Here’s a short video trip report to show you the fun that can be had in the Alps on your bike. All filmed on a Panasonic Lumix GH2 and GoPro HERO.

The guys I ride with around the Manchester/NW area had for the last few years entered the PPDS which takes place late June each year. I’d always been keen to ride in the Alps since I started mountain biking properly but the strands of other adventures had always got in the way. That was until 2011. Steve, the internet overlord and general organiser for our disparate group piped up saying he was thinking about an Alps trip and after a few hasty conversation with the missus we decided we were also in. Steve e-mailed a few chalet providers and decided on ‘The White Room’ in Sainte Foy. A few things helped us make the choice. They were prepared to do a 2/3 day stay for 12 people (arrive Saturday & depart Wednesday), they guide every day bar Wednesday, the chalet is full board with free booze. What more could you want. Oh and the price was a very reasonable £495 for the full week (less for the part week.)

The Whiteroom.

This in essence is Stevo and Iona, they run a chalet called Tintin in Sainte Foy, a small resort up the mountain from Bourg St Maurice.   During the winter Stevo & Iona run the regular chalet format but it’s during the summer months the MTBing takes over.

Tin Tin Chalet at The White Room (courtesy of Snowslave)

During the summer Stevo and Iona guide riders around their patch of mountain biking heaven taking in everything from epic alpine hike-a-bikes to DH only weeks and everything in between.   I get the impression the Classic Singletrack weeks are probably the best unless you’re really obsessive about your particular branch of biking.   Where The Whiteroom really stands out is the guiding.   For your money you’re getting either Stevo or Iona, sometimes both, guiding you all day every day, bar the rest day on Wednesday.   This means no messing about with maps, no worrying about getting the uplift on time, no thinking about where to go for lunch, just unadulterated riding for as long as you can hang on.

Chalet TinTin.

It’s a beautiful late 1800’s traditional wooden chalet.   The conversion to house more guests has been done well, although it has left a few quirky sleeping arrangements.   There’s a double room over the kitchen/living area, so make sure the party animal gets this room.   There’s also a couple of bunks in the downstairs corridor.   In addition they use a flat in a building behind the chalet to house some guests which is very modern, complete with it’s own dungeon!   There’s loads of exposed beams and wood, as you would expect, and many of the rooms are en-suite but not all.   The main living eating space is big enough for 12, at least, with a nice balcony over looking the valley.   I never got tired of the view to the mountains in the Villaroger Nature Reserve opposite.

Sunset view from the Tin Tin Chalet balcony

There’s also a little workshop room housing a work stand and tools for when things start to go wrong.   Stevo (one of our guides) was incredibly helpful to everyone who had mechanicals.   The food was excellent, breakfast was a two course affair with cereal/toast/fruit/yoghurt followed by a cooked course.   Lunch was cheese and ham sandwiches prepared by our own fair hands and a bag of goodies supplied at the beginning of your stay.   Be careful not to eat all your goodies in the first few days!   There were plenty of options for lunch out if you fancied but just like during the winter, it ain’t cheap!   When we arrived back from each ride there was a cake waiting for us, a different slab of loveliness each day!   All to see us round to dinner later in the evening.   We had a great chef called Mars who provided us with really good home cooked food. Delicious roasted potatoes in goose fat and pork belly were two of my favourite.   My only comment would be that it was a little light on vegetables but the quality of the cooking was quite exceptional.

Your average day.

There’s nothing average about the riding in Sainte Foy.   We usually met at about 9.00 – 9.30am for either the first uplift or the Whiteroom minibus to go somewhere. Their bike trailers are excellent, keeping each bike well protected from the others.   We’d hit the trails and go till lunchtime.   This was often a later lunch so keep yourself well fed as you go along.   A lunch stop gave you time to rehydrate and eat.   The temperatures were hot so I got through two 3L bladders most days.

Our Uplift. No pedalling!

Post lunch riding was no calmer.   Go go go until you stop for the day.   On the first day alone we put 5000 metres of decent under our belt – that’s like descending Snowdon three times!   Often we’d finish the day in a bar for a beer or two which was welcome.   Then back to the chalet for a bit of maintenance of you and your bike! Dinner was usually at about 8-9pm.

What was everyone riding.

A real mix of bikes were taken out on this trip.   Everything from short travel trail bikes to 160mm coil shock sofa’s. Your average long travel trail bike, ie 5 inches, will do the job just fine.   It has to be said that a short travel trail bike will suffice but won’t be as much fun. However ride what you’ve got and don’t let your bike stop you from booking the trip and having fun. Check out my How to Alpify your Bike post if you want a few more tips.

