Who's going skiing and where? 23-24

[Whoozit]

mikeiow said:

I wish we had started before our 40s….our kids (mid-20s!) are fearless, but we are full of fear & fairly clueless, if I am honest….
Had a great day yesterday, & an absolute shocker today: visibility awful, snow falling (heavily early on), felt like I was fighting every turn. *sigh*
Gave up, came in….the sun is out

Get some coaching. Seriously. It's such a great investment in something you obviously enjoy.

I'm in my 50s and while I'm very confident skiing and coaching people offpiste in terrain as steep as you like (think 50 degrees+) I still have a lot to learn. This season I started using the Carv system to coach myself on better turn shape and edge angle, and debating whether next season I look around for some beginner freeride coaching. Never having been taught to air off stuff, is starting to hold me back on the line choices I make

[tvrolet]

I’ve been on windy lifts but this is a bit extreme. Also been on that lift a year or two back, but it wasn’t like this.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-6869571...

[4Q]

I thought I’d done all my skiing for this season as I’ve already had 5 weeks but I’ve been feeling a sense of loss about having to wait until next season so have just booked a final week on the Snowheads end of season bash for Val Thorens 13-20 April

[eps]

4Q said:

I thought I’d done all my skiing for this season as I’ve already had 5 weeks but I’ve been feeling a sense of loss about having to wait until next season so have just booked a final week on the Snowheads end of season bash for Val Thorens 13-20 April

Nice! I thought I'd done well with two trips this season. Must try harder!!

[oddman]

Sitting in Innsbruck Airport after a week’s touring. Wind and visibility have meant we have had to be flexible but there is still great snow if you’re prepared to go and find it.

Plotting another week. Perhaps Norway

[Trash_panda]

So I was tempted to wait until next season to buy replacement skis but being on the continent at the moment is opening up some nices sales to me.

Has anyone tried the following and able to give some feedback on, and this is where I'd like places to stock all these skis to try but can't. Though I bought my last set blind, took me a few days to jel but loved them after (even if they did have foibles)

Atomic Bent 100
DPS kaisen 100*
Elan Ripstick 96*
Fischer ranger 96
Line Blade Optic (I know Harry is a fan)
Majesty Havoc 100 carbon
Ronin 98
Stockli storm rider 95

• are favourites so far

The ronin and dps seem to have a very similar construction

I'm just looking for a 1 ski quiver and not multiple sets.

But then the other part thinks just get a pair of dps koalas or another off-piste ski that can do crud and a pair of skier x skis for the slopes.

In other news, spoke to the binding manufacturer and sent some pics. They think it's just a broken plastic plate on my toe binding and so they'll send me a replacement part for free, which is nice of them

[timlongs]

I've got a pair of the Bent 100s and absolutely love em. Everyone raves about Ripsticks too.

Fun thing with the Bent 100s is depending where you mount them you can totally change how the ski performs, off the top of my head I think there are something like 12 different mounting points. I just went recommended but in deeper snow I would prefer them further back. But I do basically just use them as my 'piss about in resort' ski. I have my Atris if I ever ski powder (basically never due to work and never timing things well with snow).

Although my favourite pair of skis I have are an ancient pair of Rossi B2s I got for 10€ - so good!

[troc]

Bent 100s are excellent indeed.

I was looking at the whole one ski quiver thing but as I ski west coast USA, Japan and the alps, that was never going to work

I have some atomic maverick 88s for the alps which are an all mountain ski which wil cope with around 20-30 cm of fresh powder (decent powder rocker) but also carve extremely well (titan layers over the core) and then some Black Crows Atris skis (the slightly older 108 wide ones) for everything else.

Both skis have atomic shift bindings for backcountry and touring access too.

If I wasn’t going into the seriously steep and deep stuff, then something around 98-100 might be ok but it’s still quite a compromise on the pistes. I’d probably look at 95 max for anything up to 60+% piste skiing.

[tvrolet]

Trash_panda said:

Ski choice....

I've never had (or taken) the opportunity to test skis before purchase, so have always bought 'blind'. Years ago I used to have a couple of pairs as a 'quiver', but I got caught-out so many times on the 'wrong' pair that I decided to stick with a single pair from that point on. Just replaced my much-loved Scott The Ski with a pair of Scott Pure AM92Ti at the beginning of the season and happy with them so far. It would be interesting to compare to some of the models in your list, if nothing else, just for my interest.

