On the slopes again.

Two weeks ahead of the official launch Les Gets opened the télécabine and 4-man chair lift on the Chavannes plateau .... and more importantly for Caroline the shops were in order. Perfect combination to get the equipment tuned up and in full working order.

From First day on the slopes for 09/10 season

Winter has arrived.

From First day on the slopes for 09/10 season

"Will the colour match my helmet?"

From First day on the slopes for 09/10 season

Salomon advert

From First day on the slopes for 09/10 season

Looking on to Mt. Chery

and where to go next weekend?

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Link to photo album

Snow coming next week?

Found a great web site for snow forecasts (www.j2ski.com). At the time of writing looks like there will be a load of snow at Les Gets on Monday and Tuesday of next week. See the widget below - or if it does not appear in your feed go to www.genevaexplore.blogspot.com

Les Gets Snow Forecast | Snow Report | by E-mail

Getting the legs ready for skiing..

It has been warming up again recently, and the snow in the Alps has melted beneath 2000 metres. Nevertheless, we have faith the snow will fall again. Aware that a far fitter friend will be joining us at Christmas for some stamina draining skiing a new cycle route was needed.

Proving that La Motte is the sunny side of Geneva, the ride was great except for the dense fog at Vers, forcing a right turn up above the clouds towards Charly and then St Blaise on the Saleve. Headed off towards Cruseilles and then a sharp descent towards Ronzier before climbing back through Copponex and Cernex all in sunglass weather.


















Early winter in the Haute-Savoie

This is a beautiful ride through the countryside of the Haute Savoie. Will do again and take some decent photos. Only around 30 km to ensure the day is not written off - but over 800 metres of climb to work the legs a little.

New home loop

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

Link in case route does not appear

PS For our regular readers - We know we are behind on the blog... promise to try and catch up!

First climb up the Col de la Faucille

It may not be the hardest Col to climb in the area - but it is one of the best known. According to Wikipedia the category 3 climb it has been included in the Tour de France 41 times since since 1911.

Officially starting from Gex (620m) the 11.8 km climb averages 6%, increasing to 8%, as it finishes at 1323m.


But it is a classic climb - and the chart tells a telling story. The 703 m climb is relentless with no flat section or descent en route for a breather.

From juraclimb

Passing Napoleon's fountain. Apparently his horse took a drink here in 1805.

From juraclimb

Conquered!

From juraclimb

Out of season don't expect to be able to find a coffee at the top ..

From juraclimb

..what they didn't tell me ... another 150 m of climbing before a descent through the woods..

From juraclimb

GPS advises we cycled over 70 km and to be confirmed the best part of 1000 m of climb on my introduction to Col climbing... but for the real stuff try looking at this blog of a local Col climber euphemistically described as an "enthusiastic amateur".

Présilly VTT 2009 - my first organsised mountain biking event.

VTT - Vélo tout terrain, the french for mountain biking, is another popular activity in the region. I had wanted to try out one of the many organised sessions - but there was always a good reason to do something else. Nevertheless, a few weeks after moving house and an organised VTT day in the neighbouring village of Présilly by the local VTT club.

Arrived for a rather chilly start to choose one of the routes. The 32 Km route blur run with 750m of climb was selected - though GPS was to confirm that at least 2 of the stats to be underestimated!

From Présilly VTT 2009

The route - with more accurate information on Nokia Sportstracker and GPSies.... but the real evidence..

From Présilly VTT 2009

mud, hills and pain...

From Présilly VTT 2009

..but several refresher stops on the way..

From Présilly VTT 2009

..and the whole day out with lunch and wine only cost €12...

From Présilly VTT 2009

looking forward to more in 2010.



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Great website for VTT in France
Montailloux VTT Club
Route on GPSies
Route on Sportstracker

The first Saleve climb by bike

The Saleve stands at the back of the house in Neydens. Every day I look at it -- we've driven up it many times, and enjoyed a good number of hikes, but one day the inevitable had to happen - the first ascent by bike.

The last day of John and Annemarie's visit, and fully hydrated from the evening before, we set of from Neydens (560 metres) in the direction of Mont Sion. Binned the first option for a stop at the junction and carried on to St. Blaise. Cancelled the second option for a stop in St. Blaise and pushed on to Chateau des Avenieres. This was the hard part - but local knowledge knew there was a welcome short downhill section to reach for the water bottle and wish I was as fit as John!

Hit the T-Junction and turn left on the road from Cruseilles to start another climb. Long but wonderfully cool in the trees to reach the ridge and great views of Mont Blanc and the French Alps. Great camaraderie on meeting fellow cyclists - but something of an amazement to meet a guy coming the other way - in his sixties with loaded double panniers and a trailer smiling all the way!

