Snow Sports 2016/17

Soldato
Joined
11 Sep 2009
Posts
13,911
Location
France, Alsace
I'm probably going to Zermatt early season, a couple of trips to Portes du Soliel and then see if I can fit any more in around that too.

I am definitely getting new skis this year... I've said that the last 2 years but bailed each time as I can't make a decision on what to get.
 
Associate
Joined
20 Jun 2013
Posts
175
Location
England, Kent
Quick question. Are we allowed to advertise our skis on here if we're selling them on eBay? Don't want to break any of the forum rules! If so I have got some Salomon Suspect RLD's. I will post the link if allowed to.
 
Caporegime
Joined
25 Jul 2005
Posts
28,851
Location
Canada
Don't forget Chamonix - Brevant/ les Houches/ Argentiere (take telepherique to the top)
plus Valley Blanche - wonderful ambiance.

A real town with many more facilities / restaurants / hotels, plus the gear shops

My description does it a disservice - but should not be left off the list !

Very different resorts though. I love both but they are totally different. Chamonix is a lot easier to get to when organising it yourself though. There are more flights/airports and cheaper transfers to Chamonix, for example flying to Geneva should be viable for most international airports.

Chamonix is far more disconnected though. The main benefit of the 3V is the fact you can ski to and from anywhere, and ski in ski out easier. Taking the ski bus can be rather waring in Chamonix, especially if its snowing.:( Great off Piste though!

This season I'm hoping to do a few more days and tick off a few more resorts. We're looking at a winter trip to Yellowstone, and a subsequent couple of days at each of Jackson Hole and Big Sky. Also trying to work out whether I want to join the local volunteer Ski Patrol. Could be interesting, but a lot of work!
 
Associate
Joined
7 Jul 2009
Posts
2,389
Location
Wiltshire
Personally I'm a keen skier, however, aren't there enough resorts already available to us ski or snowboard along with plenty of back country places and areas to do the same, without the need to

The reason I ask is that a friend made me aware of Jumbo Glacier, British Columbia and the fight to stop the development of a 5,500 bed four-season mega ski resort "Jumbo Glacier Resort".

It's a fight that has been going on for the last 24 years and one that I personally hope is won resulting in it never being built and the valley left untouched.

I certainly don't make a habit of posting this type of thing on-line, but I thought I'd try to bring it to more people’s attention and hopefully get them a few more signatures for their petition.

Available on Netflix is "Jumbo Wild" allowing you to watch the 25 year saga to keep the Jumbo Valley Wild in case you don't fancy reading all that's available on the site.

Certainly one very interesting story especially some of the "democratic" things that have been done over the years to try and get the go-ahead.

Keep Jumbo Wild Forever
 
Caporegime
Joined
25 Jul 2005
Posts
28,851
Location
Canada
Having been to about 8 Canadian resorts last season I think the biggest thing that needs to be done, rather than build new resorts, is to add more infrastructure to the existing resorts.most of them have some stunning terrain, but a real derf of lifts. You end up with long queues at the bottom lift because there is only really one lift from there and/or everyone that gets to the top has to ski back to the bottom to get to a new part of the mountain, or just back to the top.

Adding just a couple more lifts from the edges (at around mid mountain level) to the centre would make a massive difference to the wait time at the bottom and the annoyance of wanting to do the "back valley" but ending up spending 3/4 of your time skiing down the groomed green to get back to the lift to take you back up. Unfortunately most resorts don't appear to want to invest any more in infrastructure.

Perhaps I'm just spoiled with European resorts. :p
 
Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
32,615
Having been to about 8 Canadian resorts last season I think the biggest thing that needs to be done, rather than build new resorts, is to add more infrastructure to the existing resorts.most of them have some stunning terrain, but a real derf of lifts. You end up with long queues at the bottom lift because there is only really one lift from there and/or everyone that gets to the top has to ski back to the bottom to get to a new part of the mountain, or just back to the top.

Adding just a couple more lifts from the edges (at around mid mountain level) to the centre would make a massive difference to the wait time at the bottom and the annoyance of wanting to do the "back valley" but ending up spending 3/4 of your time skiing down the groomed green to get back to the lift to take you back up. Unfortunately most resorts don't appear to want to invest any more in infrastructure.

Perhaps I'm just spoiled with European resorts. :p

European resorts can be just as bad if not worse IMO.
A lot of it comes down to coping with peak demand. I expect you ski in Canada on the weekends with all the locals + tourists, while in Europe on a ski trip you ski a lot in the week on a vacation without the locals.



Holiday weekends in NA are best avoided in the rests. I always go well in to the back-country then. The resorts re best early/pre-season and then in March onward. I skied spring days at mt Bachelor where I would barely meet a single person for hour at a time, or at Willamette pass when there would just be a dozen of us sharing the back-lift farming powder all day.



I wouldn't worry much about the Jump glacier resort. It wont be financially viable really, just too remote and expensive. Even if they build it at some point they will probably remove most of the infrastructure. But I'm not opposed tot he resort development per se, NA has a scarcity of resorts relative to Europe.
 
Caporegime
Joined
25 Jul 2005
Posts
28,851
Location
Canada
Obviously midweek is quieter (skied both last year). The biggest issue for me is that most resorts (Lake Louise excluded) basically have between 4-6 lifts for the whole hill, and they don't really integrate well with each other except at the bottom, whereas in a decent european resort the lifts provide a much more varied way of getting round the mountain. But as you say the biggest issue is the fact there just aren't enough people most of the week to really justify the extra infrastructure, with there being more "mom and Pop" resorts.
 
