[Closed] The STW Ski & Snowboard thread. The 2012-2013 season

I am going on the 23rd Feb igm, when in March do you get out there and where are you staying?

I try not to carry a rucksack, but do occasionally. Especially if we're having a "ski all day no lunch stop" day, where I end up carrying lunch for everyone all morning. This usually only happens in France where you need to sell a kidney to eat out every lunchtime! I cram it into a really small bag though and usually get a volunteer to carry it in the afternoon.

Jacket purchasing tends to be based on the number and size of pockets first, then look/colour to avoid the need for carrying a rucksack all the time.

Les Negs with Ski Famille on the 16th - 4th time with Ski Famille and we've been on the bikes a few times as well.

Been before?

And oh yes, my wife and I met at a Paddy's night do, so it'll be 19 years the day after we arrive. I'm looking forward to it.

Staying in the north end of Morzine for the second year in a row and for my second time skiing. Everybody else apart from my kids have been skiing for about 20 years or more so I have some ground to make up this season. If I can get to the end of the week with no broken bones(like last time) and keep up with my wife without crashing I will be very happy.

We're basically opposite the skating rink in the centre of Les Gets.

Sorry CFH !
A little piccy from Champagny en Vanoise at 1250m.
Alot of rain forcast for Saturday though, but just look at the pow.

[img] [/img]

Yay looks like I am going twice this season. Cheapo boarding trip soon then skiing later in the season.

Latest question: anyone been snowboarding in Kitzbuhel? Sounds like it might be a bit flat and tracky in places? Thinking Mayrhofen might be better though the deals aren't as cheap.

Cheers 🙂

no rucksack it is, any tips for reasonably priced glasses from a real shop preferably. got some aldi jobs which are great for the mtb, not so sure about snow though..

Dobo, goggles are your friend for skiing. Seriously. Sunnies for posing, goggles for the snow. Bargains abound if you have a hunt.

Failing that, if you must do glasses, I'd look at these;
http://www.endura.co.uk/Product.aspx?dept_id=138&prod_id=228
Straight arms to get under a helment, three lenses for differing light and most of all, useful on the bike for the remaining 51 weeks of the year.

But, really, get some Oakley goggles. And some Oakley sunnies. Crowbar goggles in black with a ski-black Iridium and a persimmon lens, then, and this is vital, some custom Holbrooks with Fire Iridium lenses. Or Tens with Tungsten Iridium polarised. ETc. etc. etc.

Only 75 sleeps until St Anton

Yeah baby!!!

Latest question: anyone been snowboarding in Kitzbuhel? Sounds like it might be a bit flat and tracky in places?

goggles are soo expensive, hoping wont need them pootling around the slopes, i guess if i really need them i'l have to either make do or buy some out there. not sure my aldi are up for posing either though 🙂

Thanks Jane, think we might give it a miss.

Dobo, cold wind on your eyes at speed, etc. Goggles are like face shelters. Great when super bright and great when it's turbo-puking it down at -15!

grum - most (not all) of the Austrian resorts have areas of flat, which of course is difficult on a snowboard.

Goggle lover here too. Having forked out a fortune on a pair of Oakleys many years ago, they still look new and very rarely fog up and have never iced up, worth the expense as mine still look new and do what it says on the tin.

Goggles for the win. O Frames can be had for less than 40 quid.

36 sleeps to ST Anton. And found a rather nice new jacket today in TK maxx for 80 quid - 18k water and 13k breathability with Primaloft insulation !

29 days til I head out to Switzerland!

4 days of skiing, drinking and watching the Men's World cup in Wengen for my Stag do! Bring it on!

I used my O frames with vented persimmon lenses last season and they were great in all but bluebird conditions. Glasses are useless when its snowing, the snow gets behind the lenses and you can't see. Even cheap goggles will be better than any sunglasses in bad weather. Goggles are also less likely to fall off when you fall over.

I can't think of a single situation (apart from a lunch stop) where I'd prefer to wear glasses rather than goggles.

Oakley Crowbars with blue iridium lens were my favourite. Currently have black iridium which isn't quite as good. Also have some Smith Fuse in my bag, which I've had to lend to friends...

I can't think of a single situation (apart from a lunch stop) where I'd prefer to wear glasses rather than goggles.

Agreed in full!

look, this is not how it works CFH! when i post and ask a question, if its going to cost more money and send me way over budget then you have to bend the truth a little. If its not going to cost me anything then i expect a full honest response 😉 this should be in the STW rules 🙂

link to awesome cheap goggles please

😀

CFH speaks the truth, I haven't skiied in glasses for over 10 years, contact lenses/speed/wind makes for watering eyes and lost lenses.

Try eyewearoutlet.com for cheap oakleys/dragon goggles or ask santa....

