Highlight:

Glacier Marbree

(although Giachetti couloir in Alagna/Gressoney was a close 2nd)

Low light:

Heavy Rain in Fernie washing the snow and my dreams into the Elk River

and…what have you learned:

That my snowboarding ‘journey’ is far from over …

I should be allowed to go to Japan next year to make up for it

Seems like Japan is one of the few places that has had an awesome season this year!

Pleased you managed to take some positives out of your trip in what many are describing as the worse season in B.C. in living memory!

I’ve just got back from 3 weeks in the Alps which, despite some poor and challenging conditions [for this time of year], more than made up for the earlier ‘wash-out’ trip to Fernie.

So, not quite the epic 6 weeks on the snow that I had in mind, but I got to ride some of my best lines ever and had a real laugh!

… I’m also seriously considering Japan for my 50th!

absolutely stunning nedrapier! 8)

Escaped the fohn wind in Chamonix today and headed over to Courmayeur to enjoy the fresh snow! :-)

Cat Boarding folk just emailed us to say they are suspending operations for the rest of the season

I’m really sorry to hear that GrahamS – that’s a real shame! :-(

Yep – one of my riding companions last week was rocking the Magnetos and reckoned they were a big improvement. I got to try out the Karakorams and contrast them to my upgraded Blaze’s and I was pleasantly suprised!

Hope you’re enjoying the Lyngen Alps nedrapier! :-)

Are those the 1st Generation of Spark R&D bindings nedrapier?
What’s the splitboard – I don’t recognise it?

Phew. I thought I was the one that had jinxed it.

To be fair … it probably was you! :lol:

they had four days of skiing in the rain in Fernie. Heli and Cat ski operations are cancelling trips, and smaller resorts have closed down

Yep … 3 weeks in Fernie was supposed to be Part 1 of ‘My Last Big Blow-Out on the Snow’ as I’m not getting any younger. Has a great time but the conditions were not the ‘All-time-epic’ I was expecting (or become used to in B.C.!!)

Really felt for the locals and the independent retailers. A friend who normally works for one of the Cat-Ski operations has been fishing recently since there’s no work and no ice in the rivers!!

Part 2 begins this weekend with 3 weeks in the [European] Alps … fingers crossed for some good conditions – I’m a bit reluctant to look too closely at the forecast though! :lol:

Have a great trip CFH! ;-)

Anyone got any thoughts on how to handle it?

Go … enjoy yourself – you will have a fantastic trip. I’m sure there will be still be plenty of stuff to ride up high – despite the poor conditions in Fernie I still rode loads and had tired legs at the end of every day … you just have to adapt to the conditions.

Like surfing, if you had to wait for perfect conditions you would never get in the water. You might just have to be creative – forget about ticking off loads of runs, just find a good spot and do laps; hitting all the features, lips, drops, rollers and jumps on the way down!

Day tickets are sometimes refunded if ‘you don’t like the conditions’ after an hour. Check the small print when buying/signing the waiver – have you bought tickets in advance?

Insurance for ‘piste closure’ normally means that the entire resort is closed down (i.e. no lifts at all running) – this is unlikely in Whistler/Blackcomb

Anyway, I think for GrahamS’ sake, we must have no more mention of Whistler in this thread

I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it … :lol:

Shaping up quite nicely!

Peachy! :-)

I just checked the forecast and it’ll be 2 degrees and raining in a couple of days’ time.

:-(

fingers crossed it holds for you nedrapier … it’s been an odd season for sure this year in places! I’m off to the alps in couple of weeks and based on my luck so far this season I’m contemplating taking flip-flips & speedos! 8)

Yeah – Europe does have a big chunk of people who like ‘To be seen Skiing’.

WoW! Why would you do that?

