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How Steep Is Steep?

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
brian, Shocked Shocked Shocked I'm going to have to stop looking at this thread, the washing machine's full.
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 brian
brian
Guest
Does anyone know offhand how steep Trifides 1 at La Grave is ? Must be about 40 degrees ?
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 brian
brian
Guest
Hurtle, go to L2A and ski the snowHead s wall, good training Laughing

(don't worry, it is normally white Wink ).

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brian, yeah, there are a LOT of brown streaks on that photo, to be sure.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
I needed some kind of reference for this and from what I can gather the main red run at Nevis Range “Goose” is on average 25* with the steep pitch at the top about 33*-35*
The first 100m of vertical in the back corries are about 45*-49* but on average the slopes are about 35* if skied from the top to the bottom of the bravehart.

Conclusion my comfort zone is skiing up to 35* slopes. 45* scares me but if the snow is good and the slope wide I’ll have a go and will again but only because I know that the slope is less steep after he initial drop in:)
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brian wrote:
Does anyone know offhand how steep Trifides 1 at La Grave is ? Must be about 40 degrees ?


must be something like that - maybe a teensy bit more. you sometimes see it quoted as 45 (maybe in that article that said it was 5000ft long!) but i don't think so
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 brian
brian
Guest
II,

This is looking back up Chancer, the steeper way into the back coire. It is steep but a fall is relatively safe (there are a few boulders you could bang your head off but no cliffs etc.).



The flypaper at Glencoe is a wee bit more sustained I think.

There's a really steep line, again short and with little exposure, if you keep traversing out right above the entrance to the Glas Maol black run and then head straight down.

Need to get one of these clinometer thingies.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
brian wrote:
........Need to get one of these clinometer thingies.


Me2
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 brian
brian
Guest
Arno, thought so, ta.

achilles, if you had one though, we wouldn't have this thread. Very Happy
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Can anyone get a good deal on a batch of clinometers, looks like a load of peeps are geeky enough to get one!

I had a thought - I can borrow my dad's digital electronic one for when my ACL is fixed...
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 brian
brian
Guest
lampbus, geeky ?

Safety conscious thank you ! Wink
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Quote:
slopes above 60 degrees rarely have snow and any is soon removed by the wind, some steep masses of rock thus remain bare even near the summits of the highest peaks'


30 deg is steep 40 deg is scary 50 deg is for pro lunatics
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
on new snow fall anything 45-50 will have natural avalanches.

actually anything above 3:1 ratio has a latent instability
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
brian, Hot damn, that's impressive!
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
I thought the snowHead wall in L2A was getting close to 40 if you pick the steepest highest line. It is good for some nice turns.....doesn't help when you see some guy straightline it ..................backwards...!!!
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
brian wrote:
....achilles, if you had one though, we wouldn't have this thread. Very Happy


Well that's true. It's been very informative. And (if I may be an event pimp) maybe it'll inspire some snowheads to have a crack at the relatively steep? Very Happy

Two snowheads have declared themselves possibles since I first posted (one via PM) - but some 'pretty sures' would give me greater confidence. A couple of definites would be enough to secure a booking.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Well, I wouldn't fancy that at all and don't mind saying so. Steep is one thing, extreme is for specialists. My vertigo would kick in big time and I would undoubtedly fall even if I did get myself to move in the first place. Shocked Shocked
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
brian, looks like a nice cornice at the top,
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JT wrote:
I thought the snowHead wall in L2A was getting close to 40 if you pick the steepest highest line. It is good for some nice turns.....doesn't help when you see some guy straightline it ..................backwards...!!!


I thought it was closer to 30 but it is a few years since I've skied it... I don't remember it being particuarly steep.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
brian, you do - and to report back. My recollection of the flypaper is that it's steep, but not so exposed or long that it would be a real issue if you tumbled. That said, a chum trashed his knee on it...
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Slightly off topic here, as not a piste per se, but can anybody confirm the approximate angle of the Flying K in Arc 2000 ? I seem to recall that it is 45+ in places?
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
brian, Don't look down. . .

also check out

http://www.philingle.com

which I found in a post on http://www.pistehors.com
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
davidof wrote:
JT wrote:
I thought the snowHead wall in L2A was getting close to 40 if you pick the steepest highest line. It is good for some nice turns.....doesn't help when you see some guy straightline it ..................backwards...!!!