Seeing as we're counting 5 sleeps until Arabba 😆

There always used to be a fair sized stack of goggles in tk maxx usually heavily reduced, usually ranging from naf to reasonable. After skiing for 3 days in sunglasses on my first trip I put my goggles on.... They were a revelation!

Grum - my last trip was to Kitzbuhel - but skiing. I think most of the flat sections had steeper workarounds, but can't really remember having too many problems with the flat.

grrrr 👿 still 45 sleeps until Arabba
(and 24 sleeps till Zillertal)

oooh - glitchybump not required?

Come on Andy it's not worth a 👿 is it, you've only just got back from Tignes and have 2 more trips to look forward to!

4 sleeps now 😉

I hear there's (more) new snow. I want to be there now.

edit: and need a ski holiday to recover from the Tignes ski holiday

Late to the thread - 36 pages crikey.

I'm off to Val Thorens in Feb half term again.
Expensive but amazing runs. Going with friends who always go there but next year I think we'll try somewhere else.

Tempted by a new jacket as my current one is many years old - anyone have any experience of a North Face Bansko ?
Any other suggestions around £200.

So much snow....!

You lucky, lucky sons of bachelors!

£200 jacket? Eider are well worth a look, IMHO. I have a great shell jacket from them, doesn't look like s ski jacket, which I think is a good thing, as I can wear it as an all round jacket for the rest of the year.

Though it pains me to say it, TNF ski kit is rather good. I have a pair of trews and gloves from them, Mrs CFH wears their trousers as well.

😥

Haven't visited this thread until now...

Snow fun looking like no fun this year.

Andy - there is more snow, but when I get to Arabba rain is forecast 😡
I take it you've been there before? Which of the other resorts is it feasible to ski to (do a few of the runs there) and back to Arabba before lifts shut?
and I know it's hidden :D, but how easy is it to find the Hidden Valley?

Yep. 4 times (well 1 to Campitello, 3 to Arabba) so far.

Hidden Valley is easily possible for a competent red run skier. Ski over to San Cassiano, but iirc you peel off to the right. Get taxi to Lagazuoi (€5/person, goes when it's full). Go up, ski Hidden Valley, bit of poling, get the Horse Tow back to sort of where you got the taxi (actually there's a drag lift just to get a little bit of altitude), then it's San Cassiano back to Arabba.

We managed to ski a bit in Cinque Torri too, but that involved some clever fast dining in the time between 2 buses back to Lagazuoi.

Also recommend a trip to the far end of the Alta Badia piste map (top RH corner). Trying to remember the name of the restaurant (edit: Santa Croce / La Crusc). Mind your head in there though! Views are stunning.

edit: that's top RH corner of the Sella Ronda piste map - I think Alta Badia one is back to front.

Ortisei is also possible. Might be worth doing a Sella Ronda Loop first, so you know the way to/from Selva (probably best via Corvara).

Marmolada - my biggest tip is choose a nice day, ski first thing straight to the 3-stage cable car for the mile vertical 8) and the queues should be minimal. Then ski back and do something else (we managed a full Sella Ronda after that before now).

The place really is massive - top place for racking up piste (or off-piste) miles.

Thanks Andy very useful, just downloaded all PDF maps for all the individual areas. We're competent red skiers and ok black skiers too if conditions are fine. We tend not to blast around too much - well Jnr and I try at times, the OH takes it easy despite being better than both of us.

Definitely recommend the Alta Badia / San Cassiano / La Villa piste map when you venture in to that area. It's on the standard Sella Ronda map too (eg the Arabba one), but is impossible work out what the heck is up and down! All the rifugios have the Alta Badia one - so I do recommend picking one up at the coffee stop.

Yep got that one. Thanks.

Thanks hammerite and Bunnyhop. I'm not too bad with flat tracky bits but my missus still isn't that confident about going fast in a straight line. Currently weighing up Mayrhofen, Kitzbuhel, Passo Tonale, or back to the Schneewinkel area (went last year and it was small but really nice and great snow).

Biggest dumps are in the French alps but no cheap deals there - probably a connection between those two things!

Can't decide - arghhh! Is this the ultimate first world problem? 🙂

When are you wanting to go Grum?

Have you looked at [url= http://www.alpineanswers.co.uk/ ]Alpine Answers[/url]?

The Hoff every time for me grum. Fantastic apres, great parks and cracking glacier riding on Hintertux.

First ski holiday booked for early March to Borovets. Can't wait.

Thanks hammerite - will get in touch with them.

Going in the next few weeks. May be paranoid but I don't like to say exactly when I'm going on holiday on a public forum.

GrahamS - yeah a few people I know really rate Mayrhofen. Was slightly put off by the idea you can't ski to the village and I read that the main gondola can be a bit of a bottleneck for queues etc. Going early season they quite often don't have the parks open yet but I'm guessing there is one on the glacier if it's open all year so that shouldn't be an issue there.

