Snow for the Euros.

[subtle plague]

it's not too late. come over to the dark side.../vader voice

naah i hate sucking/beginning at something. it's enough for me that i still suck at surfing and haven't got past "mediocre" at climbing.

and yoda has said: "easier the path to the dark side is, but ever since Alderaan blown up it was, people skiing the people have chosen." (well he never said it, but he MEANT it )

[Ripzalot]

Hmm you reminded me I should start looking around for a good snowboard kit deal off-season... for those days when there's no hiking involved, lots of powder, and the flat bits are all avoidable, the 'gimpboard' seems like a nice way to go...

What's the difference between a snowboarder and a snowboard instructor? Ahh you've all heard that one I guess.

mobility in the flats or traverses is the only advantage to skiing, imho. and that is where teles must have and advantage over alpine skis. go figure.

actually the only reason i snowboard now over skiing is that it's a more natural crossover for me, having surfed for over 25 years. like SP, i'm just too lazy to start over again with skis. now that i have a splitboard, it seems even less likely that i will go back.

ok, hit me with it. what's the difference? one lesson?

[burny]

skiing progressed and people made the evolution of fixing the heel …

and tele is not really that much harder, takes just about a week to get the technique right if you can do alpine skiing, snowbording for example is soooo much easier, it just takes 2-3 days to get to a fairly good level.
To get an expert in any of the three of course takes much much more, you have to learn a lot on the slopes, you never get better in the deep if youre technique is fucked up.
-> subtle, you get it??? hehe (maybe we can get the subtles technique is shitty discussion on right here as well)

[burny]

mobility in the flats or traverses is the only advantage to skiing, imho. and that is where teles must have and advantage over alpine skis. go figure.

actually the only reason i snowboard now over skiing is that it's a more natural crossover for me, having surfed for over 25 years. like SP, i'm just too lazy to start over again with skis. now that i have a splitboard, it seems even less likely that i will go back.

ok, hit me with it. what's the difference? one lesson?

if youre fine with what you do do it, some of my friends are really good snowboarders, when skiing became popular again some of them got skis and tried that again. Well, they sucked compared to boarding, so most of them never touched the skis again. (just one of them seems to be a genius, hes as fast as me with the board and looks really good on skis, without a minute of learning to ski)
Theres no difference between someone on teles or alpines if you get stuck in a flat part. For touring the naxos or freerides are better than most telebindings for touring. With Adrenalins my Boots are even lighter … Both beat the board of course, but an intelligent riding style like subs girl is doing it can get her over most of the flat parts.

[klar]

whoa. i shouldn't have cried "engarde" if i wasn't ready for the riposte

that´s how you learn from your mistakes

What's red and looks good on a Hippy ?

Wir wollen Blumen brennen sehen
Sandalen rennen sehen
Grinsende halbe Hemden flennen sehen
...

Franz Klammer, what´s wrong? aren´t you feeling those gooood vibrations?

[klar]

and yes, of course it´s all good. whatever does it for you, all of the snowsliding devices have advantages. it´s purely a matter of personal preference. i enjoy alpine skiing. i have never snowboarded enough to be good enough to enjoy it and all i ever got from it was bruises. as someone else put it though, a good snowboarder in a powder run is not just snowboarding, he is "surfing the clouds". big happy family.

oh, and burny, why is it that on a flat part with deep snow i am always the one breaking a trail and the skiers tagging along far behind? i´ll give you the point about the touring bindings, there are some good tele set ups (i wantwantwant the new g3 one) but they tend to be a bit heavier.

[burny]

and yes, of course it´s all good. whatever does it for you, all of the snowsliding devices have advantages. it´s purely a matter of personal preference. i enjoy alpine skiing. i have never snowboarded enough to be good enough to enjoy it and all i ever got from it was bruises. as someone else put it though, a good snowboarder in a powder run is not just snowboarding, he is "surfing the clouds". big happy family.

oh, and burny, why is it that on a flat part with deep snow i am always the one breaking a trail and the skiers tagging along far behind? i´ll give you the point about the touring bindings, there are some good tele set ups (i wantwantwant the new g3 one) but they tend to be a bit heavier.

thats because those hippies usually smoke sooo much dope they can easily be persuaded to do so

[bbirtle]

mobility in the flats or traverses is the only advantage to skiing, imho. and that is where teles must have and advantage over alpine skis. go figure.

...

ok, hit me with it. what's the difference? one lesson?

"About two weeks" is my punchline but I'd accept that as a winning answer too.

Brian's Gear Guide
For downhill powder days, I'd vote a snowboard hands down.