Associate
Joined
26 Feb 2012
Posts
1,763
Location
Hokkaido
Can't wait for the season to start, but we have still have all of autumn to go. :(

Been following weather patterns like an idiot, and telling myself to not get too excited, but I reeeeally hope it dumps like I know it can.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
28 Nov 2007
Posts
12,736
Very different resorts though. I love both but they are totally different. Chamonix is a lot easier to get to when organising it yourself though. There are more flights/airports and cheaper transfers to Chamonix, for example flying to Geneva should be viable for most international airports.

Chamonix is far more disconnected though. The main benefit of the 3V is the fact you can ski to and from anywhere, and ski in ski out easier. Taking the ski bus can be rather waring in Chamonix, especially if its snowing.:( Great off Piste though!

This season I'm hoping to do a few more days and tick off a few more resorts. We're looking at a winter trip to Yellowstone, and a subsequent couple of days at each of Jackson Hole and Big Sky. Also trying to work out whether I want to join the local volunteer Ski Patrol. Could be interesting, but a lot of work!

I love Chamonix and I love 3 valleys, I do both every year. On average I do 3 valleys once and Chamonix 4 or 5 times. I guess that shows my preference pretty clearly! Chamonix can be utterly epic. I've had some of the best days of my life there.

It's totally fair comment re the buses and disconnection. For that reason I don't think it works so well when I've got the kids in tow.
 
Associate
Joined
15 Jan 2007
Posts
1,071
For snowboarding gear, I've used Snowtart, Absolute Snow, SS20, Surfdome, Freeze Pro Shop, Ellis Brigham and The Snowboard Asylum.
 
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Associate
Joined
23 Oct 2002
Posts
786
Location
Norwich
I get most of my equipment from Snowfit.

We are talk our son (4½)for his 1st skiing holiday in Austria in January, really looking forward to it. My wife is a good skier & I manage! This is our 1st skiing trip in 5 years.

I am slightly concerned that the resort low & the ski map is small.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Mar 2010
Posts
21,781
Don't most folks travelling from UK take their own boots and hire ski's these days ? (with nice, freshly cut edges) so gear requirements are minimal - what gear were you thinking ? salopettes ?
I am always a bit concerned - unduly ? about finding a good fitting hire boot, however, if flying, maybe even taking boots is too much hassle/expense. ?.
(w/ easy jet.BA,irish guy)

Chamonix is gear paradise (put a day aside, up front - Intersport/snell/sanglard) , and, not mentioned so far, great for ski mountaineering/rando (aka back country in the US I believe) nothing beats getting to the top under your own steam (peaux de phoque)
(Learned a lesson in ski mountaineering how slippery/treacherous that nice shiny goretex can be if you come unstuck on a slope.)
 
Associate
Joined
26 Feb 2012
Posts
1,763
Location
Hokkaido
Anyone watch The Fourth Phase yesterday? What an absolute mess.

Travis Rice has always come across as a bit pretentious, but this film takes it to a new level. Supposedly about following the water cycle around the Pacific, this theme lasts for all of 5 minutes. After a quick basic geography lesson from Rice and 2 minutes of footage of him sailing, the theme is ditched and they all go off snowboarding!

Then follows an hour of snowboarding "philosophy", pushing the sport to the limit and finding yourself. The film briefly revisits the water cycle with shots of Travis swimming in the sea, taking this time to mention the fourth phase, which as far as I can tell has virtually no relevance to the film.

Some of the snowboarding is great, and obviously all the camera work and cinematography is good, sometimes stunning, but I can't help feel like this was a massive waste of an hour and twenty minutes. They would have been better just ditching the water cycle nonsense and just focused on finding some cool lines and slaying pow.
 
Caporegime
Joined
25 Jul 2005
Posts
28,851
Location
Canada
If you're into skiing/boarding then buy a pair of boots. That takes so much hassle out of arrival at resorts, especially if you don't have perfectly "average" feet. There is no extra cost in transporting them as you just dump them in your normal hold bag if the flight you are on doesn't provide free boot carriage.

Skis/board are a different matter, pretty much every airline charges now (except possibly Lufthansa, they didn't used to, best to check for this season) and getting a pair of skis makes no real economic sense if flying to a resort for a week at a time. That said having your own does mean you know how to best utilise them and as you'll almost certainly have a pair of boots as well you can miss the entire hire shop part of a trip, quite often meaning you can get an extra few hours skiing in.

Where in Austria are you going MoBo?
 
Associate
Joined
20 Jun 2013
Posts
175
Location
England, Kent
I personally said to myself I was going to get my own boots just because this can ruin your ski trip if you get some painful hired boots. This however lead to me getting the ski bug and delving into a set of skis too. I personal like knowing before I get to a resort that I have all my skis and boots ready to go for the following morning rather than trying to beat any queues to get some hired equipment.

I get my equipment from GLISSHOP who I have never had any issues with. Have had 2 sets of skis from them. I would however look into getting boots from a shop either here in the UK or if you go to the same resort each year then there as you generally get free support with your purchase.
 
Associate
Joined
15 Jul 2011
Posts
1,528
Location
London
Buying skis was my biggest waste of money ever.

I took them on one trip but the hassle/cost of taking them meant i never did again and just ended up renting..
 
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