Overview of our Itinerary

Here’s Stevo’s write up of our trip but from my rough remembrance it went like this:

Day 1

Les Arcs chairlift up and singletrack/DH options down. Very exciting trip up to Les Arcs on the funicular, that’s train to you and me! A few chairlifts and your pretty much at the top of the mountain. Getting the bikes on the chair lifts was easy enough although if you’re not used to heaving your bike around it can be a little tricky. It seems every chair lift has a slightly different way of getting the bike on. Some more bike friendly than others. The riding is Les Arcs was pretty fun. The DH track was much like a trail centre on steroids. Bike berms, bigger jumps and some interesting obligatory slow speed drop-offs. Not everyone’s cup of tea. Personally I loved it and could see how you could go really mad just doing laps on a track like that. We also squeezed in some ace singletrack down from the top lift to the base of the mountain. Epic switchbacks going on forever. Not something we ever do at home!

Day 2

Uplift in Sainte Foy itself taking in some amazing singletrack like you’ve never seen. Steep, technical and exciting.

Day 3

Beautiful Day 3 Singletrack

Uplift in Sainte Foy and some driving around by Whiteroom. ‘Vini Vidi Vici’ was by far the best trail of the day, perhaps even the trip. Smooth flowing singletrack that just egg’s you on to go faster and faster. Lots of people saying it felt like a computer game.

Day 4

Rest Day – boy did we need it. Read books, slept lots and enjoyed a nice meal in the resort itself at ‘Le Maison’ – Oh and I proposed to my now lovely fiancé.

Day 5

Uplift in Sainte Foy – laps on the start of ‘Thin red line’ with ‘whisky & rye’ on the end. A few alternate finishes thrown in. All round a lot of riding on some amazing trails.

Day 6

Alpine hike-a-bike – properly brilliant and quite epic. This is perhaps the most familiar style of riding we did during our stay. We drove up to a resort then cycled and walked our way to the top of a very big hill (this is the bit you’ll all be familiar with!). This bit less so….after a brief break we cruised down some of the most beautiful, smooth and flowing singletrack I’ve ever ridden. It also seemed to go on forever. The riding was less intense and the trails less technical but the views spectacular.

Summary

One of the real advantages of staying at the Whiteroom is Stevo & Iona’s flexibility. Your group not really loving the singletrack, well they can take you to the DH course at a resort instead. Fancy something more XC, they have just the place in mind. They may do most of the transport of you+bike or you may find yourself paying for uplifts everyday. Budget an extra £100 for lift tickets for the week so there’s no surprises for your wallet. They also know their area really well so will take you and the weather into consideration, All told it’s a great package.

Pro’s

1. Lovely quiet chalet, great food thanks to Mars and Amy (2011.)
2. Exceptional riding guides in the form of the Stevo & Iona.
3. World class singletrack at your door with easy access to good resort options as well.

Con’s

1. Go go go!!! It felt a little full on right from the off.
2. The transfer from Geneva is a long one.
3. Perhaps too much cheese & ham for lunch!

BOTTOM LINE – Would I book with the Whiteroom again – you bet I would!

Most of the Team

Why buy a crane?
The affordability and quality of footage produced by many HDSLR’s has really opened up the filmmaking playing field over the last few years. Back in May 2010 I bought my first Panasonic GH1 and have been a HDSLR convert ever since. It’s been a super lightweight and versatile camera that’s accompanied me on expedition to India and allowed me to delve further into the world of mountain bike filmmaking. So much so that over the next twelve months we are about to embark on what we’re calling our ‘uber film’. Essentially, the creation of a mountain biking film based solely in the UK and filmed throughout all four seasons. We want our film to stand out from the crowd and join the other high quality films within the mountain biking and outdoor adventure film genre. There’s obviously a huge amount of skill, time and effort associated with creating such a film but there are also tools that can assist us along the way. That’s why we chose to purchase the Kessler Crane Lite or KC-Lite as it’s known. It’s our hope that the Kessler Crane will enable us to create shots with an unusual and professional perspective.

How did the 8ft Kessler Crane Lite handle?
Kessler’s reputation is pretty sweet and I wasn’t disappointed when I set up our crane for the first time. The crane itself is extremely well constructed. The Davis & Sanford tripod that comes as part of the KC-Lite package is a no-frills but robust tripod. I had hoped to use my Manfrotto 745xb tripod and video head but it just wasn’t heavy duty enough to take the weight of the crane, particularly the fluid head.

