 Poster: A snowHead
|
I had a weeks training in Tignes last year early season and swore i wouldnt go back to Tignes for numerous reasons but all the top outfits seems to be based there. what about some recommendations for schools that train elsewhere in Nov / Dec. I would like to have a go at some GS and perhaps SL courses.
Alpine coaching in Tux was mentioned elsewhere any other suggestions?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
Some friends have been here several times.
Your problem in Dec will be that resorts don't want to use up so much space once the season has started. Hiring race lanes becomes much more expensive in the big resorts, but the smaller places probably won't have enough snow yet.
What put you off Tignes apart from the weather ?
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
rjs, thanks for that. If i get involved with training i think i would like to try a more pleasent venue like austria or LDA or ? Last year the weather messed things up but i didnt see the point of having to catch the first bus to the funicular, queuing up for a 1/2 hour each morning, and never having any reliable info as to piste opening. noone seemed to have any accurate info on when and what would be open and we spent half our time hanging around drinking coffee waiting for Emma to find out what was going on.
once on the glacier the t bars seemed to randomly stop and start...
The lunch stop on the glacier was rubbish food and stupidly expensive, if you went down all the cafes were rammed...
too many lanes too close together was a bit unnerving for me as a beginner. I had a snowboarder cross in front of me once cutting across all the race lanes 
perhaps that is all par for the course on these weeks but i wasnt a particularily fun customer experience...
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
skimottaret, Welcome to pre-season training in Tignes ! I've experienced similar frustrations at 'Tux, and LDA.
The early season weather (windy/stormy) doesn't help, and you do get stuck waiting at the funicular to see what will happen. I think the large numbers of fired-up racers (who seem to view everything - including getting into their boots - as a race) doesn't make for a calm experience. It's a lot like waiting for the Midi cable car to open in the summer in Chamonix (replace the racers with climbers).
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
skimottaret, Nov/Dec.... head to Colorado 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
skimottaret, The weather during that week was unusual, I have been going there for the last ten years and not lost that many days training. I don't have a feel for the length of the queue as I had a coaches' pass, but I suspect you will get a similar queue everywhere.
You get people straying into courses everywhere, even if you put up fences they will go through any gap.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
little tiger, i normally hate those kind of crash videos as they make me ill but that should be required viewing for any youngster thinking about doing speed events........
My French friend said that all the bad smashes happen in training and local/regional races.. no fences, pads, helos as you see on during WC races on tele. He hit a tree and was in a coma for 6 days. broken pelvis as well....
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
skimottaret, yep IIRC jono posted it.... brave effort I think... sends a good message out...
check his "ball" video on youtube (post by same poster)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ooops
was AJ Bear I was thinking of... watch these
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
skimottaret,
| Quote: |
might have a go at the holland venue sometime... I have to admit i am not hard core on this and Tignes was a drag... just want to have a laugh nancying around a few gates while the kids and masters laugh me off the course. Toofy Grin
|
Want to come on my August camp ?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
|
ski, might do, post some details or PM me.... i am thinking of perhaps going along to holland with Glen or Phil B on one of their camps at some point... an indoor session or two may make more sense as a beginner....
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
|
|
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?
|
| rjs wrote: |
| The weather during that week was unusual, |
I agree. I've done one pre-season week for the last five years and only lost one entire day to bad weather. Your other frustrations are typical, I think, of pre-season training although queues can be avoided if you choose the right week (and try not to get on the first train).
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
Yep 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
Colorado - lots of blue sky.... Lots of snow
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
little tiger, One of the groups who train in Tignes in November are a school from New England. They feel that they get better access to lanes than they would in Colorado alongside all the national teams.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
little tiger, as much as i would like to i cant justify a trip to colorado for training. might go someday and have fun checking out a few hills on hols.
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
|
rjs - and Austrians have been training in Canada..... does this mean no-one should go to Austria?
