[Oldmanmatt]

It won't take you two seasons to learn to ski. If you can get 5-6 weekends and can already board, you'll be ready to start harder stuff.


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[bigtuboflard]

I was pleasantly surprised as how easy it was to pick it up. After 4 or 5 hours I was getting around on blues and a few reds so a more concerted effort should translate to reasonably competent skiing. Good skill to have at your disposal I reckon hence why I've started up and might even help if I ever get round to buying a split board.


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[Muenchener]

By carefully avoiding running most of my life I seem to be entering old age with reasonably robust knees/ hips/ etc. I have no interest in risking that with a sport where your legs regularly head off unpredictably in independent directions.

Valid point, will have a read of the article.

I am middle aged, have damaged knees and used to run a bit. But I hurt my right knee in a climbing accident, and my left through yoga - trying to hard too soon to get into lotus when my hips were too tight.

[SA Chris]

I still kept the skiing up as I think it's a lot easier for touring

I've never skied. but am tempted to learn - if we ever get a decent winter again - because it's so much the superior option for touring.

No! Keep the faith - get a splitboard.

Hmm, I've already done the shopping, upgraded boots and skis in the last two years!

I think another key factor is that  think for the foreseeable future (probably from next year, with kids now 3.5 & 6) we will be doing a lot more skiing with the kids, and pootling around with them and trying to teach them a bit on a pair of skis is a lot easier than in a board, and i would be reluctant to have to take two sets of kit away on any holiday. And there are days when the pistes are hard and icy when a snowboard really sucks, but you can have fun on a pair of skis.

[SA Chris]

Don't they do a summer terrain park camp up on the glacier too?

[SA Chris]

Fly first thing on Saturday morning though having to fly to Paris and drive (don't ask). Will be in Samoens from Saturday night for a week though so hope your prediction of endless snow is true! How did you find getting back on skis?

How was your week?

[bigtuboflard]

Fly first thing on Saturday morning though having to fly to Paris and drive (don't ask). Will be in Samoens from Saturday night for a week though so hope your prediction of endless snow is true! How did you find getting back on skis?

How was your week?

good week thanks. Had plenty of fresh snow to play in during the week so spent a fair bit of time in the trees towards Morillon and Les Carroz. Because it was half term in the UK and French holidays too some of the lift queues and crowds on the piste were pretty manic though, probably as bad as can remember. And Samoens 1600 is a bit of a bottleneck as everyone is trying to get up to Tête de Saix.

As a result we never made it as far as the Flaine bowl as the OH wasn't keen on skiing all day, and we also had young kids in tow who had afternoon lessons to get to.

Enjoyed getting on skis myself most days as well so good to mix up disciplines.

Final thing, my concern about flying to Paris and driving down in a hire car was largely unfounded. Traffic was fine, took around six hours but just stuck it in cruise control most of the way and pointed it in the right direction. Ended up saving a fortune compared to flights to Geneva and bonus was I got to spend the Saturday afternoon and Sunday in Paris with my brother before flying home. Even drove through Font on the way back so could have theoretically had an afternoon session there! One for next time. 

[SA Chris]

http://www.winterhighland.info/general/

Not over yet! Might make last turns of the year this weekend, be good to ski in May!

[SA Chris]

Anyone got any done this season? Apart from our Cannuck residents.

[Muenchener]

Snow's actually been good here for the last couple of weeks but I only got out once, for a quick evening headtorch tour on Monday (a mate's birthday)

Thawing hard now though.

[lagerstarfish]

I've had a couple of good sessions at Castleford indoor slope (yeah yeah, I know..)

managed to iron out the problems of getting a decent carve without much flex in the back ankle - the answer was Craig Kelly style angles of +6 to +9 on the back and +21 to +24 on the front

pretty sure I'm never going to land a jump unless it's on something very steep and deep, so I'm not missing out on anything

If anyone else is thinking of going indoors or on traditional British warm snow - zardoz notwax is your friend - I used to carry swix fluro paste with me back in the day and have not done a direct comparison of the new swix stuff with zardoz, but I am very impressed with zardoz on the indoor stuff - it's like getting a few degrees of extra angle on the slope (very important when you don't have much slope to play on) - zardoz is cheap and easy enough for me not to mind using it on hire gear for a short session

pretty pleased to find that my ankle can cope with 3 hours of queueless riding without too much pain the next day

[Fultonius]

After a 3 year snowboarding hiatus (and being on the verge of selling my almost-unused Deeluxe boots) I decided to rent a few different boards on our recent Alps trip and give it another go.

