[Fultonius]

I've got a mate out in Chamonix, I'll try and find some info for you.

[Turboman]

Heading out tomorrow for a week of backcountry. Will let you know.

[chummer]

Cheers lads, yep the snowfalls been pretty poor everywhere in France it seems, just back from Alp D'huez and the pistes where suffering lower down despite a dump a couple of weeks ago, foocking stones evrywhere on the run home, I think they'd been 6 weeks without any snow previously. Luckily the snow stayed good up high on the pistes (highest lift is 3300m) with fun soft off piste in the afternoons to play on...typically it started to snow again when I was leaving.

Basically as well as hitting the pistes I want to take me mate down the Valley Blanche because I know he'd cream his pants, as do I every time, such a stunning run, but wondered whether it was a bit of a long shot early April. I guess there's always the runs down from the Grand Montets onto the Argentière glaciers which I presume stay out of the sun a little more?

Thanks in advance Turboman and Fultinus

[Fultonius]

Facebook only, but can upload to somewhere else if required:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150242070904657&set=a.10150140088624657.329192.512239656&ref=nf

[chummer]

I'm on Facebook but this link didn't work unfortunately Fultinus

[Fultonius]

Ah well, not very exciting photo anyway. Here's what he said:

Fultonius, long time no see. Not sure about the start of April, it'll be warm by then and there's not a huge snowbase now so off piste wont be too great even if it does snow in a few weeks. Fingers crossed though.

Have you got transport? Probably worth keeping options open!

[chummer]

Cheers for that Fultinus, yep, gonna hire a motor, if the off piste is poor any other piste options within a reasonable drive from Cham other than above Argientiere?

[lagerstarfish]

Verbier and Courmayeur are within reasonable drive and may well have different snow conditions to Cham

[chummer]

  cheers largers

[AndyR]

Over a metre of snow in Whistler this last week, and over 13 m so far this season 
Sorry!

[chummer]

 

[SA Chris]

You could easily head up to Les Contamines and the surrounding area too, less rocky than Cham, so not that dependant on deep cover. Could do Flaine too, nice and high, and hopefully still enough snow to fill in the limestone crevasses.

[Turboman]

Got back from Cham on Sunday.  We got luck and had 10cm of snow on the first day.  This meant fresh tracks on Grand Montet! The bottom lift in L'avanche has been closed all season so fresh tracks aplenty if you have the skins to get back out.  We also skied off the back of Grand Montet onto Argentiere glacier which was in good nick as was the GM front face (turn right out of top lift).

Pistes we OK in the morning but grim (icy patches and soft as shit) by midday. Most off the side piste was bump city.

Best on piste conditions we found were at La Tour.

Vallee Blanche is full of holes!  We skinned up to Italian side (Tour Ronde) from the Midi to find good snow but the lower part was thin.  Passed one party extracting themselves from a crevasse.  There is also a very suspect looking snow bridge you have to cross at the salle manger. 

Didn't venture over to Brevent/Fleger but it looked totally burnt out. Don't reckon it will be open for long.

In summary, worth a look if you're heading off piste and have some local knowledge (we had a guide all week).  I reckon still just about worth going for piste skiing but get up high eg GM. One of our gang is heading out again at Easter. Be very careful if you head onto on VB. Apparently it's in the worst state it's been in for years.

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Similarly we got back on Sat from a week in La Plagne. We were pretty lucky with a reasonable dump over the weekend we got there meant we had 20-30cm of powder. If you hunted it out on the North facing slopes fresh runs could be had for the first 3 days after which the warm weather meant it got heavy and slow.

Lower slopes were pretty shot and slushly, even by late morning, the temps were seriously hot 10-15 degrees even in the shade. Higher up it wasn't too bad. We went across to Les Arcs mid week but the low link meant it was a pretty slushy journey there and back.

We felt pretty lucky overall we were there the week we were, we got lots of decent boarding on-piste, some pretty good off-piste/powder action in, mucho silly antics in four scooby doo costumes I took out (well it was a stag do!) wrapped off by an excellent session on some ski-doos, which was pretty exciting even before we rolled two!

[SA Chris]

Was the bobsleigh run still open? hghilight of our last La Plagne trip, great fun.

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Yes it was, our chalet girl went on it mid-week. We did a run a while back when we were in St Anton, although fun I thought it was only something I'd do the once, unlike the ski-doos which I'd definitely do again.

[SA Chris]

What you guys think of this?

BBC Sport - Winter Sports - British snowboarder James Stentiford slides to freeride bronze

[Norton Sharley]

Good effort James I say.  The Verbier freeride is highly competitive.  I'd never remember my lines especially when it was pretty tracked by the time he got on the face.

[chummer]

Thanks for all the Chamonix conditions reports folks...

Well it was hot but and slushy low down (still great fun jumping around) but lucky enough to be making tracks down the front face of the GM in some great powder on the first day...the best riding I've ever had! This stayed good but just got a little heavier each day for most of the week, we just headed up later in the day to allow anything hard to soften, great floaty runs with nobody else around, I think folk just assumed it would be poor. 

I did manage to loose my board though as a strong gust flipped it over for a solo ride down the front face...I was fucking mortified.

BUT with the insurance to cover it i got a great deal on a 'Yes' Typo board and it fucking rocked! Absolutely loved the hybrid camber thingy and I went up from a 153 to a 156 without even noticing. It maybe a little soft for heavier riders but perfect for me from powder to park.

I am a little concerned to have turned down a Freestylers gig so I wouldn't sacrifice any riding days...

[galpinos]

Right, I realise this somewhat out of season but…..

