The STW Ski & Snowboard thread. The 2016-2017 season

Anyone going to Saas-Fee ? They are “crowdsourcing” season long ski passes for less than the cost of a 4-day ticket – £183. Offer was subject to them getting 100,000 commitments but they have 80,000 and have declared it valid. Offer open till tomorrow night.

http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/news/saas-fee-ski-passes-now-valid/

I’m in Courchevel in Jan Sandwicheater, obviously touring the area including VT if that is of any good?

Like the sound of Megeve

Known for quality of restaurants, poplular with well healed French. As you say older and more traditional. Only ever skied there one day, was ok (we where staying in Combloux – tiny). Drove through last year en route between Peisey (Les Arcs/La Plagne) and Verbier via Chamonix and made a quick detour through the town to do some shopping / have a nose around and it was pretty upmarket. If you have a car you can explore a bit, obviously St Gervais/Les Houches, Les Contamines and rest of Chamonix valley is on your doorstep.

http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/resorts/Megeve/

Not my report, but this sums up the last 4 days in Whistler.[/url]

🙂

Just badgered the mrs into submission had a meeting of minds regarding our need for a family ski trip this year 🙂
Booking it tonight 🙂

Kids getting older (not really kids anymore :-() and they are super keen on a skiing holiday but Mrs Surfer and I will probably have a Summer holiday on our own this year which breaks my heart a little bit if I think about it too long.
Hopefully our eldest girl Surfer junior will join us for at least a few days which would be fantastic but boy Surfer junior hates the sun really, but is super keen to Ski (and is very good!) so Winter holidays will be the new Summer holidays for the foreseeable.

Rockape you have to edit the s out of https

Surfer I took my last family holdiay at 14 in part as I asked my parents for the money for skiing instead.

Bit of a depressing read really, why is Tignes one of Europe’s most snowsure resorts building an indoor ski slope

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ski/news/tignes-to-build-indoor-ski-slope-to-combat-climate-change/

The Swiss federal environment office has predicted that all small and medium-sized glaciers in Europe will have melted entirely by 2050. A recent study also concluded that Swiss resorts have almost 40 fewer days of snow cover compared to the 1970s.

Bit of a depressing read really, why is Tignes one of Europe’s most snowsure resorts building an indoor ski slope

It was very thin on the lower slopes last New Year and there was no snow at all in any Swiss Ski areas……

A warning of what is to come, although this year is looking much better so far.

Look again footflaps – in most areas a lot of that lovely snow that led to lift companies opening early has gone due to a nasty foehn wind last week. Unless you are looking at Aosta areas and the Milky Way where they had metres of the stuff last week.

It was very thin on the lower slopes last New Year and there was no snow at all in any Swiss Ski areas……

@footflaps we where there before Christmas (booked with White Room but Sainte Foy stayed shut), we drove into the car park at Tignes Le Lac and there was hardly any snow on the ground at all.

Verbier opened 2 weeks ago after the early snow, this video was from last weekend as they have re-opened the enduro trails down from the resort at 1650

Yearning for Turning Vol 4

#GetYourCarveOn 😉

Captain or anyone else. Can I get the run down on Serre Che please. Is Turin the best flight, who for transfers and where can I get a decent aparment to sleep 4 towards the middle of February. Any help appreciated.

Are you going for a week Buzz? Shorter trips are difficult.

Looks like the big family trip to Mayrhofen this year is off as childcare is becoming a problem with a 5, 3, 1.5 and 1.25 year old in tow and only two, increasingly imobile grandparents to cope.

So mrs_fiat and I were wondering about a long weekend in somewhere like Courmayeur – fly out to Turin, hire a panda and head for the slopes. Is this really possible or will every hotel want to charge me €300/night as we’ll be upsetting their arrive/depart Sat organised tour bookings?

On the subject of snow….or the lack of it. This is 1850 at Courcheval which was well coated after the Nov dump, but now looking very sparse. Interesting to see the big piles of artificial snow they are making, as its cold enough to use the cannons for the next couple of weeks. But no snow forecast…..just sun!

here

@Hot_Fiat,I went on a lads trip to Courmayeur a few years back and we found a few options for a three night stay and not OTT either.

Flights to Geneva are plentiful, not sure you can get early flights to Turin and its 3hrs away, but obviously getting there very early and leaving late with give you two half days, which make it worthwhile. Look for alternatives to Booking.com as what can look fully booked isn’t always. worth phoning a few direct.

