After four weeks and two days of skiing (sadly just past the half way mark) we are finally taking a full rest day. We woke up this morning to find Val Thorens in the middle of thick cloud. It's snowing and it is forecast to get worse - a large dump of snow but with 40-60kmph winds. There is poor visibility and my legs are feeling weary so today seemed like a good day to take a break. I also have a very swollen little toe joint. If I could remember hitting it I would suspect it could be broken. Instead it's very swollen and I have no idea why. I just know that it protests alot when I strap it tightly into my ski boot. My boots have never rubbed before so I don't think that's causing it but now it's swollen they certainly are rubbing. Hopefully a day off will give the swelling chance to go down. We've also run out of clean clothes so we need to find the laundrette. Yes, we've been here this long and haven't done any washing yet. Our friends Cath and Dave are coming here on Thursday and we thought they might appreciate it if we smelled nice if we're to live in such close proximity for several days. A rest day also gives us the chance to take our ski boots apart and get them thoroughly dry. Damp boots are not good for keeping the toes warm.
This isn't to say we have been skiing 9-5 every day either. There has been the odd day where we've come back for lunch and the weather has been bad or the pistes have been in such poor condition (when there was little snow) in the afternoon it has been uninviting to venture out again. There has also been more than the odd day where we have retired early to a deck chair and enjoyed a small beer or two in the sunshine.
Since the large amount of snow nearly two weeks ago the skiing has been fantastic. We had several days of powder snow on and off piste. Although it's amazing how quickly this gets tracked out and how quickly the snow disappears. The pistes have been kept in great condition. There is nothing quite like cruising down untouched corduroy snow. I had my skis serviced again last week and new sharp edges are great for the confidence. They don't give an inch even on hard stuff. It's made a surprising difference to my skiing. When I say we have been off piste its mainly been between pisted runs or off piste that can be reached easily from a lift and joins a piste further down. I'm starting to feel more confident skiing off piste and would like to venture further into the back country. This is for two reasons, the opportunity to ski untouched deeper snow and to be somewhere everyone else is not. We could 'go it alone' but we do not know the local area and we don't own avalanche transceivers or a shovel. Transceivers cost around £150-200 which seems expensive but not if you consider it could save your life. I'm thinking that surely not everyone pays the high price for a guide every time they try some new off piste. I'm sure some people don't and some survive on their own. However, there are also stories like the 7 people who died in the three valleys after the large dump of snow a few weeks before we arrived. They were apparently all separate incidents and involved people skiing off piste where they shouldn't have been. Last year we hired a guide in St Anton to take us off piste for the day (when we were somewhat better off than we are now). Although it was one of my most memorable days ever, I remember being rather perturbed on the last run when our guide said several people had died in an avalanche on this run at the start of the season and one of them was never found. They had to wait until the melt at the end of the season. One advantage of hiring a guide is obviously he knows where he's going and he should prevent us from getting lost but secondly he will have knowledge of the snow conditions. This will mean he will hopefully take us to where the skiing is best or where there is a lower risk of avalanches. The downside is that a guide is expensive. To hire one for a day cost €300 (approx. £200). Our best option is to join a group for €70 each (about £50). However, we also need to hire touring skis for the day as there is usually a long walk in. In total it will still be a costly day. We spoke to the mountain guide service yesterday and if there is another large dump of snow he said there is some good off piste to be done from the lifts in Val Thorens so we wouldn't need to hire the touring skis, but I probably wouldn't bother hiring a guide for these anyway. There is one off piste day they do where they walk 1 1/2 hours up to a glacier and then ski for 22 kms into Meribel. Irrespective of cost this may be a must do! He said conditions were good at the moment for people with little off piste experience - about 15cms of snow on top of a hard base making it easier to ski. Now that I'm feeling capable to try such skiing I'm wondering if we've made the most of being here as we haven't skied anything in the back country yet. However, I have to remember that it's only because of the past four weeks of skiing that I have improved enough to feel confident to go and try skiing such things. We'll see..
I guess skiing off piste is like climbing a mountain route. You don't want to set off without knowing the conditions or where you are going. Like I mentioned before there are some off piste runs that can be easily reached from the lifts in Val Thorens and are marked on the piste map. We have tried one of these off La Masse which was great. We knew where we were going and where we'd end up. The avalanche risk was low, it was well tracked out and there were several people ahead of us. Could have been a case of the blind leading the blind of course! These sort of runs I'm happy to try without a guide. I just don't want to set off on a 1 1/2 hour's hike into the unknown back country on my own - I might never be seen again!
