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

Give Snowcoach/Ski Weekends a call. They might take you and drop you somewhere nearer than you currently are if you ask nicely and cross their palm with silver.

I think Ski Weekends go to Brides Les Bains so it shouldn’t too bad for you.

Cable car from Brides les Bains up to Meribel too

*smug alert*

Greetings from the trees

I’m a novice skier (went to Alpe d’Huez last year) and off to Val Thorens for 6 days this Saturday.

Iz v. excite

Who left that piece of crap in the way of your nice trees pic? (-:

@howsyour 🙂

@bakey, good choice for this time of year imo – enjoy

Yes yes, it is nearly time. Obergurgl, 1 week, first trip in years, to say I’m excited is understanding it.

Flying to Turin tomorrow and thence to Briancon on Saturday. I was only going to take a park-y board but does that forecast warrant anything more powder-related?? Hope it’s not rain anyway.

lunge – Member
Yes yes, it is nearly time. Obergurgl, 1 week, first trip in years, to say I’m excited is understanding it.

Obergurgl on the 9th for me, 3rd trip of the year but looking forward to a bit of Nederhutte apres and the new Motorbike museum as well as hoping the snow’s good

Has anyone done any cross country skiing ? I might pick up
some kit but why am I looking for? Length of ski is important I guess… Anything else? Or should I just get a split board ?

Newbie skier and off to Claviere with about 50 kids this saturday.
Looks though there has been a few good drops of snow… getting excited 🙂

Mostly good spring skiing conditions in Whistler, with one of two new snow events and clouds. Hard to beat mountain top beers in the sun though.

Came here at Christmas where the only snow was artificial. Been here since yesterday lunchtime and it’s not stopped snowing yet.

Thank you Stoner, a very enjoyable morning. I trust you and Ruth got a couple of decent runs in.

Ive come to the reluctant decision that I don’t like Stoner very much!

In other news Captain….Ive finally done it! Ive persuaded the Lads (after our successful trip to La Clusaz/Le Grand Bo) to do Serre Chevalier next year! The bad news is that the only hotel near the lifts I could get for 8 for only 3 nights is some skank hole in Briancon. However at £22 a night each we can blow the budget on other things! 8)

So, what do you think….is that an okay place? Its been 30 years since I was there last, so have no idea. 😕

So jealous of anyone still playing in the snow at this point in the year, I must plan better and fit 2 weeks in next year!

A friend told me he would exceed 50 days this year and he has a full time senior job in London

That’s going some. And I reckon I’ll touch 25 this season.

Lovely to see you both again igm, and thanks for the demo board. Interesting to have a go on a modern board for the first time in 15 yrs.

I can see how the design has changed things mainly for the better. Certainly faster turning, bit chattery and light in the carve. Much more manoeuvrable in the sugary lumps though.

It’s still v warm here. Am sat outside in shorts having a beer. Not sunny, almost muggy. Weird.

Ps schnullelieber, I’m in the Marmotte looking at your gaff. Ibex IPA going down well.

I’m off to Morzine next week for my third and final trip of the season, got a few half pipe and freestyle lessons booked, so massively looking forward to it. It’ll be my first ever none UCPA snow trip too!

Anyway, in other news (looking ahead a tad to next season) I have myself a very great new girlfriend whom just so happens to be a skier (shame that she’s not a boarder obvs but never mind)…….we’d quite like to go away next year together. After reading Flashy post about Serre Che year on year, I’ve decided that it could be a possible destination for a romantic ski break……so, any other suggestions? Any people been to Serre Che as a couple and thought that it was good? All of my trips have been a bit 18-30’s tbh so somewhere other than Cham, Val D, VT would be quite nice!

It’s very warm here too. We jacked by 3pm. Our final run was the one used for the Schladders night slalom, when we finished the clock at the lift station was showing 25c, no wonder we all had a dab on. We were here last August and it didn’t get this warm once during the whole week.

Will have managed 15 days this season by the time we leave on Sunday. As teachers we could do more but would probably only be able to if we had our own property and drove – too expensive during school hols otherwise.

Tom B – We’ve been as a family, not a couple. We stayed in Villeneuve it was pretty quiet with some nice restaurants. A couple of bars that you could have a decent night in without them being too mad. As a whole I think SC is relatively quiet. Monetier has a spa if that is your thing. Briancon is a lovely town in parts for a wander around too. We found it really easy to get around using the free bus service when we needed to use it.

Serre Che replies after I’ve picked up and eaten my takeaway curry!

Nomnomnom.

Rockape, if it’s a “Lads” trip, it’s not a great place. If it’s a trip for lads to ski hard all day, then have a few nice beers and a good meal, it’s ace! Briançon is a cracking little town, and skiing from town is pretty cool. A night at the ice hockey is fun, if they’re playing.

a possible destination for a romantic ski break……so, any other suggestions? Any people been to Serre Che as a couple and thought that it was good?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Lovely terrain for mixed abilities (if you are, of course!), some cracking places for lunch au soleil*, and nice quiet villages to meander around for dinner and drinks. Try Chantemerle, which I find the nicest mix of good small village, along with being in the right place for the lifts.

* Le Bercail being my pick. Glorious.

