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

Some shoes for the lady-boarder in your life;

And, in case you need a little runaround to get you to the slopes;

WANT!

I have a two long pieces of red ribbon I tie on each binding and then shove the rest down my ski boots. I’ve never had a ski come off and get buried out of visibility, but when it does happen! 🙂

Good idea! In the bad old days before ARVAs trailing a piece of rope was common to help with avalanche search.

Just been hitting up some fresh pow tree runs in Ogden, W Yorkshire, lit by my mate’s DX light! There’s a floodlit piste though with a tiny kicker, and a few off piste options – great snow. Short runs with a rope tow but awesome fun – would have enjoyed that anywhere. Got some pics I will post soon.

Yorkshire?

T’Pow?

Been there. cracking little place. He’s a quick video of me hitting the cliff drop

(edit, can’t embed it till I upload it to youtube – 2 ticks)

edit 2 – embedded

😀

Full trip report available on snowheads – IU’ll post it up later

Edit 3 – trip report is here:

http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?p=1416661

I’m not going to post on the other thread having already had ding-dongs on public school threads with one who has suffered a loss but this is worth repeating:

Following on from Mugsy’s advice the thing that would have saved some local victims (apart from not skiing the wrong slope at the wrong time) would have been separating for avalanche-prone slopes. Stop at a safe place, one skis to the next safe place then the others follow one by one. And if you set off an avalanche, ski down the debris rather than skiing into more fresh and setting off another avalanche.

it occurred to me that a RECCO pastille on each ski might be a good idea

Isn’t the actual RECCO locator pretty big though?
(okay maybe not as big as the original 1970s system but still fairly hefty).

I’ve never seen anyone carry one for personal use.

(Got RECCOs built into my snowboard boots – which seems sensible – but I’ve always understood they are “corpse recovery” rather than “rescue” devices).

There’s a RECCO at the lift arrival not far from where the ski was lost, I know a couple of pisteurs and I’m sure they’d be happy to find a lost ski at the end of the day once the lifts closed as a training exercise (but far from impressed if you’d actually got RECCO pastille on your skis).

That’s one of the original RECCO units in the pic, they look like a laptop/handbag these days. They’re far from corpse recovery and have the advantage of going straight to the victim rather than a confusing trip round lines like a magnetic field for the ARVA. The advice now is in a jacket rather than on ski boots as boots get ripped off more than jackets in avalanches. In fact my idea (originally tongue in cheek)is a lousy one as if ever you are caught in an avalanche they might waste time digging your skis out rather than you.

nbt, UR AL OF TEH SIK RADNEZZ! 🙂

BOOOM gnarly

Ouch at the thought of boots being ripped off.

Probably not such a good idea to have Recco on skis/board. I think I’d prefer any such device to stay on me if in an avalanche. More chance of people searching for and finding people rather than skis in random positions elsewhere.

The boots getting ripped off mainly concerns ski mountaineers who go up boots open.

(I’ve recently taken the RECCO pastille out of my boots and carry one in an inside pocket. If you only ski using lifts the obvious place is with your ski pass assuming it’s one of the electronic ones you don’t need to take out).

they look like a laptop/handbag these days

Aye, that’s just the intro to the video – they show you the modern unit. MUCH neater. Laptop/handbag as you say, but still a lot bigger than say a BCA Tracker transceiver.

(I understand the new Tracker3 is even smaller, about the size of a smartphone).

Fair enough if you know friendly pisteurs who have access to them though.

have the advantage of going straight to the victim rather than a confusing trip round lines like a magnetic field for the ARVA

But presumably the disadvantage that you get multiple signals coming from all of the other rescuers and yourself, which you can’t switch off and have to ignore.

They try to get the RECCO and dog handler onto the avalanche first and mark the sites of interest. Then anyone with an ARVA and when all the signals and the points the dog have indicated are being dealt with the probe lines start.

In a recent fatal in my local resort the victim didn’t have either a RECCO or ARVA, the points the dog spotted were negative and it was the probe line that found the victim, but too late.

They try to get the RECCO and dog handler onto the avalanche first

Interesting – makes sense Edukator.

Guess it just depends if the resort buys into the RECCO system or not. I suppose most major resorts do these days.

the probe line that found the victim, but too late.

🙁

I know my local resort and rescue teams are equipped with RECCO and did some Googling to find out what the coverage is. The verdict is very good and the odds of the rescue team trying to find you using RECCO very high. Every bit as worth while having as an ARVA IMO and so cheap you can carry a couple so there’s always one facing up.

RECCO resorts

Every bit as worth while having as an ARVA IMO and so cheap you can carry a couple so there’s always one facing up.

Absolutely – everything helps.

Can you buy the RECCO pastilles on their own? I’ve only ever seen them embedded into kit. I have one in each boot, but having one near the top of my body would make sense.

