Winter 2012/13

Skidder said:
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
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Well ok if you can fly out Thursday night I guess, I just wouldn't want to go to the hassle for two days skiing. I'll be honest, if I could move near a resort I would!
 
There is also the overnight Eurostar Snowtrain which leaves St. Pancras on Friday nights and arrives first thing on Saturday morning, so you can be straight onto the slopes when you get to the resort.

There are plenty of options available for a weekend, or long weekend. Ultimately it costs money, but winter sports are hardly cheap pursuits as it is.
 
Yeah I usually fly out Thursday evening (heathrow and gatwick are easy for me) and come back either Sunday night or Monday night. I try to ride at least four weeks or so a year and that's not always possible for me in full weeks.
 
Skidder said:
Yeah I usually fly out Thursday evening (heathrow and gatwick are easy for me) and come back either Sunday night or Monday night. I try to ride at least four weeks or so a year and that's not always possible for me in full weeks.
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I've averaged about 160 days a year for the past 4 years, and now I'll be lucky to get 10 days this season. Living in England sucks. :(
 
I would love to work as a ski teacher / guide. It blows goats I have to sit in front of a computer 6.5 hours a day, 5 days a week... Just so I can afford to go skiing once a year

edit - I have hired ROSSIGNOL Experience 83 TPX (categorised as excellence skis) from Ski Set. 6 days for £88. It shows them as all mountain skis so good for piste and off piste. Anyone know anything about them?

I have hired experience 76 or something in the past and remember them being quite good

these - http://www.rossignol.com/US/US/experience-83-tpx_RA1EJ01_product_alpine-men-skis.html
 
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I used Rossi carvers season before last season. Last year I was less happy with my skis hence the finally taking the plunge to buy.

Personally I think within a certain tolerance you wont notice much diff with makes of hire skis assuming they are serviced to a comparative level. I could tell last year that they had not been serviced super recently where as the year before I think I had a set literally just serviced, edges were super sharp with no nicks, perfect wax underneath.
 
These are what I will be using this year. Its the first time I will use skis with rocker so be interesting to see what I think.

http://www.salomon.com/uk/minisites/enduro/

I am very much a piste skiier but the resort we go to has some areas where even the pistes get a bit chewed up (La Plagne) where there are some steep narrow areas between lifts or runs. Its a shame as the vast majority of the main resort doesn't suffer this just these "joining" areas really.
By mid day these areas are nasty and I hope that the rocker will help in navigating these areas. You can't really carve due to the narrowness and fact it gets all kinda mougly down there with literally heaps of unpacked snow. Great/advanced skiiers rip down there, new skiiers go down on their arses ;) its the intermediates who suffer as they can handle the terrain but with the others either ripping past or hurting past out of control you need a good ski so you can turn fast as the route you plan keeps changing.

This year I am really going to focus on working on carving, hopefully I will gain confidence in those skiis and will move on a lot. One of the things people have told me is that you reach a point with hire skiis where for an annual trip/ twice a year trips where you cannot improve really, by the time you refamiliarise yourself with skiing and also a new set of skis your holiday is over. Where as if you get your own you should have a shorter refamiliarisation period and hence you get better, so you plateau at a slightly higher level. We will see ;)
 
Guest2 said:
bump - Have other used Rossignol skis? They seem to be one of the big make hire skis usually available (as above)
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I have tried a few Rossignol skis so can give you my thoughts, not that they are worth anything as everyone has a different style and preference!

I actually own the Rossignol S3s, brilliant all mountain ski - have used it in Canada and Europe. Handles powder and is still really fun on piste even though it's not a slalom ski :p

I tried the S7 but I wouldn't use them unless there's a lot of fresh snow. Not nearly as fun on piste. Also tried the Experience 88s but didn't find them as good off piste or as fun on piste, surprisingly. Seemed a bit stiffer, but found them harder to carve and not as responsive. :cool:
 
Skidder said:
What kind of work were you doing? guiding/teaching or something to get that much in?
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Started in ski hire. In Canada we'd work a lit of split shifts (as it was dead in the middle of the day) so I got to ride for 4/5 hours a day plus obviously all day on my days off. Same kind of deal in Australia, and Japan I was part time. Moved in to boot fitting though in my last season which meant less time on the hill, but I learnt a lot more.

I'm looking to go away somewhere in Europe in January. Anyone know any fantastic deals?
 
Much jealous of so much ski time. I'd love that, but then again it's a lifestyle. Can't do that with the family.

I'm really holding back buying these new skis, but figure I have no idea how much powder there will be yet, so might hold off as I have plenty more things to buy this month. MUST RESIST!!
 
Right, I'm 5'10 and my 2012s are 175cm, but looking at these Bacon's and I'm tempted by the 184s, nice and long with plenty of float.

Should I go for the 184s or the 178s?

Debates....
 
Am going to demo some bonafides, mantras and sir Francis bacon UK in Milton Keynes soon. The big factor will be trying to see how the bacons and bonafides handle ice; these skis will be used in Europe and not being able to cope with ice on a poorer snow week would be irritating
 
Demoing bacons in a snow dome, can't imagine anything more pointless :p

QuickLink 184cm definitely, no question.
 
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