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

@Tom – Duex Alps not too bad for noob’s as the easy slopes are high up (the hard skiing is all down to the village and can be rocky/closed).

Xmas week is about the most expensive of the season (second only to New Year and Feb half term). Conditions can be variable as it’s early.

A top tip for bargain hunting is to book last min the week before Christmas, wait to see if/when the snow comes. You can take flights and leave resort till last minute.

FYI we did that this year with White Room Chalet (stevo posts on here) – they have a great setup

Cheers gents, some good advice here! Yep, on a board flashy…hence my picture of snowboarding boots 🙂

My initial thinking is that we’ll end up in Scotland xmas week and a varying amount of snowboarding will be done….I may head out alone to the Alps in either Feb half term or Easter to get some proper boarding done, getting lessons etc….and I thought mtbing was expensive!

Lowlights – only having 9 days on the snow this year (compared with 35+days each year for the past 5 yrs

Highlights – splitboard Touring in the Alps and staying in the Grnd St Bernard Hospice

@ Nedrapier – Hope you have/had a great trip to the Lyngen Alps – I loved it there last year!!

@ stevomcd – shame about the level 3 – good luck for next year!!

….and I thought mtbing was expensive!

You have much to learn…

Cheers Digby! It’s warm as hell up there at the moment. Think we might have to go nocturnal!

St Bernard Hospice has been on the list for ages. Never had vacancies and conditions at the same time…

Flashy I think the clue is in the photo ^^

Yep, on a board flashy…hence my picture of snowboarding boots

Erm. Yes. Obviously. 😳

Take up skiing. It’s betterer. 😉

Highlights – splitboard Touring in the Alps and staying in the Grnd St Bernard Hospice

Nice. Saw that place on Ski Sunday with Ed and Graham staying at it. Looked pretty epic.

Until next year, farewell my fellow snow lovers.

It has been a particularly good season. First powder holiday, first black run, some great crashes.

*sob*

Is it cheesy sunset on the pistes time yet?

FAO Tom B, thats what Les 2 Alpes looks like looking down from the glacier

http://www.gulabinoutdoors.co.uk/accommodation/
This is my bosses(ski school at glenshee) place…it’s really nice,self catering and about a million times better than the spittal hotel…takes family’s/dogs and is cheap.. 🙂

I’ll be dual qualified by then so if you get a lesson you may get me! It all hinges on wether there is snow of course!

Thats more like it, les 2 Alpes in fromagerama.

😀

Les Deux Alps.
One ski resort i vowed never to return to. Hated it , the whole ugly road town vast traverse to get from one side to the other .
Never seen so many people queueing to get down a mountain on a gondala before.
Learning snowboarding ? Smaller resort in Italy will suffice as you dont need 200kms of pistes.

Had a day trip to Deux Alpes this year from AdH and loved it. Loads of powder and a great restaurant on the Fee. Returned down Diable through a pea soup cloud inversion straight into town, short walk and hit the beer before our bus came.

Didn’t experience STM’s traverse and I probably wouldn’t want to learn there, but I’d definitely go back.

very nice indeed Nedrapier! … very nice! 8)

Les Deux Alps – to be honest it was 30 years since I was there butitt was ok, quite a few cruisey blues and reds and the epic black you get to out of a tunnel onto a “cliff”. They had a decent amount of snow making back then too.

and the epic black you get to out of a tunnel onto a “cliff”.

Ahh, I thought that was Alp D’huez?

another effort: descent from Daltinden, Lyngen Alps, 16th May

Absolutely incredible place. I will be back! More pics to follow. Camera broke on the second day, when we went to the north of the peninsula, overlooking glassy smooth fjords and the Norwegian Sea. Will have to wait for my touring partner to get home from his Svalbard trip for pics of the second day.

Any advice on what size snowboard I should be on?

I’m 5 foot 10 and 68kg Size 10 boots.

I’ve been on a 156cm board, and at the suggestion of my instructor tried a 158cm board last night-hard to tell at this stage if it was better as I get more confident with each session etc but dont really have the skillz to notice a 2cm difference in board length.

Anyway, various sizing guides that I’ve looked at suggest a 155cm board as an all rounder……given that I want to get into freestyle stuff as a way of getting the most out of spending most of my boarding days in a fridge, then does a 155 board seem like a good choice?

For what it’s worth I had a great evening out on the skis in the Northern Corries of Cairngorm yesterday.

Any advice on what size snowboard I should be on?

I’m 5 foot 10 and 68kg Size 10 boots.

I’ve been on a 156cm board,

Well I’m 6’3 and 93kg and I love my 155, provided I’m not racing or its a massive powder day (Even then it’s not that bad)

You could go shorter but you might find you end up with a lot of toe/heel overhang depending on the width/ your stance.

You need to try a couple of board that are significantlly different in terms of size / flex ( I mean at least 5 cm either side of what you’ve already tried) and see what you prefer – then head in that direction

I may get ppo-pooed for this – but the snowdomes are the easiest place to try differnt board sizes – sure the “rental” boards aren’t top end – but you can just go to the counter and ask for a different size.

Testing different flexes will probably require having a nice chat with the snowboard asylum about taking a couple of demo boards into the fridge at once.

