⛷️ ❄️ Skiing and Snowboarding 23-24 🏔️ 🏂

Having bought a board in the sales in April, another one arrives tomorrow. Why? You ask … well, the edited highlights are as follows …

Foolishly, I didn’t immediately set up my new board – a Capita DOA – when it arrived. Then when I did in October, it turned out that the inserts had been so poorly machined you can’t get a bolt in them. So I started a warranty claim and while they state it’ll be sorted in 2-3 days, that was … optimistic.

One month, a lot of chasing and a strop-a-gram to customer services later they gave me a full refund and told me to keep the board. Why that took a month to decide is beyond me but at least it’s resolved.

Funnily enough I’ve not spent my refund on a Capita, got a Bataleon Evil Twin+ this time. Kicker is that in April I paid sales prices and in November you definitely don’t! Oh well.

madhouse – can you just run a tap down the inserts on the Capita?

After ridiculous amounts of snow in California last year, still waiting for the first storms up in the Sierra. May try and get up to Tahoe in early December, but long range forecast still doesn’t have any snow so will be on partially open resorts / snow cannon pistes.

on the positive side I’ve only ridden in the wet once this winter

@stevomcd that’s exactly what I’m doing, started last night but the tap I got from screwfix is crap and lost it’s teeth after 6 uses. I did the warranty thing because it’s new and badly machined so didn’t want to do anything to it in case I had to send it back, didn’t expect to get a free board out of it at all!!

Not sure what to do with it now, it’s gone from wall-hanger to probably being usable but unwarranted. Might leave it on the wall till the lad takes a bit more interest and then stick him on it or maybe just swap between the two and have it as a loaner if any mates have board issues.

Wow moving from a doa to a tbt bataleon is a jump.
I have tried tbt several times and hate the vague feeling I get from it

Winter is go in Tignes….

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0Oqr13Iu9y/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

we’re hoping they’re a safe bet.

@Akers are you going through Chamberey with them? It’s an experience for sure, I say that having done it 5/6 times, but the last one was THE LAST ONE.

Build an airport next to a lake, because lakes never see fog, especially in winter. Also, take that airport, probably good for 200 people at any point in time, but put 2000 through it in a couple of hours. Mostly it’s fine, but when it’s not it really goes to pieces. Early start out of resort, had to stop in a service station for a while as we were ‘too early’ to go to the airport. Then diverted because of fog, head to Nice, no information on arrival, 3/4 hours of sparse information, then a little, then nothing again for a LONG time. Eventually get checked in and rushed through to flight after 6 or so hours at the airport.

Last trip we used SunWeb, their transfers from Geneva were a disaster, in the end they gave us a cabbie from the taxi rank who had only been up into the mountains once before so wanted to film it on his phone while drifting off the edge of the road, my wife nearly punched him, but instead filmed it for him. The return run couldn’t have been better though!

Chambery is dreadful. But close to the skiing!

It was rain that stopped play when were there last. Watching the time tick by thinking ffs, could have been in Dijon then Troyes, by now. 

Hi,

Heading to Val Thorens in Jan for a week. I think I’ve done 2 weeks of skiing (plus. Few of snowboarding prior) in total, so very much a beginner still. 

I’d like to get a 1:1 ski lesson, maybe a couple hours on my second day. Any suggestions on who to go with or how to find a good teacher/school? Or are they all much of a muchness? Thanks!

It’s looking like a fantastic start to the season in Europe. Lifts opened today in Hochkoenig region of Austria. This is at around 900m at our place.

Winter is go in Tignes….

And Weardale today. Thin but some fairly good skiing. Visibility was good and only about a dozen people on the hill. Feels like winter now. Just see if we get another go up there this year.

@duane we’ve used instructors in a few French resorts, they’ve always been great. I’m sure if you pick one of the main schools in Val you’ll be fine I think we used Prosneige.

Toby, great, thanks, will go with them!

First trip of the season booked. A long weekend in Les Carroz/Flaine/Samoens. 

Question for Stevo- We’re thinking about a trip this winter, and I spotted some decent price Airbnb apartments near the funi in Bourg- how big do the funi queues get at peak times?

Also, are you guys still only doing full chalet rentals for Nagano over the winter?

3.5 weeks until we head off to Les 2 Alpes for the first time.

Any top tips for the resort?

As an aside, New Years is Les 2 Alpes is half the price of Val Thorens, and about the same as we paid for Xmas in VT last year( all in MMV hotels, full board).

Both fairly high resorts, so don’t really know why VT is so expensive at new year…

@slowol – your definition of ‘thin’ and mine are a little different, I think!

