 Poster: A snowHead
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I've recently come back from Selva. Since I stayed at the East end of town, if I had come back down Dantercepies, i would get the Campinoi bubble up so that I could ski back to the hotel. at the end of the day, the piste was, naturally, cut up. Going left, towards Plan de Gralba, the way that the piste cut up seemed unusual. Instead of the scraped up snow being in random piles, it was largely lined up in long ridges down the slope with long stretches of polished snow between the ridges though, towards the piste edge, the ridges were close together. I may not be describing this very well but it seemed unusual to me. Instead of going round heaps I had to get my edges in down a narrow mini piste between the ridges. Everywhere else and further down this piste the scraped off snow was back to random heaps.
Has anyone else noticed this? Is it a function of the gradient? I found this condition and three days and didn't like it much! The randomly cut up black towards Santa Christina was easier! 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Some places do that to catch snow as it falls or blows around, to prevent all of it blowing away.
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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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| Moondog wrote: |
I've recently come back from Selva. Since I stayed at the East end of town, if I had come back down Dantercepies, i would get the Campinoi bubble up so that I could ski back to the hotel. at the end of the day, the piste was, naturally, cut up. Going left, towards Plan de Gralba, the way that the piste cut up seemed unusual. Instead of the scraped up snow being in random piles, it was largely lined up in long ridges down the slope with long stretches of polished snow between the ridges though, towards the piste edge, the ridges were close together. I may not be describing this very well but it seemed unusual to me. Instead of going round heaps I had to get my edges in down a narrow mini piste between the ridges. Everywhere else and further down this piste the scraped off snow was back to random heaps.
Has anyone else noticed this? Is it a function of the gradient? I found this condition and three days and didn't like it much! The randomly cut up black towards Santa Christina was easier! |
Not sure if I've completely understood what you describe, but if it is a trough down the centre of the slope that is cleared of snow, that is caused by lots of people taking the centre line and either skidding turns or using a snowplough to get down, which pushes the snow to the edge of the piste.
It basically scrubs all the powdery snow off, leaving an icy strip down the centre. This is why I will often stick to the edge of a piste like that, riding the powdery stuff with lots of short turns while people slip their way down the icy bit in the middle.
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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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There's a little section on the run in to Wengen that has always been prone to similar conditions, hard but short fence left side of piste over which there is a very steep drop down to a stream or stone wall on right side of piste combined with a piste less than 20 ft wide tends to give a nice icy run down the middle, fortunately for the beginners its only a short section and there's a nice flat wide run out at the end. Because it's teh only way back to the village a lot of beginners doing snowploughs go down it which probably makes things worse
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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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| Monium wrote: |
| riding the powdery stuff with lots of short turns . |
How do you avoid being tripped up by the piles of loose snow.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| James the Last wrote: |
| Monium wrote: |
| riding the powdery stuff with lots of short turns . |
How do you avoid being tripped up by the piles of loose snow. |
Lean back a bit and just plough through the crud. I tend to assume all lumps are hard, then when they're not I am ok, as opposed to assuming they are all soft and ending up temporarily flying into a failed landing.
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riding the powdery stuff with lots of short turns .
How do you avoid being tripped up by the piles of loose snow.
Difficult to ride these ridges as they are just that. Only 2 or 3 feet wide and 2 or 3 feet from the next one. OK this is a very vague approximation but you get the idea and, in case I wasn't clear, the ridges run down the slope not across. The snow is being scraped off by people side slipping and skidding but it's hard to see how the ridges form without lots of skilled skiers cooperating to scrape the loose snow gradually into the ridges.
Perhaps what is different here is that the slope is a steep red from a lip with no easier way down so many slow people scraping up snow and some fast people moving it to the ridges down the piste edge?
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Treat the run as a half-pipe. 
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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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I always prefer to ski the loose snow rather than the polished bits between, you can carve securely without skidding.
Not sure about your parallel piles but it sounds like people could have been doing a forward side slip (ie going forwards but side slipping as well). An essential ski skill. (But this would assume the piste was tilted a lot towards one side)
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Wed 30-03-11 21:04; edited 3 times in total
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Moondog, I noticed the opposite (well 90 degrees opposite) when in the dolomites in Feb. A lot of the almost flat bits had ridges running across them. Little ridges, like skiing over (very, very) small rollers. The ridges would extend from one side of the piste to the other. I've met them before in other resorts, on quite flat areas, but I can't figure what causes them. They were in areas you would just schuss over. Particularly noticeable on the long flat blue coming back into Arabba from the Passo Pordoi side (Sella Ronda orange route).
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