The summit of Snowdon last week. While most of the country sat in drizzle including Llanberis, the tops were out for a sun tan! Worth a run – up the railway path, then along the Snowdon Ranger Path, awesome descent, bit of a slog up with about 900m height gain but worth it.

Back on the trails after the snow!   Having fun drifting around on the various twisty rooty tracks again trying to keep up with Paul Bassagotia!  Everyone's mind is now turned to racing again, seems that no sooner than the season ends and people are aiming, training and planning for the next one.   You think you know your limits and when you chase icons, you immediately discover you can ride much harder still.  It re-calibrates your very potential!  Thanks Paul!

In need of some extra seconds, race strategies, or some consistency in your down hill runs? If you are looking for an advantage going into 2012 race season, come get schooled by one of the best. J.D. Swanguen is holding a skills clinic this coming weekend (Saturday March 17, 2012) and he is inviting all intermediate and advanced riders to come out this Saturday.

Towards the end of February a good friend of mine Brian Raphael and I decided to put together a little edit of some winter riding in my home town of Chico, CA. I feel like the video turned out great and I hope you enjoy and catch a little glimpse of the awesome weather we were able to enjoy this winter!

First descent. These words always sound a bit strange in the context of mountain biking but have become regularly used when it comes to bike alpinism, bike mountaineering or whatever you want to call it. All these terms try to describe the adventurous combination of high Alpine mountains and self supported trail riding. You can become addicted to this type of mountain biking, always in search of higher mountains, steeper and more technical trails or simply some mountain nobody has ever been to with a bike just to make the first descent.

Testing with Marzocchi was supposed to be a nice trip taking us away from the snow to get a good couple of days on the bike.