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Lucky you sprootlet.......... and it's due snow today with more to come 😀
Lets hope it stays like that for another few weeks until I get there!
Was thinking about whether I should get a new board for the upcoming holiday, as the only one I have left is my 1999 vintage Never Summer. Still has plenty pop but it [b]is[/b] 13 years old. Quick browse on fleabay followed by a silly low bid and it seems I am soon to be the new owner of a 2011 Flow Solitude, which has 10 days under it's belt and is apparently 'as new' !!
Very excited and praying for a late dump 😆
Over half a metre forecast in St Anton over the next week! Keep it coming please. 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
http://www.snow-forecast.com/resorts/St-Anton/6day/mid
Just arrived in St Anton. I've got a hangover that would stun an elephant but that weather report has cheered me up! 😀
Remember those Atomic Redster D2 slalom skis I bought (mainly for my son)? Well they delaminated yesterday after only half a dozen days training and no crashes/abuse. The shop found us a pair of non D2 SLs, ran them through the machine and I finished the preparation in time for junior to race today. 4th was about as good as he could expect on skis he'd never used before so many thanks to Euroski in Gourette for baling us out at the last minute (again).
I've got a cold so one of my favourite events of the year, a winter triathlon at Superbagnères, is off for me. 🙁
Home from my Austria Adventure Holiday.
Normally take the path of least resistance by late booking a complete package , This way you are pretty much 'controlled' from the time you arrive at the airport and thinking isnt really required.
This time I organised a B&B , Avios flights , rental car and airport logistics myself, and it all worked.
Met skiing friend Rich at my mums on fri night , transferrred kit around to keep us down to 1 excess baggage charge and got and early night as had to be at Heathrow T5 at 0500. Check in fine once we mastered self check in screen , flights on time. Hire car was a Golf Estate Turbo petrol and was good for ski bags .
Sat Nav from Munich down to Innsbruck on the Autobahn was slow , very stop start and like the M25 prior to VSL being introduced.
Too much time wasted to get in a 'warm up' afternoon ski , although we could have if we had gone the more direct route and skied Garmish, but Rich is a worrier so we drove with everyone else the long way to Flirsch.
Sunday .
Skied at Sonnekopf. Not lift linked to StA but the ski bus runs there. 6 man gondola gets you up the mountain quickly enough. Once up at altitude lovely little resort . Plenty of fun to be had on piste , and a few little itineries. Looked to be a fantastic place to go with a fresh snowfall , lots of safe accessable off piste with tree lower down. No need for an hour walk for a 10 min run here.Empty pistes over lunchtime allowing hooning
Monday . Lech and Zurs .
Fun in the sun covering milage mostly on piste with a few itineries too. Drove up and parked at the large free car park. Not at all busy , again huge hooning potential and also a high quality of skier. Skied most of the resort , wasnt overly impressed but excellant snow at altitude. Thousands of people who all seemed to stop for 2 hours over lunch, no lift queues more than 3 mins wait.
Warm at +7'C , factor 35 suncream for me.
Tuesday.
Stuben and St Anton.
Stuben has an award for piste grooming and its well deserved . To be fair they dont have a significant amount to do , but its all perfect. Skied all morning in Stuben and liked it , older lift network and slightly shorter runs but fun . Light went flat so we had to slow down abit from our usual warp 9 and headed across to StA in the afternoon.
StA was OK but busy adn the pistes were suffering from the temps and traffic. Tried some itinery runs but they were just solid ice or deep crud. Some softer grain snow was accessable late in the afternoon, but mostly it was porridge on the lower piste in the town. not impressed but could see the potential with some powder.
After three awesome powder days in Austria the other week, it's my new favourite place - nice trip report!
Wednesday. Rendle and StA Again
Rain was forcast so scoped out the map for higher altitude lifts. The Rendle side of StA fit the bill so drove up into town and got up on an early lift. Low cloud but no rain so flat light and grey. Tricky seeing anything really , saw some accidents and lots of people walking down carrying skis. Got nauseous at one point with a kind of motion sickness , cured by skiing down a steep itinery which required concentration.
Was Ok but busy and the snow a little tired, some nice snow patches but overall compacted . Skied all the runs by 12ish so skied the home run down and walked across to StA to get up over to the Veluga lift.
