[Closed] The STW Ski & Snowboard thread. The 2015-2016 season

It's very warm here too. We jacked by 3pm. Our final run was the one used for the Schladders night slalom, when we finished the clock at the lift station was showing 25c, no wonder we all had a dab on. We were here last August and it didn't get this warm once during the whole week.

Will have managed 15 days this season by the time we leave on Sunday. As teachers we could do more but would probably only be able to if we had our own property and drove - too expensive during school hols otherwise.

Tom B - We've been as a family, not a couple. We stayed in Villeneuve it was pretty quiet with some nice restaurants. A couple of bars that you could have a decent night in without them being too mad. As a whole I think SC is relatively quiet. Monetier has a spa if that is your thing. Briancon is a lovely town in parts for a wander around too. We found it really easy to get around using the free bus service when we needed to use it.

Serre Che replies after I've picked up and eaten my takeaway curry!

Nomnomnom.

Rockape, if it's a "Lads" trip, it's not a great place. If it's a trip for lads to ski hard all day, then have a few nice beers and a good meal, it's ace! Briançon is a cracking little town, and skiing from town is pretty cool. A night at the ice hockey is fun, if they're playing.

a possible destination for a romantic ski break......so, any other suggestions? Any people been to Serre Che as a couple and thought that it was good?

* Le Bercail being my pick. Glorious.

Ps schnullelieber, I'm in the Marmotte looking at your gaff. Ibex IPA going down well.

I've been down the Bec Jaune tonight. I wasn't around when you were over at the beginning of March as I was in central Morzine with my girlfriend who was over for the week. She's a complete beginner so I spent probably the best powder days of the season on the baby slopes.
I'm off back to the UK in the morning. Hope you've brought a bicycle with you for this week. Mostly slush puppy conditions on the hill.

Thanks Mate....we're all very old so it will be the latter.

Tom B - excellent question getting started on the 2016/17 thread already 🙂

Romantic Break. What time lf the year and for how long ? Where has the new gf been before ? Good to know what shee likes and probably to chose a new / neutral venue.

schnullelieber - you did miss the best conditions of the year. Bad luck but I assume she's worth it!

I have a couple of bikes live out here. Was expecting not to get a full 8 days on the snow, but since this week I'm mainly supposed practising my skiing I can survive the deteriorating conditions. Taking the kids up to aquariaz one day ad well

Just got back from a 3 day south to north traverse of the Beaufortain: Grand Naves to Beaufort, nothing too hard, but quite up and downy over several cols. finished off by descending the cormet de roseland road. Struggled a lot of the time to see any relief in the snow....

@mugsy touring ? staying where ?

@jambalaya. Refuge du Nant Buerre and Refuge Presset (Under the Pierra Menta).

Cool. Will get the maps out 🙂

Did Dest-X with bike and it seems they do a lot of ski touring around there inc French championship based on posters.

Phone apps. Anyone use any good apps this year. I was very impressed with the Zermatt one skiguide - great interactive piste map with gps, quite a contrast with their dire paper one. Was getting fb prompts to download something for France with in-app purchases but declined.

Pds one is basic but usable.
Weather forecast consistently optimistic 🙂
The piste map is just a digital version of their paper map, but with a few overlays you can switch on or off to illustrate useful info like which lifts or runs are closed.

It could be much better, with an integrated gps/piste marker to share with friends or ski tracks a like functions. Would be good to have a phone based contact less pass as well so you could buy passes through the app and just wave you're rfid/nfc phone at the gates.

Tom B - excellent question getting started on the 2016/17 thread already

Romantic Break. What time lf the year and for how long ? Where has the new gf been before ? Good to know what shee likes and probably to chose a new / neutral venue.

😀 never too early!!!So it'll be for a week, and due to holiday restrictions it's going to have to be 1-8 Jan. She's been to Serre Che (when she was a total noob) Sauze and a couple of places in Austria. She hasn't been on a mountain for 5 years I don't think.....she came to Chill Factore with me a few weeks ago though and is a pretty tidy skier seemingly. She likes the sound of going back to Serre Che as she went on a school trip so didn't really see much of it and can't remember anyway!

Open to other suggestions though.....obviously a lot of places are risky that time of year with snow cover etc

Somewhere in France would be good ideally as i fancy a week of splitboarding in Argentiere the week before!

Tom - no two seasons are the same, but this year I believe SC struggled more than many early season. Bar going to somewhere with access to a glacier there really is no silver bullet. The next best is somewhere with a good reputation for looking after what snow they have had or with substantial snow cannon coverage - assuming it's cold enough to be in use.

