Someone on my FB posted this picture. Don’t get me wrong I have no doubt that it’s steep, and he is a very very good skier, but the grass puzzles me, I didn’t realise grass could cling to such a steep slope….

Interesting clouds. 😀

Clouds and inversion layer 😕

Mbuk photographer must be on holiday

Very sticky snow or not as steep as the camera angle wants to make it look.

Aye – not quite, err, horizontal…..

DT, that’s magnificent

Might also ask what is causing his shadow to be cast “up” the mountain behind him.

Yeah, not right.

Do you know where it is?

(wondered how long that pic would last !)

That’s about 30 degrees out based on clouds and body position.

scaredypants – Member
DT, that’s magnificent

I knew it wouldn’t last, I’ve had it deleted before. But for this topic especially, I thought it was worth a repost. Rotating a picture to make it appear steeper and then posting it to your friends on facebook…..he’s got to be one! We’re all adults now….simply no need.

More commendable are the telemark skis.
I have skied on steeper in my youth, it’s pretty hairy as you have to jump turn – I learnt to ski in Scotland, where technically it wasn’t always snow, but included a mixture of snow, ice, rocks and heather!

Can’t work out which bit is photoshopped as the peak looks ok.

Out by enough that when I try to spin my phone to line it up it auto rotates. 😀

It’s still pretty steep mind.

If he were any good he’d be heading straight down. The lower ski is probably flat and the lower ski pole vertical.

Do you know where it is?

SN3 1TX

rotated back to where I reckon it should be

Might also ask what is causing his shadow to be cast “up” the mountain behind him.

It’s probably a reflection of the sun from the mountain slope opposite, which will likely be casting the reflection upwards. Skier is on the shaded side of whichever mountain that is.

More like this, not that steep going from feet position.

You are all underestimating that bloke, check out this pic of him climbing

More commendable are the telemark skis.

Doesn’t look like he’s telemarking to me.

Surely it all depends on what wax he’s using?!

Jean Marc Boivin was the man who could ski steepest back in the 80s when the approach was to pick ones way down with jump turns, from 56s:

Boivin

These days they just head straight down at terminal velocity.

Boivin was a visionary but he wasn’t alone, there were others skiing as hard as him.

😆 Legend

Hmmm, ‘la neige’…

[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bsqLi9LfiwM[/video]

OP you should repost the rotated photo to his timeline and comment on his post about the clouds being at a strange angle

legend – Member
Surely it all depends on what wax he’s using?!

That all depends where it is. Got to be the right wax for the location 😉

back in the 80s when the approach was to pick ones way down with jump turns, from 56s

These days they just head straight down at terminal velocity

sort of, better knowledge about snow stability today means that people are skiing lines in soft snow that Boivin et al would wait to be firm as hell before they tried, and so they’ve got more to get their edges into, more safety margin and better equipment.

But get into the realms of true extreme skiing, the snow’s never going to be “good” and there’s still a heck of a jump turns:

Nant Blanc Route Repeated

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usmrbygeub4[/video]

At 1:22 for example – straight down taking air over the steep rock rather than trying to ski around it. Things have moved on, some of the 80s lines still need to be shuffled down but others are now skied straight.

Things have moved on, people are skiiing faster and straighter, but those lines in your clip are all lines with big run outs, chosen for filming because they’re a notch or two below the skiers’ max gnar levels so they can be skiied quickly and fluidly.

Totally different ball game to the downhill alpinism type of lines that Boivin, Siffredi, Tardivel, Rhem and Ruby, Gouvy, Fransson pushed (spot the odd one out 🙁 )

too late to edit:

spot the odd one two

I think we’ve all seen this before, max gnar skied quickly and fluidly:

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlXk49Mh7go[/video]

to be fair, Edukator, I’ve been on iced-up mountain roads (in Val D’isere with the wrong wax 😯 ) pretty much like that, but with a ski-school to overtake as well

I’m going to defend the guy here.
.. In a way.
He’s clearly not skiing, but shitting his pants and stepping down. See his tracks above and that he is holding his pole at half mast.
He got through it though and probably felt like he escaped death. His mate who took the photo showed him in the bar that night… And remembering how f*ing steep it *felt* he thinks the photo reflects the situation he was in and was a fair representation of his experience that day. So.. Posts on FB.
Fair enough I reckon

I’d be wanting grip wax

Who holds their ski poles like that?
Plus it looks like a snowplough turn is being attempted in a vain effort to slow down .
To be fair , Looking at the snow cover ( grass / rocks etc ) He is more likely picking his way down between some exposed rocks as it is skinny.
Below the photo might be a lovely chute with alot of snow in it,just the entry has been wind scoured ( cornice blown at top of pic )

People skiing genuinely steep stuff (which that still is even with the photo correctly rotated). As for the suggestion of a snow plough, which edge of the skis do you use when doing a snow plough? A slight stem certainly helps set up a short radius turn when the terrain is close to the limit of your abilities (I’m sure a god could keep their skis parallel on that, but for ordinary mortals you get down however you can).