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

/\/\ too late to be worrying about that sunshine 🙂

howsyourdad1 – Member
https://vimeo.com/144523041

Really good carving video, sorry direct linky no worky

they’re pretty nifty..

piemonster – Member

/\/\ too late to be worrying about that sunshine

I consider myself inept, but as yet not a div, per se 😀

Took our 4&1/2 year old to Xscape while his big brother was in Laserzone.

Button lifts were a bit of a struggle, but he hasn’t forgotten how to snowplough down the slope.

😀

Have we done the latest Candide vid yet?

H8rz gunna h8, but that was pretty cool!

Watched all f that thinking “HOW” did they film and ski that!
Never moaning about conditions again.

Never moaning about conditions again.

Was looking at the Serre Che webcams earlier. Those appear to be the current conditions. 🙁

hmm. think that Audi ad might owe un hommage a celui ci:

http://www.zapiks.fr/leaf-line.html

which probably owes the same in turn to plenty of others. bof.

Candide certainly bams it up a notch!

Nice one. Did anyone else yelp as he went between those two trees?

I was wondering if it was filmed on snow then cleverly made to look like mud, but the more if it I saw the more it looked like mud skiing.

Hopefully you’ll get your Christmas wish of a big dump of powder Cap.

I was thinking how much the landings would have hurt.
He needs to look after his knees 🙂

Just got a newsletter from the French bike guides’ association. It’s all about Fat Biking on snow and points out to me that, as a bike guide who also holds a winter sports qualification, I’m qualified to run Fat-Bike-on-Snow stuff (yes, even on the French ski slopes! Mon dieu!).

Not something I’d ever given much thought to, but it does seem to be getting quite popular in some resorts.

Just curious, as this is obviously a pretty keen cross-over MTB / Ski audience, how many would be interested in having a crack at it while on a ski/snowboard holiday? Suggested activities are stuff like “last run” Fat Bike descents of the ski runs after the lifts close, XC-ish loops on snowshoe trails or similar and night-rides. Realistically, bike-hire + guide isn’t going to be cheap, although a fat bike is at least a lot cheaper to buy in and maintain than, e.g. a DH bike.

Re. Candide Thovex – having done my fair share of snowboarding across bare grassy slopes or forest floors when off-piste missions pushing the limits of the snow cover have been taken to extremes, I know how very, very wrong that sh*t can go. Whole video makes me wince, but fair play! That last shot was surely achieved via the magic of cinema?

Stevo – as a bad board rider, and a mediocre fat bike rider, it sounds like a fantastic early / late season idea as an extra. You know those times when some pistes are open higher up, but the lower stretches are brown/green?

I think I’d love it as an option, and if it was just me (not my wife, 9 and 4 year sons) it would influence my choice of Easter time resort (but then I probably wouldn’t be going at Easter without school holiday issues) but it would be for the days / times / routes where the board doesn’t work.

Ultimately fantastic as snow biking (fat or otherwise) is, I can do it in the UK most winters, and it would really just be a novelty in the Alps.

Fantastic on the days when the resort is a little bare though.

Fat biking is not sommthing I’ve tried. However for me a skiing holiday is just that. I can cycle* anytime from our front door but can’t ski. So it’s possibly a no from me.

*well I used to before everything in my life went pear shaped 🙁

Edit: regarding the skiing on anything but snow, having skied on grass and heather, even on steep stuff, I’ve come to a halt rather quickly, infact far too quickly for my liking. Heather skiing was unintentional 🙂

That fatbiking idea would work nicely in resorts where they have less reliable snow conditions or a shorter season from lack of elevation.

Re:Candide
Yeah, apart from the last shot the only thing that has been doctored are the cat’s exhaust emission readings. 😆

I wouldnt do fatbiking on a snowboard holiday, just a personal thing but i rarely do anything else other than ‘ride’ and eat dinner!

on another note. I love this. A fantastic reverse taco!

Hey Stevomcd

We rented fatbikes in Fernie last season as it was fun alternative to avoid the ski hill at the weekend. But we were there for 3 weeks and the off-piste/backcountry was shocking due to the appalling warm wet weather … 😥

The locals had ‘groomed’ some of the summer MTB trails specially for fatbikes as businesses were desperate to try and encourage folks to stay.

Ordinarily cycling probably isn’t something I’d consider unless I was in resort for a lengthy period and looking for something other than running or sitting in a hot-tub for an ‘off day’ activity …

Late season /summer season (on a glacier) might be viable as an afternoon activity when everything is bit slushy, but:

1. Not many viable glacier resorts left
2. If I’m on a snowboard trip I like to get as much time on the board as possible

im not taking my fat bike skiing, but the thought of it as an alternative would make me much more relaxed about snow conditions in the run up to my holiday!

