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

Yeh the fall at the end was within sight of the lift que as well but my legs were wobbly by then!

Love the “halo” photo, Grum!

within sight of the lift

Last year, at the end of my last day, charging to get back in time to hand my skis back I came out of the trees after a long off piste section and on to the simple, smooth, slightly downhill road like piste back to the base area at Bridger.

I could hardly go in a straight line my legs were so tired!

Great photos Grum

simple, smooth, slightly downhill road like piste

They always look really easy on skis. I hate them on a snowboard. 👿

And yes – fantastic photos.

In other news…

Snow quality Fraiche
Snow (bottom) 95 cm
Snow (Top) 275 cm

In Les Gets! And it’s still snowing. That’s ridiculous.

Just need it to hold out for a week or two. Stay cold weather, stay cold.

Just back from Japan – wow!! That wasn’t rubbish!!

Quick vid below, first attempt at stitching together some gopro footage. Won’t play on mobile devices – youtube rules about music copyright or something…

And a quick shot of my other half – she’s skiing normally (not sitting down!) – it really was that deep!

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y190/jamescoulson/FullSizeRender_zpsz5sgpseh.jpg%5B/img%5D

igm – Member
In other news…

Snow quality Fraiche
Snow (bottom) 95 cm
Snow (Top) 275 cm

In Les Gets! And it’s still snowing. That’s ridiculous.
Just need it to hold out for a week or two. Stay cold weather, stay cold.

Looking good – I have my fingers crossed too and hoping the warm patch in 10 days doesn’t amount to much – there from Easter Sunday. Last few weeks have had loads of snow and the visibility doesn’t look like it’s been up to much!

Looks amazing dashed!!

Thanks folks – glad you like the pictures. I’ll post some more soon – first proper day of touring well away from the lifts today. Unbelievably epic! Probably my best ever day in the mountains. So much totally untracked powder and incredible scenery.

Cheers grum – I’m also really getting into my touring! Gnarly old Canadian dude in Japan told me he plugs himself into a few tunes on the up and just takes in the scenery. Before he knows it, he’s at the top… It works – the climbing flies by!

Enjoy 🙂

Well I hope you all made the most of the last few days. Fantastic conditions and not suicidal if you used your nouse. Finished off with an X-C skate this morning, the snow was just perfect and the view spectacular with snow down to 400m.

There’s some lovely pics on this page. You lucky, lucky people!
I was fortunate enough to get up the localish hill (1hr45 in the car) in the cevennes with my youngest on Sunday morning and have never seen it so good up there. Metre high snowbanks in the carpark and it wasn’t even raining 😀

Oft, I’ve got a sore neck right now. Skiing down Sapphire bowl and crested a small wind lip into what I thought was roller. Turned out to be the edge of a smallish cliff. Weight too far forward on leaving the lip meant I got bucked forward before back slapping. Skis stayed on and no damage other than the slight stiff neck. Dropping cliffs into pow looks like great fun, but a gentler introduction would of been nice!

Raise in the Lakes has a good covering grand day out last week
Untitled by Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr

Untitled by Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr

no two ways about it, I’ve probably just had the best four days of boarding in my life here in PdS.

Arrived Saturday night in a snow storm, spent Sunday blatting around in fields of deep fresh snow under blue skies and sunshine. Deserted pistes, perfect snow. Then encouraged to do some “safe” off-piste and spent the day plunging off windblown lips into bottomless pits of powder and riding out on seas of rolling white. Glorious.

Just sheer good fortune.

There’s piles of snow base, and I think everyone expects there to be a full season now that so much snow landed last week. It was touch and go only two weeks ago. We’re back out again for Easter, and I dont expect it to be nearly as amazing, but there will still be descent pistes for the kids.

No, no Stoner. It’s going to be just as good at Easter. Stop this negativity now.

The lower picture is Lindarets I think, coming back in from Plaine Dranse – the upper one?

Yep, Grand Plan piste. Always gets the sun first so lovely early doors.

@grum futher demonstrations as to pro photograpgher skills.

@stoner, looking at the trees definitely more snow fell in PdS than Les Arcs/La Plagne. Conditions here really good, powder still very light and its colder than forecast I’d say. Easy to access stuff now largely tracked out but it feels really quiet so I am sure there’s plenty of good powder to be had with a bit of effort. Also thats the beauty of havi g your own place, you can pick/chose dates and leave when conditions are good amd arrive in a place you know well and go straight to the good bits. Most friends with places pre book flights and then may use only half but when booked early they are still decent value. Enjoy !

Just need to replace Coca-Cola with a more suitable beverage and this says it all

Nike outlet in Castleford (opposite Xscape) appear to be selling off snowboard boots at £49. No idea if they’re any good, look a couple of years old, but pretty cheap.
Vapen I think, some Boa, some with laces.

Still haven’t quite come down from the buzz after 3 and a half days in PdS.

