Downhill racers average about 65 mph (about 104 kph) and sometimes get up to a maximum of 80 mph (128 kph). I'm a bit doubtful about some of the speeds reported on here.
I've never measured my speed, but nearly 20 years ago I once did the OK run at Val d'Isere (down to La Daille) the day after a Europa Cup race, when the nets were still up, and on my second attempt I did it in 3 min 15 sec which gave me an average of about 40mph. I took almost all of it straight but not in a tuck, but the bottom section of the OK where the blue run joins it had not been used in the race so was not properly flattened and there were a few other people around so I slowed and put in long turns and this must have brought my average down. Also there is one point in the middle which would have been a blind jump at speed so I slowed right down for that in case there was someone skiing below (and OK, I was scared of a jump at speed). Of course I may not have been carving properly in those days.
I was skiing on GS racing skis then, and I don't think I've skied faster than the steeper bits on that descent - I was certainly going way faster than anyone else. I ski mostly off piste now and on Missions which have a short radius so I wouldn't feel stable at those speeds - not to mention I'm older and have probably slowed down a bit.
It's a lot easier to do 80 on a DH course when you don't have to make the gates than it is to do 70 and make the gates.
Speeds that seem very fast on a pair of SLs seem slow on a good pair of speed skis.
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
How quick can I go on skis is a topic along with the helmet debate that should be avoided at all costs
However if you seriously want to know what "quick" on a pair of skis really feels like I suggest you have a bash on the flying K in Les Arc or similar, and get an accurate reading of your speed on a course designed for going fast.
Once you've done this whatever you do, or think you do speed wise on a pisted run will feel very pedestrian.
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?
Speed trap at courchevel 1650 blue run, standing start (gated run) I rember 5 or 6 of us hit 50 -60kph; have been what seemed a lot faster on wide open reds, by way of guidance I think your eyes start watering between 30 and 40 mph (from biking experience, no goggles!) and over 40 mph doesn't happen unless you get in a tuck.
Used Satski on my last trip to VT. Snowboarding I was mostly doing between 20 and 30mph, fastest recorded speed was a shade under 40mph (overtook a skidoo for shts and giggles, just to see if I could do it). The difference beetween 30 and 40mph felt a lot more than the difference between 20 and 30mph, I think the management speak for it would be outside my comfort zone
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
I know its not as fast as it feels!!! Got clocked at 45mph on short free style snowboard in my youth...
just normal skiing then I would say that most people go alot slower than they think, I see quite a few people on blue runs doing around 10 to 15mph, red runs about 15mph to 25mph. Black runs most people are only doing the same speed as red runs or slower on the steeper sections.
I disagree. IMHO most people are going a lot faster than they think. When I first skied with a GPS I was really shocked to discover that most days we exceed 80kph. The highest speeds were always recorded on red or even blue runs, usually when just cruising ie going straight downhill heading from A to B rether than on the routes we were targetting.
John
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
pam w, ...only just come back to this thread - and re your 50mph in zero visibility - no way! - just lazy drafting - I've timed myself down a long carvy blue at aminona, a great training slope, and it's come up at around 45-50mph - that's in perfect viz and no people - basically the 'let's go round one more time' just as the lifts are closing. The unexpected straight-down blams have been in poor viz and no more than 10-15mph, I would guess, but going down onto choppy crud or boiler plate has HURT - previously I said:
"...once or twice I have had sudden straight-down 'blam!' incidents - only one or two, but unexpected, in zero visibility contexts. Now, I like being in control on ultra-steeps, and narrows, and bumps - I turn and turn, often putting in ten turns where friends put in two. If you are in competition, speed counts. I just feel that if I am looking to live a reasonable time with my bones and joints intact, I'd rather perfect the turn rather than be down first.
But that's just me...."
One of the 'blams' was last season, my first bad fall for about five years, completely unexpected, going down a steep icy and choppy shelf, only doing a few mph since visibility was terrible, and God knows what happened - maybe indeed I was out for a few seconds - since I just felt a huge blow to my forehead and then major pain and grogginess. Took me a few hours to recover from concussion - the helmet and goggles saved my face from being cut up on the ice. And the anxiety of that unexpected fall, with no obvious cause, made me very nervous for the rest of the season, whenever my speed went up.
