Well the snow finally arrived for the Rockies with a bang. Over a meter in the last week and one storm delivering 45cm over night. So I spent Friday skiing at Lake Louise. Conditions were very good although word had got out so big queues.

Off to Les Saisies in a few weeks. By this time last year they had a tonne of snow, not so much this year, there is some forecast but nothing compared to what Austria + Germany have had recently!

End of my first day in Menuires. Hard pistes but pretty good considering no snow for weeks, few sketchy bits of shiny ice, perfect blue skies.

Overall a good day but mighty envious of anyone that booked Austria!

Just driven back last night from PdS – New Year family and friends for a week. Incredibly variable skiing often along one piste, from enjoyable soft spring like conditions to bullet hard ice. Managed to have good fun still though although I’m v jealous of those Austria conditions. Pedlad Jnr2 came on massively in his second week on snow. Loved touring around the place with him albeit did the classic dad thing of thinking he’s better than he is and got him scared on a steep red. In fairness it was ok 2 days before but pretty scratchy when I took him there. Got him down ok with the help of a lovely lady and didn’t put him off the rest of the day so no harm done.

People are skiing down the main street in Saalbach 😄

Les images impressionnantes d’un sauvetage du PGHM en Haute-Savoie

Some pretty impressive Heli skills in these rescue videos!

Well the snow finally arrived for the Rockies with a bang

Been watching the Whistler weather for the last 2-3 weeks and seeing it get storm after storm. Just hoping it carries on when we get there in a few weeks.

Some pretty impressive Heli skills in these rescue videos!

It’s worth watching The Horn on RedBull TV if you’re interested in mountain rescue.

Another cracking day today, all off piste stuff (routes we know well).
My ski buddies even managed to get a couple of shots of me!

Powder is so deep stopping ends you in a whole world of effort.

Must. Not. Stop!

Ahem.

8 days in Valtournenche booked at the start of April.

In the first 4 months of this year I’ve got

A week snowboarding in Avoriaz
A week snowboarding in Valtournenche
A week biking in Finale

Not a bad start to the year😂

Behold!!

Apartment Amadé toboggan track 2019, V1.0

LIKE

Looking forward to testing this out tomorrow.

A little day out in Austria on the cards..Should be enough pow.

Ahem.

REALLY want a go on a Ski bike…

Hang on, where the hell did singletrack snow come from!

Can’t wait for a go on that toboggan track @colp!

Whats the weather like there, looking on the webcams it looks dismal with hardly anyone venturing out.

It just hasn’t stopped snowing, day & night. This is a really quiet week too so the place is empty. There’s never any queues here anyway so it never gets super busy.

Some shots from today

Bloody hell!

It’s actually stopped snowing.

Fresh Frost Friday!

Get in !!
Thought we’d chosen badly with Portes du Soleil but I will apparently be bringing with me 40-45 cm of snow tomorrow
(as long as the transfer’s still on)

You’re welcome, stoner et al 🙂

Keep the pow photos coming folks. Beautiful.

Thank you scaredy! Just hovering the marker pen over my calendar to pick a weekend to nip back out…

I’ll try to leave some behind when we’re done, stoner

Any tips for somewhere to go, Sunday pm / Monday anyone ? (looking at a map, I seem to remember a great morning round Chamossiere a while back but that wasn’t clever planning, more pure luck in finding some powder when there wasn’t much elsewhere and just shuttling round ’til it was all skied)

ranfoilly skis well in fresh snow.
Where are you staying?
Post a fresh dump you can do a lot worse than either rolling over into the swiss valley, or if youre on a board hitting happy valley off pistes in Ht Chatel.

I HIGHLY recommend sunday lunch (rotisserie ham on the bone special, with dauph spuds) at Les Marmottes in the Lindarets station on your way back from a morning in Chatel…

staying at the place you suggested – Montana in Montriond
Won’t be skiing ’til after lunch on Sunday 🙁 Will take a look in same place another day though. Ta !

I had a Saturday powder morning in Ranfoilly last year. Transfer was at 12:30. Was in first Chavannes chair and into bowl, 3 hours of laps. Managed to get into transfer straight off slopes and had to change at GVA airport – Mrs NZCol was delighted.

Good to hear, scaredy. Say hi to zeb & Amie for me! (they know me as Mark with the flat opposite) you’ll have to good stay there. Don’t forget to go to La Marmotte d’or for evening beers with Alisha (landlady) and Fleck.

I highly recommend then going up to ardent on a pds pass (not just avoriaz sector), take chaux fleurie lift over châtel sector, then chaux des roses, down les blattins and back up cornebois. At top of cornebois lift go left and stay high, don’t drop into the red, follow your nose and you will end up at the bottom of cornebois /combes lifts. In fresh snow the most fun. That is happy valley

lovely – ta

we stayed at Montana in the summer once, that Zeb was a demon on a bike!

as a result i ended up on the mailing list and im sure i got one to say they were packing up and moving to Canada a few years ago??

Zeb, Amie and the kids moved vancouver islands way a couple of years ago, renting out the Montana and then came back at the end of last summer, so lucky for everyone they’re back again for now.

Sunday ham and spuds at Les Marmottes. Best reason to have a very light breakfast.

Cold Blower Powder in the Alps last week …

@jonswhite

Looking forward to testing this out tomorrow.

Interested to hear your thoughts on the board (and K9’s as well! 🙂 )

While out enjoying the powder folks spare a thought for ski patrol securing the slopes. Terrible accident in Morillon Grand Massif today.

It was shaping up to be an epic day. Rather sombre mood once it rippled around why all the lifts were closed up higher.

https://www.ledauphine.com/haute-savoie/2019/01/13/morillon-grand-massif-deux-pisteurs-tues-par-l-explosion-d-un-engin-de-declenchement-d-avalanche-ski

^Terrible accident. A pisteur was injured in Avoriaz week before as well, fell off a pylon. Unusual to have an explosives incident though. Awful news.

Any Paradiski bods know what is happening with the Bellecote glacier runs this season?

@Digby the Archetype is really nice. I got it to replace a Hovercraft. Wanted something with some more pop in the tail. It’s definitely got that! Feels quite a lot like a twin on the piste. Switch is pretty easy. Carves well (but not quite as nice as the Hovercraft).
Really lightweight. Nicely manoeuvrable. Floats well, but definitely needs setting back at least 2-3cm from reference in powder.
All in all a really good board, but….
It actually feels too close to my daily driver (US Orbit). I’m actually considering selling it and just carrying on with the Hovercraft for big mountain days. No riding for the next week and a half so going to have a long think.

if I were keeping an eye out in the next 12mths for a new board that suited:
– Strictly wax-side down behaviour
– mucho-carvo-on-the-pisto
– forward/forward bindings
– big feet
– slackcountry powder only – no touring.
– sasquatch style

is a hovercraft a thing? what else am I looking at?
(currently on a 16yr old nitro, 163Wide)

Anyone got any tips for Courmayer? Never been, haven’t ski’d for a few years. My Mrs and BiL is going to want to shred the gnarly gnar, I’m much more conservative and of average ability. I see some enticing itineraire from Helebronner and Creats Youla/Cresta D’Arp. Are they mega gnarly gnar? Necessary to bring skins/crampons? Other general ski area experience or tips?