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

Time for some light relief.

He has referred to the moderator team using “we”. he’s made other comments that imply he’s a moderator too but I can’t remember the detail.

grudge match

😆

No such thing from my point of view. As others have mentioned, your manner and tone on here isn’t the best. Look at that before casting blame around at others.

Anyway, back on topic…..onesies. My first skiing trip saw me attired in a green and red C&A onesie. Thankfully not a single photograph of this monstrosity exists.

Marks and Spencer’s for me !

CFH those C&A ones where quite the thing.

Oooo, missed all the fun last night 😉

FWIW – I rate Henry. I think he has a good way of breaking down the decision points / risks into manageable chunks that people can get their head around.

At the end of the day, predicting avalanches is hugely complex and not that well understood. From a skier’s perspective, it’s about knowing which areas / conditions to avoid to minimise your risk. Henry’s ethos it to try and give people the skills to make decisions in a more informed way.

I agree, he makes a living out of guiding and being the avalanche expert so does a fair bit of self-promotion, but I’ve seen a couple of his talks and had some interesting chats with him afterwards. Very down to earth in person, passionate about avalanches and overall quite an agreeable chap – I’d happily spend a day guided by him.

Anyway, more light relief – Facebook reminded me a couple of days ago that this is what I was doing a year ago 😥 😥

Japow – very nice 😀

TMH – no difference off piste between old straight skis and the new wider AM’s ? You must be even more awesome than I thought 😉 extra boyancy is huge in my experience. Don’t you remember the old powder skis you’d rent for special days off piste – Fat Boys – they made a big difference

I got myself accepted into this group, does that count as a qualification 😉 !

Very finely judged !

https://www.facebook.com/groups/101999475272/permalink/10158337530725273/

Tandem monoski for the floaty pow funz.

Noooo

Jambas, never really tried proper fat skiis, so cannot comment. But I ski the same stuff on a whole variety of skiis – SL, GS, AM, freestyle and generally don’t notce the difference unless in icy moguls and when blasting down a firm piste. OP? Hardly at all. I know this flies in the face of marketing etc (and is nowt to do with willy waving) but OP is far more about keeping technique very simple and being very relaxed. When skiing I am not even conscious about the skiis – only a very gentle body motion and positions v-a-v the fall line.

The only time I become conscious of skiis is on faster piste basking – I am still unnerved by how short modern skis are – and in big icy bumps. The latter again is probably an excuse for technique. When skiing well, I don’t notice the skiis in bumps either. But getting older these days, so that’s a rarity!

I actually find this all really odd and would obviously be hopeless as a ski reviewer. But it does make choosing skis a lot easy. Grab anything in the prestige range, clip in and go ski.

As I said, I am the same with MTB and regualrly ride with my forks locked out by mistake!!!!

igm YGM

I saw a lesser spotted monoski on Tuesday!

has anyone actually been on one? what’s it like?

I also saw a blader and of course hurled abuse at him from the lift.

It’s been a while. Odd at first for sure and for modern skiers, having you ankles locked right together is a challenge – less so for us oldies who learned a different technique.

Once you realise the monos are not designed for edging and traversing, they are a blast. But you HAVE to stay in the fall line ! Once skied a little bit pissed in Val Thorens in deep powder and it was one of the most fun days ever. Still personally I massively prefer two skis

Jambas I need to look back on skis like the K2 extremes and compare geometries with current ones. I am a bit out of touch with kit – used to be obsessed by it, now much less so.

The odd thing these days is switching between modern carving and old fashioned skiing. It was bad enough flipping between the Austrian and French methods in the 80s and 90s but that was nothing compared with adjusting to skiing like some cheap hooker with your legs splayed out wide 😉 these days!!!

Yes, we did it once 30 (?) years ago. Many many bruises as falls are all hip first. Best in powder I’d say as extra buoyancy meant we floted over off piste chop like snowboarders do

Stoner – ygm back

Didn’t recognise any of the photos though. The landscape was obscured by white stuff.

Git.

One of the things I like about Slovakia is that onesies are still very much a thing there.:

I saw a lesser spotted monoski on Tuesday!

Perverts the lot of them. Almost as bad as hard-booter alpine snowboarderists. 😆

(But obviously not nearly as bad as snow bladers. They are a different category altogether)

They’re not snow blades, they just nicked their children’s skis…

Discuss

That one at the bar is a truly epic fartbag.

Epic photos of the onesies although the most shocking part is the flow bindings .

sorry I had to!

the most shocking part is the flow bindings

well … if you are going to use flow bidings, I guess you might as well go the whole way and wear a dayglo one-piece … at least people might think you are being post-ironic … 😉 😆

Apart from my old 2m Kastle slalom skis in the 80s,*I have never really got the ski hype. I have skied all types on a whole range of skis and rarely noticed any difference. Skied deep OP two years ago on both Rossie slalom skis and AM – felt just the same. I am a bit like that with bikes though.

I’m a pretty useless skier compared to most on this thread and since my return to skiing five years ago (after 25yrs off) I have only ever skied on carvers. This time, I was given some Head carvers, very narrow underfoot and light and I liked them, even doing some tracked off piste. However, the next day it snowed and Didier from Krakatoa (Briancon) gave me some locally made ‘White Doctor’ all mountain skis. I was a bit nervous of how I would do, but it was like I was wearing the same skis…..how does that work?

