Yesterday we went for a walk up to the Albishorn which was stunning, a real winter wonderland while we tried to figure out if it was worth sticking to our original plan to go to Glarus.

After a lot of time debating, weather forecast checking and calling the lift station at Brügg to see whether or not we could actually get up to our guesthouse (www.berggasthaus-biel.ch )we bit the bullet and drove down to Altdorf to find it was running (just about) and arrived at the guesthouse at 15:30 in the afternoon.

The fondue was amazing

The avalanche risk was really high this morning

So we did a conservative snow shoe tour around the ski resort – we were warned about 3 times not to wander far

And Sarah got her first alpine adventure experience!

The photos are taken at Les Carroz, near Flaine in the Haute Savioe/Mt Blanc region.

I went down on Monday by train to visit a friend, Kate. Within an hour of arriving to her house, we had skinned up and were climbing a local touring route in the dark. Wherever Kate goes, adventure follows!

The next morning we headed towards Chamonix and enjoyed fabulous off and on-piste conditions. Despite the bad quality perhaps you can still appreciate how spectacular the day out was, by looking at the photo’s below.

Alas, this morning’s ski-touring plans have been abandoned due to increment weather (I am writing this from a train on the way back to Zurich) However, I feel satisfied after yesterday’s rendezvous yet hungry for more snow fun.

Let’s hope the weather settles soon so we can enjoy more of the same very soon!

Mt Blanc

Kate getting stuck in with her telemark ski's

Some fabulous evening light on a tracked out piste

The end of day exit

A fabulous sunset to mark the end to an exciting day!

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 9,900 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Some of the other resorts like Davos have been using machines to create artificial snow but luckily in Flumserberg the snow was 100% natural. Although there wasnt much of it – there was enough for a day of fun!

First Ski Tour Race
Next Saturday I will give the Night Attack a go. Just for fun. It will be my first skitour race! The altitude gain isn’t extreme (about 700mtrs in total) and I have absolutely no expectations for my performance and have chosen to ignore the provocative message my friend Kate sent me, with her time from last year!

Snow Safety
A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was going to attend an LVS Course being organized by Mammut and Thomas Scheuner a mate of my boyfriend who runs the mountain sports shop called Kundalini in Zurich.
The evening was great, we got to practice using our avalanche transmitter receivers and learned some new things about searching for multiple bodies in snow. The topic of snow safety is really important for me. I don’t have a huge amount of freeride and touring experience but this year I am especially keen to get out there as much as possible and start notching up tours. So the more I can learn about avalanche search and rescue the better. Which brings me onto Thomas’ avalanche experience this year.

Watch This
Thomas Scheuner is a friend of my boyfriend`s from way back. Last year I met him for the first time just after the accident documented in the below video happened. Since then he has recovered completely and created a great video of his experience that brings the viewer through the avalanche thanks to the headcam recording. Afterwards he slows it down and recounts step by step how it happened and goes as far as showing us the avalanche signs he ignored.

Watch it…

Avalanche Accident in Engelberg from Thomas S. on Vimeo.

I grabbed my sports gear this morning on the way out the door to work but by the time lunch came around, my motivation to go outside in the wind and rain had definitely waned. However, I knew that I would feel better after I went out for a run and there was no excuse anyway because the forest behind the office offers plenty of shelter (and the trees look firmly rooted)

I decided the best use of my 60mins break would be hill repeats. Hard and painful but beneficial. The forest I chose for my torture session is located on a very steep hill and each repeat was approx. 2km in length with about 120mtrs total altitude gain. I am not sure how long each repeat took because I forgot my watch (I don’t care so much about measuring anyway) but I think they were about 4 – 5 minutes long. I only did 3 repeats but that was enough effort for me today. Then I did a cool down of 15 minutes.

Every year I say I should do more interval training – but I am lazy. Its easier for me to just go and run with no plan. 75 minutes, 90 minutes 2 hours. No problem. The problem is I don’t want to commit to the pain of an interval session! So this year I will force myself to do at least 1 if not 2 interval sessions every week, 1 running session and the other a Cross Fit or Vitaparcours workout.

I felt ok during the run but my muscles were a little tired because last night I did a Cross Fit session at Jeff Grant’s Hillseeker Performance lab: Hillseeker Performance Lab last night (more on that to come)

This is the best instructional video I came across on YouTube regarding hill running (maybe the music could be better)

And Amy Reynik writes some great articles on the topic too. Here is one from her blog: http://amyreinink.com/2010/08/11/workout-of-the-week-hill-repeats/

I have also being doing Yoga. Everytime I have not been able to spend an hour of my day running, biking or swimming because I have been injured, or too tired emotionally or physically, I have turned to yoga and it has always been such a great help. I think that when I’m 80 years old that’s what I will end up doing! Because I live in the middle of nowhere and I hate driving into town after work and now that its too cold to bike for over 90 minutes to a Yoga class, I have been doing the sessions at home with www.yogatoday.com. The instructors are great, the videos are nicely done and there is something there for everyone with a huge database of videos. Check them out.

But just a reminder of my limitations I saw this in the Ronorp newsletter the morning:

Nick and Sabine are simply the best at digging out these gems from Youtube, nevermind having their fingers on the throbbing pulse of Zurich day and nightlife!