After all it is free
After all it is free
Ghost - those graphs are excellent Our GPS averages would say a 'fast cruise' run for my group is a little under 40mph, and we top out around 55mph. It was finding this out that caused me to buy a helmet a couple of years ago I had no IDEA we were going that fast until we took the gps out Those short speed traps you get dotted around pretty much always give us high 70 kmh and it doesn't feel quite flat out so I think gps 55mph/80kmh is frighteningly correct.
Blacks, home run crowds, ice, green runs and bumps though - about hmm 5mph?
aj xx
Last edited by After all it is free on Mon 27-01-14 17:45; edited 1 time in total
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i got clocked on a short speed trap in soll at 89kph.this year im going to try and go from higher and see what speeds i can get then.it was abit quick on a set 160's but hay it was in a closed off area so no one other than me was going to get hurt.
Ski the Net with snowHeads
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Seems like some people are applying a 'Top Gear' mentallity to this thread.
Track days,Cool Wall 'Gadets', GPS Averages,etc.
When is the SnowHead 'Stig' going to make an appearence? lol
'Ski Over, Ski Over'
Now then my lad,That's your Ski pass 'Clipped'. Next time you get caught speeding, You lose it.
Mind how you go.
Oh no!
I just know someone is now going to go normal skiing looking like the 'Stig' if they haven't done so already...
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
I spend 99% of my time skiing way within my skill level - easier to relax when you know you're not going to hurt yourself or others. In saying that, I did a GPS apps test with a journalist last Jan on the slopes above Grindelwald (opposite side to the Eiger). We found a sunny morning, with a long switchback red whose name escapes me, totally empty and just pisted. Perfect. We took turns with my iphone recording the GPS and I hit 45.12mph. Steve the journo (and an expert skier compared to me) hit 44.98mph and was gutted. I'm sure there's 10-20% error margin in there though, I told him.
The scary thing was that it wasn't that scary – a big steep, wide and empty red, so the only way to come a cropper would have been to fall. Glad I didn't. I was pretty confident as I know every foible of my K2s now and keep them in check when they start getting ideas.
In hindsight - not sure I'd ski that fast again. I think I might have been close to that a few years back down the Combe de Saulier above Courchevel. Was more scared that time as I was a lesser skier and on hired Volkls that went like the clappers.
I think around 30mph is perfect - far less scrappy turns and much smoother practice of technique. And always tempering speed depending on traffic.
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.
dont have a clue how Fast I go and would probably get worried if i clocked it
according to my 7year old speed checking device I must be quick , as it is forever telling me "That was waaay fast daddy you overtook every one on that slope " and thats good enough for me, obviously he is very accurate and thinks I regularly top 100miles an hour
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Mike G wrote:
Speed trap at courchevel 1650 blue run, standing start (gated run) I rember 5 or 6 of us hit 50 -60kph; have been what seemed a lot faster on wide open reds, by way of guidance I think your eyes start watering between 30 and 40 mph (from biking experience, no goggles!) and over 40 mph doesn't happen unless you get in a tuck.
Yup - have done the same thing with that speed trap and thought how slow 30mph felt. Couldn't tell you how fast I ski but I've been quite a bit quicker than the 30mph through that trap.
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Here's a thought, how fast do you need to be going to start taking off on the rollers on reds?
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
i was being "beaten" to the bottom of most blue pistes by the intermediates in our group last week who all wondered why i was skiing "so" slowly. much more pleasurable to focus on my technique, i said to some confused looks. it was interesting then, when we got onto reds and blacks, as to who was first down and waiting for the blue-piste speed demons...
Just a thought, I've hit 50mph on a calibrated mountian bike computer, often ride a naked motorbike exceeding 150mph so I'm pretty used to feeling at ease with high speed. I'd say that straightlining an empty steep red or black feels around the 50 - 60mph mark, that's when stiffish long skis start chattering and when you hit a small roller you get air. Doing multiple runs with a GPS results in the same readings so I doubt they'd be that far off.
I've also spectated at the Flying K watching skiers come past at almost 140mph
Not very fast, to be honest. I usually ski on park twintips or quite short all mountain things, and while I have moments of relatively high speed, I tend to prefer turning, wibbling around off the sides and skiing backwards etc to actually putting the afterburners on!
So probably 25-30mph max. Would be interesting to try with a GPS, though!
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Bearing in mind that the question was: "How fast do you really think you go?", not "how fast does potentially highly unreliable technology think you go?", I honestly have no idea.
