GrahamS – don’t get that bag! 11 litres is too small and horizontal snowboard carry is a total pain in the ar$e. Vertical is much, much better. You don’t bump it on your head/heels.

To continue to be controversial:

I did a cat day with Fernie Wilderness Adventures and I thought it was $hite. Their terrain is too flat. Check out Island Lake or Powder Cowboy instead.

CAN WE ALL PLEASE STOP WITH THE “IT’S SUICIDAL IN THE ALPS THIS WINTER” BULLSHIT. BECAUSE IT IS TOTAL BULLSHIT. ALARMIST, HYSTERICAL BULLSHIT. AND IT IS STARTING TO GET RIGHT ON MY TITS.

The avalanche risk in Savoie at the moment is level 2. That’s on a scale of 1 to 5. To quote yesterday’s avalanche bulletin:

“The fragile layers which have been causing problems since Christmas seem to now be buried or isolated by more stable layers. The risk of slabs is becoming restricted to high-altitude slopes on North aspects.”

The RedBull linecatcher (and the Freeride World Tour event in Sainte Foy) were cancelled because the snow cover at altitude, while actually not bad all things considered, is a bit variable, making the proposed lines a bit rocky.

For Graham S……. 😉
http://www.lematin.ch/suisse/Cette-hecatombe-doit-cesser/story/31376451

But for a more sit back and watch this for pleasure post try this awe inspiring film:http://vimeo.com/83485223

Bails, go to a snowdome first. Besides checking if you actually might enjoy it, it will save you going in a total beginner class where they often spend days walking sideways up nursery slopes.

Via Marco Tamponi.

It’s just a wee bit of sidecountry, nothing serious…

The avalanche risk in Savoie at the moment is level 2. That’s on a scale of 1 to 5. To quote yesterday’s avalanche bulletin:

They were giving 3/5 in La Plagne and 4/5 in Les Arcs a couple of days ago.

They’re not now. Avalanche risk changes very quickly.

For the latest info, see here:

http://www.meteofrance.com/previsions-meteo-montagne/bulletin-avalanches/savoie/avdept73

CAN WE ALL PLEASE STOP WITH THE “IT’S SUICIDAL IN THE ALPS THIS WINTER” BULLSHIT. BECAUSE IT IS TOTAL BULLSHIT. ALARMIST, HYSTERICAL BULLSHIT. AND IT IS STARTING TO GET RIGHT ON MY TITS.

I wasn’t really aware of anyone on this thread saying that. Just that guy in the Telegraph which was pretty strange I thought.

Another vote for a fridge to start with, the most cost effective way of getting quicker progression.

Another vote for a fridge to start with, the most cost effective way of getting quicker progression.

Does fridge = snowdome? I’m not down with the lingo! 😀

I wasn’t really aware of anyone on this thread saying that. Just that guy in the Telegraph which was pretty strange I thought.

There’s been a few other similar articles and people keep re-posting them. It is really doing my box in.

Sorry, yes it does!

Packed some friends off to Hemel for a couple of days beginner training before they went to Canada for a family Christmas, with skiing. They arrived on the mountain far better prepared and had a great time as a result.

I think we should ask Alain Duclos to come over and give us his take on the situation…..Also the avalanche academy wrote an article on their blog in response to the statements in the Telegraphe. Also see the av data website: lots of slides when the forecast was cat 2: which reminds us the BRA for ranges and départements is generic.

Cheers, we’ll go with that then.

Not just the alarmist off-piste nonsense (although obviously the usual precautions need to be taken), but the alarmist nonsense about Austria melting cos it was +8C for a few days, and “the snow looking a bit naff”.

Well… I’m in Austria right now, and it’s 100% white from top to bottom of the skiable domain, not a single bit of boiler plate, hardly any scrape-throughs to mud/grass, and all perfectly skiable snow on-piste.

Sure the Dolomites got an unusually large dump, and more on the way, but a few days of warm doesn’t melt a mountain as quick as the snow goes in Kent.

Off skiing tomorrow 🙂

Where in Austria andy?

Would a holiday (got a brochure for slovenia & bulgaria, they do stuff with a week of ‘ski school’ included) be sensible or should we go to the snowdome/dry ski slope first to see if we hate it or not?

I’ve not been but some people we were just in a chalet with had been to Bansko in Bulgaria and they said it was awful.

