toast21602 Posted January 31, 2018 Report Posted January 31, 2018 Is this a gaper-specific area? Sure sounds like it. 1 1 Quote
eaf Posted January 31, 2018 Author Report Posted January 31, 2018 50 minutes ago, toast21602 said: Is this a gaper-specific area? Sure sounds like it. Sure, I guess that's how gaper places look, most are on Atomic racing skis, $1K a pair, and shops testing skis from 2020. Quote
GSSucks Posted January 31, 2018 Report Posted January 31, 2018 18 minutes ago, eaf said: Sure, I guess that's how gaper places look, most are on Atomic racing skis, $1K a pair, and shops testing skis from 2020. Does it matter that they are $1k a pair? Or future skis? If you can ski, you can ski on a 2x4 and have fun and make it look good. Though I do agree with you that most people in Europe are on pretty skinny skis, it seemed to me that most were on skis 80-100mm range and most of them shredded on them. Even skiing groomers in Chaminox was a bit scary, they are steep and fast as hell! All of that being said, I cant wait to get back! Quote
eaf Posted January 31, 2018 Author Report Posted January 31, 2018 Nah, not here. Almost nobody is skiing piste on anything wider than the lower 80s. You probably freerode a lot with a guide, judging by your thread, and that's a completely different story. The gapers must've all learnt how to speak German, as it's close to impossible to hear a conversation in English on the lifts. Many don't speak English at all. So brush up on your German skills if you care about not looking like a gaper in Arlberg in between snowstorms. Those extra mm of waist won't help. Anyway, today we didn't venture too far from the home zone, and were able to find a cluster of trails that remained in pristine condition throughout the day. The key was to avoid migration paths and stay on more challenging terrain. Even though crowds are very light, trails that are parts of some route see more people that tend to slide more, and that destroys the snow. Unfortunately the weather is changing. It's gonna snow tomorrow, and the weather was already party cloudy to cloudy today. When it gets cloudy, you can't see a thing here, and skiing slows to a crawl. Literally, can't see a thing. Haven't experienced this before, so am a little worried about tommorow. I ditched my Vantage 83mm in favour of Doubledecker Redster GS 72mm, and couldn't be happier with the switch. I thought I was okay on Vantage until I've tried Redster. Sooo easy at speed, slicing through rough snow like it's not there, grippy on scraped slopes and trivial to start/switch turns. My friend is on Redster SL, and while it's great in the mornings, it's getting pretty tiring in the afternoons. Not on these GS. No new pictures today, as the Alps remain as beautiful as the were prior this week. The snowman is real snow. 4 Quote
JFskiDan Posted January 31, 2018 Report Posted January 31, 2018 Sounds pretty horrible that its gonna snow tomorrow. 2 2 Quote
Shadows Posted January 31, 2018 Report Posted January 31, 2018 Really though, looks loke everything is above treeline. That shit is sketch in whiteout/fog. Quote
GrilledSteezeSandwich Posted January 31, 2018 Report Posted January 31, 2018 5 hours ago, eaf said: It's funny that you ask... Let me give you a perspective of what people are on here... About 2% or less is the share of snowboarders. I've seen only one guy who was on 184 skis, everybody else is on 175 or shorter. I'd say that the majority of skis have width in the 70s. Plenty of folks on slaloms in the 60s. The percentage of people on skis that are wider than lower 80s is even less than the percentage of snowboarders. Yeah, sometimes you run into someone on clearly powder skis, but that someone would be an exception to the rule and he looks like a lost puppy. It hasn't snowed for a week. Brandwise 50% of people are on various flavours of Atomic. Handmade in Austria clearly dominates the market. Then come Heads, but not Monsters, rather Supershapes, Rebels, things like that. Some Fischers, mostly RC4, but older models. I've seen only one recent Curv. Volkl is represented by Racetiger. I've seen one pair of Kendos and zero RTMs. Stocklis are there, but I haven't seen Lasers. Kastles can be found, but are rare. Also they're mostly LXs, I've seen only one pair of MX on the slopes, and I've been really looking. Nordica is rare too. Mostly NRGY. Nobody has heard of Enforcers or Navigators. Wow all gapers...in JH I saw someone on 78 underfoot rentals..but he was a Jerry Quote
GrilledSteezeSandwich Posted January 31, 2018 Report Posted January 31, 2018 No gapers at St. Anton 1 Quote
Shadows Posted January 31, 2018 Report Posted January 31, 2018 At least one human centipede though Quote
GrilledSteezeSandwich Posted January 31, 2018 Report Posted January 31, 2018 1 minute ago, Shadows said: At least one human centipede though Butt to nuts lol..just like salty and Ski2Live on a tobaggan 1 Quote
eaf Posted February 1, 2018 Author Report Posted February 1, 2018 Today was I Forgot How To Ski Day. The forecast was right on the money. 100% clouds, snow starting in the morning and accumulating to about a foot by 4pm. It was close to impossible to ski right from the very beginning. All is white, we couldn't see a thing. No horizon anywhere, mountains have all dissolved in the milk, and the worst part - we couldn't see terrain and snow below us. We picked the widest trails of all and went down them multiple times making reeeeeally wide turns marker to marker, for the markers were the only thing we could make out. It was good that we studied the map by now and learnt some trails really well, but even so, the sensation of feeling the terrain with your legs rather than your eyes was hard to swallow. In fact some of us just felt sick of being constantly and unexpectedly thrown around. By about noon there was enough snow on the ground so that we decided to ditch piste skis and went for whatever else they could give us, which turned out to be Dynastar 90/180. That stopped sinking and entertained us for some time with the new sensation of floating on top and silent skiing. Too bad that didn't fix the visibility. At one point I went to an almost virgin red trail that I was zooming through all day yesterday, tried to cautiously ski it down while sinking almost to knees, and suddenly in the beginning of a right turn started to feel weightless. Tried hitting the brakes, but nothing happened. As far as I could tell, I was supposed to stop already, for nothing was moving around me anyway, but yet the weightlessness didn't quite correlate with that. Turned out I was falling to the right and back, until I hit the snow and my skis ejected. All was due to a sudden and unseen change of pitch in that part of the trail. By 3 the mountain was completely empty. Whoever ventured to the slopes today called it quits. The guy at the ski shop only chuckled at us saying that while he loves to ski powder, he prefers to do it the day after the snowfall. Tomorrow's gonna be cloudy in the morning changing to partly cloudy in the afternoon. I kinda hope it won't be this milky again, and we'll be able to pick up some speed. Quote