I was actually going to buy a pair of Scott Pure Missions, as I had a pair of Missions about 20 years ago and they were absolutely fabulous. They were just under 90mm underfoot as I recall, which was wide for the time, but times change - the new Pure Mission is 98 underfoot and I wondered if that was maybe just a bit too wide for my type of skiing. While powder is nice, the truth of the matter is I end up 80% of the time on piste/crud/slush/ice etc. If powder is there I'll find it and ski it, but I only ski lift-served (too old/lazy to hike) so it's a treat rather than every day's a powder day. I actually contacted Scott and asked how the new Pure Mission would stack up against The Ski (I'd skied the original The Ski in the 80s, so I couldn't resist the opt surface when Scott relaunched it!) and Scott's advice was you'd probably need to be looking 60:40 for powder for the Mission to be a better choice than the Pure AM92Ti.

I did measure the AM92Ti and in the 180 that I have it actually measures 94mm underfoot It handles fast monster carving turns on piste and charges through crud/slush with ease, holds surprisingly well on ice, and from the limited use in powder I've found so far (not even 1' deep ) seems to be fine there too. Quite happy with them as a single quiver, although the graphics are a bit dull, especially after The Ski. But also they're labelled 'Made in Ukraine'...which is nice. It's the 4th pair of Scotts I've had and I've really liked the way all Scotts have skied; they seem to be 'quiet' and just do what's asked of them. Very interested to know how anyone might think they compare to other all-mountain stuff, as they're not exactly popular on the slopes; never seen another pair!

Maybe part of the attraction to Scott skis is I skied on Scott Superhot ski boots in the 80, along with the original The Ski. For those of a certain age, cool or what? I also bought a set of Scott poles, maybe around 1980 with the sword grips...and I'm still using them And I've skied on Look Turntables for years - seem robust, and I like them as you can ski on low DIN settings and they still hold you in.

Anyway...just off to put the new skis and old poles in the box for next week's trip

[andyb28]

We have already had our annual family trip to Les Gets. But my wife and I are seriously considering a cheap extra trip in April.
Bit of a concern as the snow lower down in March was pretty bad in France for us. Fine higher up though.

Have been reading up and the recommendations seem to be Tignes and Val Thoren as they are higher up.

Haven't been to either resort and have never been away in April before.
Anyone have any experience of this?

Also, we don't generally go for package hols as we drive. But we would be looking to fly for this trip. When we did used to travel this way, Crystal was always the site to use. But my wife found a website called weski, which I have never heard of. They appear to have some good deals if we are willing to travel further to a major London airport over Stansted.

[Tagteam]

andyb28 said:

We have already had our annual family trip to Les Gets. But my wife and I are seriously considering a cheap extra trip in April.
Bit of a concern as the snow lower down in March was pretty bad in France for us. Fine higher up though.

Have been reading up and the recommendations seem to be Tignes and Val Thoren as they are higher up.

Haven't been to either resort and have never been away in April before.
Anyone have any experience of this?

Also, we don't generally go for package hols as we drive. But we would be looking to fly for this trip. When we did used to travel this way, Crystal was always the site to use. But my wife found a website called weski, which I have never heard of. They appear to have some good deals if we are willing to travel further to a major London airport over Stansted.

Just flying home from tignes , plenty of snow. But has been windy and poor visibility for end march.

[4Q]

andyb28 said:

We have already had our annual family trip to Les Gets. But my wife and I are seriously considering a cheap extra trip in April.
Bit of a concern as the snow lower down in March was pretty bad in France for us. Fine higher up though.

Have been reading up and the recommendations seem to be Tignes and Val Thoren as they are higher up.

Haven't been to either resort and have never been away in April before.
Anyone have any experience of this?

Also, we don't generally go for package hols as we drive. But we would be looking to fly for this trip. When we did used to travel this way, Crystal was always the site to use. But my wife found a website called weski, which I have never heard of. They appear to have some good deals if we are willing to travel further to a major London airport over Stansted.

Check out the end of season bash to Val Thorens on Snowheads.com. Less that £700pp in a nice hotel including lift pass and transfers from Geneva (but not flights) 13-20 April this year. I’ve been a few times and conditions have been great.

Edited by 4Q on Saturday 30th March 16:09

[The_Doc]

1st day in Morzine.
10C in the village and we didn't even bother with the Morzine Les Gets slopes, they look very sparse.
The deal on PDS passes gives you a free child with every adult 5 day bought, so we've spent the day in Avoriaz.
Snow is fine for learners, slushy below 1800 after lunch but plenty of it. FolieD'oux was pumping.

Not too busy, surprising as its a bank holiday weekend, but the French schools haven't broken up yet.
10cm of fresh predicted for tomorrow night, but I still think the MZN/LesG side is all over for 2024. Need a car and drive over to the big boys side.

[The_Doc]

andyb28 said:

We have already had our annual family trip to Les Gets. But my wife and I are seriously considering a cheap extra trip in April.
Bit of a concern as the snow lower down in March was pretty bad in France for us. Fine higher up though.