Plenty folk out and about in the Cairngorms over the last week – still plenty rocks and heather though, so will need more to really get things going.

GavinBFull Member

@slowol – your definition of ‘thin’ and mine are a little different, I think!

Mine too – I saw the first pic and thought he meant something up there where there was a decent covering but no . . he was talking about skiing on grass with a dusting of frost on it.  Maybe on some hire skis – if I were desperate or very bored.

I got some pow turns at Breck this weekend. Not the greatest terrain option, but it was still nice.

I think your tolerance of ‘thin’ conditions changes when most of your skiing is in England.
Weardale has the advantage of very few rocks or gravelly bits and the mown bog grass skis OK with little snow. Scotland the gravel and rocks tend to come through quicker, killing your skis.
Saturday was helped by being frozen hard and there not being many people. A couple of the runs were a bit tussocky and off piste the bog grass trips you up but I got 17 runs in, didn’t need to fly anywhere and even had the luxury of a mate driving so no complaints here.
Definitely wouldn’t use skis you’re precious about though. My skis are both my best and worst but must be 17 or 18 years old and still going.
Skiing in England is a bit esoteric but if you live close enough it’s cheap and much better than no skiing. Here’s hoping for more snow.
Unfortunately had to work but Facebook tells me that Yad Moss was really good today.

So, a decent start to December followed by a lean couple of weeks here. But an unexpected Alps trip possibly coming up and I have questions.

Firstly, any tips for insurance providers for a family Alps trip? Have used BMC and Dogtag in the past but both seem fairly expensive when kids won’t be doing anything out of the ordinary. Any recommendations (annual/single trip)?

First day out this season last Friday at Fieberbrunn. 

Even managed a few pow turns. 😍

@mtnboarder

sorry, haven’t logged in for a while!

When it’s really busy, they run the funi more often / non-stop so the queues are never too bad as long as you’re prepared to get the elbows out. I don’t really go up to Les Arcs very often in winter though so I haven’t tried to fight my way up, e.g. at half-term. Never had our guests report big dramas.

We only do full chalet bookings at Nagano in the winter, we run it super low-key, so we just rent the whole place each week, there’s no catering or anything so sharing wouldn’t really work.

Cheers Stevo- it’ll probably be an off -peak week, so shouldn’t be a problem I reckon, just need to get them to commit!

Hopefully see you next summer too, if we can get organised before you fill up completely, fingers crossed we don’t get a 9 hour delay again…

According to bergfex there was 6cm fresh at St Anton yesterday… On top of a rock hard base

I’m not sure they’re not fixing up their imperial and metrics

Really weird skiing with bloody huge bergschrunds/ crevasses all over the off piste. Just far too much snow. They’ve pisted a lot of the chairlift lines as well to stop the chairs bottoming out

Right I’m after a bit of advice/recommendations for this year’s skiing/snowboarding.

We’re currently planning an Easter family ski trip – we’re probably going to drive for flexibility and for the adventure of it.  We’d rather train over driving or flying but the Eurostar service to Bourg doesn’t run that late this year for some reason and I don’t really want to fly this year.  Especially as we want to do 10 days or so and it’d be nice to have a bit of flexibility and make it a road trip.

With driving in mind, is there anywhere we should look at particularly? We’ve done both Les 2 Alpes and Les Arcs (1800) with the kids and they’ve served us well as high resorts that work well even late in the season and have a huge amount of slopes to go at (we’re a very mixed ability group) .  Of the 2, I prefer Les Arcs as it’s a bit more snowboard friendly and the run back to resort is better when slushy and cut up. I guess that’s because we were up in 1800 rather than in town like you are at L2A.  Mileage/drive time is obviously a consideration so I’m thinking France but is it worth looking at other areas? Fly to Austria/Andorra?

Happy to look at anything with an emphasis on height for late season (end March), a broad range of slopes and hopefully, cheap accommodation and lift passes. Also like to have a 6 from 7 or 9 from 10 style pass as might be good to have a day off in the middle and not be throwing the day away so to speak.  I know it’s probably moon on a stick but thought worth asking if anyone has any ideas or seen any good deals.

Cheers in advance.

G

Tignes / val is great late season. Miles of ski-ing of all types. swallows holiday crowds well. Drive is about 40min on top of les arcs. plenty of small self catering apartments in tignes.

Or book (cheaper) accomodation in bourg and drive up to somewhere different each day ( witin 40 mins youve got val/ tignes/ les arcs/ la plagne/ st foy & la rosiere)

Sorry to hijack..can anyone recommend a good place to sell snowboard gear? I brought everything new in 16’ and haven’t been since! Is eBay the best bet? 

