On the road in North America

Well we have just wrapped up a busy week at the Outdoor Retailer tradeshow in Salt Lake City, Utah. We've presented the new Winter 2012 line to about 35 stores as well as meeting up with various magazines including one of the USA's most well known publications 'Outside'

At the same time, some of the worst winter storms to have hit the North-West have been doing their best to wipe away one of the worst starts to the American ski season in decades as more than 50 inches of snow have been deposited across the Rockies and Cascades in the past five days.

And so, leaving our US team of Craig and Woody to it, for a week or so, as they headed off to another tradeshow in Denver, I jumped in the car and headed North, destination Jackson Hole, Wyoming in search of the POW.

The first challenge was working how best to be there and with the 8000ft Teton Pass closed due to numerous avalanches, it was the 5hr trip along the winding roads through the wilds of Wyoming that was our preferred route. All was clear until we reached Bridger National Forest, at which point we hit the next winter storm rattling across the Rockies. It was a very lonely hour or two through the rolling uplands, with only the occasional passing snowplough for company.

DAV Expedition teams: Avalanche awareness training

Last week members of both the guys and girls DAV teams hooked up and headed for Silvretta, Austria for a few days of intense Avalanche training lead by team coach David Göttler and the DAV´s avalanche 'Guru' Chris Semmel. Chris and David took the team through both theoretical and practical training to further improve their knowledge of avalanches and of course how best to avoid them all in preparation for their expeditions ahead over the next 18 months.

Of course the trip wasn’t all about training and the team managed to get a few ascents and decents in the bag on Heidelberger Spitze, Lareiner Joch and Ritzen Joch.

German.....

DAV Expeditionskader (Frauen und Herren) zusammen beim Lawinencamp

Dreiantennige LVS-Geräte? Lawinensonden mit akustischer Trefferanzeige?

Für einige der nicht im Bergsportfachhandel tätigen Exped-Kadermitglieder sind das bis zum LVS-Camp auf der Heidelberger Hütte nur böhmische Dörfer.

Um dies zu ändern, treffen wir uns im Herzen der Silvretta mit dem Frauen-Expedkader 2013.

Unter Leitung des DAV-Lawinenpapst Chris Semmel und fleißiger Assistenz unseres Kadertrainers David Göttler versuchen  wir fünf Tage lang etwas Licht ins Dunkel der Lawinenkunde zu bringen. Besonderer Fokus wird hierbei nicht nur auf die Minimierung der weißen Gefahr in den heimischen Alpen gelegt, sondern auch auf eine Reduktion der selbigen während der Expedition.

Während theoretischer Vorträge und praktischer Übungen auf Skitour versuchen wir dem komplexen Feld der Gefahrenbeurteilung auf die Schliche zu kommen.

Das eigene Halbwissen erweist sich im Gespräch mit Chris Semmel nicht nur ein Mal als antiquiert und unvollständig und so sind wir froh um die professionelle Annäherung an das schwierige Thema.

Bei all der ernsten Lawinenthematik vergeht uns aber trotzdem nicht der Spaß am Skitourengehen und wir können bei bestem Powder die ersten Spuren von der Heidelberger Spitze, dem Lareiner Joch und dem Ritzen Joch ziehen.

Long Hope Night at the RGS

Dave, Andy and Paul will be hosting a Long Hope Evening at the Royal Geographical Society, Kensington, London on Wednesday 8th February'12. Dave gives us more information below...
 

"On February 8th, myself, Andy Turner and filmmaker Paul Diffley will be speaking at the Royal Geographical Society in London about the Longhope route. Mountain Equipment and Gore-Tex have helped us arrange an evening of entertainment at the RGS to share with you what was pretty memorable adventure for us, both in terms of the climbers involved in attempting to climb this cliff over 40 years, and in documenting it on film.

Myself and Andy will be speaking about our experiences in preparing and attempting the first free ascent of the original Longhope Route as well as some of the history behind climbing on the cliff, and then we’ll present The Long Hope film made by Paul Diffley. In particular I’ll talk about some of the psychology behind taking on a three-year sporting ambition to open a new route at world class difficulty like this, how I’ve learned to be comfortable with the dangers involved, and some of the hurdles that you just couldn’t plan for along the way. Andy will be speaking about how his winter mountaineering adventures in Scotland, the Alps and Norway were about as good preparation as you could get for this type of adventure, yet still not enough to avoid some knee trembling moments on a 1400 foot loose, bird infested sea-cliff.

We’ll have a bar and plenty of time to meet up and talk about adventures on cliffs during the evening or ask questions. We’ll also have some signed copies of the Long Hope DVD and various other films and books we’ve made. Doors open at 6pm to start 7pm. It should be a great night!

Tickets and full details are available in my shop right here. It’s going to be a busy show so it would be a very good plan to get your ticket early."

