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Skinning up, skiing down, closed pistes?

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
In the event that lifts are shut because of wind, is it generally permitted for people to skin up and ski down on the pistes? Not sure what the law/etiquette of this might be. Of course I could well just stay away from the pistes in which case this doesn't apply, but am just curious.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@J2R, Are you going to the Monterosa ? I haven't seen you mention this today.

Piste patrol is done by a branch of the Italian military, I would expect them to just shoot you.
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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?
Probably find that your insurance would be void.
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@spyderjon, why, though? I have off-piste insurance cover, so it would seem a little odd if it didn't cover me for venturing onto the piste.

I'm sure I've seen people skinning up slopes after the lifts have stopped running, so I'm wondering whether this is somehow a different situation.

I suppose my question boils down to what use one is allowed to make of pistes when you are not using the lift system, which is, I suppose what you pay for. We have all seen people skiing up pistes, and I doubt whether everybody who does this has a lift pass.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I‘ve skinned up pistes while the lifts have been shut (in Austria). You have to be careful if the piste machines are out & about as they are not expecting you to be there esp. on blind drops. It was early season snow though with good visibility & no wind. If the wind is so strong that the lifts are shut then ski touring won‘t be much fun. If visibility is also impaired it will be even less fun and more risk.
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@J2R, laws may vary by country on this. In principle, nothing wrong in skiing on a piste without a lift pass.

However, skiing on a closed piste is different to skiing off-piste in that you are skiing against the advice/instructions of the pisteurs which is likely to be contrary to a clause in your insurance. Further, pistes can be closed so that piste bashers can do their stuff and pisteurs can set off avalanches (saw a good example of a piste in Les Arcs today where an artificially generated avalanche had gone right across the piste).
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
@J2R, There was a recent thread about the dangers of skinning up at night, plenty of French stations have local bylaws banning this. You are asking about daytime though.

I think you would need to ask in the resort on the day. They might decide that as the lifts are closed then they can do or need to do some work on the pistes, if snow is blowing around then it may be worthwhile bashing it before the evening.
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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!
If the pistes have been prepared and it‘s at a time the lifts are normally open then I don‘t see much of a problem. If it‘s been dumping snow all night with high winds then it‘s a totally different kettle of fish.
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Alastair wrote:
However, skiing on a closed piste is different to skiing off-piste in that you are skiing against the advice/instructions of the pisteurs which is likely to be contrary to a clause in your insurance.


Good point! I suspect I won't be interested in doing this anyway, as the stuff worth skinning to is all higher up, rather higher than I would be considering skinning to, especially in the rain that is likely to be falling at lower altitude. Just curious, really, from the point of law and etiquette. I suspect the bar will have greater appeal.
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@rjs, unfortunately I don't think much snow will be blowing around, so I doubt whether there will be any piste-bashing going on.
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@J2R, picking up on your original post, I think each individual instance will be different. We have to grapple with this issue a lot on windy days where I stay in Les Brevieres. A classic situation is that we can't get out of the village to ski due to high winds and closed lifts. Owing to our particular terrain, that can often be accompanied by a high avalanche risk, the blue and red pistes being in significant danger. So, we all end up champing at the bit to get out, wanting to get some skinning in, but not being able to as there is simply nowhere safe to go. On the other hand, on the same day in Tignes Le Lac, you could probably quite safely skin up the luge track under Palfour and enjoy the piste down. Having said that, when it's windy enough to close Palafour, you probably won't have that much fun being out anyway!
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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.
When I've returned to resort after a day up high and after lift closure its not the pistenbully's that are tricky, i mean, generally they are big and red with flashing lights its their taunt anchor cables on the steeper pitches that I have found troubling....
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Worth bearing in mind that if lifts are closed due to wind then piste machines and insurance policies are not the only hazards...



Talk to the pisteurs.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
@J2R, it will be worth checking out if the resort has skin trails in between the pistes which many resorts are now introducing.

https://skitouring.decathlon.fr/les-itineraires-de-ski-de-randonnee-en-station/

https://stylealtitude.com/on-piste-ski-touring.html
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Yes, @Weathercam, quite right. The Monterosa area now has lots of these, which weren't there in 2016 when I was last there. No need to skin up the pistes at all. As it happens, there was no need anyway, as there was some skiing possible even on the two days when nearly all the pistes were closed.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
@J2R, "lots" - I thought there were 3. Which is more than two, but less than "lots", surely Twisted Evil
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@under a new name, I have trouble with large numbers Very Happy . Yes, you may be right. I remember seeing them in different places, but I didn't count. There's one alongside the red coming from Colle Bettaforca down to Sant'Anna, and one between Gabiet and Passo Salati, and I'm sure I saw at least one more but don't recall where.
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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?
iirc, I think...

Frachey-Bettaforca
Stafal-Bettaforca
Stafal-Salati

There may be more, or more planned for next season if they're popular.
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under a new name, may not be lots, but could be some:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=OSlfttDnurw
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
The third skin path is from Ciarcerio (Champoluc/Frachy mid station) up to colle Bettaforca, it passes under the Bettaforca chair lift through the natural terrain park Evil or Very Mad
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...and the Marmotte path from Stafal up to the Sant Anna red/Nera black junction has been changed into a piste although still used as a skin track, it will make more sense with the new chair lift from the bottom Moos next year..allegedly
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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
@Super Steezy, yes, that's where I saw this. What's the stuff about the new chair lift, though? I hadn't heard about that. I must say I had mixed feelings about the new Cimalegna chairlift. It's great that it takes you up so high now, above the gondola stations, but it's made the Cimalegna run much more popular with e.g. ski schools and as a result has lift queues, which I'm completely unused to in that resort! It would be OK if the funivia from Pianalunga always went all the way to the top, but of the two times we took it, one took us all the way and the other stopped at the Cimalegna chair, and we had to queue for a few minutes for the lift.
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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!
under a new name wrote:
@J2R, "lots" - I thought there were 3. Which is more than two, but less than "lots", surely Twisted Evil


As any Terry Pratchett fan will tell you 4 = lots: as in - “one, two, many, lots...”...
Bonus point for anyone who can name the book...! Happy
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@offpisteskiing, Thud? But I think you may have missed out three, and it's complicated by not being a decimal system (I don't think lots = 4 or 5) but we're getting a little off topic now Laughing
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@J2R, I have to confess I do not at all understand the motivation behind that project!

What new chairlift from Moos?
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I have to say a chairlift from the bottom of the Moos black across to anywhere above Stafal on the Sant'Anna side would be the biggest single improvement to the lift system of the whole area they could do. That trudge along the road back to the lifts is unwelcome. A friend and I were discussing it and were wondering how they could take a lift across to the gondola station, but a lift to somewhere above it makes a lot more sense.
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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.
Scarlet wrote:
@offpisteskiing, Thud? But I think you may have missed out three, and it's complicated by not being a decimal system (I don't think lots = 4 or 5) but we're getting a little off topic now Laughing


Soul Music was what I had in mind... Happy
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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
@offpisteskiing, I bow to your superior literary knowledge (and coz I don’t have a copy here to check) Cool
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Scarlet wrote:
@offpisteskiing, I bow to your superior literary knowledge (and coz I don’t have a copy here to check) Cool
not sure it is superior knowledge... Soul Music contains an awful lot of references which 'work' for me, and that phrase stuck in my head!
A quick google shows you may well be right though (1, 2, 3, many, lots...) but that would be getting in to a whole new level of Pratchett nerdiness! Happy
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