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Well I just (today) got back from a boarding trip in Whistler, with a return stopover in Vancouver. I have been to Banff (lake louise, sunshine and Norquay)before but this was just on another level... Yes a tad damp on two days at the village but over 145cm in three days at the top of Whistler... Huge area and everyone is ultra friendly and helpful. I found it cheaper in the bars than most of the european resorts that I have been to and would recommend anybody of any level to visit... Hardly any lift issues, unless an epic powder day and a fun friendly and well run resort. I would go back in a heartbeat...
I like the runs, snow and people at Whistler, but didn't you find the actual resort bit was just a little bit "corporate fun"? What some folk would call "Disneyfied"?
Whistler is a new resort and as such won't have the feel of a traditional european resort but I think it has it's own identity. Look at Tignes and many other resorts, great skiing etc but all the soul of a two day dead kipper.
Whistler is just different, it is a tad commercial but that provides the structure to improve the hill and obviously the awesome biking in the summer... I was told that the winter is now the quiet season!!
I love Auatrian resorts and the chocolate box look but I also like the convenience of all thet Whistler has to offer and skidoo's... Now I have got to buy one, such fun...
Just found it a little pre-packaged. All owned and run by the same corporation - with little room for independent business. But as you say, that's the thing with new purpose-built resorts.
Wouldn't stop me going there, the snow and people are excellent, but it was just a little niggle. In that respect I prefer the "real town" feel of Fernie.
The Skidoos are a lot of fun though..
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😉
I like Whistler a lot, however we always stay out of the village in a B&B.
Fernie I thought reminds me of a proper Canadian town, with Bears and everything.
Yep, Fernie is a proper Canadian town that is largely populated by ski bums (and bears) 😀
Whistler is a new resort and as such won't have the feel of a traditional european resort but I think it has it's own identity. Look at Tignes and many other resorts, great skiing etc but all the soul of a two day dead kipper.
The weirdest vibe I've ever had was at squaw valley which is eerily like they faxed SquawInc the plans to the centre of val-d-isere with the champange vomit rinsed off.
GrahamS - Member
I like the runs, snow and people at Whistler, but didn't you find the actual resort bit was just a little bit "corporate fun"? What some folk would call "Disneyfied"?
Yup I found that. It's not cheap either, certainly not compared to Austria (yeah I know I keep banging on about it 🙂 ).
I spent the day in Turracher Hohe last week, it was so beautiful, and the skiing was great too - highly recommended.
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Off to Flaine today for the week. Its ugly and expensive but its got some great skiing and lots and lots of snow....
Will be doing Cascades because it is so pretty and try to get on stade when no one's looking 🙂
Au revoir you lot
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.