Ps schnullelieber, I’m in the Marmotte looking at your gaff. Ibex IPA going down well.

I’ve been down the Bec Jaune tonight. I wasn’t around when you were over at the beginning of March as I was in central Morzine with my girlfriend who was over for the week. She’s a complete beginner so I spent probably the best powder days of the season on the baby slopes.
I’m off back to the UK in the morning. Hope you’ve brought a bicycle with you for this week. Mostly slush puppy conditions on the hill.

Thanks Mate….we’re all very old so it will be the latter.

Tom B – excellent question getting started on the 2016/17 thread already 🙂

Romantic Break. What time lf the year and for how long ? Where has the new gf been before ? Good to know what shee likes and probably to chose a new / neutral venue.

schnullelieber – you did miss the best conditions of the year. Bad luck but I assume she’s worth it!

I have a couple of bikes live out here. Was expecting not to get a full 8 days on the snow, but since this week I’m mainly supposed practising my skiing I can survive the deteriorating conditions. Taking the kids up to aquariaz one day ad well

Just got back from a 3 day south to north traverse of the Beaufortain: Grand Naves to Beaufort, nothing too hard, but quite up and downy over several cols. finished off by descending the cormet de roseland road. Struggled a lot of the time to see any relief in the snow….

@mugsy touring ? staying where ?

@jambalaya. Refuge du Nant Buerre and Refuge Presset (Under the Pierra Menta).

Cool. Will get the maps out 🙂

Did Dest-X with bike and it seems they do a lot of ski touring around there inc French championship based on posters.

Phone apps. Anyone use any good apps this year. I was very impressed with the Zermatt one skiguide – great interactive piste map with gps, quite a contrast with their dire paper one. Was getting fb prompts to download something for France with in-app purchases but declined.

Pds one is basic but usable.
Weather forecast consistently optimistic 🙂
The piste map is just a digital version of their paper map, but with a few overlays you can switch on or off to illustrate useful info like which lifts or runs are closed.

It could be much better, with an integrated gps/piste marker to share with friends or ski tracks a like functions. Would be good to have a phone based contact less pass as well so you could buy passes through the app and just wave you’re rfid/nfc phone at the gates.

Tom B – excellent question getting started on the 2016/17 thread already

Romantic Break. What time lf the year and for how long ? Where has the new gf been before ? Good to know what shee likes and probably to chose a new / neutral venue.

😀 never too early!!!So it’ll be for a week, and due to holiday restrictions it’s going to have to be 1-8 Jan. She’s been to Serre Che (when she was a total noob) Sauze and a couple of places in Austria. She hasn’t been on a mountain for 5 years I don’t think…..she came to Chill Factore with me a few weeks ago though and is a pretty tidy skier seemingly. She likes the sound of going back to Serre Che as she went on a school trip so didn’t really see much of it and can’t remember anyway!

Open to other suggestions though…..obviously a lot of places are risky that time of year with snow cover etc

Somewhere in France would be good ideally as i fancy a week of splitboarding in Argentiere the week before!

Tom – no two seasons are the same, but this year I believe SC struggled more than many early season. Bar going to somewhere with access to a glacier there really is no silver bullet. The next best is somewhere with a good reputation for looking after what snow they have had or with substantial snow cannon coverage – assuming it’s cold enough to be in use.

We skied from Muhlbach to Maria Alm and back today. First night last night that there hasn’t been an overnight freeze, which meant it was soft from the off. Even though it was quiet the blues were hard work as they got chopped up quickly, where as any black runs were relatively straight forward as most seem to avoid them.

This afternoon we passed a young English lad who was having a private lesson on a slushy mogul led run. By the look of him it was probably his first or possibly second ski trip. The poor lad was sweating buckets and huffing and puffing away. Probably been put off for life!

Easyjet sports equipment policy. Can you get away with 2 pairs of skis in one ski bag – and then put 1 pair of boots in main luggage? Do they check? Do they care? Will I die if I try it?
Whaddya think?

You can put whatever you want (maybe not explosives though) into the “Sports Equipment” bag as long as it doesn’t exceed 20kg. Same for your main bag. It’s weight and awkward size you’re paying for, not number of skis/boards.

Phone apps. Anyone use any good apps this year. I was very impressed with the Zermatt one skiguide – great interactive piste map with gps, quite a contrast with their dire paper one. Was getting fb prompts to download something for France with in-app purchases but declined.

Whistler Mountain Mapping[/url] – Not so much as an app but maps for an app. They’re pretty reasonably priced and work with PDF Maps to show you high res, geo coded maps of the mountains in Whistler. They’ve got all the runs from the official maps plus most of the not quite secret locals runs and lines and some of the just out of bounds stuff too. There’s also traverse lines to get you to hard to reach areas or out of trouble. Really impressive and it’s been super handy for me this year.

Cheers DD.
Just back from a flying visit to Brizzle & Cardiff with a load of colleagues.
Ended up sat in the sunshine with a beer yesterday afternoon outside No 1 Harbourside and thought of you 🙂
1 week to until the Aosta Valley beckons!

Ah…did you get a #strangest? 🙂

EDIT: Dá Míle. 😮