On a different note we have both bought helmets since we've been here. They are becoming more prolific amongst skiers and we have been thinking about buying them for a while. Hitting your head on a hard packed piste or a hidden rock off piste could hurt. Something that could be prevented for the cost of a helmet and looking 'uncool'. They recommend the helmet fits perfectly as a helmet that doesn't fit correctly will probably be left on the shelf after a couple of days. It should be tight enough to move the skin on your forehead when you move the helmet but not too tight to hurt. Like clothes there doesn't seem to be a standard for sizes and sizes vary greatly amongst different brands. I could need a small in one but a large in another. Stef apparently has a very large head. After trying several different shops we finally found that a Scott XXL fitted perfectly for the bargain price of €60. As any of you who have had the displeasure of shopping with yours truly before will know, me buying anything is a nightmare. I just couldn't find a helmet that fitted properly. I seemed to have an awkwardly shaped head and always felt like I needed a helmet between two available sizes. I eventually found a Uvex helmet that is adjustable and fits like a glove. It also addresses some other reservations I had. It's so light I forget it's on my head. Being able to adjust the size means I can make it larger if I want to wear a hat/balaclava underneath or smaller if the padding condenses after a while. It also has large vents that can be opened or closed so it shouldn't be cold in bad weather or too hot when it's warmer towards the end of the season. Sadly this of course cost much more than €60! Fortunately the gentleman in the shop was happy to give us discount even though we're not actually working here. I particularly like the sticker inside the helmet that reminds you that a helmet does not make you invincible.
We've had some good news that Rossignol will replace Stef's broken ski. Not his skiing that broke it after all. Unfortunately he's still had to pay for a new pair in the meantime so in true Stef style he now owns two pairs of skis.
Lastly, we've just had a couple of great days skiing with some friends from Bristol. John, who is Lorne's partner who is out here for a season on an instructors course, is out here for a week and two other friends called John and Annabelle have just been here for a long weekend. We all met up for a few days. In true boy's fashion it deteriorated into a who can jump the highest and go the fastest competition. John managed 91kmph through the speed gun. Though this is disputed by the fact there were no other witnesses than Annabelle and previously he'd managed 67kmph! Furthermore, apparently an instructor went though afterwards and it recorded 6kmph. It must have been broken! Earlier, I finally broke the 80 mark and managed 81.33. Not quite Stef's 88. Otherwise much fun was had.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Branding the Outdoors
Saw a guy in the mid-piste bar the other day wearing a Buffalo mountain shirt. From this observation alone one can easily infer that he is British, and almost certainly a climber or mountaineer. Several brands are equally keyed to either niche sports, national identity or both. If someone is wearing 5.10 shoes or prAna clothing, they're almost certainly climbers, or at least somehow aware of the 'scene', as it were. If you see a person wearing a Crux rucksack, they're almost certainly a British mountaineer. A Klattermusen jacket is probably the sign of a Swedish off-piste or ice climbing demon. Helly Hansen used to be a sure sign of a Norwegian, but the brand has now gone pretty global. The excellent Mammut stuff is almost solely worn by Germans. Skiing-related brands are a mish-mash of hard-core, true performance and vanity fashion, and many of the latter pretending to be the former.
Peak Performance is a clothing brand from Sweden that used to make true high-end gear for the cold weather athlete for whom the right clothing is a matter of survival. This market being somewhat limited, and with the costs associated with manufacturing in the reverse tax haven of Sweden, somewhere down the line their finances suffered, and they got bought out by some big shot Euro clothing manufacturer, and they're now firmly rooted in the vanity fashion pretending to be real camp. Judging from its visible proliferation across nationalities here in Val Thorens, it's a stonking success.
The aforementioned Buffalo is arguably one of the best performing bad-weather clothing system ever designed, yet you rarely, if ever, see it outside its British mountaineering core market domain. Sure, no one can accuse Buffalo of being stylish, and its against the market grain quirkyness probably doesn't help. If you ask your average punter how to dress for cold (or wet) weather performance, you'll get the same, well-rehearsed answer that the big manufacturers want you to give: base layer in the form of thermals, mid (or insulating) layer, probably in the shape of a fleece, and then a 'waterproof breathable' membrane laminate jacket made from an expensive corporate fabric probably ending in '-Tex'.
