Where in Switzerland? May is pretty quiet in most places. Some places are starting to wake up in June, but depending on where you are there is still plenty to do.

So, (sort of related to my other post) how do you get into doing more off-piste and learning some of these skills?

Is it best to start (as I’m doing) with just riding unbashed stuff alongside and between pistes, staying more or less in-bounds? Or is it worth splashing out for a guide/coach to learn the basics? (my fitness level not withstanding).
In my opinion an Avalanche course is money well spent if you get a good guide teaching it. I’ve done a few and some were definitely better than others.

I agree with what you say Rob, but a lot of people come over and just decide that they can do something that they don’t know about and end up getting into trouble. Sometimes I can be over cautious, but I’d rather be that than get dead. It’s all about the adventure, but you should also be prepared for the adventure.

Last winter within a couple of days of each other there were two deaths in Engelberg by people who basically tried to ski lines that they didn’t know the outcome of. One person fell nearly 800m to his death, that’s a lot of time to think about how much you’ve f*cked up.

In the areas of Switzerland that I know my way around I don’t take guides, but when I went to Cham I’d not been there before, didn’t know the area was with a few people so a guide actually worked out quite cheap. I’m the kind of guy that tends to annoy the guides when I get one to try to learn from them. ;-)

BTW. The closest I’ve come (so far) to getting dead in an Avalanche was when I trusted what a guide said rather than my stomach.

Following tracks in Switzerland/Chamonoix if you don’t know where you are going is STUPID!

I’ve know of people thought it was a good idea to follow tracks which turned out to be speed flyers. One poor bugger got a good ol’ brown trouser experience when he ended up stuck pretty much in a cliff face as the snow slid around him on both sides.

In some places in Chamonix you can go a couple of metres to the side of the tracks and end up in a crevice. The only time I went to Cham I went with a guide.

A bugger, my guess to where it is was wrong. :-(

@Rob, someone stuck your skis together! :-o

Cool vids, almost makes me want to leave the skis at home and take the board out again. I’m having a bit of a powder underdose so far this season. Must make up for it.

Yea, I thought the vids were top too. Don’t know where the trails in Part 1 are, but I quite like some of the trails in Part 2. :P

There’s a trail pretty close to that place. When you ride it you have the feeling that you should have a base rig instead of a back pack.

My XT’s had the same (gold) olive and insert. I messed up one doing the switch over so had to go and buy another and a the standard Shimano one did the job.

Your specialist will be able to advice you best, but be careful with advice from a board like this. Spinal Fusion is done for a lot of indications. It works better for some than for others. Many people may suffer from back pain and the doctors may not be able to diagnose the problem effectively, after a period of treating it conservatively a fusion might sometimes be offered in the hope that it would prevent pain in the area. In these cases the operation may not always provide the desired results.

If there is a clear indication and fusion is thought to be an effective treatment for that indication then fusion tends to be more effective.

The success of disc prosthesis in the lumbar spine is iffy. I work in a specialised orthopaedic hospital and many of the consultants I work with have all but stopped doing disc prosthesis in the Lumbar spine.

Injections again will only work for certain indications. They are often also used for diagnosis to figure out exactly which level should be operated. i.e. if anaesthetic injected into the facet or nerve root at a certain level stops the pain then that is possibly where the problem lies.

I’ve been running one for a few months. Yes they are very good and do exactly what they say on the tin.

For those who say Sanitary Towels are not sterile… well neither is a sterile dressing as soon as you open it on the trail! The point is that they are arguably more compact than a similar dressing, specifically designed to soak up bodily fluids, perfect for dressing and applying pressure, easy to come by and cost effective.

A first aid kit does not need to contain the most expensive upto date and most sterile equipment you find in a hospital. It’s first aid. The purpose of it is to make sure that the injured person is made as comfortable as possible and prevent (as much as possible) any deterioration before they can be evacuated. The most important things to do are maintain airway and circulation (mask in case of mouth to mouth) and slow down/stop any major blood loss (sanitary towels or your favourite dressing with tape, innertube, bandage or whatever you have to hold it and apply pressure to the wound) If the accident is serious enough that you are thinking about this stuff you are essentially concentrating on keeping the person alive while waiting for transport to hospital.

If it’s serious do not move anybody unless there is a risk to their life where they are or they have stopped breathing and you need to resuscitate.

The number of times I’ve seen people be moved before any assessment after pretty severe head trauma is astounding. Concussed people will nearly always tell you that they are fine and don’t need to go to hospital… They need to go to hospital!

Don’t laugh, but I always carry womens sanitary towels in my first aid kit. Seems silly, but they are designed to soak up large amounts of bodily fluids are (semi)sterile and take up very little space. Normal gause dressing on a bad bleed, then said towel and pressure and you are better off than trying to make do with the pitiful bandages found in most first aid kits.

BTW, I don’t carry a resusiaid in my first aid kit. It’s in the top pocket of my backpack. The reason being is that the firstaid kit sometimes gets buried under jackets or other stuff in the back pack. If you need a resus mask it’s life and death, seconds count. Getting to it instantly can help.