Sun came out and the temp rocketed up . Some of the hidous ice sheets melted and were now skiable , was windy up top but stunning veiws. played around for 4 hours then skied down past the Mooserwirt bar . Porridge on the lower runs needing positive turns and strong legs . Stopped in Mpreis for coffee and cake on the way home.
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St Anton across the valley above the town
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Far South corner of Ischgl near Lichtenstein
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Top LHS of Sonnenkopf, check out how full the 2 pistes are. 🙂
Thurs.
Drove the 40km to Fiss , a linked resort with 210km of pistes .
Its not well known and not very 'British' .
Had a brilliant day whizzing around , sometimes up in the clouds but mostly out in the sunshine. Highly recommended , especially if you can get there after some snowfall.
Great range of pistes and well linked. Tricky road up requiring chains if its snowed recently. Didnt find any powder but skied for miles and covered a great deal of the entire area.
Fri.
After our success at Fiss we went to Ischgl.
Arrived too late really as the resort is a long way from the main ski area. If you go i would recomend a 0845 start , the queues wernt bad , its just the ruthless Germans and Austrians dont really do queueing and you have to be merciless to make progress. No-one says anything if you push and shove because they are all at it too.
Once away from the main bowl itwas less busy.
Nice sunshine and short 1 min queues . Modern lifts, but a severe shortage of large sized maps meant constantly digging out the paper piste map . Again, an awesome place with even a few inches of fresh snow as the lifts cover an enormous acreage.
Its lift pass can also cover Kappel and See and togther make up a very extensive area.
Skied till our knees couldnt take any more punishment and the home run was slushy porridge down the bottom. Apres ski was getting started as we left and did seem to be entirely made up of overweight middle aged German and Austrian men.
Drove back to B&B for WeissBeer and Crisps
Sat .
Flight home late as was hoping for powder. We got rain .
Attempted to go to Alpbach but binned it off aas it was raining pretty much all the way to the top of the mountain. there might have been some snow at the top 500m or so. The cloud base was so low you couldn't tell on the webcams if it was rain or snow so we made our way back to Munich and flight home.
Enjoyed Austria , although as a country the people seemed rather rude. Great Beer , we ate in a hotel restaurant who did a menu de jour at Eu13.80 for 3 courses. Beers in the local bar were 3eu each , but most of the inhabitants smkoked so rather offputtting when you are used to smoke free bars.
St Anton is OK but I dont think its selling point of wild apres is aimed at 40+ men tbh.
Good report STM.
If this sort of thing interests you, Kappl near Ischgl isn't yet linked to it, so relatively cheap for property. But a linkup Ischgl is due in the next couple of years, which makes for an interesting investment.
Kappl is supposed to be lovely in it's own right though.
[b][i][u]IT'S SNOWING![/u][/i][/b]
In London. 🙁
STM in 3 ski holidays in one winter jaminess! Swine!
Sounds good though - the school holiday business obviously didn't materialise. Nice one 🙂
Probably my last freshies this season... 🙁
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This might be of interest to folk on here: a two-day build-your-own snowboard (or skis) course in Innsbruck for €690.
Enjoyed reading your report singletrackmind, I too am very jealous 🙂
Flashy - snowing here too. How sad am I, having just gone into the garden to jump around in my sorrel boots (only got an inch of powder)?
Your photos bring back happy memories, Singletrack. I ended up there on rando skis and found the top lifts didn't have any way of checking passes so had a few free runs.
I was cycling with some Germans when we got cut up by a car on Austrian plates. The rant that followed mirrored your views. One German caught the guy and to my amazement hung onto the door explaining road rules. My amazement was that A/ he persisted even when the driver started weaving and came close to running him off the road. B/ he didn't trash the guys car - not even a thump.
Anyone free and fancy going to yad moss tomorrow?
BTW I've always found Austrians mega friendly and not at all rude - apart from when it comes to queuing, but that applies to everyone except the noble selfless Brits. 🙂
Just spent a week in Cairngorms. Couple of cracking sunny days, couple of cloudy days and then the wind came....!
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[url= http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171003369490 ]Teh uber-radnezzzzz![/url]
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Snow forecast looking good for first half of next week in Les Gets.
Just back from Jasper - 76cm in two and a half days - most they've had in such a short period for 20 years 🙂
Suffice to say it was awesome, and as it started hammering down on Friday, we had a lot of it to ourselves....
Pictures to increase the jeliously!