There is no such thing as waterproof and breathable, unless you count the umbrella. You can have either or. If you don't believe me, put on your £500 coat and go for a run in the driving rain. Even the most breathable membrane can't keep up with even a modest level of exertion. Worse, it also assumes a temperature gradient across the fabric. Fine if you're out and about, but step inside for a hot chocolate, and suddenly the fabric is soaking on the inside. The expensive '-Tex' coats are ideal for walking from the front door to the car, and from the car to the entry to Tesco on a Saturday shoppping expedition. The 'Guaranteed to Keep You Dry' tag line is pure marketing genius, but very little to do with real performance.
If you really want to be comfortable whilst active in changeable weather, the first realisation is that true breathability is much more valuable than true waterproofness. Who cares about how many metres of water column the garment can withstand without incursion if you still end up cold and wet due to condensation? Real performance means wicking away moisture from the skin, and not placing a membrane in the way. A manufacturer that understands this (apart from Buffalo) is Paramo. A wicking liner is placed under a wind proof DWR-treated tightly woven microfiber shell. The Durable Water Repellency treatment means that water beads and rolls off the surface of the garment like water off the back of a goose. This DWR coating is infinitely replenishable by the owner using an inwash additive. This means that rain can't penetrate the outer layer, yet moisture passes freely from the inside out. Yet, by the accepted industry norm it is not waterproof. It can't take any size water column at all. Sit in a puddle, and it will soak through. In normal use it will keep an active user bone dry. The Scottish mountain rescue teams, who know a thing or two about bad weather, wear the Paramo Aspira jacket. The disadvantages of the Paramo concept is that the garments tend to feel bulky and heavy, but this is partly offset by the user needing fewer layers underneath.
The Buffalo system is far more minimalist. A Pertex shell is bonded to a pile inner. Pile is the ancestor of fleece. It looks a bit like a kind of short sheep's coat - certainly not fashionable, but with superior insulation qualities and with virtually zero moisture retention. Pertex is a windproof microfibre weave, favoured as a shell material for sleeping bags. It's exceptionally breathable, wind proof, light and if it gets wet the moisture quickly spreads to a large surface area which dries in an instant. Buffalo's approach to waterproofness is: 'being dry is for wimps' - yes, in driving rain you'll eventually get wet, but the pile layer will keep you warm in the wet, and the pile/pertex combination will dry in an instant the moment the rain stops. Buffalo recommends you wearing its garments next to skin, and this has probably contributed to the reputation of the odour of the British mountaineer after a few weeks in the wilderness.
Quirky makes like Buffalo and Paramo survive as purveyors of niche products for people who need real performance in atrocious conditions. These guys will always be big fish in a tiny pond. Some makes from a similar background (amongst others North Face, Patagonia, Arc'teryx, Berghaus) are gradually making the transition into the more profitable 'life style' markets, yet still manage provide the good stuff aswell. Arc'teryx in particular seems to be surviving with their soul intact after being bought out by the Adidas/Salomon mainstream giant.
So, how should you dress for an active life in the hills come rain or shine? The problem with being active is that as long as you're moving you need a lot less clothing than when you're stationary. Walking in to a winter route in the Scottish mountains is a lot more sweaty than the climbing itself. Belaying is cold. Skinning up a mountain side is far more taxing than the long ski descent on the glacier on the other side. Most people over dress, become warm and sweaty, and when they stop they get cold, despite wearing all their clothes. With a traditional layering system, adjusting your temperature becomes an arduous chore, involving taking off multiple layers to remove or add an insulator before putting the outer layers back on. Apart from being time consuming, this process also leaves you exposed to the elements. This usually means that people can't be bothered to adjust to conditions correctly, instead choosing to put up and shut up. A better system is to wear as little clothes as possible for the action, and then layering on top when stopping to rest or belay. Sometimes, perhaps it is sufficient to wear a wicking base layer and a feather weight Pertex windproof, and then a synthetic duvet on top when stopping. Putting on or removing a thin duvet jacket takes five seconds, and the new synthetics, such as PrimaLoft, are almost as warm and compactible as down, yet unlike down stay warm if wet. You will also perform better as your body won't have to spend effort cooling itself down from the heat of overdressing.