If the laser speed guns used by UK police are hopeless, are the speed traps on the pistes any better?
put it this way, i skied the bellevard face when it's freshly bashed in a little over 4 minutes and it's 3 kms long. on average that's 45kph or 28mph. that was on Head SLs and thoroughly enjoyable skiing. (if you want to know what an average of 45kph over 3kms looks like - http://youtube.com/v/Ux7tycy5cBo )
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Having recently got an android phone I downloaded the 3V app and Satski for my recent trip to the 3V's.
Fastest I got was 79.4kph. This was just beaten by one of our group who got to 79.9kph. Oddly enough he'd never gone by me all week (by a long way)
The stupid thing is, even though I knew it wasn't accurate, I still wanted to see 80kph!!
After all it is free
After all it is free
I borrowed a GPS tracker a year ago &, after deleting the outlyers including those telling me I'd done 400kph, I recorded a top speed of 86kph. I had deliberately chosen a long & deserted run for testing my speed so I was reasonably sure it is accurate. The scary thing is that this year I was going at least as fast on some blacks & reds trying to keep up with my 10yo who was rapidly disappearing from view down the slope
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I've done 89.2 (just a touch over 55mph) and 90.1 on a snowboard. I will probably never try to beat that - it was quite fast enough. This was down the bottom part of the black Trolles in Tignes (piste completely empty, I must add). It was a bit scary and much faster than my previous fastest (77.6 kph /48 mph). I was trying to see how fast I could go, and am normally quite a "slow" boarder. On runs that I usually feel are "quite fast", I do between 64-68 kph. On skis my fastest is around 58kph. For me 55-65 is actually a fairly comfortable speed, where I feel some exhilaration but don't feel that my life is flashing by me along with the piste markers...
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There was an official speed trap on Trolles a couple of weeks ago - a lot of comparing I Phone apps to the real thing. For a mate the apps were consistently over reading by about 30%.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
I don't ski fast on piste at all – the pistes are too full of barely-in-control speed demons (that's my sweeping statement for the day), so I ski pistes at a moderate speed and keep both eyes on everyone else. But then, I only use pistes to get to the off piste.
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.
116 kph or 72.5mph in Cervinia on a 46 degree slope. Skis were moving around like they were on a vibro plate! Safe to sat that was one time only, my friend tried the same run flat and fell and broke one of his ski fortunately he bounced.Normally my top speed doesn't max out at more than 80kph.
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
I take all these "speeds" are taken on phones?? I suspect they are massively over reading.....
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
kitenski, Certainly in my case they were taken using Ski Tracks iPhone app. To be fair they could have been between 15 - 20 kph over on the top end but I can only say that having done a small amount of downhill racing when I was a young, fit, but foolish Army officer (only at Regimental level nothing serious) it certainly felt like I was shifting so it won't have been too far off.
As an aside we have banned the use of this when skiing with the teenagers as it positively encourages reckless skiing and one upmanship. Actually considering what happend tomy friend Luke it should apply to the "grown ups" just as much!
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
grazzenger, Nicely done. The Face is a great run when it's been pisted and the bottom third hasn't cut up into moguls.
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
kitenski wrote:
I take all these "speeds" are taken on phones?? I suspect they are massively over reading.....
Mine are from a 3 set of gps devices cross checking each other and with any stupid data removed by looking at the track, plus inresort speed traps. Given that I'm pretty comfortable they are right. Evidently we do often ski slower, but on fast run 40-50mph is very doable. Skiing is faster than you think...I'm not so sure about anything much above 60 though unless on dedicated gear/run - we are pretty heavy and def top out around 50mph/80kph.
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Quote:
I think I'm fairly slow, maybe 20mph?
queen bodecia, I bet you go faster than that. There's a piste alongside a road I drive down quite often - and they are slowing down for the bottom, where there's a net as you have to take skis off to cross the road to the lift. If I am doing 20 mph there are very slow looking skiers keeping pace alongside - just kind of coasting down, and it's not steep.
As for me I really CBA to fiddle around to try and measure - not fast, that's for sure. Even if I think I'm skiing fast my son just coasts past as though I'm standing still.
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?
Perhaps my answer ought to be not as fast as I ought to go.