Have been reading up and the recommendations seem to be Tignes and Val Thoren as they are higher up.

Haven't been to either resort and have never been away in April before.
Anyone have any experience of this?

Val Thorens is very very high so in April it's going to the be the safest of the bunch. But the whole season ends 22nd usually, so do you risk the cash? It's a very dull resort because it's all above the tree line, but maybe there will be snow.

[eps]

andyb28 said:

We have already had our annual family trip to Les Gets. But my wife and I are seriously considering a cheap extra trip in April.
Bit of a concern as the snow lower down in March was pretty bad in France for us. Fine higher up though.

Have been reading up and the recommendations seem to be Tignes and Val Thoren as they are higher up.

Haven't been to either resort and have never been away in April before.
Anyone have any experience of this?

Also, we don't generally go for package hols as we drive. But we would be looking to fly for this trip. When we did used to travel this way, Crystal was always the site to use. But my wife found a website called weski, which I have never heard of. They appear to have some good deals if we are willing to travel further to a major London airport over Stansted.

You've just got to hit the slopes early in the day and obviously if you do want to go low, do it as early in the day as well. After lunchtime the slopes do become porridge like

[Harry Flashman]

timlongs said:

I've got a pair of the Bent 100s and absolutely love em. Everyone raves about Ripsticks too.

Fun thing with the Bent 100s is depending where you mount them you can totally change how the ski performs, off the top of my head I think there are something like 12 different mounting points. I just went recommended but in deeper snow I would prefer them further back. But I do basically just use them as my 'piss about in resort' ski. I have my Atris if I ever ski powder (basically never due to work and never timing things well with snow).

Although my favourite pair of skis I have are an ancient pair of Rossi B2s I got for 10€ - so good!

Bent 100 is a great ski, and you are bang on on the mounting point thing. I have a pair of Marker Jester Schizo bindings on my Whitedot Preachers for this purpose (I am about to chuck them and the skis, as they are very, very knackered). The Preacher is more directional than the Bent Chetler, but could be made to behave like an oversized park ski if I slid the binding forwards. RIP.

Ripstick is a touch too much of a directional charger for me, on this kind of ski - not unlike the DPS Cassiar 95, but damper and heavier.

I went for the Lines as they are very playful - i love riding switch and the Blade Optic loves a nose butter. They are also a superb platform for landing as so, so stiff under the boot, but a bit more forgiving, yet not soft, in the tip and tail (unlike the Cassiar). Heavy buggers, though. Great for smashing up slush, bad for the park (which intend to stay out of after the last knee injury - wife has threatened to rain destruction on me if I incapacitate myself (again) doing something stupid (again) at my age).

DPS Koala was on my list. I saw them for sale for £390 online in the UK recently, which is a good price for such a ski.

ETA - here you go.

https://www.ellis-brigham.com/dps-koala-103-skis-2...

Tell you what, the old Whitedot Preacher was a blast and I mourn its passing. No rocker to speak of, proper twin tip, fat shovel to give float and turn initiation, camber for pop and a forgiving flex pattern that let me do stuff like this (leaning back on a landing for a photo) without wiping out or the ski breaking.Try this on my Cassiars, and the tail would spit me off unless I centred properly before landing. Or it may just snap, as yours did. This little backseat posing on my Preachers was fine. The Blade Optic was the closest I could find to that ski's versatility. The Preacher would ski two foot powder happily, and piste without being at all scary as long as the surface had softened up to sidewall depth.

Edited by Harry Flashman on Saturday 30th March 21:26

[Harry Flashman]

Also, there is no such thing as a one ski quiver. No fat or mid fat ski can give you what a slalom ski does on the hard stuff. I ski a pair of Atomic S9 in 165cm on piste, and laying them over properly is a totally, totally different thrill. And just as addictive as off-piste and tricks.

I have a problem - these aren't even all the pairs in the house.

My name is Harry, and I have a ski problem.The pink ones are my favourites.






We arrive in the Portes du Soleil tomorrow.

Edited by Harry Flashman on Saturday 30th March 22:40

[Car bon]

Harry - do you have threaded inserts in those White Dots ?

I've got a mildly bad ski buying habit, but if I could save on bindings, it might just get worse.....

I've been semi contemplating the Quiver Killer ones from the Piste Office.

[r159]

Just arrived in Andorra, been snowing all day and still at it, weather supposed to clear tomorrow for first day on slopes. Just need to keep a lid on it tonight…

[Car bon]

r159 said:

Just arrived in Andorra, been snowing all day and still at it, weather supposed to clear tomorrow for first day on slopes. Just need to keep a lid on it tonight…

Whereabouts are you ?

I live in El Tarter - should be a good last week of the season