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if you can put your happy face on and get your shred on, you’ll have a good time.
Exactly nedrapier! 🙂 Well said - kindof like Rudyard Kipling's poem 'If' ... but with a waxed-base ... 😉
Just a nice hot chocolate at the edge of the piste makes me happy 🙂
Bunnyhop, for me it's the first lift coffee from Sandrine in Chantemerle. Little kiosk just by the main lift station. Everyone gathering around in the morning, a really positive atmosphere of folks looking forward to their day on the hill.
A nice double espresso while I do up my boots and then, allez, c'est partie!
😀
Whenever I go to Kreischberg with my boy chums, they always insist on going to this lovely wurst bar over on the far side of the resort. Always at 11.00am. And it's lovely, always has happy locals getting on the cocktails. 😆
Flashy - I can appreciate all of the above, however coffee is not my thing. Do like people watching though first thing in the morning.
More scaremongering nonsense?
http://unofficialnetworks.com/swiss-alps-sees-deadliest-start-ski-season-15-years-127776/
Some ridiculous urban jibbing etc going on here - can't do a direct link:
On the Fernie conversation, it's the only place I've ever skied where it was warmer stood still than it was skiing. The added wind chill from moving was painful. If you have the cash and your heading that way, try Snowwater it has the option of heli and backup with cat if the weather is too bad for the chopper. Some great varied terrain, not flat..
Bunnyhop,she does a great chocolat chaud as well!
grum, thank you for that! Not laughed so much at a ski/snow film since G.N.A.R.!
So much, funny, inventive, jaw-dropping stuff in there.
Thanks again!
Grum, that was a great vid, thanks! Some really fun and inventive stuff.
im hoping to get another week in boarding somewhere this winter 🙂
@GrahamS that video has me in tears plus a bit of gagging in sympathy !
Me too. So grim. Can't stop laughing.
Ah Jedi you are hooked 🙂
We're off to one of the fridges asap to see if I can hold a stick, if so, then watch out peeps I'm coming to a piste near you very soon.
Flashy - have you tried Italian hot chocolate, 'tis more like delicious gloop?
I had a good search for a video I had on the avi topic but i seem to have exorcised it ! It was taken on a heli day (we were doing a photo shoot for some clothing from memory) near Mt Potts. We'd been out bombing in the morning but there was a cracking line which just needed skied. I knew the risks, i expected it to be a 50/50 call on whether it would let go but the layers meant it shouldn;t be too bad. As it turned out it did, i had made two turns though and then did a 0-70kmh powder 11 with a big brown line up the back. Very stupid (esp given what i was doing for a job) but quite exciting, the vid was from the heli and it gives you a very clear view of the acceleration and carnage.
For whoever it was that was surprised about the avi debris being hard - it's like concrete usually as the friction melts it then it refreezes plus there is often very little air in it. I've broken shovels a few times.
More scaremongering nonsense?
its an unusually high number people of dying that way though isn't it, why is that nonsense? not trolling, just curious why the deaths and warnings are being rubbished on here but being dealt with seriously elsewhere.
i'll be at mk tmrw 🙂
More scaremongering nonsense?
almost every year gets flagged up as "most deadly start to the season for X years".
i don't believe that each year is progressively more deadly, so must be the way they select and report statistics.
Nedrapier - showed my 7 year old your video. He watched it for a minute and said "I think their a bit better than me. I'd do the skiing but not the jumps"
I suspect he fancies a go.
grum, thank you for that! Not laughed so much at a ski/snow film since G.N.A.R.!So much, funny, inventive, jaw-dropping stuff in there.
Parenthetically, CASI posted that same video on their FB page with the question: "Does this help or hurt snowboarding as a whole?...Discuss."
Personally I thought it was exactly as others have said i.e. funny, creative and hugely entertaining, but sadly, I can see why it might fuel the 'haterz' argument about snowboard 'punks' ...
[btw - I'm guessing the CASI question is directed at the first part of the video with the 'Youth Gone Wild' soundtrack rather than the Nico 'Jazz Fags' Müller soul-riding part...]
