 Poster: A snowHead
|
I'm sure most resorts have them. Think the bottleneck on Trolles (in Tignes) just before the schuss, narrow, moguls, lots of people out of their depth. Santons in Val D similar. So where are they and what is the best way of dealing with a landscape of people stood around in random places cutting off all the obvious routes??
Are you a "cherry picker", a "blaster" an "over the edger" or have a better technique for dealing with the situation?
Going to Tignes at Feb half term so the issue is URGENT! (Well only3 months off). 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
Carnage alley in La Plagne has to be the small gap between the stadium and adjacent hotels, especially fun when 2 club med ski schools go for the gap at the same time 
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
Coming into La Daille - straight line it all the way - if they ain't good enough to get out of the way, they shouldn't be there in the first place 
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
Go down the side off the piste problem solved
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
Guvnor, which piste? There are several that head in to La Daille. Verte above the bridge is usually hilarious at the end of the day, then it gets better when you hit Coupe de Monde a few hundred metres later.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
Choucas - La Rosiere. Narrow in places, flatish, but not slow, problem is that it crosses half a dozen pistes and is the main return pist from Italy and the Fort Area.
If staying in Tignes Le Lac or Lavachet then any skier not entirely comfortable on steep red should go via Val Claret or get the Aeroski bubble down. My technique on Trolles is to stay to the right until the narrow bit and then go straight down the middle and try not to worry about everyone else.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
hyweljenkins, Doesn't really make much difference, they all have countless bodies littering the slopes.....
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ordhan, Good technique for Trolles, but for Santons there is only so far up the walls that ican go before gravity kicks in. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
Frosty the Snowman, so thats you and Guvnor, as "blasters", anymore?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PsychoBabble, "blaster" could well be over egging my pudding
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
"Slalom baby slalom" & use plenty of elbows 
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
Coming over the perpetually windscoured pass between Gandvallira and Pas de La Casa is usually interesting, the best bet seems to be to pick your moment and straightline the skiers left, allows you to carry speed into the ski-x run as well.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
get up for the first lift, ski/board your back bottom off till 2/3 , get down early to miss the crush on the battered slopes and in the bar..
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
|
Le Couloir at Alpe d'Huez is pretty bad as I recall. Also there's a main run down into Verbier whose name escapes me which was appalling when I was there (at quite an off peak time in Jan) last year.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
Val D - coming down from Solaise.
There was a place at Alpe D - tight entrance, loads of moguls. That was carnage (not The Tunnel, though that's usually a disaster zone too, as you emerge to find people almost trying to claw their way back up).
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
On a smaller scale than Val D or tignes, I'm sure but the 'home' pistes immediately above Valmeinier 1800 are unpleasant at the end of the day.
The choice is the 'slalom' which is usually one big sheet of boilerplate ice or the more popular (I wonder why?) alternative which is hugely wide until a few hundred yards from home when it narrows dramatically with a fence on one side and a big drop on the other. The suface usually looks fine but is, in fact, sheet ice with - if you're lucky - a thin covering of snow. Ski-school 'crocodiles' and crashes all over the place. Lovely
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
Red Leon, I look forward to my nervous intermediate family on those next year then...
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
Espace San Bernardo faisan (parallel to the Bellecombe drag) has a short steep pitch at tis start which you need to "go for" or you end up walking further on. It's often very lumpy by the late afternoon and littered with people picking their way down. I don't like walking  so there is no choice but to pick your time and "blast" down one edge
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
Nickski,
| Quote: |
Val D - coming down from Solaise.
|
I was just thinking of that one as I was walking back to the office! Horrible run at the end of the day.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
Villars: from outside the ski school office at Bretaye, down (100 yards?) to the Poma up to the Roc d'Orsay - whence the Telecabine down.
As it's much the fastest way down from Bretaye to the village, it's very tempting to take novices down it (and then have them fall off the fast Poma). But it's steep, icy and slushy (seemingly all at once).
