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So, how'd you come up with the idea for the light suit segment?Nick Waggoner: The LED suit was a product of our collaboration with Swedish agency Ahlstrand and Wållgren and Philips TV. It was this visceral way to represent their new Ambilight TV and its style of glowing color and light. The world of skiing and snow happened to be the perfect way to show that off, so it perfectly paired with what we wanted to do with a night skiing segment -- to bring a totally new aesthetic to skiing.
Eh, no, you saw what Jacob Sutton, James Sweet & Will Hughes did with the LED suit back in 2012 and you thought you'd copy the idea. It was even used in "The Crash Reel" FFS.
Nice film, and a much bigger project, but lets not try to claim it as an original idea!
@wallop, thanks - going to listen to some more tracks and tickets are available so may book tonight. I'm quite open minded about music, if they are good I don't care if its full on folk acoustic. My daughters boyfriend is in a band called Adult Jazz, went to see them last month and was about the oldest in the venue by 30 years (along with his parents 🙂 )
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Apologies for the topic diversion...
Anyway. Seven weeks til skiing and the temperatures need to drop about 50 frigging degrees! 😡
When is it too early to start looking at snow reports for a January holiday?
Looks like snow on Wednesday in the Chamrousse/Alpe D'Huez area.
When is it too early to start looking at snow reports for a January holiday?
SerreChe have recently been on teh interwebz saying that if there are good conditions, they'll open early. Just had a peek at the webcams. Nothing. Not even a fleck on the tops.
When is it too early to start looking at snow reports for a January holiday?
Looks like snow on Wednesday in the Chamrousse/Alpe D'Huez area.
POSTED 3 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST
January 1st..
It's looking promising for the Italian borders with Switzerland and France towards the middle of next week (which would look good for Serre Che).
http://www.oakley.com/en/snowboarding-for-me
Streaming live for the next 24hrs.
Seems a pretty cool anthology of stuff.
Anyone seen the new Oakley Prizm lenses? Have been around for shooting for a while, but they've just released the snowsports version. [i]If[/i] the promo video is anything to go by they'll be on my Christmas list.
Is Prizm basically a polarised lens?
The name suggests it might be and the claims / photos suggest it too.
Of course there are good and bad polarised lenses.
(Ridden boards with polarised Bloc sunglasses - with a helmet just to restart that argument - for years. Occasionally I put the goggles on over the polarised sunglasses)
It looks like some sort of polarised lens, I agree.
Never been massively keen on that for snow use, as I've found that sometimes it can dull out icy patches. FWIW, I use Black Iridium (Snow) and Persimmon in Crowbars.
Interested to know if Oakley have made something that works like polarising, but only cutting out "bad" glare. As above, sometimes you need a little bit of glare to spot different snow conditions.
Off to Champagny over new years, will be about my 4th time there but I still haven't managed to find a good off piste/ slack country line. Anyone know of any guides around there or La Plagne? I'd really like to get to know some of the other stuff there, it doesn't seem to be as obvious to find as places in Canada though.
Currently sitting here on the transfer between Vancouver Airport and Whistler. They had a big dump a few weeks ago, but nothing since then and nothing in the valley. Opening weekend is end of the month though so plenty of time for more snow.
my 4th time there but I still haven't managed to find a good off piste/ slack country line
Go somewhere else?
Otherwise, I've just had quick look in the Vanoise-Tarentaise Ski de Randonnée guide book and there are a couple of big descents listed with only 100-200m of climbing required. A couple with 1000m+ climbing required as well of course...
In French, but with maps & pictures: http://www.editionsvamos.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=35&category_id=7694f9b96122dba13292f1aef7d5b376&option=com_phpshop&Itemid=7
Don't go alone....
Whatnobeer - I hate you right now 😈 😉
Spent a season there from 2011-12, would deffo go back.
Going alone is fine if you are patient and only go out alone when the conditions are excellent. No more dangerous than MTBing alone, open-water swimming alone or anything else where not having someone to hand could reduce your chances of surviving. There's no-one around to impress/distract/affect judgement and all your mental and physical energy goes into skiing the best line cleanly.
I only know one person who has died alone in the mountains and several who have died in pairs or in groups in places their better judgement would have probably told them not to be had they been alone. Fear is a good thing, peer pressure is not.
No more dangerous than MTBing alone
Not convinced about that one although I broadly agree with the rest of your post.
In French, but with maps & pictures
[url= http://www.facewest.co.uk/Guide-Vanoise-Tarentaise-Ski-Tours.html ]In english.[/url]
Anyone know of any guides around there or La Plagne?
http://www.offpisteskiing.com/
Simon really knows his stuff and is a top bloke too.
