The STW Ski & Snowboard thread. The 2014-2015 season

Conditions are excellent on piste. Off-piste there are lots of “requins” (things sticking out to trip you up) so be careful.

The jams are clearing and Winter tyres will get you past the Gendarmes to most resorts now – it was chains or turn around yesterday.

what ski daysac’s are recommended

Another vote for Dakine. I ride with a Hell-pro II when hiking. Just big enough for day trips, possibly overkill for in bounds. Dakine make some great packs that last and aren’t crazy money.

My current pack is the Black Diamond Bandit.
http://www.snowsafe.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=45&products_id=315

Good minimal size (11L) for the resort/slackcountry riding I do. I like it because the outside is pretty plain. I don’t like loads of straps because they are just one more thing get caught up. Built-in Avalung is nice to have too.

Both the North Face Patrol sizes, the 24l and 35l are really great packs.

Very well thought out. One of those items you look at and keep thinking “oh, I like *that*” as you work your way around.

Definitely worth checking out. If you’re looking at packs. The small one cinches down really nicely, if you’re thinking it might be too big. I’ve ridden with pretty much just a shovel and probe in there and it just hugs your back and disappears.

Oh yes…!

Call me a killjoy but I don’t like that.

I’ll be a killjoy too: “I’ve got money than anyone else in rallycross so if I get a good start and push off anyone who tries to overtake I’ll win. If I get a bad start I’ll just lean on those in front rather than brake for the first corner and take ’em out that way”.

If you try to mix motor vehicles, and boards or skis it’s always going to be a naff vid.

While we are on Ken Block, what do you lot make of the “controversial” video of him riding pow at Baldface with his son on his shoulders:
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152612588255765

Seems harmless enough to me (helmets, goggles, low speed, deep pow, fairly open glade) but from the Facebook comments some folk seem to think he should be prosecuted for child endangerment. 😕

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006v8fc

PSA – Ski Sunday is on, erm, Sunday.

oh that was well advertised.

finally got round to booking some trips. austria in a week, dollies 2 weeks after that. then need to sort another a few weeks after that.

Cheers for that, flashy!

Cheers, I was just wondering when that was due to start.

Anyone know when Celebrity A&E The Jump starts? Ch4 website just says Early 2015.

Can anyone recommend a Hotel in Chamonix for a short stay? B&B or half board would prefer not to self cater.
Would also consider Grand Massif if you have a good recommendation.

“Cheers, I was just wondering when that was due to start.
Anyone know when Celebrity A&E The Jump starts? Ch4 website just says Early 2015.”

I lad I know has been asked to coach on it this year. It’s going to have snowboarding as well as skiing.

Is it time for a new opening sequence? This one must be three or four years old.

The weather has gone mild again. 🙁

The weather has gone mild again.

Yep, was sat out in a T-shirt in Villeneuve yesterday having lunch, a far cry from -20 five days ago. It did at least re-freeze overnight, was pretty treacherous walking on verglassed pavements at 5am to get to the coach for the trip back to the airport.

It’s been absolutely puking in Whistler the last couple of days and it’s set to continue tonight and I think, though tomorrow. Visibility was crap today but plenty of scope for fresh lines, even later on during the day.

Two young American ski team prospects have been killed at the team Austrian training camp, together with others they had been off-piste as they returned from training on the Glacier. Sad times, be careful.

link

Visibility was crap today

You better get used to it there!! 😆 … Yellow lenses are a must there imo.

Grim for the up and coming members of that ski team. I just got back from a week in Paradiski… report and some pictures to follow! 🙂

Completely clear lenses or nothing at all most of the time around the solstice. A couple of mates skied into a piste-basher cable on Saturday evening at dusk. Nothing broken but a rotor cuff tear for one. The snow is lousy off piste so most ski tourers are doing things that allow a return via the pistes which requires care when there are four machines and their cables up there.

Well I just got back from a week in Champagny. The snow was actually a lot better than I thought it would be. I had an off piste guide for two separate 3 and 4 hour sessions, which was well worth it imo (I wouldn’t have done any of this without a guide). There was pretty much no base, but high up on north facing slopes the conditions were pretty good. Hit a few rocks here and there but nothing too bad so no core shots, and the snow was a lot softer and deeper than I expected, considering the state of the pistes in most places.
I was given a transceiver and probe and shovel for the day for my off piste guide, I was embarrassed to say I hadn’t actually used them before. I think they’ll be next on my list.

On my second off piste day in the cloudy pictures, a skier my guide got chatting to at the bottom who went down a similar route to us had to pull his avalanche airbag in a slide he got caught up in. Both days were really good, I found the traverse quite sketchy at times, (got a photo of the slightly easier part).

Champagny Le Haut down the other side there, after going in from the mid station of Roche de Mio, Champagny.

Some freshies were to be found. Skiid all the way down into Champagny Le Haut on this one.

Into the abyss.

Finished up down there in the valley.

Now to face the depressing thought that I might not be skiing for another year 🙁 .

You better get used to it there!! … Yellow lenses are a must there imo.

