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

Modern planks?  In which case a bit of speed will help the skis to “plane up” (just like a water ski).  You’ll probably have a natural tendency to lean back a bit at the start.

I find the hardest part is that all of a sudden you have to balance more across both skis and less just weight the downhill ski in the turn.

Think smooth.

Getting back up put the ski poles in a cross on the uphill side with you hand in the middle. Trying to push against powder directly underneath you is pretty futile.

One of the benefits of of piste I’m looking forward to is not having to ski to the toilet all the time given my bladder capacity

don’t make yellow snow 😉

Modern enough, all mountain rentals so should be ok

I’ll try to keep the panic at bay and my bladder under control then 🙂

Had a bit of practice in some slush today which hopefully will help with spreading the weight a little and it went pretty well so fingers crossed 👍

Had a bit of practice in some slush today

Are we still talking about yellow snow?

Picked up the Skate Banana last night, it’s in perfect condition and a steal at £300 with the bindings.

Change the bindings around and a little quick test… with a few lounge backside nose presses 🙂 … has got me all excited.

The binding seem good too…. Loads of tool free adjustment of the straps and highback (although the HB has 2 bike like quick releases each side of the HB, they are a bit fiddly and possible even flimsy… will not be messing about with them too much )  And these new fandango flexie bindings are weird aye? Only the small  base plate is touching the board ??

Just one thing … Maybe the gent who had a Skate B can answer ….  I couldn’t help set the bindings up a little, and its only a little, towards one end of the board. On the basis I’ve never had a twin tip before is this a bit wrong?  Should I set it up dead centre ?? My fakie riding is good BTW and while skiing/boarding with the family, which this board was bought for, I’ll be on the piste most of the time.

Ta

Ro5ey – glad to have played a small part in a new board decision. Good choice by the way. I have never tried one but certainly curious to try one. My first ever board was a LibTech Matt Cummins back in the day so I have a soft spot for them.

I ride a lot (mostly) switch when out with the kids and although I will typically be offset I did change recently To be more centred and it was more comfortable but you just get used to whatever usually. I then changed to a goofy set up so I could get better at carving switch. That was interesting!!

Reckon on the SB you would want to be centred but someone with that board would be best to advise.

As above, I had my bindings on the skate banana pretty central for slow days with the family riding switch etc. You’ll suffer off piste though, hard to stop the nose burying unless you are motoring.

But piste & Park it’s a good way to set them up.

I’ve always set twins up about half an inch back from centre, i.e. the nose ends up being an inch longer than the tail. When I set them up centred I find they look ‘off’ and anyway there’s no real advantage to having them bang in the middle. I’ve been riding super directional tapered boards all this winter with a fair bit of setback and it’s amazing how well they ride fakie. I wouldn’t want to try it in powder but for mucking about on the piste it’s fine. And a twin will be even better.

Ok so didn’t die but found it incredibly hard. I think I linked 3 turns a couple of times but ate a lot of snow, couldn’t care if some of it was yellow, managed 3 hours before calling enough, it’s like learning skiing all over again

Off to Courmayeur (following recommendations on here) on Sunday for a couple of days without the kids! I’ve been boarding for the past 15 years but now the kids are learning I think I’ll be more help for them if I was skiing. So I’m looking to get a couple of private lessons whilst I’m there. Anyone have recommendations of who to go for? Cheers

Probably that time of year to point out anyone having good sales.

Westbeach have slashed their prices with some of their 30k stuff available for a steal although I’ve been using a 20k jacket (4 years, 7 trips) and a pair of their 20k slacks (same) and the only sign of wear was some (very minor) fraying in the material covering one of the pit-zips. They also have a packable 80/20 down mid-layer going for £37.50! I got both the jacket and slacks for not much more than £100 4 years ago. Probably not the trendiest or most tech, but bloody good value for money if anyone needs something for a late season trip or next year.

Absolute Snow have a closing-down (not really, just “moving”) sale with some good reductions on bindings.

The Board Basement (Exeter skate/kite-surf/snowboard shop with a warehouse chock full of kit that opens like a chocolate factory through the back door of their fairly modest shop) also have some good reductions on boards though they might be a bit “mainstream” for some here. 😉 They’re super helpful if you fancy a visit, even if Exeter is a bit out of the way.

Bought some Westbeach pants the other week but had to send them back, they were like those jeggins. Might have another look to see if they do anything not super tight.

Out of interest colp, as I may be tempted to get a new pair, but don’t fancy anything too toight…which ones were they?

Checked both of these chutes off the list finally – Exhilaration and Excitation.

Those are some sizeable cornices.  Where’s the entrance?

Cornices were much smaller today, that’s an older photo, but the line on the left – Exhilaration required a small 1m ish drop on to the shoulder high left. Excitation you could slide in at 2 or 3 different spots, the easiest being on the corners of the shadowy area.

dd.

I think it was the Crossfire pant. My wife ordered them, when I tried them on they pretty much stopped at my knees, nearly had to do a Wallace & Grommet to get into them.

Looking now though it does say slim fit!

Yeah, as svelte as I am, I don’t think I’d chance slim fit for boarding slacks. Surely they need to be reasonably roomy.

