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May 13 Zell March 2007Uh Oh, seems that I have not updated this blog for an age. Well here goes.
The last trip to the slopes ended for the season witha fortnight in good old Zell, highlights were among others Completely barmy weather, white finger tiped rides in an EVO 9 to Salbaach (ta Ross), a failed attempt to destroy Tom on his 30th (bloody scarpered at 3am), visit by a super Sam, the usual drunken madness really.
Wont go into details of the trip, you will have to take a lok at the associated album. All there is left for me to do is thank some people.
Thanks to Jeff and Ross (for putting me up again), Christina, Tom, Tom, Jezza, Michelle, Sam, Rob, Mr. T, Babs, Dini, the Diele staff, Evon, Sally, Ard (lift pass saved me a fortune), Andy, Kim and Dave, Ronan, niki, Adrian, Sabina, Miles, Chris, Uri (yo Beecha), Hugh, Holman (bloody Gooner
 ), Malin and anyone I have forgotten (will have to claim your beer in the summer or NYE).Look forward to paying Zell a visit in July / August on the motor bike. Hope everyone has a great summer and I hope to see you again soon.
Tiny.
P.S. Anyone want to get together in london for my b day on the weekend of the 30th June get in touch.
p.p.s. looking for an amazing skiing experience should check out www.jistski.com
February 05 Les Deux Alpes minus the Pow Pow!! Sob!Where's all the Snow gone.........Oh yeah, it never arrived!
Well, I am soooo glad I picked a resort in France which was high enough coz by the end of the week even 2alpes was struggling.
Do not envy anyone travelling to the french alps as they forecast nowt of the white stuff for another week.
That said, the weather was fantastic, blue bird skies in which you could see for hundreds of miles. From the Glacier you could see where the alps started, incredible!!!. Sunshine on the glacier meant it didnt feel cold (-08 degrees most days), actually in the park it was lovely and toasty.
The park on the Glacier was excellent, real busy a loads of top riders and skiers going nuts (not me tho, was being a pussy!!).
Anyone who goes to Les Deux Alpes must pay a visit to Secret Bar, if you have a choice of where to stay I recommend Hotel Le Cret as the Staff there are the nuts!!!
Night life was bloody fab for a French resort, still not as good as Austria I am afraid. And if you want the best Steak go to Le Bluets and order the Entrecote Chalious la Morealle (something like that), it was massive and delicious.
Still had a great time, but the most frustrating thing was the absolutlye incredible terrain which was so easy to access and would have meant epic powder runs and leg burn city for a week. I swear if it dumps late season I might just pop over for a few days as I know so fab spots to wreak havoc on.
Oh well, its all about the last minute trips and the timing to get the pow, hopefully I will have better luck next year in Japan.
But for this season, have to wait a few weeks for a triumphant return to Zell and settling some bar bills, favours and celebrating a b day or two.
Lets all burn a beanie as a sacrifice to the snow gods, we need more snow.
Tiny.
P.S. Hope it does dump as all the ski world staff at Hotel Le Cret and Les Deux Alpes deserve it, hope you all (Laura, Paul, Vix, Rach, Tommo, Rick, becky and the rest, am useless with names) have a fantastic time. You never know might bump into you some time in the future.
Servus!!!
January 09 Zell New Years Number 6!!!Hey Hey!!
Managed to return unscathed once again, tho how I will never know.
Made it up to Breiteck this year unlike last, probably because I was crashing round a pals (Thanks once again Ross and Jeff, I owe you a few crates which I will deliver in March). So there was no possiblilty of me going to nuts, and missing the last lift up coz I had been sleeping the night before off. Although we were all feeling quite ill on NYE from the Sat night festivities, we ploughed on and by the 5th or 6th beer we all started to come alive again. Breiteck this year was effing GREAT!!!!!! Packed, great music amazing atmosphere and cucially a clear night with a 3/4 full moon. Which helped greatly on the way down (for most of us, I think one or two were just too wasted), finally got down to town for 2230ish. Quick shower and change and we all just made it into the town square, to witness the usual carnage which is akin to a war zone when every drunk nutter around sets off their own fireworks. Nearly got caned by a rocket or two (not the fizz bang type but the full on star exploding type), DID get hit by a few bangers.
