The STW Ski and Snowboard thread – 2011/2 Edition

Wow! This was Tignes Val Claret / le Lac less than 3 weeks ago:

Yep, was pretty bad until a few days before we went out. It snowed from the day we arrived until we left on Sunday, with a short break on Tuesday morning!

A bit of tidying up outside Vincent’s bar…

Off to Cervinia on Friday 😆

They’ve not had as much snow as those further west, but still over a metre in the last week. I’m stupidly excited about how good the conditions will be.

Should brighten up a bit too for the first couple of days. Regardless of how good the snow is, I find it always helps if you can see where you are and where you’re going!

Glacier was fine, as was run down to Val Claret. Snowed on the last day (and appears to have snowed ever since). Cable car up to top of glacier packed in just as we were boarding the coach home 😯

2 and a bit weeks till the next ski trip
6 and a bit weeks till the next ski trip after that

I live in Morzine and it’s been dumping for about 10 days now – loads of avalanche canons firing – most stuff is open but some shut due to high winds pushing in.

Can’t wait for a bluebird day

I just got back from Val d’Isere on Saturday pm…last Friday there was so much snow nothing ran..its all going now!. I had two of the most amazing weeks off piste skiing( 11days with Wayne Watson). He does a daily diary which gives you a good idea of conditions. He has also got a few good pics of the action on his photo page. Please see
http://www.alpineexperience.com/waynes-daily-diary/

There is a good pic of me (Tim) up to my neck in it skiing down Solaise!

i wanna go and do another season so badly…

i wanna go and do another season so badly…

Not sure my liver would take another.

Who did you work for ?

Met quite a few guys there who had done a few seasons i can understand how addictive it is! My guide Wayne has done 27 seasons there so he is great at finding the best snow in Val/Tignes…

i wanna go and do another season so badly…

Do it while you can!

It becomes a lot harder to do things like that once you’re settled with a mortgage, kids and a dog. I regret not doing one when I was younger (though we did do a bit of travelling instead).

Just taken delivery of my new board (Bataleon Goliath) and the snow is looking immense in Montgenevre/Serre Chevalier – 21st Jan cannot come soon enough!

Same board as me speed12. Lovely thing – very odd to ride at first but immense fun. Be prepared to wax it A LOT though (like every other day!) and get some Zardoz for when you can’t be arsed.

Have bought some Salomon Sentinals for this season

Late Jan – Courchevel
Easter – Tignes or Les Arc

Not sure my liver would take another.

Who did you work for ?

yeah i’d hope another season woudl be a lot more chilled now i’m in my 30’s.

worked for:

Crystal as KP in Claviere, Italy
Dick’s Tea Bar, Val d’Isere as a glass collector (getting drunk & flirting/dancing)
Grill Chef at Fergbrger in Queenstown

how about you bazzer??

edit: what i’m REALLY hoping for is that the mrs falls in love with boarding next week (she already loves mountains in general) and we can relocate for at least a year!

Just taken delivery of my new board (Bataleon Goliath) and the snow is looking immense in Montgenevre/Serre Chevalier – 21st Jan cannot come soon enough!

Snap! Tested it out at the weekend up here in Scotland. Really fast and the pop is shweet!

Out the Les Deux Alpes on the 21 Jan…can’t wait!

Didn’t go on the school ski trip this year, and then they get this snow. I’m fairly sure I’m cursed.

Was in Avoriaz last wed-sat, waist deep pow.

Going back next tuesday 🙂

Happy skiing everyone. Be careful.

Merry Xmas.

G.

I just tried out my new board at the weekend, just a basic ride agenda but the flat to rocker base makes a huge difference to stability compared with my older conventional camber board, never once felt like catching an edge, makes snowboarding so much more fun 🙂

@Speed12 – I’ll be in Serre Che about the same time as you…..

Was in Avoriaz last wed-sat, waist deep pow.

