Greetings from Chamonix Mont Blanc, France

As the newest member of the NONSTOP team, I thought it would be worth putting together a quick blog to introduce myself... however, I'm not the sort to be short on words, so I've got a feeling this might turn into the longest blog that NONSTOP has ever seen!

I'm currently lucky enough to be tapping away at my keyboard in Chamonix Mont Blanc, France, where I have been living for the last year or so.

After an 8 year career in Marketing, I quit the London grind in December 2008 to enjoy a simpler, higher quality of life in the mountains. You might think that that's not the best career choice for a young marketer, but I believe that if you want something enough it's worth taking a few risks. And with more and more people taking career breaks, the risk of what I did wasn't really that high at the end of the day. In fact I think it’s something that actually looks good on my CV.

So, although my time in the mountains is coming to an end (I'm back at the end of March to devote 100% of my attention to NONSTOP), I feel revived by the experiences of my last year and I know that I'm still going to have plenty more fun in the mountains in the future.

Before taking my break I spent 5 years working for Whitelines Snowboard Magazine, so I'm no stranger to the winter sports industry. As their Marketing Manager I witnessed (and like to think I had a little something to do with) their rise to become the best snowboard magazine in the UK. I've always had a big soft spot for the magazine, as a dedicated reader since my first forays into this funny old snow-sliding game. So I was very proud to be allowed to write a few articles for them. Fellow Whitelines fans might remember my "Zero to Hero" article a couple of years ago, where I spent three weeks on NONSTOP's Fernie Instructor course. I can't begin to explain how amazing those three weeks were for me, and it certainly set the wheels in motion for my big exodus to the mountains. More recently (November 2009), "Living the Dream" was published, in which I ranted on about how crap city life is and that we should all head out to the mountains. I'm not quite sure how that lead to my job at NONSTOP... in London... when the guys who employed me are also fans of Whitelines and read my rantings! I guess fortune really does favour the brave.

So, on to a brief outline of my last year here in the mountains. I spent the first winter season as a chalet rep and mountain guide, where I worked my fingers to the bone, but also managed to get a hell of a lot of amazing riding in. Then I spent the summer working in a bar and spending most free days hiking, downhill mountain biking and taking a lot of photos with a crappy little instant camera. That time really made me realise that there's far more to the mountains than snow, and it makes me wonder why more Brits don't think about doing something more adventurous for their summer holidays than lying on a beach. The weather tends to be just as hot in the hills, but there's so much more to do! And now, this winter, I go riding every day, then come to a little underground office in Cham Sud to get my NONSTOP operations underway. I've also upgraded my instant camera to a digital SLR. I've found the mountains so breathtaking over the last couple years, which has given me the urge to capture what I see in a little more quality. I had my first real experiment with mountain photography today up the Aiguille du Midi (which is the highest vertical ascent cable car in the world, sitting in the shadow of Mont Blanc). The results are better than my instant camera shots, but still need a little work. Anyway, I'll let you be the judge, here are a few of them below...

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