Most resorts have a floodlit toboggan run. How about fat biking down that after a good apres session or meal at the top.
Might be worth sellotaping everyone’s EHIC cards to their foreheads first.

Winter has properly arrived in Whistler. 140cm or so at the weather station at 1680m and a lot more than that in the apline. Snow is meant to continue falling for the next few days as well. Had a great day on both mountains today, fresh (and freshish) powder to be had all day. Only downside was the 100-120kmh wind on Harmony ridge.

Here’s fairly rubbish edit of the worst parts of the day. Apparently I’m rubbish at remembering to a) press record and b) clean the snow off the lens.

Looks like a fun day!

When it started with a shower scene I was worried, very worried!

Looks like a fun day 🙂

Once upon a time I tried the green rail in the Mottaret ski park. I fell off and broke a rib. As I lay in the snow, the French kids going overhead on the chair lift made “nee nar” ambulance noises. Surprisingly, Red Bull didn’t come knocking.

This guy on the other hand:

Winter has properly arrived in Whistler. Lucky you!

I for one am feeling relieved that I decided against booking a pre New Year trip to the Alps this year, as it appears to be deja vue, all over again! After winter arrived in the Alps at the end of Nov, its gone back to Autumn again and I expect a few people are worrying about Christmas now? 🙁

Hopefully by the time I get out there mid Jan….winter really WILL have arrived.

whatnobeer – glad you’re getting your just deserts. Hope it makes up for last winter.

Now if we could just get some really big dumps in Europe, that would be great 😀

Plenty of snow in Avoriaz.

Now if we could just get some really big dumps in Europe, that would be great

Yep, off to AdH on Boxing Day and getting slightly concerned at lack of forecast snow now…

Not much snow in the Dolomites yet, although I’m not going until late February so am fairly hopeful they’ll have had plenty by then 😉

I am also a proud owner of some Hestra Heli mitts because of this thread, just arrived this moring and these things are the dogs’s danglies 😀

Plenty of snow in Avoriaz.

Not convinced!

I’m off to Wagrain. And while the snow there is no snow in town, the slopes are covered thanks to the bit of snow that fell at the end of November and some pretty liberal use of snow cannons at night time. As a result I’m not too worried, although we arrive next Saturday and the forecast is showing as 10C!

I’m off to Val Thorens on Boxing Day…..does anyone know if there are any mountaineering type shops there as opposed to just ski shops? Quite fancy a new waterproof jacket for trekking…..given the euro rate buying stuff over there works out pretty well currently!

As for the fatbiking on a mountain idea I’m another in the nothing other than snowboarding whilst on a snowboarding holiday camp. As someone else said, I can ride any day of the year in the UK….snowboarding on an actual mountain is an expensive luxury that I can’t do very often!

looks like the northern alps, Austria esp are in for a large dump this week.

getting a bit bleak for the southern alps tho, some resorts postponing opening, feeling a bit worried for Sainte Foy early Jan…

does anyone know if there are any mountaineering type shops there as opposed to just ski shops

I was there last year, trying to recall what was in the little shopping centre. I think there were a couple of shops that might have what you are after. Hopefully someone will remember it better than me!

jaffejoffer – the large dump is only likely to be on the higher slopes (1,800m +). It’s still pretty warm so is likely to fall as rain lower down 🙁 Where we are going is 800m in the town with the area topping out just below 2,000m.

That said, it has been warm for the last couple of weeks but with a massive temperature inversion. When I was looking at the weekend (Flachau) it was -5.8C down in the valley with the cannons on full pelt. By the mid station it was +4C, top station was about the same.

im sure the skiing will be reet enough, reports saying good conditions in Tignes and Val d’isere which are just down the road… just want a big fluffy white winter wonderland in resort for the kids sake really…

jaffejoffer – It’s surprisingly decent here at the moment. I was up for a skin the other day:

More pics:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153078822801899.1073741873.16428646898&type=3

Off-piste options pretty-much zero unless you go up somewhere high above Val / Tignes for a tour, but looks like we should be able to open with some acceptable piste conditions.

Far too early to think about January conditions. It could be much worse than now, it’ll probably be a lot better than now, but it certainly won’t bear any resemblance to now.

feeling a bit worried for Sainte Foy early Jan…

Thats a long way away snow wise, we took a flier on Sainte Foy before Christmas (scheduied opening week) last year and it was closed (so so skiing in Tignes) but the day we left there was a huge dump to the extent the roads where shut ! The resort is great for kids imho, we had the wonderland conditions in Dec ’12 pre Christmas.

Sadly a 17 year old Brit has been killed after hitting his head in Meribel. Reports say he was on a blue run.

Far too early to think about January conditions. It could be much worse than now, it’ll probably be a lot better than now, but it certainly won’t bear any resemblance to now.

you available for bike guiding if it gets that bad stevo??