 Poster: A snowHead
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On my 3rd ski holiday there was too much snow in Cervinia and all the lifts were closed for 3 days. On the second day my friends and I spent 3 hours making a tobogan run in 80cm of fresh powder, tamping down snow in a snaking shape to form the run. It was approx 100m long and all who saw us joined in with the fun.
We were prepared to work hard to gain 30 seconds of downhill tomfoolery. Is this how it all began?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Yep, reckon I would. I've been known to slog up mountains in driving rain, so I'm sure I could bring myself to do so in order to ski.
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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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jzBun,
Yip, and have done so. There are no lifts in N. Ireland
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Helicopter or snowcat. 
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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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Hell yeah - I often try to get away from the lifts when they're running anyway.
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No chance. I like the lifts and I'm not a big fan of walking in ski boots, let alone climbing in ski boots.
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Well, you would save a bit of cash and get a lot fitter!
jzBun, that must have been frustrating. I'd consider hiking up if i knew it was safe, but wouldnt go on a skiing holiday with the foreknowledge that there is no uplift.
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Skola, We had no knowledge of the impending closure. We booked in October and took our chances. The early 90's was a risky time.
There was no information about weather or resort status.
The fact that there was a giant storm didn't register until we were there. However, we still had fun in the snow.
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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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Yes.
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Definitely. I used to do a lot of downhill mountain biking, and we had no lifts, would quite regularly be a 10-15 minute slog up the track, pushing a 30kg bike, for 1 minute of adrenaline-fuelled fun. And also, touring bindings, skins, there are plenty of ways to make the uphill trek easier!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| jzBun wrote: |
| Would you still ski/board if there were no lifts |
Doesn't affect me - I always take the stairs anyway.
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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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narc, if we're answering with pictures
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| Quote: |
We were prepared to work hard to gain 30 seconds of downhill tomfoolery. Is this how it all began?
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Sure!
Whether it's making the toboggan run, or skinning uphill, or hiking in ski boots, many of us are perfectly willing to work hard to "earn" our sliding...
Though had uplifts were never invented, I'm not sure many of us would have started at all. Therefore may never have the chance to get hooked.
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You know it makes sense.
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I think my favourite ever day skiing was in the peak district last year. In my other life I'm a fell runner, I like the uphill challenge, the feeling of it just being you and the outdoors, the endorphins, the pain and the satistaction. I really want to get the experience and equipment to do some serious hiking/skinning for some serious and remote backcountry lines but I have neither the time nor the money at the moment. I have also done a lot of the push your 6inch travel bike uphill for 15 minutes for 1 minute down repeatedly and used to love it. I just can't handle the all too often breakages and concussions from biking. But seriously I always feel so good when I end the day having been outdoors all day feeling that you can't hike/run/push/ski another turn.
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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 didn't mean to put two serious's in the same sentence there but having been in the library pretty much from 10:30am till 3am and not in the hills I'm not on top form
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Poster: A snowHead
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What a silly question - of course!! No lifts to the best skiing anyway...
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Err..NO
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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 with beanie1, I probably do more days skiing without (or mostly without*) lifts than I do lift served. Mix of touring on my normal tele kit and xc in the forest.
* I have been known to start a tour with a trip on the train (though I always use at least one other lift before leaving the ski area so I don't break the VMP  )
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Not when I first started out. But I would now.
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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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Of course - you don't need lifts for heli-skiing........ oopps sorry 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Yes, but I doubt the mountains would be crowded, ot there would be cheap equipment, or sympa rifugios. As a family holiday it would definitely be a no no.
It would attract just the usual collection of malodorous beer swilling beardy dangerseekers that hand around rock faces in the rain.
ducks for cover...
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Not sure about the no family thing - my girlfriends family were going on ski touring holidays with her when she was 10!
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I hate the trecks that I have to do to find fresh powder and often think that I'd rather this sport was left to those of us that really love it. Getting rid off lifts would clean out 99% of the people who spoil our enjoyment.
What I mean, obviously, is that people should have qualifications before spoiling my run off-piste. I'm not for one moment suggesting that skiing/boarding should be ellitist. Noooooo...!But. If you can't ski well... f**k off my mountain.