Another +1 for Bjorn Dunkerbeck in Windsurfing – proper domination of the sport.

He would be the equivalent of genuinely dominating XC and DH for the best part of two decades.
True, but to do a proper comparison with cycling it would also be the equivalent of having picked up a few road and trials championships while truly dominating XC and DH.

Hey was winning: (with a rough (arguable) comparison to cycle sports)
Course racing and long distance (Road)
Slalom (XC)
Wave (DH)
Freestyle (Trials)
Speed (Time trial)

Is there anyone out there who can ride a road bike like Contador, XC bike like Absalon, DH like Danny Hart, Trials like Danny Mac, Time Trial like Cancellara and compete on one of these disciplines today and then the other the next.

Bjoern Dunkerbeck. One the overall windsurfing world title 12 years running and has accumulated somewhere between 35 and 40 discipline world titles in windsurfing. One of the few people to win Racing and wave titles in the same year and if I remember correctly he even won the freestyle world title the first year of the discipline!

Windsurfing at Sprecklesville, Maui early in the morning. Could hear loads of shouting from the beach, people shouting “shark!” Looked behind me to see a 3m tiger shark. Sailed on a little further pulled the gybe of my life with the shark in the middle of the turning circle (albeit quite a large circle ) then sailed back right up onto the beach. 2 days later snapped my mast in the same place I’d seen the shark. Had a very scary paddle back.

Personally I’d have been more worried about some of the local fisherman if it was before 11am. Sharks are all over the place out there but they rarely decide to see how windsurfers taste. We had a tiger siting on the beach I worked on in west Maui one day, the lifegaurds went out swimning with it. Great pictures.

There was one time though that tiger tried took a bite of some French guy at Lowers. He spat him out when he decided he didn’t like the taste.

I’ve heard of many other brands breaking more than Intenses. I currently own two and they’ve taken a fair degree of abuse over the last 4 years and are still running smoothly (is that fate I just tempted?). All bikes have a breaking point and you can be lucky or unlucky with anything.

I love both my Intenses and will more than likely be getting a Carbine if I feel it lives up to what I think it should be when I get to ride one.

Maybe they are not for everyone, but then I personally wouldn’t touch certain other brands.

I’ve read the OP’s leasing thread which is a bit of a plug (but if I remember correctly was started by someone else), his original post on this thread was about the Carbine. Nothing mentioned (other than his username) about the leasing thing. He’s a mountain biker, isn’t he entitled to discuss his taste in bikes as much as anyone else here? Other people on here are open about business they run too, should they also be chastised for starting threads?

Think I’ll go back to lurking. (Hmm, I wonder what tyres I need for that!?)

Isn’t the thread about the Carbine rather than the pros and cons of leasing? :?:

I should get my paws on one to test in the next couple of weeks. I’m really looking forward to it. On paper it seems really good.

If it rides as good as it should I’ll probably get a frameset and build it up off my current Intense 5.5. build. The frames are not made in the Intense factory but from a Taiwanese carbon specialist so they should not have any QC issues. Not that I’ve had any problems in 4 years of being an intense owner.

I don’t think this bike should have chain guide tabs. A shadow plus derailler and it can be built to do anything, without chain drag or extra weight.

Hey Matt,
I had the same problem in August. New jockey wheels cured it. Check if yours are looking a little pointy.

BTW, it didn’t seem to be a problem on Wednesday night, or did I just miss it?

I’ve been using one for about 6 weeks now. They really are a game changer. Chain slap is almost totally gone and losing the chain is a thing of the past. I’ve back pedalled down some pretty rooty and rocky descents actually trying to lose the chain and not managed to. My normal days riding involves descents of 600m to 2000m in one go and in 6 weeks the chain has only shifted from where it should be once. The rest of the time it doesn’t even wander to another ring it just stays 100% fixed right where it should be.

The one disadvantage I’ve found so far is that when you ride in really wet conditions (i.e. a 6 hours of riding in snow and rivers of melt water.) the shifting to a bigger cog on the rear gets a bit stiff. Once everything dries out it seems to get ok again. The only time I have turned the clutch mechanism off was to remove the rear wheel.

I’ll be changing my second bike over to a 2×10 with a shadow plus as soon as I’ve got the cash aside, it really is a game changer.

Pretty much all of Switzerland is open until mid October. The Alps extend a lot further than France!

Spent the last 4 years riding SRAM X9 shifters, rear mech and X0 Cassettes. Worked great, but this weekend I just changed to Shimano XTR Shadow Plus rear mech with XT cassette (2×10).

The Shadow plus is a break through. I can’t comment on longevity, but it shifts amazingly and there is zero… yes zero chain slap in any gear. Yesterday I actually tried to lose the chain and couldn’t!

Phototim – Member

Anyways, after a huge amount of map, google earth and video studying I have found the “secret trail” but its a bit further from Verbier than I was hoping.
Huge amount!?! You probably need a bit of practice! :wink:

It took about 15 mins with Google earth and the Swiss LK maps to figure that one out. Looks like there are also another couple of epic options in the area though… Now I’ve just go to find the time to go and ride them. :?