North America – you have to go. My pick Jackon Hole.

Was fortunate enough to live and work in the US for 3 years and got to do quite a bit of skiing. Skiing there is different from Europe and definitely worth experiencing. I never did Canada and have yet to but Vail and in particular Jackson Hole are outstanding and some of my best days in the snow. Vail is high and so powder is excellent but it feels like beng In rolling hills and not the jagged Alps. In terms of the town Vail feels like its trying to be European in a certain way. Jackson Hole is completely different a stunning mountain in Grand Teton with sharp edges and slopes that can bite. Corbets Colouir is the most extra ordinary marked run I’ve ever experienced, you stand at the top and think this just can’t be for real. There is an outfit which do “steep and deep” weeks which a colleague did twice as they where very good and subsequently he’s moved his skiing onto another level. Outstanding lodges with outdoor hot-tubs in Teton Village and a bizarre “is it for tourists?” feel in Jackson Hole itself, I imagine the million dollar cowboy bar is still there complete with saddle bar stools and a cage to surround the stage so the locals don’t hit the band with bottles if they don’t like the music.

Aspen, Crested Bute and also Utah with such dry air, big snowfalls and its Mormon culture it’s unique almost other worldy

Zillertal, just for the weekend. Mayrhofen today, but thinking Zell am Ziller tomorrow, and explore.

Dolomites in 3 weeks. Once more, yet again.

Slovenia is a very nice place. IMHO, save that for summer on bikes (or whitewater canoeing, rafting, etc.). But I hear Bovec has ace back country over the Slovenia/Italy border. Excellent value, excellent hospitality (beats every other EU country i’ve been to), and was odd seeing MTBers and skiers, getting uplift in April! (piste closed but back country was my guess).

Lots of people seem to like Bulgaria for a first ski trip. I guess it’s the new Andorra? Never been, so I can’t comment, and the Bulgarian guy I know that lives at Borovets both loathes skiing, and loathes his own country, so no chance of getting a pro-Bulgarian ski resort info from him! Anyone with a few weeks under their belt could ski the resort out in a day. A first timer might like it cos it’s cheap, not challenging,… etc.?

Just back from a superb week with my boys at La Plagne, started the week off with powder and sunshine, plenty of good snow up top of grand rochette and roche de mio, they need more below 1800, but snow forecast Monday onwards. There was plenty of off piste, bit much for my 6 year, he’s not far off though. Missing the charcuterie and grimbergen at la bergerie already, next year. I’ve noticed ski-ing kit as gone all mountain now too.

We’ve got a place in Maria Alm, Austria (Ski Amade region).
As Andy said, the pistes are all great. Not much off piste at the moment.
There’s more snow forecast for next week. The Hochkoenig area where we are has 95% snow cannon coverage.
Beer is 3.70 euros a pint and you can get return flights in March for £75.

Apartment Amade – Maria Alm, Austria.

I did my learn to board week at Borovets in 2001. It was a tough week; black & blue during the day and legless on extremely dubious shots every night. It was a fun trip but I really wouldn’t recommend it, to anyone!

For Graham S…….
http://www.lematin.ch/suisse/Cette-hecatombe-doit-cesser/story/31376451

So everyone tells me I shouldn’t be thinking about leaving the piste, even by a few metres, unless I have a beacon, probe and shovel. Okay fair enough. Stuff does happen there on occasion as Spin’s photo clearly shows. So I look at buying avi gear. Already a big step further than most go for a couple of days slackcountry a year. And now you’re saying I shouldn’t even be buying them until I’ve done avalanche courses and beacon training? Really?

Don’t I need both? I can’t practise and get familiar with the gear unless I have it surely?

I understand what that guy was saying by the way (thanks to google translate), that equipment can give a false sense of safety. He makes a sound point.
I’ve made that exact point myself on enough helmet debates 🙂

I did my learn to board week at Borovets in 2001.

Ahhhh Borovets. It does look lovely 😉

(Warning: contains sweary words)
[video]http://youtu.be/wOIYm5B_Pw8[/video]

Spin that photo is INSAAAAANE!!! I would never imagine something like that could happen.

It shocked me too. I’d imagine incidents like that are extremely rare.

Its the unpredictability of avalanches in conjunction with the fact that the snow we like to ride is the snow that likes to slide. Thats what frightens me.