… and looking at the video [cough] ‘edit’ that GrahamS posted from ‘Drone-Boy’, it would appear that there are a large number of people at the bar in the early clips who are dancing in ski boots! … either that or there’s been a large scale infestation of pubic lice or crabs judging by the erratic twitching …

Can’t say I’m overly found of euro-style apres ski nonsense with it’s face paint and oompah band techno bangin’ choons, but each to their own. However ski boots are hard enough to walk in … let alone dance or throw some shapes … :lol:

The skiers are still arguing about the best way to ski and they’ve had a lot longer to sort it out than we have…

True Dat!

Old Joke:

Q: How do you know when there is a Level 4 Ski instructor in the Bar?
A: Don’t worry – he’ll let you know!

Definitely. High level riding is high level riding and, while people who have been trained in different ways may think different thoughts or use different sequences of movement, they tend to end up in the same place in the end

Spot on I think stevemcd! :-)

Do you think I would benefit from lessons? Also private or group?

Depends I think – are you happy / having fun with your riding at the moment? or have you reached a plateau / wish to progress to another level?

Same with MTB coaching – Private is more expensive but you get one-to-one. There always a ‘risk’ with a group lesson unless everyone on the lesson is at a similar level

Digby – How is the snow in Fernie at the moment?

Pretty poor actually. It hasn’t stopped me getting out on the hill, but some of the locals reckon it’s the worse season [so far] since the ski hill opened in the ’70s :-(

A huge pacific weather system came through which would have been epic if was a few degrees colder – unfortunately it fell as rain on all but the very highest runs. It’s 7:00 am at the moment and it’s 6 degrees celcius

There’s still great riding at the top of Timber and Currie Bowls and they are trying to get the Polar Peak chair open for ‘Family Week’ next week, but conditions at the base area are shocking with loads of the creeks opening up and huge bare patches. The groomers have done an impressive job but the snow base is compromised and only a massive storm cycle and low temps will make it last till the end of season. At the moment, no big systems are on the radar – but you never know.

If you do come, the advantage with places live Fernie is there’s plenty of other stuff to do – Fat Biking is big this season and loads of the Ski shops are renting out bikes!! :-)

To be fair, the Canadians think we’re weird for talking about pedalling all the time… (but hey, they talk about “knee steering”…)

It’s odd isn’t it? and I’m sure there’s an element of semantics and multiple ways to ‘skin a cat’!

On my instructor assessment I was complemented and told that I rode in typical ‘CASI style’ … despite the fact that I actually rode using the foot pedalling and pressure transfer technique I’d learned on a McNab Technical Clinic some years earlier … with no knee steering in sight!! :-)

All that bobbing up and down felt a bit stilted and beginner-ish at first, though it was quite comfortable to ride switch that way

‘flexion’ & ‘extension’ / up un-weighting / down un-weighting / cross over turns / cross under turns are all useful & effective ways to build pressure in the board to initiate edge change. Different conditions can requires subtle changes in technique, but for me, getting a ‘performance turn’ out of my board all starts with the foot steering/pedalling

persuading away from her old skool aggressive +18/-6 to a standard +15/-15

Was it changing your wife’s stance to ‘duck’ or increasing the total angle of her stance by 6 degrees that made the improvement? It’s often the total degrees that’s more important as the +/- just varies the rider’s field of view (depending on whether you are on a directional/twin-tip/carve board etc)

stevomcd – thanks for the BASI info, that’s interesting and in my opinion a much better approach:
Like you say, trying to get riders to ‘un-learn’ a technique is pretty tough – especially when upper body rotation & ‘swinging the back-end out’ has been getting people down the hill for a few years.

centred, stacked and aligned

Agreed – for technical progression having a ‘quiet upper body’ helped me loads – once dialled I was then able to add some ‘character’ to my riding without looking like ‘jazz hands’ or ‘drinking bird’ 8O

Wow is the drop out rate 80%

This was this figure quoted to me by CASI when I did my instructor course in 07/08 – clearly this relates to Canada where people might try a weekend at the local ski hill rather than in the UK where folks will probably have more idea of whether they actually like it or not before they commit to a week away.

I know a few people who go skiing (moreso than boarding), not because they enjoy it, but for status.

Yeah – Europe does have a big chunk of people who like ‘To be seen Skiing’.