Surfdome also having a sale on. I bought the wife a new board yesterday, 20% off and another 20% off that with the SALE20 code. And they delivered in 24hrs for free too. Glenshee here we come (again)!

I got some westbeach cockalorum trousers a couple of seasons ago, right at the end of the season. First day out, having a drink at the end of the day, mate pointed out the massive hole in the crotch where the seams hadn’t been stitched properly

westbeach said they’d sort it for me so after my trip(s) I sent the trousers in, and to cut a long story short, over summer they lost my trousers. They offered me a brand new pair of their current stock, which is fair enough, but having got them the fit isn’t right for me. Anyone want a pair of Upstart pants in combat green for £30? I’m a 32″ waist and the size “small” is far too big for me to be comfy. Worn for 6 days in courmayeur, I took my old Kiilly ski trousers out to Gressoney.

Upstart Pant

I see my recommendation for Westbeach stuff is going down well. 🙂

For balance, mine were cockalorum slacks as well and they’ve been absolutely fine.

Been using a Westbeach Backcountry jacket for s couple of years. 20k/20k. I rate it.

In other news, WTaF??

Saw a worse version of that video earlier today on twitter. Perhaps it was before people realised what was going on and started to warn those coming down the lift backwards to jump off – you get the feeling it’s going too fast but don’t realise just how fast until a chair full of people whips round and flings a few of them quite a distance. Someone else was just rag-dolled into the pile of chairs already there. Looked like quite a few who didn’t jump will have been seriously injured. Grim.

Telegraph reports only ten people injured, which is remarkable!

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/16/tourists-flung-control-ski-lift-malfunction-georgia-resort/

Video from another angle shows quite a lot of people got the message from people shouting and jumped clear:

I don’t believe for a minute someone didn’t die in that , there’s another vid of someone going round the bullwheel at the top clearly sparko so probably been round the bottom as well. Awful. Obv the rollback bar didn’t work, they do snap off sometimes but you can always jam brake the shaft of the engine. A loaded lift like that will get some momentum going, bloody awful.

Also, it seems to go on for quite a while – isn’t there on of those big red “Emergency Stop” buttons for an attendant to press?

Yep, it will engage the rollback bar which probably fell off! Last resort is jamming the prop shaft from the engine to try and stall the wheel. Hard though with load on it.

I see – or maybe I don’t – not sure what you mean by the “rollback bar”. What’s one of those?

So there isn’t just a button which cuts all power? Or are we guessing that the emergency stop failed in this case?

So there isn’t just a button which cuts all power?

My understanding (from a friend that was actually on that lift 15 mins before that incident happened) is that the ‘rollback’ was caused by a power failure – when the electricity cuts out the chairs ‘rollback’ down by there own weight. The triple redundant braking system should have stop that, but it clearly failed.

Thankfully no one was seriously injured.

Ah shit, right, I see now. So the power cut and the weight of everybody going up on one side then causes it to go backwards – I thought it had somehow reversed itself through some fault. Cripes, what a mess.

Have look on YouTube for a test from 1990 I think when they did a load of destructive rollback tests in a lift that was about to be taken out – scary

So once the drive has gone the thing will basically reverse itself due to the weight loading on one side. There’s devices to brake it which can fail, last gasp is literally a steel bar jammed into the gearing, once that snaps you’re a bit firked. When a lift stops it might go back a few feet which is quite normal.

Just reposted the lift failure up separately as it’s relevant beyond skiers (ok I failed to see it had been posted in here already). Unbelievably scary. Imagine having to chuck your kids off.

Just back from a great week in Austria where I really feel I made progress, after a lot of falling over in deep powder on our off-piste giuded day in poor light I had a play at the side of the piste on a brighter day. Although the snow was only half as deep and a bit tracked it definitely felt different to on piste and I got used to it quite quickly and felt confident within the hour.

Given how good the snow is at present I’m tempted by a post Easter week, has anyone seen any deals about for 2nd week in April fairly high up? Not seen any discounting by the boys sites yet, probably because conditions are so good!

Thinking Cervinia maybe, there is a skiclubgb week but it’s still at full price and flights are London and we’re up north and flights back would mean taxi to airport.

There are a few places in the Ski Amadé area in Austria that are running the lifts until 15th April. Flights are dirt cheap 7th to 14th, worth a look.

Any idea which of the villages are work a look in Amade?

Smokey – scroll to the bottom for season dates. https://www.skiamade.com/en/winter/ski-pass/season-dates

Out of Reiteralm and Zauchensee I’d go to Zauch for a week and then have a day in Reiteralm (assuming you have a car). You’d have to like repeating runs though. You can ski all of Zauchensee in a day without pushing too hard. Reiteralm can be skied in a few hours. Regardless of this both are great ski areas.

The definition of a bluebird day at Glenshee today #scotlandskiingmagic

Todays spicy line

w00p! On my way to whistler. Should get two full days in, forecast looks pretty good. Now how do you turn a snowboard again?

There are a few places in the Ski Amadé area in Austria that are running the lifts until 15th April. Flights are dirt cheap 7th to 14th, worth a look

Anywhere else in Europe worth a cheeky 3 or 4 nights that week?