@jedi you're hooked ! Early March always offers good value and typically decent snow. I cannot say how spring boarding is (could be a bit damp for boarding if it does get warm) but the longer days and sunshine of later in March are wonderful on skis. Also the normally hard/semi frozen pistes of early morning are a great excuse for a lie in.
Tonight BBC4 21:00 looks like it might be worth a look:
[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03l5lvh ]http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03l5lvh[/url]
cheers digby - that got really good feedback when it was on BBC scotland but I didn;t catch it on iplayer
Ah nice Digby - that'll save me going on a training course 😉
(Just ordered that book you recommended by the way, as well as the companion [i]"Avalanche Essentials: A Step by Step System for Safety and Survival"[/i] and [i]"Avalanche!: Understand and Reduce Risks from Avalanches"[/i] - probably more than I need but all looked very interesting).
wow - that's some pretty comprehensive reading material you've got lined up there GrahamS.
I look forward to a review! 😉
@Digby, thanks excellent programme which I believe affects a few STW-ers very personally
@jambalaya - yes, I was very aware of that.
I thought the program was pretty good on the whole: it thankfully managed to avoid the over-dramatic style all to common with these kind of 'freak weather' programs whilst still being poignant, moving & informative.
Yup, I'm glad I watched that. Thanks for the heads-up, Digby.
Yay! Booked. Going to La Rosiere on 1st February with my Dad. It was probably over 20 years since I last skied with him.
Ahhh! Very nice. Wanted to go there (and St Foy) for a while. Enjoy!
That was an interesting programme, thanks for the heads up.
Very moving, too. The effect it has had on Tom Chesters' parents is so visible - so very sad.
Came across this today http://chamconditions.blogspot.fr/. Have to say I'm more on the side of these kinds of reports than the STWers rubbishing them, who are probably IT managers in Surrey 😛
I wasn't rubbishing them, just referencing an earlier post by steveomcd that kind of was - he's not an IT manager from Surrey either, though I wonder if the reports are harming his business (chalet owner)?
Here's another cham ski blog: http://www.lornecameron.com/
Saw it on fb - a couple of friends pop up in it every so often.
Man this is making me itching to get out there.
Does anyone have any last minute trip tips, or has that been covered somewhere in this thread already? Good places to find cheap deals etc.
I can see how it would be frustrating for steveo. He's selling the backcountry experience, so negative press will affect him. Yes, there's a weak layer in the snowpack; yes caution is needed; yes, the balance of risk and draw of the fresh snow is a tricky one, and yes it's important for this message to be broadcast.
But the media can't help sensationalising - because readers love a sensation There's a balance between "When will these extreme sports fanatics learn to stay away from the French Alps?" (actual headline in national press from a few years ago) and "please be extra careful, because it's more dangerous than usual and people who aren't being careful (and even some who are) are dying."
I went for a backcountry week in the middle of BC a few years ago with a similarly sketchy snowpack. The skiing wasn't all time amazing, we kept to low angle stuff and trees, but it was great fun and hugely preferable to the other options of a) staying at home or b) a cold death, suffocating under under tons of snow.
We got out last minute deal off Igluski - £360 for flight, transfers and catered chalet inc wine in La Plagne. It was basic but the food was nice and well located.
if you can fly from Gatwick and book reeeeeaaaallly last minute it gets even cheaper. Some people in our chalet had paid under £300.
Worth looking at Crystal as well, we got a good cheap B+B deal to Mayrhofen last year (not sure how the snow is in Austria at the mo).
nedrapier - yup, the press has a lot to answer for!
There's a balance between "When will these extreme sports fanatics learn to stay away from the French Alps?" (actual headline in national press from a few years ago) and "please be extra careful, because it's more dangerous than usual and people who aren't being careful (and even some who are) are dying."
Spot on.
Yes there's a lot of hype around at the moment, and much of it is just that, but then there's the need to say to a lot of people, OK, so just because you've been to a ski shop and bought some phattt powdah plankz and some "all mountain" boots, doesn't mean you should be dropping in anywhere you like. (Ditto snowboardists)
Knowledge is the key to both avoiding the unnecessary hype AND staying safe while having fun!
