Skiiing

[Abitrary]

Is skiing like uphill gardening but in the opposite direction ?

Now, uphill gardening, there's a phrase I haven't heard in a long while

 

[Abitrary]

Abitrary...I preferred you as a crusty old arab chap....

I'm trying to get in with some new friends on another thread. It's an in-joke sort of thing

Hang in there

 

[Cathryn]

Total fanatic. Skied three seasons in the Three Valleys. On no account miss Jerusalem, probably the best run in the world. It's on a big dog leg off St. Martin de Belleville and is easily missed. Otherwise the runs from Meribel to Courcheval are fantastic, easy, blast it skiing. There are two tremendous runs off the glacier at Val Thorens. There's no better ski area in the world. Just don't sit down at Cap Horn (just above the altiport) and shout "there're on me."

That's my favourite bit, the run from Meribel to Courcheval. I'm a Blues girl...I can do reds and I've got down one black, but blue runs rock!!!! There's a wonderful restaurant at the top of that pass as well, it's my favourite one in the three valleys, the view is breathtaking!!!!!

 

[Cathryn]

Cathryn, you seem to get a lot of good holidays (says he jealously).

However I have to confess that I love skiing and have actually been thinking about it for the last three weeks as I am hoping to be able to stay at a friend's house in Switzerland in Feb.

If that falls through, I'd be interested to know how crowded does the three valleys get? I try to avoid big resorts as we have to go during school holidays and I hate crowded slopes and long lift queues.

I do have to admit that holidays are what gets me up in the morning, and I use my holiday allowance very carefully!!

We go the 2nd week Jan every year, so am not sure about the school hols. The lifts might be crowded but there are enough runs in the 3 valleys to keep you happy.

 

[got-to-get-fit]

Is it too early to start talking skiing (and am I allowed to do so on a bike thread?) But I was at a work conference today when they kept playing the punked up version of 'wonderful world' from the car ad, and it struck me as the PERFECT skiing song, so I haven't been able to stop thinking about skiing all day! (Apart from focusing on work, of course).

Me...I'm a bit of a crap skier, but I LOVE IT. I ski like a granny, but with the biggest grin on my face. And although we've not started booking etc, we'll be off to the beautiful Three Valleys (Courcheval this year if I get my way) in January.

Does anyone else ski? Is anyone else going?

skiing is for uppercrust toffs with bad attitudes and snobbish behaviour .......actually im sure they are not, but thats the way they come across when you tell them you are a snowboarder.
Go boarding and find out what excitement is all about. Ive been boarding for about 8 yr and its the best fun you can have on a plank of wood.

 

[Dayvo]

oh, I forgot to mention - anyone who goes skiing is a git

I am a very happy git!
I love skiing, both downhill and cross-country, and go at every opportunity.

I fell in love with it at that world-famous resort of St. Moritz, Gstaad, erm, Aviemore and became hooked in the mist, sleet and rain of the Cairngorms. Thanks, Scotland!

Best track to ski to? - Welcome to the Pleasure Dome (13 mins) by Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

 

[Cathryn]

skiing is for uppercrust toffs with bad attitudes and snobbish behaviour .......actually im sure they are not, but thats the way they come across when you tell them you are a snowboarder.
Go boarding and find out what excitement is all about. Ive been boarding for about 8 yr and its the best fun you can have on a plank of wood.

A totally inoffensive post, eh?? Personally, boarders terrify me....they seem to fly along with no thought to anyone else using the slopes, but I wouldn't be quite that sweeping in my judgement of them!! I've also not yet mastered skiing enough to risk any other form of getting down a slope!

I think the abuse hurled between skiers and boarders is quite entertaining. We go in a mixed group (boarders and skiers) and although lots of insults get exchanged, there's a lot of respect for each others' skills.

No-one respects my skills though as I don't have many.

 

[Cathryn]

I am a very happy git!
I love skiing, both downhill and cross-country, and go at every opportunity.

I fell in love with it at that world-famous resort of St. Moritz, Gstaad, erm, Aviemore and became hooked in the mist, sleet and rain of the Cairngorms. Thanks, Scotland!

Best track to ski to? - Welcome to the Pleasure Dome (13 mins) by Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

Try my new skiing song....Wonderful world by Joey Ramone. I can barely wait to get back on the slopes!