Can anyone recommend somewhere to rent skis and everything else in Les Gets .
booked ski passes and ski lessons for family , only the airport trasnfer to book but not available till end of next week .
Go somewhere else?
The parents own a place there so it's kinda convenient 😆 .
Going alone is fine if you are patient and only go out alone when the conditions are excellent. No more dangerous than MTBing alone, open-water swimming alone or anything else where not having someone to hand could reduce your chances of surviving. There's no-one around to impress/distract/affect judgement and all your mental and physical energy goes into skiing the best line cleanly.I only know one person who has died alone in the mountains and several who have died in pairs or in groups in places their better judgement would have probably told them not to be had they been alone. Fear is a good thing, peer pressure is not.
I don't disagree with you. In fact, I regularly go out alone in the mountains in all seasons. I like the solitude and the self-sufficiency of it.
Nevertheless, backcountry skiing/snowboarding solo is a risky game that should really only be played in very, very safe avalanche conditions. Even then, choosing lines very carefully to avoid risk. I have many years experience to help me make those decisions, but, with all due respect to michaelmcc (who I know is training as an instructor), most people asking about backcountry ski routes on a mountain-bike forum would be unlikely to have the experience required.
Some lines I actually think are less risky solo - tight couloirs, lines with exposure, etc. I don't really want to be thinking about anyone else in those situations.
The parents own a place there so it's kinda [s]convenient[/s] cheap .
😉
Haha too right flashy. And I was training for level 3 Steve but I'm putting it on the back burner for the next year or two! 🙂
Serre Che have just announced early opening for the last weekend of November.
And that book looks tasty, might have to get it. None of the dates for those offpiste skiing courses really work for me!
And I've just booked 10 nights in the Lyngen Alps. first week of March-ish. No midnight sun, but snow should be better and the mid May I've been there before, there's a full moon high in the sky that week, and a chance of Northern Lights. 😀
Morzine for a week on the 31st of January. BA flights £80 return to Geneva. 6 of us self catering for £240 each. Cheapest I've managed it for a while!
Also heading to Morzine for a self-catering trip two weeks before you!
It all looks white up the hill above about 1700m but looks are deceptive early season, and each turn would probably add unwanted texture to the ski bases.
Went with the wife last year and a workmate was staying with jollygood adventures. Said it was brilliant so that's where we're staying this time.
Just booked GVA flights for a mates housewarming in Chamonix in a few weeks. Only a couple of days skiing, but a nice early start to the season.
Still hoping for another Scottish winter like last year 🙂
Just back from a few days in Cervinia/Zermat. Awesome conditions and a bucket load of fun.
Did you eat in Lo Copa Pan?
I spent early season living in Cervinia and used to eat there every night. Good memories 🙂
and a chance of Northern Lights
Nice one nedrapier! 8)
Yup, I'm all excited. Need to bring my map into work to scan and save into the GyPSy as a custom map. Renew the glue our skins - it's gone gloopy and gunky, comes off on the base and your hands - I'll try the parchment paper trick before I get the scraper out. Hope that sorts it.
And possibly get a new transceiver. I've got an analogue one, but it's got a really good range and I'm used to it and quick with it, find it easy enough to sort out multi beacon signals. Dunno. if I'm kidding myself though. I need to borrow a few beacons, head up to the heather on the common and do some back to back tests with wife's 3+.
Did you eat in Lo Copa Pan?
I used to work there, well the bar above. Happy days.
Really bluebird?? 🙂 What season? I was there a long long time ago (2001/2002)
Incidentally, it's still the best steak tartare i've ever had.
Just bought a pair of these. Had some facewest points, so worth a try for less than a tenner. I was keen to try the G3 Love Gloves, but not for £40!
These are 19cms wide, so should be wide enough for splitboard skins.
http://www.facewest.co.uk/Coll-Tex-Pro-Skin.html
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Seems worth a try!
Going back to the Ski Welt 27-31 Dec. Getting a 6.20am flight from LGW to Munich, picking up a car and driving 1.5 hrs to the slopes. Hope to be on the slopes for midday latest. Coming back we leave the slopes at 3.30pm, so its 4.5 days of skiing in a five day trip. 8)
Did you eat in Lo Copa Pan?
I don't think it was open. I was staying just up the road at the Hotel Mignon and we ate at a restaurant on that same street, Jour et Nuit. Steaks cooked in a woodfired oven, drinking the wine from the owners own vineyard.