All very Euro-style technique: leading with arms and shoulders

And how did it compare for you GrahamS?

CASI still teach ‘beginner turns’ with upper-body rotation to initiate the turn. As riders progress this moves towards the feet for more performance turns [including riding in powder where upper body rotation = faceplant etc]

Some argue that ‘foot steering’ etc should be taught to beginners since ‘what people learn first, they do best’ however the case for upper body turn initiation is to try and get people moving on the board and having fun as the drop out rate for people trying winter sports is really high (about 80%). Once they’ve decided to stick with it you can introduce other techniques.

stevomcd – what’s the current BASI stance/take/syllabus on turn initiation using upper body?

In other news I’ve been practising in the Fernie avalanche transceiver training area with my Ortovox 3+. I’ve done loads of practice in the past, but only limited with multiple buriels so it took me a while to suss out what was happening with my Ortovox 3+ whilst searching for 5 beacons – after refering back to the manual it seems that when 4+ beacons are detected and signals overlap, the Ortovox 3+ can take a few seconds to distinguish between them and you can recommence searching.

It was a excercise well worth doing!!

It’s been raining solidly here in Fernie B.C. for the past two days – freezing level is about 1600m -> 1900m which is above most of the ridable terrain. The resort didn’t even bother opening up any of the lifts on the ‘new’ side yesterday.

In more postive news I’ve managed to catch up with my reading and watching box sets. :-)

Still no new snow in Fernie [although flurries are forecast for the weekend]

The Ski Hill was pretty icy yesterday, (the noise is giving me earache!) so as a change of pace we’re thinking of hiring Fat Bikes today to explore some of Fernie’s Mountain Bike Trails (which have been groomed apparently – which is nice)

Black helmet, black goggles (usually the blueish lens), black gloves, black bindings

Black Jacket, Black Merinos, Black Pants and Black boots here …

If I had any hair left I’d be using “Goth Juice… the most powerful hairspray known to man. Made from the tears of Robert Smith”

8)

Today hopefully sees the end of a record breaking warm spell here in B.C. – so much so that many of the local cat-ski Ops are closing down for the next week as everying has turned to ice. Supposed to be some more snow on its way towards the weekend, but it will take some huge dumps to get conditions back to normal – still … it’s better than working! :-)

I’ve just switch from Accuvue Dailies to Accuvue True eye and tried a few other brands of daily contact lenses along the way.

A good Contact Lens consultation should provide you with a load of samples for you to try in various conditions – I ended up reducing the diameter of mine so they were less likely to move/wash out when cold wind etc makes your eyes water!

Worth persevering with!! Starting to wear contact lenses in my early 30’s was a revelation in terms of participating in outdoor hobbies & activities – rather than being the speccy-***t with -3.0 & -3.5 vision!

Looks like the snow gods smiled on you and your choice of destination nedrapier! :-)

there’s a hell of a lot more to rap than that rubbish

I’m sure there is. And I shall endeavor to explore it – after all, I never let the misogyny of some rock bands put me off all rock bands. But it does taint genres.

have you ever read Julian Cope’s double-autobiography – ‘Head On/Repossessed?

Haha! … yes – I read it many years ago and the missus is a massive JC fan (so I’ve seen him live numerous times over the years)

Thanks for the reminder Malevern Rider … I think it might be time to read it again! :-)

Modern equivalent I guess, is rap

I don’t mind some stuff like Public Enemy – not sure I’d call them modern – they toured the US with the Sisters, Gang of Four & Warrior Soul in early ’90s

I do admit though that the misogynistic gangsta rap image of some of the rap artistes does put me off a tad …

When I was in my teens I used to buy an album a week, perhaps a single or two and listen to the radio.

