Oh ffs…
This might of happened to you before on the hunt for the best splitboard & backcountry snowboarding weeks. You book a trip away in the snow, get excited for it and turn up only to find that the snowpack got rained on just before you arrived and is now taking the wind turning the off-piste into a shining skate park of icy doom.
Not ideal.
Now imagine if you had booked up and just arrived at a backcountry camp in, lets say Switzerland for a week and it had done the same. Its going to grind your gears for sure but hey, that’s where you’re riding for the week so you have to suck it up and make do with treacherous ascents and bone shaking descents. Oh, and the sun disappeared and the fog rolled in.
Its the unavoidable risk you have to run when just booking into just one spot for the whole of your trip. The answer? Well lets just for now suggest that you don’t maybe put all of your eggs in the same basket…
Why? Cos we appreciate that its not easy to always work out where the good snow will be at any given time. You need to collate a lot of information on weather systems and have a well tuned intuition that comes from working in the mountains full time. Its not easy. In fact it’s really pretty, super complicated and that’s the beauty of a Rider Social trip as we do all of this research, and more for you.
For example:
You fly into Geneva airport on the Saturday arrival date and jump into a pre-arranged transfer cab which brings you up into resort in Chatel. When you arrive you settle into your pre-arranged accommodation, relax and maybe drink a beer before we all meet up on the early evening to talk through the next day and upcoming trip. We’ll discuss what you’ll need to pack and suggest what to wear and importantly what you’d individually like to either learn or experience on your trip away with us.
On the Sunday we will take you for a warm up day somewhere local which is usually well away from the ski area. Expect to climb at least 800 metres vertical before riding some purposely variable, sometimes steep but always fun backcountry terrain. Think of it as a bitchin’ leg stretcher and an ideal way to iron out any little kinks in equipment or technique
After a full first days splitboarding, whilst you are showering, eating, stretching out or sleeping your guides will be doing their research again. This entails working out where the snow and best weather will be for the following few days. It might be that we don’t choose our destination until late on the Sunday evening and this only adds to the feeling of adventure to come.
And then what?
It might be that on the Monday morning we jump into the Rider Social bus and head to Italy for two days because that’s where its ‘on’ conditions wise. We’ll then spend a couple of days eating pasta, drinking great coffee and riding amazing backcountry lines . We’ll spend the nights in the most suitable accommodation – usually (during March onwards) in a mountain hut at altitude – playing cards, drinking the odd beer and chatting away cos your phone signal at altitude is generally poor.
Its a refreshing change from the old social media and worry not as we are generally equipped with SAT comms equipment for day to day mountain use should we need to make a call.
Whilst you’re whooping it up in Italy your guides continue to do their homework. That might mean after two days we decide to head over to Switzerland because it just dumped a half metre of fresh and the sun is coming out so lets go! No significant riding time is lost as we will have meticulously planned the logistics in advance, it is your week after all.
What’s next?
We spend a day and a night splitboarding in Swiss, eating some great local cuisine and tearing sublime pow in good light. Hold up…. whilst you guys are smashing it we have concluded that the best last day is going to be in France somewhere so we’re suggesting that we head on back over to rip some fresher pow and enjoy the best weather systems on offer. Happy days.
What next?
On the Thursday evening we head back to sleepy old Chatel for a farewell dinner. For those of you who chose to leave on the Friday (giving you a full weekend back at home before work starts again) you will jump into your pre-arranged transfer cab on the Friday back to Geneva and off to wherever, super content that you chose not to put all of your eggs in that one basket..
The mountains are living and breathing behemoths and don’t give a rats ass about your week away.
The Rider Social does though and that in essence is why we differ from most other providers.
To put all of your eggs in one basket then please don’t click here.