Winter 2012/13

While ski technology has improved and bad skis don't really exist, what you say is not really true. Skis are a tool, they have been optimized for specific tasks, and as they say, you need the beast tool r the job.

This is highly with the differences between dedicated powder skis and say slalom race skis. Completely spite design goals. The chambers, the narrow waist, the large asymmetry with a narrow waist, stiffness etc, are diametrically opposed. Slalom skis are stiff, short, narrow waisted, have a strong positive chamber (on a flat floor the tips and tails touch the ground, the waist is I'm the air forming an arch). Dedicated powder skis are longer, are soft (especially at the front), the waists are fat, and on some powder skis the waists are the fattest parts of the skis, the chamber is minimal or even negative (rocketed skis with the waist sitting on the floor and the tips and tails pointing up I to the air).

Completely opposite skis designed for totally posits conditions. The best World Cup skier would come last with any powder ski, even the best powder skiers will have less fun with a slalom skieven if they get down the mountain.

Hence why I said most skis. It's pretty stupid to then pick two skis from complete opposite ends of the spectrum. Of course a slalom ski is going to carve better than a powder ski. Was that ever up for debate?
 
From last season, but I still love this video. :D


This is what skiing is about for me, playing around and having fun, not carving on ice.

I would love to ski like that. I will make do with playing inbetween pistes until I am a bit better - Dont think it will happen with only one week a year though :(
 

That's crazy. Never seen one like that before. It's pretty rare though that you'd have a ski like that with reverse sidecut. I still think my original point stands though. You can talk about camber/rocker, construction, materials, sidecuts, flex, torsional stiffness forever, but that doesn't change the fact that 80% of skis perform well anywhere. You can't then throw in slalom ski against a powder ski and compare piste performance. But a Slalom ski is a very specific ski, where as the majority of powder skis handle fairly well on piste. Be that because of sidewall constructions and 3D sidecuts. The Line Bacon and Opus actually have a 5D sidecut on them now, so even if you ski them in the back seat there's still a sidecut working for you. Incredible stuff really.
 
From last season, but I still love this video. :D


This is what skiing is about for me, playing around and having fun, not carving on ice.

I adore ice!

On another note, is it possible to find places like that in Europe? It looks like epic fun!
 
Also, I don't know any skis where the waist is the widest part. Could you point me in their direction?

Armada ARGs are pretty much widest at the waist. They have a tiny bit of sidecut underfoot but it's only a few mm max. Odd ski to use though. Tanner makes effective use of them in 'Believe' though. One of my favourite ski movie sections. Mt Baker is incredible, if you ever get the opportunity to go after a big storm it's the most amazing place.


I adore ice!

On another note, is it possible to find places like that in Europe? It looks like epic fun!

You won't really get that sort of terrain in the Alps as the altitude where you actually find snow is so much higher and the mountains are just more mountainous at that altitude for lack of a better word.
 
That Tanner hall video was a good watch. Thanks

Still THE best Ski video ever made IMO is P-Tex, lie and Duct tape


Other videos of valley X on youtube which are fantastic. Great tunes and generally the way its filmed. I have watched it every year for over 10 years now! At the end of the full film there is a mountain they ski in Whistler, I have ski'd this from a bit further down. Nothing like what they climb too but still :)
 
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I am ready for winter.

Will be in Chamonix mid December, hope there's some early snow. This is from Niseko, Japan, last season.

niseko.png
 
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I would love to go to Niseko, looks amazing.

Hopefully going to get some cat skiing in whilst in Canada. And finally getting to Revelstoke which I've been wanting to do for a while.
 
Niseko was brilliant. It's by no means extreme terrain but it's a great ride. Trees are immense fun. They look very tight in places but are pretty narrow so you can carry a lot of speed through them. It lived up to reputation for us, out of 7 days riding we had deep, fresh powder (and it is as light as they say) on 4 of them, with some snowfall on all the others. Night riding was a blast too on the floodlit areas.

I rode my powder board pretty much all the time (Jones Hovercraft) and it was perfect for there. One of my pals I was with bought a gentem stick super fish while we were out there, what a beast!
 
Just booked some 'off-piste & adventure skiing lessons' with ESF for a nice discount. Going to be an interesting week, lessons in the morning and then skiing with the family in the afternoon after lunch :).

This sounds like a stupid question but given the variables, i will ask it. How do you book a ski weekend?
Meh you can't really do it for a weekend, unless its head up to Scotland on a Friday. You'd need to live near a resort.
 
Meh you can't really do it for a weekend, unless its head up to Scotland on a Friday. You'd need to live near a resort.

Why not? I do loads of snowboarding weekends. Places like Chamonix are easy. Fly into Geneva, hour transfer (€25 a pop), plenty of B&B type accommodation that don't require a week booking. I already have three weekends planned this season to keep me going between holidays :p
 
I'm looking to book a week away in Feb/March time. I'm looking at packages on crystalski.com as I'm new to this and probably doing it alone. Anyone have any booking advice or nice places to go?
 
I love the French Alps, but then I speak passable French. I guess anywhere you go will have lots of English speakers though so that won't be a massive problem. I just love France in general so its one of my first choices.

If you want a cheap holiday you could look at eastern Europe, especially around that time of year.
 
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