Still hoping for another Scottish winter like last year
Fan of constant high winds are we? 😉
Just bought a pair of these
My Montana skins came with them, they work really well especially in the wind.
[b]Peterfile[/b], we worked there in 99, well Jan - March. It was a very different bar to what it is now. We had a few days there this season for old times sake. It was good fun but our riding has moved on a lot since this days.
A heads up for Henry's Avalanche Talk. In Bristol
[url= http://www.henrysavalanchetalk.com ]HAT[/url]
A really good couple of hours, which made it very clear how lucky I have been so far!
I did the basic last Thursday and the advanced on Monday. Quite informal and tought some great skills and mantra for safer and more fun skiing off the beaten track.
I don't think there are any more UK dates this year but worth checking his website and blog out for conditions in the Northern Alpes.
just bought a pair of these
Thanks for the heads up nedrapier! 8)
Reckon I'll be buying some of them as well as they look like better alternative to disintegrating cheat-sheets!
Anyone used Ski Independence?
So any thoughts on a "cheap" (relatively) way to holiday in Whistler for two weeks?
Currently looking at staying self-catering in the Delta Whistler Village Suites with Crystal, which is about £1358 each for 3 of us sharing a suite (includes flights and transfers). Does that sound fairly reasonable?
And yes, I know the correct answer is "book it nine months ago" but I hadn't accrued sufficient brownie points back then 😀
Funny you should post that.
It was why I was asking about Ski Independence
Yeah I'd never heard of them piemonster but "Tailor-Made Quotation Request" says to me "If you have to ask the price..." 😕
Pretty much what I thought tbh.
I'm likely to find out tomorrow. I'll report back.
Anyone been to Are for snowboarding?
Looking for opinions as will be our first proper snowboard trip, but looking to do some other outdoor stuff while we are there
All booked, St.Anton it is for the week 10th January.
Anyone else on here going that time?
So any thoughts on a "cheap" (relatively) way to holiday in Whistler for two weeks?
GrahamS ... Have a look at the likes of 'Skiworld' as well - they sometimes have early season offers for Whistler.
As I'm sure you know, the problem with a lot of North American accommodation is that prices [for self catering] are often based on 4 or more people sharing and the 'Catered Chalet' concept is pretty rare, so I guess you're going to pay slightly over the odds with just a party of 3
There used to be a Backpackers lodge next to the infamous 'Boot Pub'/Strip joint but that got torn down to make way for more condos prior to the 2010 Olympics
GrahamS - Member
Yeah I'd never heard of them piemonster but "Tailor-Made Quotation Request" says to me "If you have to ask the price..."
For reference. £550 cheaper than Crystal for two people. Even the passes come out around £50 cheaper.
We had flexibility on travel dates.
Cheers all. I've just gone ahead and booked with Crystal because the rooms were getting a bit short and today is the last day of their early season prices.
Worked out at £1362 each flying from Heathrow and staying here:
http://www.crystalski.co.uk/ski-resorts/canada-ski-holidays/whistler/delta-whistler-village-suites/
Now to get the cat [s]skiing[/s]boarding booked 😀
Have a look at the likes of 'Skiworld' as well - they sometimes have early season offers for Whistler.
Tried them but nothing left for the dates we wanted (two weeks, start of March).
As I'm sure you know, the problem with a lot of North American accommodation is that prices [for self catering] are often based on 4 or more people sharing..
Yep, and the other issue seems to be that most of the "Sleeps 4" accommodation actually means two queen size beds, with no option to specify just how friendly you are with your fellow travellers 😀
For reference. £550 cheaper than Crystal for two people
Ooof! I might try them next time then!
Two days cat boarding booked with [url= http://powdermountaincatskiing.com ]Powder Mountain[/url].
Proper excited now! 😀
All booked, St.Anton it is for the week 10th January.
A week later for me, leave some for us please 🙂
Two days cat boarding booked with Powder Mountain.Proper excited now!
*jealous from Dundee
Looks like we are waiting for the following season to cross the pond. I'll have to settle for two weeks in Europe this winter.
Pffftt first world problems.
As an aside, I do t suppose anyone knows if you can use your air miles for someone else's flights? The gf has enough for a return trip to New Zealand.
Goes googling.
As an aside, I do t suppose anyone knows if you can use your air miles for someone else's flights? The gf has enough for a return trip to New Zealand.
You can on BA
😀
Excellent.
The Pro skins are black and well long, so no worries about the tail clips on my skins.
68cms long, so good for anyone touring on anything up to 200cm or so!
Gah! I [i]very nearly[/i] managed to snag a Tracker DTS transceiver for £41.
