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

Ballbags , at home nursing a case of snowboarders ankle . Ice on it now any some really tasty bruising coming out. Hoping it will be ok as now is the nicest time to be in the mountains.

Awesome boblo looks great. I’ve definitely got the ski touring bug now. Nobody go to Grimentz though – it’s rubbish.

Six down in the back country in Italy. 🙁

I wouldn’t describe that as “back country”. That’s proper ski
mountaineering.

Tomorrow is going to be another excellent day in most of the European ranges – sun, cold, snow. Set your alarm clocks early.

Some of Graham Frost’s pics from Grimentz. Awful.

http://www.frostguiding.co.uk/blog/626

Awful indeed, I had heard very good things about off-piste in the Val d’Annivers area. I’ve ony done a days on-piste skiing there and a couple of summer trips for walking, clearly an error. Great hotel Bella Tola in St Luc.

Touring opens up so many resorts which people ignore as piste milage looks inadequate. Have friends who hardly ever go to “typical” resorts

Just tying on kit again pre short break with min THM and cant help wishing that you could still get good old fashioned racing pants – will retro styling bring these back??

Another 25cm of fresh snow in Whistler and a freezing level low enough for snow in the valley, but I can’t ski because I had a stupid crash on Saturday and seem to have some severe bruising in my left calf/shin area 🙁

old fashioned racing pants

Quite popular with the ladies these days. Maybe try a pair of those?

Back from a week in Flaine, stayed at the UCPA and did the off piste course. Talk about striking it lucky! The snow was falling as we cruised the autoroute from Geneva on Saturday night, so the free skiing day on Sunday was spent messing around on gentle, piste side powder. Situated on a huge limestone massif, Flaine is known for the huge potholes which can easily swallow a skier, so we were reluctant to get more adventurous without a proper guide. The equipment provided by UCPA was good, I brought my own boots but the cost includes skis (Rossignol Sin7, mine were 180cm- I’m 177cm myself) and an Ortovox Crossrider backpack with shovel, probe and beep.

Having heard horror stories of groups of 13 people to a single instructor, we were pleased to find that our group comprised just six people: three Brits (me, my mate Andy, and a chap from Bristol called Colin) and three French (Grégory from Paris and a couple of Toulousains, Arnaud and Delphine). Our guide / instructor Denis has lived in the valley all his life and spends about 12 hours a day on skis in season- he drives from his home in the valley to the lower reaches of the resort then skins up and skis down into Flaine each day, reversing the process at the end of each long day of teaching. As an aside, his Movement Random touring skis were awesomely light- under a kilo for the pair!

Guiding started on day 2 and it was in at the deep end: none of this nonsense about doing a run on the piste to gauge ability, we exited the gondola, donned skis, quickly warmed up then ducked under the ropes and hit the fresh snow.

Not going into detail about each day, but the week went well. The glorious sunshine on Sunday morning turned to fog then snow in the afternoon: Monday was glorious till we finished skiing, then it snowed over night. Overall, we had well over a metre of fresh snow from the snow on Saturday to the time we got out on Tuesday to spend a day in the fog. The rest of the week was glorious sunshine.

The downside of the combination of fresh snow, glorious weather and modern ski equipment meant that more or less anything visible from the ski lifts, or at least anything with a viable visible entrance, was tracked out by the end of Monday. Not a problem for Denis who’s been skiing this area for over 40 years, we had fresh tracks each and every day, although as the week progressed we did have to work a bit more each day to get to the good stuff. Unlike the mixed ski/snowboard group who were hiking from day 1, the fact that our group comprised only skiiers meant that traversing was much more viable. Not easy: we had some very long, quite exposed traverses along aretes, over snow which had by Wednesday become very crusty, which is not particularly nice when you’re traversing a metre wide arete above a slope of about 30 degrees. It was only on the final day of guiding that we reached the point of taking off skis and hiking for ten minutes, nothing like the forty minute hikes the mixed group were doing.

