Stoner – Member

Fortunately, they’ve been working on a new reservoir and pumped supply to artificial snow network over the last year so there are skiable pistes.

But its not cold enough, daughter has been there for a couple of months and skied one day after a fresh fall but had to skin up. Tody she was sat subathing on the balcony today when she rang.

Great day in Avoriaz today. A light bit icy in places.
Plannnig on going to hockey match tomorrow.

Chris, I picked up tickets to hockey just a little while ago, PM me for phone number and we might get a chance to catch up over a beer at the rink.

Avalanches – BBC4 Now! (Tuesday, 22nd December. 2200hrs)

Wolf creek in Colorado has had 192″ of powder so far this season including 45″ in the last five days. Lordy lord lord

Glad you had a good trip Solarider. Turns out that that longterm forecast wasn’t too far off when it said ‘some snow’ was coming up 😀

Do I sense a “What outerwear for riding DH in the Alps in December” thread.

I’m not sure i can see the benefits of opening some of the lifts to bikes at this time of year, it has to be a bit of a slippy gloop fest, bikes are a fair bit more expensive to hire than skis, and i don’t think you average skier is ready for just how rough a DH crash is likely to be.
If you were a really enthusiastic DH’er you’d probably be at home doing uplifts on you own bike or in Spain enjoying sunny trails

Can anyone recommend some insurance for a weeks trip for the French Alpes please? First time skiing so not sure what to look for etc.

@oliver – Verbier have been running some guided rides, looks pretty nice riding from resort down to the valley floor. The skiing there is 40% open and only the higher stuff

@bash, you can check whether you can buy insurance with the loft pass, eg carte neige. Thats very good for recovery in the event of an accident

Also worth checking with your credit card provider. If it’s your first time, you’re going to be on piste only, and (hopefully ) in tuition for much of it, so insurance can be a little bit easier.

Where are you going, bash?

Drone madness, has to stop IMO.

Marcel Hirsch

bash – Member

Can anyone recommend some insurance for a weeks trip for the French Alpes please? First time skiing so not sure what to look for etc.

I use Protectivity, annual as it covers off piste mountain biking and climbing.

FYI Carte neige when purchased with piste pass for PdS is c. €3 a day.

Edit, this is the PdS insurance scheme
http://en.snowrisk.com

Does the Carte Neige cover you if you’re on the bike? it’s cracking value in that case

No, just ski pass periods

but seeing as they’re opening for bikes?

@CFH going to Les Deux Alpes, I’ve had a fair few days tuition at ChillFactore (indoor Snowdome) so can parallel ski etc so not going to have lessons but will only be on piste.

Thanks for all of the recommendations, I’ll have a look into those.

Awesome.

I still think lessons are good for a newbie, especially as it also helps you to navigate around the resort.

Another gorgeous day in Avoriaz but Snow is getting low.

Just had a small flurry overnight, so only have 2.8m on the mountain at Sunshine. It’s cold here though, -12 currently and can only really get colder. Last night was -20 as I tried to stay awake until a ‘normal’ time for Canadia.

Sadly, I woke up at 1am local and the jet lag is real. Coffee is the order of the day now that I have my snowbaord. Tomorrow we’ll be out at Lake Louise.

Photos to follow.

New snow at Loveland in Colorado. It is not fun at all. 😉
Been a great start to the season here, hopefully it continues!

Sadly, I woke up at 1am local and the jet lag is real. Coffee is the order of the day now that I have my snowbaord. Tomorrow we’ll be out at Lake Louise

The hard part is finding somewehere to have breakfast before the first bus, although the day lodges at lake louise and Norquay are both good, and open before the lifts

@willard – Really found Melatonin from the US supermarkets to help with jetlag.

Only have 2.8m

😀

We’re out in “too low for early season” Austria at the moment. Considering we’ve been skiing man made snow on piste for the whole week it’s been pretty impressive (especially compared to last year’s disappointment in Skiwelt).

There hasn’t been any natural snow of any substance for about 4 weeks and it has been too warm for the cannons to be running most of the week. It’s been hovering around freezing around town most of the time – getting up to 17c at the top! Yet there aren’t any mounds of sugary slush like you get in Spring. Lovely smooth flowing pistes in the morning followed by hard/scraped and very fast with very light soft stuff in between in the afternoon. For my sins I carry a Garmin and whilst we don’t blast it we’ve managed 4 x 40+ mile days and a 39 mile day (lifts and skiing).

If there was plenty of natural white stuff between the pistes here (as they are at the moment) no on one would be moaning. I know where I’d rather be at the moment!

All this said, I much prefer being out here for this week than next when it will be quite a bit busier and more difficult to get about.

2.8 is the cumulative snowfall. The base is more like 1m or a bit more.

Should have added that we also got to see a Crashed Ice race the other night. Which is stupid and amazing in equal measure!

Frohe Weinachten from Maria Alm, same conditions as Hammerite.
Santa popped to the balcony earlier.

Frihe Weinachten to you too colp. Lots of Stille Nacht rattling around these parts (probably something to do with staying next to the church where Rev Mohr is buried).

Could be worse
You could be my mate who got to Jackson Hole and spent half an hour today, looking into a windblown, hardpacked Corbet’s and turned around…

Crikey. There really isn’t any snow, is there?

That said, was talking to some friends in Montana yesterday and they’re fed up of the stuff already. Still, the pics from Bridger look awesome!

Trying to wangle another work trip during the winter! Big Sky is calling me….

Ok, so they had the cannons on at Lake Louise, but it was cold, the slopes weren’t icy and it was not as busy as I thought it would be.

All in all, an awesome day. Same thing tomorrow i think.

Wow, colp, that looks pretty savage 🙁

After queuing at the post office for an hour this morning (pretty much the worst thing about living here) and fully expecting a packed mountain, I eventually got up Blackcomb and was greeted with a pretty much empty mountain. Quick snap from Ruby Bowl

[url=https://flic.kr/p/BW8YKe]Christmas Eve Spankys[/url] by Jamie Carson, on Flickr

Went up to Lindarets yesterday to embarrass myself in front of my children for my first go on Skis. There’s not a lot of snow as we all know but there’s more than I feared. And plenty for 3x learners. Mrs stoner just has to grit her teeth and dream of the day the boys and I no longer need her tutoring.

Going up again today to brave a few blues up and over to Avoriaz.

Happy Christmas from Canada everyone. Just thought I would post here before heading off on the bus to Lake Louise.

Adds Willard and stoner (again) to the list

Another day of piste bashing round here and it was great. Home tomorrow 🙁

Great conditions today and empty slopes, I love changeover day!
It’s always fairly quiet here though to be fair, only ever queued for 1 lift.
The cannons around 1000m are on in the early mornings, it’s warmer higher up so they can’t run them, the region is doing a fantastic job with the pistes considering.

Just left Avoriaz.
It was so hot today, no snow will be left.

Do I want to learn to board? I can just about get myself down most pisted stuff on skis – goodish intermediate. Junior 1 is 11 and is a good intermediate skier, but he really wants to board, so I’m thinking we could do lessons together. Any views on relative levels of fitness / coordination / bottle required skiing vs boarding?

And no, I’m not trolling, I’d really like some considered advice from folk who can do both.

Oh and most of my sliding is done in Scotland, if that makes any difference.

Good to be able to do both IMO. Snowboard is more fun on powder days and for messing about on slushy spring snow. Skis better for going fast on hard-packed pistes and covering some distance/getting around the mountain more conveniently.