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

Looking at trying to sort a touring/ski mountaineering trip to the Lyngen Alps in northern norway.

Has anyone been?
Would love to do the whole sail and ski experience, but seems likely to be too expensive for the moment.

I did a day at FWA years ago and, to be honest, I wouldn’t go back. Too flat. The snow wasn’t great when I was there, which didn’t help, but still, I wouldn’t go back.

These days, unless I win the lottery or something, I could never justify paying for cat / heli. Better terrain and better snow to be had for free*. People ask us about doing heli drops all the time and I never recommend it. If it’s worth paying £200 to get one run in a heli, it’s worth walking for an hour to get something at least as good.

*Payment in sweat may be required….

it’s worth walking for an hour to get something at least as good

This. Earn your turns.

Spin – have you checked flights from Liverpool? Generally pretty cheap and available and not to hard to get to from southern Scotland / central belt?

If it’s worth paying £200 to get one run in a heli, it’s worth walking for an hour to get something at least as good.

I hear you Stevo, but isn’t that the voice of someone who lives out there for a full season, knows how to snowshoe and splitboard, and has the time to wait for good conditions on slopes that can be walked to safely?

Coming at it as someone who only gets two weeks, can’t ski/snowshoe/splitboard, and would find an hour hike through deep snow at altitude pretty exhausting – I can definitely see the draw to the heli/cat.

Spin – have you checked flights from Liverpool? Generally pretty cheap and available and not to hard to get to from southern Scotland / central belt?

Cheers for the idea but we’re in Inverness with relatives in Glasgow so really got to be central belt.

Looking at trying to sort a touring/ski mountaineering trip to the Lyngen Alps in northern norway.

Has anyone been?

Yep – I did a trip there in 2012 but stayed at the ‘Lyngen Lodge’ rather than on a boat. The sail & ski trips do look great, but I’m getting old now and there’s something quite appealing about comfort and dry boots.

It’s an absolutely amazing place and it was a fantastic experience – but then we were incredibly lucky with the weather.

http://www.lyngenlodge.com/%5B/url%5D

Let me know if you want any more info etc

I think nedrapier has been a couple of times as well …

I did a day at FWA years ago and, to be honest, I wouldn’t go back. Too flat. The snow wasn’t great when I was there

… and to be fair, when I went it had snowed 100cm+ blower powder in the previous 24 hours 8) – I probably would have had a great time anywhere, but I still think it’s worth checking out for a day if you don’t want to ‘hike for your lines’ etc

Spin: have you looked on skyscanner for flights?

Quick search suggests they have some easyJet flights from Edinburgh to Geneva for £337. Which is crap but better than £500 each way! Depends on your dates really.

No there’s an idea.

Fly out a day or two early and get a cheap hotel somewhere. Might be cheaper than £500 weekend flights.

This looks worth a watch:

Higher is free today – best of the Jones Trilogy but a long way.

http://www.redbull.com/en/snow/events/1331683612414/red-bull-exclusive-jeremy-jones-higher-premiere

Just got out of hospital and I definitely won’t be snowboarding when we go to Morzine in 14 weeks. If I am lucky I will be able to drive and ride my road bike again in 8 weeks.

On the plus side hopefully this will fix my ankle for good and I will be able to ride properly again.

[/url]
No snowboarding for me :-([/url] by i_ache[/url], on Flickr

Ouch. Best wishes and I hope you have a good physio.

I know some good bars and restaurants in Les Gets if that helps.

Thanks. I new it was going to happen but was hopeful that I would be able to get a day or two in but my Surgeon says no way. I think I’m just going to chill out drinking beer and relaxing.

I’ll probably give night sledging a go but nothing more adventurous than that.

Really fancy trying Austria (St Anton) this year, any top tips? Most places seem to require a ski bus to the lifts, is this a real chore or super efficient?
Mixed group of abilities ranging from early intermediate to seasonnaires with 5 years experience….

A friend went there last year (St Anton)and his daughter is Chalet maiding there this year and they all seem to love it. The ski buses in Austria are pretty good, but obviously its not like a 50 yd walk to the lift.

Ive just booked a cheeky five days from 27th Dec staying at Worgl but with a car, so can drive to various spots in the area such as Auffach, Kitzbuhel, Soll etc. Has anyone been to Hopfgarten as that is quite close and looks pretty extensive?

Also I noticed its 197 euros for a five day pass. How does that compare with other areas and France?

http://www.skilogik.com/skis.php

Wow! Some of these are stunning.

St Anton is the best riding in Austria in my view . It’s also known as St Manton as there seems to be a high proportion of dudes there.

On another note , insane snowboarding

If You Only Watch One Snowboard Video This Week, This Should Be It

I spend a lot of time in St anton and, assuming you book a place in town you’ll be within walking distance of the lifts. My favourite place in Europe – great lift accessible back country, some even better touring if you fancy taking a guide and fantastic boozy après.

Pistes can get busy at the end of the day and a I know a few people that think the pistes can be a little tough for newbies…. But my wife learnt there and didn’t have too many issues.

