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

And lo, there was good advice! And it was good!

Good advice? On STW? Some mishtake shirley!

😉

Shoulder op went ok. Now recovering but have been told that boarding is a no no this year. Just need to get it right for Verbier in the summer. Looks like I wont be wearing my new gear which I had to get due to loosing 2 stone since last years trips.

Markie

What chalet are you staying in ?

Bazzer

Thanks for that sprootlet, very much appreciated – Your words mean that now I’m actually looking forward to going as opposed to being mildly apprehensive and just hoping for the best! Cheers!

I know, good advice on STW, who knew?! Actually, and accepting that sprootlet might have rose tinted me slightly, off the top of my head I’m not sure I’ve ever had (solely) duff advice here, and lord knows I’ve asked for enough – honeymoon locations, computers, cars, cat cleansing, eBay – a litany of first world problems and hand-holding requests! 😀

bazzer: gnellets, I think. V pleased as looks close to the ski school area and the olympic lift as per sprootlet’s day plan!

Again, thanks sprootlet! Reading your post has given me a real lift!

That’s a YSE Chalet isn’t it ? In the Joseray area.

So just a little walk down to the main lift area.

You will have to walk home past the Doudoune Chalet bar, pop in and watch “Mullet” play at Apres 🙂

Love Val off back for 9 days on the 15th 🙂

Markie, I’m pretty sure there are some free lifts in the centre, just to get your ski legs back.
Second the creperie, they also make tasty galettes.

I’m pretty sure there are some free lifts in the centre

Do you mean the center of the mountain, after going up olympic? I think lift tickets have been taken care of, but it’d be great to have somewhere simple to bobble around and see if I have any muscle memory left from those distant days!

Are you a part of mullet, bazzer? If so, will do, dates allowing!

2 sleeps till St Anton.
Forcast is rubbish though unless you like sunbathing.
Still , be good to scope out the area and see whats what.
Intend to go to Stuben and Sonnekopf for a day as well.

STM, I’ve skied Serre Che at a similar altitude (And other resorts) in March. T-shirts, no gloves. Lovely, great fun! Just get up early and stay up high. Download on a chairlift rather than battling the soup on the lower pistes.

Oh, and SUNCREAM! 😉

The free lifts are in the area where the bus will drop you off for ski school, sorry can’t remember the actual name. Near centre of town.

You’ll be able to see La Face and marvel how steep it is, which I’m pretty sure you’ll be coming down at some point later in the week.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/snowandski/france/val-disere/6761949/Val-dIsere-piste-guide.html

Hi Markie
I assumed you’d have a lift pass…sorry.
As Bunnyhop said there is a free little pull up the learner green slope in the centre of Val. Its a bit before the big olympic bubble and on the other side too.
You will need lift passes to go anywhere else, you can just get Val if you don’t think you’ll be venturing to Tignes….
If the rugby is on (or you fancy a drink) try Bar XV on the main road (opposite side to the patisserie), really rugby orientated and they did (and hopefully do Affligem on draft!)…think Leffe but better.
Try Bar face for happy hours and le Foret bar is where all the seasonnaires go…
The bar at the bottom of La Daille is canny too, we used to have a drink there when the scrum for the bus was just like being in London.
Favourite runs, piste M in Tignes for making speed, the easy black Lanches at Top of Tignes but before the telecabine. The runs at the Manchet chair because they’re quiet and the fantastic reds and blues at la Fornet because its high and the snow always seems to squeak when I’m there!
Have fun, eat drink and be merry

Haha

No I am not part of Mullet, but they are my mates.

There are a couple of free lifts near the Olympic lift. A couple of drag lifts and two chairs the Village Chair and the Rogeny Chair. You don’t need a lift pass or go up the mountain for these.

Bar XV is indeed good for rugby and has a french feel to it. The Pacific is another great sports bar that has lots of big screens and shows the rugby and lots of football.

The Foret is now called the Fall Line and the Rose Blanche at the bottom of Le Daille is great for a post ski beer when the sun is shining.

Bazzer

Bar XV is indeed good for rugby and has a french feel to it.

So, not the happiest of places this season, then? 😉

Thought this video was funny –

http://whitelines.mpora.com/videos/wltv/red-bull-ultra-natural-voiceover-pisstake.html

Hey peeps, make sure you lock up your skis or mix and match them with someone else. I had a pair of 2 week old brand new Head I-Titans stolen yesterday, completely gutted about it. I have a BASI tech exam week next week too, still not sure what to do.

In a vague effort to keep this thread bike related. I skied down part of the road that was used for the Morzine climb in last years TdF, turns out my instructors parents have a house on the road.

Bad news Michael, I always think of ski areas as low crime areas. There is scum everywhere.

Did a wee bit of touring near Tignes the other day…

Saw that on Facebook and was very jealous. Next season…

On the subject of ski graphics, I like these. Although the design looks like it’d be more at home on a teapot.

Yeah I love the graphics on all Line skis, quite tasteful and minimal in a way, and not to gawdy or anything that might be hard to look at with a hangover!! I also like how Line keep the same names for their skis every year so it doesn’t feel like they’re out of date a few weeks after buying them.