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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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Oh!! I forgot to say. without all 1 week recreational skiers/boarders none of is would be possible. Thankyou all. And F~~k off
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ski-touring gets quite addictive, I remember when I saw folk doing it first - a lot of folk do it around here - anyways i though they were all mental. But as time passed on, I got myself (slowly, "bit by bit") the necessary gear to be able to punt off to somewhere interesting for the day or half a day or whatever. There is of course the more substantail hut-to-hut stuff but for this average punter, I neither have the fitness nor rarely the opportunity for that! A big thing for me (and many I suspect) is to know the terrain, area, risks etc. so as to stay safe in potentially hazardous back-country. I'm lucky in that I live where I can tour during the season to a reasonable extent so that I have acquired the knowledge for relatively safe (but still interesting, and largely solo - another attraciton!) travel. I just need to get fitter!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Answer to the question: Yes.
| queen bodecia wrote: |
| No chance. I like the lifts and I'm not a big fan of walking in ski boots, let alone climbing in ski boots. |
You should try skinning once just to see what it feels like. It is not very strenuous - you don't lift your ski off the snow, you just slide it forward at quite a slow tempo.
Mind you, I'm not really a tourer: I'm happy to do half an hour or an hour skinning to get to a good slope, but when it gets up to 3 or 4 hours it is a bit much. Still, I'd do it if there were no lifts.
But the trouble for me, too, is fitness.
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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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snowball, you mean walking on skis? I can't think why I'd ever want to do that!
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queen bodecia, he does. I'd have to work hard at fitness, but I sure hope I'd still be up for it. It's a different experience - you go really off the beaten track with your friends on the mountain. Of course your guide/leader chooses a route within the skill of the party - but once at the top you have to cope with whatever may come your way - hardpack, ice, breakable crust and [drum roll] powder. I think it's the best skiing experience you can have. Of course you have to work for it - but as you slip into the rhythm of skinning you may find yourself enjoying the exercise, taking in the mountain view - and just thinking. But as snowball has pointed out, you do have to be fit.
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You know it makes sense.
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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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achilles, in view of this post, I'd have to say all are welcome. Get fit, enjoy the burn, welcome to the snow. Wheeeeehaaa.
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Poster: A snowHead
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I love skinning. There's something quite hypnotic about the slow, steady rhythm and getting away from the hordes of holiday skiers on the lifts is a big bonus.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I know I posted this pic before but I love it. We just climbed, zig-zagging from the lift below and then went over the ridge into a long valley with no tracks in 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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achilles, snowball, doesn't appeal to me. I'm strictly piste only. With lifts please. 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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P.S. abc, my new boots fit fine. No pain at all. But I still wouldn't want to walk any distance with the equivalent of a plaster cast on each foot.
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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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| queen bodecia wrote: |
| achilles, snowball, doesn't appeal to me. I'm strictly piste only. |
But how can you be so sure if you haven't tried it? 
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I'm all for anything to avoid where the mountains have been tamed/civilised/ruined with pistes/parks/whatever - thats why I like skiing and the mountains, it's not suburbia. Lifts can be quite convenient though lol - I like the sound of Gulmarg, one lift, no pistes.
Queen Bodecia, don't knock it 'till you've tried it. Even if you're a timid skier you can still ski offpiste, it doesn't all have to be gnarly, just takes a little work to learn how. It bemuses me why people set these limitations for themselves? Didn't your Mothers ever tell you to do everything you do to the best of your ability? I imagine there a fair few on here who tell their kids that even while setting limits for themselves!
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abc, clarky999, I'm not a hugely timid skier but off-piste is definitely not for me. I don't have the ability, the fitness or the insurance.
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snowball, I like that pic. Where's it from?
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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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queen bodecia, Direct etc do off piste as their standard insurance... there is very easy off piste with escape routes back to the piste... and you don't need to be fitter. In fact there are often nice flat rocks nearby to sit on, have a breather, look at the view and have a bite to eat. In spring the snow is often hardish and not the powder you usually associate with being off the groomed areas. And you don't have to contend with overcrowded slopes full of idiots going too fast. Oh... and take a lift up. Don't automatically discount it 
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Scarpa, it's not the travel insurance, I think mine does actually cover off-piste skiing with a guide, but my income protection insurance does not cover me for a skiing accident 'outside of marked and patrolled pistes/zones'. Plus I'm the sort of skier that likes nicely groomed pistes, I deliberately avoid ungroomed or mashed-up pistes. Overcrowded slopes never an issue for me either, the biggest crowds I ever have to contend with are at the Snowdome.
I can see why off-piste appeals to some, but it's just not something I would ever consider.
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