The biggest advantage of skis is ~freedom~ - not only little flat spots but with skis and skins, if you've got snow you can get across it, whether it's uphill, downhill, flat, a powder day, or icy. Although snowshoes and splitboards help, skis are an extremely effective mountaineering tool for travel in snow. You'll rarely if ever see a snowboarder do Mont Blanc, Monte Rosa, the Haute Route, etc. and in glaciated or unknown terrain the skis give you more ability to bail back uphill or traverse around the nastiness.

Skis are also widely considered to be far safer than a snowboard with regard to crevasess. Anytime you must take off your board and walk you should really be traveling roped up as your lowered surface area makes a hidden snow bridge much more dangerous.

Alpine is likewise better in mountaineering and touring than telemarking, IMO. Like splitboards and snowshoes, the right gear can help, but your basic tele-setup is not going to allow attaching "ski crampons", is not going to give you near as much comfort and heel adjustable support. And the soft toe boot makes front pointing in crampons or climbing mixed rock/ice very strenuous and damaging on the crampons.

The ideal for me is to use the snowboard for the pow days, the AT skis for touring, and the tele skis occasionally as something else fun to learn and do. But time and money aren't endless so I've compromised with the AT skis so far.

[Ripzalot]

absolutely. ski mountaineering is a whole nuther realm. i'm just a lowly resort rider.

[bbirtle]

Yeah well word on the street is that Ripzalot rips. A lot. I'm more a climber that also likes to ski.

[jfk]

i´ll give you the point about the touring bindings, there are some good tele set ups (i wantwantwant the new g3 one) but they tend to be a bit heavier.

they're still lighter than all those fritschis and naxos tho. plus, tele rules!
btw, have you found a replacement for your work stinxes yet? if not, check www.sport-conrad.de, or pm me, i might have an addy of some really good place to get cheap skis.

[TeleAl]

The thread is adrift.

They make crampons for tele bindings.
http://www.telemark-pyrenees.com/sho...6152e06a196d37

[subtle plague]

let's get this baby back on course !
possible snow down to 2000m during the weekend and i'd say up to 50 cm new above 2500 (in certain areas as the alps are not that small . due to the nature of the weather pattern the precip is not really forecastable)

and here is a really cool radar link.
let's hope it makes it through to the wintertime. (probably not. because the euro weather services demand gazillions for radar data )

http://www.meteox.com/

[Ripzalot]

let's get this baby back on course !
possible snow down to 2000m during the weekend and i'd say up to 50 cm new above 2500 (in certain areas as the alps are not that small . due to the nature of the weather pattern the precip is not really forecastable)

and here is a really cool radar link.
let's hope it makes it through to the wintertime. (probably not. because the euro weather services demand gazillions for radar data )

http://www.meteox.com/

thanks for that. the loop 24 hours will come in handy.

can't say i appreciate the precip during mtb season tho!

[bbirtle]

Snow, shomoh! I want to go climbing! It's frigging August fer chrissake!

Doing my rain dance...

[bbirtle]

Yeah well the novelty of skiing in August sort of wore off and now I'm positively itching to get on some granite, having sat in front of the computer and watched it rain and be miserable for more than a week. I even have the weekend off for the first time in a month but it's looking like a get drunk and watch DVDs kind of weekend...

[subtle plague]

snow down to 1800m at the titlis

http://www.titlis.ch/001tit_0102_de.htm

[Ripzalot]

snow down to 1800m at the titlis

http://www.titlis.ch/001tit_0102_de.htm

wie viel?

btw i love that new radar. thanks for that!

[TeleAl]

thanks for that. the loop 24 hours will come in handy.

Bravo on that link.

Snowed to Edit = 1800m last night.

[Franz Klammer]

It's about time to see some real snow in this thread so here are some pictures from the weekend - subtle gets to guess which mountain it is:









We should have brought the skis ...

[Ripzalot]

well, if it's left to subtle to guess then it can probably only be one...

dachstein.


i kinda already knew tho..

[subtle plague]

hehe im being reduced to a a kripp groupie....

i skied cham and engelberg too this season.

edit: the snow doesn't look too bad after the horrible july. but i guess the dump in august was pretty good for the glacier.

btw. summer's officially over. it won't get warm again. so glaciers: rejoice. and it will snow down to 2500m quite often in the next week. let's see if fall delivers us a good base or not

[Incompetent Boob]

Summer is over, wtf? Summer is supposed to be 3-4 months of warm to hot weather, not 6 weeks. How long before anything decent is going in the alps usually?
Word on the street was they are opening (have opened?) an indoor slope near here, sickness. I might make a trip if they have some rails set-up. Might.

[greg]

i skied cham too this season.

yes you did. but how long did it take me to persuade you? or wasn't it me but your pure desperation that for once within the last 5 years everything else was shut down this day?

franz - glad to see you went all roped..

[hemas]

IB, where yua livin'?


If you happen to live on the western edge and north of Köln, Landgraaf in NL ain't that far off. And they defo have small jumps and rails there.

More info here