I thought it was closer to 30 but it is a few years since I've skied it... I don't remember it being particuarly steep.


One of the pisteurs reckoned it was 45 at the very top right under the arrival of the chairlift. I thought it was around 40 - wide though. Very Happy
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we definitely need to get a clinometer on snowHead wall. i didn't think it was very steep at all. just goes to show...
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You can get a very small spirit level on a swivel for very little money at tool shops. You just put it on the slope and swivel it till thespirit level is level - then read off the degrees.
Trouble is, like Arno I have found it just stays in my pack. If it is a slope which warrants it I'm too busy enjoying the skiing.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Everyone has two ski poles, easiest way to test pitch angle?
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
The first time I went to look at the Flypaper at Glencoe (about 25 years ago) I caught my ski on a lump of ice and fell just short of the edge - with the consequence I first saw the slope from snow level head first.
Naturally I fell all the way - no chance of stopping - but it is quite short so I was OK. I wonder now though, having learned the Giles Green self-arrest and saved my life with it on a 50º slope - possibly 45º at the point I stopped myself - if I could now stop myself on the flypaper. I'm not sure, though, about launching myself head first again to find out.
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
SMALLZOOKEEPER wrote:
Everyone has two ski poles, easiest way to test pitch angle?

Yes. I did once mark five degree intervals down one pole to make it easier. But you do need to gauge the horizontal and vertical accurately or it is no good. And remember to allow for the point of the vertical being in the ground.
When you start measuring, unless you are very experienced, I guarantee you will be disappointed at how unsteep the slopes are.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
snowball, yes I remember being distinctly unhappy when shown the same trick with ice axes on a winter mountaineering course, the terrifyingly steep slope on which we were stood turned out to be no more than 30 degrees Embarassed
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
How steep is steep ?

Steep is relative in the skiing sense to most people so I'd say steep to me is anything I'm uncomfortable with or would look at twice before doing (or not).

Presumably there is a point where, for Mr Ultra Extreme, getting down a slope switches from being skiing to something different, closer to a moutaineering exercise with skis on your feet. God knows what that angle is.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
As a matter of interest does the amount of snow on a slope change its angle much? I have skied the flypaper several times and it has never seemed anything like 45 degrees, I just wonder if either I have had it in good snow or have been calling the wrong run the flypaper.
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 brian
brian
Guest
T Bar, I don't think it is 45 degrees, just that it's a more sustained steep run than the back coire at Nevis.

To get to it, you go right along the little path from the top tows to where it opens out. From here, the Spring run is straight down in the direction of the cliffy chair. The flypaper is off to the right facing NE over the moor.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
brian,
Yep thats the one and then you traverse back round to the chair or tow to get back up.
I have never skied the back Corie at Nevsi though,only been there a couple of times and it hasn't been open.
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Being offpiste how was it designated as not-open T Bar?

As for the flypaper - now I come to think about it - it is probably nearly 20 years since I saw it and my idea of "steep" has probably changed.
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 brian
brian
Guest
snowball, there's an open/closed sign at the top of the summit button. It's unpisted but they do assess and patrol it.
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Ah, that's new since I skied the Nevis. Probably brought in since Braveheart, or whatever the chairlift is called.
The time I made the first track down the back after a week of storms (with a "pisteur" 100yds behind me so he didn't take resposibility for my safety) clearly it can't have been asessed except from the top looking over.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
snowball wrote:
Ah, that's new since I skied the Nevis. Probably brought in since Braveheart, or whatever the chairlift is called.
The time I made the first track down the back after a week of storms (with a "pisteur" 100yds behind me so he didn't take resposibility for my safety) clearly it can't have been asessed except from the top looking over.

Like this wink
http://www.winterhighland.info/2006/pix/displaypic.php?id=3713,285#start
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Mmmm. Nice. That is the best photo for showing the back entry I've seen. Enough to tempt me to do a jump perhaps.....Madeye-Smiley (don't hold me to that wink )
For those who don't know: the best entry is from the flat bit at the top into what is shown as shadow - no jump usually needed and the longest descent..
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
PS I am sitting and looking at 3 "Birthday Boy signs running accross the page. Makes me feel good. Very nice innovation - when did it start?
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Does anyone know the steepness of the Glacier piste at Val Thorens. We were the one of the first down this when it opened in march and although it looked steep it was probably no more than 35˚. I imagine that it wasn't open by the EOSB this year.
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