It’s over 15 years since we went but Les Menuires is usually good until late April (usually stays open a week later than Coucheval and Meribel and gives access to Vla Thorens (open until mid May). Or stay in Orelle on the other side and get the cable car up to Val Thorens each day.
Unfortunately they’ve knocked down the concrete arch you could ski through as it had a reasonably priced small hotel in the cross piece so you could ski under your room for novelty value.
PS some friends of ours went there in April with their kids a couple of years ago and confirmed it good and relatively quiet late season.

I’m off to zell am see this weekend snowboarding

@jedi

Nice one mate. My place is around the corner in Maria Alm. They had a good dump of snow on NYE and temps are dropping, you should have a good week.

Yeah man it was last minute thing as we’re back there in march

ceepers
Tignes / val is great late season. Miles of ski-ing of all types. swallows holiday crowds well. Drive is about 40min on top of les arcs. plenty of small self catering apartments in tignes.

Or book (cheaper) accommodation in Bourg and drive up to somewhere different each day ( within 40 mins you’ve got Val/ Tignes/ les arcs/ la Plagne/ St Foy & La Rosiere)

Yes I did Tignes with the wife back in 2010/2011 (I think) before we had kids anyway.  Had one of my best ever on piste pow days but remember little else about it. Good take out Sushi iirc.

The Bourg and travel thing I quite like the idea of as I do like the area and have done most of those resorts at one time or another.  Even hitched from Bourg to St Foy every day for a week one year.  Will look into it though I think the extra travel each end of the day could be a pita with the kids. Thanks for the suggestion.

@Speeder Some of the group I used to go with would drive to Arc1950, there’s a car-park under the resort which is essentially one big Pierre et vaccances hotel. It’s a small well contained little ‘town’, we ended up going back a few times. Obviously you know about the Paradiski area so you know it’s massive and enough for everyone.

I’m not a pro at late season skiing, but I’d be looking at Tignes, Les Mens, Les Arcs as obvious options. As for price, well skiing is rarely cheap in my experience.

Personally going for Flaine 16th March this year, which is later and lower than I’d usually go for, fingers crossed it’s not a bad choice.

Just booked a week for me and the missus in Passo Tonale. She’s a beginner. Took her to Avoriaz a few years ago but she struggled with how busy it was and the lifts. Tonale is rated as 5* for beginners with loads of wide easy runs to build up her confidence, plus I can bugger off up the glacier.

Can concur. Tonale is excellent for beginners and still a great resort for experienced riders/skiers. Loved it when we went. Apres is excellent and everything for beginners is right where you want it at the base of the mountain. Altitude makes it pretty snow sure too. 

@Speeder – If you’re keen on the train you can get to Bourg easily enough without the Eurostar ski service. We’ve literally just booked normal Eurostar to Paris then SNCF down to Bourg. Think there’s one extra change to make but it’s worked out over £100 cheaper per person. Use Trainline rather than the SNCF site as it finds cheaper services if it can.

Flying out to La Plagne tomorrow for a long weekend. And booked another trip for end of March to Avoriaz. And then another long weekend at the end of April, probably going back to Val D’Isere. As I always am before any trip to the snow, I’m ridiculously excited.

But, would have preferred a full week in amongst that lot but work isn’t allowing it. Will just have to put a longer trip in the calendar for next year now.

I’ve made multiple attempts to tick off my number one bucket list to go skiing and have been bamboozeled by the choice of resorts and apparent complexity of options.

However, those few comments above about Passo Tonale have prompted me to look again and, through Crystal ski, it comes in at less than £5k for five of us.  Which is sort of cheap to other places I’ve looked at.  We are all absolute beginners so should I just book everything, kit, school and passes through Crystal?

And this would be the first week of Easter, sat 23rd March.  There will be snow won’t there?

@rockhopper did similar with Crystal for the first few years, they are experienced in doing the whole package so it generally works well. Their group lessons can be quite large, so you may get varying amounts from them depending on how you get on with it.

Our first trip my wife hated our teacher who didn’t really understand why anyone would struggle to stand on skis having been on them since she’s was a toddler. I liked her harsh style and was skiing reasonably by the end of the first week with her.

The other thing I’d mention is places like ski exchange (near me but no connection), if you are kitting out kids they can rent you clothing rather than you forking out for loads of stuff they’ll grow out of come next year.

As for the snow, welcome to the obsessive watching of snow-forecast and local webcams!