I had 1 day on piste at Champoluc which was great fun on a Burton Custom. Then 2 days with some actual fresh snow down in the wee resort of Mondolé in Piemont, Italy. (we'd been climbing at Finale but a big dump came in).

On the first day I had a Head 163 mid-wide with full rocker - great fun in the pow, easy to turn but doable on piste when zooming back to the lifts.



The second day we got some bluebird and I was on a Burton Cruzer 159 Wide. Plenty of float, fun in the pow and jibbing about on the edges of the piste but I'd like something a little stiffer and with a wee bit of camber somewhere for more stability when charging/piste.

Some turns from the second day:

Considering I'd totally lost the love (which I now realise was mainly down to having and overly stiff, very cambered, too short and narrow board for years) I'm now keeping an eye out for a good deal on a new board as mine has fallen to pieces.

Snowboard design has come on so far in the 10 years since I last bought a board it's a bit of a minefield!

[lagerstarfish]

Snowboard design has come on so far in the 10 years since I last bought a board it's a bit of a minefield!

exactly

I learned to ride on a Simms Blade 1710 and anything with a bit of sidecut has seemed like cheating since then

I rode a Nidecker Concept for a while (35:45 canted) and intend to hire a hard setup next time I have the luxury of time and groomed pistes (not any time soon) - I still have vivid dreams about what it was like to feel like a motorbike on rails - that thing where you control your speed by heading uphill after every turn

[Fultonius]

Reckon you'll get the ankle in a hard boot any time soon? I've never tried and old school carving board. Gettin' low!

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[lagerstarfish]

I had pretty skinny ankles to start with - main issue will be how much it swells during the session - a decent hire shop will let me swap gear about (when I finally get a trip sorted)

[lagerstarfish]

this is what I'm thinking about

[bigtuboflard]

At Geneva airport after four days snowboarding at Saint Gervais les Bains. Really nice little town with lots of nice easy terrain to cruise around on and the bonus of Les Contamines just up the road which is a really good little ski area with some excellent looking terrain. Just a shame the base depth is still so sketchy for proper off piste as didn't venture too much off the sides without wanting to risk core shots to the board. Would definitely go back there for longer as only spent one day there.

[Fultonius]

Had a couple of nice days around Contamines/St Gervais etc. - although, even when it's deep it can be a bit flat and you get stuck a lot! Apparently the Chamonix season pass now includes those ski resorts (this started the year after we left grrr...)

Courmayeur has a lot of nice off-piste tree stuff, as does La Clusaz. Champoluc/Gressoney seems a bit off the radar for UK holiday makers. It seemed like it would have loads of accessible fun off-piste (it hadn't snowed for 6 weeks when we were there...) and lots of Italian village charm (if that's your kind of thing) and quiet - a nice contrast to the Chamonix powder madness...

[AndyR]

Anyone got any done this season? Apart from our Cannuck residents.

Discrimination!

I for one would like to read a report from Andy R on his recent cat ski trip ...

Nothing to report other than bottomless pow, endless face-shots, occasional mandatory air and a heavily depleted bank account... strongly recommend 

[bigtuboflard]

Had a couple of nice days around Contamines/St Gervais etc. - although, even when it's deep it can be a bit flat and you get stuck a lot! Apparently the Chamonix season pass now includes those ski resorts (this started the year after we left grrr...)

Courmayeur has a lot of nice off-piste tree stuff, as does La Clusaz. Champoluc/Gressoney seems a bit off the radar for UK holiday makers. It seemed like it would have loads of accessible fun off-piste (it hadn't snowed for 6 weeks when we were there...) and lots of Italian village charm (if that's your kind of thing) and quiet - a nice contrast to the Chamonix powder madness...

I liked Les Contamines a lot, nice little ski area which is steeper than Saint Gervais so none of the flat spots that you get there. Lift system is generally nicely set out too with not many pinch points and mostly fast chairs or cabins too. Oh, and really friendly lifties, like nothing I've experienced in Europe before!