Once it died down a bit it was off to Diele where things quickly got a bit blurry. Am reliably informed we all lasted till 0530, which might be a bit early but hey I cant remember anything past 2am.
New Years Day was a very quiet and subdued affair, macdonalds and DVDs. Tried to go out that night but it wasnt happening (Yes I admit I must be getting old), but the snow was finally starting to fall and the rest of the trip was filled with pow and much beer/merriment.
Can wait till March when I can get back.....for now I will have to make do with Les2Alpes in france for a week at the end of Jan.
A massive Hi to Tony, Chistina, Matt (Effing Punters), Ross (legend 1), Jeff (Legend 2), Leanne, Anthony, Rob (my god man the snoring!!!!!), Claire (Diddley Dee's), Thomas (DIELE IS NOW THE BEST BAR IN ZELL), Andy, Adrian (get a hair cut), Sabine (I'll work for you anyday), Tom (English Rose), Ronan, Nicola, Hue, Holman, Marlin, Marteen, Frank, Stina, Sunny, Evon (will get to chat more next time I am sure), Vinnie, Sally, Babs, Jeremy, Matt, Claire (the rest of the reps past and present), Ard and Sally, Phil, Natalia......and anyone else I was to drunk to remember....Ha Ha!!
P.S. Check out the associated photo album......Its Grrreeeeat!!!! August 14 Summer updateHi everyone, enjoying the barmy english summer I hope!!!
Well, as promised nothing really to report except for working socks off, enjoying the fickle british summer and trying to save cash (not very successfully).
But I have one update, to cope with the long wait between trips to the mountains I have (foolishly, supposed to be saving) bought a nice new motor bike, something I have wanted for ages and replaces the scooter (for which I am sooooo glad to be rid of, felt like a right plank at times). So I now have a proper bike and actually get acknowledged by the bigger boys on their motorbikes. Ha!
Should keep me occupied for a while, I love it. check out the pics. Will post more soon.
Also you should now be able to see a clip on my space. Cool eh.
Hope your all having a great summer.
Bye for now.
March 29 The Eve of the last excursion to the tall country.Well, this is gonna be short (ha ha, get it!).
Sitting here 0100, got to get up early today and pack all my gear in an hour to get to the train station for a short jaunt to Victoria. From there negotiate the underground to tottenham Hale, where (hopefully) I will jump on a Stansted express. Arriving at the .,............fuck this is boring, long story short. Get to Zell am See by 8 pm, dump stuff meet mates, get drunk. sleep (no doubt not for long) get up go boarding. Have stacks of laughs, get to bar on mountaon in sun, buy beers, get drunk. Repeat as necassary and maybe, maybe.........well who knows we'll see.
You'll hear more here soon.
Peace. March 05 Tignes 1 - Tiny 0Well Well........a much anticipated trip away started well. The sun was shining, snow was good (piste was excellent, but powder hard to come by, required hiking for and I was far too lazy that early in the trip). My goggle tan was coming along nicely by the monday morning, blue bird skies, I thought this is gonna be a week to remember. I was right!!
So by lunch time on Monday the plan was to spend as much time in the park throwing ourselves off the perfectly shaped kickers and rails.....but, Oh no!! The Alps has something else in mind........the mother of all storms!
By Monday night the weather had completely closed in, that night walking back to my apartment from the Pub, it had already laid about 10 inches. It didnt stop there, the wind increased, whiteouts everywhere. You got up the top it was -14 degrees, but in the wind (wind chill) my jacket and gloves froze which usually indicates -20 to 25 degrees. Wednesday we had enough powder to do us for the rest of the month let alone the week, but as the weather would not let up, we could'nt venture out to it as you couldnt see your mate 5 foot in front of you let alone rocks, cliffs, crevasses etc etc.
And so this is how it continued, aprt from friday where we managed to get down the back of Tignes toward Breviere and amongst the trees. Had some fun there, with a few kickers and cliff drops.