Currently my goggles have cat 2 ‘rose’ lenses. Work well for a wide range of conditions, but fall down when it’s super snowy/foggy. You can always see far enough ahead but there’s no definition in the snow. Think you may be right – some cat 1 yellow lenses might be a good shout.

Oh and regarding back packs, I have an Ortovox which I really like.

I’d have skied at least another metre right of that cornice.

Michael – I’m heading to La Plagne in March. Which guide did you use, and what was the cost of you don’t mind me asking?

I’d have skied at least another metre right of that cornice.

It did feel slightly sketchy but I had faith in my guide. He pointed out that we were following a group of people being led by the writer of the back country ski guide book for the Savoie region.

I was staying in Champagny and booked them through the ESF there. The two guides I had were Damien and Vincent. Vincent is also an instructor with the ESF where as Damien is a pure mountain guide only. Both were very good, and I was told there is only one guide called Damien! It was 189 euros for 4 hours and about 153 for 3 hours. Takes a while to get anywhere so they don’t do any less than 3 hours.

Use your own brain Michael, your clearly have one as you saw danger where one local “expert” didn’t and your own guide was happy to follow like a sheep. Guides die regularly and two local ones have “lost” clients but survived themselves.

Objectively those tracks are too close, I say that because we ski ridges like that every year and see them after the cornice has broken. Sometimes just the cornice drops off, sometimes the cornice and all the snow on that side of the ridge avalanches off.

You and your guide didn’t make new tracks at a safer distance given you yourself judged the trail too close to the edge perhaps because you were too lazy and/or in too much of a hurry to make a new trail further from the cornice.

Guides in a hurry because they have another client in a few hours really irritate me, they are a real pain/danger on the mountain. We got overtaken by a guide and his client when we were moving together down the icy, rock-strewn descent from the Goûter. The guide was fretting about missing the tramway and urging the client to go faster – on a section where there are regular injuries and deaths (a guide recently) due to falls and people knocking stones down onto others.

Seconded Edukator, you can see someone’s taken a safer line further to skiiers rights.

Got to say, I agree with Edukator* there too. The tracks in that first photo look like they go surprisingly close to that cornice.

They break further back than you think and can pull snow with them:

And you don’t get a lot of warning when they go:

😯

 

* (Disclaimer: I am NOT experienced or knowledgeable about mountain safety – just stating my opinion)

Lucky escape for that bloke. Scary vid.

I was about to say that whoever set that line on the cornice was tired of living but you all beat me to it ! As per the picture above, they go quite a bit before the crest, i once snapped one off on Glas Maol (patrolling) and wet my pants a bit as i was quite far behind it.

@michael nice photos. @Edukator makes a fair point, on the second section of the ridge all the tracks seem quite close to the edge whereas on the first part there are two distinct lines. I’ve done a few traverses / ridge lines in my time where the guide has described them as no fall zones, I think I am now retired from those sort of runs.

Michael – I’m heading to La Plagne in March. Which guide did you use, and what was the cost of you don’t mind me asking?

I can recommend Reflex[/url] in la Plagne, great bunch of local guys.

Poor Michael just wanted to show his holiday pics and is getting rinsed!

Better than buried alive though I guess

Yeah sorry Michael.

FWIW I enjoyed the pics.

A bit harsh but fair I hope. Please leave the pics up, they’re good pics and an insight into what to be aware of for STWers about to head out into the hills. I showed them to Madame with no prompting before posting a comment, she immediately pointed out the cornice risk.

Second day back in work after getting back from PDS at the weekend, and it sucks. Think we got very lucky – flew out on the 27th amidst the chaos on the roads in France. Couple of hours delay but otherwise no problems, but did hear some horror stories. Hardest part of the journey was dragging the bags through the deep snow up the driveway to the house we were staying 😆 Plenty of fresh snow around through the start of the week, but offpiste needed care and the pistes got worn quickly.

Off to Austria in a fortnight, so now watching this weekend’s forthcoming dump with interest 🙂

Oh, and interesting photos on previous page – no way you’d have got me that near that cornice, but can certainly see how the follow-the-guide thinking happens. Friend of a friend was caught in an avalanche a few years ago when with a guide. He had a bad feeling about it, but trusted the guide and dropped in. Subsequent avalanche took him over a cliff and he’s paralysed from the waist down. Easy to think the guide always knows best, but those photos are a timely reminder that you always need to be aware of surroundings in the mountains and not just follow the sheep.

Just booked to go 17th January. Staying in Tignes Le Lac. Been a few times before , its just the snow ( so far ) has been patchy with only 1 storm and nothing in the immediate future.
This is why we are going for altitude and a hight resort. The freeze line climbs right up over the weekend . Really hope we get some new snow around 20th Jan to top up whats left.

Personally I wouldnt have gone and put off going for a week , but my skiing buddy has to organise cover , childcare , wife all around us going away.
No really great deals , although we paid approx half price , with a BOGOHP lift pass deal as well. Wont be doing 3 trips this year.