[SA Chris]

What's the point in straightlining, it's the turns that feel good.

[lagerstarfish]

exactly

even my limping, hunched, arms out for rotation control, front foot biased turns felt good

learning to carve without ankle movement/control is gong to be interesting (in the distant future)

maybe time to go back to hard boots?

hard boots for hard men etc.

[SA Chris]

Nah. I was boarding with soft boots not long after fucking my ankle. Ski boots felt worse due to inability to absorb any bumpiness in the ankle. Plus any swelling would need boot to be moulded.

[Norton Sharley]

Great stuff gingerninja and lagers, at least you were "out there". 

Piste D'Alpaca has got to stick as a name.

[lagerstarfish]

I contemplated "Face Nord du Col d'Alpaca", but decided that anything with vegetation showing through the snow couldn't be a "face"

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Just booked flights for a three day hit in March to Cauterets. Well excited. Snow is amazing there currently. 

[lagerstarfish]

Just bought two transceivers ... $$$$$$

It won't take long for you to think that money very well spent

I know I said it before, but practice a lot

wear them all the time - if the opportunity arises to dip off the managed areas into some nice snow, you won't want to miss it

[rich d]

Obi-Wan I fucking love Cauterets - only ever been in the summer to suffer my way up vignemale and boulder above pont d'espagne. If you don't already follow Cauterets and camping caliberos in cauteret on facebook for some amazing photos and vids of the snow out there, it's proper dumped. Great snow, decent tartiflette followed by a few beers in la Commerce Bar must be as close to perfect as it gets.

[SA Chris]

Just bought two transceivers ... $$$$$$

And hopefully shovels and probes! No good if one of you gets buried and the other is trying to dig through concrete with his goggles.

As lagers says, any practice is good. There are some transceivers bured in the flat area skiers right of the terrain park on whistler mountain that you can practice with. Learn one person search and multiple person search; both are worth knowing. 

[SA Chris]

Scotland's resort snow is as good as it gets at the moment. We have had dustings at sea level all this week, and significant falls in the hills. If you fancied getting up here this season now is the time to do it. Glenshee has all 22 lifts running and the whole mountain has rideable snow. Shame it gets so fucking crowded on weekends. Think of blowing up the road on the Blairgowrie side.

Hopefully heading up next Friday if anyone fancies it.

[Muenchener]

And hopefully shovels and probes! .... dig through concrete ...

Metal shovels, therefore. I know people who refuse to go out with folk with plastic shovels.

And yes: practice, practice, practice. I was luring kids* uphill last weekend by burying transceivers with chocolate attached, and had quite forgotten how tricky the last few metres of exact location can be.

(*) my own and those of close friends, I should probably point out

[SA Chris]

plastic shovel; as good as a plastic fireguard.

A beach is a also good place to practice if snow isn't available. You can add time pressure by doing it at low tide!

[lagerstarfish]

I still have the same metal shovel with wooden handle that I got in 1987

Only used for domestic purposes in the last few years, but still going strong

It'd be interesting to test it to destruction to see how strong it is, but I'm too fond of it to do that

Paintwork is in surprisingly good condition (not that that matters)

on a tenuously related theme - more snow due in Sheffield on Sunday - Possibly get out Sunday evening or if the schools are closed on Monday I'll have a decent excuse to take a days leave and get to Piste d'Alpaca. I assume the base is long gone, but a possible ground frost could make for an OK grass/mud base (desperate? optimistic beyond all reason? merely hopeful?)

[SA Chris]

if it's flat grass you need surprisingly little cover, just be aware that edges don't hold as well if you turn and go through the snow layer into grass.

[Johnny Brown]

There's more snow than you'd think up on the moors. Not much, but where it is at all drifted it's taking a while to melt. Lots of shallow banks at the foot of crags, no idea about Drabina Jakuba but it's at least the right aspect.

[AndyR]

Just bought two transceivers ... $$$$$$

And hopefully shovels and probes! No good if one of you gets buried and the other is trying to dig through concrete with his goggles.