So the End of Season sales are upon us and I think it might be time to send my trusty Vans Cirro boots to the Great Fetid Boot Locker in the Sky as they are now at least 10% Shoe Goo and 15% toe cheese.

Any thoughts on suitable replacements to look for in the sales?

Looking for something mid-to-stiff and I’m a fan of the Boa laces, as long as they have separate upper and lower dials. (But I did find these boots developed a pressure point where the big plastic bit is that joins the two sections). Also I have fairly wide feet.

A quick Google and the Burton Photon and K2 Thraxis have caught my eye but they are both fairly high end so other suggestions welcome.

last week I was having to be held back from fondling deadlydarcy’s Insano Focus Boa booties. Excellent double Boa system, and light as a feather compared to my 15yr old Northwaves. Mind you my boots are size 48, and dd’s are more likely to be VAT free…. 😉

Graham, ThirtyTwo STW Boa, shirley?

Whatever fits, obvs, but I’m a fan of Salomon. Mainly because they fit me!

They’ve got some 2 zone Boa jobbies. Worth a look.

Insano Focus Boa booties

Noted. They look interesting. Amused to see the liner features a “Tallboy™ Harness” – ideal for DD 😉

ThirtyTwo STW Boa

LOL. That would be amusing, but sadly they are single Boa and I like to run my lower foot a bit loose (due to my wide feet). I do like the ladies colour scheme though:

😉

Whatever fits, obvs

Yep that’s the main battle. Just trying to get a shortlist to try on.

Is there anywhere that gives a nice breakdown of the relative sizing of brands? Some brands are definitely much wider fit than others. I needs Hobbitsy width:

You could try a shop.

It’s a long shot, but it might just work.

A quick snow report from the PDS. Deadlydarcy and I and some chums are just back from a cracking few days. Conditions looked bleak a few weeks ago, but the forecasts were right and there’s been a veritable snowmageddon since last weekend.

Several feet of snow has fallen since Saturday evening. The awesome fresh snow days only slightly dulled by some poor visibility and a couple of days cut short by stormy weather coming in and shutting the lifts. But by that point in the day, snow had been ridden into deep, heavy and lumpy piles on the pistes so no great loss. And mornings of arse-crack deep fresh snow certainly made up for a short day.

We did get stuck into some fun piste-edge “side/slack-country”, but with a cautious eye on conditions.

All in all, another v fortunate coincidence of our annual trip and a dumping of fresh snow. It’s almost as if there were some mythological luck involved….

Snow? Lots of snow.

Yours truly doing his best “Gallumphing Sasquatch”? styling.

There are photos of DD, but what with the snow depth, they’re mainly of the top of his snorkel.

I intend to CFH – just trying to get some ideas on which ones to look for. I don’t want to spend hours trying on every single pair of boots in the shop twice as I have a penis.

Is that DD in white/black number? Or just someone far away? 😉

🙂

Whatever fits, obvs, but I’m a fan of Salomon. Mainly because they fit me!

Same here … I had needed a new pair of boots in Whistler some years ago and tried on just about every pair in resort … in the end I went back to the Salomon shop. The very helpful chap said that I had typical ‘Salomon Feet’ … or he may have said I had typical ‘Salmon Feet’ … 😆

I don’t want to spend hours trying on every single pair of boots in the shop twice as I have a penis.

Once for each pair is enough … apart from the pair you tried on first two hours earlier …

Alternatively you could have a ‘virtual fitting’ online @STW and we could all tell you how fabulous you look in this year’s color-ways (sic) 😉

In my experience:

Vans/Burton/32 – quite broad
Salomon/Northwave – quite narrow (Italian foot lasts I was once told)

well … if you are going to use flow bidings, I guess you might as well go the whole way and wear a dayglo one-piece … at least people might think you are being post-ironic …

Flow? Check (well my excuse is they’re comfy)
Dayglo? Check (Stoner can confirm my end of season whatever’s available goretex)
Onesie? No chance. I don’t like having to get fully undressed if I want to have a poo

I had needed a new pair of boots in Whistler some years ago and tried on just about every pair in resort …

Yeah I think I bought those old Vans at Rude Boys in Banff about 6 years ago.

Sadly the boot selection back here in the NE England isn’t quite as extensive:

Only 3 Dual Boa boots at LD Mountain Centre.
And 6 at Snow and Rock.

🙁

GrahamS

Flow Talon Focus
Incredibly good boot, bit stiff at first compared to my Vans Auras but love them now. Totally waterproof, amazing for getting the power down on piste, pretty decent on medium jumps in the park. Super comfy too.

Wallop – great to hear you’ve enjoyed your jolly.

Conditions this morning were fab. Not so great towards mid day, with the typical ski grabbing spring conditions. We tried the glacier area, which was very crowded. I lost a bit of confidence after tackling a red in flat light and swirling wind (parp).
Heart said ski the black, head said no. Maybe tomorrow when there are fewer idiots around.
Pleased to say my new hip is holding up well.
This is one happy snowbunnyhop 🙂

love my vans sequal boots. lots of adjustments

I need to see deadlydarcy in his mittens!

ride lasso or 32 focus boa are the best boa boots I’ve tried.
Best fitting boots I’ve had are nitro. also means you get to say Nitro a lot which is a great word I think.

can we start the 2018 thread yet? I’ve just put a deposit down on this bad boy