Courmayeur, only done a few days there but was really impressed with the amount of in bounds off piste terrain available, it reminded me a lot of a small US or Candian ski hill (kind of like Fernie/Red/Whitewater), I definitely need to go back there in a good snow year. I'm kind of done with Chamonix at the moment too, love the town and the size of some of the boarding available, but it just gets so rammed on powder days and its like a feeding frenzy at Grand Montets when its good it can be a bit off putting (either that or I am just getting too old for that kind of thing now).

Anyway, back to Avoriaz in a month so will have to keep fingers crossed that the recent improvement in snowfall this last 48 hours continues.

[Fultonius]

Ok wise snowboarding folks - I've been reading a fair few snowboard reviews and been trying to work out what size of board I need. I'm hoping to narrow down to 3 or 4 potential boards and then keep an eye out for a deal at some point (I'm in no rush).

I'm very much an "all rounder" with more of a focus on fresh snow. I don't wan't an out-and-out stiff charging freeride beast of a board as that's what my old board was and that's part of the reason I fell out with snowboarding. Basically - if I want to charge through chop, ride steep lines, go flat out in powder - I'll be on the skis!  Snowboarding for me is now much more about tight tree lines, hitting little hits and bumps, bit of riding switch, hitting little side hits off the piste etc. So I think* I wan't something not too cambered with plenty of tip and/or/tail rocker.

I found the burton custom to be pretty decent on piste (held an edge well, pretty stable) but had no chance to test it off piste.

I found a 163 Head mid-wide full rocker to be great on the storm day (going slow in trees) as it initiated powder turns well and gave a stable base to land off small drops etc. Piste was less fun.

The last day was on a Burton Cruzer 157 which I thought might be too small, but turned out  to have more float than expected, although I did have one or two comical nosedives when putting too much faith in its float...

I'm now really confused on length!  I'm 76kg which usually puts me in the 157-161cm range for most manufacturers, but I almost always ride with a pack on (~3kg) - should this be added to my weight? Most snowboarders don't ride with packs...so I'm assuming the recommended weights are not including this?

This board seems like it might work: http://www.slashsnow.com/boards/view/nahual but I have the 157/161 dilemma!

Any other suggestions/thoughts?

[Fultonius]

Although, a second review of that board makes it sound too stiff...  and compares it favourably to a ... wait for it ... Ride Timeless (my board, which I don't get on with!)

Head "The Day" also seemed about right.

[bigtuboflard]

I'm a big fan of Burton Custom's; they do almost everything well enough without being spectacular at one thing. I've owned numerous versions of one since 1999 and still really like them; I did a full season in Fernie on one and never wanted one with more float in pow; I was on a 160 then and about 72kgs. I also currently have a Nug 148 (messing about on groomers) and a Sherlock 161 (for powder days) and am around 78kgs at the moment. I'd probably look at around a 156 to 158 Custom and go from there depending if you want it in flying v format or not...

[SA Chris]

Nothing to report other than bottomless pow, endless face-shots, occasional mandatory air and a heavily depleted bank account... strongly recommend 

Did you go out with Powder Mountain? Our day out with them was one of the best days on snow I ever had. Only downside was doing it in the middle of our second week, the last few days on resort seemed utterly mundane.

I've had a couple of days at Les Contamines and it's a great resort. My partner did 3 seasons as a chalet maid there, so having a guide who knew it intimately helped.

I had a carving board I was given when I worked in the US. In the right conditions (mid morning groom the day after a fresh snowfall) it is unbelievably good fun, and you can get away with carving as low as you dare, but as soon as it gets chopped up and lumpy or at all icy you can put it away.

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

I'm a big fan of Burton Custom's; they do almost everything well enough without being spectacular at one thing. I've owned numerous versions of one since 1999 and still really like them; I did a full season in Fernie on one and never wanted one with more float in pow; I was on a 160 then and about 72kgs. I also currently have a Nug 148 (messing about on groomers) and a Sherlock 161 (for powder days) and am around 78kgs at the moment. I'd probably look at around a 156 to 158 Custom and go from there depending if you want it in flying v format or not...

Still rocking my Salomon Definition 156 and Dialogue boots from more than a decade ago. Not sure if this reflects how decent they were to start with or how little I get out on them each year. 

Custom X has been my dream board for ages and one of these days I'm gonna drop +£1k on a new Custom X and suitable bindings and boots. 

Hard to justify when the week is mainly chaperoning the kiddies, but one of these days...

Heading back to Cauterets/NPY for half term, which is a bit limited resort, but last time I looked it had more  snow than most of the Alps, so it should be ok.