The STW Ski & Snowboard thread. The 2012-2013 season

Wow! Now that’s cool!

Wow! Now that’s cool cold! FTFY

Captain – From an eco point of view I don’t think there is any need to have cannons on with still over 2 months to go until the season. I think they really should only be used to stop rocks and grass peeking through when the snow gets a bit thin.

However to ski on I hate the stuff and would much rather then put a base down with it then let us ski on all the lovely real snow on top!

Today I booked a week in Zermatt for a BASI level 3 training course, yay!!! 😀

Starting my snow-dance now 😉 .

Today I booked a week in Zermatt for a BASI level 3 training course in Nov, yay!!! 😀

Starting my snow-dance now 😉 .

michaelmcc – I need to pony up and book my L3 assessment.

Bricking it. 🙁

Steveomcd, this is the start of my journey for L3, I have a feeling it will take more than one season to do all the modules and pass it all, especially the whole 2nd language thing! May as well have a crack at it though eh.

What skis have you been using so far for all the modules?

How long ago did you do your L2?

And good luck in your assessment anyway!

From an eco point of view I don’t think there is any need to have cannons on with still over 2 months to go until the season. I think they really should only be used to stop rocks and grass peeking through when the snow gets a bit thin.

However to ski on I hate the stuff and would much rather then put a base down with it then let us ski on all the lovely real snow on top!

It’s probably better to run them now if the temperatures are right than fight a losing battle a the end of the season. So long as they have the water available. They will have no doubt done their sums.

They will have no doubt done their sums.

Yeah but I suspect such sums are driven by profit rather than environmental impact. The two don’t always match up to well 😀

michaelmcc – I’m a snowboarder! 😈

I passed my L2 in May 2011. To be honest, I scraped it, but I’m lucky in that I live in the Alps and I have a BASI snowboard trainer just up the road, so I’ve been working with him and have come on a lot. I don’t think I’m ready for it right now, but do have another season to prepare, so I think I have a fighting chance.

Do suspect I might simply run out of talent though!

Lucky in that I speak fluent French, so 2nd language was no problem. I’m an International Mountain Leader too, so I *should* get a bye on the mountain safety – to be honest, if I was having to make loads of effort on those, I might be considering it all too difficult!

I’m not posting a link so I don’t think the mods will ban me, but the “website that can’t be named” has got 50% off sweet protection snow kit which if you’re a brand whore or under 30 might be of interest. 🙂

I’m not posting a link so I don’t think the mods will ban me, but the “website that can’t be named”

Eh? What site’s that? Seriously? Can we not mention certain websites now?

Sp*rtsPurs*it – insta-thread deletion 😀

I put a link to it back in the middle of page 8, it has not been deleted.

They have ThirtyTwo snowbaord boots as well as the Sweets clothing for the next 7 days and Block & Oakley goggles & helmets for the next 3 days.

BigJim – not stayed in Kirchberg, but did ski there on my last holiday – we were based in Kitzbuhel.

We enjoyed it there. The area isn’t massive around 100km of piste, pretty good for intermediates though and enough to do in a week. Some decent* looking park stuff if you do that (*I’ll caveat that by saying I don’t mess about in a park, but it looked the part to me!). Food/drinks pretty reasonable even though Kitzbuhel is seen as a bit of a millionaires playground.

There is even snow on top of the Scottish peaks. Here’s hoping it leads to a long, cold season.

So still on the search for some new boots for Mrs Bg. Where’s good in Edinburgh for boot fittings? Snowlines?

Whats hot in ladies boots this season? Mrs Bg is a fairly accomplished (double diamonds no bother) but relaxed skier. We ski with the mini greasers now so absolute performance not as important as comfort now. I’ve no clue as I’ve snowboarded since ’89.

Alain Baxter has a shop in stirling if you don’t mind a short drive

Hi nbt, I know about Alain Baxter’s place but was wondering if anyone had any good reviews of places in Edinburgh….

Anyone any tips on taking small beasties skiing for the first time?
Mine will be four soon and I’d like to take her on a trip before she starts school and we’re limited to school holidays.
Hopefully she’d be all morning in a lesson but would I need to be relatively close by or can I zoom off for three hours?
How much do the instructors “look after” delicate domestic issues?? 😕

We had both of ours in esf ski school in jan, our eldest was in her first year at school and the youngest was only 2. They arnt supposed to start until they are 3 but they didn’t ask may questions. The instructors were great and both kids loved it.

We were fine to go off skiing for the duration of the lessons, and our children are best at this sort of thing when we leave them alone.

Oh and we can apply for time off outside of school holidays, we did so for last season and have done for next season.

Cheers Mr Ache, that’s the sort of thing I needed to hear 🙂

After the first year without a ski last year in I should think 15, I’m itching to get on the snow. And those pics up there^^ aren’t helping! Trying to line up a 2 week trip in Jan/Feb which would be ace – not done a trip longer than a week in years… Looks like maybe Les Arcs and perhaps Sainte Foy after an amazing summmer week at the White Room. Cheers Stevo!

But I’m struggling with researching a new board. From finding it on google images I see mine is 6 years old now. It’s on its last legs so it’s time for a new one but it’s so long since I bought the last plank I have no idea what I’m doing any more.