Photos: Lukasz Warzecha

Epic snowfall in the Chamonix valley and it continues …

Latest post from Jess Whiskin and the Whitedot team who are currently out in Chamonix testing and photographing their new range of Fall 12/13 skis as well as some of our Winter 12 Product.

Were not jealous of the snow here in the UK...honest! 

"At the beginning of December the prospects for a good winter in the Chamonix valley were looking bleak; these pictures of a jog along the rivershow there was not a snowflake to be seen at 1100m on the 5th December.We’re pleased to report however, that it is now an entirely different story and snowfall in the French Alps has smashed hundred year records.

There was general chaos as hundreds of tourists flocking to Chamonix for the holidays, grappled with icy roads and parking spots blocked with piles of snow.The Mont Blanc tunnel over to Italy was closed for two days over the new year due to avalanche risk and the pisteurs have been struggling to keep the lifts and runs open. Here at Whitedot skis, however, this is prime testing conditions to really get to grips with how the skis behave in powder, so our team have been skiing hard, testing the new prototype, all in the name of research of course.

Controversially I even broke out my snowboard as metres of untracked, powder just off the sides of the piste was irresistible. (Usually it is either too icy, too steep, too cruddy, too wet or too heavy so it has been a real treat to snowboard in near perfect conditions). I have also been testing a new ski touring set-upready for later in the Spring. Being a bit of a vertically challenged girl, it is really important that I find the perfect balance between a pair of skis which is wide enough to respond well in the powder but which is also manageable for my little legs to get up the hill in the first place.

Obviously, it goes without saying that this amount of snow requires a considerable degree of caution and awareness in terms of being intelligent in assessing the avalanche risk. Conditions this good always demand caution, proper equipment and local knowledge, even if just venturing a little way from the piste. Over the last week alone there has been 2 metres of snowfall in 48 hrs, a thaw cycle and now another metre of snow is falling today (the 5th January) down to the valley floor. So, first task tomorrow morning for team Whitedot when the snow stops is to dig an avalanche pit to analyse the snow pack before heading out with our pro-riders on a back country photoshoot."

Jess

http://whitedotskis.com/

Stephen Venables: Update & Lecture Tour

Over to Stephen....

"Last month I returned from a hugely enjoyable expedition to South Georgia.  Skip Novak and I were accompanied by a boatload of surgeons and physicians, a website mogul, a venture capitalist and a novelist.  We were blessed with generally fine weather for a generally uneventful repeat of Shackleton’s famous crossing of the island. 

On the way home I stopped for a few days in Chile, as a guest speaker for Fundacion Vertical’s annual Geografica conference.   I had a wonderful time with Rodrigo Jordan and his colleagues, did a little rock climbing, and visited the street in Viña del Mar where my grandmother was born in 1898.  And, to accommodate me in the style to which I wish I were accustomed, our man in Santiago, Jon Benjamin, generously put me up at the British Embassy.  

Now to 2012.

Rosie and I are looking forward to a couple of quick holidays in Amsterdam and India, on the back of speaking engagements.  At some stage we will also go out to the Alps, to visit Edmond, who is working in Les Arcs.

Back here, I will be touring my Eric Shipton lecture sponsored by Mountain Equipment

JANUARY 
Thurs 26th  STREET, SOMERSET Strode Theatre 01458 44 28 46
Mon 30th SALFORD The Lowry 0843 208 6000

FEBRUARY 
Sat 11th BUXTON Opera House 0845 1272190

MARCH 
Mon 5th  BIRMINGHAM Town Hall 0121 780 3333
Thurs 8th LLANDUDNO Venue Cymru 01492 872000
Thurs 22nd DURHAM The Gala 0191 332 4041
Weds 28th RADLETT The Radlett Centre 01923 859291
Thurs 29th INVERNESS Eden Court 01463 234234

APRIL 
Sun 1st TUNBRIDGE WELLS Assembly Hall 01892 530613
Tues 3rd SHREWSBURY Theatre Severn 01743 281 281

more info available here at Speakers from the Edge

I will also be doing a similar presentation for the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in Aberdeen, Dundee, Stirling and Edinburgh. more info here http://www.rsgs.org/events/

Looking further ahead, 2013 is the 60th anniversary of the first ascent of Everest.  It is also the 25th anniversary of the Anglo-American-Canadian expedition Everest 88.

I am celebrating our wonderful Everest adventure by going to the other end of the world. Several people have already committed, but we still have one or two places left on the Everest 60/25 Antarctic Peninsula Expedition in February 2013.  Details at:

http://www.stephenvenables.com/expedition_2013_antarctic.asp

The following month, back in London, my American, Canadian and Nepalese companions and I are staging the first reunion for 25 years of the entire Everest 88 team.  The main public event will be a champagne reception, lecture and dinner at the RGS.  So please make a note in your diary:

14 March  2013

The Party of the Year

Royal Geographical Society

London

With very best wishes for 2012

Stephen"