La Grave

I stopped there last year with the intention of doing some riding and sacked the idea. Cable car doesnt run that often and gets pretty full, its expensive and there seems to be only two paths where bikes are allowed. Steep sided mountains so not best suited to riding up either.

They have a decent reputation in France.

Montgenevre is a cool little bike park. Over the border in Italy you have the Alpi bike resorts (Bardonecchia/Sestriere/Sauze d’oulx). Serre chavalier has a bike park (not ridden it but should be good for a day or two) and a rad bmx track/dirt jump area.

I can recommennd the municipal camp site for Montgenevre. Its just before the switchbacks up to the town, big, cheap, friendly and in a really nice setting. There is some marked trails starting at it as well.

at a guess though, £110k to £140k?

Seems an awful lot for that sort of turnover and profit.

I think I have reached mine with 5 as I turned down an offer of a bmx cruiser yesterday, even though I sort of want one for the track.

Enduro Evo
Stinky delux
Operator
Chameleon
Road bike

I tried an XC bike but hated it (Scott Spark), now use the evo for that sort of stuff.

Then there my son:
Big hit grom
Shred 24
WTP Arcade

http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/board,22.0.html

Board construction knowledge

If you are going to build an indoor wall then I reckon wood edges are better than bolt ons. They are cheaper and better on the skin. Buy some 1/2 inch batten, cut it up and sand it down and bobs your uncle. Bolt ons are good for starting holds though and either m6 or m8 tnuts work (m6s are a lot cheaper though).

Re angle I would say 30degrees is a minimum. Mine is about that and it really needs to be steeper.

Re setting, plaster the board with edges at different angles, put a few bolt ons here and there, and work problems out. It’s what I have always done and I have had some really good boards.

jingoistic parochial denialists with an overinflated sense of our own true worth.

But hay, we are world class at it 😐

There is ment to be ace riding near argeles sur mer. There is also loads just in land in the tet valley, also some near fitou. Nice weather as well.

War (winning of).

When was the last time Britain managed to win a war all on it’s own?

Follow links to part 3, then there is a link to the Dropbox download.

For the record, part 3 is awesome. Like a night at the omen (but with better mixing), banging german style trance 😀

Up north, thoughts of shagging your cousin. You must be from dewsbury 🙂

Thought I should bump this as a public service. Have listened to about 5 hrs of the mix today and it is absolutely rocking. Perfect riding music, excellent mixing and not one duff track.

Part 3 released, I downloaded the whole mix from drop box last night. You can link from 2 to 3.

Really good so far but more Sasha than Sven. Could do with some more tutonic bombast 🙂

200 euros for 6 weeks

❓

200 euros is a week and a half/ two weeks of lift passes.

30-40k for a family of 4 is optimistic. I travelled round Europe on my own riding for most of last year and didnt get much change from 25k.

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Some fat, but definately not useless, climber (John Dunne)falling off an 8b at Malham.

Some good pics of 80’s climbing on this guys flickr account if anyone is interested.

In sport climbing, falling is the price of progression. Good climbers fall all the time when they push past their limits. Forget all the crap about don’t fall 🙄

No anecdotes but, from my experience, the first fall was the scariest. After that it started to become second nature and actually quite fun.

Drive down without stopping (1 day from Calais if you gas it), stop off on the way back for a day to break the journey.

If you don’t want to drive as far as the pyranees, look at the Auvergne.

Neilson is expensive and a bit crap ime, way better to do your own thing.

Stop off in font on the way back to break the journey. Rocher du sabot is great for kids.

Les angles/font romeau (pyranees) is perfect if quite a drive.

You have a lake and swimming at lac Matamale, decent easy XC and some not too difficult uplifted stuff. there is climbing near by and there is excellent bouldering at Targasonne (near Font Romeau). lac Bouillouse is a really cool area to walk around and fish and there are bothy type refuges to stay at for free.

Excellent campsites (camping du lac @ les angles, la Griole @ targasonne and municipal camping @ la lagonne (really beautiful site by a river))

Riding, les angles

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Mountain zoo, les angles

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Bothy, les angles

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Bouldering, targasonne

Lac Bouillouse

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028[/url] by ianvincent[/url], on Flickr

Awesome area 😀

So knowing all this how many violent intruders in SA do you know that would break in and admittely hide in a locked small toilet?