In my experience the shortest the transfer, the better for long weekend, so I’d checkout Soll, Westerndorf, Alpbach….even staying in Worgl and driving to all the various villages in the Ski Welt within 10mins, for different skiing all on the same pass.

Rockape -yes, I’m going for a week. Will be two adults and two kids (5&7). So any advice for kids ski is appreciated too. Plan is to leave around the 17/18th Feb for a week.

@ Buzz…the best thing to do is to sit down and spend an hour or two looking at companies who do apartments. You might need to dig. Ideally looking at the map here[/url] you can see that the central villages have lifts straight to the greens and blues, so depending on ability, this might be best for you. We are staying in Briancon, which involves using reds to get across to the easier parts. Turin is around 1hr 30mins. If you book BA click flight and car for what can be very good deals as opposed to doing it separately.

Flashy, will be along with much more knowledge, but hopefully that helps a bit.

EDIT a quick thought….you might be clashing with French school holidays with those dates. Not recommended if so and perhaps consider somewhere else.

It’s been a slow start to the season on the West side of the Canadian rockies but I got out for my first tour at the weekend on the Icefields parkway. Pretty nice conditions with boot top powder once we were above treeline.

I was neither the model nor the (pro) photographer for this shot and merely stood around while they did their stuff but the result is so good I wanted to share…

Icefields skiing by Graham McKerrell[/url]

Nice, Sweaman2…very nice!

Buzzard – agree with the above. Take care over where you go, it’s likely to be very busy anywhere in France.

Hot Fiat – you’ll find places that will allow you to book for a few days. Not everywhere sticks to the usual 7 day weekend to weekend holiday. Especially if you’ll have a car, you can choose to stay a little further out and have more choice. Agree that flying into Salzburg is a good idea, some great places a short journey from there. Flachau should be looked at 30-45 mins from Salzburg airport directly off the motorway. We’ve done home to Flachau in 6 hours door to door – that includes the 2hr wait at the airport. We had a leisurely lunch and drink, then were skiing at 3pm on the passes we’d bought to start the next day (a lot of places allow you to ski from 3pm the day before the pass is due to start). Had we have only been there for a long weekend we’d have been straight out as soon as we got there.

Hot Fiat,
We did a short trip to Cormayeur a few years ago, as said above Geneva is probably a better choice than Turin, depending on where your fly from of course.
We used an operator as it worked out cheaper. Flight, Transfer +Tunnel and accommodation.
Ski Solutions
IRRC, used them a few times for short trips and they are very helpful. Except the time they forgot to tell the hotel in Nendaz that we were arriving late…but thats a different story.
EDIT: Dont go in Feb if you don’t want to be fleeced

I need some advice from the hive-mind, if you’d all be so kind. My husband and I have a week off beginning the 10th December and it’s just crossed my mind that it’s the beginning of the ski season in France that week. I’m really keen to get one last ski trip in before our lives change forever (I’m 19 weeks pregnant with our first) but I’m not sure where to book (if anywhere) – we usually go to the French Alps fairly late in the season so are used to variable conditions, and usually go to a high resort.

I have found some decent deals for Tignes, Val Thorens and La Plagne – any ideas on which of those will have the best snow cover in a couple of weeks time? I’m a first-to-last lift kind of gal so snow cover and ability to ski miles and miles is top of my essentials list!

(PS please no judgements on the sanity of going downhill skiing whilst pregnant – I’ve been commuting by bike to work most days since I found out, and have been on my MTB most weekends! I’d go mad if I couldn’t!)

Thanks for the info. Geneva would be better for us as there’s direct flights from
NCL.

Legolam: have skied twice with my sister when she was very pregnant. My bro in law and I swept behind her to provide a safe space which nobody was allowed into. It’s not your own abilities that you need to worry about but those behind you.

Legolam, anywhere high. VT or Tignes I would say.
Have fun, my wife had no energy for skiing at only a few weeks pregnant. We found out in Zermatt..

Cheers, have got good deals for both VT and Tignes – my only concern with VT is that it may not be possible to ski the rest of the 3V (although the accommodation looks nicer in VT, which might be useful if I find I can’t ski as much as I’d hoped!).

