An early Christmas!

I am currently back home recovering from a busy 5 days working at the Kendal Mountain Festival. Once again it surpassed expectations and I had a fantastic time with some great speakers and films to introduce: Bjarne Salén and Ptor Spricenieks' Dream Line, photographer and alpinist Jon Griffith, Kilian Jornet's Déjame Vivir, and of course the main Snowsports night, featuring Ross Hewitt, Kenny Biggin, Ben Briggs, Bjarne Salén and Sam Anthamatten!

Christmas has started arriving early - courtesy first of Kenny Biggin and SkiMountain with a shiny copyof their brand new Glencoe guidebook which looks fantastic and not only details some great descents but also has some interesting history as well a visitor's guide to the peculiarities of Scottish ski area queue-ing systems (anyone who hasn't been will nto understand until they go...).

Also arriving i France shortly after I did was a pair of shiny new Whitedot Director Carbonlite skis - thanks Whitedot!

I look forward to getting these mounted up and a full review will follow shortly thereafter.

Meanwhile we are playing a waiting game here in the Vanoise - after the early November snowfalls it has been quite dry and some major precipitation is now needed to get things up and running for the winter - fingers are firmly corssed!

Courchevel snow report

A quick update from the 3 Valleys in the video below...

Originally I had bigger (and steeper) plans for today but work and family conspired to limit me to a quick afternoon leg-stretch!

Courchevel Snow Report 18 Nov 14 from Simon Christy on Vimeo.

4 days and counting...

4 days and counting until this year's Kendal Mountain Festival kicks off.
I am excited to be hosting and introducing the Bjarne Salèn and Ptor Spricenieks film 'Dream Line', Seb Montaz and Kilian Jornet's 'Déjame Vivir', uber-talented photographer & alpinist Jon Griffiths, the inimitable Al Lee with Julian Lines and of course the main Snowsports night:

There are still tickets left for these events so head on over to www.mountainfest.co.uk/ and get set for a great weekend!

Winter 2015 is go!

With good snow reports and a blue-sky forecast I headed over to Tignes today (after a slight delay to get the kids to school) for a bit of a play about and to get the legs back into ski mode again. Having not had a particularly active summer I want to hit the ground running this winter so a few gentle turns top start off seemed like a nice idea.

The upper slopes (around 3500 lift) are in great condition with a few patches of ice showing through lower down (Champagny & Rosolin) but most impressively, there was barely a queue on the mountain - a pleasant change from this time last year when we were queueing for 25 minutes each time...

The summit pyramid of the Grande Motte looked in good condition so obviously after a few laps off the lifts I though I had better see how my lungs would cope at 3600m for the first time since spring. As it had happened someone else had the same idea, as we both got off thetop lift, walked over and started strapping skis to bags in perfect unplanned synchronisation!

A little bit of scrambling to add some interest:

Almost like the Domes de Miage...

Bird's eye view of Tignes:

Joining the selfie craze:

Stunning views from the top:

And good powder on the way down...

And of course the obligatory Espace Killy Monoskier - seen here in 'I'm cool even when I'm riding the chairlift' pose...!

Kendal Mountain Festival 2014 - Julbo Snowsports Session

Here it comes!

In just over 2 weeks time the 2014 Kendal Mountain Festival will be kicking off for 4 days jammed full of films, books, activities, art, speakers, socialising and partying!

I will be back on the main presenting team again, and am particularly excited to be hosting the Julbo Snowsports Session on the Saturday night.

With Swiss legend Samuel Anthamatten, film-maker Bjarne Salèn, and the UK's own steep-skiing heroes Ben Briggs and Ross Hewitt on the roster this looks set to be an awesome night! Thanks to headline sponsors Julbo, and also Whitedot and Ultimate Outdoors for making this possible...

If you haven't got your tickets yet there is still time, in fact, you can win a weekend for 2 at the Festival including tickets for the Snowsports Session thanks to those nice people at Lyon Equipment.