Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Look Ma, no guardrails!

Ever since my first mountain descents I have wanted to record them with a video camera. I tried a FlipVideo in Colorado, but it bounced around way too much. For this trip I got the new Contour HD video camera from VHoldR and mounted it to my helmet for a couple of the descents. It worked great! When you watch these, I suggest clicking the Full Screen button to get the full effect.

The first video is the descent from Col du Petit St. Bernard at the Italian/French border down to Bourg St. Maurice, France. The climb up from Italy was beautiful, but you wouldn't want to watch a video of that because I was going 6-9 mph most of the way. I followed Mark down, pedaling a good part of the way as the road was smooth and not too steep. This was the end of the 2009 Tour de France stage on July 21, so we were a few days ahead of them. This was recorded in SD mode.

Video - Descent from Petit St. Bernard

The second video is the descent from Col de l'Iseran going south. We had climbed up from Bramans, through Val d'Isere. The pass had been closed the day before due to snow, and you can see some fresh snow on the side of the road. We took it easier down this descent so we could enjoy the scenery more. The camera was set to HD mode, so you can see a wider angle view over the sides.

Video - Descent from Col de l'Iseran

When you see how long and how far down the descents go you get a good idea of what it is like to climb these same mountains.

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