I should also note we didn't have the gps on for speed checks - it was for proof while doing corner to corner challenges I do agree the 'fastest man on the mountain' competition is not ideal. Luckily ime after finding out how fast you do go, the novelty wears off anyway
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Many years ago I did top of plateau rosa to cervinia 11km in 11 mins so average 60kph included a stop as the leg burn so bad.
Last week topped out at 95kph down towards courchevel 1850 from Combe de saulire past cable car station - early morning very quiet groomed piste but on gotamas ... Recon could easily have topped 100 with different skis. Actually felt pretty solid - but felt fast and would not have wanted to fall !
A couple of years ago a group of us did a fair bit of recording - skitracks on iphones...
not sure whether ay inaccuracy is ironed out by having 4 phones recording at the same time, or whether they would naturally all collect the same errors...
but we recorded one day where the average speed was over 70km/h (we turned off for the final blue schuss back to the resort)
and we recorded one day of egging each other on until we were each hitting max speeds of over 100km/h
with it recording for one day on the I/O course last Dec. I see a max speed of 66.5km/h and an average of 20km/h but every run maxing at 55-65km/h
bearing in mind that we were learning - not racing or going fast but practising technique and often skiing on one ski that suggests that the other speeds might have been realistic!
Alasdair
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
See my recent post about a speed skiing training day. I achieved a maximum speed of 109.5km/h. That was in a race suit with 204cm super-G skis skiing in a low tuck position on a slope carefully prepared and groomed for speed skiing. It's also a slope which has been used for rounds of the speed skiing world championship. It's not that steep or long, so the hill record is "only" 148km/h. But (and this is critical) it has a long slightly uphill runout. Getting up 110km/h or higher is easy, but stopping safely is another story. The compression at the point where the hill flattened out was pretty severe and several of the participants had difficulty in controlling the forces. I saw several sets of skis begin to diverge slightly and a few wobbles as a result. OK, many of the participants were children who maybe had relatively less strength. Plenty of the kids went over 100, but they were all pretty experienced racers and were all skiing in race suits and SG/DH skis. Equipment makes a huge difference. Taking off my outer clothes, my speed jumped nearly 10km/h for the same starting height.
On the day I trained, the fasted speed achieved using standard equipment was 112km/h and with speed ski equipment 128km/h. It simply wasn't possible to go much faster. OK on a steeper slope you can potentially go faster, but you are going to have even more trouble stopping and even more issues with compressions and taking air if the piste is at all uneven.
So having achieved a properly verified speed of just about 110km/h I am pretty sceptical about people claiming to have gone that fast in an open piste. Yes you could do it. But not without seriously endangering yourself and other people.
Skiing really fast is great. But the place to do it is in a race course.
After all it is free
After all it is free
Zero_G wrote:
I don't ski fast on piste at all – the pistes are too full of barely-in-control speed demons (that's my sweeping statement for the day), so I ski pistes at a moderate speed and keep both eyes on everyone else. But then, I only use pistes to get to the off piste.
There's less than 10% of the people who are skiing fast on a piste who are doing so justifiably (because they have superb form and control) the rest just look like douches. Odds are if you're blasting you're in the 90%+. For this reason I try not to ski too fast (plus I'm intrinsically a coward and a pre release at speed on hardpack hurts)
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I sometimes wonder if people secretly swap km/h for mph and then convince themselves that they're 60% faster than reality. I know my old boss used to. Quite a few cases of rounding up too, so 46.1kmh is 47 then 50 then one day becomes 50 mph. Not bad for a red run punter. edit: wouldn't be surprised if he's done the 50mph=80kmh conversion, and then swapped kmh for mph again, claiming 80mph, by now.
40 mph on a fast cruise? full tuck schuss more like.
If anyone says >60kmh open piste skiing, of 70km/h full tuck schuss, then I interpret it as BS. And if they quote Mph, then I hear km/h. I'll believe radar gun on a proper course, but iphone? android? could be as little as half what the numbers claim IME.
Shame my GPS didn't record the IO course. So can't see what the numbers were there. But top speed on the Garmin was more than I drive on the autobahn, and it's only been used for walking, mountain biking and skiing.
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Ski the Net with snowHeads
I hope I''ll never be too close to all those people "egging each other on" to go even faster on open pistes.
FAQ
Poster: A snowHead
Those short speed traps you get dotted around pretty much always give us high 70 kmh and it doesn't feel quite flat out so I think gps 55mph/80kmh is frighteningly correct.
