 Poster: A snowHead
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Are we in it now? Has it already happened? Or is it still to come?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Yes.
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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 must be great fun at dinner parties. 
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Well it is for me. And I'm great fun at dinner parties  .
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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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It's gone, long gone. I could write ten thousand words as to why but I'm welling up here 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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PJSki, it's gone. We now have overcrowded slopes with reckless skiers, and yet are in a culture where what individual skiers can do, wear, and carry is being mandated either by law or mass-hysteria peer pressure (helmets ).
There's still a lot of fun to be had - but I think the fun in the days Der weiße Rausch was greater - despite the lack of modern technology. I first learned to ski with wooden skis with cable bindings - on a school trip. We had huge fun - and there was no thought of being taken out by reckless skiers - they just weren't around.
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I'm having a lot more fun now than I've ever had when skiing, and I intend my FQ (Fun Quotient) to continue to rise in the future. For me the best is yet to come 
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achilles, agreed and, on a slightly more practical note, with 30+ Austrian Schillings to the Pound, you could walz into places like Kitzbuhel and St Anton, check into the best hotel in town (with not much need to pre-book) and live like a lord. Even better in the little-known places further up the valleys still run by farmers. Phoning home meant trudging through the snow to find the phone box, where there was a queue, so you generally didn't bother. Peace.
Skiing is too easy to learn now and people can travel at warp speeds without the matching physical attributes or sufficient miles under their skis (ie experience) to do it safely. Uplift is super efficient, pistes groomed to perfection so all these helmeted/body-armoured missiles are making life a lot more scary and dangerous than it ever was. Apres ski has become so hedonistic in some places that I know people who find that kinda scary too. Innocence lost.
Most of all I miss proper moguls.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| Quote: |
For me the best is yet to come
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me too. And for most of us, it's not until we are retired that we can afford to ski all season for little more than the cost of a peak week in Val D'Isere.
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| Bode Swiller wrote: |
| Most of all I miss proper moguls. |
And fact that it was only the upper middle classes who went skiing?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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a desk jockey like me can see more of the mountains now than at any time before, with fat skis, lightweight touring bindings, touring boots that will drive a ski properly and climbing skins that are super-efficient compared with the old buckle-up seal skin jobbies AND relatively low-cost/convenient travel
and you still don't have to walk far to find peace
i agree that skiing in big resorts can be a bit of a s###show
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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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I seem to remember enjoying it more 20 years ago, and a lot more 30 years ago. You don't think that could be an age thing do you?
Maybe it's just scarcity value. In the good old days I could only afford one week a season. It all seemed a lot simpler then - any old rental planks and off you went without a care in the world. Now it's all gone super-technical, the industry would have us buy 3 different pairs of skis to get the best out of a day on the hill.
As others have mentioned though, whilst you can ignore the hype and the techno-babble, it's impossible to ignore the crowds.
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To summarise, the golden age of skiing was at the moment when one could afford it, but a person slightly poorer could not. 
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You know it makes sense.
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| rob@rar wrote: |
| Bode Swiller wrote: |
| Most of all I miss proper moguls. |
And fact that it was only the upper middle classes who went skiing? |
that's bolleaux I'm afraid (even though you posed it as a question ). In the school skiing boom of the 80s around half a million school kids a year, from all walks of life, went to the mountains for the first time. These people are now taking their kids. Ski package holidays for adults cost about the same as a fortnight in Benidorm. Pre the 80s though I guess you're right.
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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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| Bode Swiller wrote: |
| In the school skiing boom of the 80s around half a million school kids a year, from all walks of life, went to the mountains for the first time. These people are now taking their kids. |
That describe my Good Lady perfectly!
For me, the Golden Age of skiing was in the late 70s / early 80s when Ingemar Stenmark used to win pretty much every slalom and GS race and race suits didn't give you a headache looking at them.
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Poster: A snowHead
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IMHO the golden age is on us now. Snow sports have broken out of the old territories and into new ones. More people are taking up the sport each year - it's no longer a niche hobby. There is a stream of young professional talent coming to the fore in boarding and skiing. Technology is moving on all the time giving better options.
No point looking backwards, that the old lifts were better when they cracked you in the back of the knee or how a 3 course-dinner used to cost half-a-pfennig, or how the queues at St.Wotzzitgarten were sooo much quicker back in 19-odd-6 when all these damnable people weren't here, youngsters were respectful and AA men would salute as you drove past in your Morris Traveller. I say no point in complaining so ski and ride whats in front of you and remember - you do this for FUN y'know! 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Long gone for me. 7th Feb 2009 was my skiing zenith. I doubt it will ever be surpassed!
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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've ONLY been skiing 25 years and it doesn't seem to have changed that much, to be honest. Technology has improved the ease-of-use of many things (the car in which to drive to the mountains, Eurotunnel, ski lifts, clothes, and of course the planks themselves) and boarders have appeared, but apart from that, what's different? I loved it then and I still love it and I can't imagine anything that could change that, so... it's NOW 
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| chris wrote: |
| Long gone for me. 7th Feb 2009 was my skiing zenith. I doubt it will ever be surpassed! |
The best is yet to come for me... 20 DAYS LEFT!
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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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achilles,
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| I first learned to ski with wooden skis with cable bindings - on a school trip. We had huge fun - and there was no thought of being taken out by reckless skiers - they just weren't around. |
not quite true. I too learned as a schoolboy in 1973, with cable bindings, wooden planks, thick woollen socks , leather lace up boots and wearing tights or pyjamas as thermals. Great fun. But I still recall spending time picking bits of goggle from my bloodied cheeks as I was smashed to the floor from behind by some local ejit.
