hello,

hmm, difficult question, i wonder if there is a real answer to that
question...

i am snowboarding for about 7 or 8 years now. before i was skiing, the only
i reason i stopped skiing was that my boot was too small and i had to decide
wheather to buy a new pair of skis or a snowboard. we did a snowboard course
and i decided to start with snowboarding.

i would say that today i can snowboard pretty good, and last year i had the
feeling of no further possible advancement in snowboarding. i was only going
faster and faster... and for that i wanted to try out skiing again. before
christmas i bought a new pair of skiing-boots. its awesome, skiing is as
well great fun. (i love snowboarding again as well..... there is always
possible improvement.... know i know :-))

i dont know if skiing or snowboarding is easier, for me snowboarding was
(but i knew how to ski).

another thing is that, i learnd classic skiing, there was no carving at my
time... and snowboarding was totally different at this point. things
changed... i love both, at the moment i prefer my board for
freeriding/backcountry and the skis for the slopes, but i want to learn that
i can handle the skis in backcountry aswell (so that i can enjoy it). at the
moment i dont know what carving with skis is like, because im not able to
carve them, but i have a feeling that carving is better with 1 board : )


---3. I understand that virtually all ski resorts now welcome snowboarders
as
well. But are there any "skiers only" trails or slopes?

i as well never heard something like that.

skiing and snowboarding, there is no competition.... and so there is as well
no problem to spend your holidays with a mixed group, not at all a problem.


--- I'm leaning toward snowboarding (freeride, not freestyle), for
a couple of reasons.

i have a question... what do you mean by freeride? snowboarding differs 2
different types of binding/boots... freestyle and alpine. is alpine what you
mean by freeride? i dont know the expression freeride for alpine... never
heard


so long, enjoy your winterdays

chris