We skied from Muhlbach to Maria Alm and back today. First night last night that there hasn't been an overnight freeze, which meant it was soft from the off. Even though it was quiet the blues were hard work as they got chopped up quickly, where as any black runs were relatively straight forward as most seem to avoid them.

This afternoon we passed a young English lad who was having a private lesson on a slushy mogul led run. By the look of him it was probably his first or possibly second ski trip. The poor lad was sweating buckets and huffing and puffing away. Probably been put off for life!

Easyjet sports equipment policy. Can you get away with 2 pairs of skis in one ski bag - and then put 1 pair of boots in main luggage? Do they check? Do they care? Will I die if I try it?
Whaddya think?

You can put whatever you want (maybe not explosives though) into the "Sports Equipment" bag as long as it doesn't exceed 20kg. Same for your main bag. It's weight and awkward size you're paying for, not number of skis/boards.

Phone apps. Anyone use any good apps this year. I was very impressed with the Zermatt one skiguide - great interactive piste map with gps, quite a contrast with their dire paper one. Was getting fb prompts to download something for France with in-app purchases but declined.

[url= https://wmmi.ca/ ]Whistler Mountain Mapping[/url] - Not so much as an app but maps for an app. They're pretty reasonably priced and work with PDF Maps to show you high res, geo coded maps of the mountains in Whistler. They've got all the runs from the official maps plus most of the not quite secret locals runs and lines and some of the just out of bounds stuff too. There's also traverse lines to get you to hard to reach areas or out of trouble. Really impressive and it's been super handy for me this year.

Cheers DD.
Just back from a flying visit to Brizzle & Cardiff with a load of colleagues.
Ended up sat in the sunshine with a beer yesterday afternoon outside No 1 Harbourside and thought of you 🙂
1 week to until the Aosta Valley beckons!

Ah...did you get a #strangest? 🙂

EDIT: Dá Míle. 😮

Hey Hammerite, we probably crossed paths today.
I did MA to Muhlbach then spent the day doing park runs trying to land a 360, got close but by 3pm the snow was like glue.
Last day here tomorrow then doing some days in Sport Gastein, maybe Flachau and Schladming if they stay open and conditions are ok.

Tom B - early Jan can be a challenge, somewhere high and reliable could be like ice station zebra if the weather is bad. Also if I might say planning a romantic week where you've just spent nye alone on a lads ski holiday - seems high risk 😯

Next thought is accomodation, hotel might be more intimate but chalet is always hard to beat for value.

Some thoughts;

Meribel - huge range of skiing, high enough to be reliable, decent looking resort with some good apres ski and bars/restaurants
Peisey-Vallandry - more charm than Les Arcs or La Plagne but easy access to both, tree skiing
Champagny - "back skde" of La Plagne very pretty, probably not many Brits - good for La Plagne skiing and maybe Peisey
Sainte-Foy with White Room - did my first ski holiday with Mrs B here, get a slope side chalet, small village, nice atmosphere, easy guided off-piste day to Monal ?, spend a day at say Tignes/Val if you want
Austria - good for apline charm, St Anton or St Christoph (might be a bit small)

Ha hopefully it isn't too risky Jamba 🙂 😯

Cheers for the suggestions....... I'll have a look around and see what deals I can find.

Re the easyjet sports equipment allowance:
You get 20kg for normal hold bag plus 20kg for your ski/board bag for a total of 40kg. You can split that weight between those 2 bags any way you want provided no one bag weighs more than 32kg.
I've just come back with 4 boards in my board bag weighing 24kg and a rucksack of 14kg. They've never checked how many boards I've packed.

We're flying back with Easyjet tomorrow. 2 pairs of skis, 2 pairs of sticks and my boots. Did self service check in, they didn't even weigh the bag.

Col - we probably did pass you at some point. We'd finished by 3pm, but yes it was very sticky. We've skied Flachau/Wagrain, Flachauwinkl/Zauch, Schladders/Haus, Fageralm and Altenmarkt this week, conditions were pretty good at all. Although the lower runs at Schladders are getting patchy. Hardest skiing from a conditions point of view was yesterday over your way because there was no overnight freeze.

Has anyone tried fatmap? I never reqlly ski where it is available, but have heard good things.

Godammit! Ran over my thumb with my ski yesterday and damn near sliced the thing off. A mitt full of claret and €200 of stitching later and I'm sitting out the next day or two. This wouldn't have happened on a board you know! Much less dangerous! There goes my career as an international concert [s]penis[/s] pianist.

Up until then, actually my skiing was coming on ok.

