The STW Ski & Snowboard thread. The 2017-2018 season

Snowboards in powder are all very well until the inevitable flat spot. It still brings a smile to my face remembering when one shot past me then stopped…then (having forgotten 2m snow pack in thrill of the moment) unfastened and stepped off his board and in up to the chest.

😆

Choose your resort wisely. It’s more inevitable in some.

Sunshine village I’m looking at you… still amazes me how many I see there when Lake Louise is so much more snow board friendly.

ok now I really don’t know what you are talking about Sweaman2, sunshine has a few flat spots, jack rabbit being one I remember, but don’t be slow, new or bad and you’ll be fine :D. If you are, you’ll get over it and learn to not be. No reason not to go to it over lake l. Just follow the snow , as that’s what we all love, snowboarder or planker

Just found ou I will be spending a couple of days actually skiing (as opposed to boarding) in Idre in Sweden over Christmas. Nice.

I love my new job.

The old one wasn’t bad !

Peisey Club is nice we where there 2 years ago on our mini road trip (wirh Zermatt and Verbier 🙂 ). Club Med is a bit strange my wife and her friends never pay website / brochure price – if you know someone there and are flex on last min booking discount is 30-50% – we even booked Cancun one year by creating a new account with a Mexican address we just looked up on Google. It was 65% discount vs European website price !!! Bizarre business model. It was sort of the same back 15+ years ago when we used to go to Turkey for May half term.

Anyway wife got a facebook update from a staff member saying they where oart of the Samoens launch team. Have my eye on it for March and July for biking

Edukator nice video with Junior

Snowing in Morzine this morning

Had a bit of a lie in and heading up the hill now!

nice Willard that’s about 3 hours south of where I am

Seems like the snow has improved in the last week at Val Thorens, nearly 2.5 metres of powder on the upper slopes.

Might have to push further down the valley below the tree line for off-piste though – 3/5 avalanche risk…

Only a week to go 🙂

Only a week to go

Same here, ADH on Saturday 😀

Quick question – will I need a mid-layer in Les Arcs – end of Jan/beginning of Feb? And if so – any suggestions? Cheers!!!

Dumping down today. Awesome skiing but bigger all visibility. Goggles freezing on outside

The only problem with wider skis is they are hard to carry easily !!

Have we do Snooc yet?

As featured in the Sunday Times this weekend. (In Serre Che, no less!)

A big phatt no from me!

THM. One in each hand carry from toe binding or clipped together drag from tips. HTH

^^ what DT says or ask young fit son to carry yours in return for you having paid for his holiday 🙂

CFH

The up, fine.

The down – isn’t that let’s take all the worst bits of skiing, boarding and sledging and put the together with added changeover time?

[ChewinTheFat] Just no [/ChewinTheFat]

CFH no – seems like a way to injure yourself in a new way or just shake your spine to pieces

@Phil it indeed can be blooming freezing in Arc 2000 top of La Plagne in late Jan (wind of course the main issue) .. as for “mid layer” I am of the view that’s a fleece/sweatshirt/hipster checked shirt/mtb softshell/gilet … when mixed with quality baselayer (eg ice breaker) and a decent windproof jacket. I like a fleece neck roll too – mine are “turtle fur”

BTW if weather is poor tree runs in Peisey are quite good

igm and Jambalaya in agreement – it must be bad 😉

Wow – that Club Med place is £20k for two adults and two kids for a week over new year – not including flights, transfers, ski hire, ski pass etc etc!!

Cb, are you certain the currency wasn’t set to the Zimbabwe dollar?
You could do quite a few nice ski trips for that!

Jambalaya – thanks!!

DTs – nope, would be cheaper to have a mortgage on a chalet!

Or rent for the season and sub let the weeks you didn’t want to use!

As featured in the Sunday Times this weekend. (In Serre Che, no less!)

A big phatt no from me!

In the words of Dr Frasier Crane:

I thought the whole point of Club med is that it’s all inclusive – perhaps not flights, so you can do self drive, but certainly the package I’ve been looking at includes flights, transfers, lift pass and tuition

£7k for two adults including flights and transfers but not lift passes or equipment hire.

45cm forecast overnight for Whitefish and other Montana resorts… sadly Rockies only getting a bit but should still refresh conditions prior to the Christmas week.

Saw or should I say heard the club med place today. It’s up the mountain not in the village. Looked nice from s distance. But the music was even loader than arc 2000

Been a few years since I did CM but actually worked out good value as full board, all drinks, all day ski school/guiding and lift pass

Enjoyed Kastle MX 98 skis. Spent most of the time off piste and messing about in trees and jumps etc. Always enjoy a ski when you have no idea you are wearing them!! Not bad on piste too. Fast and carved well but a little short for me.

