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

Sainte Foy 6-day pass = 149€….

Sainte Foy season pass if you’re a bona-fide local = 90€… 😈

cynical al, tell meabout it. i just booked mine and my daughters passes. but it is a holiday 😀

Cham? Full of Russians, innit? 😉 Always drives the prices up.

i love it there

Saw a nice little video today, it was filmed around Avoriaz. I would love to be half as good as these guys.

http://www.zapiks.fr/avoriaz-session-legendaire.html

If anyone is heading out this week have a great time.

I’ll be out following Andy’s advice from Sunday onwards, can’t wait. 😀

Have a good Christmas all.

@hammerite – enjoy the dollies. Hope your lift ticket is significantly cheaper than mine.

t minus 41 days and counting….

Graphics don’t seem so bad when you are wearing them!!!

No-one looks cool on skis anyway (apart from telemarkers 😉 )

Thanks Andy. So far Gatwick has surpassed itself, let’s hope my bag turns up at the other end this time so I don’t have to beg steal and borrow kit.

erk yeah last 2 bashes I’ve been on have had people begging for ski gear. Only took until Wednesday for bags to arrive.

Just checked out passes at Chamonix

£250 WTF

I may be out

Isn’t that for 6 day Mont Blanc Unlimited? That includes Aiguille du midi Courmayeur & Verbier, so it does actually represent pretty good value if you intend to make the most of it I reckon. Alternatively just buy a day pass or 1/2 day for or the Chamonix area you want to go to.

Compared to some North America resorts, the Chamonix MB Unlimited is quite reasonable

Yup – went for Mayrhofen. It’s GrahamS’ fault if it’s rubbish! I’ve never had a bad time on a ski/snowboard holiday though.

Eeek! Nah you’ll love it. They are well set up for boarding there and the Après is great.

If anyone is interested I just finalised my booking for Slovakia this year.

End of Feb, 7 nights in Chalet, flights, (baggage, ski carriage) and transfer: £454 😀

End of Feb, 7 nights in Chalet, flights, (baggage, ski carriage) and transfer: £454

Tidy! Lifty cost?

5 day pass €153, 7 day pass €201 – not amazingly cheap, but somewhat offset by the fact that a slopeside draught beer is €1 and a 3-course lunch on the slope is €5.

Left home at 5am still not there. No flights landing at Innsbruck today due to fog, currently sat in a service station car park an hour outside Innsbruck before we head onwards (waiting for other buses with people in shipped from various German airports).

Still lobbing it down with snow here at the moment.

Hammerite – OUCH! That’s a long one!

Here’s hoping all that turbo-puke makes up for it with some cracking freshness for you!

Pics please! After all, this thread is my vicarious ski trip this year!

erk. be another 1-2 hours on the road too (not sure which service station you refer to). Hope there’s no problem with the Brenner and Campolongo pass (nice hairpins going up that one 🙂 )

But it’ll be worth it 🙂

Back in wet and miserable Blighty now! Always nice to be home safely but such a shame after current great conditions in France. Last guys at the top of Saluire last night in the semi dark and the moon and a great final blast down – seems an age ago now 🙁

Another recommendation for Slide Candy for anyone in the 3V – great ski hire with delivery to your door. Super kit, very helpful team in Uk and in the resort and good value.

Lift passes are getting very expensive now, but skiing has long stopped being a value holiday IMO!!!

Anyone know if the ski companies discount holidays at a set time, or is it fairly random depending on different factors?

I seem to remember that Crystal used to do it 28 days before departure but any recommendations/advice welcome as I’m going off the lure of a ‘cheapie’ in Bulgaria.

Cheers

Woody, it varies according to how the season is going. With the start there’s been, I doubt there’s going to be much in the way of bargains for a good few weeks, though!

Both Neilson and Crystal sometimes offer some great last minute bargains if you’re willing to risk it.