Lot more pleasant now - that gear and the effort involved was probably what kept many people away from it - but while crowds are an issue for sure, you can't have a full infrastructure without someone paying for it, so I guess you learn to live with the expansion of the sport, and cope with the downsides. Nothing is balck and white.
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| Quote: |
it's impossible to ignore the crowds.
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you can't ignore them, but it's not difficult to avoid them. AND the reckless skiers. AND the apres-ski hedonists. People who sit on crowded beaches with a zillion others cheek by jowl, and then do the same kind of thing in the mountains in the winter, have only themselves to blame. Look at the brochures, see where everyone's going, then go somewhere else.
And stop moaning.
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I do sometimes have a nostalgic hankering for the old days, single-seat chairlifts with safety chains and the like. But that's just what it is, nostalgia, probably yearning for my lost youth. When I'm on the slopes now, I enjoy it as much as in the past (probably even more on days when I sit in a gondola rather than on a freezing chairlift).
I have always been amused by German colleagues saying that they had given up skiing because there were too many people on the slopes. I have never (or very seldom) really found the crowds in the Alps a problem. But then I learned skiing at weekends in Glenshee 
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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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| JimW wrote: |
achilles,
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| I first learned to ski with wooden skis with cable bindings - on a school trip. We had huge fun - and there was no thought of being taken out by reckless skiers - they just weren't around. |
not quite true. I too learned as a schoolboy in 1973......... |
My school session was in 1961, I think - on a very uncrowded slope on Mt Cook, with the only lift available being a rope tow. Modern skiers would curl their noses in disgust - but the fun we had was enormous.
I didn't ski again until about 1986 - but I have tried to make up for lost time!
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Definitely the 80s for me. School and uni ski trips introduced people like me to skiing who would otherwise never have thought of going on holiday somewhere cold...
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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My boots don't hurt like they did 20 years ago. Skis have got a lot better in that time too. Just have to go a little futher afield to avoid the crowds. I've enjoyed my skiing in the last few years better than ever.
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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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It is here....it is now.....
The skiing I enjoy most - back- or slack-county - has surely never been better served. We have lightweight high-performance skis, boots that allowing both ski-ing and walking and clothing that can keep you dry and not act as steam baths. And we have transport to get there, and safety support if we ever have the need for it. The moaning minnies should either find something else to do, or continue propping up the bar while reminiscing about the glories of their cable bindings...but please just do it quietly! For those moaning about too many people on the slopes, in 5 weeks skiing this year I guess my longest lift queue has been about 10 mins, but my average must be less than 30 seconds - what dreadful overcrowding  .
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You know it makes sense.
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I really don't feel this fear of being knocked over by other piste users being out of control.
I have a minor incident when not coming off an old chairlift quick enough. Other than that I haven't ever seen a collision in 3 years of skiing at christmas time, a supposidly busy time of year. A very slim amount of this time has spent in the nursery, so that is not the reason.
Once again with queues. In a large resort this christmas, even at ski school times I didn't encounter one queue where I was fustrated.
Maximum queue was about 5 minutes and that was due to one of the lifts that ran parrallel had broken down.
Admidatly I haven't known any difference as I haven't been skiing for very long. But I think a lot of this is moaning, accidents and injuries happen, but they have to be accepted as a part of skiing.
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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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in 5 weeks skiing this year I guess my longest lift queue has been about 10 mins, but my average must be less than 30 seconds
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In 6 weeks skiing this year (so far) my longest lift queue was about 2 minutes and for the majority of the time there was no queue at all. I spent a good deal of time on pistes where I couldn't see another skier in front of me. Mostly on stupendously good snow.
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Poster: A snowHead
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OTOH, I guess people who can get 5-6 weeks' skiing by mid-season can choose roughly when they do it!
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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 Golden Era - for me was when the men's downhill visited different resorts each year. Eg Crans Montana, BKK, Aspen, St Anton, Leukerbad etc. Kitzbuhel and Wengen are given...but a bit of variety on the others would be nice.
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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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laundryman, true, but that did include Christmas and New Year. At New Year the new 6 man detachable chair in Praz sur Arly was virtually empty. Snow was much better down there than higher up, following some very windy days. But the sheep were still up in Les Saisies (which was crowded) or probably over in Megeve, which I didn't visit because my liftpass doesn't cover Megeve. Goodness only knows why a lift serving such good runs was so quiet, but it was.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyone that says the golden age is over is drinking out of a half empty cup.
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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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pam w, for the first time this season, I'm free of school holiday constraints (always use to go during the 'extra' private school weeks anyway), so I had no lift queues in January in Megève (even at half-term i previous year, the location and timing of queues become very predictable and avoidable). I've never been in a queue in Les Saisies. Not been there at half-term though.
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| Quote: |
Not been there at half-term though.
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I was, once..... now I'm here!
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My golden era for me was probably in my School Skiing / Boarding years 1996 - 2002 ish
Unfortunately the trips I go on now simply arent as good
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I'm with the golden age is here/yet to come vote. As others have said equipment has never been so good and flights to snow so plentiful (though as a downside to the recession routes may be declining along with sterling).
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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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DB, wasn't David Goldsmith a Nevica importer? Could that have been the great man's suit?
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