The STW Ski and Snowboard thread – 2011/2 Edition

Kevin cought the toe edge in February, this was the start of the bruising, he finished up with his full leg and bum bruised. The dark bit is the outline of his impact shorts.

😯

And that’s through his impact shorts??
Blimey, that’s impressive.

What sort of speed was he doing? When you say he “caught the toe edge” do you actually mean he “caught the toe edge and fell off a small cliff onto some pointy rocks”??

Ouch. I’ve done that on skis before. Stacked it off a mogul with the consistency of wet cement and landed hip first. Was on the run down from Pointe de Mossettes to Ardent in the PdS.
Was an amazing technicolour array of blue and yellow and purple.

He was going to fast trying to keep up with me, he turned down a lads trip to Courchevel last week because he was stil hurting when they booked. He shold be OK for the Alpes dhuez on the 7th

@Digby – the Spark boots are a “normal” width, as opposed to the Salomons which are very narrow.

I have small (size 7 in the Spark) but wide feet, so I have a lot of trouble getting boots to fit.

Sole Bootlab in Chamonix fitted me for the Sparks and they re-formed the forefoot area for me, making them significantly wider than normal.

Interestingly, the guys at Sole very much select their boot range on the basis of what they can work with (i.e. re-shape to suit). On the snowboard boot market, they reckon only top-end Salomon, Deelux and the new Ride range are structurally tough enough to take the abuse of re-shaping without just being torn to bits.

Weird that you say Salomon are narrow. I have a very wide forefoot that gives me no end of trouble in normal shoes. Salomon fit me just lovely. I use Synapse snowboard boots, and when I’m skiing I hunt out a shop that has salomon rental boots. I find them wide in the toe box, narrow in the heel. Perfick for me, with no modification other than shoving in a pair of superfeet green insoles.

I physically can’t get my feet into Salomon boots. They are infamous for being narrow. Bootfitter that sorted my boots for me advised that there was no point even trying Salomon. I suspect your feet aren’t really as wide as you think! 😉

I do have properly disproportionate feet though. I’m 5’11”, 90kg+ and have size 7 feet. They have to be a bit wide just to hold me up!

I suspect your feet aren’t really as wide as you think!

I must tell that to all the other shoes I have that are too narrow…
I’d heard that rep for them being narrow too, almost didn’t even try them on as a result. But I did and while they are definately narrow in the heel, no chance of heel lift, I find them roomy in the toe.

You obviously have some sort of weird mutant feet so who knows what works for you… 😉

Yeah, for me it’s the fore-foot/arch which is wide – my toes are actually quite a bit narrower than the widest part of my foot. Mutant right enough!

@stevomcd

Thanks for the info and details on the Spark R&D boots – might have to pay a visit to Sole Bootlab next time I’m in Chamonix – they always seem to get very good recommendations, especially from people with ‘awkward’ feet 🙄

If anyone is looking for REALLY late snow then Engelberg (Switzerland) have announced they have enough snow to continue the season (on the glacier) till the 28th of May!
http://www.snowboardclub.co.uk/news-11559.html

You might also be interested in this report on the Top 10 snowiest resorts in 2011/12:
http://www.snowboardclub.co.uk/news-11557.html

And skiinfo also have a top 10 of the best resorts to go to in Easter:
http://www.skiinfo.co.uk/news/10-resort-choices-for-easter-2012-104-en-182706.jhtml

Grrr. Pack away ski stuff for the summer, and volunteer to do on-call support this weekend, and only then do I get the 15cm fresh snow alert! 👿

Interesting list of snowiest resorts Graham. Especially considering it’s from the Snowboard Club….

3. Alta, Utah, USA – Average 15.59m per season. Based on 5 year average 06/07 – 10/11.
http://www.alta.com/pages/snowfallhistory.php

Wasn’t this the place featured on Ski Sunday for not allowing snowboarders?

This time tomorrow we’ll be on the coach transferring between Innsbruck and Kitzbuhel 🙂 Not looking to be too warm next week, cloudy and wet/snowy – bit disappointed really!

Actually I take that back, as the snow forecast midweek looks like being a bit more than a short flurry so it might be really quite good.

Wasn’t this the place featured on Ski Sunday for not allowing snowboarders?

Yeah, I think the original list was actually compiled by SkiInfo:
http://www.skiinfo.co.uk/news/best-in-snow-the-worlds-10-snowiest-ski-104-en-182687.jhtml

I like this pic:

Today we skied the top to bottom from Aiguille Rouge to Villaroger, with a couple of stops to catch breath, then a lovely lunch in the restaurant in Villaroger, which has a proper mountain (not tourist) feel.

You should have waved on the way down, you were looking across at me! 😉

Rather bizarrely (and much closer to home) I’ve just seen that snow is forecast at Swinhope all day Tuesday and cold on Wednesday.

It’ll be more than happy to dig the ski’s/board out of the loft even though they’ve only been put away for a couple of weeks.