eaf Posted February 1, 2018 Author Report Posted February 1, 2018 Driving home wasn't fun, but luckily when we descended some 500m, the roads became better, and it clearly didn't snow that much there. 2 Quote
GrilledSteezeSandwich Posted February 1, 2018 Report Posted February 1, 2018 (edited) 4 hours ago, eaf said: Today was I Forgot How To Ski Day. The forecast was right on the money. 100% clouds, snow starting in the morning and accumulating to about a foot by 4pm. It was close to impossible to ski right from the very beginning. All is white, we couldn't see a thing. No horizon anywhere, mountains have all dissolved in the milk, and the worst part - we couldn't see terrain and snow below us. We picked the widest trails of all and went down them multiple times making reeeeeally wide turns marker to marker, for the markers were the only thing we could make out. It was good that we studied the map by now and learnt some trails really well, but even so, the sensation of feeling the terrain with your legs rather than your eyes was hard to swallow. In fact some of us just felt sick of being constantly and unexpectedly thrown around. By about noon there was enough snow on the ground so that we decided to ditch piste skis and went for whatever else they could give us, which turned out to be Dynastar 90/180. That stopped sinking and entertained us for some time with the new sensation of floating on top and silent skiing. Too bad that didn't fix the visibility. At one point I went to an almost virgin red trail that I was zooming through all day yesterday, tried to cautiously ski it down while sinking almost to knees, and suddenly in the beginning of a right turn started to feel weightless. Tried hitting the brakes, but nothing happened. As far as I could tell, I was supposed to stop already, for nothing was moving around me anyway, but yet the weightlessness didn't quite correlate with that. Turned out I was falling to the right and back, until I hit the snow and my skis ejected. All was due to a sudden and unseen change of pitch in that part of the trail. By 3 the mountain was completely empty. Whoever ventured to the slopes today called it quits. The guy at the ski shop only chuckled at us saying that while he loves to ski powder, he prefers to do it the day after the snowfall. Tomorrow's gonna be cloudy in the morning changing to partly cloudy in the afternoon. I kinda hope it won't be this milky again, and we'll be able to pick up some speed. Is there any tree skiing or tree lined runs? How many total days are you skiing for?? What kind of car did you rent? Edited February 1, 2018 by GrilledSteezeSandwich Quote
toast21602 Posted February 2, 2018 Report Posted February 2, 2018 Good day for Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote
eaf Posted February 2, 2018 Author Report Posted February 2, 2018 18 hours ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said: Is there any tree skiing or tree lined runs? How many total days are you skiing for?? What kind of car did you rent? There are plenty of free runs here. Some areas are marked as no go on the map, but everywhere else you can dive if you dare. See the tiny specks on the ridge in the first picture? They climb before they go. That could've been you. See happy folks boarding helicopter on the second one? Yeah, I wouldn't dare. The guy on the fourth is about to dive ungroomed red slope on powder. There are ungroomed slope runs and tree skiing too, but trees are there only in the lower part of the mountains. We skied 5 days so far, and will add another two hours tomorrow morning. It's gonna snow again, and so I'm not optimistic. Then we'll hit castles in Germany. The car is VW Golf hatchback FWD with winter tires. Feels glued to the road. Even in the yesterday's storm. We rented chains, but didn't have to use them. Infotainment cluster sucks. And for some reason it throws a warning and a single beep every time I exceed 30km/h apparently due to winter tires. I don't understand the logic behind it. 3 Quote
GrilledSteezeSandwich Posted February 2, 2018 Report Posted February 2, 2018 Wow heli skiing would be awesome. Something on my bucket list. Nice pictures Eaf..we'll see you at Blue next week. Quote
toast21602 Posted February 2, 2018 Report Posted February 2, 2018 9 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said: Wow heli skiing would be awesome. Something on my bucket list. Nice pictures Eaf..we'll see you at Blue next week. same. I'm thinking when I'm done with school I'll treat myself... unless the opportunity comes up before that. Quote
Shadows Posted February 2, 2018 Report Posted February 2, 2018 I've done reverse heli skiing. Wouldn't recommend. 2 1 Quote
saltyant Posted February 2, 2018 Report Posted February 2, 2018 36 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said: Wow heli skiing would be awesome. Something on my bucket list. Nice pictures Eaf..we'll see you at Blue next week. You're welcome to come heli skiing at Verbier with me and Matt Edge next year. Do you know if Verbier has a singles line or VIP line for the helicopter? Quote
eaf Posted February 2, 2018 Author Report Posted February 2, 2018 Lift theme continues... What's wrong with this one? Quote
eaf Posted February 2, 2018 Author Report Posted February 2, 2018 32 minutes ago, toast21602 said: Nothing. Where are the chairs coming from? 1 Quote
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