 Poster: A snowHead
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Telegraph has put together the top 50 ski runs.
Don’t know what metric has been used to create this list, or how many were asked…so I throw it over to the snowheads to discuss!
I’ve only done 8 of the top 30. Best get booking some more holidays!
Linky link
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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No idea how the list was compiled or what the crieria were applied, but the North face of the Bellecote is off piste and I guess has had relatively few skis compared to say le face.
All these things are subjective but some of my most remembered runs are on the list.
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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'm at 14, maybe 16. Not sure of some of the piste names, but have skied the resort.  If they're calling Lagazuoi to Armentarola 'The Hidden Valley, Cortina', then that is the tops for me. Utterly breathtaking.
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I've done 12 of the 34 European picks, and they are all nice runs, although not sure they all deserve to be in the top 50 worldwide. It is very much a Brit-orientated list: France and the "mega-resorts" are over-represented, the Spanish / French Pyrenees are omitted entirely, and so is the rest of the world beyond the Alps and North America. There's also too big a focus on steep runs - most skiers' favourite pistes are of blue or red gradient.
Courchevel somehow gets three spots - Chapelets, Rochers and Combe de Saulire are all nice but are they really top 50 material? Grand Couloir - mmm maybe.
Jerusalem above St Martin is a nice run, but I'm pretty sure that if it had a more generic name (like Ecureuils or something) it wouldn't have become so popular.
Last edited by You need to Login to know who's really who. on Fri 27-10-23 13:46; edited 2 times in total
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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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@johnE, Le Grand Couloir is not exactly the place for a slightly nervous intermediate, nor Tortin. Which can be draining if at it's most bombed out.
Last edited by Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do. on Fri 27-10-23 13:52; edited 1 time in total
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Non paywalled version = https://archive.ph/gZSWi
Edited with updated link
Last edited by You'll need to Register first of course. on Fri 27-10-23 16:00; edited 1 time in total
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Le Grand Couloir, like most couloirs is incredibly condition dependent. When it is chopped up moguls I can't see why anyone would want to ski it other than tick a box. The access track to the start can also be extremely perilous depending on who is coming behind you! It also invariably attracts the crowd for which the piste is slightly beyond their comfort zone, so they can brag about skiing it later at the bar, even though they fell on their back bottom every 5m.
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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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Stockhorn in Zermatt has been closed for the last 5 years or so. And is unlikely to reopen anytime soon...
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@NoMapNoCompass, Completely agree. Likewise, Tortin has the ability to blow my 50+ legs and ruin the rest of the day. Bragging rights are a strong motivator for some. 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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It's a pretty pointless list, the valley blanche is not a top powder run, and the difference between Corbet's couloir and the Harakiri so great that they need to be in different categories, likewise the back of the Valluga and La Face de Bellevarde
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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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| rambotion wrote: |
| It's a pretty pointless list, the valley blanche is not a top powder run, and the difference between Corbet's couloir and the Harakiri so great that they need to be in different categories, likewise the back of the Valluga and La Face de Bellevarde |
Agreed, I don't think the person compiling the list skis much. I would put Corberts and Harkiri in the same catogory a long time before putting either in the same as Pas de Chevre or Malfatta, both of these in their current condition due to climate change are very much at the extreme end of skiing, whilst the rest of them you can get away with a hip check to bum slide.
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Agree that it's quite a weird list. Not awful, but probably not the list most skiers would make.
Blue sky basin at Vail is not really a run, but an entire area with 3 lifts.
Dave Murray downhill wouldn't be in my top 10 runs at whistler. While you can "go fast" on it, from what I remember there's quite an awkward section between the upper and lower halfs involving a pretty tight turn into a relatively narrow busy cat track that kind of kills the flow. For whistler groomers peak to creek is probably the most iconic. Personally I'd go for one of the blues off seventh heaven.
Some nice glades in curry bowl at fernie (bootleg and annaconda are personal favourite). But probably a little too short to be considered best tree skiing in the world.
Similarly beer belly at red is fine, but wouldn't be my choice for best tree skiing there.
Surprised lake Louise didn't make the list. Definitely one of the more scenic places. Delirium dive probably fits the "steep" and "scary" categories.
Other "steep" and "scary" - arapahoe basin and squaw both have options. Although grand Couloir at big sky feels like one of the worse omissions.
Mary Jane at winter park is generally considered as pretty epic mogul skiing but doesn't make the list.
I'd consider putting Dutch wallet at kicking horse in. While it's not the best skiing there, it's somewhere I always take people if I'm showing them around. The pretty hidden rope rappel into a steep tight chute tends to be their most memorable run of the day. (Although you can argue memorable doesn't necessarily mean best).
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You know it makes sense.
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| denfinella wrote: |
I've done 12 of the 34 European picks, and they are all nice runs, although not sure they all deserve to be in the top 50 worldwide. It is very much a Brit-orientated list: France and the "mega-resorts" are over-represented, the Spanish / French Pyrenees are omitted entirely, and so is the rest of the world beyond the Alps and North America. There's also too big a focus on steep runs - most skiers' favourite pistes are of blue or red gradient.
Courchevel somehow gets three spots - Chapelets, Rochers and Combe de Saulire are all nice but are they really top 50 material? Grand Couloir - mmm maybe.
Jerusalem above St Martin is a nice run, but I'm pretty sure that if it had a more generic name (like Ecureuils or something) it wouldn't have become so popular. |
Gran Couloir isn't all that, appeals more to people who want to say they've done it than actually being particularly special. If you're that good then you're better off doing the petit Couloir or something that's actually off piste.
Saulire is worthy of the top 50 but chaplets and Rochers not so much. I think Folyeres is well worth the top 50 and also Creux.
