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

Adrian…what a man! Brilliant.

Good to hear re marmottes Ian.

I’ve been excitedly watching the reports as I and a couple of undesirables are heading out at the end of next week. Could be all flavours of orsum if the forecast holds

What’s Les prodains like? Spotted a reasonably priced package trip there, never skiied PdS

TMH weather is all over the place. Yes there will be some epic dumps before Easter but where / when ?

64cm on top of what we have had in terms of snow and warm/cold weather 😯 I’d be very cautious about fresh tracks

@Jedi great choice ! At least one apres ski beverage at Folie Douce, bring a warm hat as it’s a shame to leave as soon as the sun goes. Try and get some tips for slack country areas, plenty around from easy to oohh-err, TDC as I mentioned are great. Valley Perdue over in Tignes is easy – top part certainly, not sure how the gully is on a board.

EDIT: just seen the chilling post … day 1 up above Solaise then. The whole Tignes/Val area is huge, worth having a bit of a tour about, take Furnicular at La Daille for the experience and also the fast one in Tignes. Tignes Glacier at 3500m with distant view of Mont Blanc. Don’t for to La Fornet Glacier if its cold and at all windy, ‘kin freezing 😐

@nbt – Prodains is basically a collection of chalets at the base of the main gondola up to Avoriaz. There’s a bar or two there, but not much else. Well, couple of ski shops. It’s not realistically walkable from Morzine, and taxis are hard to come by so not the place if you’re keen on your apres. Great access to avoriaz side of PdS, but not Morzine or Les Gets side.

The general area is fantastic, but is low – tops out around 2300m, and snow is currently pretty poor. Last fall was about 3 weeks ago. But it does look like things might improve rapidly if this snow comes at start of march…

Middle Class nightmare 😉

Since junior “borrowed” my Omeglass 64s (165 R12 116/64/100) to work with I’ve had trouble finding anything in the cupboard I really like for a day mostly on piste.

If I had to choose one place in the Alps for the next two weeks it would be Les Menuires / Val Tho’. Lots of snow at resort level and sunny days between the falls. But as the conditions are so good we’re skiing local.

And if anyone’s missed me on that other thread ( you know the one), it may be another week before I’ll be back on that one

You have missed nothing other than numerous repetitions of points made months ago.

Friends just back from Val Tho/Les Menuires and it was as Edukator says, skiing was good enough, they stayed high and enjoyed the weather

@nbt – we’ve just come back from a few days in Prodains. As above, easy access to Avorias, Chatel etc and Switzerland. We also did Morzine and Les Gets – there is a free bus every 15 minutes or so between Morzine and Prodains, so transport was not a problem. A good bar, couple of restaurants and a couple of ski shops – quiet and not full on like Morzine or Avoriaz – we loved it!

Snow was deteriorating quickly when we left on Wednesday, but still most of the pistes were open.

If anyone’s in Obergurgl next week you’ll do very well indeed. It’s thrown down all day today. Pleasingly tomorrow or our last day and it’s forecast for blue skies and no wind.

Couple of snowboarding buddies of mine riding the ENSA couloir with McNab.
It’s been on my ‘todo’ list for a few years now, but has never been in condition whenever I’ve been out in Chamonix sadly. These boys got lucky though and managed to tick off quite a few of the big ones a couple of weeks ago.

If I had to choose one place in the Alps for the next two weeks it would be Les Menuires

Les Menuires was holding up very well high up, but getting a bit slushy and wet at resort level when we left it this time last week. Cracking bluebird days while we were there mind you. Not sure what it has done since.

Take care this week

The photo slide show here has a couple of arresting images, that’s quite a slab. Will work my way through article with my dire French. “Avalanche, the big unknown”

L’avalanche, cette grande inconnue

nice bit of XC this morning then out with the boy for some snowboarding today . I also ate 3 sausages from the bbq. *burp*

Just looked to the Bridger webcams.