Wouldn't worry too much about queues Mayrhofen. Can always get bus to Horbergbahn lift rather than take Penkenbahn, and then you come in to the main ski area from a different side. At the end of the day, you can have a beer or 3, and take lift down at any convenient time (not that I ever had any major queues there).

I read that the main gondola can be a bit of a bottleneck for queues etc

Yeah it can be - get up early, or late!

Got a bad reputation because it used to be much, much worse - they never used to have a queue system at all, just a massive rammy of hundreds of people trying to squeeze through a couple of doors at the top of the stairs!

(our technique back then was to form our group into a phalanx: snowboards held vertically as a wall of shields, ski poles as spears to poke away aggressors, women and children protected in the middle!)

No worries Grum. Use the search thing on Alpine Answers, there seem to be some excellent deals that don't come up elsewhere.

Interesting hearing all the stuff about Mayrhofen. I'm seriously thinking about going for our Easter trip, found a good deal there last week that I nearly pulled the trigger on, but decided it was too early to book. Since found out that it's also Snowbombing week then, so maybe not the best time to take an impressionable 11yo boy there (although he may learn some new things!).

First ski holiday booked for early March to Borovets. Can't wait.

I've never been there before and am looking for somewhere as nice as possible at start of Feb to take GF on her first ski hol. For obvious reasons, I don't want to go somewhere I've been with 'the ex' which limits the usual favorites a bit and we want a hotel rather than chalet or guesthouse.

Is the hotel 'star rating' the same there as in France/Austria? Looking at somewhere like [url= http://www.crystalski.co.uk/search/ac.8 ]THIS[/url] which looks very nice and fantastic VFM.

Comments, thoughts, recommendations welcome.

EDIT: should add that she will be going to ski school and I'm not too bothered about hooning around on steep/deep myself as fitness level dictates I'll be happy pootling around getting my skiing/boarding legs back 😉

Cheers

Grum - for example.... [url= http://www.alpineanswers.co.uk/ski-chalets/france/les-arcs-1800/chalet-yves-2 ]Les Arcs[/url] we stayed here a couple of years back. Our host (who most certainly won't be there this year!) was a bit of a twonk, the chalet is a bit basic, and it's a bit out of the way from the rest of LA 1800. It's still an easy walk for an evening out, bit more for the lifts - but might be easier with good snow coverage - it was pretty bare when we were there!

this is it's sister chalet which seems available the week before [url] http://www.alpineanswers.co.uk/ski-chalets/france/les-arcs-1800/chalet-cicero [/url]

I love shopping for holidays!

Woody - I've never been before but from what I've read it's great for beginners. The tuition might put you off though. It's 4 hours a day for 6 days, 2 in the morning and 2 early afternoon. That was with Crystal, you could probably get private tuition when you are there.

Instead I've booked my OH in at Chill Factor for lessons before.

That's unusual. I thought it would be just mornings and then I could take her out in the afternoon to practice what she'd learned. Might be worth a couple of private lessons to get her going (and save arguments 😆 ) and I can take it from there.

Main thing I'm concerned about is standard of accommodation and food as I want to make sure she enjoys it!

Grum - Kitzbuhel is great for night life. The town itself is very pretty with the typical tyrol feel.
However I agree unless you can make the most of getting speed up before the flats and having courage to tuck, (not sure what you call it on a snowboard) then its going to be a bit of a walk (easier in snowboarders boots).

I'm not a fan of having to bus around either. Having the usual Austrian ways of pushing, shoving and general elbows out instead of queuing as we Brits do, does my head in.

4 days into our "cheeky week" and what a good idea this last minute booking was, 20-50cm of fresh powder every day so far, and deserted in this little white gold mine

Massive thumbs up to White Room Chalet, if it wasn't for Stevo posting here (as they do biking holidays too) I'd never have heard of them or this great little resort of St Foy. When you have two guys who've done seasons in Val pick this as their off psite venue you know you've madea good choice. I'll do the fb and trip advisor recommendations too but I cannot recommend them enough and I've been skiing for 35 years now,mother chalet and in particular the cooking is outstanding.

BH - was the bus thing about Kitz? There wasn't a huge amount required that I can remember - and certainly very avoidable.

Woody - sounds like Bulgaria has similar ski school model to Austria. If that's the case they usually have a couple of hours in the morning, stop for food on the mountain with the instructor and then continue for a couple of hours in the afternoon. I think Jnr ended up having a longer lesson (i.e. 10am-3.30pm with a shorter lunch) as a result.

I've only had private lessons in Austria, not group, but it can cause a problem if you end up a solo skier for the week! The OH now goes in lessons if I do so she doesn't have to ski alone - we end up in the same group most of the time now anyway.

