 Poster: A snowHead
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| bar shaker wrote: |
| Some would say you weren't an intermediate in 2009, if you found Val hard. |
Well, that's where they put me in ski school. And yes, I found Val reasonably hard, in the sense that a lot of piste classifications seemed a level lower than I would have expected from (admittedly limited) experience elsewhere.
That said, I suffered a bit that year - sinus infection, blistered shin, sprained wrist - which undoubtedly coloured my experience of the place.
And yes, of course we could - and did - get the Olympic down on occasion.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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ajrduff, I guess the term intermediate stretches from anyone who has completed a week to anyone who has done 100 weeks. It's just where you put yourself on the intermediate line.
I find the pistes in EK quite easy but I am an expert. 
There is no shame in getting a cable car down, if it's the easiest option after a great day.
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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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face is a great run about 1000-1200 in the morning. late afternoon can be carnage
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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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Sorry- this is a total hijack, but is it possible to get to Tommeuse and Mont BLanc from top of Etroits & Daille? I just can't remember..,
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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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davelebus, Yes.
This web cam ( http://www.valdinet.com/webcam/valdisere/27/ ) is at the top station of Etroits. Scroll around the image and see the top of Dialle to the right of the building. Tommeuse behind the left edge of the building. Mt Blanc to the left of the building.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Adrian, Many thanks.
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As an update, I've just bought a helmet, so I should be able to face anything...
(Ducks) 
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Hi I have found that the difficulty of runs in Val d'isere and Tignes are not often very well reflected by the grading given to it by the resort. As a general rule a green in Val will have aspects that resemble blues in other resorts, the same applies through out the grading system. Although not focusing on Val d'isere, the website www.love-tignes.com has detailed descriptions of many runs as well as suggests of the best time of day to ski them.
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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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Good find ColesGJ. Welcome to Snowheads.
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| bar shaker wrote: |
| Good find ColesGJ. Welcome to Snowheads. |
I bet that web site was hard to find
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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It's a bit vague and seems to miss a few bits of stuff (like the 'icy wall of death' that is Melezes) but it's all good info for newbies.
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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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As an update, I returned home from a fantastic trip to Val D'Isere yesterday. Conditions were great - about a foot of new snow twice in the week with blue sky on other days.
I found that the black runs were generally fairly graded and were not more difficult than black runs in other resorts. I found that quite a few of the other runs were a bit harder than their colour suggested, e.g. greens should have been blue, blues should have been red etc...
Overall though, a great resort!
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I know that this discussion has generally been done to death elsewhere but run grading is always going to provoke thought as it's so subjective both to the grader and to subsequent users, each of whom might find certain aspects of the run easy or difficult to any other user. Then you have the extra ingredient of conditions extant at the time. Visibility; surface and quality of snow on the run; number of other users on the run.
There are times when I've found Leisse at the bottom of the Grand Motte a challenge when it's been basically a giant iced-uo mogul field - yet two weeks ago although it was heavily mogulled there had been a fresh fall of snow and it was like skiing over marshmallows.
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You know it makes sense.
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So we're agreed that ValD runs are generally undergraded, but does the same go for the whole of the EK? I'd argue that the Tignes pistes are pretty much accurate in their grading.
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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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| Dr John wrote: |
| So we're agreed that ValD runs are generally undergraded ... |
Is that the case? Who says? It could be that some resorts like to flatter their customers by over-grading their runs.
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Poster: A snowHead
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I find both Val disere and Tignes runs to be fairly graded, blues are blues, reds-reds, and the blacks are decent blacks (nothing to extreme but a fair quality black). The resort i find to really undergrade there runs is ST Anton, yes there blues are mostly blues but there is deffo sections (places) on the blue and red runs that would be black in other areas. Not a prob for a decent int but for timid int to beginers there are parts that are a little off putting.
I find Val and Tignes to be much better graded and i find you get what you would expect. Tignes has more cruisy runs than val IMHO but both are aimed at decent int to adv skiers if your to make use of the whole e-killy area.
Val is my fave resort, cant wait to get back there on the 26th March.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| depthjunkie wrote: |
I find both Val disere and Tignes runs to be fairly graded, blues are blues, reds-reds, and the blacks are decent blacks (nothing to extreme but a fair quality black). The resort i find to really undergrade there runs is ST Anton, yes there blues are mostly blues but there is deffo sections (places) on the blue and red runs that would be black in other areas. Not a prob for a decent int but for timid int to beginers there are parts that are a little off putting.
I find Val and Tignes to be much better graded, and i find you mostly get what you would expect. Tignes has more cruisy runs than val IMHO but both are aimed at decent int to adv skiers if your to make use of the whole e-killy area.