28″ so far today!

just watched that Digby looks great! steep AF and nice for slashes!

nice article on my local place

‘Here in Jämtland, people will ski during their lunch break’

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2017/feb/24/freerider-reine-barkered-jamtland-are-ski-resort-sweden?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

Off to Val D’Isere in the morning, wonder if I’ll spot Jedi?

He’ll be riding branches up in the trees

We skied in a time warp today, Hautacam. 100% button lifts which haven’t changed since they opened the resort.

Shiny new kit though. Madame bought the 50:50 skis rated by Ski Chrono: Fisher Koa 84s. I played on them for a couple of descents: really pleasant little things for tight turns and low speed, can be carved as speed picks up but it all gets a bit Tokyo drift when air resistance becomes the main thing slowing you down. They clattered through the off-piste tracked up clag just fine.

Only 4.8kg the pair with Marker F10 Tour bindings, that’s 2.2kg less than my slalom skis.

Just back from 4 days in chamonix. Not the best conditions to be fair with some quite manky slopes lower down in Le Tour and Grand Montets. Still love the town though and Chambre Neuf for a ‘quiet drink with friends’…

Weather forecast for our destination just keeps getting better – checked the forecast over the weekend and snow-forecast.com (also known as snow-guess.com as their reliability is not massive) was saying 30cm or so on tuesday night

this morning, it’s telling us around 60cm on tuesday, with another 60+cm through Friday and Saturday

fantastic

same here.
Forecast for over a metre accumulation between now and the weekend. Just hope the weather holds back from Sunday onwards for some blue sky and fresh snow days on empty mid-term pistes! Flying out to GVA on saturday pm.

Just waiting to be for my return transfer after a long weekend in Morzine.
Very poor snow conditions at most levels; compacted snow, ice, and slush all on the same slope sometimes. Avoid was much better so we went there on the full days but still not great. Luckily for the them it’s due to snow quite a bit this week.
Still we skied everyday and the sun was out on 4 of them, and with the rugby on the apres ski was great.

80cms this week? Balls, Balls, Balls. Have fun! 🙂 👿

Just back from 5 Days in Le Fornet/ espace Killy with my wife, a uni friend I’ve spent a bout about an hour with in the last 18 years, her husband and 3 of her friends. Everyone was brilliant fun. Good gamble with people we didn’t know.

Had a really good time, despite the below par snow. 2 days touring, found about 30 turns worth of fluff, but good to be away from the crowds and get some air in the lungs. Other than that, good food, nice wine, smashing about on the pistes chasing a guy who spent 6 years racing with the army. Pistes were in pretty good nick apart from a couple of icy patches in the usual sort of spots.

Still really want to demo some more boards, the 5’5″ D1 carves pretty nicely, but the taper and the deep sidecut aren’t always helpful. Fun little board with a great compromise for pow and piste, but do I want a more piste oriented board?

Kessler the Ride, Amplid Creamer and UNW8, Korua Stealth would definitely be on the list. Anyone ever joined one of those industry demo things? Anyone know how you can get on them?

woo, and indeed, hoo!

Dès ce week-end, Météo France annonçait des chutes de neige à venir. Ce lundi, les prévisionnistes du centre départemental basé à Briançon confirment leurs analyses : la neige devrait son retour dans les Hautes-Alpes dans la nuit de lundi à mardi à partir de 1400 mètres d’altitude. Il pourrait neiger un peu plus bas dans le Briançonnais et dans le Queyras. Jusqu’à 20 cm sont ainsi attendus. Demain mardi, le temps devrait rester perturbé. « Avec des précipitations marquées » précise Météo France. La limite pluie-neige devrait s’étager de 1000 à 1600 mètres selon les massifs. Une couche de neige supplémentaire de 20 à 40 cm est envisagée.

http://www.ledauphine.com/hautes-alpes/2017/02/27/chutes-de-neige-meteo-france-confirme-ses-previsions

Almost exactly a year ago, we struck gold (or blue and white if you prefer). Here’s hoping we manage the same dumb luck this Sunday

Lindaret – March 2016

Out in Denver. I can see snow in the foothills, but all work – no time to visit the slopes. 😥

Stoner – there’s a good chance you will!! Looking very good for snow over the next few days so should give you plenty to play in. Very jealous, but it is very much needed.

