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

No offence meant footflaps, but if someone ever hears me combine “remarkably good day” with “70km of pistes”, please shoot me….

Will never, ever understand the British skier’s obsession with clocking up piste mileage. Dull, dull, dull, dull, dull.

I have to agree with Steve. A day should be measured in sweet carves and vin chaud

I think you have to consider the quote in context. Given there is very little snow and what there is is on piste, it is remarkable that anyone can manage 70km. It also gives a good idea for anyone who might be heading out that there is some skiing available and that not all is all doom and gloom.

I don’ t think many would be making those sorts of comments if there was a 1m base with 50cm of fresh overnight.

The other thing is that unfortunately for most (not all) British skiers (like me) we only get one-two weeks a year, visit different areas and so don’t get to know areas really well. I lack the confidence to try out lots of off piste as I’m not sure what is safe. I spend most of my day on piste, trying out different runs, going to different villages, practising and trying to ski improve my skiing. If that means I’m also clocking up the km then so be it.

If I was out for a season every season I’m sure I could pick and choose the conditions I ski in and also get more confident at doing lots of different things. Until that point my one-two weeks a year piste skiing are far less dull than being stuck at home!

Remarkably good day for me.
Landed my first big switch frontside 180, nice and clean too!
Obviously my lad didn’t think it worth videoing.

No offence meant footflaps, but if someone ever hears me combine “remarkably good day” with “70km of pistes”, please shoot me….

Will never, ever understand the British skier’s obsession with clocking up piste mileage. Dull, dull, dull, dull, dull.

Do you ski steve? Doing stuff like that is a lot more fun on skis IMO. I agree it’s totally dull on a snowboard – but on skis I like to bomb down pistes as fast as possible and it’s quite fun getting to see the whole ski area in a day.

Remarkably good day for me.
Landed my first big switch frontside 180, nice and clean too!
Obviously my lad didn’t think it worth videoing.

VOIDH, sorry!

hammerite – nothing to do with piste vs off-piste!

It’s about taking your time and having fun rather than the mindless consummation of distance…. like preferring a 50km MTB ride on fire-road to a 20km ride on singletrack…

Grum – I do ski as well (although I haven’t clicked-in in at least 2 years…). I know what you mean, but when I ski, I just find myself wishing I was good enough at skiing to fanny about instead of just battering on…

50km MTB ride on fire-road to a 20km ride on singletrack…

I like both, on the day it’s down to mood. Sometimes I really do enjoy covering as much ground as possible, sometimes I just like to piss about!

Just to absolutely clear. Yes that means there are days when I’ll enjoy 50+ km of fire road over 20 of the best singletrack you can muster.

stevomcd – Member
Will never, ever understand the British skier’s obsession with clocking up piste mileage. Dull, dull, dull, dull, dull.

I find small resorts and couple of runs exceedingly dull. I get bored with just one resort these days.

I’m used to places like Utah though where there’s a dozen or more resorts within easy reach, of decent sizes and huge amount of in boundary off piste and loads of powder. Plus going a long distance and staying in one resort for two weeks is such a waste.

That said, currently down to a week in Europe, but still I want variety, not doing the same runs every day.

Milky Way coming up for me, and with current weather I need the expanse in the hope that I’m not skiing on rocks or stuck on a couple of artifical snow beginner slopes.

Though seriously considering taking a bike just in case!

I have never measured how far I go on skis but I dont like off piste .

for me the fun is fast slopes .

Mossettes in Avoriaz was bad 10 days ago . only went once .

the best bit was the blue from top of arrare all the way down to Grande combes .

I’ve had the odd day of trying to do as much of the Serre Che pistes as possible. It’s fun! Hard work, too!

Our place is at the other end of the region to the main snow park (Blue Tomato Kingspark) so our best days go like:
15km piste blast first thing, session the park for a few hours, then back via back country off piste (snow permitting) to catch last lift up Aberg (mountain next to apartment). The added thrill of timing it to get in the lift the minute before it closes is great!

Fair enough Steve, but those 70km might have been having fun and taking time. I found where I was last week conditions were very firm and quick, therefore it was easy to get about and cover ground. We didn’t rush and had a lot of fun.

Although I actually really enjoy days when you set a little challenge. Like Flashy when in Serre Che we had a day where we tried to do all the peaks and all the bases. Last week in Wagrain we had a day where we tried to do all the runs on the Flachau, Wagrain and Alpendorf sides – we didn’t actually change the way we skied, no faster we just gave it a go. To me a day on snow in the mountains will rarely be dull regardless of what I do.

Re 70km, it was just meant to illustrate that there was a lot of skiing to be had. Personally I don’t keep any record of what I ski, but someone in the group had a GPS watch and mentioned that we’d just passed 70km by 3pm when we called it a day.

I know it is cliched, but we’ve just finished the NYE night ski thing at Lake Louise. It was awesome.

The day was packed out and we had to de-camp to the Larch side of the resort to get some peace from the crowds, but the night run was great. Freshly groomed slopes (i.e. not so icy), no one around and all the space you wanted. I want all my skiing to be at night.

Back off to Sunshine tomorrow though. I want to hit up some more decent tree runs.

I get the piste milage thing as I’ve spent time riding with skiers. It’s 2 different disciplines of a similar sport. But I do much prefer being with a small (2/3) group of similar ability snowboarders.
I also prefer small resorts as you can lap the same run, picking out all the natural hits and practice different things, you struggle to do that when every run is a new line.

All part of the rich tapestry of life. Have friends who like to blast around at high speed on red runs hardly ever stopping, not for me either though.

@footflaps I learnt to ski in an Italian resort which looked like that. The following year when we went to a resort with actual snow cover it was a breeze 🙂

Good luck to all those going soon, fingers crossed it snows as forecast and stays cold. I could imagine the avalanche risk assesment could be quite tricky.

Advice sought.
I have flights booked for Oslo at Easter.
The BIL has sorted accommodation in Geilo, quality unknown !
Anyone been ?
Any info on the area ?

It’s okay , quite small. All in one side and similar length runs. Some I nice tree stuff and snow sure . Park is good and there is a half pipe . Will be a nice time
of year to go as you will see the sun and the days are long by then.

Off to Tignes, flying tomorrow. Let’s see how much snow will be arriving! 😕

And what app for tracking the runs? (and logging how many km I clock up 😉 )

And what app for tracking the runs?

I did think about taking my Garmin Edge 1000 to Montana last year for a laugh. Pop it in a pocket, screen locked, to track the day.

But then I just thought it would be more fun to spend the evenings here, rather than logging my stats.

406 Brewing. Excellent beer, sublime pizza and lovely people.

hammerite – thanks for the info. I think I’ve got a rental sorted – roll on April 😀

Mrs DD still on the hunt for slacks. Anyone seen anywhere doing any kind of decent reductions?

100 helicopter trips to carry a bit of snow for people to ski on a Ste Foy (Europe 1 ce matin). Madness. There will be more than enough as of today.

Deadly Darcy, sports pursuit or LD mountain in Newcastle. Ski plus in Chelmsford has a big selection too but it can feel a little like TK Maxx.

@Edukator, Mrs B told me French news had reported that locals where being asked not to ski over Christmas/New Year to leave what snow there was for tourists, without who’s spending the local economy would be in big trouble. I agree the helicopter seems a bit over the too but the economic risk / cost is huge too

DD – On SPursuit

Westbeach 5k/5k trousers @ £30 or £55 for the 10k/10k ones
Marmot from £75, Marmot goretex from £125
Also Kilpi, Sweet Protection, Daniel Franck, Arcteryx and others.

Just checked the Serre Che webcam and there’s fresh snow all the way down to the river. Season has started, then!

Needs to be a lot of snow, not exactly a lot of snow depth in many places at the minute.

Chambery Airport may be the most hateful place on earth 🙁

@sprootlet & igm.

Ta!

Every time I look on SP I just end up wandering off through all the stuff I want for myself. 😀

Chambery Airport may be the most hateful place on earth

So I hear. Also most likely of Alp airports to be shut because of weather. Have heard some shocking stories of people stuck there for long periods. We fly to Lyon and rent a motor. Won’t be making the same mistake of mooching around Lyon for a few hours this year before heading up. Turned a 2.5 hour journey into a Sixer. 😡

Mates going to Les Carroz end of Jan but Surfer junior doing his A’ levels and thought it mean to go without him 🙁

Well it’s snowed all day here in Avoriaz. Very slushy below 1800m, but settling nicely above. Most of the pistes were down to the rocks / grass, so they needed a big dump.

Snow is finally coming, but needs to be a lot and also sustained and cold for the rest of the season to make up for the lack. A huge dump of snow right now can be wiped out by warm conditions and lack of snow a few weeks later.

Has anyone seen any last minute deals for weekends away for January? Ideally flying from the South West (Bristol or Cardiff) leaving on a Thursday, returning on a Monday. Any advice would be appreciated!

Most deals are based on weeks so better to check out rooms on booking .com and flights/hire cars.

A couple of ideas, flights to Munich (early)and drive to Austria.

Flights to Geneva and drive to La Clusaz or other close by.

The key is getting early and late flights to max out your slope time.

@Alpha

As Rockape says, most deals are Sat/Sun->Sat/Sun so I think, while you’ll no doubt find a “deal” searching around, it’ll be relatively expensive compared to a weekend-to-weekend deal as these are based on empty seats on charter flights which are all flying anyway, whether full or not. There are few (if any) charter planes doing the days you want. So, you’re stuck with scheduled airlines.

I’d advise being a bit more creative with your flight choices. Thu/Fri out Sun/Mon back will be pricey and all the cheap seats will be gone. Can you take a few days off and do, say Sat out and Wed in? You’d benefit from having only one busy day on the slopes and Mon/Tues/Wed will be relatively quiet? e.g. we got flights for £65ish from Brizzle to Geneva Sat pm out, Wed pm return for a “weekend” in March. Thu/Fri to Sun/Mon options were coming in much more expensive.

Accommodation is best booked on hotels.com/booking.com/airbnb.

I suppose the key is that anyone doing ski-weekend deals is looking to make a few quid out of you. Whereas, with a bit of google-fu you can probably sort yourself out with something.

if you are confident in french, and want to go to french resort , look on leboncoin.fr . select flat rentals in the resort of your choice . lots of owners advertise on it .

Every year a big group of us does a four night break from Bristol. Experience tells us that we always fly to Geneva – it allows us to leave early and come back late which means we get the most out of the skiing. Morzine great for flexible accommodation.

Funnily enough, we’re headed to Morzine. A certain large boned forumite has a little pad out there. 8)