Conditions are heavy, but it's been great fun watching the boys get so much confidence. Warm and sunny with blue skies today.

Oooof!

*tries to imagine mechanics of running over one's own finger with one's own skis*

I have absolutely no idea how. Not to mention it is a long way from up here to down there where the Skis usually are.

*tries to imagine mechanics of running over one's own finger with one's own skis*

Phatt grabz?

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It wasn't your [s]wan..[/s]drinking hand, was it?

Only when "ghosting"

I sliced my toe on my wife's snowboard once...

At least a sliced thumb doesn't stop you boarding

Happy healing

PS - watching the boys will be great until you're sat on the lift watching as your 9 year old heads down a black mogul run with the instructor expecting fast parallels all the way (he failed to pass this year because although his technique was apparently good he wasn't fast enough - looked faster than I'd have done it, if you could have got me anywhere near a moguled black). It was a strange mix of pride and fear.

Hey Lunge, is it snowing or raining over there?

how about watching your boy when you've just given him your phone to strava his run and he's pinning it down a red run ("in control" he told me later, but really not), in order to break his top-to-bottom record. He hit 44mph, a day before his 11th birthday! Definite mixture of pride and fear...

Anything that starts with the phrase "hey, dad, watch this"...

Igm - sounds like Jr's doing well enough for one that can't be on the slopes once a month through the entire season. He'll nail it next season I'm sure.

We're wrapping up today for this season, late flight back tonight to San Fran-brizzle. It's been a good week in spite of the rising temperature. I'm well chuffed with my skiing. I can pretty confidently make my way around all but black slopes now which is quite a liberating thought when snowboarding is my first love but I have other options now depending on conditions. The drawback is that now I have to consider buying some skis.

I will probably just buy some end of season hire skis, but it I were tempted to get something in the sales instead, what should I be looking for in a ski for piste bashing only. (if snow is good, I will be on the board) I like something that turns in quickly rather than something that will ever need to float on powder.

vintagewino - Member
how about watching your boy when you've just given him your phone to strava his run and he's pinning it down a red run ("in control" he told me later, but really not), in order to break his top-to-bottom record. He hit 44mph, a day before his 11th birthday! Definite mixture of pride and fear...

yep... but we had a long chat in the car later about the immovability of trees and what happens when you hit one at 40mph!

Anything that starts with the phrase "hey, dad, watch this"...

Skiing if I may suggest working on off-piste technique so you can do some touring, a great way to extend the season and find fresh snow when the slack is skied out or lift system not fully open. IMHO thats one area where skiing still "leads" boarding.

Strava - went for a walk last weekend and hit a pb for me, max speed 176kmh 😯 using phone gps to measure max speed is a bit of a waste of time

Stoner - I got some Rossi Experience 80s at the beginning of the season. My first skis, really happy with them. I would like to think my technique and ski stamina improved this year, but as I'm a lot less fit and a lot less flexible I think the ski made a big difference. I picked mine up new from Glisshop for about £170-ish when they had one of their big discount promotions, think the favourable exchange rate helped.

As for sons showing off, Jnr spent most of last week perfecting his downhill race jumps. Those little tiny lips that most of us just roll over... he hits, tucks and just flys. Can be quite scary to watch, but he looks like he knows what he's doing! He is quite sensible though and only does it when no one is around.

Whoo hoo! Got a day skiing last week with my middle lad. Often doubt whether we'll ever get a family ski holiday for a variety of reasons, but then realised the Sierra Nevada was only 2 hours drive away and had plenty of snow. Better than taking him indoor skiing any day 🙂

Off to Breuil-Cervinia tomorrow, but I've not yet sorted lessons, ski pass or equipment hire.
Do it online tonight or wait till we get there?
There appears to be online discount for equipment hire, but I thought shops might to a deal as it's nearing the end of the season - thoughts?

Stilltortoise - your lad is a quick learner and looked like he was having the best time. 🙂

We had some tears and sulks along the way, but by the end of the day he was flying. Chuffed to bits 😀

Fresh snow in Obergurgl last night and today- shame we are leaving tomorrow morning.
Had some great blue bird days, cover is still really good.
Am I the only person who quite enjoys the slushy snow!?
Skiers winging about moguls and slush but on my board I love it!

Lots of off piste potential here if there was more snow, may do Obergurgl at feb next year, anyone been? I'm guessing being so high it can get some weather!?

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IMHO thats one area where skiing still "leads" boarding.

Really?? I'm inclined to think that the development of splitboarding kit over the past few years has done much to level things out abit ...

[Not trying to to be confrontational or anything, just highlighting the fact that touring is no longer just for skis]