Going back next tuesday

Heading there end of Jan 😀

I just ski bummed for a season and didn’t work :-), but have probably done about 30days skiing each year there so know quite a lot of people there.

I went out for the opening weekend in November out for xmas and NY I am also hoping to get out for the whole of March, but I will have to see how work etc goes with that

Edited to add what year were you in Val D’Isere ?

Just back from Verbier.

Dumped from last Saturday until Wednesday, then started to warm up and the snow became rain at the end of Wednesday in the resort at 1530m. Low cloud and flat light conditions increasingly reduced the opportunity for off-piste skiing as the week went on.

Some trees were falling down due to the weight of the snow.

Pistes were bashed on Wednesday night and were a bit crusty on Thursday morning with the snow a lot heavier to ride than it had been previous days, when it was lovely and light and powdery. Thursday was warmer and snow became heavier during the day, cruddy off-piste, and was getting slightly slushy at lower levels.

Restricted lifts running mostly to stop the off-pisters from roaming too far. On Thursday we could get down Tortin and a little further.

Lots of people with ABS and similar type air-bag rucksack systems this year. Loads of people sporting wide skis making my 86mm waists look old-school 🙁

Been mad weather here today in Val d’isere ! Horizontal winds and snow this morning. Froze my nostrils. Bloody brilliant though 😀

Lots of people with ABS and similar type air-bag rucksack systems this year. Loads of people sporting wide skis making my 86mm waists look old-school

AKA

Lots of people with body armour this year. Loads of people on massive travel bikes making my 4 inch trail bike look old-school

😉

Lots of people with body armour this year. Loads of people on massive travel bikes making my 4 inch trail bike look old-school

so does that mean that I must be a better skier than them?

probably not is the answer, I fear 🙁

5 go mad in Bad Gastein today.
Very Christmassy here in Austria. Snow covered fir trees, plenty of mulled wine. So looking forward to Christmas dinner tonight. Having skied all day, we’ve earned it.

Flying off the morra with my youngest our first father son ski hols,it’s going to be fantastic ,we are wired 🙂 🙂

I love skiing at Christmas! Wish I was out there now….! 🙂

That’s my plan for Christmas next year 🙂

(Just need to learn how to ski first – but that’s what Jan / Feb / March this year is for …)

Christmas in Jackson hole has turned out to be a great idea, not as much powder as I’d expected, but plenty of high speed cruising and tasty beers at less than UK prices, served by some fantastic waitresses.

There’s quite a lot of snow now in the Alps. Long may it keep dumping.

Oh my! anyone who’s going out for next week is in for a treat.
It was dumping like I’ve never seen when we left Val yesterday. Delayed our transfer by 3 and a half hours 🙁

Just picked one of these up on ebay in 156 for £195 brand new.

http://endeavorsnowboards.com/live-rev/

Bring on Steamboat 8)

Dez, I gather Arc 2000 is closed because of avalanche risk!

I’m off to the Hemel Alps tomorrow for a bit of a play. Going to try out some skis…! 🙂

Yesterday morning we were playing in off piste (between pistes) in 30cm to 50cm of fresh powder, that was put down in just 12 hours.
Even snowing quite heavily at lower levels last night.

My ability to ski slush has improved over the last couple of weeks. 😐

off piste (between pistes)

AKA the “slack-country”

AKA the “slack-country”

Ah, yes.
As I’m quite new to this powder lark and still learning (my technique is unusual), so we thought using the same lift over and over,was a good idea. It also meant we kept getting fresh tracks, as we worked our way along the piste, dropping in at steeper and steeper points as I gained confidence.

It’s where almost everyone goes “off-piste”, IMO. With their phatt pow-planks and all the gear, most people just pootle between the pistes.

Which is about all the off piste I get up to myself! Although not on phatttttt-pow-planks! Salomon Enduro was my fave ski of last year, although the Nordica Spitfire was a blast on piste!