 Poster: A snowHead
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In Zermatt a couple of weeks ago, we worked out that our lift time to skiing time ratio was about 3-4 to 1, which is quite frustrating.
What do you think that your ratio is? And what can you do to make it better (skiing more slowly is not acceptable!)?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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By bed to lift ratio is about 50yds 
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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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Go heli-skiing and reverse those figures.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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but it's the only way (ski slower)- lifts are always going to be slower than skiing down unless you manage to find a lift that goes up a shorter route than you come down (straight up a cliff face while the run winds over the back) or you are _veeerrryyy_ slow...I think 3-1 would be pretty good, I'm sure mine is worse than that as I tend to favour older slower chairs (quieter pistes attached to them normally).
If you go to schaldming you can get a print out to show you how you are doing (shows all lifts taken and how long between lifts, plus est. distance covered). I was mightily suprised to get printouts of ~30km a day....explains why I'm always so knackered by lunchtime! But lift to run was still pretty poor....
aj xx
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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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Ski through lunch. (Not saying I do )
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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laundryman, a that is totally unacceptable behaviour in Zermatt, and b, it won't improve my ratio.
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ski le face in val D using the Olympic telecabine for access, 6-7 mins up and depending on how fast you ski 6-45 mins down or more
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lifts are always going to be slower than skiing down
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It's possible to get a sub 1:1 lift time:skiing time ratio if you try to race the big cable cars down, eg Snowbird, Courchevel, Alpe d'Huez etc, but you'll need to be a good skier!
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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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I enjoy my lift time, but far prefer sitting on a high speed chair to a gondola. I appreciate the mountains just as much when sitting on a chair with a lovely cool breze blowing across me
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My bed to lift distance is 20m but unlike boredsurfin, I have to climb very slightly uphill....
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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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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Plake, apparently the test of whether you're a decent skier is whether you can beat the funival train down in Val d'Isere, if you're really good you can get down before it has left the station!
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Kramer, I think even I could beat it down if it didnt leave the station
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You know it makes sense.
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Kramer, find more difficult runs to do - "slower" doesn't necessarily mean "more comfortably". In Chamonix last weekend may ratio on-piste would probably have been similar to yours, but hit the faster lists, the off-piste and bumps and it was more like 1:1 or 1:2 (and I still managed 10000m vertical off-piste - cream-crackered the following day though).
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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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Frosty the Snowman, hear, hear....
My bed to lift ratio is apparently around 530 miles ( according to Google Earth and using Les Arcs as a target )... 
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Poster: A snowHead
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Richie_S,
Mouth's , bed to lift distance would have been much greater as the bed would have been the first bit bouncing down the hard shoulder
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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GrahamN, 10000m vertical off-piste from lifts in one day is worthy of much respect.
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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It's true that the big cable cars or funiculars give much quicker uplift but u also often have to wait longer for them to depart which has to count as lift time too surely? If you're lucky u might get 500m+ in 3 or 4 minutes, if you're unlucky, u might wait 10-15 mins for the next ride.
At least with chairs, you're straight on (if there's no queue).
I believe the difference in speed between an old style chairlift and one of the new detachables can be as much as 3:1 so using the new chairs is going to improve ratio greatly but, as ajhainey pointed out, the more people the lift carries, the busier the piste tends to be.
Last week in St Anton, my favourite spot was Zurs, between St Anton and Lech. The pistes were really quiet. But, with a few fast chairs (one with heated seats!) and never a hint of a queue; slowed by the occassional cautious off-piste detour between the runs, we must have been close to a 1:1.
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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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On a recent trip to Tignes we hired a GPS unit through a company that charts your movements throughout your ski day. At the end of the day you get a printout of where you went, how far, how fast etc. My wife and I are good skiers and normally spend our ski weeks offpiste, but due to lack of snow and recent surgery (wife had arthroscopy 4 weeks before the trip) we were taking it easy and spend the day on blue and red pistes and had 2 hour lunch break. Our total ski time only amounted to 25% with a max speed of 66km/h. A group that we usually ski with had a ski to rest ratio of 36% with one of them clocking 99 km/h straightlining Trolles. These guys are very good and fit skiers and i think that to get a ratio of 1:1 for your days skiing would be very difficult.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Ski-time to lift-time ratios are actually at their highest since the dawn of skiing.
[and that information comes to you courtesy of my research assistant, Dawn]
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We discussed this on our recent trip to Paradiski, and we clearly got more snow time compared to lift time on the Les Arcs side than La Plagne, even though they have installed some new fast lifts at critical points. I can imagine Zermatt is also slow, but Trois Vallees and Espace Killy faster.
It has a lot to do with geography. If you ski back under your lift you spend a lot of time going up, but if your lift links in a triangle of longer pistes then you get relatively more time on snow.
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It was in Zermatt and Cervinia. Mostly on Cable Cars, a few chairs, no queues. Also just the two of us skiing, so no hanging around on the slopes, just on the lifts.
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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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The trick is obviously to ski/board slower and try to fall down and hug trees more often. Well, thats what I do at least.
The way some skiers race down the slopes in a rather straight line makes me think they really enjoy the lifts.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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FAQ
, Had it been me I would have tossed an item out the back door every 10km starting in Calais 