True waterproof membrane fabrics have no place in the hills unless you're sitting still in prolonged driving rain - and those days I'd rather stay at home.
Peak Performance is a clothing brand from Sweden that used to make true high-end gear for the cold weather athlete for whom the right clothing is a matter of survival. This market being somewhat limited, and with the costs associated with manufacturing in the reverse tax haven of Sweden, somewhere down the line their finances suffered, and they got bought out by some big shot Euro clothing manufacturer, and they're now firmly rooted in the vanity fashion pretending to be real camp. Judging from its visible proliferation across nationalities here in Val Thorens, it's a stonking success.
The aforementioned Buffalo is arguably one of the best performing bad-weather clothing system ever designed, yet you rarely, if ever, see it outside its British mountaineering core market domain. Sure, no one can accuse Buffalo of being stylish, and its against the market grain quirkyness probably doesn't help. If you ask your average punter how to dress for cold (or wet) weather performance, you'll get the same, well-rehearsed answer that the big manufacturers want you to give: base layer in the form of thermals, mid (or insulating) layer, probably in the shape of a fleece, and then a 'waterproof breathable' membrane laminate jacket made from an expensive corporate fabric probably ending in '-Tex'.
There is no such thing as waterproof and breathable, unless you count the umbrella. You can have either or. If you don't believe me, put on your £500 coat and go for a run in the driving rain. Even the most breathable membrane can't keep up with even a modest level of exertion. Worse, it also assumes a temperature gradient across the fabric. Fine if you're out and about, but step inside for a hot chocolate, and suddenly the fabric is soaking on the inside. The expensive '-Tex' coats are ideal for walking from the front door to the car, and from the car to the entry to Tesco on a Saturday shoppping expedition. The 'Guaranteed to Keep You Dry' tag line is pure marketing genius, but very little to do with real performance.
If you really want to be comfortable whilst active in changeable weather, the first realisation is that true breathability is much more valuable than true waterproofness. Who cares about how many metres of water column the garment can withstand without incursion if you still end up cold and wet due to condensation? Real performance means wicking away moisture from the skin, and not placing a membrane in the way. A manufacturer that understands this (apart from Buffalo) is Paramo. A wicking liner is placed under a wind proof DWR-treated tightly woven microfiber shell. The Durable Water Repellency treatment means that water beads and rolls off the surface of the garment like water off the back of a goose. This DWR coating is infinitely replenishable by the owner using an inwash additive. This means that rain can't penetrate the outer layer, yet moisture passes freely from the inside out. Yet, by the accepted industry norm it is not waterproof. It can't take any size water column at all. Sit in a puddle, and it will soak through. In normal use it will keep an active user bone dry. The Scottish mountain rescue teams, who know a thing or two about bad weather, wear the Paramo Aspira jacket. The disadvantages of the Paramo concept is that the garments tend to feel bulky and heavy, but this is partly offset by the user needing fewer layers underneath.
The Buffalo system is far more minimalist. A Pertex shell is bonded to a pile inner. Pile is the ancestor of fleece. It looks a bit like a kind of short sheep's coat - certainly not fashionable, but with superior insulation qualities and with virtually zero moisture retention. Pertex is a windproof microfibre weave, favoured as a shell material for sleeping bags. It's exceptionally breathable, wind proof, light and if it gets wet the moisture quickly spreads to a large surface area which dries in an instant. Buffalo's approach to waterproofness is: 'being dry is for wimps' - yes, in driving rain you'll eventually get wet, but the pile layer will keep you warm in the wet, and the pile/pertex combination will dry in an instant the moment the rain stops. Buffalo recommends you wearing its garments next to skin, and this has probably contributed to the reputation of the odour of the British mountaineer after a few weeks in the wilderness.
Quirky makes like Buffalo and Paramo survive as purveyors of niche products for people who need real performance in atrocious conditions. These guys will always be big fish in a tiny pond. Some makes from a similar background (amongst others North Face, Patagonia, Arc'teryx, Berghaus) are gradually making the transition into the more profitable 'life style' markets, yet still manage provide the good stuff aswell. Arc'teryx in particular seems to be surviving with their soul intact after being bought out by the Adidas/Salomon mainstream giant.
