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James

Out There
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Dec 2, 2015
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24,453
Wow, we had a video of that type of swinging last year.
 
Thread Starter
TS
Jacob

Jacob

Out on the slopes
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Oct 13, 2017
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777
Location
Maui
Just to follow up on what I said about unmarked hazards off piste, I was on an easily accessible bit of off-piste terrain today, helping a lady find a ski that she managed to bury pretty deep. In the 5 minutes it took to find it, 2 people skied into 2 different bands of rocks fast enough to roll a couple of times after crashing.

The rocks were easily visible from the only lift feeding into the terrain, so there was really no excuse for either skier not to scope out the terrain and make a mental note of where the rocks were.

Luckily, neither one looked hurt.
 
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Ulmerhutte

Getting on the lift
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Apr 25, 2017
Posts
202
Location
Australia and St Anton
St Anton is looking like it might get over a metre, and maybe close to 2m, over the next 48 hours. If it eventuates, along with the forecast 80 - 90 km/hr winds, then expect extensive lift closures.

At the moment, St Anton is looking picture-perfect...
 

Ulmerhutte

Getting on the lift
Skier
Joined
Apr 25, 2017
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202
Location
Australia and St Anton
Heavy snow falls during the night, which continued into the day in the Arlberg. Maybe 30 - 50cm over the last 24 hours. Snow still coming now, ie 4:30pm. I suspect most of the mountain will be closed tomorrow, with late starts for the remaining lifts.

Roads into Stuben, Lech, and Zürs will be closed this evening. I believe that Warth and Schröcken might also be cut off, but I don’t have official info.

Four people lost their lives, and put the lives of many rescue personnel at risk, by going into a closed area in Lech and getting caught
in an avalanche on Saturday.
 

Goran M.

Getting off the lift
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Nov 21, 2015
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456
Very cold but dry in Val D'Isere, no significant snowfall in a while but still plenty of snow to allow for great fun. I brought wrong skis with me (104mm) and ended up with "demoing" different skis every day (still had a great day with my skis on Thursday playing in the fields off of Signal drag lift with some 20cm of fresh snow that fell overnight).

Tignes has better snow but bigger crowds at the "wrong" places.

Today it was Stockli Laser AX (no like, seems too soft and mounted way back) and tomorrow we go with the full on big boy carver Volkl RaceTiger GS 18.
This tells you about the conditions ... Situation might change Wednesday with some snow in the forecast. With the base so deep, every 20cm would fill like a dump.

Moving on to the other side of the ridge on Friday - La Thuile and Aosta. It might be 20kms or so "as the crow flies" but it is a long day trip around the Mont Blanc range. SIXT rental car in Geneva provided us with AN AMAZING VEHICLE


BTW, the cost of "demoing" skis came out to be $25/day, ski down to the shop, pick up something new, go up again with the new ski .
 

TQA

Putting on skis
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Joined
Apr 27, 2017
Posts
75
Just read through this thread. Looks like the way skiing is organized in Europe is very different than the US. I started a thread to get recommendations for a Xmas trip. Zillertal and Serfhaus came as the strongest suggestions. If anybody has tips on finding accomodations, that would be great.

https://www.pugski.com/threads/uncrowded-resorts-in-europe-for-xmas.13872/

I have skied at Christmas in Europe for 30 years I would not make an advance booking for either of the two places you mention. They just are not snowsure for Christmas. OK nothing is guaranteed but there are a lot places with better snow records and better skiing.

Better choices for snow and extensive skiing on well managed runs would be
Val Thorens in the 3V
Tignes
La Plagne
Les Arcs
These are purpose built French resorts and much of the accommodation will be ski in and ski out they will start of get busy 2 days before christmas and New Year is their peak. Accommodation sellers will be looking for full week bookings usually with Sat changeovers but that can be varied if New Year falls at the weekend.

St Anton Lech Zurs
Ischgl
Obergurgl /Hochgurgl
The first two will give a more chocolate box village experience

Verbier
Zermatt
Saas Fee
Of the three Verbier is well in front in my book. I dislike Zermatt because the ski runs are not well connected and the high runs are often shut down by strong winds.. You need a bus to get from your accomodation to the slopes and they are often crowded and it IS EXPENSIVE But it has a glacier

Now booking accommodation. If you are looking for Dec 21 to 28th then that's fine. I expect plenty availability if you book now. If you are thinking about the New Year week as well then expect things to be a little more difficult with popular and well situated hotels booked for 5 years in advance.

The only Italian resort I would consider for Christmas booking ahead is Livigno.
 

Goran M.

Getting off the lift
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456
Since the flights are to Munich, I would not exclude some of the resorts in the Dolomites. Chances that there will be natural snow are pretty slim but chances that there will be extensive on piste skiing are almost 100% due to their best in the world snow making operation. Canazei comes to my mind or Ortisei with easy gondola access to Alpi di Suissi. Or Val di Fassa.

Otherwise as mentioned above - go for the altitude and resorts with terrain above 2000m and/or glaciers. But with this crazy weather - you never know, it is a gamble either way.

Plenty of options, there are over 1300 sizeable ski stations/resorts in the Alps, located in the geographical area that is about the size of the state of Colorado.
 

Seldomski

All words are made up
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Sep 25, 2017
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3,052
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'mericuh
Thanks everyone and especially @Jacob for your tips on St. Anton. Our week long trip end of January was awesome.

I did get an off piste guide for one day. Convincing the wife that I wasn't going to die took several weeks and she did finally relent during the trip...