Current board is a Burton Ross Powers (06). Previous was the same from 00/01ish. I like that it’s stiff, its turning radius is tight and its base is fast. I’m a fairly confident fast rider of over 15 years’ experience so I’ll get down just about any piste and am happy elsewhere. So I don’t need a forgiving board or want a freestyle board but I tried a shorter (about 156 I think, possibly a Lib Tech, it was in 2010) board with a very wide stance that was still stiff and fast and I loved the ease of chucking that about while it still had just as much edge grip as my own.

So… Just wondering if anyone has any recommendations? This might be the wrong place to ask the question and if that’s the case what other forums do folk frequent? Clearly a shop is the other answer and I’ll go looking, but I’m short on local options.

I find either snow heads (http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/) or winter highland (http://www.winterhighland.info/forum/list.php?2) to be very helpful when it comes to kit reviews and tips.

Ta for that. I’ve popped a question up on Snowheads.

P.S. CaptainFlash – saw another wee reference back there << somewhere to my speedy little sister. She’s in the world top 10 at Super G now I think. Big season this one…

Luke

She’s in the world top 10 at Super G now I think. Big season this one…

Yep, following her progress with interest…! All pistes lead to Sochi, shirley!

Hi Shifter

As a ski instructor myself I thought I could say a few words on this! Ive never taught kids as young as four but taught most ages from 5 and up.

Not sure how it is with other ski schools but the ones Ive taught in, we like to keep adults/parents and ski school separate, so you won’t need to be hanging around and the supervisors won’t want you doing that anyway.

I suppose most instructors I know try to teach kids the same way they would a younger brother or sister, or kids of their own (I don’t have any yet lol).

Also, it makes our job a lot easier if you can get your kid excited and happy about the idea of ski school. I’ve had lots of kids who clearly don’t want to be there and won’t cooperate for the entire class, often some screaming and kicking involved (the kids that is not me!).

Well hope you all have a good time anyway!

Hi Luke – posted on your snowheads thread too, but if you’re interested in the Amplid, drop me an email, I have some contacts there!

shifter – from our experience (of running chalet holidays and helping a LOT of people get to ski school on the first morning!) the instructors would prefer it if you dropped your kids off, then left with the minimum of fuss.

They HATE it when the parents hang around. Especially if they try to “help”.

What steve and micheal said.

Parents hanging around are a massive distraction to the kids and the instructor. The worse kind are the ones that think they’re a good standard of skier and insist on “helping” or insist on repeating your instructions to the kids. 👿

As for kids under 5, we used to do parent and toddler lessons. Only 30min a time so it was more for familiarization of equipment, snow etc but it was handy to have the parents there to pick them up and support them.

Good idea to get them excited about the lesson/skiing. Can be hard work trying to keep an uninterested kid occupied for 3hrs.

Drop the kids off, forget about them for a few hours and enjoy some time on your own! 😆

My kids absolutely loved it. We put them in on afternoons for the whole week. I had my lessons in the morning so would see them for an hour or so in the middle, this meant me and my wife could ski together in the afternoon which really helped me with it being my first time.

Next time we are putting them in for the whole morning and lunch. This will mean I can still have lessons in the morning and have a couple of hours practice after the lesson before picking them up. We can then take them up the mountain for some practice on the beginner slopes. Really looking forward to it.

My Brother and I both started skiing at around 3.

For the first coupld of years it was a morning in Ski School then an afternoon in the creche. After a couple of years it was full days ski school and then a an hour practicing with Mum and Dad at the end of the day.

Had lessons up to the age of about 12 and since then just skiied with Parents or on our own.

Never skied with my parents! Started at about 8, on a school trip (Yes, yes, I went to a posh school!) and then got hooked. That first trip was to Les Arcs and I was blown away by how much fun it was! Even then, at that age, we had a morning of lessons and then a few hours in the afternoon to blat around the pistes.

Of course, being a group of 8 year old boys, we went straight to the top of the Aiguille Rouge cable car…..Stumbled down a red and then on to the KL! Ahhhhh, happy days!

Hmm.. my daughter will be two months off 3 for this years holiday.

Thought I’d just take her sledging, making snowmen or playing on plastic toy skis – but if I could put her in a lesson for a bit then all the better.

Two concerns: I assume instructors will insist kids are potty trained?
And am I going to have to learn to ski to help her??

Bit harder to buddy up on snowboards:

And am I going to have to learn to ski to help her??

Yes.

😉

And am I going to have to learn to ski to help her??

Yep if only to avoid being the ‘cringe wanna be cool boarder dad’ 😆

Double post

boarder dad

Apparently the “boarder dad” syndrome is having an impact on the ski v board argument. More and more kids are hitting up the phattttt twin tipzz now, purely so they don’t look like their fuddy duddy parents.

Not you, of course, Graham. Am sure you’re all of teh radnezz. 😉

Yep if only to avoid being the ‘cringe wanna be cool boarder dad’

And am I going to have to learn to ski to help her??

It’s not that hard to learn to ski after ‘boarding. After a week I was almost as good as my kid 🙂
..then he gave up skiing to be like his ‘boarder dad’ 😀