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

Good to hear Gee. Where you been?

All round Les Menuires and Val Thorens for the first 2 days. This morning we did the run off Mont Vallon peak (absolutely stunning view). Just had a cracking Bouef Tartare in Le Plan des Mains and feeling very full. Quick espresso then we might hit the park.

Hotel Mont Vallon has a great terrace / restuarant (although tbh not been there/Meribel for many years now) – great place on a sunny day. The runnoff the top is indeed excellent.

Brucie Bonus at the top on Mont Vallon, especially for Flashy:

GrahamS you’re beautifully colour coordinated.
Piste sartorial elegance 🙂

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand I’m spent!

Piste sartorial elegance

I figure if I can’t do it I should at least look good trying. 😉

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand I’m spent!

You’re welcome! Happy Valentines. x

A shortish report following our 4 day trip to Morzine.

We totally lucked out with the weather and had 3 blue sky days of faultless skiing. Plenty of snow though it was quite warm so the slopes by the end of this week will be worn as no new snow is forecast. Managed the Swiss Wall no better or worse than the majority.

Since we only wanted 3 nights B&B, our options for staying was limited. I booked l’Aubergade without knowing anything/reading any review about the hotel or its location in Morzine.

When we pulled up I couldn’t believe our luck, the hotel is Ski in ski out very near the Pleney lift. The bar/lounge has been cleverly designed and reminded us of some bars in Berlin. Very cool. Rooms were basic but clean with a power shower.

Had I done a ounce of research I would’ve known that they can also sort out child care and had an in-house nursery. Next year we’ll take the kids as we will definitely return.

Finally, I think the prices in Morzine have actually fallen since we were last here. We could eat/drink out well for around £50. 2 large glasses of Vin Chaud on the slopes was about £7, cheaper than Cardiff at Christmas! A glass of house wine in the bars was about £3, again cheap. Since we had some cash leftover we bought ourselves 2 new ski jackets and trousers, soft shell French company for around £300.

All in we had an excellent time and only had 30min delay in GVA on the way home!

Wall to wall sunshine here in Schladming too. A couple of school boy errors. Left my sunglasses at home, skimped on the factor 50 and my face is now a tad red.

Excellent conditions for us piste bashers though.

Nice one, Dan – sounds awesome. Morzine can be lots of fun.

Whistler about to get hit by a large pineapple express. Rising temperature, sun and a public holiday meant packed slopes and a high avy risk, with some inbounds bowls being closed.

FL keeps fluctuating up and down, so I have no idea if I’ll wake up to 25cm of fresh (but heavy) snow or if half the mountain will be underwater and goretex socks and facemask will be required :s]

Graham – *sploosh*

Speaking of the House Wine, I can’t help thinking that the early mornings with kids would be a little easier without the generous “Help Yourself” policy in the evenings.

Rude not to though. 😀

I can feel the hangover from here

3 sleeps

send it first look later

needs sound

Interesting article from HAT regarding last weeks tragic event in Tignes:

http://www.henrysavalanchetalk.com/lessons-from-tignes-avalanche-accident/%5B/url%5D

Interesting to note that the earlier reports that the slide was triggered by another group on the slope above the victims is no longer considered.

A good article I think, that raises some important but also reassuring points about ‘off piste’ terrain.

interesting reading thanks

Excellent and informative. The boarder vs skier risks I had’t thought of before. Certainly been taught to traverse one by one, keeping a reasonable speed and an eye upwards. I didn’t know the “release at skier causes further release above” situation but it makes sense if slab is big and slope is steeper.

Good article. I can recommend Henry’s Avalanche Talks if you get the chance to go.

I’m beginning to think Henry is lazy and would do better to do a little research before posting. Lots of speculation and littel real content.

We do not have the exact slope angles in this case. But from the photos it looks like 35 to 40 degrees.

Well look at the Geoportal site or an IGN map and work it out then. The avalanche debris was 12m deep according to the vid he links but perhaps didn’t watch

However the topography means must have been lower down the slope than where the crown actually broke.

There’s access to the slope from just below the cliff all the way down – that is to say everywhere snow accumulates. It’s all skiable, they could have been anywhere but the witnesses will no doubt tell the investigators if they really were seen. the usual route in is right at the top but we don’t know where they were when it triggered. Edit why he assumes they were walking in I have no idea – there’ no need.

The snowboarders were on crossing the slope on a similar or less steep pitch some distance further down

Again we don’t know yet – the slope gets steeper at two points rather than just being concave.

Some of his advice is good but clearly unrealistic in this case.

One by one between safe places – good advice. So the guide should have left the group behind the last avalanche barrier then boarded down to the bar and waved at the other three to come down from there – there is no safe place once you break out past the avalanche barriers on that face

I’m beginning to find Henry very irritating.

igm – Member
3 sleeps

Me too…. will drop you a txt and maybe see you on the slopes or in a bar. Boys are excited here 🙂

On a lighter note again: two proud dad moments today:

1) spending the afternoon skiing/boarding with my six year daughter who can now ride chairlifts and happily plough down any blue we throw at her.

2) having to tell said six year old, and her three year old sister, that skiing all day then dancing till 11pm with the cast from Moulin Rouge doesn’t mean they get to miss the last day of ski school 😀

To make up for the previous “having a wonderful time in Canada” posts just drove through a torrential rain storm 30mm+ in Fernie while on the way to Kimberly. I’m sure the upper mountain is fantastic but it will be cement lower down.