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Derek Jackson, The British Masters Championships are at the start of February, not the end.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
rjs, rob@rar, yes people keep on saying that this was exceptional, but in two weeks' pre-season training in Tignes (i.e. 10 days) over the last two years I've only made in onto the glacier for 4 days - and one of those wasn't until nearly lunch-time, and the one day we got up there last year they didn't even start getting the drags de-iced until 10am, so they weren't working properly until about 11. If last year had not coincided with the start of the full resort opening we'd have been completely stuffed. Fine, you have to take the weather as it comes, but at least two of those days loss was clearly due to the rank incompetence of STGM (clear skies, not much wind, but they couldn't get their f***ing fingers out to de-ice the funicular cables, or it dropped off the cable, or their dog ate their homework, or....). Last year they also refused to honour a measly refund voucher (to the value of about 1/4 of the lost pass days) offered as compensation for days lost the previous time I'd been there, as I got there the day after the expiry of the voucher. Customer service like this stinks, and I feel that if I never have to suffer STGM again it will still be too soon. As a result I decided that wherever I went this year it wouldn't be Tignes.
I've ended up with a week at 'Tux with Alpine Coaching. PSG's not offering Race Training that week, but rather Multi-terrain technique stuff - sort of pre-ISIA development. On reflection that was probably more accurately what I needed anyway. I know about how to get down a course and line and all that stuff, but too often it's my screw-ups that mean I end up having to do something completely different - so reduce the screw-ups and practice may more closely approximate theory. Would still have been nice to do some proper gate-work on snow, but I can do that at a later date.
skimottaret, if you do want race training, you could look at Racer Ready's website, where there's a compendium of training weeks throughout the alps (and PB's Landgraaf trips are on there too). I was just a bit concerned that the camps organised by e.g. the local Austrians would be a bit (for which read "hugely") too high powered for me. It's probably worth noting that Snoworks do have a week in LDA in the early summer.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
Whistler ski school (the resort school) runs a racing course, duration of which is 4 days if memory serves. If you don't find details on the WB website drop them an email.
Michel Pratte runs courses in Canada, US and Zermatt but... $$$$$$$
I did attend a summer camp in Htux a couple of years ago and didnt see any of the problems you experienced in Tignes. All was very well organised. But I wasn't 100 pct satisfied with the tuition itself.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
| GrahamN wrote: |
| ... over the last two years I've only made in onto the glacier for 4 days ... |
Remind me never to go race training with you! As well as me being embarrassingly slow it is clear the snow gods frown upon you 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
rob@rar, yes, after the first one Phil was saying how he'd never had such a bad week, and then the following year was even worse (although as the rest of the domaine was open we could do other stuff)! But I think a few weeks previously they'd been shut for the best part of 10 days. This must have been a major change in luck for me though, as I don't think I'd lost a single day in over 10 years' skiing prior to that (albeit there were a fair few when anyone sensible would have stayed indoors). BTW if you want to pass on to Phil why I'm not there this pre-season, please feel free (or if you're reading this Phil, and want to pass those sentiments on to STGM, be my guest).
I should have said that a coach local to us has similar feelings about Tignes. Last year he went to Saas Fee (I think ski may have been with him), and was extremely impressed with the welcome and support offered by the lift company - and he doesn't impress easily. On one day the weather came in so quickly that they had to get down without even having time to pull the course. The following day they went back up expecting to have to spend time relocating poles, to find the pisteurs had them all nicely bundled up and waiting for them. And my experience of STGM was in direct contrast to the LDA lift company at the PSB that year, who had had two major lift failures and worked all night replacing drive wheels, including when one had to be flown in ready for first lift the following morning - which they made with virtually no lost time. Would STGM have done that....fat chance!
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
GrahamN, I agree the attitude that the resort takes pre-season is very poor for us poor punters. I think only the national teams who are training there get any kind of decent treatment. If my base wasn't in the Tarentaise I'm sure I'd go elsewhere for pre-season courses.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
rjs, this is only an advert placed on the Masters Skiing website. The training camp is actually a Western Counties Ski Club annual event and a number of outsiders often go along.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Derek Jackson, You linked to the parent page, not the WCSC advert.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
Derek Jackson, i found the training camp stuff and it looks interesting.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
rjs, oops - I thought I'd pasted the direct link. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
) i will probably start gate training in the spring now..