Disclaimer - Am a full on slack country afficionado, only usually going properly beyond the ropes on guide days.
Snowboardists are more awesoms... Anyway, can you people going to the Frenchy alps stop supplying snow updates, I leave for Mayrhofen on Saturday and it's a bit..........well mediocre at the moment 🙁
Was perfectly skiable at the weekend, but was better up above 150er Tux than down near Horbergbahn, and I think it snowed since. Didn't do Kaltenbach. Zell am Ziller was a bit scrapy, but nice up Königsleiten, and the flat blue above Gerlos.
Off to Dolomites in 2 weeks. I hear they got all the snow.
I've seen a pic today that shows some lush pow in that Ste Foy place.
Three days 'til Austria for me 🙂
[b]Big Rantette at snow+rock/Burton follows:[/b]
I bought a Burton [ak] Stagger jacket last season. [ak] is supposed to be Burton's high end, Goretex, nasty conditions, 20K+ waterproof stuff:
Seemed like a really nice jacket. Was chuffed with it. But during my first week of wearing it we stopped for lunch on a sleety day and noticed that the jacket was absolutely soaking wet and hanging down heavily. Basically I looked like a drowned rat.
Inside it I was still dry. The laminate was obviously doing its job, but the outside fabric of the jacket was saturated, heavy and wasn't beading at all. Like a really old jacket that has totally lost its DWR coating - except this was brand new. 😯
So anyway, in November of this season I decided to take it into snow+rock where I bought it and see what they had to say (within a year of buying it and well within the Lifetime Warranty of the jacket).
At this stage it seems to me it is a manufacturing fault and for some reason the jacket just didn't get a factory DWR coating at all because just spraying some water on it you can see it soak in rather than bead.
The S+R girl I speak to seems very sympathetic and agrees a brand new £300 jacket should perform much better than that.
Agrees to send it off to "send it for assessment" which will take at least a month.
(A week later I get a call saying they forgot to ask me to sign something so could I pop in [i]then[/i] they'd definitely send it off. Grr.)
I get a phone call again after a few weeks and the (very apologetic) says that the team has looked at it and reckon it's just because the jacket is dirty and it needs reproofing. I explain to her that it did this from new and it can't be that dirty I've probably worn it for less than a month in total since I bought it.
She says that the assessment team will only proceed if I give permission for them to wash and reproof it to see if that helps. I reluctantly agree. I'll have to wait till after Christmas now.
After Christmas - no word from them.
So this week the missus was near the shop so I asked her to call in and ask about it for me: [i]"Yes, we have it right here."[/i] 😯
It hasn't been touched. They've done nothing.
Bloke then gives her a number of excuses:
- [i]"it was probably getting wet from the inside"[/i] (nope)
- [i]"what conditions did he use it in?"[/i] (erm.. snowy?)
- [i]"all jackets will wet through eventually"[/i] (she points out that this one doesn't bead at all and even her ancient £50 Helly Hansen beads)
- [i]"he wore it with a cotton t-shirt underneath"[/i] (can't say any other jacket I've had has died due to this).
She gets him to try splashing some water on it. It soaks straight in. Guy finally says [i]"Okay. You need to take it home, wash it, tumble dry it and that will definitely restore it."[/i]
(Another guy in the queue confides to her that he worked in an outdoor shop for XX years and this is complete bollocks)
So... we get it home. It gets washed in some Grangers Wash (no DWR just straight wash as the S+R guy said, no fast spin) then tumbled on a low heat as per instructions.
Result: absolutely no difference at all to the beading (what a surprise) and two teeth of the main zip fell off while it was being tumble dried.
WTF? 👿
Am I being unreasonable to think that a £300 "performance" jacket should be usable in the snow (even with a cotton on underneath it), should bead water off it and should survive being washed according to the care label without bits falling off??
Top ranting! Nah I'd be seriously annoyed in your shoes. Always annoying when you go for a premium option and it turns out to be anything but. 🙁