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

Tough call between the k2s and the dynasters

Look like proper length skis too

Memories of omeglass/omesofts and K2 extremes

OOOh, old ski top trumps, Volkl RSX the pink ones with speckled bases, 205cm.. or the Dynastar Vertical which my dad had mmmm they were the business.

had a few monoskis lessons on that model a few years ago .

Look like proper length skis too

The days when length was more important than width!

Didn’t you try to hold your skis higher in the cable car queue Cap’n? Look at my 210s 😉

70s classics – atomic arc, blizzard firebird, stenmarks élan. Any others before the 80s?

Dynamic vr17 and vr27 were racers favourite .

With your forward board stance Stoner, the mono ski should be easy. Go on.

Also, my dad’s K2 244’s with the wooly jumper he got his mother in-law to knitt, with the stripes to line up with his skis. Smart.
I did have some of the old dynastar, course with the red bobble on the tip, the white ones not the gold ones though.

with the stripes to line up with his skis

Super steezy!

This time of year it’s obviously time for experimenting. I will report back in a few weeks then.

Re monoskis, do you ride them like welded skis or badly fitting snowboards?

Needs fluo and steez.

Although, this may be more your style

like welded skis , turning by moving your hips.

Monoskis … what a total fooooking waste of time and effort. Been there done that in the 80’s

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

We are here on my first wedding anniversary, I can’t vouch for all the other red blooded males but she’s safe from me 🙂

I would add in 20 years I have never seen it so quiet, even in 2008-9

Interesting lunch conversation with a guy today, 80 years old and still skiing the resort top to bottom, respect !

Can one telemonski?

Love that first pic flashheart They seem to be saying ‘yaaaaaaaaay!’

Why skis ?
Thinking of getting some new ones and they need to be powder friendly (just getting into it so no super fat ones). Am also considering a little bit of touring perhaps with them…
Was thinking Scott the ski or Nordica NRgy90…..any advice/suggestions?
Thanks

I’m in the market for similar, hopefully and end of season bargain or something. On my recent touring trip most people including the guides seemed to be favouring something that looked quite flexy to me, with a pretty wide, rockered front – can’t remember models/brands now unfortunately.

Grum, keep an eye on Glisshop and Ekosport if you are after an end of season bargain.

Was thinking Scott the ski

I found these to be profoundly average; someone I was skiing with thought they were so bad he took them back to the hire shop after a couple of hours. I don’t think I’d try and tour on them even with a pin binding.

Flashheart to the thread, I think he might have tried the Nordicas…..
Glisshop is offering a fair bit off at the moment

Reporting for duty!

I had a couple of days on the NRGY100s and they impressed me massively. As mentioned before, they’re phatt enough for teh pow, but still fun of. The corduroy. No idea about using them for touring though, I’m afraid.

I got the NRGY100’s this year.
In Feb we had quite a lot of fresh and they were brilliant. Great on and off piste, med to large radius, any speed, even bumps were fun.

Chamonix a week ago, less soft snow, some quite hard piste and they were still good but hard work to keep an edge. Totally expected given the width, but they tended to judder if you tried too hard to keep the edge. They were the easiest ski I have ever used in the cut up crud off piste and were fun in the spring snow last Sunday.
Overall, great skis. But will also take a more piste orientated ski if its likely to be harder snow conditions.

Back in the early 1090’s I won a pair of Volkls in our ski club end of season bash, playing reverse bingo. They were decent skies too.

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

DezB get yourself a new helmet for next season 🙂

Finally converted to a helmet this week by my son and a first day wipe out that gave me a big headache!!

Still hate wearing them

DD – warmer in Flaine today but pisteurs doing brilliant job. Gers bowl has some reasonable off piste still but the finish is very hard packed moguls on tired thighs followed by long drag lift back – ouch

The helmet I’ve worn for the past 5 seasons is pretty comfortable, but given I ski usually at Christmas and Easter it is also far too warm. Waiting to see if the Smith Vantage drops in price during the is season, best fitting helmet I’ve tried on so far.

Trip report . Claviere, Via Lattea. Italy.

Arrived early evening on Sat 12th. Tiny village just inside Italian border with France, next to Montgenevre.

Sun. Snow , not alot but a dusting and low viz so mooched around locally.
Mon.Went to Montgenevre. Skied there in Jan so knew my way around and found a few staches of powder, was cold and cloudy and snowed all day but only lightly.
Tues. Big day out across to Sestriere. Alot of lifts and travelling to get there. Nice high resort, wide pistes , good snow. Full of benders.
Found some amazing powder in the trees , really deep and untouched.

