Some great autumnal weather here in Chamonix but definitely cooler and a lot quieter but still lots to do in this fine valley! Watching the seasons change out here is an amazing time to come out for a little break before the winter madness begins.
For a lot of people who reside out here during the inter-season and for the advanced snowboarders and skiers amongst you, now is the time to start preparing the legs and head ready for the winter season. Getting to the gym and building a strong core and leg muscles is always a good one. Although if like me, you prefer to be in a more natural gym, getting out here and making the most of the climbing, hiking and biking opportunities is a much better option!
There are a couple of companies out here which cater for getting the advanced rider ready for action in a more technically minded way, lets start with Blue Mile and see what they have to say about early season riding and how that can prepare the advanced rider in time for the winter.
Blue Mile Snowsports – Why Pre-season Snowsports Skills Training Works
Blue Mile Snowsports are running advanced snowboarding courses before the start of the 2010/11 season so that you can begin on a snowboarding high, riding hard and effectively from the start and building your skills on a technically sound snowboarding base. Building good muscle memory early on in the season is key to overcoming the plateau that's all too common in experienced riders who have developed progress-hindering bad habits.
Blue Mile Snowsports offers refreshing snowboarding tuition from qualified instructors & professional snowboarders, who specialise in coaching experienced riders. Blue Mile teaches riders - mentally & physically - about the bio-mechanics of your body, the science of the snowboard and the physics of the mountain. Two key focus points are developing your mental attitude to ride smoothly and bravely and retraining your muscle memory to establish a stronger snowboarding technique. Blue Mile uses video analysis, found to really help snowboarding, especially in slow motion, so you can see what you're doing when you ride – often very different from the way it feels, until you fine tune your technique.
By looking very closely at the way our clients ride and making small but effective changes to technique such as the way a rider stands on a board, sets up for a spin, or how they charge through pow, we make them better riders.
However it is advised that these changes are made early in the snowboarding season so the correct body alignments and movements are adopted and fixed into the muscle memory - rather than allowing poorer postures and techniques to scupper snowboarding progress and potentially risk longer term muscle injury.
From Girls' Snowboarding Camps to Advanced Rider Coaching, there will be snowboarding courses in Hintertux and Mayrehofen throughout this coming season. But it's the early season tuition that's especially recommended to set you on the right foot to take your snowboarding to the next level.
For details of snowboarding coaching camps visit
In the next pre-season report we will look at what great ski companies out there can offer for the advanced skier!
Check out our Mountain Guide Listings for contact details of local guiding and activity companies.
Check out what to do around town once the lifts have closed with our Apres Ski Report - a weekly round up of what's hot and where to party in Chamonix!
