‎SCOTT Sports and Cham3S are running a competition to win 2 free places to the next SCOTT Mission WOW event- an intro to ski touring, to be held at Grand-St-Bernard in Switzerland on 31st March.

Enter at http://www.cham3s.com/ from 6-19 March

Send in suggestions as to what to read, watch and listen to from your neck of the woods

Respect the Mountains is a young organization that creates awareness to preserve mountain areas, and especially the European Alps, for their current and future inhabitants and visitors. The main goal is not to keep people out of the mountains, but to make people aware of the uniqueness and importance of this area, so that next generations will be able to enjoy the mountains as much as we do.

In the perfect “Respect the Mountains World”, people think twice before they act, ski resorts are environmentally friendly and people realize the only way to preserve and enjoy the slopes is to change their attitudes about mountain recreation. Therefore, our efforts focus mainly on Mountain Awareness.

Together we can reduce the impact of tourism and be able to enjoy mountain sports for many more years! You can make a good contribution by living along Respect the Mountains’ 7 ways. Enjoy!

WOW Olympus was the pioneering weekend held in New Zealand, September 2009. The event was a huge success with 37 lovely ladies gathered in a remote mountain ski field in a huge variety of fancy dress outfits, to exchange ideas and plan adventures while raising NZD$1500 for our charities.

Our next mini ‘get together’, WOW Catlins, was in January 2010 and saw the first of our WOW ‘Waves’ event  in the Southern Ocean, New Zealand.  We learnt to surf along with the resident penguins, seals and dolphins of Porpoise Bay and were all hooked on our new sport by the time we left.

The word about WOW spread on the international kiwi-vine and pretty soon folks from the Northern Hemisphere were clamouring for their turn. So WOW decided to shake up the Chamonix valley in April 2010, gathering 40 women for WOW Chamonix, the second WOW ‘Winter’ event. Annabel Wilson, and her crew of girls, played an integral part in making it all happen. Chalet Varaita was our HQ and our time was jam packed with yoga and yabbering, dj’s, drinking and dancing, ski and board clinics, a treasure hunt and a raffle with skis and socks, hoodies, hats and undies, goggles, sunnies and vouchers galore. We raised over 1000 Euros for our charities and created an event to remember in the heavily testosterone filled valley.

The first ‘wheels’ mountain biking event was then held on my home turf in Scotland in August 2010. WOW Glentress rocked the forest with a diverse and enthusiastic gathering of women, supported well by Alpine Bikes. There were bike maintenance clinics, sports nutrition workshops and a secluded cottage location to base ourselves from. The coaches were fantastic, I realised the extent of fundamentals there is to biking that often no one gets a chance to learn. And hence the development of WOW ‘Wheels’ in Wanaka…

I have had the pleasure and privilege to travel and enjoy this fine noble steed for over a month now. Huge thanks of appreciation go to Cat at SCOTT for arranging this for me. I have fully taken advantage of these wheels, adventuring from the Lake District up to Sandwood Bay on the far north-west coast of Scotland. The next journey it takes will be down to Bangor in North Wales, my new home for the next month while I work for Full On. I am sure that Contessa will fully relish Snowdonia National Park for the next month as I will make sure that plenty of outings are had.

I’m 5ft 4″ on a good day and have been riding the small frame. At first I thought it felt too long but once I had adjusted my riding position (after an amazing session with Dirt School) from weight far back to elbows bent, weight over the front, I felt much more at home.

The carbon frame is burley and stylish and with 2.35″ Schwalbe tyres. This combination makes for some smooth downhill riding with all the lightness you need for steep uphills. The SCOTT carbon technology is pricier than most but you really get what you pay for in quality, not only light but uber strong too.

The TwinLoc technology that is mounted on the handlebars allows you to switch between  full lock out, 95mm (3.6″) and 150mm (5.9″) on the rear shock. I’ve been using it in full lock out while doing my city riding of Edinburgh, turning it into a rigid frame bike. I don’t always remember to switch from 150mm to 95mm to climb but when I do I can feel the difference. (Often I think I should just to harden up and get stronger, but when you’ve got the gadgets on the bike you might as well use them)

The head tube angle is something I didn’t know much about but have realised how it can make such a huge difference in a bike. It is measured as the angle of the steering axis (where forks come out of)  relative to horizontal (the ground). Meaning the higher the number of degrees, the more upright the steering axis is, the more on top of it you are, ideal for cross-country (eg SCOTT Scale at 70º).  And vice-versa, the lower the number, the more relaxed/ forks pointing forward and further back your weights sits while on seat. (eg the Gambler, SCOTT’s downhill bike is 64 º). The Contessa sits relatively in the middle with a head tube angle of 68.3º, which is ideal for it’s mix of up and down abilities.

I’ve ridden a huge variety of trails on the Contessa Genius, carried it up some steep hills (Catbells outside Keswick, and Cackerton Hill above Hillend in the Pentlands) and descended some rocky, rooty terrain. Check out my route suggestions here

If you want more specs for the bike check out SCOTT website

Settled back in Scotland for the next 6 weeks had me organising the next Mission WOW event. I got asked by the Highland Perthshire Cycling committee for run the women’s part of the Cycling festival. Cat at SCOTT UK had agreed to support whatever event that I decided to run so they were on board for the festival too.

Once landing in the homeland, there was plenty to keep me busy and out of trouble with the event but I needed exercising. Otherwise I and everyone else around me, was going to go mad. And last weekend my chariot arrived in all it’s glory to meet me in Keswick.