I’ve been very lucky so far and not had any pregnancy symptoms at all – I’m keen to make the most of it! I’ve performed the “sweeping” duties when my husband was learning to ski, so will employ him to do the same on this trip. However, I’ve been skiing since I was 4 and haven’t fallen over since I was 13 (I’m 33 now),and don’t do any crazy stuff even when not pregnant, so I’m relatively happy that it’s as safe as driving to work 😉

Agree with Tignes or VT that early in the season given the current situation. Check out Mountainsun I think they do early season packages to Tignes.

That said the Milky Way and Aosta resorts have had an absolute dumping in the last week. It just depends on how much of those places would be open.

Captain or anyone else. Can I get the run down on Serre Che please. Is Turin the best flight, who for transfers and where can I get a decent aparment to sleep 4 towards the middle of February. Any help appreciated.

I ended up booking via the resort website http://www.serrechevalier-reservation.com/en/index.htm

Looked nice, price was ok, easy to get to and close yo the lifts, took a punt.

Probably safer..
Only reason we did a pregnancy test was she was right off her G&T and didn’t want to ski as much..
We new something was up..!

@legolam Tignes and Val Tho are good choices, if I may say so it’s very picky to complain you might not be able to ski the whole 3V ! Even the Tignes / Val link can be shut early in the season. IMO you can’t expect miles of different pistes in mid Dec you have to take what you can. I have had some great mid Dec weeks (Verbier 2008 and Ste Foy 2012) and one very so so 2014. Note if you go to Tignes you could catch the first World Cup event which is always in Val d’Isere and is that week http://www.worldcup-valdisere.com/en/

You can’t know now where will be best, its a case of just going high and taking a bit of a punt. They won’t be able to confirm what lifts will be open yet just their plan.

Stevo of White Room Chalet posts here, if you like their facebook page plus Tignes, Val, Val Tho you’ll get a good idea.

if I may say so it’s very picky to complain you might not be able to ski the whole 3V !

Fair point! I like to ask for the moon on a stick though! Thanks for the tip on the World Cup – I had no idea that was on.

Those bouys in the Korua video

Forward stance with the back knee tucked in – the only way to carve.

Won’t find that in the McNab book.

Hot_Fiat, I meant to say fly to Munich for the Ski Welt. Its a great area for a long weekend, lots of flights, short transfer and a different area every day. Having the car means you can drive in close to all the lifts. (if you get up early) Excellent VFM too.

@legolam

The snow in VT is in very good nick, lots of it and cold temps at the moment to keep it in good nick. The snow on the lower slopes in the rest of the 3Vs is a little sparse in places, particularly ones with a southerly aspect but it is chuffing freezing here at the moment and the cannons are doing their thing. It’s due to be cold for the next couple of weeks so I’d be very surprised if you couldn’t make it from VT to Courch 1850 by the 10th.

Stevo of White Room Chalet posts here, if you like their facebook page plus Tignes, Val, Val Tho you’ll get a good idea.

There’s loads of snow in Tignes & Val at the moment and no problems with the links between the two. Val Thorens probably has almost as much snow, but will be less well-linked to the other areas as you have to pass through Meribel, which is much lower. Is Meribel even open that week?

Awesome, thanks both. That’s great insider info! 3V opens officially on the 10th, and I think Tignes/Val are open already. I suspect I’ll have fun no mattter where I go!

MUC’s a pain in the Boden to get to from the north east: NCL>AMS>MUC in about 6 hours or NCL>CDG (Shudders)>MUC in between 6 and 16 depending on how many Départments you have to cross.

MUC’s a pain in the Boden to get to from the north east:

Its at times like this I appreciate the fact that I am less than 30 mins from Gatwick and Heathrow. 8)

Buzzard, will reply properly soon. Am in the US on business, hence the delay!

Forward stance with the back knee tucked in – the only way to carve

‘One’ of the [numerous] ways to carve I think … i.e. the euro-carve : the positive binding angles just open up your field of view!

To be honest if you look at 1:59 it looks like the rider has got fairly low +tive angles on his rear binding. He’s still riding with a ‘stacked’ & centered stance – just a variation on it as most of the Korua boards in the video look to be directional.

Perfectly possible to carve a ‘pencil line’ in the ‘corduroy’ with a semi-duck stance … as it’s more to do with inclination & angulation I reckon.