Any advice on what size snowboard I should be on?

Skis

😉

😀

You seem pretty affable on here flashy, but all of the skiers that I’ve encountered thus far seem like a right bunch of **** 😀

Tom B, 155 sounds like a decent starting ppoint, but as others have said, there are loads of other things you’d notice more than a few cms in length. – stiffness, shape, rocker/camber, sidecut… Try a what you can and see what feels good.

If that’s going to be pricey and you want to get on your own board sooner rather than later, get something inexpensive and popular/well reviewed in around 155 with graphics you like and go from there. There aren’t many bad boards out there.

It wont last forever, you’ll learn about what you like and what you want more/less of as you go. I’ve ridden boards from 152 to 185, and had a lot of fun on all of them.

Digby – cheers! Hadn’t spotted yours before, I didnt think the first link was working. It was cool. Swimming in the sea at 3 in the morning was even cooler!

Snow and rock have this Ride Manic at 171 quid at the moment in a 155….1 left and it has a scratched base hence the low price.

Seems to get good reviews as a starter board, and I love the graphics….wasn’t really that fussed about buying a board just yet, but saw this in the shop and did a bit of research-seems ideal really. Like I say, love the look of it (not really a fan of many tbh!) How much of an issue is the scratched base? It about 8cm long and a few mm wide.

Depends how deep the scratch is. If it’s only in the PTex (the base material) then it’s not really an issue. If it’s through to the core, then it’s a bigger problem.

I would guess it’s pretty shallow if they’re still offering the board for sale.

Buy it, ride it. When you’ve ridden it a good few times and it’s starting to need a service, get a base grind at the same time. Scratch will probably disappear completely. Or have been replaced by worse ones…

Thought you all might like this:

By the way, apparently parts of the Alps have 4m+ snow after a 30cm dump on Monday!
http://www.snowboardclub.co.uk/news-12705.html

Graham – I’m trying to convince the OH to let us take ski boots on our summer holiday to the Alps. She’s saying it will be a waste of time (we’re only down the road from L2A), we have a van it’s not like the boots will take up much room (although there are 5 of us with bikes in the van).

I am now the proud owner of the board pictured above and also some k2 Indy bindings 😀 236 quid for both which seems like a pretty good deal to me. Chuffin love the board too-waaay more confident on my toe edge. Pretty addicted to it tbh-doing the last 3 levels of lessons at the end of July/start of August at Chill Factore.

Holidays ain’t cheap are they 😯

Good work, Tom! Got a good deal.

Holidays, no they’re not cheap. Nothing’s free, but if you want something…

I spent a summer cycling 30 miles a day and doing double shifts to get money together to go to Fernie for a winter season. The people I was working with kept saying “you’re so lucky!” I thought “Lucky? I’ve decided to do something and I’m working my arse off for it, thanks very much!”

Maybe there were some wider points about social mobility, but. If you want something…

Tom: aye – holidays sting a bit. But don’t get drawn into going to huge popular resorts if you’re new to it – you probably won’t get the max out of it and they will be more expensive and busy.

ned: agreed, and I had the same conversations and thoughts myself when the missus and me decide to take a year out to go travelling.

But… now that I’m older and have more commitments (kids and a mortgage for a start) I see that it’s not just work, finance and fear that can hold you back from doing these things.

So yeah. You’re still “lucky” to have been in the position to do that – even if you did work hard for it. 😀

So, when should I start the 2013-204 Season thread? 🙂

😀

Anything after next Friday should be fine cfh!

Hmm, I’ll be in the Caribbean then, so may not be able to…. 8)

How about we kick it off in July? 🙂

CFH perhaps you should never have dated the thread ! People will be booking trips soon so July is eminently reasonable.

After my busted knee in Dec I’m aiming for Aug cycling and hopefully some dh skiing in 2014, March maybe. Thinking about some xc to get my winter mountain fix, tried it a couple of times but couldnt get excited but now have less choice.

If you want something…

Absolute agree 100% Ned – I did something very similar a few years ago! I had a year off work and did a winter season [also in Fernie] and I’ve spent a month there every year since (apart from this year) as well as trips to the Alps etc …

People have often said ..”Ooooh – you’re very ‘Lucky’ aren’t you – how do you manage to afford that!”

It’s all about choices, priorities and cutting your cloth accordingly. I drive an old car and live in a very small house. I made these choices so that I could do the hobbies and activities I love (and actually try and be reasonably competent at them – which sadly wasn’t possible [for me] with just one week a year on the snow)

Okay, so there’s a probably a degree of semantics here GrahamS, but as Ned points out – I’m still not sure what ‘Luck’ has to do with it. If you really want it …

And I’m not sure that age has much of a bearing on the situation either (although granted – having a young family comes with huge responsibility). I’m in my mid-forties now and still trying to make those ‘life-style’ choices that fund my addictions! 🙂

How about we kick it off in July?

Sounds perfect – it’s bound to be snowing somewhere! 🙂

New purchase ready for already-booked Austria trip in 2014. Bargain at <£1/cm 😀

already-booked Austria trip in 2014

New thread tomorrow, then! 🙂