To make up for the previous “having a wonderful time in Canada” posts just drove through a torrential rain storm 30mm+ in Fernie while on the way to Kimberly. I’m sure the upper mountain is fantastic but it will be cement lower down.

Sounds about right. We got an awful lot of rain. Snowing (just) in the alpine but really wet heavy snow and high winds. So no alpine for the last couple of days. Freezing level is due to drop back down from 2000m to a more respectable 1100 but everything will be pretty rock solid after the amount of rain we got.

Freezing level is due to drop back down from 2000m to a more respectable 1100

still snowing, or dry since the rain?

I spent Tuesday night in the garage, degluing and regluing skins, filling gouges with ptex and edging and waxing 2 splitboards and a solid board. Felt absolutely awful the next day. splitting headache and out of it, like I was in the next room. Got lost in Manchester more than once on a 10 min walk from the station to our office.

It’s all about ventilation, kids. Ventilation, Ventilation, Ventilation.

I spent Tuesday night in the garage, degluing and regluing skins

What removal method did you go for nedrapier?

I did the repeated sheets of brown paper to remove (took forever) and a glue sheet and hot iron to replace.

Would be interested in your experience … once you’ve recovered from ‘sniffin’ glue’ that is! 😯

I didn’t know the “release at skier causes further release above” situation

Aye … ‘Remote Trigger’ as it’s known can occur when a person (or persons) cause a fracture that propagates in unstable snowpack.

Hot air gun and paint scraper, or proper glue removal tool definitely easier than brown paper and iron – iron just doesn’t seem to get hot enough… decathlon do the proper heated scrapers – worth £18! https://www.decathlon.co.uk/heated-scraper-for-skins-id_4016175.html

decathlon do the proper heated scrapers – worth £18!

Spooky… I’ve just ordered one of those heated scrapers from Decathlon.

Don’t need it yet, but nice to have just in case!

Cheers Dashed! 😉

Edit why he assumes they were walking in I have no idea – there’ no need.

“Cyril Anceau of the Mountain Rescue Services has said that the group were on foot and possibly triggered the avalanche themselves by punching down to a weak layer.”

The epitome of “styling it out”

He meant to do that. Surely!

steezy! reminds me a couple others. I’m thinking of Terje casing on the coping on a 10m Quarterpipe at The Arctic Challenge, tucking into a front flip and landing perfectly near the bottom of the transition.

And David Benedek tumbling off a wall ride/rail in some fillum or other and landing on his board, almost stationary. He stands there for a beautiful moment of frozen disbelief that he’s upright before he and everyone else crack up laughing.

Can’t find either Yootoob, so you’ll just have to imagine/remember them!

Digby – I did most of it with an iron on medium, siliconised baking paper and a scraper – iron a bit, scrape a bit. Bit of a faff, but you get better/quicker as you go. Then I remembered about the heat gun in the drawer. you can get more done quicker with that, but I did get a bit concerned about damaging the skins.

Ideally you’d have one person applying the heat with whatever method, and the other scraping and wiping the scraper. That would be very efficient. Or get that heated scraper jobby!

I used the brown paper as a final pass, and to clean the skin sock things. bit on top, bit underneath, and a piece cut to size on the inside of the sock.

Thanks nedrapier! I was thinking about a heatgun when I spotted the COLL TEX Heated Scraper for Skins @ Decathlon pop up in a google search at the same time dashed mentioned it.

I too was a little worried about the heat gun damaging the skins – I have memories of ‘scorching’ wood years ago when strpping layers of paint of wooden doors …

Did you use glue from a pot/tube or the glue sheets?

Ooh, dunno if this has been done, Burton’s Step On bindings positively reviewed: https://whitelines.com/snowboard-gear/news-previews/burton-step-on-bindings-first-review-2017-2018.html

Could improve my skiier friend relationship. Strongly considering… 😀

I used the sheets – colltex from facewest, they’re a little narrow – 130mm I think, but you can split them down the middle and leave an unglued strip in the middle of the skin.

Narrow and out of stock at facewest – maybe Decathlon have them? BD more expensive but in stock at FW, and wider.

Easy enough to do, but the one you do second will probably be better!

Watch the vid on the facewest site. (they’ve got a fancy heated scraper – makes anything you’ve done previously look like a massive, faffy waste of time!) Give it plenty with the iron, let it cool, pull the paper off, look for lighter patches where it’s not soaked into the cloth, heat with the heatgun and/or put a sheet of siliconised baking paper (£not much for 60m on amazon – also handy for baking) over the top and iron.

Keep going until it’s all uniform and dark and shiny. Always let it cool for a minute or few before taking the paper off to check, or some of it will come off with the paper.

Liking the cheeky footplant attempt in the linked video, Dez!

cheers nedrapier.

yeah – I’ve used the BD sheets before. My Dakine wax iron wasn’t anywhere near hot enough to make it ‘dark & shiny’ so I had to requisition the ‘household’ iron on a temporary basis … 😉

Was quite surprised just how hot I had to get it …

Yeah I’ve got to say I’m impressed with those step on bindings. I could well be tempted but will give them a year and see how they stand up to other people abusing them first. I can see the new skeleton key/ deep thinker in those videos too, one of which is my next board. Yum yum

I’m impressed with all this re gluing chat. I tried once and sweamrs decreed that buying new skins was a better option once clean up time and aroma was considered.

I’m impressed with all this re gluing chat. I tried once and sweamrs decreed that buying new skins was a better option once clean up time and aroma was considered.