Last run I did in PdS a few weeks ago was the big bowl in the top left of that pic – skinned up breaking trail the whole way but it was worth every step!! Just taken delivery of a small bundle of labrador so has put further ski plans on hold, but hoping for a last minute late season trip depending on the snow.

Looking very good for snow over the next few days

Over 2000m yes, lower down expect rain, sleet and snow. The first thing the resorts are going to get is rain which will hopefully turn to snow.

Already snowing >1200m in PdS. FL up and down a bit today, but dropping to 1000m later ahead of the main snow coming in later this afternoon / overnight. Biggest issue is going to be the wind – pretty much all of Avoriaz is shut today!

A 1200m iso level is more than acceptable for you lucky people hitting the slopes later this week. Gits. 😀

Over 2000m yes, lower down expect rain, sleet and snow.

Snowing heavily here on the Italian/French border … down to 1200m 😆

#WhichWasNice 😀

@nedrapier korua stealth is seriously stiff, wasn’t for me. amplid looks to be very pow leaning, but haven’t tried it. you seem to like premium boards!

skeleton key, Jones hovercraft, Rome powder division Mt all rail groomers and are awesome in pow.

Snowed all day yesterday in the Grand Massif but high winds meant the resort was closed.
We went shopping down in the valley instead, on the way down the freezing level was 1500m but when we came back up is had dropped to about 1100m which was great. The drive was interesting and a big thank you to the man in white van who forced us into the gutter because he was driving down the middle of the road!
Still snowing now….should be good

you seem to like premium boards

Well that’s the thing. I’d be quite happy to test a bunch and find I really got on with some mid-range, intermediate board!

I remember a blind test they did in a motorbike mag years ago where they blanked off the clocks, bodywork, all distinguishing features (bar engine note, obvs) on a range of bikes, hypersports to touring, big to small.

They got a similarly broad range of people to ride them round a track. Asked them how they felt, which felt quick, comfy, easy, difficult. With no preconceptions about the bike, which ones should be fast and which ones shouldn’t be, and no speedo to give them clues, the “winner” in terms of lap times and easiness to get on with was something like a GSX750F, something most people would overlook as bland and ugly.

I suspect this sort of thing happens with all sorts of sporting equipment.

Edit: and spending mega bucks on something you could very well irreparably damage on the first go out seems to be a bit ridiculous. And it tends to follow that the more you spend, the lighter and more fragile a board you get. I’d only ever buy in an end of season sale.

OMG today’s the day!! 😀

Flying out to a Turin this afternoon en route to Briancon where fresh powder awaits! 😀

probably all tracked out by now Rockape ! kidding have a good one!

spending mega bucks on something you could very well irreparably damage on the first go out seems to be a bit ridiculous

I’ve ridden my board down an icy road before.

I wouldn’t be doing that with a shiny £500+ board! 😆

Early reports are mixed but looks like at least two people, possibly three, have died after avalanches in the Val Veny here in Courmayeur following recent heavy snowfall and rising temps …

Be safe out there folks …

@nedrapier…D1++ owner here, bought at an end of season in Whistler three years back. Best board I’ve ever ridden by far.Superquick on the piste and a blast in the pow. Seems to be holding out well in the face of loads of abuse. Would probably only replace it with a new one. Heading out to Whistler again on Wednesday so credit cards are coming with….just in case?

Forecast for PDS (Avoriaz) is more snow through the weekend and into early next week (+50cm) and staying below freezing above 1400m which is great. Flying out Saturday lunchtime.

Im strictly a piste-basher personally, maybe with a tiny teensy bit of slack within arms length of the piste markers. But whats the best advice* for those upcoming conditions in terms of avalanche risk even for those sticking to the pistes?

* and what in the forecast and conditions makes the risk?