Yeah that figures. Allenheads are taking down their tows this weekend and my board is off getting an end of season service at snow+rock, so we’re bound to get a ton of snow next week. 😀

Ah well, there is always the sledge 😀

You should have waved on the way down, you were looking across at me!

We did, ‘cos Jules pointed you out 🙂

Sadly back now, however it’s sunny enough here in England to get all the washing out and dried, to be put away until next season 🙁

Don’t pack the kit away yet, there’s still plenty of snow.

It’s ski alpinisme race season so we skinned up, continued with skis on the pack when we ran out of grip and skied some fairly unpleasant stuff back down – and failed to make the podium for the first time in eleven participations in our local race. I’m feeling old this evening.

http://www.serre-chevalier.com/hiver/ski/live/webcam/

Looks like a last minute, later than late season dump has arrived!

This was Jasná on the 1st of April (not my video):

Looks like they got a late dump too, cos it was mainly slush when we left.
Wish I was still there, instead of being stuck in this office 🙁

Oh wow. This is good news for my Easter trip! 😀

Wish I could remember the name of the resort! Duh.

There’s snow forecast for most French resorts for the Easter week. I’m not complaining though as our blue sky days were hot and sunny last week in Les Arcs, with more than enough snow still on the piste.

Still snowing here in South Manchester (most of it’s melted now though). So lovely to wake up to thick fluffy flakes blowing wildly past the bedroom window.

Thought this was being bumped up to say that the Lecht, Weardale and Yad Moss are all open again following the latest snow. Worth a trip of they are local to you and you are looking for a slide.

Will be packing tonight for Saturdays trip, got the boards, boots and helmets sorted last night. Hope it put some snow down before we go.

Pics of one of the ways I like using skis.

Just booked a week in Courchevel, leaving on the 14th April. Can’t wait!!!

Know I had to get a boarding trip in by the end of the season 🙂

Nice one surfdad – did you find someone to go with in the end?

Yup – found a group on snowheads.

Can’t wait. Off to xscape at cas tomorrow to try out my new boots 🙂

Just ordered some toys for next yrear. Atomic Redster D2 Slalom SL 165. We’ll see what difference a rocker makes on a proper ski rather than a ski trying hard to be a monoski. 😉

Well, I think the season may be well and truly over for the year. Lots and lots of bare patches appearing on my fave pistes from the webcams.

So, how about we have a season round up? This is something we do after every big weekend riding, and I think it’s rather a nice way to do it. It goes like this;

What was your ski/board highlight this year?

What was your ski/board lowlight this year?

What have you learned this year?

For me?

Highlight – Getting up above the clouds on the first lift when everyone else was sulking in the coffee shops. Hitting the fresh corduroy like a stabbed rat in glorious sunshine.
Lowlight – Only getting one ski trip. My planned trip to the West Coast of the US didn’t happen in time (Off soon, and no time to ski! 🙁 )
What have I learned? Well, that you should never trust the weather in the valley. Believe in the sunshine above the clouds. It will be there, oh yes, it will be there!

So, next year? Well, who knows at the moment. May not be skiing at all, might be getting to Japan for a powder fest. All very much TBC….! 🙂

Oh, and thank you to every single poster on this thread. One of the very finest, IMHO!

*Double post glitch!*

Highlight – skiing the off piste bits of really deep powder (well for me anyway) on New Years eve in Austria. I laughed so much there was nearly a little accident.
Also being with my fantastic skiing buddies.

Lowlight – Becoming ill on my last holiday, trying to battle on, however giving up and having to watch everyone ski down beautiful pistes on the sunniest week of the year.
Even the lowlight ski holidays are good.

Always learning – Hubby got me to try out a few things e.g. planting my poles when the powder got really deep and steep also trying to ski more down the fall line, rather than the big turns that are my normal piste skiing. It improved my skiing so much.

Agree that this thread has been one of the best ever on STW and I’ve been here a while as poster and lurker.

Scotland is due for a bit of snow next week, so there still maybe time to get a few end of season turns in.

Highlight – Sella Ronda loop on a powder day
Lowlight – Bailing out of 3 trips at last minute, which all turned into megadumps
Learned – That the race guys in Tignes with carbon fibre legs or sit-skis can still ski way faster than me.

Learned – That the race guys in Tignes with carbon fibre legs or sit-skis can still ski way faster than me

I ski with a lovely young lady who’s a paralympian in a sit ski. She scares the whatsits out of me. She’s seriously fast! And insane. Utterly insane! 🙂

Keep ’em coming folks!

Well I’ll post my highlights once I’m back from my only trip this season on the 21st! Conditions are looking good in the 3Vs at the moment, hope it lasts another week!

*Sends positive waves to Surfdad*

Highlight – maybe yet to come,as I am currently sitting in a lovely Chalet in Vayonnez, with a week of fine spring snowboarding ahead, but the fresh, deep, powder on Christmas day will be hard to beat 🙂

Lowlight – pulling a hamstring on that same Christmas day and slowing me down a bit for the rest of that week.

Learned – not to go at skier speeds on the first run off the first lift…

Had two great days so far hope the snow forcast is right for tuesday night