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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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I'd add Peak to Creek in Whistler to this list, although I think the DM is the lower section. Absolutely fantastic skiing
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Poster: A snowHead
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That archive doesn't seem to have the list of 50 runs that featured in the original article.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Mollerski wrote: |
| I'm at 14, maybe 16. Not sure of some of the piste names, but have skied the resort. If they're calling Lagazuoi to Armentarola 'The Hidden Valley, Cortina', then that is the tops for me. Utterly breathtaking. |
Very much agree. Certainly ticks many boxes. Stunning scenery, wide open pistes, decent pit stop mid way and a unique finish being towed by horses.
I’d also throw Saslong in as my favourite I’ve ever skiied. Just an awesome run.
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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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@Idris, not having been there for 15 years or so, I couldn’t believe how big the drop from the Pas de Chèvre onto the Mer de Glace has got. Looks like a proper mountaineering outing rather than a ski run!
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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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Click Bait rubbish
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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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junk journalism......
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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I think it's perhaps not intended to be taken too seriously. They pick the cat track at Revelstoke for example, that's not really what most people are likely to be there to ride. And the race course at Whistler isn't a choice most would make.
27 of them. I must be old. I rode Zermatt's Trifji in waist deep snow when it was actually a piste.
The best bit was the access lift plus the fact it was waist deep, which I suspect it mostly wasn't.
To me, it's more about the conditions when I was there, and maybe who I was with and all that.
Delirium Dive would be on my list because it just looks so awesome, although I've not ridden it.
Thanks for the non paywalled version https://archive.ph/9DzBU
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@Ryunis, yes you're probably right about Grand Couloir. That's definitely why I did it, a good few years ago! But arguably it's "iconic" status means it deserves a place?
If you put Combe de Saulire, Creux and Folyeres in then Courchevel would take up ~10% of the European spaces which is surely a bit much.
Out of the entire 3 Valleys I'd probably go for something like Combe du Vallon, or Lac de la Chambre, or Frederic Covili from the top of La Masse to the valley. Creux is good when quiet, but gets very busy, probably even more so now it's a blue.
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| sugarmoma666 wrote: |
That archive doesn't seem to have the list of 50 runs that featured in the original article. |
Ugh I looked again and that snapshot was from 2022 which underpins I guess just how crap the telegraph is …
I updated the archive - try this one https://archive.ph/gZSWi
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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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| Rob Mackley wrote: |
| Click Bait rubbish |
Very true, but it's gotten us chatting.
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| Fridge03 wrote: |
| Mollerski wrote: |
| I'm at 14, maybe 16. Not sure of some of the piste names, but have skied the resort. If they're calling Lagazuoi to Armentarola 'The Hidden Valley, Cortina', then that is the tops for me. Utterly breathtaking. |
Very much agree. Certainly ticks many boxes. Stunning scenery, wide open pistes, decent pit stop mid way and a unique finish being towed by horses.
I’d also throw Saslong in as my favourite I’ve ever skiied. Just an awesome run. |
Now, I'm not with you on that one. I find Sasslong 'A' generally busy (Men's worldcup track, everyone has to ski it) and quite featureless imho. Sasslong 'B' on the otherhand, is beautiful, quiet and pretty exciting if skied fast. Then you have La Longia which has everything including my favourite mountain hutte of all time. The Curona Hutte. 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Megeve as one on the list , Epaule.
It’s ok but I don’t think it would make my top 10 in the resort never mind top 50 in the world.
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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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Good list.
They've ticked most of the big ones, such as Verbier and Chamonix.
A few missing, from Alaska, Japan, Chile, etc.
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Is the flypaper on it? 
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You know it makes sense.
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Corbet's is largely BS. It's for young guns and experienced locals. The rest of the time when the entry is filled in it's no big deal or else it's an ego over sense hail mary for many tourons.
Full disclosure I've looked in a couple of times and given it a hard pass which is easier the older you get.
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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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The Hidden valley run, is it easily accessible from Corvara? For intermediates?
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Poster: A snowHead
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Corbet separates the good skiers from the cr*p ones.
Most riders wuss out and sidestep or slideslip past the vertical entry.
The funnest route is to huck it straight in or loopdaloop into the chute.
Only the best can do this.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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The only time I went to Jackson the ski school were roping people into the top of Corbetts. Can't say I tried it.
Think I've done about 17 or 18 though I lose track of names.
Not quite sure how the Sella Ronda gets classified as a run.
Flypaper should definitely be on it. 
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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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| Rob Mackley wrote: |
| Click Bait rubbish |
Yep, there's only one 50 just list ask Cody.
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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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| surferrosa wrote: |
| The Hidden valley run, is it easily accessible from Corvara? For intermediates? |
Yes. From Corvara ski over to Armentarola then take the shuttle bus/taxi service that runs continuously from there (I think about 6 Euros per person) for the 20 minute journey to Passo Falzarego for the cable car up to the top of Lagazuoi.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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No Niseko - Peak back to Annupuri well worthy...
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| Rob Mackley wrote: |
| Click Bait rubbish |
+1
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| surferrosa wrote: |
| The Hidden valley run, is it easily accessible from Corvara? For intermediates? |
Yep, easy. You're starting from one valley closer than the Val Gardena valley. There's nothing tricky to catch an intermediate out.
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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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@Alastair Pink, @Mollerski, great! Counting down the days..
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| Dave of the Marmottes wrote: |
Corbet's is largely BS. It's for young guns and experienced locals. The rest of the time when the entry is filled in it's no big deal or else it's an ego over sense hail mary for many tourons.
Full disclosure I've looked in a couple of times and given it a hard pass which is easier the older you get. |
This is exactly right.
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FAQ