We had a couple of issues as the week went on. On day 1 Colin ejected and lost a ski in the powder. After half an hour of fruitless searching we decided to call piste patrol to get a lift for Colin, only for me to ski over his lost ski some ten metres further down the slope than we’d been looking. My mate Andy struggled with the stuff we were doing: his technique wasn’t good enough which meant he fell often and then got knackered digging himself out. One incident could have been more serious as he fell head first into a tree well, luckily I was behind him and able to help him out. The fog on Tuesday combined with the increasing steepness really did it’s business on his psyche, so when he hit a buried block of ice (massive bruise on his knees by the end of the week) enough was enough and he cruised home on piste, spent Wednesday in bed and transferred to a piste group for the rest of the week. That left five of us, all around the same standard, which made for a great dynamic. Denis pushed us all to the limits of our personal comfort, with each day getting a little harder in terms of the skills required. We all felt a little uncomfortable at times, some more than others, and we all had falls at times. Thankfully, no one feel when it counted, like the point we were skiing down a slope that just kept rolling away out of view. The lovely deep powder meant it was beautiful to ski once you committed, but you had to commit and keep going. We looked at it later and it was around 50 degrees at the steepest part. Squeaky bum time, indeed! For me the other bit I struggled with was jumping, never had the bottle for it but eventually made myself give it a go when we had a chance. 1.5 m drop into lovely snow meant that the fact I stacked was not going to hurt me, I just slid a few metres till I managed to stop myself. Well, I tried!

On the non-skiing side, UCPA was good value for money. The centre at Flaine was formerly a hotel and while it’s not exactly luxury in absolute terms, it’s one of the better UCPA centres. All rooms are en suite, normally you have four to a room but you can pay a little extra (£30 a head) for a twin room. Rooms are not exactly spacious and one of the ways that costs are low is that you are expected to make your own bed on arrival, and on leaving to strip the bed and clean the room. The hot water is HOT and plentiful though, as is the food which includes lunch – either make a sandwich at breakfast and take it with you, or head back to the centre for lunch.

Would I do it again? As a boys’ trip, definitely. As a “nice” holiday with my wife, probably not, but then we normally do like something a bit nicer. Overall though, GREAT value for money and some excellent conditions. More pics to follow when I get them sorted out.

Hi nbt,
Glad you enjoyed Flaine, we did too. The powder was great but I was shocked how quickly it was skied out. No crashes of note except mine when I managed to do 2 forward somersaults in the deep stuff. Luckily stopped with both skis still on and managed to stand back up in a fairly fluid action (covered head to toe in snow gave the game away though).
I managed to tempt my other 1/2 into the deeper stuff which I think he enjoyed and we did the ski the Lucifer run in the powder which was great for his confidence.
All in all it was great, can’t wait to go again.

Its all about the mountain, but a late lunch doesn’t go amiss.

EDIT: loving March wedding anniversary, I can forsee many future mountain based event celebrations 8)

Snowed for 2 days here in Claviere. Us 2 having great time getting stuck in powder, lost in the clouds and generally faffing around. Marvellous, so glad I posted on here and Singletrackmind spotted it 🙂

We got back from ,,Chamonix on Sunday night. Had a great 4 days skiing. Only saw clouds on Sunday. I was with a great group of lads and my Dad who in his 70 the year was pretty pleased to be able to keep up with all the 40 somethings. Good on him.
We also managed to get a Valley Blanche run in with a great guide, called Bernard. He was at the 1986 olympics doing ski jump! He was also a blooming good climber and had done all the really tough stuff in the valley.

Must say they if you are heading to Chamonix at any time I can highly recommend valleyfever.co.uk for their chalets and drop off service. Rob even brought our shoes to us so we could watch the rugby in town and not waste any skiing time. Great service

Powder day in the trees
😀

How’s the Westbeach kit held up DebZ?