Utterly ghosted with the conditions – a week of puke prior to arriving Saturday night. Sunday & Monday boarding around empty powdery pistes with Stoner being the perfect guide. 🙂 A little bit of off-the-side-of-the-piste fun to be had as well. Monday night saw a foot of fresh stuff down ready for…

Tuesday, a couple of mates popped over from where they were staying, one of whom was a bloody good boarder, and I reckon Stoner would agree, took us well out of our comfort zones for the day. We did two runs through Happy Valley and I can safely say they were the two best runs on a board I’ve ever had. Did stuff I thought I’d never manage…including some turns (not all successful 😆 ) in steep & deep and finishing the run out with a jump (all of around 18″ 😮 ) that I actually landed. Also tried a bit more off the side and popping out on to the piste with little jumps during the day. Massive confidence increase over earlier in the year. New bindings & heel inserts in tired old boots helped a lot.

A perfect short break with great company & local knowledge.
Happy Boys:

Any way’s a good way:

Fresh, fresh, fresh…

I hate you all*

*I’m just jealous as I’m out of holiday and money and time to go again this year! Still roll on the 2016/17 thread 🙂

Well the moment has almost arrived. 6.25am flight to Geneva in the morning!

8)WAHEY!!!! 8)

Yay darcy very pleased for you.

Cheers jamba.

Had another really **** epic day today. Well actually it was an epic afternoon – the morning I was rubbish! Got promoted to the ‘A’ group today and felt totally out of my depth this morning – I was well behind skinning uphill, then on the descent crashed out about 5-6 times and couldn’t get any rhythm going.

This afternoon though I really got it back and the last run was incredible – still loads of fresh untracked pow to be had and I was nailing it. 😀 😀

Fat Bikes in Peisey this morning

Weird one in Whistler today. Got up the mountain super early for fresh tracks, but there was so much new snow (40cm + ) and such high winds that they couldn’t let us get going for about 15-20 minutes later than usual. After that all but 1 lift closed, which was great if you were riding that lift, but if you missed it then you were basically done for the day. The powder was waist deep in places and incredible on the few steep slopes in the sub-alpine, but impossible to ski thorough and really sticky in others.

On the plus side, I’ve acquired some new skis 😀

Here’s a rubbish photo

jambalaya, that guide’s jersey would have had a familiar logo on the front if you could see it… 😉

That’s ex-White Room guide (and still good mate!) Yvan!

(Which reminds that I’m supposed to try to get out for a fat-bike ride with him this week…)

very jealous .

going to France for easter , Millau ( south massif central), hoping there will be a bit of snow left at the local ski resorts .

Is that at the top of lobster pots? 😆

very jealous .

going to France for easter , Millau ( south massif central), hoping there will be a bit of snow left at the local ski resorts .

Lots of snow at Lioran looking at the webcams, never managed to be there when every run is open yet but they are at the moment!

Hope it hangs around for you

Spent yesterday evening doing a mini splitboard tour up Cairngorm, it was stunning 8)

Cairngorm mini tour by Gavin Belton[/url], on Flickr

Cairngorm mini tour by Gavin Belton[/url], on Flickr

Night are drawing out as this was taken at 18:48
Cairngorm mini tour by Gavin Belton[/url], on Flickr

Torchlight descent and found a decent amount of fresh powder on the way down, lush!

Good news about le lioran, been there lots as a kid and it always seems to be freezing.

Closer to Millau, we have Lagiole, Brameloud, both in Aubrac, and to the south in the Cevennes there is Mont aigoual.

All of them small resorts.

swavis: you might be in a position to advise this guy:
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/scotland-boardingskiing-this-easter

Cool, missed that one 😳

cchris2lou – Member
Good news about le lioran, been there lots as a kid and it always seems to be freezing.
Closer to Millau, we have Lagiole, Brameloud, both in Aubrac, and to the south in the Cevennes there is Mont aigoual.
All of them small resorts.

I was at mont aiguoal on Sunday and it was amazing, never seen so much snow up there. But you know how fast the conditions can change in that neck of the woods. At the ticket office the closing date is the 20/03.

They might stay open if there is snow.

At the same time, I quite would like to ride from Millau to l Esperou, so need clear roads.
My grandad used to drive us in a C15 to the top and we would ride all the way down off road for a swim in the Dourbie.

Oh go on then. Couple of days ago touring and powder in the Maurienne:

My grandad used to drive us in a C15 to the top and we would ride all the way down off road for a swim in the Dourbie.

Papy uplift, brilliant 🙂

Snow and Rock giving it some with their sale – just grabbed some Burton Cartels for £119 (£200 retail). Then I forced my card back in my wallet against its will.

There were a few breaks in the clouds today:

@stevo small world 🙂 Lise thought it quite odd I was so keen to take photos of bikes and people I didn’t know. Sorry we didn’t see you this year for skiing, have been checking your summer availability will revert soon for 2 riders.