 Poster: A snowHead
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Skiing somewhere that you probably shouldn't have attempted is not a nice situation - I've had one or two experiences that I survived, but probably had luck on my side to not crash and burn. There is a thread running in the piste at the moment about what constitutes a black run and of course the usual and probably correct answer that all runs are white and that most are capable of being black under the wrong conditions has been reiterated.
However, despite that knowledge I have colour blindness when it comes to them damn black poles and to some extent any red that is moderately steep and covered with regular mini(and bigger)-moguls. It isn't that I've never skied a run with black poles - I've done sections that whilst short were def. black steepness with black poles, but they were runs that I could assess from below, above and/or the side before skiing and had very decent snow on them at the time. Now I don't go out of my way to ski a slope that is black, but I do worry about taking a wrong turn one day and finding myself faced with something that has got the wrong colour poles down it, or is maybe significantly bumped up.
I'd be interested to know at what point some of you, probably at early intermediate stage of your skiing, realised that the whole pisted mountain was within your grasp and how you knew? I think I'm getting better, but I am still not sure whether I could ski any pisted slope that I was faced with, I just wondered how I will tell when I get to that stage?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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You'll know it when you're there. In the meantime there is absolutely no value in getting stressed out about it or seeking to tick off stuff just for the sake of it. If it's not fun it's not fun. If it happens by accidental wrong turn you'll probably have enough skills to cope if you are relaxed enough.
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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?
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Megamum, I got over it on a particularly sunny day in Sestriere. We had never skied there before and I was halfway down the Men's downhill piste before I realised it was a black, as everytime we stopped hubby and kids had been in front of the piste markers. After that it didn't seem to matter any more.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| fatbob wrote: |
| You'll know it when you're there. In the meantime there is absolutely no value in getting stressed out about it or seeking to tick off stuff just for the sake of it. If it's not fun it's not fun. If it happens by accidental wrong turn you'll probably have enough skills to cope if you are relaxed enough. |
Spot on.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Megamum, i think you are thinking about skiing too hard.
Go do something else. Goat milking? I am loving goats milk wine I am.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Sometimes it gets a bit tricky, whether it's bumps, steep, chopped up snow, icy patches, lots of people about, bad visibility, or a combination of these factors. I don't always (or even often) do it well. But it's skiing and I love it even when the going gets tough. You need to empty your mind and get on with it...
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Megamum,
I have a similar problem. My blue(ish) eyes don't like bright light, and on a sunny March/April day I really can't tell a blue piste marker from a black one. I've often taken a wrong turn, and although it doesn't worry me at all, I do fear that I might take the kids somewhere they shouldn't be. That said, they were insisting I took them down the blacks (such as they are) in Sauze last Easter. It won't be long before I'm the one that needs looking after 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Agree with fatbob, you'll know when you are are ready, technically you are probably ready already, it's just whether you are confident to push yourself.
Personally, I learnt how to ski on uni trips, so there really wasn't much question of whether I was going to go down blacks or not, it was kind of compulsory regardless of ability!
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musher, as you guess, I doubt you will need to worry about that much longer - mine have been out-skiing me the last 8 years and skiing literally the whole mountain for the last 4-5 years!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Megamum, your kids sound as though they are sensible and intelligent. Why not give them the piste-map one day and leave the responsibility for way-finding to them? Remind them that you don't want to do anything too scary, and that as they are stronger skiers than you, one of them will have to back-mark.
Then just lie back and think of England.
Oh - and I've said this before - get some music.
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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.
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| fatbob wrote: |
| You'll know it when you're there. In the meantime there is absolutely no value in getting stressed out about it or seeking to tick off stuff just for the sake of it. If it's not fun it's not fun. If it happens by accidental wrong turn you'll probably have enough skills to cope if you are relaxed enough. |
This.
You worry and think FAR too much Megamum. Get a hip flask or something.
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| fatbob wrote: |
| You'll know it when you're there. In the meantime there is absolutely no value in getting stressed out about it or seeking to tick off stuff just for the sake of it. If it's not fun it's not fun. If it happens by accidental wrong turn you'll probably have enough skills to cope if you are relaxed enough. |
This, I'm still convinced you should go cold turkey and stop reading the BzK section!
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You know it makes sense.
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| Quote: |
I'd be interested to know at what point some of you, probably at early intermediate stage of your skiing, realised that the whole pisted mountain was within your grasp and how you knew?
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I did a run that was really too hard for me, and lived 
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Megamum wrote: |
.
I'd be interested to know at what point some of you, probably at early intermediate stage of your skiing, realised that the whole pisted mountain was within your grasp and how you knew? |
I don't think I ever thought anything else?
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Poster: A snowHead
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Megamum, I don't think the "whole pisted mountain" is within the grasp (properly, as opposed to a lot of side-slipping) of an "early intermediate" though, of course, you see a lot of people who will happily and daftly launch down slopes far too difficult for their technique and normally live to tell the tale. Just think of all the tales of woe and injury we have read on SHs over the last few years. How many people injured themselves doing something they were finding difficult? Most people fell on a blue run, or were unlucky in some soft snow, or hurt their knee badly in a hockey practice, or stepped awkwardly off their mountain bikes, or dropped a freezer on their toes, or had a head on collision with a big Frenchman at the bottom of the lift.  Two of my sisters-in-law seriously injured themselves getting off a chairlift (one of those involved a bad fracture, a helicopter ride across New Zealand and 2 bone grafts later when the fracture didn't heal).
When you think about doing a run a bit too difficult for you (not some extreme gnarly couloir) what, exactly, is it that you fear? What is the worst thing that could happen?
What is the worst thing that could happen when you are doing your skilled and spirited driving around country roads? Why are you not afraid of those (realistically far more dire) consequences.
And, when I'm at it, when did you last fall over on piste?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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what pam w, said. Why do you want to ski blacks? If there is lots of lovely fresh snow then I love skiing steeper slopes, not so much if it's icy. I don't think there is anything wrong with a bit of self preservation, when you have skied all the red runs in a resort and not have any problem with them then try some blacks. I prefer to ski nice snow, maybe the next time you are on holiday instead of thinking about what colour the piste is think about which ones have the nicest snow or best conditions at certain times of the day. I usually find a couple of slopes have generally better conditions than the rest and end up spending much more time on them regardless of the colour.
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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?
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I think there's a huge difference in the whole experience of skiing when you cross the threshold from "If I'm wrong about whether I can handle this run I could plummet to my death, or worse have to slide down on my bottom" to "If I'm wrong whether I can handle this run it might be a bit stressful and I'll look like an idiot" (I'm an early intermediate teetering on the edge of this threshold).
I'm a long long way from wanting to seek out the hardest pistes on the mountain, but it's difficult to know whether the black you're tempted by is just a "dark red" or a hellish nightmare - to try any of them you have to be prepared for the worst case.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Learn to side-slip at moderate speeds and downhill kick turns. They are your get-out-of-jail cards.
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FAQ
It is now one of my favourite pistes in the resort esp. early in the day when it is freshly pisted, it is beautifully wide, steeper bits with ridges to stop along on the way down, quite a killer 50 yard stretch once at the bottom, but with Ooodles and Ooodles of run out, and very few people on it as it is marked on the map as to what it is. The first time I skied it we were map less 