Nice write-up nbt – and sick cliff drop, you totally shralped all of the available gnar.

Here’s a pic of me from last night failing to do a grab at the UK’s southern-most real snow ski centre. 🙂

My local shop sells them for 27e a pair. Not the cheapest but I’m not doing too well with Google as I can’t think of the English for “pastille”.

they’re normally called recco reflectors in uk literature

edit:

http://www.snowsafe.co.uk/reccos.php

We no longer sell Reccos as stand alone products as they have stopped distributing them : they are now only sold as part of a ski jacket , ski boots or backpacks

My legs hurt. So, so much.

Wonder why they stopped selling them separately? Tempted to get some from Edukator’s link.

Hey grum that’s wicked.
I’ve been over some kickers there and lived to tell the tale, although I’m definitely a skis on the ground snow bunny.

Im off on Sat and there is more snow forcast for Sat and Sun . Only a few cm’s but I have found Snowforcast to be rather conservative.
Been snowing darn sarf again today but its too warm too settle , although it feels freezing with the ENE wind.

Many moons ago, when I worked for a snowsports retailer, we had buckets of Recco reflectors that would be stuck onto the backs of ski boots. Many of them found other homes inside various pockets in the staff’s winter clothing.
27 yoyos a pair,huh? 😕

Here’s a pic of me from last night failing to do a grab at the UK’s southern-most real snow ski centre.

Phatt AIR BRAW! RESPEK!

wallop – Member
My legs hurt. So, so much.

I think I hate you….! 🙂 POIDH.

I shall take the camera out tomorrow. Had a knackering day today. Back to the hotel for drinks, 3 x vin chaud, un verre du vin, shower, dinner, one more glass of wine and then in bed by 8pm! That’s 7pm UK time! 😆

I’m so rock n roll.

Yeah had a look for RECCO reflectors on their own – they don’t seem to be generally available (in the UK at least) – some people suggested this was to stop them being put in inappropriate places (e.g. outside of a helmet) where they could get separated and lead to false signals in a burial.

Makes sense.

Other less charitable people suggested it was because RECCO had exclusive deals with clothing and gear manufacturers. 😕

Anyway, in my searches I found plenty threads referring to them as ”dead body finders”[/url] or as one wag put it: ”RECCO: Recovers Extremely Cold Corpses, Occasionally”.

But these were generally all about four or five years old.

If RECCO are now generally much better thought of, as Edukator suggests, then hopefully this is down to improvements in the technology, the search techniques, training, and availability of equipment – rather than just improvements in marketing budget! 😀

27 yoyos a pair,huh?

Seems a lot for a strip of metal and a sticky plastic bubble.

Here’s a pic of me from last night failing to do a grab at the UK’s southern-most real snow ski centre.

Closer to a grab than I usually get! And more stylish too. Nice.

Well thats skiing done for this year, looking forward to more snow in the UK then its back on .

Brain trust, need help. Looking for accommodation for me and 2 mates in st anton from 9th of march for a week. Literally just after beds, shower and close as possible to town centre.

Anyone help?

Cobrakai
One of the snowheads regulars is doing a season out there .
He will probably be in a better position to help .
I am going the week before if things come together with mates and holiday allowances

Thanks folks – new board has arrived now so I should be getting even more extreme soon, if you can believe that’s possible. 🙂

Thinking of heading back to Ogden to try it out in sat if there’s still snow. Anyone fancy joining me? Bunnyhop & nbt?

cheers for the invite but we shall mostly be heading to Val Despair this weekend

That’s a shame for you. Ogden is the new ski destination of choice. I hear there’s a lot of rich Russians booking up next season.

CK – I bookmarked this place after someone on snowheads suggested it on a thread http://www.flunger.at/ no idea where in SA it is or whether the place is any good though!

Can anyone recommend a medium term weather forecast for the French Alps? I have an option of a cheap trip to Les Arcs/Peisey on the 1st Feb and would like to know the possibility of fresh snow. It seems to be hard to find a decent free weather forecast?

Anyone been there in the last week, how is it? Looks a bit bare low down in the valley, wonder if it is icing up on the lower runs.

I’ve already had a week in Austria this year so this is a bit of a luxury, so only want to dole out the cash if it is good schnee …

Can anyone recommend a medium term weather forecast for the French Alps?

Is there such a thing? Snowforecast was reasonably accurate for us recently but I think more than a few days in advance is very tricky.

Is there such a thing? Snowforecast was reasonably accurate for us recently but I think more than a few days in advance is very tricky.

No idea, guess I could sign up for a month on snow forecast. They did get it very wrong when I was in Austria a few weeks ago though!

I’m off to Tamworth Snowdome tonight to ski for the first time in a year. A bit nervous as last time I skied I broke my leg. I have been watching instructional videos on you tube all week to try and remind me how to do it.