100,000.

"100,000." A good read by journalist Dave Smith and photographer Blake Jorgenson from our Swiss Alpenrock trip. Check it out on PINKBIKE.COM.
Oh yea, and if you sign up this year we'll give you a very nice Chromag Lynx DH saddle and Fubar handlebar...just for being you! You might even see the elusive giant beargoat...

Walking the talk of Alpenrock.

Written by guide Stephen Matthews and client Scott Hagarty, check out this great write-up from on our Alpenrock DH trip in Switzerland on DIRT Magazine's website.

Never stop dreaming.

I received this email today from a client who joined us in Switzerland in 2005 on a trip that I'll never forget. I remember that the weather was brutal but the group that came together on this one was all-time and we banded together like old friends and explored the high-Alps with passion. It's so inspiring to read what he's decided to do with his time. One pedal stroke at a time.

Salut Chris,

How are you? Long time no talk. I have seen tons of new super exciting adventures (Nepal!!!) being added to your list of trips. This is great and I am very happy to see Big Mountain getting so successful with you at the helm.

Since I saw you last in May 2008 at your house, things have changed a lot. As you may remember, I tried to book a few trips with you yet my travel plans always changed as my company will change my vacation dates at the last minute. So last October, tired of not getting enough time to travel, I retired from the cruise business and decided to go bike the world. It is a big bold decision for someone with no touring experience whatsoever. I grabbed by carbon fiber hardtail, attahced a bob trailer and headed south (by plane). I first started in Argentina where I biked from Ushuaia to Equador. In the 5 months spent in South America, I went to Antarctica on a cruise, biked southern Patagonia through Chile, hiked to Machu Picchu, visited the Galapagos and did some great mountain biking in Bolivia yet I had to short of a time in Peru to experience the amazing diversity of trails offered. I am currently biking north from Los angeles to Alaska then east to Quebec City. In the late fall, I should be flying to Cape Town to bike accross Africa all the way to Cairo.

As I would be in Vancouver staring from this upcoming Saturday for about a week, I was wondering if you were in town and available for a lunch or a beer. It would be nice to meet up again.

I look forward to hear from you

Best regards

Frantz
"Life is an adventure"

Times have changed.

In the past 24 hours I've had face to face meetings with Mads Mathiasen in his remote "bush block" in New South Wales, Australia to discuss our Nepal Himalaya Heights trip, a meeting with Seb Kemp who was holed up in his dad's attic in Somerset, UK while we chatted about this summer's Alpenrock DH trips, and then with Jean-Marc Pellissier in the little hamlet of Lourtier, tucked in the big Alps of Switzerland. OK, OK, the truth is, I didn't fly around the world in a super fast jet and actually meet face to face with these fine mountain bikers, but we met on Skype. How about Skype? A mere five years ago the notion of talking to someone in real time while seeing them was something from Star Trek or maybe James Bond. When my parents ran their first bike trip in England and Wales 1972 it was before faxes! They communicated with hotels via telex. What the hell is a telex? Now we email, text, cell phone, Skype and Google it all up eagerly.

The Puma telex machine, circa 1980.

Maybe you think that i'm old school and can't wrap my brain around the times. Maybe the times are changing so quick and my head's spinning. What's in store in the next decade? Teleporting? Could be. By the way, my Skype meetings went really well - things are looking good. This photo is of yours truly back in the mid-70's on one of my folk's trips, it looks like i was pissed about a telex or something. Check out those short shorts and white socks in the background and the first generation Bell helmet. If you're interested, check out some old cycling photos from the old days here. Good times. Bring on technology i say.

Where's that telex?

Between Minarets & Monoliths

A look back to 2008 and Bike Magazine's "Ultimate Adventures" issue. Cover shot of Hans Rey and another rider off the Gornergrat cog railway in Zermatt and two-page spread of Big Mountain Adventure's owner Chris Winter in the shadow of the iconic Matterhorn. Hmmm, dreamy mountain biking.

Steep, and deep.

Bufffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff!

Summer DH'ing the Alps. Are you coming?

Contour & Big Mountain Adventures.

CONTOUR AND BIG MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES TEAM UP

TO CAPTURE THE PLANET ON MOUNTAIN BIKES.

VANCOUVER, BC, JUNE 13, 2011, - Contour, the leader in hands-free video cameras and adventure storytelling tools and Big Mountain Adventures, the award-winning mountain bike travel company have announced a partnership that’ll create groundbreaking mountain bike stories from dreamy locations around the globe.

Starting immediately, participants on any Big Mountain holiday will have the opportunity to use the acclaimed Contour+ which features the largest lens of any PoV camera and captures beautiful 1080p full HD video with a 170° wide-angle rotating lens that delivers the truest high quality image with minimal distortion and fish-eye. That’s right mountain bikers, ride with Big Mountain Adventures and capture with Contour+.

“We are thrilled to be working with Big Mountain Adventures because they provide the perfect complement to our products. We want to encourage people to share their most amazing life adventures, and Big Mountain provides the perfect setting for our cameras and end-users to experience the trip of a lifetime. It’s truly a match made in heaven,” says Lacy Kemp, Contour’s Director of Social media.

Big Mountain Adventures owner Chris Winter: “There are so many times on our trips that you find yourself in the most unreal places – from a pic-nic lunch on mountain ridge high in the Swiss Alps, to flying past Annapurna in Nepal in a small plane full of mountain bikes and new friends, to bombing a day-long bermed downhill in Peru – and you wish that you could easily capture the moment with a quick flick of a switch. Well, now you can. We are totally stoked about running Contour+ on our trips.”

Contour, formerly known as VholdR, is the market leader in hands-free video cameras and adventure storytelling tools that enable modern day explorers to tell their stories of action, adventure and travel through video. http://contour.com/

Possibly the Best Ride in the World.

Have you seen the latest Bike Magazine? Cover shot is of the super amazing Olleros trail with the statement: "Peru - Possibly the best ride in the world." Do you remember these exact words on this blog not long ago? It's true folks, Peru is mountain biking nirvana. If you want to ride these nuggets yourself we've got a 10-day Peru mountain bike trip coming up September 30 called Unforgettable Andes. Check out the Bike story, it's an inspiring read by our friend photographer Dan Barham.

Ride this trail on our Unforgettable Andes trip!

Follow Stephen Matthews.

A recent video of BM guide Stephen Matthews at the Whistler Mountain Bike Park. You too can follow Mr. Matthews this summer on our groundbreaking 9-day Alpenrock DH trips. Don't be intimidated by this video, he'll keep the brakes on a little more in Switzerland and give you some riding tips along the way. Enjoy.

Whistler Report S2E2 - A-Line POV from nsmb.com on Vimeo.