I’ve been entered into some mental race there at end of season. Think megavalanche but on skis… The wife’s idea of a fun birthday gift

Also I noticed its 197 euros for a five day pass. How does that compare with other areas and France?

€197 for 5 days (and presumably around €235 for 6 days) is on the spendier end of the scale. Not quite Switzerland though.

I hear you Stevo, but isn’t that the voice of someone who lives out there for a full season, knows how to snowshoe and splitboard, and has the time to wait for good conditions on slopes that can be walked to safely?

Coming at it as someone who only gets two weeks, can’t ski/snowshoe/splitboard, and would find an hour hike through deep snow at altitude pretty exhausting – I can definitely see the draw to the heli/cat.

Sure, but cat/heli is no guarantee of good conditions either. If it’s sun-baked or wind-scoured in/around resort, it’s sun-baked and wind-scoured where the cats and helis go too. OK, so it’s probably going to be less tracked than easy-access resort slackcountry stuff, so that does help, but you are not guaranteeing conditions by opening up your wallet.

I’d say spend the same money on getting a guide for a week as you might pay for a cat/heli for the day. Better odds of good conditions as they may well change over the course of the week – you’d be gutted if you’d paid for a heli on a Tuesday, then it dumped on the Wednesday!

There is very little skill required to snowshoe or splitboard (you definitely don’t need to be able to ski to use a splitboard). Anyone can pick it up in a day. If you’ve got a group, split the cost of a guide and get personalised service for a week. If it’s just you, join a backcountry camp for a week.* Either way, you’ll save a ton of money over cat/heli and have an awesome time.

On the other hand, if you have the means to afford 2 weeks of heli in somewhere like BC where conditions are close to guaranteed then don’t let me stop you!

*Purveyors of such things are never too far away, cough, cough! 😳

Trigger finger is itchy this morning.

Feeling Austrian as well.

God I hope that’s not a euphemism 😯

cat/heli is no guarantee

Yes, I agree with you there. I’ve been lucky enough in past seasons to go away for months rather than weeks. That gave us the freedom and the time to get into skinning and learn when and where to go.

I find it hard to justify a day’s cat boarding these days. For me the biggest problem is being in a mixed group. I’m no Johan Olofsson (showing my age) but when you’ve just paid out £250+ and you spend the day waiting for the slower riders, or worse still watching a huge field of fresh snow get trashed by a greedy idiot it’s incredibly frustrating.

bluebird: my biggest worry is being one of those slower riders 😳

Johan Olofsson (showing my age)

Me too, Johan was the man. Still the smoothest, most impressive big-mountain rider I’ve ever seen.

Can’t seem to find a link to his part in TB9 right now, but check it out if you get a chance. It’s what made me want to be a “big mountain rider”!

What Stevo says is true there are no guarantees. We went to sleep one night at Snowwater, the trees were laden with snow, we had been skiing waist deep all afternoon. Woke up the next morning, green trees and rain… I nearly cried.
Not all bad, we flew in the chopper to Red Mountain, landed in the car park and felt like a rock star. It wasn’t what we planned but was a great day out. Next day we found powder after a big drop in temperature. Pay your money, take what nature throws at you…

Never mind all that serious chat….watch this!

If only I was half as good as these guys!

That’s bonkers!

Do you mean TB5?

3:03

The start looks a bit dated, but that descent still stands up now. Xavier De La Rue is the only guy I can think of who charges like that today.

bluebird – nah, TB9, although his part in TB5 was cool too.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/16/lightsuit-night-ski-movie-segment-afterglow-sweetgrass_n_5989610.html

(Nicked from Snowheads)

Wallop, that’s a beautiful looking film. I wonder how much post production went on to make it look like that?

I’m thinking there must be a fair bit. Essentially they can only see as far as their LEDs will allow them – they are skiing into darkness!

Tronskis! 😀

Wow. That was stunning.

@sprootlet St Anton is on my all time top list (FYI Verbier, Val D’Isere, Jackson Hole), I’ve been skiing 35 years and have been to loads of places.

Great combination of both serious mountain and motorway pistes and everything in between, great town and nightlife, short-ish transfer.

I don’t recall ever having got a bus, it can be a few mins walk from accommodation to lifts, sometimes we’ve been able to ski to the bottom station.

Got confirmation earlier this week that I’m off to Zermatt for a week at the end of January!! 😀
As I’ll be partway through training for Ironman Austria, I’ll be logging it as a week of “Altitude cross training”! 🙂

@wallop, top movie/post. Could have been a strong clear moonlight night, you can see quite a lot once your eyes get settled (clearly I’ve done nothing like that but I have always been amazed at how much you can see on a sailing boat at night under full moon)

BTW love that sound track; First Aid, Swedish Folk duo, playing Hammersmith in Jan 🙂

I saw them in Bristol a few weeks ago – they were fantastic! Really strong live. And a little something different might take you by surprise 😉

It snowed in the Tirol this week with over 30cm falling and lying right down to 1400m 😀