So, how should you dress for an active life in the hills come rain or shine? The problem with being active is that as long as you're moving you need a lot less clothing than when you're stationary. Walking in to a winter route in the Scottish mountains is a lot more sweaty than the climbing itself. Belaying is cold. Skinning up a mountain side is far more taxing than the long ski descent on the glacier on the other side. Most people over dress, become warm and sweaty, and when they stop they get cold, despite wearing all their clothes. With a traditional layering system, adjusting your temperature becomes an arduous chore, involving taking off multiple layers to remove or add an insulator before putting the outer layers back on. Apart from being time consuming, this process also leaves you exposed to the elements. This usually means that people can't be bothered to adjust to conditions correctly, instead choosing to put up and shut up. A better system is to wear as little clothes as possible for the action, and then layering on top when stopping to rest or belay. Sometimes, perhaps it is sufficient to wear a wicking base layer and a feather weight Pertex windproof, and then a synthetic duvet on top when stopping. Putting on or removing a thin duvet jacket takes five seconds, and the new synthetics, such as PrimaLoft, are almost as warm and compactible as down, yet unlike down stay warm if wet. You will also perform better as your body won't have to spend effort cooling itself down from the heat of overdressing.
True waterproof membrane fabrics have no place in the hills unless you're sitting still in prolonged driving rain - and those days I'd rather stay at home.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Loads of the white stuff
I've thought of a few other things I like..
The lady in the supermarket that gives us 10% discount off our shopping now we've become familiar faces.
Saturdays. They are change over days and the slopes are empty. No queues and nobody wrestling to get to the front of the queue whilst standing on my skis in the meantime. It's great.
Since my last post it continued to snow until sunday lunch. That was 4 days of snow resulting in at least 120cms. I think last saturday was one of the best days skiing I've ever had. The visibility still wasn't great but better than it had been and I had my first true experience of floating in powder snow. An experience I'll have to go in search of again. Like I say, the slopes were quiet and there were very few tracks in the snow. It was knee deep powder on piste let alone off. Just aswell as the avalanche risk off piste has been 4/5 the last few days. Unfortunately we woke on sunday morning to very strong winds. There were only two lifts open in Val Thorens but even these closed by lunch time. It seems to have blown some of the snow away but hasn't done too much damage. The sun was shining in clear blue skies again on monday and a fantastic days skiing was had. Just our legs are complaining about it! We went to Courcheval today now there's been snow as this had been in a desperate condition the last time we tried. It's been another days great skiing but either they didn't have as much snow or there was less to begin with but I think the best skiing is still to be found in Val Thorens.
Stef has been enjoying a new pair of skis the last few days and seems to have found an additional gear. His previous new pair (the ones we bought for this trip and have lasted all of three weeks) broke. How is not quite so clear. He did take some spectacular tumbles in the powder but nothing you wouldn't expect a pair of skis to be able to withstand. However, one of them appeared to bend upwards from the front of the bindings to the tip of the ski. This resulted in half the ski being lifted from the snow making it difficult to edge. We've taken it into a few ski shops and apart from a few smiles the general opinion was that it is probably a fabrication fault. Apparently if they had broken in a fall there should be some evidence like cracks on the outside or the ski would probably snap when they were all bending the ski to its limit. Anyhow, they've been sent to Rossignol to let them decide. Meanwhile Stef was skiless and has bought a new pair called Dynastar TroubleMakers - very appropriate. This was already an expensive trip!
The lady in the supermarket that gives us 10% discount off our shopping now we've become familiar faces.
Saturdays. They are change over days and the slopes are empty. No queues and nobody wrestling to get to the front of the queue whilst standing on my skis in the meantime. It's great.
Since my last post it continued to snow until sunday lunch. That was 4 days of snow resulting in at least 120cms. I think last saturday was one of the best days skiing I've ever had. The visibility still wasn't great but better than it had been and I had my first true experience of floating in powder snow. An experience I'll have to go in search of again. Like I say, the slopes were quiet and there were very few tracks in the snow. It was knee deep powder on piste let alone off. Just aswell as the avalanche risk off piste has been 4/5 the last few days. Unfortunately we woke on sunday morning to very strong winds. There were only two lifts open in Val Thorens but even these closed by lunch time. It seems to have blown some of the snow away but hasn't done too much damage. The sun was shining in clear blue skies again on monday and a fantastic days skiing was had. Just our legs are complaining about it! We went to Courcheval today now there's been snow as this had been in a desperate condition the last time we tried. It's been another days great skiing but either they didn't have as much snow or there was less to begin with but I think the best skiing is still to be found in Val Thorens.