Wed . Snow , snow. Stayed local and played in the trees as it was very foggy and cold, with wind driven snow

Thurs. Snow. Same as Wed pretty much , slighty higher but skied ouselves to a standstill . Constant new lines , and only really crossing our old lines.Loads of floaty , soft silent skiing in Larch forest.Some really steep drop ins, and a few jumps off covered boulders

Fri Sunshine , blue skies. Loads of powder , OK so its only a few inches but its soft and fresh.Still finding huge staches of sometimes knee deep powder in amongst the trees.More traversing than straight down to make the runs last longer and longer.

Italy is packed full of benders. They love to ski fast on blue runs looking stylish , whilst meters away there is deep powder which is clean and untracked , with ‘ski to lift’ potential. Benders.

Its simply not like France where all the reasoonable skiers head straight into the powder. One day we saw no-one, and I mean not 1 more person off piste in the trees. we were literally covering hundreds of meters , using different lines all alone on a hillside maybe 1km long.

Dez had a good time on his board , floating through miles of powder, dodging trees and getting buried occaisionaly

Bloody hell – 4 1/2 days of hard non-stop skiing with 19 year old. Shattered at the end of every day and yet not an ounce of the scales!!!

Dinners must have been good 😳

Fat turning to muscle 😉

Only a few months to go before these will be open. Saw some kids at Medran today coming off the telecabin from the bottom. If thats allowed it opens up a great ski/mtb option for the spring holidays 🙂

New to the thread and was wondering if anyone had been up to Glen Shee – Scotland – recently and what it was like. The webcam seems to show a lot of grass. Was up about 3 weeks ago and I thought it was good, how different is it? Skier by the way. Thanks 🙂

Fat turning to muscle

Would be nice to think so – thighs feel stronger but sore/stiff. Cancelled early morning run for swim at lunch time. Need to give legs a rest for a few days.

+2.5kg … Can’t say I’m surprised

Thinking of getting some new ones and they need to be powder friendly

A mate skied on some Atomic Vantage 100 CTI and absolutely loved them. Fast as hell on piste and great in the soft stuff. I rode some Rossignol Sin 7 (the Soul’s little brother). They were great too.

7600e – I was there on Sat morning, stunning bluebird morning it was as well. She’s a bit thin and patchy now with outbreaks of good stuff still, Glas Maol and Coire Fionn are both OK, Maol gully getting narrow and thin, main bowl still had a track through the middle. Spring snow, firm then soft, best between 10-1 I would say. Didn’t go Cairnwell side but from up top i could see from the chair there was a fair bit still complete.

I rode some Rossignol Sin 7 (the Soul’s little brother). They were great too.

I was on the S3 until recently (The old Sin 7) very similar, a wee bit heavier and a bit more tail rocker, and it’s a very fun ski. Very easy to get along with and pretty floaty for a ski with a 98mm width. I recently changed to a Salomon Q-Lab and it makes the Rossi feel like a wet noodle with the shortest effective edge in the world. The Rossi is still a great ski, but you need to like their style.

Off to ski Amadé on Friday for 9 days, can’t wait!

Attention verglas! Spring is here which means everything from concrete at 1350m to puff at 2450m.

On Sunday the steep slope under the Gazez looked great so I traversed in to find 40cm of light fresh over avalanche debris which wasn’t great as even making an effort to ski light the heels kept snagging (77mm under foot – not water skis). I’d skinned up so it was six turns at a time then a few seconds of panting.

X-C skate this morning, mine were the only tracks. The season started late and apart from a few classes neiges there’s hardly anyone out now the Winter holidays have gone. I predict a few businesses going bankrupt.

View out over my front garden this afternoon. Off snowboarding tomorrow for some tropical
turns 🙂

Kjus stuff for sale on Sportspursuit. Brings the prices down from extortionate to expensive.

My girlfriend and her brother are off to Meribel, i had to stay home because I had a deadline but then it got moved. I wondered if anyone could give me a lift to somewhere nearby on thurs or fri pleae? there are literally no flights left. Would obviously do my best to make it worth your while.

@tom look into getting the train to Albertville

This would spoil your day if you where downhill of it 😯

Facebook – I love Switzerland[/url]

This site might be worth a look Tom – friend told me about it recently.

https://m.blablacar.co.uk/search?fn=London&fc=51.507351%7C-0.127758&fcc=GB&tn=Méribel%2C+Les+Allues%2C+France&tc=45.397528%7C6.56436&tcc=FR