So with my dreams of a killer goggle tan out the window (had to buy a Face protector scarf thing as it was so windy and cold my chin kept freezing, not nice at all) we made the best of it.
Saturday came and most of me pals were preparing to deprt, not me coz I had planned it so I hads an extra day. Great, except the weather was soo bad they shut all the lifts, I was woken up at half 7 that morning by the windows rattling to the thunder of Ski patrol blowing avalanches.
With that I wrote the day off, went to find out about the buses to ge to Bourg St Maurice. Oops, just so happens that Sat was the end of the french holidays so all the buses were fully booked (on the way into Tignes there was only 6 people on the coach, it took 45 mins). Uh Oh....the weather increasingly deterioting we tried for a cab (bear in mind this is midday by now, we dont have to be in bourg unitll 2030ish for a 2130 train to Paris. Cab driver answers and then drops another bomb shell, the storm has put down over a metre in the resort (2100 metres) and so the road was blocked due to several avalanches (which killed a few people). The cab firms reckon its taking them up to 4 and a half hours to get up to Tignes from Bourg, se we wait and wait and wait, no cab.
By 6pm I have resigned myself to staying in Tignes an additional night, so started to ask around the bar staff for help (if you are going to Tignes, make sure you pop into to Scotty's bar in La lavachet, Poppey, Sara and the crew there are incredible. Buy them a beer!!). So we get a couple of options to crash at a few places, then incredibly just after 8pm a cabby bursts in and saves us. This guy was great, seeing the conditions on the way down he did everything to try and get us to Bourg before 2130 (I was crapping myself at some of the overtaking manourveres).
The tail back up to Tignes from Bourg was 20 Kms and not moving, utter chaos. I understand that it is still dumping.....incredible up to 2 metres on the top of tignes, when the sun finally comes out it will be epic.
I am gutted I am not going this week, but then there is a chance I would get to go up the mountain at all if it continoues to snow.
Oh well, was a bit of a dissappoinment in some respects, you cant have it perfect all the time. The trip was still a great one, cheers Dave, Kim, G, Steve, Pip, Liz, Glyn, Stu and Garrian January 09 A new year and lots of new opportunities.....Hey everybody!!
Hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and a great New Year as I did.
Was in Austira (Zell am See) yet again for the New Year, was one of the best trips yet. Even tho I didnt get up the mountain in to breiteckalm (you know if you have been, bar up the hill) NYE, because got a little bit too merry the night before (thnk we finished up at about 8 am, soo got a little bit too much kip and missed the last lift up). I did make it into town to meet up with all me mates (including a couple of surprise attendees I have not seen for time, Pearla, Matt, take a bow)
Still, was a great week with some awesome boarding. Austria was pounded with snow from the 30th till 3rd of Jan which enabled me and a couple of mates to ride powder all day on the Glacier (Kitzsteinhorn). This inevitabley was accompanied by some seriously sketchey moments, when the off piste we were adventuring, frequently remindeed us of how much care should be taken (several slides, some quite large.....almost brown trouser time).
Anyway back home and back to the office for a few weeks before heading to Tignes, just hope I will be as lucky as I was in Zell with the snow fall.
Enjoy.
P.S. dont just sit there dreaming about it, get out and do it!!! There's Pow Pow to be had!!!! August 18 Ooooooo....second entry..woooaaahhhh!Well, not alot to write.......hence this is only the second entry in almost two months
(boring).
Summer has been a bit of a mixed bag so far, just when you think its gonna be great for a while you wake up and its grey and generally wet out of the window. But I am determined to get out of the UK before the winter hopefully over to Zell am See for a week to see who's about.
Am planning to do a bit of hiking, biking, rafting and anything else thats on offer!!
just hope when I do get over (will try to get there by train for a change, 12 hour trip by all accounts) the weather is typical for the austrian alps in summer.
ooh passed my motorcycle test so can now get a proper bike.....lol....when I can afford one.
Well thats it, drop me line or a comment if your reading this.
Ta,
Rich.
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