Two ‘shots across the bow’ last season have made me drastically reconsider my approach to decision making in avalanche terrain.

They use a similar photo in Henry’s Avalanche Talks :

Sobering!

If the buried were using trancievers , and 1 in 10 of rubber neckers had tranceivers how many minutes to find any victims?

Im off to LGW now, 1400 flight to Innsbruck and 90mins to St.Anton.
Dezmond is probably in a bus en route to resort right now, so could feasably get an extra afternoon as payback for 0500 check in .

Im off to LGW now, 1400 flight to Innsbruck and 90mins to St.Anton.
Dezmond is probably in a bus en route to resort right now, so could feasably get an extra afternoon as payback for 0500 check in .

You probably wont get this till after you arrive but most of our group got in an afternoon on arrival day.

We were in St Christoph, just back yesterday evening. Snow was pretty variable, very heavy snow last Sunday then nothing new until Friday. Some of the pistes were great, more so in Lech, others got very slushy and thin. One of our group ripped the edge of a ski on Friday skiing the red down Rendl.

Despite the variable snow conditions we had a great week. Some great runs on piste, some nice avalanche secured ski routes and plenty of good apres ski.

CaptainFlashheart – Member
Wallop, PICTURES!

I tried to take a ski boot selfie but it felt a bit ridiculous. They aren’t very snazzy – nothing too technical as I’m still a noob really – just very comfortable Atomic slippers in a fetching colour pallette of white and pale turquoise!

Don’t know how anyone could say Bansko is ‘awful’. Its not the Alps so the ski area is very small compared to a decent sized alps resort, but the skiing they’ve got is OK, perfect for beginners and its dirt cheap – i mean at least a quarter of the cost of taking your family to the usual rip-off resorts in the Alps. If you’re a good skier you wouldn’t be impressed, but if you’re a beginner then its more than good enough.

I’m currently in Bansko with my family for the 3rd year. The snow is crap this week – the worst its been for about 30 years if you talk to the locals, but the last 2 years i’ve been powder skiing to my waist and the quality of skiing has been comparable to what i’ve ski’d in the alps – just on a much much smaller scale.

I take the family to Bansko a they are all beginners, and i go with my mates to the Alps for some ‘proper skiing’ around March, so it works out well for me. But when my kids get good enough to outgrow Bansko (another couple of seasons yet) then i’ll be looking elsewhere – and that’s where it’ll get tricky as the Alps costs a fortune when I go on my own, let alone with the family – i have no idea how I am going to afford it.

On top of that the food is tremendous, cheap and plentiful, and Bulgarian beer is very good too. Its not the Alps, but its far from ‘awful’ – its a damn sight nicer than a lot of the boring, soul-less French resorts i’ve been to. Its like any ski holiday – it depends on the snow. Doesn’t matter where you are, if the snow is crap, then you’re not going to have a particularly good holiday.

If the buried were using trancievers , and 1 in 10 of rubber neckers had tranceivers how many minutes to find any victims?

Looks like they are mostly using dogs in that photo. I wonder if that’s part of the reason? Plus anyone riding that kind of side-of-piste is probably a lot less likely to have a beacon anyway.

Don’t know how anyone could say Bansko is ‘awful’.

I quite fancy it some day, but it does have a bit of a reputation 🙂

I’d say if you like it then you’d probably like Slovakia too. Similar in terms of cheapness (beers for a euro) and small resort but, from what I’ve read on forums, just a little bit more developed in terms of lifts and facilities.

I did a cat day with Fernie Wilderness Adventures and I thought it was $hite. Their terrain is too flat. Check out Island Lake or Powder Cowboy instead.

For sure Island Lake has access to some longer & steeper vertical, but both areas top out at about 2100m from memory.

Island Lake caters mainly for Multi-day trips and is a bit more spendy as it includes food & [posh] accommodation (single day cat-skiing is available only early or late season)

Fernie Wilderness Adventures 1 day cat-skiing: $450
Island Lake e.g. 2 days in March (inc Food & posh accommodation): $1900

I guess there’s always a risk booking a premium trip like this that the runs you get to do may be dictated by current conditions; what areas have already been ‘farmed’ since the last dump; and the skill level of the group! … a buddy did a trip to Baldface Lodge (as seen in countless Absinthe films – Travis Rice was actually staying there at the same time) but he was disappointment with the cat-skiing provided to the public group as the skill level was pitched at the less experienced of the mixed public group.