I think the paranoia bit covers this.

My neighbours daughter lived in Pretoria in one of those gated compounds. She was burgled, her and her husband were tied up at gun point, they threatened to chop off her finger to get the wedding ring, her house was cleared out. The police reckoned they were lucky not to have been killed to stop them identifying the burglars. They also pretty much told her that if she had not been so fat she probably would have got raped as well.

My parents also know people who lived in sa and there tales of paranoia are pretty crazy for someone living in the uk but no doubt had some solid reason behind them.

Can’t say I find it so easy to come to the conclusion that he is guilty of premeditated murder when the context in which it happened is so messed up.

Re bail, as the judge said: no flight risk, no possibility of tampering with evidence or witnesses, so what’s the point of locking him up until he is found guilty.

Following my son down some jumpy alpine downhill, watching him get loads of air and going sideways round corners always makes me happy.

Also last year at Allos in the southern alps, I rode from the col d’allos down to the village. Ace alpine single track past an eagles nest with 2 eagles flying in and out of it plus, came round a bend and face to face with a wolf. That was awesome!

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/Pictures/web/f/u/v/top100BIG.jpg

Fair number of STW brands that used to be good feature in this list. IBM number 2 even.

Just because a brand is not seen as cool by a pretty small segment (perhaps even one the brand is not positioned for) does not make it bad. eg. Triumph was the fastest growing motorbike brand in europe last year apparently and is market leader in the UK (20% for bikes over 500cc).

Haro
Redline
DC shoes
Etnies
Vans

I would love an explanation why these are failed brands.

For me, raleigh is a good example of a brand that once had enormous credibility, but has now pretty much lost all of it.

Most of the bigger French resorts have creches, we used the one in les gets years ago and it was pretty good. Language might be a problem though.

How do you make your living? – Logistician.

Is that a posh term for truck driver?

As NZ col said, Monterey, Santa Cruz, possibly Carmel and the Pacific Coast Highway.

I had a pair f hanwags once, managed to get up Ulysses in them so they can’t have been that bad.

Totally agree with the Bolt comparison, Ondra is a machine and you only have to see what he has done at Font, how he happily skips bolts on the redpoint and how hard he climbs to know he would desimate any trad route if he could be bothered with that style of climbing. However, I suspect he will never be bothered with it as the moves are too easy.

Housewives favourite:

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cider soak[/url] by ianvincent[/url], on Flickr

One for the traditionalists:

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I’ve never seen any sport climbing in Britain that has remotely inspired me.

You have obviously not seen malham, gordale or kilnsey.

Have you climbed at places like Gogarth or Pembroke, or does it just not appeal?

Gogarth never appealed and Pembroke would have meant a missed a trip to France or Spain or somewhere else sunny (and bolted) 🙂 .

Which Lakes route? I’m trying to work it out by your description…my guess for £10 – Extol…

Footless Crow.

I would tend to agree about the peak. Luckily a lot of my UK sport climbing was done in the Yorkshire Dales as my parents lived near Bradford: Malham, Goredale and Kilnsey are pretty good sport venues! World class even.

As time progressed and life got in the way I moved on to sport a bit like going to a trailcentre instead of a big mountain ride

Funny that, I moved on to sport when I realised that most trad climbing was rubbish and the best routes were the bolted ones on limestone. Topping out on a supposed lakeland classic and crapping myself on the choss and vertical mud was one of the last nails in the coffin. First visit to Boux and I never placed a piece of protection ever again. Always more inspired by the physical side of climbing rather than some of the cliche spiritual stuff that people go on about.

Andorra isn’t a particularly charming place though

I really like it. Massana and Ordino are quite nice and the people are super friendly.

4.30 onwards!

Not a bad entry for top climber in the world and a super nice bloke

Dont think he has climbed 9b+, onsighted 8c+/9a or bouldered 8c+. Walking up mountains dosnt count.

He sent La Dura Dura last week which he thought was 9b+

He did the route in the first vid about 3 days after la dura dura.

There was a vid of one of his close red points (of la dura dura) youtube for a bit, it looked amazing. Ondra by far the best climber alive, he is awesome.