The rest of the month and the beginning of December is looking interestingly busy! This weekend my parents are here, on Monday evening there is a free LVS Presentation at GZ Wollishofen und Minimum Lounge afterwards, if you would like to attend then here is the Facebook invitation from the organizer (Kundalini Shop, Zurich)

On Wednesday 30th its Apèro time at the Stilrad shop by the Viadukt – by the way, Alberto organizes a night ride every Thursday evening which I hope to join next week.

Friday evening I’m going to the 6 Tag Rennen at the Hallenstadium and for the weekend we are helping a friend build her workshop in a really cool building in Bern where she will run activities aimed at re-integrating people with psychological trauma back into the world.

But best of all, ski season kicks off on the 17th 18th with a weekend in the hills with friends. Lets hope there is some snow to meet our expectations!

Unfortunately it was just not my day –  I felt quite ok going into the event but I had some big mechanical problems during the race as my chain kept coming off every time I changed into the small ring. This meant that ever time we came across a hill where I needed to change down (most of the course is relatively flat but there are 2 steep climbs on each lap) my chain would come off, I would stop, place it back on, climb up and chase the peleton who has left me and basically feel very frustrated! This happened 4 – 5 times during the event. At one point I had to time-trial for about 15km on my own, then the next peloton caught me but they were a little slow for my liking and I ended up working at the front.

NOT really ideal for a good result. But I didnt let it get me down. On to the next event !

Not quite sure whether to do The Many Hills Show or the Iron Bike Race next weekend. I think I will wait and see what the weather is going to be like! Until then…

Here are some lovely photos from my latest runs around my new workplace in Wollerau, Canton Schwyz

I went to Meiringen initially to support my boyfriend Andreas in his quest to complete the Platinum route of the Alpen Brevet but the racing bug got the better of me and I registered for the gold route. 170km and >5,000 mtrs of altitude gain. 

Unfortunately Andreas had a really bad day in the saddle and due to spending too much time in the first refreshment station he missed the cut of for the platinum route by only 3 minutes.

 I raced, I was surprised with my fitness and I had a good result! Here are some pics.

In one race we did together in Ireland I remember being freezing cold on the side of a misty mountain in Co. Down and Donncha was running around in a pair of shorts and t-shirt carrying his own bike and the bike of one of my team mates up a hill. And the most impressive thing of all is he always seems to be having fun and if he isnt, he is quiet. I never learned how to do that! 

This year he did the RAAM. Please read his blog recap on the race – and testimony to how much of an impact he has on people around him:

http://donnchacuttrissraam2011.com/2011/07/10/reflections-on-raam/

He is, simply, an inspiration. Not just because of his physical feats, but his attitude, openess and passion and enthusiasm for life and people, makes him a really extraordinary individual.

Here are some photos of the winning teams, us dancing and on trotty bikes and well..some Alpine Panorama.

Team Inov8 Swiss Irish AR

It was tough – and we didn’t make it, as a team. We started with the prologue on a very hot Wednesday which lasted about 6 hours and was followed by an 8km run to the start of the kayak section on the Thunersee until about 11pm then onto the bikes for 12 hours which was punctuated with a brutal, steep trek in the middle which we reached at roughly 1am. The bike course was great, there were some fabulous single trails, I will definitely go down there again soon to ride them.

By the time we had finished biking it was already Thursday at 12 Noon, we got some sleep and then decided to get back out on the course to start an punishingly long trek at about 1500. We learned that we were in 10th position and that motivated us to get moving, slowly.

Unfortunately we were caught out in bad weather on the way up to the Schilthorn hutte. Thunder, lightening and heavy hail forced us to take cover under one of our emergency shelters and waited it out then carried on. On the last leg up to the Shilthorn Bergstation I felt exhausted and knew I would need to take a breather at the station. However when we reached the CP we were informed that we would have to make it to the next ridge before daylight in order to pass. I felt as though I couldnt carry on at that moment due to a number of reasons and I told the guys on my team. At that stage there were about 6 teams at the station who had either pulled out of the race or were resting until the morning to continue.

have thought long and hard about my motivation to compete, the loyalty to my team, the consequence of my action and what the consequences would have been if we had carried on into the rough night. It would have been ok, I recovered quite quickly so physically it would have not been a problem to continue. The problem is mental – and the bottom line is, I want to enjoy racing but have the comforts of life too. I like to sleep, I like to recover I like to race hard but I dont like to rough it and sacrafice as much as required to race an expedition length race.

I really admire incredibly all of the people who compete and I really think – had they not proven it by finishing the demands of these races are inhumane. Silva Gerber and Team Switzerland slept less than 3 hours over 4.5 days and moving all the time. I fell asleep on the bike after 24 hours going uphill and we had to take an hour sleep!

Although I am sad that I didnt get to finish, that I let my team down – life is full of trials and errors and the important take-away from this experience is the new insights I have into myself as a person and athlete and that extra knowledge I have about my limits.

For now, I am recovering, enjoying life and looking forward to some shorter events. Next week I have a minor surgery to undergo and I will be out of the saddle and water for about 3 weeks but I`ll be back soon and I think the break will do me good.

Hasta Pronto!!