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

A totally inoffensive post, eh?? Personally, boarders terrify me....they seem to fly along with no thought to anyone else using the slopes, but I wouldn't be quite that sweeping in my judgement of them!! I've also not yet mastered skiing enough to risk any other form of getting down a slope!

I think the abuse hurled between skiers and boarders is quite entertaining. We go in a mixed group (boarders and skiers) and although lots of insults get exchanged, there's a lot of respect for each others' skills.

No-one respects my skills though as I don't have many.

This animosity between boarders and skiiers is much exaggerated. Some of the group I ski with also board, and the attitude is that it's like telemarking or monoskiing - just another way of having fun on snow. The only irritations are when boarders are being deliberately oafish or dangerous. As, I've come across just as many skiers behaving like this, I'm not going to rush to judgment.

And, as for Cathryn's skills, my recollection is that the runs from Meribel to Courcheval are reds, and quite steep and narrow at the top - particularly the one on the left that leads to the area with the huge bumps. So, I think you're underestimating yourself Ma'am.

 

[Cathryn]

Bless you, thanks!!!

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

The way to ski relatively cheaply in the Three Valleys is to stay at St. Martin de Belleville, which is in the same valley as Val Thorens. The village skiing is excellent and it links into the rest of the system so well that you can be in Courcheval in 40 minutes. There are about four hotels at the bottom of the lift which is a modern bubble.

 

[Globalti]

BC or Before Child I used to ski at Argentiere, above Chamonix. This is the place where the serious off-piste skiers go and the start of some big tours such as the Haute Route, which I skied about 11 years ago. The Grands Montets car gives acess to three glaciers and some necky skiing, including the Pas de Chevre, which takes you beneath the Drus and down onto the Mer de Glace glacier. These are runs that every skier ought to do at least once in their life, although you need a guide to do any of these as you need somebody who can assess the avalanche risk.

Argentiere is less posey and less expensive than Chamonix as well. There is a big group of British UIAGM guides there who will take a small group out for a day for a couple of hundred quid. They can usually provide transceivers, probes, shovels as well.

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

BC or Before Child I used to ski at Argentiere, above Chamonix. This is the place where the serious off-piste skiers go and the start of some big tours such as the Haute Route, which I skied about 11 years ago. The Grands Montets car gives acess to three glaciers and some necky skiing, including the Pas de Chevre, which takes you beneath the Drus and down onto the Mer de Glace glacier. These are runs that every skier ought to do at least once in their life, although you need a guide to do any of these as you need somebody who can assess the avalanche risk.

Argentiere is less posey and less expensive than Chamonix as well. There is a big group of British UIAGM guides there who will take a small group out for a day for a couple of hundred quid. They can usually provide transceivers, probes, shovels as well.

Hmmm............at the risk of sounding a party pooper - my view is that nearly all off piste skiing is much overrated. Most of it consists of a technically difficult exercise of picking a route in short pitches. The off piste of pristine snowfields only lasts for half a morning after heavy falls and in Warren Miller films where the professionals have been dropped off by helicopter. There's also the problem of ending up at the bottom of some gully area and having to laboriously climb back to the piste.

I practise off piste skills so I have them in reserve in case I need them, but I don't seek out off piste skiing. A run in Grindlewald this January was a case in point - the piste had worn out completely (but hadn't been closed!) and the only way to get down was to go off piste. It was necessary, but hardly enjoyable.

 

[Cathryn]

I sometimes go off piste when i'm too scared to do a turn and the piste runs out....

 

[Globalti]

Patrick I know what you mean. But what you ought to try (and you're obviously an experienced skier) is ski touring. This is where you use the lift system to gain height then join together cols, glaciers and huts using climbing skins. You would find as a cyclist that the skinning action comes naturally to you. With only minimal effort you can be guided to places where the guide knows there will be good snow.... I remember one trip in the Aiguilles Rouges where we lifted then skinned up to a col then descended a deserted valley, skiing through powder, then breakable crust, then the most glorious spring snow ever, finishing with wet snow down to a station and a train ride home. Without the skinning and the guide we would never have experienced that solitude, that variety of conditions and that superb spring snow. For me skis have become another mode of mountain travel, same as my MTB or (rarely nowadays) my walking boots.