Stef has been enjoying a new pair of skis the last few days and seems to have found an additional gear. His previous new pair (the ones we bought for this trip and have lasted all of three weeks) broke. How is not quite so clear. He did take some spectacular tumbles in the powder but nothing you wouldn't expect a pair of skis to be able to withstand. However, one of them appeared to bend upwards from the front of the bindings to the tip of the ski. This resulted in half the ski being lifted from the snow making it difficult to edge. We've taken it into a few ski shops and apart from a few smiles the general opinion was that it is probably a fabrication fault. Apparently if they had broken in a fall there should be some evidence like cracks on the outside or the ski would probably snap when they were all bending the ski to its limit. Anyhow, they've been sent to Rossignol to let them decide. Meanwhile Stef was skiless and has bought a new pair called Dynastar TroubleMakers - very appropriate. This was already an expensive trip!
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Happy Days
Things I like alot about skiing for an extended time in France.
• Skiing. Every day. I wake up and I can go skiing rather than go to work. It's great. If I ever become employed again I must find myself a job that allows me to do this for at least a month a year. Chances are slim I know.
• Waffles (technically Belgian). They taste great and I always feel like I deserve one after a days skiing. I must have earned the calorie deficit surely?
• Cheap French red wine that still tastes good in three litre boxes.
• French food. They do do it better than the Brits. And the beef does taste better. Let them keep their farm subsidies.
But what I love most of all right now is the 40-50cm of (perhaps well overdue) snow we just had in the last 24 hours. How much fun can you have in this much snow? Alot. How many times did I stack it face first into the snow with zero visibility and knee deep powder? Too many times to mention. And now the sun is shining. The fun is just beginning..
• Skiing. Every day. I wake up and I can go skiing rather than go to work. It's great. If I ever become employed again I must find myself a job that allows me to do this for at least a month a year. Chances are slim I know.
• Waffles (technically Belgian). They taste great and I always feel like I deserve one after a days skiing. I must have earned the calorie deficit surely?
• Cheap French red wine that still tastes good in three litre boxes.
• French food. They do do it better than the Brits. And the beef does taste better. Let them keep their farm subsidies.
But what I love most of all right now is the 40-50cm of (perhaps well overdue) snow we just had in the last 24 hours. How much fun can you have in this much snow? Alot. How many times did I stack it face first into the snow with zero visibility and knee deep powder? Too many times to mention. And now the sun is shining. The fun is just beginning..
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Denmark
In Scandinavia, Denmark is considered a bit of a backwater, skiing-wise. If you go to one of the southern ski resorts in Sweden or Norway and come across a car stuck in the snow, you just know that it will have Danish plates. The highest 'mountain' in Denmark is 300-odd metres, and having no proper winters, they don't have the right equipment, or experience to drive a car in winter conditions. Similarly, if the lift suddenly stops half way up you just know that a Danish skier just got on and promptly fell over, or tried to get off with the same result.
In our little apartment block here in Val Thorens, a big crowd of Danes moved in in the flat above last weekend. You know the type, all the gear, none of the clue. Not able to ski much, they instead partake in the most Danish of national sports - alcohol poisoning. Sure, it happens in ski resorts. However, when throwing up after too much drink, it's advisable to aim for the toilet, rather than over the edge of the balcony, as it inevitably will land on the balcony below - namely OURS.
It's not nice.
In our little apartment block here in Val Thorens, a big crowd of Danes moved in in the flat above last weekend. You know the type, all the gear, none of the clue. Not able to ski much, they instead partake in the most Danish of national sports - alcohol poisoning. Sure, it happens in ski resorts. However, when throwing up after too much drink, it's advisable to aim for the toilet, rather than over the edge of the balcony, as it inevitably will land on the balcony below - namely OURS.