Bloke didn't spell "transceiver" properly, so it was getting hardly any hits/bids on eBay. I sniped it for £41 with five seconds to go, then some equally sneaky git sniped me for £42 with 1 second to go!
[i]*impotently shakes fist at internet*[/i]
The skin on the tail is a significant brake when sliding the ski forward but doesn't provide much of the grip when the ski is loaded. So I chop my skins 10-25cms from the end of the ski and shave the mohair from the last cm.
Gah! I very nearly managed to snag a Tracker DTS transceiver for £41.Bloke didn't spell "transceiver" properly, so it was getting hardly any hits/bids on eBay. I sniped it for £41 with five seconds to go, then some equally sneaky git sniped me for £42 with 1 second to go!
*impotently shakes fist at internet*
Hmmm, one bit of kit I don't think I would buy second hand.......
If you need a basic one without bells and whistles you should be able to find one for around £150 new......
And yet people buy second-hand cars in which there are a lot of things that are dangerous if they fail. They rent cars too and some rent transceivers. They're easy to test, most people do at the start of every day out. Second-hand is a good option IMO.
And yet people buy second-hand cars in which there are a lot of things that are dangerous if they fail. They rent cars too and some rent transceivers. They're easy to test, most people do at the start of every day out. Second-hand is a good option IMO.
Each to their own.
I am aware of the pre ski test procedures thanks, but all the same I would rather know that mine hadn't been bounced down a flight of stairs and had its antenna knocked out of alignment.
I am not sure your second hand car analogy is a valid one either....
but all the same I would rather know that mine hadn't been bounced down a flight of stairs and had its antenna knocked out of alignment.
You haven't looked inside one then. An impact likely to displace internals would break the case. Especially the battery hatch which on many models breaks all too easily just opening it with great care.
I am aware of the pre ski test procedures thanks, but all the same I would rather know that mine hadn't been bounced down a flight of stairs and had its antenna knocked out of alignment.
Presumably you would immediately bin your own transceiver if you dropped it? Or would you just test it to make sure it was still ok?
*impotently shakes fist at internet*
You should see a doctor about that.
Presumably you would immediately bin your own transceiver if you dropped it? Or would you just test it to make sure it was still ok?
Yeah bin it....exactly. 🙄
You haven't looked inside one then. An impact likely to displace internals would break the case. Especially the battery hatch which on many models breaks all too easily just opening it with great care.
No I haven't looked inside one, like is said, each to their own, you pay your money, you take your chance.....
Over and out, best of luck in the hills.......
I would rather know that mine hadn't been bounced down a flight of stairs and had its antenna knocked out of alignment.
Surely if they are designed to survive an avalanche intact then a hypothetical bounce down some stairs shouldn't upset it too much?
Bumping it certainly shouldn't compromise the antenna - that would be a pretty big design flaw!
As I understand it the real risk with buying second-hand transceivers is that [url= http://beaconreviews.com/transceivers/Frequency.asp ]the Tx frequency can drift slightly over time[/url], but I gather this is much less of a problem with modern digital transceivers.
In this particular case it was one of the guys on the SCUK forum that was selling it, so I was a bit less concerned than I would be if it was a completely anonymous eBayer.
Frankly you take a greater risk if you have unsuitable wax for the day than with a second-hand transceiver. (Add smiley to taste)
Frankly you take a greater risk if you have unsuitable wax for the day than with a second-hand transceiver
Or by going off piste in the first place. Or by going skiing.
I remember there was a bit of a hullabaloo a year or two ago about the vid of the (spanish?) freerider being saved from a decent sized avalanche by his airbag.
Lot of people saying that he was an unacceptable example of risk compensating - he was skiing a slope he might not have skiied if he didn't have the airbag and rescue crew in the heli.
From a lot of the same people who'd say "I'd never ski out of bounds withour shovel, beacon and probe" as if it's not exactly the same sort of risk compensation - slopes/risks unacceptable without equipment, acceptable with.
Worse risk compensation if anything - it's not as if tranceivers are fantastic at mitigating risk either - they're only helpful if the slope avalanches (i.e. you've effed up already); someone gets completely buried (if you can see a leg or an arm you won't be using the tranceiver), but not too deeply, and hasn't succumbed to other injuries. Then there's the skill of those not caught in searching and shovelling.
But
But what?
Don't know. Rewrote and didn't check well enough before posting.
apols for the thread hijak
les gets accomo - any good websites? looking for jan 12th - owners direct seem expensive as do crystal
ta for any info
edit: anyone used homeaway.co.uk for apartments?