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| PsychoBabble wrote: |
| Ordhan, Good technique for Trolls, but for Stanton still drives us up the wall |
Good point well made.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I think the level of carnage depends on the day - friday pm is always 'carnage day' as far as I am concerned, with most going home the following day they push themselves harder and down thinks that perhaps they shouldn't be on. I'm sure most resorts have more bloodwagons being used on carnage friday than any other days (all other things being equal) - the blue under the main bubble in ADH is particularly bad for this as people, previously on greens push themselves more and more..
You've got to add the 'happy valley' in st.anton to this list - see other posts on here. The bottom 20yds of the main blue in lech (the one down from the eisbar) get's really chopped up and carnage results, and there aren't really any alternatives. Personally I'd like them to do something with that, as the blue is a fantastic improvers but the bottom will give a few the heebie jeebies. The red down from kitz is quite a thigh burner at the end of the day, but a lot of people download on the bubble.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
I actually think the home runs to Ischgl are about the worst I have seen but seeing how many people you can kebab on your tips seems to be part of the entertainment.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PsychoBabble, I'll see you in carnage alley in Feb then 
I'll be picking my way down the left side (folk hate the drop off over there) before going ballistic down the bottom section.
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
Hmm. Haven't been in peak season for so long I can't really remember a very busy piste. My technique is a combination of carefully picking my way through people, stopping to pick up the odd attractive female and then getting bored and blasting down one edge. It's usually easy enough to wait for a gap and then go for it, slowing down again if the way is blocked. I've never hit anyone* and noone's ever hit me (I get out of the way or try to stop them if me moving is going to cause them to hit someone else).
I'm well aware that nervous skiers get scared of people blasting past them even if they're not going to hit them so I try to keep a good distance between me and any other skiers.
* That's not strictly true. I wasn't looking where I was going when I was about 11 and smacked straight into the back of someone in a lift queue. Haven't done that since.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
olster, is that oddly attractive, or odd but attractive?
I stop to help anyone and seem to help up a lot of small kids whose parents ski in front of them for some reason. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Downstream of the Kazy Kanagaruh.
Les Demoiselles at LDA - and the black alternative - forget the name.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
|
Banff Avenue.. End of day. Mostly the Brits with kids en tow wedging turns from one side to the other and unpredictably sitting down in the middle of runs for a break. Oh and snowboarders who can't go fast enough to get over the flat spots!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
|
achilles, there are several alternatives, but you mean the Valentin.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
achilles, That'll be the Valentin......Mr R32 had his ski pole snapped in two by an out of control Italian Lady......except that he didn't call her a lady!!! 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
Mosha Marc, I could have phrased that better  . "pick up the occasional attractive female".
Actually, I'd probably stop to check anyone who'd fallen over was OK.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
|
Lizzard, Snap!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
R32, Mr R32 should know better by now - why wasn't he on the Y instead?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
Lizzard, He thought it looked fairly quiet and I'd taken the sensible Belle Etoile chair down so I could meet him at the bottom!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
Main run back into Obergurgl is also fun at the end of the day
T Bar, Im going to test out Ischgl in March
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Garfield, It's pretty good but it gets a bit tight on the runs back to the resort. Probably easier in March when its a bit softer at the end of the day. Earlier in the day the runs are good. Have a great time.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The red run down to the mid-station on the glacier at Kaprun is pretty hairy as lots of people want to ski down and take to a narrow and frequently moguled red when they can barely do snowplough turns. We tended to ski down the side of the natural half-pipe so we just by-passed them all.
All the runs down to Mottaret from Saulire tend to be busy and littered with bodies - we tend to keep off-piste to the side if we can.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
PsychoBabble, going offpiste alongside Trolles (skiers left) is not without its dangers. That offpiste bit has claimed at least 4 lives in the last 4 years as its very avalanche prone and peeps are being swept into the lake below. As always the presence of tracks is no guarantee of safety as testified to by photos of those incidents that you can find on pistehors.com.
I subscribe to straight down the middle and f**k the rest
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| bertie bassett wrote: |
| I think the level of carnage depends on the day - friday pm is always 'carnage day' as far as I am concerned, with most going home the following day they push themselves harder and down thinks that perhaps they shouldn't be on. |
I thing that if you thing that you've got another think comink,
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
