Where to start, where to go.

So, might as well start by introducing myself. My names Mark Bone and I'm 31 years old from Newcastle UK, married to a gorgeous wife Sophia and have a brilliant daughter called Jennifer aged 11 from a previous relationship. Working for a large waste recycle company in the Health and Safety field for the past 10 or more years.

Lying in bed one night and I get a text off one of my best mates, Chris Ridley who I have been good friends with since high school that he has just booked the mountain of hell. Now the mountain of hell is a downhill bike race down a glacier in les deux alpes to the bottom of the mountain in the summer time. We have been talking about doing this for at least a year after hearing about it from a friend. I think after having the chance to snowboard down this mountain in winter 2012 it has taken us some guts to actually place our self forward for this race.

The text comes through and I'm excited ' MOH booked, check out facebook'. Laptop already in hand I check out his booking confirmation, a quick nudge to the wife next to me and a nod that I can do this shit and I'm booked too.














The next days follow and other mates sign up, Kinton, crazy George and Mo. Were going for it.

Now I need a new bike, current bike is a 2008 specialized rockhopper. This bike has taken me through the thick of endurance races, downhill sections at Innerleithen, twisty reds at Glentress, bike rides with the daughter up and down the coast of South Shields, Kielder deadwater, all with fantastic people.

Telling Soph that I now need a new bike results in the  'I thought you said it would only cost £60 for this bike ride? Now you tell me it gone from 3 days away to a week, turning into a little lads holiday'. Yip turning into a lads holiday alright.

She is fine with it of course, she is fantastic and would do anything to keep me happy.

Mountain of Hell aside, we have a trip to Les Deux Aples to conquer first as we are off snowboarding next week. Me, Soph and Jennifer driving to the French alps. The days are drawing closer to the annual snow holiday where I do everything to relax hard.

The preparation for this holiday is mounting. This is the first time I have drove over to France but the french authorities make it a living hell in organisation for us British to travel over there. The list of goods we need is endless, Red warning triangle, spare bulbs, snow chains...... Also topping the list is what we need, cool box to keep our produce chilled until we can get over there, this would be fine, but the iphone holder is plugged into the cigarette lighter and I need to order some additional cigarette lighter sockets to plug the cool box in all with ensuring that the amps travelling through the adaptors are enough to power the cool box, the laptops, the ipads, the iphones, the camera and whatever else we need to plug in there for a day and a half worth of travelling until we get there.

4 days to go and everything has been ordered. It is now a waiting game to see if Amazon can deliver before we set off.