The STW Ski & Snowboard thread. The 2015-2016 season

Seems like its warming up in the Alps this week….NOT what we want to see, but is there enough snow to keep the open slopes open?

NOT what we want to see,

Not a bad thing, means at least a decent safe base will be created if not too much melts. Lots of people died last year because no solid decent base built up

I decided to bite the bullet and bought a pair of Hestra gloves. Despite the expense, they seem to be the one that everyone recommends. Luckily I found a place that had a pair of size 12 in stock, so I should have enough space for liners as well.

cchris2lou
Horse drawn sleigh from the top car park FTW if you turn up at a sensible time of day.

Never used it though as have only driven up the hill to avoid the queues at morzine

Anyone point me in the direction of a good quality purveyor of women’s ski jackets?

Aside from Sport Pursuit.

piemonster – All kinds out there… Ellis Brigham/Snow and Rock if you want 2016 at full price. TK Maxx if you want a bit of a lottery (I got a Quiksilver goretex jacket for £75 reduced from £330 last weekend)!

I quite like Two Seasons.

If you are very confident on size try one of the European online shops – most are still offering Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals. The exchange rate means you can get some real bargains. Glisshop are really good.
We placed an order last night with Snowinn – good prices, not sure what the service is like though. Will be interesting when that parcel arrives if we’re not in, not sure they’ll find a neighbour willing to take in skis, coffin bag, poles and a load of other stuff.

piemonster. You could try The Sports Outlet. They have a fair few last season jackets on there.
My wife and I have picked up jackets (Quiksilver Mission, Bonfire, North Face) from TKMaxx.
Wife also scours Charity shops and has picked up some amazingly priced items (As new North Face gilet for £16).
Westbeach[/url] have a sale on at the moment.

piemonster – I’ve had some great deals from Blue Tomato (Austrian shop that delivers to UK no problem)

and Absolute-Snow.co.uk

Wow!

Thought I’d share this pic taken at Cervinia this past week. Just makes me want to bomb that all the way!

Nice Rockape. Cervinia is great in a point your skis and let it go type way. Pistes are very wide, very long and mostly not hugely steep. It’s very easy to cover a lot of ground very quickly. It does suffer from strong winds though which regularly close the lifts.

im looking at getting an airbag back pack. do they come complete? i keep looking and looks like you have to buy all the kit seperate

We placed an order last night with Snowinn – good prices, not sure what the service is like though.

My experiences lead me to believe the Inn group service is pish.

Thanks for all the suggestions listed above, will take a mooch.

@flashy

That’s superb 😆

Y’know those inserts in snowboards into which you screw your bindings? One of them in my snowboards has become cross threaded (just remember this from last time I used it – it’s in the loft at the moment but I’m considering taking it with me this year instead of renting again). Are they easily removable?

I think I’ve done that cervinia piste if it’s the one that goes from kleine Matterhorn all the way down. Epic. Part of a road trip with mates quite a few years ago where we based at aosta and did a different resort each day. pila, courmayer, cervinia, champulac.
Highly recommended

Y’know those inserts in snowboards into which you screw your bindings? One of them in my snowboards has become cross threaded

T-nuts can be removed and replaced (by drilling through the base of the board) but I’d say it’s an unnecessary faff for just one of them. You should be able to just re-tap the threads with a decent tap & die set. T-nuts are standard M6

im looking at getting an airbag back pack. do they come complete?

Which ones have you been looking at Jedi?

A few years ago most were complete, whereas now a number of the current solutions (particularly ABS-Vario style) are modular which allows you to choose a pack size (or multiple pack sizes) that meet your requirements i.e. small pack for heli drop, medium for day touring, large for multiday touring etc …

Is that what you mean by not ‘complete’ ?

Have you had a look at Face West’s selection?

Airbags

The Black Diamond Jet Force solution looks to be very interesting development (and avoid the customs hassle of trying to fly with a cylinder). They don’t seem to offer vertical carry for snowboards though

[quoteT]he Black Diamond Jet Force [/quote]

£900 for a day pack 😯

£900 for a day pack

I think the day version is <£800 … but yeah – it’s a bug chunk of change for sure!!

But then getting cylinders confiscated / replaced can be costly and you can’t fly to the US with a cylinder!

I’m off for a weeks skiing in January and need to purchase some goggles and gloves. The goggles will need to go over my prescription glasses too, any recommendations for some without breaking the bank?

Smith do decent OTG goggles. I used to have a pair that cost about £30, although that was in a sale.

@Digby, Cheers. Certainly not drilling through the bottom of the board so will try a tap and die first.

I use Cebe OTG goggles and they’re pretty good. Only very occasionally do they steam up and it’s when we’ve been stood around a long time. They also fit my face a lot better than the Smith onces I tried which were really tight despite being OTG ones.

so will try a tap and die first

forgot to mention, you will need an M6 tap with a flat ‘nose’ rather than a pointy one

RS components do them.

deadlydarcy – if it’s a 4-hole binding system, you can always just rely on the “3 was enough for Burton” strategy…

Tbh stevo, it’s done 2½ holidays with only three. Was only thinking I’d sort it properly with some downtime over Christmas. I probably won’t and it’ll do another couple of holidays this season. 😀

“3 was enough for Burton” strategy…

Tru dat! … or just one big one! 🙂

I probably won’t and it’ll do another couple of holidays this season

… well, you could always use this as an excuse to tinker with your stance and go wider! (and use another set of holes) 🙂

Or cut it and make a split board 😀

Have we done the Snooc yet?

Home

😯

Not sure I get the thinking behind the Snooc. Skin up, take off bindings, bolt perfectly good skis together, wear out perfectly serciceable shoes whilst filling your ski pant legs with snow.

Try walking up and sliding down again on a bin liner! Or Skiing down on the skis?

I’m out.

Don’t think we’ve done this yet have we?

Subscribing.

Nice link Digby, thanks.

Cheers Digby,

Seen that linked on fb a couple of times, but not watched it. Mostly because the guy at 2:00, Alex Do, talking about his buddy dying, was the guy I went to the Lyngen Alps with a few years ago. I knew what had happened, and I didn’t want to watch him talk about it. 🙁

Careful out there, folks.

🙁 nedrapier.

Well done him for taking part in the film though. If his story helps others think twice then it will have been worthwhile!

The Know Before You Go video is great, one of the ski schools in Meribel are showing it as part of their mountain safety presentations. Maybe a bit more Gnar than a Henry’s Avalanche type video but it kept 3 chalet companies worth of staff interested and they asked the right questions after watching it.

Not sure about the OTG goggles from Smith but their googles are the best I’ve ever used. I/OXs have great quality lens and are as comfy as anything I’ve over strapped to my head.

Really good carving video, sorry direct linky no worky

I’m liking that very much howsyourdad1 ! cheers 🙂

(btw – just delete the ‘s’ in https and hey presto!)

ok will do next time. i could test that here but it might make a div of myself