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[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/ewanpanter/ ]Ewan Panter[/url], on Flickr
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[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/ewanpanter/ ]Ewan Panter[/url], on Flickr
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[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/ewanpanter/ ]Ewan Panter[/url], on Flickr
Amazing photos!
Agreed.
Pic A is correct technique for those conditions, although he seems to be going backwards 😛
Lovely!
shifter: Someone told me recently that the secret to riding switch is realising that you're not riding backwards; you're just riding sideways in the other direction.
He reliably informed me he was shredding the 'pow pow'
In St Anton right now - just had a nice first day finding our bearings etc - 26cm of snow forecast for tomorrow, and another 35cm in the next few days. 😀 😀 😀 😀
Saw a slopestyle ski competition today too which was pretty impressive - cork 900s etc off some pretty massive kickers.
Maybe we won't quite get the 76cm of Jasper but it's looking pretty good, just hope we can see at some point.
Had a night out with my skiing boys last night and we started planning next year's trip. They are thinking about bringing the partners and kids this time and talked about Esprit. We love Austria and the Austrian Esprit choices are St Anton or Obergurgl.
Anyone got any experience of Obergurgl?
Having tried both Esprit and Ski Famille, I'd have a very good look at what Ski Famille can offer as in our humble opinion hey were just better.
Ta - will investigate!
12" of snow today and more promised tonight. The first runs of the day were through 8" of pristine new stuff on top of the pistes. Moguled by lunch and in the afternoon you had to go off-piste for your fresh powdery off-piste.
I shall sleep well tonight.
Ace day here in St Anton - 20-30cm of fresh up the mountain last night then the sun came out this afternoon and it felt like spring again. 🙂
Lots of nice unpisted stuff on/around the ski routes on Rendl. The Schindler Spitze and Valluga lifts were closed on the other side, I assume due to avalanche risk. We saw them dropping bombs out of a helicopter and setting off big avalanches at the end of the day, so I guess it might open tomorrow.
A lovely little video from my chums at Ski Connections in Serre Che! Salut Petit Paul, Christian et Davina! 🙂
Also, look at this lovely shot;
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Smoke ring from the avalanche gun above Eychauda.
All courtesy of those lovely people at http://www.serrechevalier.org/
PDS last week. Getting severe post ski blues.
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Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn!
I know she had a bad crash, however it must have been a big bang on the head.
Prepare to feel inadequate as a skier.
Nice [s]video[/s] edit. 🙂
Took a little trip over to the darkside today...
Had my first proper day on skis after over 17 years of boarding - these new fangled carver skis make it dead easy! It feels like cheating - was skiing reasonably competently down a black run within about half an hour.
Moguls are a lot more fun on skis, and I think they probably win for generally cruising around on pistes covering distance - still nothing quite like gliding through powder on a board though. I'd be interested to try some of the proper silly wide powder skis.
Oh and ski boots are still horrible things.
Completely agree.these new fangled carver skis make it dead easy! It feels like cheating - was skiing reasonably competently down a black run within about half
It's very much like learning to ride a hard tail with cantilevers back in the day, with the old style straight planks and taking weeks to learn to carve.
Now a days you can hop on a full suss all singing all dancing bike and ski on the carving, oooh look at me I can ski in a day brigade.
Yep, carvers do make it to easy. I put tellie bindings on them though which makes me feel less of a cheat. 8)
Sorry, obnoxious post but I'm drunk in EGKK waiting to go home.........
Peak District tomorrow. Gonna be awesome!!! Hours and hours of snow forecast from 2am this morning. Give it some!!!!
Winnats Pass and Mam Tor here we come!!
oooh look at me I can ski in a day brigade.
Are you putting me in that category? I learned to ski when I lived in Austria when I was 3. 😀
Cobra, in the F-lounge? If so, get busy with a Bloody Mary or three!
Heehee, serpently not, I know you're a sporty beast and all round snow God 🙂Are you putting me in that category? I learned to ski when I lived in Austria when I was 3.
Leaving Les Gets tomorrow morning. Slightly worried that snow may prevent me getting home.
Either at Liverpool airport or across the M62.
Heehee, serpently not, I know you're a sporty beast and all round snow God
Haha, never been called a sporty beast before. 🙂
Tried to ski some powder today and didn't feel much like a snow god - it's [i]so[/i] much easier on a board!