I had read that there was a potential for unwanted side to side movement whilst using the KC-Lite because it only has one support rather than the double support system of the standard crane, but I’m pleased to say that I didn’t notice too much movement on my first test run. I can definitely imagine the double supports create a much studier framework but the potential to carry the crane up and down hills was extremely important factor in our decision to buy the ‘Lite’ version. I think there is a definite knack to using cranes and a skill set that we will have to develop. Bringing the crane to a smooth finish is something I hope to improve.

How easy is it to set up?
It’s really easy to set up and can be done on your own in about 10 minutes or less. Getting the balance weight right is definitely important and we found we had to change the weights based on small changes such as which lens we were using.

Results
A couple of days after receiving our crane we put it to the test. We didn’t want anything too gnarly so we made a trip to the park to follow Patrick about on his bike. Check out the video results below.

Conclusion
I’m sure the KC-Lite is a compromise from a stability perspective but one I’m very happy with. After weighing up different crane options (and we researched a lot) I’m happy we chose the 8ft KC-Lite. The whole rig minus balance weights currently comes in at 20kg which is already pretty heavy if you’re going to be hauling it up and down hills. I wouldn’t want to carry anything heavier on a days shoot in the middle of nowhere. The KC-Lite package also worked out to be about half the price of the standard 8ft Kessler Crane plus K-pod and Hercules head.

What next?
Watch this space. Hopefully in the not so distant future we’ll be bringing you some exciting mtb footage from the top of Snowdon of some other big hill! We’ll also be working on and thinking about other creative ways of filming such as our recent DIY cable cam. We will also be purchasing a new Panasonic GH2 which will enable us to use an external monitor on the crane.

You can keep up to date with our ‘uber film’ by following our Maia Media page on facebook.

My second highly anticipated biking movie currently due for release on the 30th October 2010 is Life Cycles. It’s made by a pair of Canadians whose whole philosophy has been to spend time not money (a philosophy I like to adopt too!), they live in British Columbia so have plenty of biking spots to visit and from the trailer an obvious skill at making biking videos. Most definitely in the league of The Collective! Can not wait!

Music called Neopoliton Dreams by Lisa Mitchell

So I killed a Trek Remedy a few months ago which was a case of  ‘user is an idiot’ rather than defective product. This put me in the situation of needing a frame of some sort in a hurry. I had some very specific requirements;

1. 1.5inch headtube
2. 31.6 seat tube diameter
3. Burly enough to take some abuse
4. Good value for money

After some questions on singletrack I was pointed at the Ragley Mmmbop amongst a few others. The Ragley fits all the bills so I spoke to the nice people at the bike chain, based in Edinburgh and I purchased an Mmmbop. The bike arrived and I built it up with Lyrics, Mavic Ex 321+ 2.35 single ply minions, a short 50mm Thomson stem, KS i900r, wide raceface atlas handlebars and other general xt kit.  It is worth pointing out that when I say ‘I built it up’ what I really mean is the bike faries at Evans Cycles Deansgate waved their magic wand and returned a bag of bits and some aluminium tubing, looking like and riding like, a rather excellent bike!   A fairly burly build you might say. It weighed in a 32lb. I will say that I haven’t really ridden a hardtail in the last 6 years since I’ve been riding seriously so I will try to seperate the hardtail differences with my impressions of the bike.

So I took the bike for a shake down at Lee Quarry on a Saturday which went well, spent a fair bit of time tweaking positions of various stuff, taking it easy.  Early impression were good though.  Today I went to my regular testing ground at Llandegla and gave it both barrels to see how it went. My normal route at Llandegla is the black with some laps on JJ’s jumps, then throw in some laps in the skills park at the end.  The ride up to the top was quick, the Mmmbop was fast and direct from the start, standing up and yomping on the pedals on the steeper sections was met with the expected reward. Cruising along the flatter sections was particularly rewarding with the bike keeping speed well and eating the small bumps.  The build is quite heavy so it was noticable when the gradient increased the bike certainly slowed a fair bit but that’s due the the finishing kit.  The fun really began, as you would expect, as I reached the top and started the traversing section of red with some small jumps and bumps. The bike performed great, when pumping the bumps it felt tight and snappy, partly due to the inovative 3 finger chainstay feature.  I built up some great speed. The Mmmbop railed the hard corner at the end of the first run well and felt really solid.  The next section was fast and flowing with some tighter corners and small jumps.  The mmmbop certainly dealt with everything I threw at it, I felt like the bike was alnmost as fast as the remedy I had ridden before, certainly snappier and quicker in the turns. The more I pumbed and pushed the bike the more it delivered.

