 brian
brian
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Ok, fair enough, sometimes it's useful to stop runs breaking up or keep links open, but the stuff is just not snow. It's either boiler plate or some kind of sugary mush and practically everywhere seems obsessed with pumping the stuff out at ever increasing volumes whenever it's cold enough, even if it's snowing naturally.
I may be in a minority of one, but I'd far rather bounce off the odd rock on lovely natural snow than have metres deep of artificial crap.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Inclined to agree. In Kitz last March they had artificial snow to keep the two runs back to resort open (strips of white with green fields either side!), but I preferred to take the bubble lift back down. It just didn't feel enough like skiing...
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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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brian, Agreed. The only acceptable reason is to keep crucial links and home runs open (so I'd say the Kitz crew were right, but I understand qb's decision to downride the bubble.
Adapting to tricky conditions and picking ones line down a piste with thin cover is a dying art of the old-skool skier who is still able to take a degree of responsibility for her own safety on the mountain!
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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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brian, agree. It's horrible stuff. The most difficult surface I've encountered on piste in our resort was some kind of industrial material made from artificial snow combined with whatever weather conditions were going on. It was so weird that they'd actually put a sign up warning about it - the first and only time I've ever seen it. They've just spent a fortune putting a new retaining basin and snow cannons right down the most snow-sure piste in the resort. Very odd.
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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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| brian wrote: |
| Scottish Recreational Skier brian attacks artificial snow in general |
| brian wrote: |
| ...I'd far rather bounce off the odd rock on lovely natural snow ... |
Everything I've ever skied in Scotland (apart from Hillend and Bearsden) has been natural: rocks (bouncy or hard), heather, reindeer droppings (Cairngorm), discarded bagpipes, snow etc.
My most recent skiing day on Glencoe was on about 6m of natural snow, which had buried the T-bar.
None of this factory-gunned sorbet on Scottish mountains (except The Lecht, occasionally).
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Quote: |
None of this factory-gunned sorbet on Scottish mountains
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David Goldsmith, I'm beginning to see the other side of the story...
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brian, You been skiing on your home run in resort G too much? Possibly the finest example of the phenomenon wa sthe consistency of that - fun but messy.
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pam w, not odd, the French government are introducing a moratorium on snow-making so every resort that has any form of snow-making capacity is extending it now because they won't be able to in future.
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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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David L, ah, I see! I didn't know that. When will the moratorium begin? Presumably will mean no new capacity, not no more snow-making?
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David L, that's fascinating...
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I was in the social company of an orthopaedic surgeon in Austria last season who told me that the incidence of injuries is far higher when there is a lot of artificial snow around.
He basically supported what brian is saying in that it either becomes boiler plate which causes inexperienced skiers to lose control and fall on what might as well be concrete. Or mush that sticks together in lumps and catches edges and wrecks knees! 
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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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And yet the general consensus is that absolute beginners should learn in an indoor dome...
Bizarre, n'est pas?
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Well, it kind of makes sense in mid-July, or if there's a force-10 on Cairngorm in January.
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You know it makes sense.
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| paulio wrote: |
And yet the general consensus is that absolute beginners should learn in an indoor dome...
Bizarre, n'est pas? |
Not really.
The indoor slopes are very much more controlled environments than the mountains, plus they have short and absolutely consistent slopes.
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