I’ve been playing around with a ContourHD wearable video camera with the bike and decided to try it for nordic skiing. First I needed to make a head strap for it so I cannibalised an old pair of goggles and made a strap then I gave it a quick go Nordic skiing yesterday.

So, here’s the least “favourited”, least shared video on Youtube right now :

Tags: Cross Country Skiing | Nordic Skiing | youtube

A few photo’s from around Giffre valley area. The first three are from a ski tour up in the woods not far from Les Gets. I’d taken some nordic touring gear which was ideal for the ascent but not great on the descent, the combination of free-heel, soft boots and hard, rutted snow on narrow forest tracks was extremely difficult and after a while I gave up and racked the skis on my sack. Even so, that’s part of the beauty of nordic touring gear, it’s so light you can throw it on the sack and hardly notice and the boots have more than enough support and grip to walk a good distance in.

Next day above Les Gets on the other side of the valley I decided to go to Mont Chéry for a quick trip on snowshoes. Just near where I left the car a group were setting out on a dog sled trip. I always love to see these dogs, they’re just born to do this and they live to run. They’re actually one of the fastest animals on the planet over long distances and some of their wilder relatives run so hard that even in Arctic environments it’s too hot for them during the day and they travel primarily at night.

It’s not a bad route and it’s quite nice scenery but it’s way, way too busy on the popular routes around here. I saw several groups of people on snowshoes using the same tracks. On the plus side though, there was a nice little restaurant for some lunch before heading back to the car.

I did pass the dog group again on the hill, my guess is the dogs have a pretty good idea what they’re doing even if the tourists don’t.

Tags: Cross Country Skiing | La vallée du Giffre

Not too many photo’s from the last few days due to the weather and cold temperatures. On Christmas day we went over to La Sagne to ski down the Vallée de La Sagne, there’s a rail line along the valley running every hour or so and we planned to ski out, find some lunch and then catch the train back to the end station at Les Ponts-de-Martel where we’d left the car.

When we got to La Sagne I wasn’t sure if anywhere would be open so the vending machine might have been an option, a bar of chocolate in a cold waiting room probably isn’t the traditional Christmas lunch though. Fortunately a local hotel was open and we got lunch there.

Next day, Boxing day, was still as cold but clear skies and sunshine makes a large difference so it felt a lot more pleasant. The snow was also much better, it really wasn’t a good glide on Christmas day and today it was much better. We actually found a nice restaurant at Les Attis as well which I’d really recommend for anyone in the are.

After a couple of days of skiing on tracks I took a day to do some Nordic backcountry touring. The area between the Col du Mollendruz and the Col du Marchairuz is great for this, a series of small climbs and descents that’s ideal for nordic touring. I took a long climb from Petra Félix so used the skins I recently cut down from some old skis rather than rely on the fish-scales on my touring skis.

Tags: Cross Country Skiing | Jura | Nordic Skiing | XC skiing