[b]jambalaya[/b] you can't come on here telling us how good the conditions are without posting some pics 😆
Hope the next few days are just as enjoyable!

Thanks hammerite and Bunnyhop. I'm not too bad with flat tracky bits but my missus still isn't that confident about going fast in a straight line.

re. that point, is she using any sort of rocker board, made a huge difference for me on the flats as you know you won't catch edges, therefore confidence to go faster 🙂

Got my first runs of the year last week and first time using the gopro snowboarding so might as well post that... its currently dumping down at city level so looking forward to the second night of the year tonight!

hammerite - Member

BH - was the bus thing about Kitz? There wasn't a huge amount required that I can remember - and certainly very avoidable.

jambalaya you can't come on here telling us how good the conditions are without posting some pics

Agreed!

PICS DAMMIT!

rs - can't see the video.

Ok - there is no way she will do that for a week! I might just have to bite the bullet and teach her myself.

My Daughter turned out a tidy skier so what could possibly go wrong 😯 😆

fixed it bunnyhop, here's a pic too...

[img] [/img]

Ha ha ha good luck Woody. My husband has been trying to teach me for years, goes in one ear and out the other - whoops 🙂

Edit - thanks rs. Lovely

Woody, I've been to Borovets and I've been to the Grand Aigle at Serre Chev. If I had to choose between them I'd take the big eagle!

Impressive memory shifter but that is not what I wanted to hear 😆 Seriously, that bad? I'm definitely not roughing it 2 trips in a row!

Ha ha ha good luck Woody. My husband has been trying to teach me for years, goes in one ear and out the other - whoops

Well you did mention it a couple of times... 🙂

Ok,it was 10 years ago when I went to Borovets but the whole thing was very eastern block. Had some great nights out though, don't know what they put in the free shots but we had no problem staying awake until 1 or 2am. Good steaks in the little restaurants along the "strip", don't know what animal they were but they were good eating!

Not really been photo conditions as snowing almost all day every day - the other group in the chalet as GoPro addicts so if I can get a link to their footage I'll post .. here are the best of very meagrely photographic pickings

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

4 days ...............
looks like my Monster 88's will be useful
although rising temps bringing in rain will make an unstable base even more dodgy .
Slack country antics me thinks

They look pretty good photos to me Jamba. Looks great.

32 days until AdH for me. Sounds like an affliction 🙂

About 8 months until AdH for me, summer holiday with those little skinny dark side bikes. Need to go back there to ski, did my first week there and found the jump between the very easy nursery slopes and the blue runs to be quite big, so barely scratched the surface of the ski area.

I was thinking the area doesn't look that big...
Good luck riding up that hill!

250km for the area so a reasonable size. Need to go back and do it justice, probably only did 10% of all the runs there, still not sure whether I'd do Le Tunnel though!

Thanks. I've ridden up it a few times, last time was when I did AdH triathlon. Looking forward to riding the marmotte route with some mates.

Apparently the tunnel opens up to mogul mayhem - that I may skip, but the rest I'll be doing twice!

Yes. After typing that last night I decided to search youtube for "Tunnel Alpe d'Huez", some very amusing videos and some shockers too!

Skiing in Scotland, anyone been there and done it?

I'm thinking about a cheap weekend up there sometime soon depending on conditions.

Not sure which resort, we're both beginners though.

I'm thinking about a cheap weekend up there sometime soon depending on conditions.

If you can leave it as late as possible and check forecast/snow conditions it will give you the best opportunity to enjoy it. Problem is, that if it's nice, it will be busy wherever you go with long queues. It can be wonderful, or one of the most miserable places on the planet if you're unlucky.

Which side of the country is easiest for you to get to?

Re: AdH and the tunnel, the first "section" is quite character building and like most difficult runs it all depends on snow conditions, if they are poor it's best avoided. I'm not a particularly good skier but I've skied the run a few times without too much drama.

I've also skied this, well when I say skied I mean in the sense tumbling down it ..

http://www.travelmole.com/news_feature.php?news_id=2004431&c=setreg&region=2

Snow report!

Which side of the country is easiest for you to get to?

I live in Bolton so it's all a bit of a trek, but I suppose Glencoe is the the closest. I'd want to make it as cheap as possible, just another snow fix before the season is out.

Glencoe looks great but I've never been there as I lived in Aberdeen, so it was always Glenshee, Lecht with the occasional trip to Aviemore.

I'll leave it to the 'locals' to advise 😉

Chuck Morris - Member

Skiing in Scotland, anyone been there and done it?

I'm thinking about a cheap weekend up there sometime soon depending on conditions.

Not sure which resort, we're both beginners though.

Old skool couloir content here;