Should be s better season with such a good base. Awesome views on Mt Blanc massif today.

Back to reality now with Sleezy jet and GVA airport

nbt – not sure what I made up? £20k plus for four over NY. Nothing included apart from room, food and drinks by the looks of it. Go a week later and it drops £7k but even that is expensive. Shame as that type of skiing holiday would appeal. Haven’t looked at other Club Med places so maybe they are better value but even a top end chalet will be less than half the price over NY.

EDIT this was price for a sinlge suite for 4. Maybe they have cheaper rooms but all that was left was suite options – there were many types so I assumed they are all referred to as suites?

Yo can buy a flat for four for £40k in many smaller resorts at present. And a nice flat with a view over of the pistes for £60-100k. Go whenever you want, eat at home or in the restaurant of your choice, pick a ski instructor/guide to suit your profile and ambitions at the ski school or guide centre. As for drinking, a mug’s game in ski resorts. Lunchtime drinking puts many in hospital with stupid accidents and evening drinking at altitude will leave you dehydrated with a hangover which won’t do your sking or tendons any good.

ahh the “made up” bit is from the auto quote

the “suites” bit is what’s killing you there. They do have cheaper rooms, I was looking at a trip in march for £1500, but selecting a suite doubles the price. They do say though that prices are “all-inclusive” which apparently means

Ski pass & ski lessons for 12yrs and older included
+Non-ski activities Included
+Full-board gourmet cuisine & open bar Included
Day & night entertainment Our G.O’s at your service

Not sure if all resorts are the same, but as I said I thought the selling point of Club Med was that all prices were all inclusive

Attention Verglas !

Just when you think the snow is going to be perfect for the festive season along come a few drops of rain and the snow around 2000m turns to concrete.

Edit: weather forecast says snow at 800m on Friday. 8)

They do warn people these days:

Anyone driving out to France this season should be aware of the new vignette system – it’s all linked to pollution zones – some are permanent and some are temporary depending on pollution levels.

The vignette only costs about a fiver and is dependent on your vehicle – available online:
https://www.certificat-air.gouv.fr

Be aware, lots of fraudulent sites out there will charge you 30 euros for the same thing – the above is the official site.

Apologies if it’s been posted earlier in this thread – might have missed it!

^^^^^ crying out for a layback under that banner/ sign, leaving the skier to eat snow whilst said snowboarder gets all the girls in the lift line #sofreshandsoclean ^^^^^

Dashed, The vignette is just if you are venturing into certain towns and cities isn’t it? Bit like there is in London..

All the “girls” in the lift line today were under 15 or over 50.

The vignette is for Paris, Lyon-Villeurbanne, Grenoble, Strasbourg and Toulouse. It’s on test in Bordeaux and Lille.

Club Med. Like I said you don’t pay the website price, Samoens price difference suite vs normal room is huge. I think we usually pay about £1000 pp a week for Peisey-V in March which includes 3 excellent meals a day, drinks, skis, pass and classes/groups. Peisey is a 4 Trident (great terrace, indoor/outdoor pool), Samoens is 5 trident. I looked for the summer and it’s £900 a week website price.

As above Vignette not needed for going sking unless you drive through Lyon but new motorway goes past. We have ours for Paris of course but its only needed inside the Periph so most Brits wouldn’t need one even if going “via Paris”

I think I might give this a try next week 🙂

http://www.valthorens.com/en/activities-and-entertainment/winter-activities/mtb–fat-bike-on-snow.138.html

There are loads of new temporary vignette zones, including Savoie and Haute Savoie so if we get a sticky high pressure like last year when air quality down in the valleys was awful then most likely they’ll be invoked – click through the links in this site to see the maps, but basically it’s all of the northern French Alps – PDS, Bourg St Maurice Val T etc https://www.crit-air.fr/en.html

The new environmental zone ZPA of Haute-Savoie

In October 2017, the entire department of Haute-Savoie with Annecy as its prefecture, announced the settlement of an air protection zone. In case of air pollution peak, the prefect is now able to make the Crit’Air badge mandatory and exclude the Crit’Air categories 4 and 5 from traffic …

Doesn’t mean you can’t drive in the areas, but depending on how bad the pollution is, they’ll restrict the worst polluting vehicles and those with no vignette!

There’s also some talk of the Grenoble fixed zone including the motorway that you’d use to get to some of the southern resorts such as Val D’Isere (rather than it just being a city congestion thing like London) – won’t really effect me, so not looked into that side of it. Lengthy discussion over on Snowheads.

How did we get along over Christmas my fellow shreadheads?