Shame you didn’t enjoy your day Stevomcd. What did you think of Fernie though?

You’re only 40 once GrahamS … 😉 The advantage of cat-skiing as I’m sure you know is unlike heli-skiing, you are not at the mercy of the weather and so much less likely to get a down day!

The advantage of cat-skiing as I’m sure you know is unlike heli-skiing, you are not at the mercy of the weather only need to sell one child to afford it

😉

[you] only need to sell one child to afford it

Not really – it depends how many are in your group and whether you are paying for a guide as well. Heli skiing in Italy for example, could be as low as 200 euros each for one drop to 700 euro for 2 drops inc guide etc

… so for the sale of one child you’d get a couple of drops at least wouldn’t you? 😉

wobbliscott – think the main complaint was about lift queues, apparently they were horrific.

I think they may have been unlucky as apparently the snow was crap at other nearby resorts so lots of people were bussed in to Bansko. I have heard similar from other people though.

GrahamS – I’ve been to Jasna in Slovakia. It was pretty poor when we were there but it was raining and the snow was horrible. Apparently it had been amazing a couple of weeks before.

I’d agree with this:

Its like any ski holiday – it depends on the snow. Doesn’t matter where you are, if the snow is crap, then you’re not going to have a particularly good holiday.

Yeah Jasna’s downside is it is relatively low and isolated so the weather can be a bit unpredictable and is undeniably poor at times (they are suffering this season so far, only 30cm base till last week! Whereas this time last time year it was dumping hard).

But when it’s good…

Looks fun! One of the advantages of booking last minute – we’ve had at least a couple of powder days on every trip in the last few years by studying weather forecasts etc and making a decision just before going.

Few pics from La Plagne:

La Plagne (10 of 21).jpg by Grum Wynne, on Flickr

La Plagne (9 of 21).jpg by Grum Wynne, on Flickr

La Plagne (12 of 21).jpg by Grum Wynne, on Flickr

La Plagne (7 of 21).jpg by Grum Wynne, on Flickr

La Plagne (6 of 21).jpg by Grum Wynne, on Flickr

La Plagne (8 of 21).jpg by Grum Wynne, on Flickr

La Plagne (11 of 21).jpg by Grum Wynne, on Flickr

NICE photos grum (as always).

Do you ride with an SLR? I used to carry my D80 on occasion but haven’t for a while. Good on family holidays but we don’t stop much on the boys holiday!

Cheers – I just picked up a decent compact for this trip as I’ve found even with Micro 4/3rds stuff I sometimes can’t be arsed lugging it about.

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/cameras/digital-cameras/compact-digital-cameras/fujifilm-xf1-high-performance-compact-digital-camera-black-19140074-pdt.html

Pretty pleased with it really – few quirks but the image quality is really good for a compact.

La Plagne (1 of 21).jpg by Grum Wynne, on Flickr

La Plagne (20 of 21).jpg by Grum Wynne, on Flickr

La Plagne (3 of 21).jpg by Grum Wynne, on Flickr

La Plagne (14 of 21).jpg by Grum Wynne, on Flickr

Nice photos. And that video is hilarious 😆

Nice photos grum.

I’ve been lucky enough to ski in resorts all around North America (too many to mention), however one of the best days ever for me was Nevis Range, Scotland. Just perfect conditions, not too crowded, loads of fresh powder and gorgeous scenery.

Fernie on the other hand, a gang of us went for 2 weeks (had been before though when it was chucking it down) and not a flake of snow for 2 weeks. Same in Lake Tahoe, many resorts around the lake e.g Squaw Valley and not a flake of snow in a fortnight.

You just never know!

Bails – I always found Italy a good place to start skiing. Friendly ski schools, nice food. Some where such as Folgarida or Passo Tonale. These have short transfers too.

I always found Italy a good place to start skiing

Same here – my 2nd & 3rd snowboard trips were to La Thuile. Friendly, great food & coffee, and no real lift queues to speak of …

Fernie on the other hand, a gang of us went for 2 weeks (had been before though when it was chucking it down) and not a flake of snow for 2 weeks.

Yeah – I spent a couple of months in Fernie a few years ago in amazing conditions and kept sending emails home about how much snow there was … when my partner came out and joined me for two weeks it barely snowed – she was a little disappointed to say the least!

great photos btw grum! 🙂