Anyone going to enter the Derby de La Meije this year? 25eme edition. Just realised it’s on around the time I was thinking of being there anyway.

freeridenick?

Last year’s video click on “La Course”. Nicolas Anthonoiz’s run through the roocks at 5’35″ish 😯

stevo – very nice!

Innsbruck tomorrow then St Anton on Sat for the week. Canny wait!!!! 😀

Talking to a colleague today who’s off to Samoens. OK, so it’s a blue, but looking at the piste map, how good does a 9 mile blue sound! Called “Cascades”. Anyone done it?

yep.

is it really 9 miles?

vaguely recall a long flat bit at the top to get to the real start, then just long, narrow road/track basically all the way to the bottom. Blue sounds about right.

As Andy says, there are some long flats in Cascades and then it is a path for a long way and requires a bus to get back into the system. The views are fantastic at the top, and it feels really remote but can take a long time out of the day.

We parked minibus at Morillon (took 1 day out from PdS), and skied in from there. Then finished the day by doing Casacades and grabbing a vin chaud at the place at the bottom while waiting for the bus. Worked quite well like that, or if staying in that valley somewhere (Samoens, Sixt, Morillon etc.)

Hello all – I’m back from Slovakia.

Quick trip report:

Arrived to fresh snowfall in Bratislava. So much in fact that our plane had to circle for 45 minutes before they cleared the runway. Our mates were less lucky – their plane got diverted to Budapest!

So the first few days were powtastic – deep snow and great tree runs.. BUT.. we had proper pea-souper viz. Couldn’t see more than a couple of metres at the top, so we pretty much had to find the good off-piste runs using The Force (and memory of last year).

Then the sun came out and we got a couple of scorching bluebird + pow days till it all baked hard (high up) or turned to springtime slush (low down).

The shiny new gondola and funicular mean that the south side is now much more accessible and we had an amazing time slashing up the freeride zones over there.

As I sit here I have a very fond memory of busting down Freeride 5 through soft snow and nailing a massive (for me) tail press at the bottom to the cheers of my mates 😀

As distinctly average boarder that’s a moment that I’ll treasure for a while. 🙂

Now I’m stuck back at my desk, knee-deep in work boredom and dreaming of powder.

This video from the same resort just isn’t helping:

New RedBull Shane McConkey documentary looks good.

Off to Pila, Italy in 3 weeks. I’m a teacher so leading a school group of 26. Should be fun. Not boarded there before so looking forward to new pistes. Anyone been?

I’m off to Pila soon (no offense but thank god it’s not School Holidays) I will let you know.

Well I just (today) got back from a boarding trip in Whistler, with a return stopover in Vancouver. I have been to Banff (lake louise, sunshine and Norquay)before but this was just on another level… Yes a tad damp on two days at the village but over 145cm in three days at the top of Whistler… Huge area and everyone is ultra friendly and helpful. I found it cheaper in the bars than most of the european resorts that I have been to and would recommend anybody of any level to visit… Hardly any lift issues, unless an epic powder day and a fun friendly and well run resort. I would go back in a heartbeat…

I like the runs, snow and people at Whistler, but didn’t you find the actual resort bit was just a little bit “corporate fun”? What some folk would call “Disneyfied”?

Whistler is a new resort and as such won’t have the feel of a traditional european resort but I think it has it’s own identity. Look at Tignes and many other resorts, great skiing etc but all the soul of a two day dead kipper.

Whistler is just different, it is a tad commercial but that provides the structure to improve the hill and obviously the awesome biking in the summer… I was told that the winter is now the quiet season!!

I love Auatrian resorts and the chocolate box look but I also like the convenience of all thet Whistler has to offer and skidoo’s… Now I have got to buy one, such fun…

Just found it a little pre-packaged. All owned and run by the same corporation – with little room for independent business. But as you say, that’s the thing with new purpose-built resorts.

Wouldn’t stop me going there, the snow and people are excellent, but it was just a little niggle. In that respect I prefer the “real town” feel of Fernie.

The Skidoos are a lot of fun though..

😉

I like Whistler a lot, however we always stay out of the village in a B&B.
Fernie I thought reminds me of a proper Canadian town, with Bears and everything.

Yep, Fernie is a proper Canadian town that is largely populated by ski bums (and bears) 😀

Whistler is a new resort and as such won’t have the feel of a traditional european resort but I think it has it’s own identity. Look at Tignes and many other resorts, great skiing etc but all the soul of a two day dead kipper.

The weirdest vibe I’ve ever had was at squaw valley which is eerily like they faxed SquawInc the plans to the centre of val-d-isere with the champange vomit rinsed off.

GrahamS – Member
I like the runs, snow and people at Whistler, but didn’t you find the actual resort bit was just a little bit “corporate fun”? What some folk would call “Disneyfied”?

Yup I found that. It’s not cheap either, certainly not compared to Austria (yeah I know I keep banging on about it 🙂 ).

I spent the day in Turracher Hohe last week, it was so beautiful, and the skiing was great too – highly recommended.

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Off to Flaine today for the week. Its ugly and expensive but its got some great skiing and lots and lots of snow….
Will be doing Cascades because it is so pretty and try to get on stade when no one’s looking 🙂
Au revoir you lot