I was presented with a practically new SCOTT Contessa Genius bike to borrow from the demo fleet.

From the moment I lifted it out the van, I was sold. It has a carbon frame so can be carried on your shoulder with no bother (lucky, as the adventures it was going to get to go on that first day were slightly challenging) And it wasn’t pink. Contessa is SCOTT’s women’s specific range of bikes, they have 12 different models just in the mountain bikes department, and then there’s road bikes, E-bikes, and hybrids. Check out the range here.

After a brief explanation of the various levers and a shock adjustment from Gareth we were off on the Boradale Bash, with a twist. Never having been to the Lake District when I can remember at least, I had no real concept of what we were about to take on. Basically we were going to circumnavigate Derwent Water, the lake that Keswick sits on, clockwise. But instead of travelling at lake level we were going to go along the hill tops.

This plan is one of Jaymie Mart’s favourite rides. The skills that this girl possesses on a bike are unmatched by many man or beast, so I knew we were in for a good challenge and a lot of laughs.

The day involved some definite hike-a-bike parts, technical decents and smooth flowing sections.

With my trusty Contessa hooked over my shoulder I happily ambled up the side of Catbells, stoked on the 27lbs weight tag that it shouts about.

The moments of gold came with the reactions we got from everyone descending from the mighty summit of Catbells as we climbing up the side. There were two major issues they were having with us:

1. The effort involved lugging a bike up to the top and what on earth were we going to ride down on the other side

2. There was a constant gale blowing at the top and surely we’d be blown off once on a bike on the top.

We thought about both these factors, the first one covered as Jaymie had ridden down plenty times before and had explained that we would need to carry bikes in sections. No problem.

The wind. A slight potential issue but since we were already a good chunk of the way up, we’d just keep going to see the views. 

So it became easier to tell people we were in training, for what they asked? ‘Kite biking to the South Pole’ we replied. That shut them up pretty quickly. Others just stared and stated ‘You’re bonkers’.

And so we continued on up to the top, were rewarded with stunning views and a gnarly ride down with a strong side breeze.  This is when my new noble steed stepped it up a notch or two. After the first descent I has forgotten to click the lever which changes the rear shock from 95mm (3.7”) to 150mm (5.9”).  So this time I was prepared with 150mm beneath me, off I went on the cushiest bike I’ve ever ridden. Stoked.

All in all, well worth the effort for an epic adventure, hours of entertainment and the look on people’s faces. Highly recommended. And as for the bike, an ideal day to challenge it’s make-up and it shone through. Sorry Cat, not sure how you’re going to pry this bike off of me. Thanks again.

In September I got an email from Kathi at SCOTT Sports HQ in Fribourg, Switzerland stating that they’d like to fully sponsor my 2011 winter event series in Europe.  At this point in time I had just arrived back in NZ after 6 months away and was planning on staying put (for a while at least!) I also didn’t have a winter event series, yet. So I created one and changed my plans on what I was going to do with my life, again.

It was quite surreal sitting in Wanaka, ducking out for bike rides and lake swims while alternating with sitting at a desk planning and event that revolved around snow. But Europe didn’t seem to be getting any snow. They were having more sunny days than we were in Wanaka for summer.  I kept saying, as everyone else in Europe did, ‘It’ll come soon’.

It took 6 months of negotiating, locations being dropped and funding and logistic discussion, but eventually a contract came through from SCOTT. The next week my flights were booked, and I was Europe bound.

I arrived to Chamonix and it was immediately shorts and t-shirt weather. Bikes were being dusted off and trails were already dry and ready to ride. I didn’t really get into the groove of winter and the snow didn’t show up, even if it did, the ground would have been too warm and it would have melted straight away.

Lucky I wasn’t running a freeride camp requiring powder snow. A Spring touring mission was on the cards for us and that’s exactly what we got. There’s always snow up high, that’s where we went and SCOTT touring skis took us there.

Here is Charlie’s press release from the event “WOW press release”

I got this email from an inspiring woman, Tomoko Kazama, who I met last year in Niseko, Japan.  She sorted out our motley crew, a gathering of friends from Scotland, NZ and Japan, with passes and contacts, to assist in our common craving for Japanese powder.

She wrote to encourage me, during my times of doubt, as to what on earth I was trying to achieve with Mission WOW.

“I personally think I would love to have people from all over the world and get united through the sports. So that we can communicate/share the culture and that is the way to bring happiness to everyone and want to have a theme of ‘no boundary’ between people/culture/religion/language and so on.

Have a simple and peaceful mind with exciting sports will do it!!!

Educate ourselves while having fun in nature is always the way to make people happy and we can appreciate the existence of ourselves living in such a wild planet.

Keep smiling and enjoy your program!!!!!

Tomoko”

I now have the pleasure of knowing two Tomokos who have similar inspiring attitudes and energy, both having been in Japan last year but not actually meeting each other.

So I looked up what Tomoko means and Wikipedia came up with:

“Like many Japanese names, Tomoko can be written using different kanji characters and can mean:

• 友子 – “friendly child”
• 知子 – “knowing child”
• 智子 – “wise child”
• 朋子 – “friendly child”
• 皆子 – “beautiful girl”

They all ring true for the two Tomokos that I know. If these two are anything to go by, I’m looking forward to meeting more.

Maybe next year Mission WOW will land in Japan. With support from NZ and Japanese bases Tomokos, we’ll be sorted!

very inspiring lady,
take the time to
watch her
listen to her
think about it
and
go write 10 things you know to be true

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