Good question double-d!
The Cockalorum trews are good, but tend to drop down off my waist and become annoying – but I bought some (orange!) Upperlevels 2 ones for £36 in their recent sale and they are perfect. Would but another pair if they had them!

Been pleased with my Cockalorum slacks but they definitely need a belt – the existing tightening straps don’t work so well. But that’s because we is slim. 😀

Massive reductions online again at the moment.

Jambalaya that looks dang good.
Pow forecast here in Sweden so looking forward to the weekend

Anyone in Morzine (pds area) at the moment, how is it? I’m off there at the weekend and the forecast looks fairly warm.

Anyone in Morzine (pds area) at the moment, how is it? I’m off there at the weekend and the forecast looks fairly warm.

Pistes are in great nick at the moment thanks to the dump we had early March. It’s been beautiful spring conditions this week.

More lunch photos this time in Verbier, day off to let the body recover. First one shows traverse for Cute du Bisses enduro mtb route above treeline to extreme left, Ultimate involves hike a bike to ridge below the Pierre Avoi just visible then over the other side. Lovely day for flying too!

Sat all day in a resort car park watching the flakes fall as I forgot my boots and it seemed too much faff to hire some to ski in a white out. I learned a lot about post war history (the only book in the car) while junior skied.

post war history (the only book in the car)

Useful in the event of a breakdown 🙂

Jamba is in Verbier.

Worryingly, my best mate’s wife is also in Verbier.

*shudders*

As long as she avoided the bar/restaurant by Carrefour, she should be ok and my guess yesterday’s lunch was at Chez Vrony in Findeln.

Oakley goggles sale at Protek at Xscape – for example Flightdeck with Prizm lens £119 (from &170), Airbrake Prizm at £135 (£225)

Having a short break in Flaine with younger son. 30 years plus since I was last here but great for a quick break. No queues, empty pistes and a refurbished hotel doing everything to please.

Missed the soft stuff which is a shame but the lips and bumps on agate are as good as I remember. Some hairy off piste lines in evidence!!!

No queues, empty pistes

We had that in the PdS – bloody luvly 😀

The joys of not being tied to school holidays DD. magical few days

I imagine it’ll be busier for the next few weeks. A mate was in Flaine for HT en famille a few weeks ago. He liked it. How’s the snow holding up?

Saw not 1 but 3 monoskis yesterday. What is the collective noun for monoskiers? ( be nice)

One ski had a flaming 8 ball on it . Rad!

Yes, seen a few more mono skis about this year, including one belonging to a liftie in Chamonix, which surprised me.

DD – pistes all good. Classic spring skiing. OP skied out and generally poor except for odd bits. Grooming v v good which makes for lots of v fast cruising. Slushy at lower resorts eg Les Carroz but great piste conditiona a little higher up. Bumps good on diamond noire, agate and an underrated red run over in Les Carroz

The long cascade run to Sixt is getting rocky at the very end. Not sure it’s worth it. Nice scenery but lots of flat sections

Bumps and flat sections…no thanks. 😆

4 days booked in Cham, grandparents sorted, wife in bed with flu and not in a good way day before, no holiday. Awesome. Therapeutic early shift at the ‘Shee as said grandparents are here and it’s my birthday bollocks to it all. Can’t believe it, missus is OK but properly poorly.

Last day of trees and powder in Clavier just done.
Small souvenir to take home –

A piece of branch embedded in me ‘at. Always wear a lid folks!

Shit the bed DebZ! 😯 (Might knock a bit of sense into you.)

RE Monoskis.

These are down in the ski locker room of my block.
They’ve been there ever since I got my place. Never moved. They’re free fers.

Ive just started learning to ski. I borrow skis from the chalet next door, or nick the wifes, while Im learning.

Althoough these skis are old, theyre probably not utter rubbish.

So, do I liberate the Yellow dynastars or the monoski? 😉 🙂 D)
And which will kill me first?

Old school awesomeness!