Boo hiss. My idiotic accident prone mate has just buggered his leg in Japan and looks like he’s now coming home. Got 2 weeks leave booked in march with nowhere to go now.

Definitely less bargains around this year than last. We got half board at New Year in St Johann last year for under £300 – nowt even close to that this year that I could find.

I’ve been checking Crystal Ski quite a bit and 28 days seems about right, but then they do apply small further discounts in the last week or two.

Got here just after midnight in the end.

Great first day, great second day. Pretty warm yesterday (at 5pm it was still +2c), even warmer today – but has cooled quite a bit this evening. My clean on today base layer smelt like a pair of 2 season old shin pads (TMI)! I sweat so much. Some of the runs were starting to get a bit cut up but still pretty good considering how warm it was.

Looking forward to the next few days as it’s due to be cool (and snow overnight tomorrow) so should just get better.

Off to the Hidden Valley tomorrow.

Flaky wifi signal at chalet so will post a pic when it gets better, although we’re just cruisy piste skiers so no exciting epic gnarliness going on!

Have a good Christmas all btw!

My clean on today base layer smelt

Merino FTnon-stinkyW!

Oh, and a very happy Christmas to all of you on this thread! Yes, even the telemarkers! 😉

My finest Odlo top seems to be made with the same stuff helly thermals were made out of in the 80s.

Well past midnight and the village sleigh driver seems to be milking it for all he can, must’ve been past the chalet 10 times in last 90 mins! As a result I’m still awake and I have a photo uploaded think this the run down from Passo Campolongo to Corvara.

Odlo? Mine isn’t as stinky as other synthetics, not by a long way. Not as good as Helly Warm in the cold, however, but way better at regulating body temps in warmer weather skiing.

Now then, anyone get anything ski related under the tree? I didn’t. 🙁

Never understood people’s problems with HH. I wouldnt wear most tech tops more than a day, but no problems with HH.

+1 for HH Warm. Too hot for most things but brilliant for skiing at this time year and good for 2-3 days.

Nothing under the tree, so I just treated myself to a helmet. Only three and a half weeks to go now!

Old Skool Helly was stinkier than a Brussel sprout fart! (Keeping it seasonal!)

Wallop – I hate you. 😉

I know, I only do it to wind you up, which is really mean – I’m sorry. I won’t do it again 😉

You know you will, you liar!
Don’t mind really. But, if you do not post lots of pics, I shall hunt you down and kill you. To death. With a spoon. Slowly.

😉

Three & a half weeks for me too, insurance and lift pass time, spend spend spend 🙂

26 days on snow today, many more to come…

Later start yesterday due to general murkiness and rain, which soon turned into snow. Not a huge amount but probably 10cm at the top of the passes. Got pretty wet in the morning. Seems most people have up but we persevered and were rewarded with lovely fresh snow and a fantastic sunny last 2hrs of the afternoon.

Last lesson of the week this morning so far the OH has been told she skis “like the teacher”, Jnr skis “like a boy”, and I ski “in the middle”. I need to close my legs a bit, apparently I have a solid, but really wide stance which means I can’t get the angulation in my body. Will go over to La Villa this afternoon and do the WC run, then do Saslong WC run tomorrow.

No idea why I’m awake this early!

Yesterday afternoon, think this was at the top of Bec de Roces looking over towards Pralongia.

Looking up the Hidden Valley on Christmas Day.

Hat tip to the lovely people at http://www.serrechevalier.org/ for this one. Some steezy awsumz for a Thursday morning!

A link for you for next year Captain[/url]

Nice! Already planning Serre Che again, though! BA Airmiles flight to Turin (Business class, natch! At about £40 return for the taxes on top of airmiles redemption!) We’ve got friendly folks in Serre Che who’ve already offered to arrange childcare some of the time. Mrs CFH rather fancies being a YummySkiMummy and swanning around in swish outfits at lunchtime more than skiing, so plenty of first lift fever for me, I reckon! 🙂