at the end of the valley, and the second photo is two days into last years holiday of the same helicopter.

I don't think that I have enough fingers to begin to count the amount of lost aircraft and lives that have been lost in the time that I have been going there, or even gone down whilst we have been there. Then there are the base jumpers.. Certainly an odd and sad thing to be thinking about, but it seems to be one of those weeks spent thinking about lost friends.

 

[chris130256]

A dangerous place to live, the Alps. Every year, we would know someone or know friends of someone who had died. In winter it was avalanches killing skiers or sometimes piste accidents. Ice climbing tragedies were common. I never heard about anyone killed mtbiking during my 8 years there? A few younger people succumbed to leukemia probably a result of fallout from Chenoble? A few paragliders and whitewater deaths also occured. Two awful deaths I remember (although a few years apart) were apres skiers, both had a bit too much to drink, got lost after leaving the pub and froze to death in the street.
Sorry to be so morbid Eddie but your post got me feeling all nostalgic for the mountains!

Also, I'd like to point out I didn't 'like' the helicopter crash.

 

[Big Malky]

Been there too. Lost friends to avalanches, crashed a paraglider near Chamonix and been struck by lightning on a major route.
eMTB seems a lot safer..... so far.

 

[Big Malky]

However I am sure you and I Eddie would rather burn out rather than fade away as an overweight diabetic on a hospital trolley in a corridor.
If eBikes can prolong my time in the great outdoors all the better. Even if I end up draped over an electric fence

 

[E-Wheels]

However I am sure you and I Eddie would rather burn out rather than fade away as an overweight diabetic on a hospital trolley in a corridor.
If eBikes can prolong my time in the great outdoors all the better. Even if I end up draped over an electric fence

Big Malky I couldn't agree more
I'm in my mid 50's and commute 400km per week on my manual road bike
The only problem is my commute times are taking longer with age, hence my recent interest in ebikes
I've always believed if you don't use it, you loose it
People often say they think I'm mad for riding in 40'C heat or in the pouring rain but I don't care....I love it!!
For me riding my bikes is a motivating and invigorating experience and a means of keeping happy by reducing the stresses of the day
I see family, friends and work colleagues of similar age to me who have grown old both mentally and physically because they don't exercise or reap the rewards gained from regular physical activity
I intend to keep tapping those pedals and turning the wheels for as long as I can
In the end they will have to prise my arthritic hands from the grips to get me off my bikes

 

[Highside43]

Have you had any further thoughts about heading off to the mountains in 2017?

Over the last week I have been getting very home sick for the Alps and have seemingly spent far too much time looking at Youtube.

I'm now thinking of sacrificing one of the rides that I had planned, in favour of riding here instead.

I have also been looking back through old photos and reminiscing about things. Strange how things change, and not always for the better.
I got thinking about aircraft both rotary and fixed wing, and just how much of a dangerous environment that it is.

Two years ago for example, I took this photo of a helicopter parked up at the end of the valley, and the second photo is two days into last years holiday of the same helicopter.

I don't think that I have enough fingers to begin to count the amount of lost aircraft and lives that have been lost in the time that I have been going there, or even gone down whilst we have been there. Then there are the base jumpers.. Certainly an odd and sad thing to be thinking about, but it seems to be one of those weeks spent thinking about lost friends.

Eddie, I have been thinking about a trip later in the year, a lot.

Looking at going to Les Deux Alps - I still like my snowboarding so thinking of loading the car up with the e-bike and snowboard, staying a week or so there with boarding in the morning, and MTB in the afternoon, and then the following week moving to somewhere else for a few days MTB only.

Looking at June time. Your thread has given me the kick / inspiration to go there.

 

[chris130256]

Make sure the glacier is open in June. Not sure about it now but a few years ago it used to close outside of holidays. Also, you ok on t bars with your board? Les2 Alpes has lots of them.
Serre Chevalier is not far up the road for the 2nd week. Much nicer varid mtbing there.

 

[Highside43]

Make sure the glacier is open in June. Not sure about it now but a few years ago it used to close outside of holidays. Also, you ok on t bars with your board? Les2 Alpes has lots of them.
Serre Chevalier is not far up the road for the 2nd week. Much nicer varid mtbing there.

Thanks Chris, I'll bear that in mind. Onxy Snowboard do schools there middle of the year, so was looking at doing a week with them and assumed it would be open.

I'm at L2A this weekend for a weeks boarding, first time there so will have a look. T-Bars I'm ok with on the board.

 

[chris130256]

It'll be open if their running schools. I had my scariest ever telecabin ride at L2A! The thing was rocking 25 to 30 degrees in high winds. Was really glad to get off that one in one piece. Not sure you're into backcountry but the glacier has lots of hidden crevices, so only do that with a guide. Something magical about being on the snow in the middle of summer, although the run back to the cafe is a river by midday.

 

[Highside43]

I prefer the snow parks - board is a short park one as I enjoy the jumps and tend to stick to pistes when coming down from the top of the mountain. It sinks in the powder and is hard work keeping the nose up so stay out of it usually (apart from the usual 20m or so off the side of the piste following the run down)

 

[EddiePJ]

I have just received an email to say that this trail opened yesterday, at the village that we stay in. It looks as though I'll have somewhere new to try this July.

The downside is that I already know this trail, or rather the footpath that it once was, and to say that it is steep is very much an understatement, and walking down it used to be bad enough. We shall see.

This photo made me smile.

Somehow I can't see me taking this line!

 

[LeighPing]

Prima!

 

[anotherkiwi]

Ahem... Eddie you need a new thread for 2017 you can't keep living in 2016 as if the referendum never took place... Get a grip man time to move on to 2017!

 

[chris130256]

I'm envious now Eddie! Although the drop @1.07 would worry me!

 

[EddiePJ]

Knowing how near vertical and difficult that this was to walk down before they transformed this, the whole thing could be rather worrying!

Some of the routes that the young local riders make here, are pretty much suicidal.