It's not nice.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Snow
We had a welcome 15cm of snow last week (Wed eve), and a few days of most excellent conditions. However, it's only a short-term fix to the general lack of snow in the French alps. Austria appears to be having the pick of the Euro snow conditions this season. Fortunately, if the forecasters are right, we're about to get more of the white fluffy stuff than we bargained for from mid next week. Powder days ahead? The French met office writes:
High pressure and dry weather over the Savoie region until Tuesday. After that, very very very bad weather with heavy snow and strong winds.
We'll see what that brings.
High pressure and dry weather over the Savoie region until Tuesday. After that, very very very bad weather with heavy snow and strong winds.
We'll see what that brings.
Monday, February 06, 2006
Snowboarders
When snowboarding burst onto the scene a while back, suddenly everybody wanted to board. Skiing was so last year, so unhip in comparison. The media was quick out of the blocks, hyping the new new thing, with the clothes, the music, the attitude to go with it. Many old-time skiers, myself included, felt compelled to try it out. Snowboarding, unlike skiing of old, is trivially easy to learn -- an averagely fit normal person will learn to link turns in an afternoon. Skiing the way it used to be on two-metre long, straight, narrow skis you could try for years and still suck at it. Of course, skiing got a cue off the snowboarding revolution to get its act in order, and over the last decade or more, technological progress in ski design has been furious, and learning to ski on the new parabolic, or carving, shorter skis is a different proposition altogether. An older pair of skis that I owned were 2.05m and straight and narrow, and skiing on them was hard work. My current pair of gorgeous technological freeride marvel from Rossignol are 1.70m with a radius of 16m. They basically turn themselves without much intervention from me, and are equally at home on and off the piste. After a brief period of snowboarding, I went back to my skis, never to look back.
Don't get me wrong, a skilled snowboarder is a joy to watch - the pencil-thin trace of perfectly carved turns, or crazy air manouvers off kickers too high to consider. Unfortunately, the majority of snowboarders belong to a different class altogether. Although boarding is easy to learn, it is actually quite hard to learn to carve properly on a board, much harder than it is to neatly carve your turns on a pair of parabolic skis. The result is that your average boarder, hip skate-styled clothes and all, doesn't really turn that much, but instead scrapes down the slope, alternating between heel and toe edge, and frequently, when encountering a slope fractionally steeper than the comfort zone, slides down sideways the complete length of the piste without bothering, or able, to turn. For a novice skier in the same situation the gut instinct is instead to repeatedly traverse side to side, slowly and gently weaving their way down on the edges.
The effect that a brace of mediocre snowboarders has on the state of a piste is extraordinary. Their wide scrapes quickly polish hardpack into ice, leaving huge mounds of snow at the end. With modern skis, a skier of the same experience as a snowboarder is probably more proficient, and certainly has much lower impact. Skiing on icy pistes punctuated by gathered mounds of snow is no fun for skiers and boarders alike. Normally, I'd seek out the steeps and deeps that novice boarders would avoid, but in seasons like this when the snow is a scarce resource indeed, one is forced to suffer the results.
The tide appears to be turning away from boarding in that people new to snow sports no longer automatically reach for a board. Skiing is hip again, with the advent of twin tipped trick skis that let the skier perform aerobatic stunts and half pipe tricks previously the sole domain of the boarder tribe.
So, dear boarders, if after a week you still can't carve your turns, do us all a favour and hand in your board and pick up a pair of carving skis instead. Both you and I will have a better time.
Don't get me wrong, a skilled snowboarder is a joy to watch - the pencil-thin trace of perfectly carved turns, or crazy air manouvers off kickers too high to consider. Unfortunately, the majority of snowboarders belong to a different class altogether. Although boarding is easy to learn, it is actually quite hard to learn to carve properly on a board, much harder than it is to neatly carve your turns on a pair of parabolic skis. The result is that your average boarder, hip skate-styled clothes and all, doesn't really turn that much, but instead scrapes down the slope, alternating between heel and toe edge, and frequently, when encountering a slope fractionally steeper than the comfort zone, slides down sideways the complete length of the piste without bothering, or able, to turn. For a novice skier in the same situation the gut instinct is instead to repeatedly traverse side to side, slowly and gently weaving their way down on the edges.