Val is my fave resort, cant wait to get back there on the 26th March. |
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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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Anyone who finds Val/Tignes under graded should definitely, definitely not go to Chamonix.
depthjunkie, I'm back on 25th. Equally excited!
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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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| Quote: |
Is that the case? Who says
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er, pretty much the entire world. It could be that ValD has the gradings spot on and every other resort in Europe is wrong, but I doubt it somehow.
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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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| bar shaker wrote: |
Anyone who finds Val/Tignes under graded should definitely, definitely not go to Chamonix.
depthjunkie, I'm back on 25th. Equally excited! |
Interesting.
I went to Chamonix a couple of years ago and would agree that the runs were pretty difficult, but maybe a bit easier than Val. I agree that runs on the Tignes side were about right.
Perhaps part of the issue is that Val have "proper" green slopes ie not just nursery slopes, whereas most other resorts do not seem to use green in the same manner. So assuming you were off the nuresery slopes, you would be skiing blues in most other resorts.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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All depends on the definition of intermediate.
Val does have runs back to resort with some tricky bits on them.
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| Gerard McNeely wrote: |
| bar shaker wrote: |
Anyone who finds Val/Tignes under graded should definitely, definitely not go to Chamonix.
depthjunkie, I'm back on 25th. Equally excited! |
Interesting.
I went to Chamonix a couple of years ago and would agree that the runs were pretty difficult, but maybe a bit easier than Val. I agree that runs on the Tignes side were about right.
Perhaps part of the issue is that Val have "proper" green slopes ie not just nursery slopes, whereas most other resorts do not seem to use green in the same manner. So assuming you were off the nuresery slopes, you would be skiing blues in most other resorts. |
I've only done 10 weeks there in the last 3 years. You must know some runs that I haven't found.
Which ones were you thinking of?
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Interesting one this; years ago; an old crinkly guide told me the following.....
"In France, runs are graded on the OVERALL steepness; exposure etc; so you might get a blue run with a bit of red it in; but overall it's blue..; whereas in Austria and the rest of the alps, the run is graded on the steepest (and or most exposed) pitch. However there is always some scope for variation"
Good example is the run back from Courcheval over the Col De La Loze into Meribel; Pic Noir run that is now Blue but was red as the more exposed Boulevard De La Roze was blue but closed a lot because of avalance risk, so one season the red became blue so there is an "easy" route back....
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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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Given the variation in difficulty of runs depending on snow conditions, I don't think it particularly matters how a run is graded, and certainly any small variations you might get between resorts get washed out in icy crowded conditions.
The issue in EK is that a couple of key arteries have narrow bottlenecks on them that get crowded and degraded with use. Once you know that and plan accordingly there are no issues, even for timid skiers.
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| Quote: |
There are times when I've found Leisse at the bottom of the Grand Motte a challenge when it's been basically a giant iced-uo mogul field - yet two weeks ago although it was heavily mogulled there had been a fresh fall of snow and it was like skiing over marshmallows.
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This is so true. The first time I did Leisse we did it by accident without knowing what colour it was. My friend and I thought it was a nice blue run. We looked at the piste map afterwards and were really shocked to see that it was a black! I went back a couple of years later and took a cautious friend down it as we thought it would be a gentle introduction to black runs for him and the bumps were so big we could hardly see over them!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| bar shaker wrote: |
| Gerard McNeely wrote: |
| bar shaker wrote: |
Anyone who finds Val/Tignes under graded should definitely, definitely not go to Chamonix.
depthjunkie, I'm back on 25th. Equally excited! |
Interesting.
I went to Chamonix a couple of years ago and would agree that the runs were pretty difficult, but maybe a bit easier than Val. I agree that runs on the Tignes side were about right.
Perhaps part of the issue is that Val have "proper" green slopes ie not just nursery slopes, whereas most other resorts do not seem to use green in the same manner. So assuming you were off the nuresery slopes, you would be skiing blues in most other resorts. |
I've only done 10 weeks there in the last 3 years. You must know some runs that I haven't found.
Which ones were you thinking of? |
I have only spent a week in each resort, so I am not speaking with any authority on this , but in Val D'Isere I found bits of Verte harder than I would have expected for a green run and there was a red off the back of the Pyramid Express that seemed pretty tough (I think, can't see it on the Piste map, might have been an itinerary). Also a blue that might be called 3i? I am not saying that these were hard for an intermediate, but that they seemed relatively difficult given their grading.
I don't remember many green or blue runs in Chamonix, but would agree that the red and blacks deserve their reputation. My point was more whether a new or second week skier might be a bit unnerved if confronted with a Val D'Isere green or blue despite being able to ski these elsewhere.
I agree the whole thing is subjective however and totally dependent on conditions.
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