Gold holidays

A snowHead

There were no pure Gold standard, off-piste holidays this year.
I hope this is not the way of the future,
I did a Purple/Gold to La Grave the year before last and it was very unchallenging (only one couloir descent - till the last day, when we did 2 more, one of them twice). And the St Christoph descent we did painfully slowly and carefully.
Perhaps if Caroline Stuart-Taylor has time to lead a holiday again next year....?

A snowHead

Sorry snowball, but I is Puzzled

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Frosty the Snowman, could you be more specific? Did I remember wrong (I cannot find my holidays booklet). Was it last year there weren't any (normally there are only about 1 or 2) - I thought I remembered none this year.
This year was, in any case, the first year for about 15 years I couldn't manage a Ski-Club holiday, due to other ski holiday commitments.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

snowball, you are right that there were no G-only trips this year; CST's trip was a P/G trip to Grimentz. Last year there was one G-only, the early-Feb trip CST led to LG, and the previous year there were two G-onlys (one clinic in Vd'I and at trip to Argentiere).

My guess is that they don't get enough subscribers to fill a G-only holiday, but if you're concerned try asking them directly. This year I went on a trip to LG that was originally billed as S+/P, but later changed to P-only. I can well imagine it would have been a bit tame for Golds, but even we managed 2 couloirs (although the holiday leader looked a little unsure of them himself, although he skis a lot more reliably than he looks).

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

snowball, and GrahamN, You're both in the Freemasons, and on the square, I'm guessing?...or is it the Royal Antedeluvian Order of Water Buffaloes wink

You'll need to Register first of course.

snowbunny, You and me both.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

I confess this is just conjecture but is it possibe that there's just not a lot of need for the club to provide G trips.
People of this standard of skiing don't come by it overnight and must have built for themselves a wealth of experience in plans, people and places. Then it only takes running into one other of a similar experience to open up a whole new range of opportunities to each other.
Indeed snowball, one might ask why you yourself 'couldn't manage a Ski-Club holiday' this year - was it simply because you found what you needed without having to pay the extra the club charges to hook you up with people, of similar standard and desires, to ski with?

After all it is free

admin, Well, yes, perhaps both your first and last points are the case.
I went on the Argentiere holiday GrahamN mentions and there were not enough takers for the 2 groups they had expected, so one guide had to be cancelled at the last moment. (Also one punter turned out to be purple standard and was asked to ski elsewhere - which freed us to do a couple of descents we otherwise could not have.)

This year I organised a group of friends to ski the off-piste steeps of the Dolomites with a very good guide (the geology is perfect to create long, rock-walled couloirs) and also did my first trip to Canada - my first (and given my finances perhaps last) week of Heli-skiing plus a warm-up week in Whistler, some of it skiing with Extremely Canadian( the most very steep descents I've ever done in 2 days - including one that started at 50º).

However next year, though I hope to organise 2 trips with friends, I also hoped to do a week with the ski-club again...

snowbunny, well, antedeluvian something or other.

Help!!

Gold holidays

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