The effect that a brace of mediocre snowboarders has on the state of a piste is extraordinary. Their wide scrapes quickly polish hardpack into ice, leaving huge mounds of snow at the end. With modern skis, a skier of the same experience as a snowboarder is probably more proficient, and certainly has much lower impact. Skiing on icy pistes punctuated by gathered mounds of snow is no fun for skiers and boarders alike. Normally, I'd seek out the steeps and deeps that novice boarders would avoid, but in seasons like this when the snow is a scarce resource indeed, one is forced to suffer the results.
The tide appears to be turning away from boarding in that people new to snow sports no longer automatically reach for a board. Skiing is hip again, with the advent of twin tipped trick skis that let the skier perform aerobatic stunts and half pipe tricks previously the sole domain of the boarder tribe.
So, dear boarders, if after a week you still can't carve your turns, do us all a favour and hand in your board and pick up a pair of carving skis instead. Both you and I will have a better time.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Val Thorens
After some 20 hours in the air, we finally touched down on England's sacred soil, clad in boardies and flip-flops. At 5am, even a modest -2 felt like the heart of Siberia. We picked up the car, this time opting for the excess reduction, and drove to Cath and Dave's house, just outside Reading, where we got Dave out of bed -- he'd been to see Manchester United play Blackburn at Old Trafford the night before, and only just gone to bed. He put a brave face on it, and made us a glorious mug of tea. We spent most of the day washing all clothing we'd carried over the last four months, and by Jove it was needed. The rest of the circle of friends dropped in as and when their work committments allowed, and before long we were all seated with a take-away curry and beer. I just about managed to finish my food before almost falling asleep in my plate. Chris and Nana had to make an early start to get to work in time. Cath had to take care of her horses first thing, but still managed to bring us a cup of tea in bed before going to work. Sarah and I loaded the car up and headed for Bristol, pausing momentarily at my old work place to say a quick hello to old friends, and at Snow & Rock to buy ski bags. We then drove into town to go to the bank, some shopping etc before coming back to our house to repack. We'd arranged to meet Henk, Angus and Dave in a restaurant in town for around 8.30 by which time we'd not nearly finished our packing, of course, so it was back to finish off. At 2am or so some yobbos decided to trash our car. A gang of 5 of our nation's finest kicked off a wing mirror, before making their noisy way up the street setting off alarms. We phoned the police, who made it there in commendable time. We now had to try to sort this mess out with the car hire people. The £22 we spent on excess reduction turned out to be money well spent. Kind of sad though that the only sign of crime during a round the world trip is right outside your own front door. So with all that, and the fact that we needed to leave the house at 4am in order to catch our flight to Geneva, we abandoned the idea of getting any sleep and sat chatting to Jo, who'd been out on the beers, until we left. By the time we got to Val Thorens we'd gone for 36 hours without sleep. On top of the Aussie jet lag, that made us a cheerful bunch.
Val Thorens was closed for the first two days due to strong winds. We took the opportunity to sleep. However, there's also a worrying lack of snow. I have never seen the alps this bare, especially not in the middle of high season. Let's hope more snow is on the way, as for Scottish conditions one might as well go to Scotland. Still, the pistes are kept in reasonable nick with artificial snow, but the back country is a no-go area at the moment. We're doing a Chris & Angus, stopping for beers and working on our tans in the many deck chairs present. The temperature is on the wrong side of zero. Pleasant for sunbathing, but less than ideal for the state of the snow, Our little flat is really nice, actually. Perfect for the two of us, and will be cozy for four if some of you make it out. Score another one for the Porter organisational skills.
Anyway, the French can't queue, but we forgive them as the food is great and the wine even better.
Val Thorens was closed for the first two days due to strong winds. We took the opportunity to sleep. However, there's also a worrying lack of snow. I have never seen the alps this bare, especially not in the middle of high season. Let's hope more snow is on the way, as for Scottish conditions one might as well go to Scotland. Still, the pistes are kept in reasonable nick with artificial snow, but the back country is a no-go area at the moment. We're doing a Chris & Angus, stopping for beers and working on our tans in the many deck chairs present. The temperature is on the wrong side of zero. Pleasant for sunbathing, but less than ideal for the state of the snow, Our little flat is really nice, actually. Perfect for the two of us, and will be cozy for four if some of you make it out. Score another one for the Porter organisational skills.
Anyway, the French can't queue, but we forgive them as the food is great and the wine even better.
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