I often think that’s because for some people (including me) as a teenager music was the only thing that made sense and helped me make sense of the world … a soundtrack for ones life if you will as it managed to distill and convey emotions I was unable to articulate through words

As one grows older music still has an impact on your life, but rock ‘n roll really is the preserve of youth and the sound of rebellion*

*This may only be relevant if you grew up in the ’70s ’80’s or early ’90s

I used to spend all my available cash on records, CDs and going to gigs … and although I still buy music and go to gigs it’s nothing like the amount it used to be as I’ve replaced it somewhat with other hobbies – although discovering Royal Blood last year did make me a tad nostalgic! 8)

i hate wearing googles for snowboarding let alone biking

Really? Do you mind me asking why?

As a contact lens wearer I think I’m naturally more protective/defensive of my eyes (probably stems for wearing NHS glasses as a child), but the loss of vision due to watering eyes at speed or in cold wind is enough of a reason for me. Other factors include the inevitable face-plant in the snow which is just unthinkable in sunglasses.

… and back to the subject of avalanches, this incident from last week is worth checking out.

NOTE: video contains some swearing so possibly NSFW:

http://www.henrysavalanchetalk.com/avalanche-foglietta-north-january-5th-2015-ste-foy-tarentaise

Cheers Spin! :-)

I’ve been patching the skins with tube glue for the past couple of seasons so it’s now time for a proper re-glue I think – doing the whole skins with Tube Glue would be impractical, hence I thought I’d try the re-glue sheets

Just got to sort my skin glue out now.

I have this very same task on my list – I’ve just taken delivery of a roll of brown paper to remove the old dirty glue and will be using the BD re-glue sheets – what method are you thinking of nedrapier?

Part of me thinks it would have been simpler to buy new skins …

A lot of the north american resorts have practice beacon fields where a random buried beacon gets turned on and you go look for it. I’ve not noticed any of these in Europe.

Italy has quite a few practice fields – very useful for doing multiple burial searches.

And another vote for the Canadian Avalanche Association course. Despite already having done a few backcountry/avalanche awareness courses I found it very thorough, indepth and useful. Problem is that in Europe, a two day course is a big chunk of a weeks holiday for many people.

That god/mountain guide joke is a take-off of an old joke about Buddy Rich I think

Yeah – there’s a version of it in the film Airheads with Steve Buscemi regarding Lemmy! 8)

can anyone use their depth of experience to point out some helpful resources for people that do have to rely on guides, or are interested in expanding their knowledge?

To list a few:

Check the BMC website for Winter Mountaineering books, DVDs & courses
Have a look at ‘Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain’ by Bruce Tremper

Also don’t discount your instincts – I did a guided trip a few years ago where conditions were mixed and one of the clients got spooked and said ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this’ … so we turned back no argument.

I’d like to know if anyone has any stats on number of avalanche injuries or deaths with a guide.

I’m not sure what/if any conclusions you’d be able to derive whatever the stats … traveling in the backcountry is inherently dangerous.

Since a significant percentage of the people in the backcountry will be guides then sadly they will figure in the stats – for just being in the wrong place at the wrong time rather than any poor decision making on their part

The review of last seasons French Avalanches makes for sober reading …

Review of French Avalanches

On a poignant but lighter note the Guide Seb Montaz (who’s currently working & filming with Kilian Jornet) once told me the joke:

Q. “What’s the difference between God and a High Mountain Guide?
A. “God doesn’t think he’s a High Mountain Guide”

I think there is a nice move away from the Backside triple 1620 mutes in Snowboarding to tricks with style , fun and carving. It’s great to see I think.

I think you’re right – although to be fair I think most of the big gymnastic inspired rotational spins & tricks have always been out of the realms of most mere mortal riders …only more recently the media are acknowledging the fact!

learning to carve was pretty much all there was to do all week

That’s what’s great about carving I reckon – it allows you to mix things up when conditions are limited – I’ve has some great days trying to lay down some big old carves … you know the ones where you realise you’re not coming back up from it! :D

C’mon Whistler – please don’t pick this year to be crap!

You’ll fine I reckon GrahamS … plenty of time to offer sacrifices to the Snow Gods! ;-)

Returning to the earlier discussion around carving …

Surely they should have offered to share

I believe they did … :roll: