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

not strictly related, but if you have a kid with a balance bike, these are the coolest thing i’ve ever bought…

don’t use your best iron though

you have more than one!?
Buy one wait til it inexplicably catches fire while the mrs is using it (always her, I’ve never broken an iron) then buy a new one, I have never felt like applying n+1 to irons.

you have more than one!?

Buy one specially for waxing – it won’t be any good for clothes once you are done with it. Cheapest you can find because you don’t want fancy teflon bases etc.

Think I paid less than £5 for mine from Woolworths back in the day and it is still going strong.

This sort of thing: http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/3194669.htm

Of course if you want to be fancy and do the right thing then here is a “proper” wax iron:
https://www.absolute-snow.co.uk/V/Toko_T8_800W_SkiSnowboard_Wax_Iron_EU-%2853753%29

which will do exactly the same thing, though possibly with slightly better heat control!

jam bo: those are ace where did you get them?

As for will you notice, depends.

The snow was a little damp and sticky last year and a re-wax mid-week was noticeable.

Other years, not so much.

bought them from strider bike. about £15, fix with straps so would probably fit other balance bikes.

GrahamS – Member
jam bo: those are ace where did you get them?

I have an unused set in the garage. Bought (and fitted once to a Rothan) and the the snow didn’t come round York. Meanwhile younger son grew up and is now on a pedally bike.

Open to offers.

Off to Villaroger on Sunday – getting very excited – daily snow report checks (unfortunately not looking as good at last few weeks)

Fingers crossed it changes and Pukes a bit !

Tempted igm, but it would probably cost more to ship them to me than they are worth 🙂

Youngest can’t ride her balance bike yet and eldest is on a pedal bike, so it can probably wait till next year.

Well if your profile is accurate Graham (and it looks worryingly similar to the one I would write if I wasn’t so lazy) I’m up to Newcastle reasonably often (our UK head office is on Grey Street) if that would avoid postage.

igm ygm 😀

Take care.

5 French army killed and a number injured in a back country avalanche in Savoie whilst they where on a training excersize

🙁

Follow this tweet for a video of a couple of big slides being set off (deliberately I assume) in Les Arcs today:

Au moment ou l'actualité du jour va nous rappeler une fois de plus la dangerosité du ski hors-pistes, regardez ça: https://t.co/xO1MnQlYi3

— Guides Espace Killy (@guidespacekilly) January 18, 2016

/\/\ that vids from the 14th I think.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1203451973015458&id=323138794380118

I’m on a bike in a gym, so may easily be wrong.

Could be. I thought from Henry’s FB post that it was from today, but I don’t speakez le franglais so I wasn’t sure.

Still an impressive (and slightly terrifying) sight though.

Well, I was in the Arc2000 bowl most of the day. Reckon I’d have noticed.

@Jamba, you mean this one?

http://en.lesarcs.com/stay/shopping-les-arcs/bulle-cafe.html

If so I had a lunchtime pint on the deckchairs today washing down half a pizza.

Not sure whether this has been posted yet…

And the write up .. http://avalanchesurvival.tumblr.com

This may also be of some interest, although a few years old..

Shovel test

Still not open, looking forward to it though.

vinneyh: that video is blooming terrifying and very instructive:
you can see all the time wasted in shock and headless panic with no plan and limited equipment.

That guy is incredibly lucky to be alive. If he hadn’t been able to waggle a ski pole I’m pretty sure he’d be dead.

Les Crosets too – I’ve boarded there in pretty similar in-bounds slackcountry, with no equipment and no idea 😳

There is an account of that burial at http://avalanchesurvival.tumblr.com/

Apparently they heard the avalanche “whumps” and decided to push on regardless because they’d skied it before and got away with it.
Which goes to what we were talking about earlier regarding negative reinforcement.

Viney, shows how much snow you may need to shift dosn’t it! 😯

That happened so quickly.

Viney, shows how much snow you may need to shift dosn’t it!

Yep…everytime I thought…”yeah, there he is, just grab him and pull”, they had to shovel more. And all the time I was waiting for the pile of snow they were “under-digging” to fall down on top of him again. Lucky escape, that.

Digging can be the most time consuming part of any rescue..

Digging it

That’s it @pie

Thought this was cool

Great/awe inspiring/terrifying Les Arcs video. The main couloir off the AR is well known avalanche chute that regularly comes down over the piste below (in a controlled manner). But I have never seen the other slope go like that.

Stay safe folks

Digging can be the most time consuming part of any rescue.

I’m sitting at a nice warm desk thinking “they should have come in more from the side as per training”. I do wonder though if in the heat of the moment I’d remember…

On my last training course the drills started with someone yelling avalanche and doing everything from there – not just starting with following a beacon you already had out etc. Also splitting people up into teams and deploying kit. Make it as realistic as possible.

We did however get the police called… apparently repeatedly standing in a dark car park yelling avalanche and then running round randomly was enough to worry the local busy body. Took a bit of explaining 😀

French avalanche: news reports that they where hiking up when slip came, that may explain why they where closer together and so many causalties. Group size was 50

It’s been twenty years since I’ve been near a snowboard, but I saw this on YouTube and figured that with the right conditions it might be good to hike up, take some pics and try to board back down to Luss.

Well done there, exu200 for the cracking vid, btw.

Obviously shot without any snow, but a noticeable lack of boulders etc and a fairly uniform gradient makes it look appealing.

Snow coming down again this morning. That fluffy floaty type that makes you smile like you was 8 years old and school had just finished for summer.

First go on the splitboard at the weekend. Assent of Cairngorm on Sunday from the Ciste car park then back down to the daylodge for overpriced soup and coffee, brill 😀

First splitboard assent of Cairngorm by Gavin Belton[/url], on Flickr

First splitboard assent of Cairngorm by Gavin Belton[/url], on Flickr

First splitboard assent of Cairngorm by Gavin Belton[/url], on Flickr

Too tight to pay for a lift pass eh swavis?

Just kidding. Looks fun. Might try splitboarding one day – but I should probably learn how to ski first!

Absolutely! Well at Cairngorm anyway 😉

I’ve often wondered, what is the deal when you are splitboarding:

Is it free? Do you have to let them know you are doing it?
Are you still allowed to come down on the pistes?

I certainly didn’t tell them, not their hill after all, and other than the equipment it’s free.
Not sure about coming down the pistes but part of the point is to get to places that the lifts can’t.

Might try splitboarding one day – but I should probably learn how to ski first

Being able to ski isn’t a prerequisite for splitboarding – ok it’s handy to be able to snowplough and do your ‘french-fries and pizza’ if you are traversing undulating terrain by it’s by no means necessary.

I’ve often wondered, what is the deal when you are splitboarding:

Depends where you are doing it – i.e. inbounds in North America – you apparently need a valid lift pass to be on the slopes going either up or down.

Europe – in resort – some places allow for a one way ticket up the lift (like they do for summer hikers/aiguille du midi) but to make the most of it and avoid potential long hike outs/hitch for the van you need a valid day ticket at least

Out of resort – obviously no lift ticket required, but bus/train/hitch/hike might be required to get back to your start point or wherever you left the van …!

What is splitboarding – ski touring?

I’ve got a brand new set of Scarpa Touring Boots (size 44) & ski touring blades (inc skins) for sale if anyone is interested…

What is splitboarding – ski touring?

Snowboard touring with a board that splits using all the usual snowboard boots & bindings.