23-Nov-2010
I’m attending a film premiere on Thursday night. And not just any film premiere. My film premiere. I’m a little nervous…
ways2winter is a feature-length documentary following two British seasonnaires in the French resort of Les 2 Alpes through the winter season 09/10. It’s not your average snowsports film. Sure, there’s plenty of riding but there’s also hard work and strong personalities, showing the reality of seasonnaire life.
29-Oct-2010
Category : Featured, Les 2 Alpes, Snowsports, Video
It’s so great to be back in France and I spent this morning on Les 2 Alpes’ glacier. There was plenty of snow, beautiful sunshine and the lift queues were much shorter than in the Summer. So if you’re a keen skier or snowboarder, make sure you remember to book your holiday here for half-term week 2011 and check out today’s video:
05-Jul-2010
Category : Events, Les 2 Alpes, Snowsports, Video
This year’s freestyle ski and snowboard competition, the Kumi Yama, proved to be a showcase for some epic riding. The eventual winners of the amateur Slopestyle ski competition were Bopcrew, and Bomb Squad on snowboards. In the professional event the winners were Elvis Harsheim, Nicolas Vuigner and Markus Eder on skis, and Matthieu Crepel, Alluar Ricciardi and Arthur Longo. Longo is also a Deux Alpes local and competed at this year’s Olympic Games.
The prize for Best Trick on skis was won by Bapiste Collomb Patton and there were joint winners in the snowboard category: Johan Baisamy and Kazu Kokubo. In the Superpipe, the winners were Nivo Bijonsen on skis and Kazu Kokubo on snowboard. The photography prize, a trip to Japan and a huge goodie bag, was won by David Tchag.
But that’s enough text, here’s the video…
03-Jul-2010
Category : Events, Featured, Les 2 Alpes, Snowsports
Today was the final of the Kumi Yama’s invitational Superpipe competition and – as always – the talent was mixed. You’d expect riders that have been invited to take part to be of a certain standard, but the quality of tricks was hugely varied. Some riders barely managed to reach the top of the wall, let alone get any air. Of course, I’m far from an expert myself, and have been known to snow-plough down the pipe screaming. But that’s probably why I don’t get invited to compete in this event… and quite rightly so!
02-Jul-2010
Category : Alpe d'Huez, Bourg d'Oisans, Cycling, Events, Les 2 Alpes, Other Activities, Snowsports
This weekend is easily the busiest of the summer as thousands of people descend on the Oisans region for a variety of events. In Les 2 Alpes there’s freestyle ski and snowboard event, the Kumi Yama, and the Raidlight Trail on Sunday. In Alpe d’Huez it’s all about road bikes with La Marmotte taking place on Saturday and the Ascent of the 21 Bends on Sunday.
It’s one of those weekends when you need to be in at least two places at once and manage without sleep or food in order not to miss out. But I’m recovering from a nasty cold and my car is being repaired it’s going even harder than usual to report on all the exciting stuff.
So this year I’m not going to stress about it. I’m going to go where I can go, see what I can see and bring you the best photos and films I can… so stay tuned to Destination Oisans!
30-Jun-2010
Category : Events, Featured, Les 2 Alpes, Snowsports
The weather in resort has settled into a pattern: scorching in the mornings; torrential rain in the afternoons. It may be frustrating, but at least it’s predictable. Usually weather like this guarantees fresh snow on Les 2 Alpes’ glacier but temperatures are just too high at the moment, with the freeze level at around 4000m. This means we could have some slow take-offs and sticky landings at the weekend, as the summer’s freestyle ski and snowboard comp, the Kumi Yama comes to town…
15-Jun-2010
It’s raining… boo! But while it’s not much fun to be just beneath the rain-filled clouds, the cold temperatures outside suggest that it’s snowing on the glacier.
Here in Les 2 Alpes, the glacier opens for summer skiing and snowboarding tomorrow at 07:15. The huge amount of rain we had in May and have had over the past few days should mean plenty of powder on the glacier and I’m hoping to get some fresh lines on the sides of the pistes. The main attraction for summer skiers and snowboarders though, is the newly built Snow Park, which is widely considered the biggest and best in Europe.
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