We did 4 routes, each roughly 3500 ft vertical--
-Kapall, turning northeast at top, following the valley, and ending up in St. Jakob (guide said this was a famous run, don't remember the name). We took a bus back to the Nassereinbahn.
-Valluga (accessed by chair, tram line was 1hr+) side piste down to Stuben/Flexenbahn. I said I didn't want to do anything super steep with rocks on either side.
-Albona toward Maroi?? ending up in a river valley. Very long run out, probably 2 miles of flattish cat track poling (maybe uphill .1 miles) to get to a bus and make it back...
-Rendl north east face back down to town

Nothing too crazy as this being first time for me off piste. We did find some untracked powder, about 1' in places (much more than I ever normally ski). There was a dump of about 1' 2-3 days before I went with the guide.

Wish I had ski tracks on the whole time to share a map, but was also worried about saving cell battery in the remote areas...

St. Anton piste skiing was great -- they had a ridiculous amount of snow.
 
Thread Starter
TS
Jacob

Jacob

Out on the slopes
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777
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Maui
The run off the top of Kapall is probably Schoengraben. I'm surprised the guide took you all the way to St. Jakob on that one. The last time I skied it with a guide, we managed to traverse back toward Nasserein down at the bottom.

The Albona has a few really good routes from it. If you're willing to do a couple of 30-min climbs in boot pack, then you could spend an entire day skiing around there. Even without the climbs, you can easily spend half a day there doing different routes.

Glad you didn't get snowed out like I did earlier in the month.
 
Thread Starter
TS
Jacob

Jacob

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Maui
I'll be in Arosa March 2-8. I hope this high pressure system that's drawing in so much warm air to central and western Europe will have moved away by then.
 

Goran M.

Getting off the lift
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Nov 21, 2015
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Back in Chicago and that warm weather in Europe might "force" me to utilize MCP in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming ...

This year is up and down with the weather - early snowfalls in France, crazy and dangerous snowfalls in Austria with high pressure over much of western Alps in early January and now super warm temps ...

Still good but maybe not good enough to warrant multiple pond crossings.

OTOH, I really do not understand (I guess supply/demand thingy, maybe capacity ?) airfare pricing. It is cheaper to fly to Zurich or Geneva from Chicago than to fly to Reno or Jackson !?
 

James

Out There
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Dec 2, 2015
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24,453
I will be in Verbier this Sun 2/24 through next Sunday. Then two days in Cham.
Airfares from Nyc arear- much cheaper to Paris than Geneva. It is French school vacation week.
 

Ulmerhutte

Getting on the lift
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Joined
Apr 25, 2017
Posts
202
Location
Australia and St Anton
The run off the top of Kapall is probably Schoengraben. I'm surprised the guide took you all the way to St. Jakob on that one. The last time I skied it with a guide, we managed to traverse back toward Nasserein down at the bottom.

The Albona has a few really good routes from it. If you're willing to do a couple of 30-min climbs in boot pack, then you could spend an entire day skiing around there. Even without the climbs, you can easily spend half a day there doing different routes.

Glad you didn't get snowed out like I did earlier in the month.

I am pretty sure you cannot get to St Jakob from Kapall with significant climbing, unless you somehow skied through streets? You most likely skied Schöngraben-Wald, coming out at the bottom of the Rodelbahn, above Alt St Anton. I am also pretty sure that the guide did not take you down the Törli unless he had a death wish.
 
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jmeb

Enjoys skiing.
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Nov 13, 2015
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Colorado
3 weeks to the first ski day in Europe.

24 days until I start the Urner Haute Route.
 

Seldomski

All words are made up
Skier
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Sep 25, 2017
Posts
3,052
Location
'mericuh
I am pretty sure you cannot get to St Jakob from Kapall with significant climbing, unless you somehow skied through streets? You most likely skied Schöngraben-Wald, coming out at the bottom of the Rodelbahn, above Alt St Anton. I am also pretty sure that the guide did not take you down the Törli unless he had a death wish.

I don't remember crossing back under the rope tow, so I guess we went Torli side, or somewhere between Torli and Schongraben (looking at this map: https://alloffpiste.com/torli-kapall-stanton/ ). I remember the guide saying somewhere along the route that it was very dangerous earlier in the season, but that it had seen enough use that it was OK to ski? I may not be remembering correctly... The more I look at the map, the more I think we actually did Torli.

Somewhere during the runout at the base, I remember hearing running water, so I guess we did go next to the river at the base. I do not remember if we turned toward or away from Nasserien after passing the river. There was a spot where we took off skis, crossed a road/fence, then put on skis and kept going another few hundred yards. Then we got on a bus and went back to Nassereinbahn.

So looking at the map, we headed toward St. Jakob, but I guess we did not end up downtown there?

Anyway, this is why I hired a guide... so I wouldn't need to know exactly what was happening! It was a cool experience.
 

Bolder

Out on the slopes
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Dec 1, 2017
Posts
486
Just back from a week in Selva. Man, I love the Dolomites. Ate like a king every lunch and got a great tan. Alpe di Siusi might be the best kept open secret in Italy. Plus we rented a Stelvio so I felt like an Italian Bank manager on holiday.
 

AlpsSkidad

Buying more gear
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Joined
May 19, 2018
Posts
759
Just back from a week in Selva. Man, I love the Dolomites. Ate like a king every lunch and got a great tan. Alpe di Siusi might be the best kept open secret in Italy. Plus we rented a Stelvio so I felt like an Italian Bank manager on holiday.

We just returned from 2 weeks in Austria, and we too rented a Stelvio, but hated it. Terrible ride, and awfully small for 4 people with gear. Styling was certainly unique.
Warm and sunny the whole time, but the snow conditions held up well. Looks like the colder temps and snow have returned starting now, so the winter is not ready to let go...
Next up, we are heading to Chamonix in a few weeks.
 

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