Reach a peak somewhere around 1350 metres and the long wonderful descent to La Croisette (1175 metres) comfortable in the knowledge that only mechanical failure stood in the way of success! First stop at La Croisette for a few photos and well-deserved beer.

From First cycle ascent of the Saleve

From First cycle ascent of the Saleve

From First cycle ascent of the Saleve

Only needed to enjoy the long descent towards Archamps - but did manage to find a few more climbs just to make sure we had a full exercise session.

The view along the Saleve profile just looks so much more refreshing and satisfying now... and John was finally able to enjoy his deserved Andouillette..

From First cycle ascent of the Saleve

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Route on Nokia Sportstracker

Route on MapMyRide.com

The start of evening cycling.. at last.

A couple of friends have been talking about cycling after work. Typically we spent months talking about it - and then two rides booked on consecutive nights!

First ride (July 30, 2009)

As soon as we covered the first 300 metres I sensed the pace might be faster than normal rides with Caroline. 52 km through Switzerland, the Haute Savoie and Ain (including some of the Jura) which was a significant part of the 469 metre total climb. Perhaps this will be a breeze in months to come - but as I toiled up the final hill back to Neydens the thought of another ride the next day started raising one or two alarm bells!


More route detail

Second after work ride (July 31, 2009)

Woke up and pleasantly surprised to note that I could still walk. Just over an hour - but still a fair number of hills as the route was restricted to France avoiding the gentle roads in the Geneva area. As the legs started to go to jelly on some of the hills I just had to think of what good this might be doing for skiing in the winter!

But do I learn? Another ride booked for Tuesday, this time VTT (mountain biking) .. and I've just come across an interesting VTT route on the Saleve from Cruseilles..



More route detail

The Plateau de Loex Tour is conquered!

From Les Gets 26 July 09

Les Gets does not shut down for the summer. Ski lifts are put to good use ferry mountain bikers to minimise some of the climb. There are two types of biking - cross country (XC) and downhill (DH). To date, under strong guidance from Caroline, I have limited myself to the cross-country. First couple of visits I limited myself to the blue and red XC runs, but in a moment of madness, and a new front brake disc installed on the Rockhopper together with newly purchased protective gear I challenged myself to the Black XC run, the "Plateau de Loex Tour" (marked no. 7 on the map). Easy I thought .. I had done the Black Mountain Bike Run at Thetford Forest several times - and the distance was about the same .. but the Alps do make a significant difference - up and down. East Anglia soon became very, very flat.

From Les Gets 26 July 09

"Plateau" has little to do with flat on this run. Whilst the total descent from the Chavanne lift may be 700 metres - there is also 400 metres of climbing on the 17 km route. Climbing was something of a challenge given current state of cardiovascular fitness, and I was happy to stop and admire the stunning views - but don't think the descent is easy. I was relieved to have the larger brake disc at the front - but it is not likely to be long before there is upgrade on the rear brake system as well! Any steeper and it felt as if one would be doing a forward roll. (Yes I thought you were meant to use the rear brake more - but the apparently technique is to lower the saddle and put as much weight to the rear as possible).

Spectacular views of Mont Blanc on the climb..













back in Les Gets ..

From Les Gets 26 July 09

Will I be doing it again? Yes.. phone crashed and so limited photos and no GPS record for the doubters. For the less adventurous this would be a great walk.



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Official web site for mountain biking at Les Gets

and if you are wondering what downhill (DH) is like

First experience of the Tour de France at Annecy

We have cycled around Lake Annecy a few times - and were naturally a little curious after learning that the Tour de France would be visiting for an individual time trial on July 23. Growing frustration with politics in Formula 1, and something resembling the erratic early stages of a cycling driven fitness campaign, made the Tour increasingly fascinating.

Annecy was prepared and made no secret of its bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

From Tour de France Lake Annecy 09

Looking at the equivalent of the Formula 1 paddock is easy - and remember this is a free spectator sport.

From Tour de France Lake Annecy 09

but perhaps Bernie's marketing techniques may have a role. The bottled water company "Vittel" was extremely visible with truck loads of bottled water being distributed to the teams - but having generated this awareness on a rather warm day one might assume there would be plenty of outlets to quench thirst... Alas not! :( Well may be the Marketing Director of Vittel uses Google BlogSearch for brand feedback and fixes this for next year.