The missus and I are currently thinking of heading to Canada for a 10 day ski trip as a delayed honeymoon. We got engaged on a ski holiday and fancied one for a honeymoon but there’s not a great deal of snow around in October so we’re having a week in the camper this year and saving for a decent ski trip next year.

Where and when do people recommend? Neither of us has been skiing in Canada before. Laurs has been to the States but was a bit unimpressed by the lack of mountains, I’ve done a few seasons in Europe, we’re both of a reasonable standard and are keen for powder and easily accessible off-piste.

Wants:

Largish area
Mountainous, not just snowy hills
Cool vibe – not too American, a bit rough and ready is fine but a proper ski town is what we’re after, not just soulless twee apartments.
Good, lift accessible off-piste – the missus is pretty competent but gets freaked out with harnesses/ropes/tricky access and likes to see what I’m going to take her down (she doesn’t trust me). It’s also a honeymoon so non stressful powder fun is the name of the game.
Somewhere with Cat-Skiing – Never been, is it any good? Quite fancy it and a honeymoon seems like a good excuse to spend the extra dollars if it’s worth it. We could do a night at a cat skiing lodge if people reckon it’s wicked.

I’ve obviously heard of Whistler, was told good things about Kicking Horse (for a suspected biased source) but what do the UKB masses recommend?

[robertostallioni]

Where and when do people recommend?

1990, Snowy Peaks.

Be my guest, you got nothing to lose,
won't you let me take you on a Ski cruise?

[SA Chris]

I think if you are looking at largish, Whistler is the only Canadian resort with any real size. The town has a fair bit of life to it, more than any of the American resorts I have been to, and there is a lot of good challenging off piste stuff, although none of the hard stuff is particularly long. The downside is that it's not very high, so snow is not always of the finest quality powder, and rain in the town is not uncommon. However you can quite easily stay high in warmer conditions and stay lower if conditions are poor.

Although I've not been, I've heard Kicking Horse is tiny by comparison, and not a lot in the town. In powder conditions it would be excellent, but I think you would be hard pushed to get 10 days out of it. You could easily hire a 4x4 and do a road trip of the other resorts scattered in that are though; Kicking Horse, Fernie, Panorama and a few others are close together, as is Revelstoke, which gets a lot of hype as the new kid on the block and the latest big off-piste / cat / heli destination.

If you are Whistler based, I can recommend  http://powdermountaincatskiing.com/ we had a day with them, as it was my 40th birthday year when we went and wanted to do something special. Easily one of the best days I have ever had, and a few people who have done both said they much preferred it on the cats to heli; more vert for your money, less weather dependant and a much more laid back stress free vibe;





Alternatively you could do a week in a resort and then do a a few days at one of the dedicated catskiing lodges in the middle of nowhere. They all look awesome, pick one nearest the resort you fancy the look of http://www.catskiingdirectory.com/

[SA Chris]

yeah there is that - hardly a romantic honeymoon. Any road trips I've done in the past (admittedly usually one nighters around a more densely hotelled central Colorado) it usually involved 4 people piled into a double room at the nearest Super 8.

[mr__j5]

I could talk for hours about how awesome Whister is. But the main points for me are:

Wide open bowls
Loads of next-to-piste off-piste and takes a few days for it to all get tracked out.
Trees. Oh the trees. I love the gladed runs.
It's big.

I think some people think that it's a busy resort, especially at weekends, but it's quiet compared to a big French resort. If you stay in Whistler village then you will probably have a big queue in the morning to get on the mountain and then that's about it if you stay high enough. If there are big queues though they clear pretty quickly because it's all polite and organised, instead of the French scrum style queue.

[Norton Sharley]

We've only been to Banff (twice) and Kickin Hoss so-

Largish area:-  Banff - the combined size of Sunshine, Norquay and Lake Louise is large with the latter being the best but an hour each way in a (very comfortable American) coach.  KH is not large but makes up for it with the terrain and the amount of vertical drop.

Mountainous - Canada has very nice views which make up for sitting in the coach if you're at Banff

Cool vibe – Banff is a good place to stay, lots of choice of eateries and shopping (for the missus).  If you stay in KH, as we did, there is absolutely nothing to do on an evening.  Then again you will either be too knackered from the riding or enjoying your honeymoon 

Good, lift accessible off-piste – Back bowls of Lake Louise are good, visible and easy run out.  There is a nasty tow to the top though.  Sunshine off piste is poor.  KH off piste is what it is all about.  Some of the drops off the ridges are steep and get tracked quickly and can be mogulled.   The 'easier' off piste is great.  There is a huge amount off the back but it is remote and avalanche prone/dangerous but if you went with a guide.....  There is also easily accessible (hiking) out of resort off piste which is all pretty obvious.  KH has two lifts to the top and you then pick your line.  Admittedly the snow was incredible when we were in KH and just kept coming.

Somewhere with Cat-Skiing – Not in KH but just over the valley.  As above you could stay in Golden and access other resorts.   There are various heli companies from Banff that coach you over to Panorama, or others?.

Fernie is supposed to be great, as a is Great White.  Panaroma is limited as a resort but they run great heli-boarding out of there.

If I were going again I'd either go to Whistler (cos everyone has to go at least once) or spend a week each in KH, Fernie, Great White or Revelstoke.

fwiiw we looked at hiring a camper and touring.  It's not cheap, it's cold and we came to the conclusion we would spend as much and have more stress than staying in hotels.  Last time in Banff the lifts were shut for some of the time because it was too cold for them to run below minus 29degC 

I'll post some KH backcountry piccies later.