Leaving Les Gets tomorrow morning. Slightly worried that snow may prevent me getting home
Yup me too, bonkers isn't it. 😕
Peak District gonna be mega for days. POW POW POW
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OOOOOF!
Loads of snow reported in Serre Che, too!
That Oakley vid is ski porn of the highest order. I'm part inspired, but mainly jealous and dejected that I'll never be even 10% as good as that.
OOoooooowww, MONSIEUR!
That Oakley video is pretty sweet. You'd think Oakley would insist they wore garms that actually fit them though. They look ridiculous!
1 week to go 😀
Anyone got any recommendations of anywhere that stocks hats (beanie style, non baggie)? My trusty lunch/apres hat seems to have lost all elastication and slips down over my eyes usually when I'm carrying some drinks. I've tried the usual ski shops and not seen anything inspiring.
People buy hats? I have a drawer half full of freebies from my time in the ski industry! They're almost the default brand-promotion freebie!
🙂
You know you really want an Eisbär, though, don't you....
this little number is called the Alpencocker (I kid you not!)
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I already have an Eisbar, but it's the less casual, more technical... [img] 
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I have a load of freebie hats too, but they're all a bit naff.
I think those Eisbar hats with the bit of imitation hair on top are hideous! Totally euro ski bum look. I always thought it was Eistnor btw... 🙂 .
Eisbar = Polar Bear.
Agree about the ones with hair on top, for ski bums or kids. Although they cost about £40!
Peak District this weekend.
Porter Clough Valley
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Tree run Limb Valley
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ESF....
A colleague returned from Samoens, where she had enrolled her six year old son in ESF lessons.
"Ah, oui, we speak English, oui. We will look after him" she was told when booking. She'd booked too late when I found out.
Turns out they, didn't speak French, they didn't look after him, they didn't teach him, they left him behind. Just left him at the nursery slopes on his own, as he didn't speak French like the rest of the group.
They LEFT A SIX YEAR OLD UP A MOUNTAIN ON HIS OWN!
The rage I'm feeling on her behalf doesn't bear thinking about. The senior management of ESF will be getting a rather forthright missive from my colleague with my help, in French of course.
So, to soothe my ire, or not as the case may be, some abandonded ski resorts.
Spooky, scary, etc.
http://www.epicski.com/t/99211/lists-and-photos-of-abandoned-ski-hills
http://www.epicski.com/t/82323/photos-of-abandoned-iron-mountain-ca-ski-area
http://www.dcski.com/lostareas/index.php
http://pistehors.com/news/ski/comments/1073-the-ghost-resorts-that-haunt-the-alps/
Spooky CFH!
Do let us know what ESF's response is. Shocking!
For balance, 360 (also French instructors, but very not ESF) at Les Gets had our 6 year old for the second year running and they were great. One very strict rule - one set of parents had to provide Haribo each day, which were then handed out through the lesson. Thanks to 360 he loves skiing, is confident on reds, is very proud to have been told to bring poles for the last two days, and just starting to parallel.
That said 3 years ago, he went to the ESF lesson (no one else took 3 year olds). Came back full of enthusiasm, but wouldn't go back the next day. Turns out he thought they were shouting at him. Don't think they were really, but too many children and native French speakers trying to make themselves heard was not a good mix for a three year old.
Some people of course have great experiences with ESF, but being shouted at and left behind does seem familiar.
Stunning day up at Cairngorm today. Perfect conditions and not crazily busy.
Since they ran the piste basher to the top of the hill I thought it would be rude not to walk to the summit and get a run in from the very top.
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Now sitting outside in the sunshine on the Moray coast with a beer.
Can Scotland be like this more often please?
Very cool Debaser.
We're off for our Easter trip tomorrow to the Ski Amade region of Austria, first time DIY, need to go and pack.
Wow! Just back from a week in Val d'Isere and it was ace!
Firstly, thanks to all for advice given after my earlier request for help. After 20 years away from the snow I needed all the help I could get.
In brief, broadly speaking the snow was fantastic and the weather good enough. And one day, Wednesday, was as good as it gets. Awesome.