Swiss Maps are online here:
http://map.geo.admin.ch/

The Veloland Schweiz routes contain a very large proportion of fire road and tend to avoid the best single track.

It is very often possible to use resort lifts and ride to another resort with a mixture of lift and own power ascent and mainly single track descent. These trails are not often advertised though as resorts tend to want to keep people rather than send them off somewhere else. A good look at the Swiss maps I linked above will usually give some good routes… but it can be hit and miss unless you know the area.

We live in Switzerland and imported her from a breeder in Germany. It wasn’t that easy to find a breeder when we decided that we wanted one of them though.

I’ll see if I can post some pics somewhere this evening. She’s super cute, but I’m not joking about her being a handful. We got her at 9 weeks and she’s already got a head of her own… and is not scared of using it.

Just got ourselves an Irish Softcoated one last week…

She’s a handful.

That bike is fugly… and having seen how one of the guys on the first T-P got on with the Whyte 120 they’d really want to have improved things.

In general if there is no “no biking” sign it’s fair game to ride most trails. There are a few exceptions to that rule around Zurich but in most places it is tolerated to ride on the hiking trails (unless specifically forbidden) and in some places it is specifically written into law that mountain bikers are allowed to use hiking trails (Graubunden). The only area so far that I’ve run into any problems is Grindlewald. Everywhere else is a case of respect other trail users and they will respect you.

I’ve got a map of the Gstaad area that shows quite a few trails with some potential. I’ve not gotten to check them out yet but there is for sure riding there if you are willing to go and find it.

The IGN 1:25000 map for the Vosges region is a great starting point. I rode there for a weekend with Ash last year and it was some of the buffest flowiest single track I’ve ever ridden. I reckon it’s less technical than the Alps proper but can definitely put a smile on your face.

We went down with two cars and did two shuttle runs a day each run putting in about 500m uphill and about 1000m downhill.

As for the Alps, they are a pretty big place and you can’t tar them all with the same brush. I’ve ridden in most areas of Switzerland and each area has it’s own individual character and trails. The higher up trails are generally very rocky and can be very technical. You can generally find flowier stuff under about 2000-2200m altitude though. If you know where to look most places have something to put a smile on everyones face.

Not entirely true. The vignette is for driving on the motorways over here so it is possible that the car can be driven across the border without ever having to have had one. If you never use the motorway you actually don’t need a vignette. The french rental company may not have put the vignette on the car but maybe a previous renter did.

The vignette is only about 40CHF anyway, and maybe the car already has it, maybe not. Definitely get one if you intent to drive on the motorways (Marked green not blue over here!)

singlespeedstu – Member

Looks like the trail we did with you last monday.

I’ll load my videos of it up later.

How about a bit more video of the last descent we did with cupid on friday.

Van uplift followed by a chairlift then a ride and push/carry to get to the top of this one.
Cheers Stu, Just figured out where that descent is now. I’ll head up and give it a go in a couple of weeks. :-)

The Southern Yeti – Member

dave.. I was going to do it on a hardtail but have jsut bought a Covert… feels ideal and is sub 30lb.
It’s more about the angles than the travel. In my opinion the majority of the terrain is not stupidly technical, a lot is flowy. It’s more about having a bike that feels stable when pointed downhill than a bike that can soak up huge hits. A hard tail would be ok (but you’ll take a bit more of a battering) if it has a head angle of less than 68deg and about 150mm forks. A mate of mine did it on a Dialled Alpine in 2009 and I couldn’t match him using a full suspension. Ashes recent advice about which bike to take is really spot on.

The Southern Yeti – Member

ir12… what bike are you riding for it??
Did it on an Intense 5.5 the last time, I’ll most likely do it on the same bike with a few minor mods this time… or put my Intense Uzzi on a severe diet. Still a bit of a toss up, the 5.5 is a touch too steep, but the Uzzi is a lot too heavy.

ir12daveor – are you doing T-P??

Been there, done that (2009) and am doing it again this year.

If training for the T-P get in as many days with 1000m – 2000m of altitude gain as possible.

Remember all the timed stages are predominantly downhill. ;-)

If they speak some kinda **** up german No Way Hans Rey!

Nah, they speak a **** up mixture of something that sounds like Italian/German/Clingon. Apparently it’s a national language but it’s not Zürideutsch.

I have actually spotted Mr. No Way riding his bike up there a few times though now that you mention it.

and lifts Sounds delightful! Where was it?

Go east and you shall discover young man. ;-)

Shhh… …don’t tell anyone that the lifts are open well into October up there too!

Hows the TP training going?

Training? whats that? Just riding my bike I am!

Yes, all closet gays have the same problem You did enjoy the 19km descent though (probably not the next pedal though…)

You referring to the route I did the week before? If so the second climb was a bit tiring on a 17kg bike. 1900m on the bike altitude gain by the end of the day.

2011 Rev dual air, 90PSI pos and neg and get full travel when ridden in anger. I run them with a lot less pressure than is recomended for my weight. 10-15PSI less.