From Tour de France Lake Annecy 09

From Tour de France Lake Annecy 09

We may have claimed to have cycled a stage of the Tour de France - but to be honest the time trial has two key differences. First of all - the road was chosen over the cycle track on the west side - but more significantly the riders took a higher climb on the Cote de Bluffy.

All in all a great day out, indeed a must do ... but in all honesty once you have taken in the atmosphere, the best place to watch a time trial is in a friendly bar with fellow enthusiasts and a decent television screen.

Indeed, the video will give you a better idea ...

more pictures..

Support Annecy's bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics!

Regular readers of our blog may have noticed a link on the sidebar supporting Annecy's candidature for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Our loyalties are clear - Support Annecy's bid for 2018!

In March the French Olympic Committee selected Annecy as the French candidate city for 2018 - though as the map shows much of the region is proposed for events including Morzine just next to Les Gets as well as Mègeve and La Clusaz.

Annecy, in the French Alps not far from the Swiss border, was named ahead of rival bids from Grenoble, Nice and Pelvoux-les-Ecrins.

The host city for the 2018 Winter Olympics will be announced in July 2011 in Durban, but Annecy faces competition from other candidates like Munich, Germany and Pyeongchang, Korea.

And if have been really a really keen visitor to our blog you will have seen the "Live Traffic Feed" widget on the sidebar showing the location of visitors to our site. We have become used to visitors from around the world - but have seen our first from Korea. Sorry - Annecy wins over Pyeongchang!

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Annecy 2018 web site
2018 Winter Olympics on Wikpedia
Official Annecy 2018 video on You Tube



If viewing from an RSS feed (eg Plaxo, Facebook) you may need to visit our blog to see the video and something of our new home.

Les Gets Skiing videos

We improved quite a lot in our first season of skiing - but perhaps these videos are a little more professional then might be achieved with current equipment.

Les Gets was our most popular resort.



Chamossiere is great. One of the first challenging red runs tackled - though at the time I thought there should be a brown run classification.

From Les Gets May 2009

Here's the Chamossiere run in the summer on the left hand side of photo.

Mont Chery Black Run


Possibly because we found some great places for lunch we never made it to Mont Chery in the first season - but will do so next season. The locals seem to prefer it to the more popular slopes on the other side.


Les Gets piste map download
http://www.planetski.eu/ - great web site for skiing info

Finally get to try out Hydrospeed

Back in March and some idle browsing on the internet hydrospeed was discovered. It seemed like a great idea at the time and I even persuaded some intrepid friends to give it a go. First attempt, a bit of a communications problem, and we ended up doing the more relaxed white-water rafting. Second attempt - all systems go.

From Hydrospeeding Dranse, Thonon

it is a liitle bit like the aquatic version of a human cannonball..

From Hydrospeeding Dranse, Thonon

great fun when on the rapids - and for the record I had no unintended flipovers.

From Hydrospeeding Dranse, Thonon

but pretty exhausting if you leave it late to pull into the side and have to swim against the current.

From Hydrospeeding Dranse, Thonon

Many thanks to Caroline and her action photography! There may be some video to post later.
She thinks this all has something to do with "La crise de la quarantiene".

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More photos on Picasa

Mark and Geoffrey lead the way (in yellow helmets) to show how it's done.



Some people can navigate ... and some people can't

Cycle from Satigny through the Pays de Gex

Believe me there really is good reason - we now have 6 bicycles in the Blackwell household (2 remnants from history, 2 mountain bikes and now 2 road bikes). The mountain biking from the ski lifts does not get going for a few weeks... and therefore we had to get her a road bike..

From Cycling with the Dolans

Caroline's new bike
















The 40 km route starting in vineyard country in Satigny and heading off to France. For your reference note Geneva Airport on the right hand side of the photo.

From Cycling with the Dolans

Total innocence before the start..

From Cycling with the Dolans

Michael had days to plan the route....

From Cycling with the Dolans

Water before beer at the halfway point .. that is what the photo says..

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Route detail
More of our cycling

If you are reading this from an RSS (i.e. Facebook) feed go to www.genevaexpre.blogspot.com for the photos.

White-water rafting at La Dranse

An elite crack team from the Cresta Run Club headed off for some hydrospeed on the Dranse River. Alas, a SNAFU caused a change of plan to white-water rafting. .. but we have free passes for a hydrospeed session later in June.

From Dranse white water rafting

The team..

From Dranse white water rafting

first paddles..

From Dranse white water rafting

The optional 10 metre leap..


Keith leaps..


followed by Mark..


and Geoffrey..


and Ebru...


who missed Michael?

From Dranse white water rafting

white-water action..





See more photos on Picasa

Dranse white water rafting