The skiing? My wife is a solid skier, and I went figuring I'd call the holiday good if she had fun, our little one (3.5) had fun and I was able to cruise some greens and maybe blues. Well, that and a good time with our friends. As it turns out, by day four I was making my way down (as per sprootlets advice!) La Face. The once. Red run cruising was my level, following a friend's lines. Fitness was the killer for me - I was mornings only and even then by the end of the week I was broken, thighs like jelly. Friends and I had a couple days (sorry, mornings!) instruction with Al from Mountain Masters and he was great - really boosted my confidence, on top of technical advice given. The little one was taught by Nicci at Oxygene, and was happily pommering by day three, with early afternoons spent skiing Village tucked between Mrs Markie's skis!
For the more advanced skiers out there, Mrs Markie reckons Orange and Sache were the pick of the bunch. Less discerning (well, and a world away in terms of skill), i thought Triffolet, Orange, Coupe de Monde and Moraine were great. Roll on next year, and a bit more fitness work before we head out!
We stayed at a YSE chalet, Les Gnellets, and it was satisfactory. I'd love to hear people's thoughts on good chalet companies in Val.
Thanks all, hope your snow time was as good as mine!
Nice one Debaser. Walked up there myself. Great view from the top. Gonna hit Scotland later this month.
I've been hitting areas in the Peaks for the past couple of weeks. First two pics are slopes next to Higger Tor and Stanage. Third pic is a tree run at the bottom of Rushup Edge above mam tor car park.
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Turns out they, didn't speak French, they didn't look after him, they didn't teach him, they left him behind. Just left him at the nursery slopes on his own, as he didn't speak French like the rest of the group.
Similar thing happened with a nervous (adult) beginner skier on a trip I was on. She was left behind from a beginner ESF group for not being good enough. Had to make her own way back down the mountain (crying).
Absolutely inexcusable in my book - as an instructor and as a human being.
Still dumping hard in Jasna (Slovakia). 20cm overnight.
Their season is usually finishing about now but they have announced they are now staying open till the 8th of May.
Might be a good shout if anyone wants a late season cheapie.
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(Base gondola at Jasna this morning)
Great week so far in Ski Amadé, yesterday was deep mid winter, today was very April. Best Easter conditions we've had out of 4 Easter trips. Skied Radstadt/Alternarkt before they shut on Monday, then Zauchensee in the afternoon, Flachauwinkl/Zauchensee on Tuesday, Flachau yesterday and Schladming today. Two ski days left will do two areas we've not yet done this week.
Serre Che's looking good for a few more weeks as well. Had word from a friend a few days ago that the snow is superb after the last dumps, but they are also back to sunshine. Bastards. 😉
Hammerite, POIDH! 🙂
Ok Flashy, not sure this'll work......
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[/img] Monday in Radstadt, perfect snow top to bottom..... Closed that day for the season! That's Jnr in the green.
That
Looks
Awesome!
*Jealous!*
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Today in Schladming, very warm, but surprisingly not too slushy or chopped up.
I don't have many photos of yesterday as it was snowy and misty so not great for photos, snow was great though (will post naff unedited video when I get home).
Nice! Like Schladming. Been there twice.
Good snow, good lifts, good facilities (ski lockers and heated changing rooms!), nice folks.
grrr! that's at the other end of a train ride from here. but I can't go.
went to radstadt in november though 🙂 and will definitely be going back.
Agree Graham, the facilities for the whole area are probably the most impressive of anywhere we've been. Most the lifts are new, most lifts stations top and bottom have toilets, it's incredibly well thought out. Some of the base stations feel like you're ending your day at a shopping centre (Flachauwinkl and Schladming).
Being based in Radstadt means that most of the areas are 5-10 mins away and they're all day sized areas which is perfect if you only have a week, you don't feel like you're missing out (except maybe if you're into OP as that obviously gives even greater possibilities in each area). First time we've had a car when skiing too (usually do package trips), we're liking the independence.
All we have to do today is decide whether we head to Reiteralm/Hochwurzen or Wagrain....
Little leg stretch today in The Pennines (Swinhope) which, much to my surprise, was just fantastic and I was gutted to have to leave after a couple of hours. Snow was still good and the gullies were great fun. Still find it hard to believe I can have this 40 minutes from my house in [b]April[/b], in [b]England[/b]!
Sorry for dodgy iphone pic but you get the idea.
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Roll on Flaine in 7 days time 😀
Nice Woody.
Back at work today 😥 had a great week last week though. On the hat dilemma, I gave in to the charms of Eisbar again and got one of these [img] 
[/img] I look a twonk in it, but who cares. Matches my goggles too, even though I don't wear a hat to ski in.