In the steeper downhill section the Mmmbop also impressed. My love for all things suspension meant I wasn’t expecting to be grinning from ear to ear but, surprise surprise, I was.  The slack head angle, comparable to my revious bike, coupled with the lyrics left me feeling stable at speed whilst being able to move the bike around and make some really fun fast turns, again rewarding the pumping and efforts to carry speed.  In JJ’s jumps, a series of table tops, with the odd double thrown in the bike most impressed me.  It really took to the air.  Unweighting the bike on the lip was a confidence inspiring event and landing in the transition was remarkably smooth. The largest double, which always gives me the willies, was taken at speed and the Mmmbop performed flawlessly. Big grins all round!

Conclusion.
As a big guy with little in the way of finess on a bike I am hard on my stuff. I was nervous of getting a hardtail, the Mmmbop has completely changed my thoughts. The bike is confidence inspiring, has some real muscle hiding in its relatively slim tubing and still sprints rather than weezes it’s way up the hills. Point it down something steep with the recommended 150mm travel forks and you’re going to eat it up like it’s your favourite meal.  In a typically British understated fashion this mountain bike is really rather good!

The picture above is a still from a film we made using the mmmbop, you can check it out here

After parking on the road ‘Future Park’ OL13 0BB you can see the place looming over you on the valley edge, we did start wondering how to get up there though as it wasn’t immediately obvious.  We unpacked the bikes, kitted up and started pedalling.  It wasn’t so bad, one road past the houses on the left leadsyou into the place, the excitement of visiting a new riding spot was pulling us ever onwards round the next corner, no the next one and then the next one.  As we approached the start of the ride we could see some guys with ‘BIG’ bikes doing laps on a set of jumps across a small valley, this looks very  interesting I’m thinking!   After pondering our direction we soon realised that a red arrow was the route to follow, so follow we did, a double track up into the quarry.

We saw all sorts of interesting stuff, large banks of waste rock, singletrack in the distance and numerous ‘trials’ areas, would sir like a broken scaphoid bone or a dislocated shoulder?  It wasn’t long before the double track became a little more interesting  with some singletrack down some huge steep berms and into the first red/black split. The red was a sweet steep section of singletrack into a big berm and some large flagstones leading to a really steep hill.  The black variant gave us some excellent slabbed drops into the same flagstones.

A further section of singletrack leads to another set of huge banked berms leading into a set of tabletops followed by a hip jump.  All rollable but given some welly responeded with some very satisfying ‘heart in throat’  airtime.  This spits you out into a brilliant skills area.  Woodwork only inches off the ground is an excellent way to get your eye in and improve your confidence on this type of challenge.  Just remember, look where you want to go!  We played around here for some time repeating all the stuff we didn’t get over and over again.

The red arrows sent us off into the Quarry again with some tame dbl track leading to a more xc orientated section of the route.  It took us up to the lip of the quarry looking down into the holes blasted out of the hillside.  This leads to the biggest choice in the route, a second red/black split, buy this time there’s more in it.  The red contours round the hillside on some engaging single track slowly winding it’s way back to the start and the big jumps we’d seen on the way in.

The black is more of a test of bike and rider, lots of broken rock sections on the side of some really steep hills certainly gave me pause for thought.  This drops steeply to the quarry floor with the finish being a choice between three different options, hard, a countour round the hill on large slabs, harder being a steep descent on smaller slabs and hardest being a steep descent on skinny slabs and wood – bottled on this occasion.  This then takes you on a meandering course of rocky singletrack which certainly makes you think before heading up the side of the quarry to join the red prior to it’s final descent to the jumps/start.

The final  part of the route takes in the table top, medium double and flatish hip jump.  This then leads into a section of singeltrack that leads you through some lovely twists and turns in long grass.  There’s a final optional uber jump which isn’t something I will be attempting anytime soon.

Overall a great place to visit, the loop is short but packed with features, there’s obviously room for development and exploration.  The only issue we had was the lack of signage, it was unclear where to go on a number of occasions, but don’t let that stop you haveing a real blast!