I have shovel and probe. Didnt want to overburden thesiger_jr (just turned 13). So far we have been out only in a group with two other properly-equipped experienced people. I figured the probability of him being the only person not buried after a slide is pretty small. But he almost ran up the second bootpack we tackled yesterday so maybe is already ready for some extra load in the rucksack.

Awesome day actually. Fresh snow from previous three days, clear skies, no wind, very few people venturing out of the resort. Only negative was riding back into the village on the Singing Pass trail ... a nightmare on a board ... ever done it?

Get him loaded up - marginal weight.

Haven't done Singing Pass as it's well known to be a nightmare on a board - not much fun on skis either I believe.
Always best to MTFU and skin back over to the shoulder on Flute, board back down into Symphony  - you then have to walk a flat spot before you can pick up Burnt Stew - then board out along that to Sidewinder - at this point, you should reach a fresh strip of pure corduroy (this is one of the first sections they groom after the punters have gone) - once on the corduroy, point the board straight downhill and turn on your inner soundtrack of ride of the valkyries...

[SA Chris]

Burnt stew is just about doable on a board but a good wax job helps with the flatlining. Still unpleasant though

[lagerstarfish]

beautiful

something that that vid reminded me of, for when you go down the same slopes after they are tracked out a bit more (the main issue with accessible back-country)   - you probably know already, other folk might be interested, but a great deal of fun can be had by using someone else's track at the top of a slope to pick up a shed load of speed so that ripping over the chopped/tracked snow can still feel very floaty. Higher speed means skimming higher on the snow and the tracks that you cut across don't affect you so much - and you tend to maintain your higher speed due to less resistance from the snow

I probably could explain it better, but you'd be better off just finding out. Very fast over chopped/tracked, but still soft snow is good fun

*edit*
from the footage of the nose of his board, thesiger-jr looks to be weighting his back foot fine for the soft stuff - if you do some of what I mention above, it needs a slightly more balanced weighting of the board - weighting the rear of the board too much will make you feel the tracks that you cross as though they were speed-bumps outside a school

*edit 2*
do I sound like the smug local who turns up at the crag and gives you the beta to everything whether you want it or not?

I do the same with the neighbours when they do anything DIY related (no, not really, what kind of cunt do you take me for?)

[SA Chris]

We's been warned about Singing Pass, and so avoided. is carrying snowshoes an option?

[lagerstarfish]

At risk of turning this into the BC thread: here's the good bit of our day from thesiger_jr gopro footage. It's much like derbyshire under snow really.

comments disabled on the video, but... where the filming cuts off did he shower the two folk in front with white stuff?

looked like he was just about to turn too hard to the right...

[Fiend]

Scotland's resort snow is as good as it gets at the moment. We have had dustings at sea level all this week, and significant falls in the hills. If you fancied getting up here this season now is the time to do it. Glenshee has all 22 lifts running and the whole mountain has rideable snow. Shame it gets so fucking crowded on weekends. Think of blowing up the road on the Blairgowrie side.

Hopefully heading up next Friday if anyone fancies it.

OMG even Cairnwell??

[AndyR]

Always best to MTFU and skin back over to the shoulder on Flute

Nothing left in the budget after buying the transceivers ... so no splitboard+skins for the "skin back" yet. However ... we have already concluded that even a post-holing trudge would be preferable to ever going near SP again.

at this point, you should reach a fresh strip of pure corduroy (this is one of the first sections they groom after the punters have gone) - once on the corduroy, point the board straight downhill and turn on your inner soundtrack of ride of the valkyries...

What time of night are we talking about!

Even snow shoeing back would be preferable, even from Cowboy - just try not to bugger up the skintrack too much.
Punters are normally cleared from slopes by 4:30. Any time after that you can expect to find a vacant corduroy highway...

[SA Chris]

OMG even Cairnwell??

Cairnwell and the tiger have been open for a while. Carn A(o)sda was last to open, it wasn't getting any base down as it gets wind from both sides. Looks like snow on and off all week, still hoping for Friday.

[SA Chris]

Should this thread be renamed snooooooooowsports?



Just mad.

Check out the other Sherpa Films clips too.

[Norton Sharley]

You'd have to run a poll first?