Patagoniacs

New Photo Album : Water drops

A new Photo Album here
It's been raining a lot in France these days.
A lot of water drops, as if you were surfing inside nice clear barrels ...
Crazy seasons and weather.

Looking for a Guide around Chamonix ?

If you are planning to go climbing, walking, mountainering around Chamonix, give a call to Thomas. Be sure he will show you the best spots around to climb.

The world is upside down !

Look at the weather forecasts in Moscow !
More than 30 degrees in May. This winter was particularly warm in Russia.
In France, at the same time, the temperatures will drop under 20 degrees in Paris ...
A friend in Bali told me that a huge wave hit the coast line.
Jacques Chirac mentionned that "our house is burning".
Looking at all these uncommon weather changes, I hope that it is not too late to take action.
Switch of your lights, computers, electronic devices when not in use. Take your bike or walk if you are not going far away.
Save our planet ! Be responsible !

It smells real

Reading this post  on the cleanest line, I thought : It smells real. This is a genuine post, done by someone real, and who expresses exactly the feelings of many other runners.
I share exactly the same views about running. And about the clothes to wash, effectively, it's a kind of problem for the environment. So when the clothes are not so dirty, but smells :-) I use some natural detergents : Washing nuts (noix de lavage)
That's a real eco alternative I think.

Cobian - Worldvision - Take action

Cobian launched an action :
When you purchase a pair of Y-Africa sandals, $2 goes directly to world vision.
I know which pair of new sandals I will purchase for this summer.
Good initiative.

Running in Ismaylovo Park

- Seen a lot of people in bathing suit, catching the sun in funny positions
- Seen a lot of women wearing thongs
- It's the beginning of the "pukh" season (a sort of white stuff like goose down, everywhere). Hard to run and breathe with clouds of "pukh".
- Seen in the middle of nowhere, a scene with dancers, singers, a lot of decibels, and flashy colors, to entertain people who happen to be there
- Seen 7 runners, including one girl
- Seen one grandmother and her granddaughter. The grandmother had a green tree leaf on her nose to protect it from the sun.
- Seen a girl, white as the cold winter snow of Siberia, trying to get tanned. I thought she was the snow girl of the Russian fairy tales. I think that at this time, she is just a water drop. She will re-appear in November
- Thought that 160 km this summer in the mountains is crazy, when I see how hard it is to run 25 km when it's 30 degrees outside.
- Wondering why some  Russian girls and boys wear clothes as if they were going to a night club, but they are going to a park ?

Funny and crazy country.

Salomon fast wing hoodie jacket

Sorry for Patagonia this time ... I have found a nice Salomon jacket to bring with you when you go running. The Salomon fast wing hoodie jacket.
Small, light, and with a stow pocket.
Nothing really new you would say, but usually, when you have stowed your jacket, what do you do with it while running ?
If you have a small bag with your camel back, then you put it inside. But if you do not have any bag and do not want to take any ?

Salomon answered this very simply. You can fix it to your arm because there is a simple band with a velcro scratch.

Small, light, easy to carry. The right answer to runners' need when the weather becomes rainy.

Papeete in Moscow

Moscow, today, some peaks at 28 degres and more.
Evening rain.
Same weather than in Papeete ...

It was nice to go running around the small park near home.
Nice to see these colors of summer, green, grey, gold.
Nice to admire the sunset.

Finally, sometimes, the paradise can be found everywhere. It's just a question of weather finally ...

Expedicia.ru

When speaking about Russia, and its huge country, we all have in mind images of cold places, with a lot of snow, wide forests, long distances, bear, reindeers, ...
So if you travel to Moscow, and you are tired buy all these fashion places, which looks like the top fashion places in NYC, Paris, London, etc, then go to Expedicia. A nice "complex", where you have a Bania (Russian Sauna), a shop (prices are a little bit expensive ...), a restaurant. The restaurant is really nice, with a bear saying hello to kids, dishes you'll see only there, with Siberian recipes, Irkytsk recipes, and other names from places you've read in Michel Strogoff's stories.
The brand "expedicia" is not using the Expedition concept without knowing what is an expedition, because they have several "projects" like "Dorogi".
Nice concept, nice idea, and nice dinner.
Bon appetit.

Special trainings for the UTMB

For those who have time and never did the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, they can get a special training course with some specialists. More about it (in French), here.
Honestly, given the difficulty of such a race, for those who only want to end it, and do not expect to end it in less than 30 hours, I am not sure that any specific training will help :-), you must be an E.T. But if you begin to sleep know till the end of August, then, may be, you will not fall asleep after 80 km.
But who knows...
It's true that if you know that it's going to be really hard, and if you can have a look at the tracks before the race and get some good advices, it may be helpful.

UTMB : Why 165 km and not 153 ?

Some of you may have seen slight differences between the 2006 and the the 2007 profilesfor the UTMB.
If you look at the map, you'll see that in 2007, the runners will go in the city of Saint-Gervais.
Some say that the mayor of Saint-Gervais wanted the runners to run through the city ... for some political or economical reasons may be :-)
Just hope that these additional kilometers will not be the ones which will stop me.
Nice profile, isn't it ?

From Banana Jack with smiles

A nice small Hawaiian Shirt for kids. Always funny to see these little kids with nice colored shirts trying to grab the rail of the skateboard for the first time.

Here are some detailed pictures of this model for kids :
 

Smell it

The perfume of this rose is awesome. It's really hard to buy and find beautiful roses which smell good especially when you know that your roses were stored in cold place to be transported from one place to another.
Having a garden, even secret and small, is a privilege. But it's a real pleasure and a reward when you are able to get such beautiful smelly roses in it. It takes time, it's hard, and sometimes it fails. But, one year, when the rain is good, when the sun is there, you get what you deserve, and you smile, because the real pleasures are simple and so close.

I am a liar !

Well, I know, I am a liar and a pessimist, because there was one good day in Chamonix last week. But I am not totally a liar, as the snow and the unstable weather, made it hard to have a walk around the Mt Blanc du Tacul or the Mt Maudit  on this day.
Here is how it looked like this day.
Running around was nice and the view on the landscape was great this day.
Unfortunately, the other days were much more wet ...
(I know, I know, when it comes to speak about the weather on a blog, it looks like the author has nothing to say ... So see this post as an opportunity to show this picture, that's it :-)))

Happy Hour

Surfing art
Surfing lifestyle
Thanks FX.

The Patience of the clouds

Contrast between pure adrenaline and pure inactivity.
Contrast between envy and security
Contrast between activity and inactivity.
Climbing, surfing, mountaineering are strongly linked to the earth, the weather, Nature. You can be the richest man of the world, or the best climber, if it is not the time, it is not.
The right time, the right place : that's the secret. And when you are not at the right place at the right time,  it's no use crying, shouting. You just have to find something else to do. You just have to keep a way of training yourself for THE day.
Spent 5 days in Chamonix. 5 Days of waiting for the sun to come and the conditions to be ok. The sun did not show. Never mind. Stay humble, stay quiet. Enjoy free time to do something else, discover something else.
Finally, waiting is part of the job. Be patient. One day, it'll be THE day.

(ps : no picture, my camera is not water proof :-))

Crosswords and chocolate

TOMORROW - FRIDAY MAY 04

Changeable - morning fœhn wind likely - rain in the afternoon

SKY CONDITIONS (cloud - sunshine) : cloudy with sunny spells in the morning - high cloud - becoming mostly cloudy or overcast in the afternoon - period of sunshine close to 20%.

PRECIPITATION : rain staring up during the afternoon - rain-snow limit towards 2100 m

WIND

-

aloft : S -> N light to moderate.

TEMPERATURE :

min +7°C - max +13°C.

Scrabble, crosswords, Sudoku, and chocolate.
High summits invisible in the sky.