Thread: Alps this year
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Old February 16th 13, 08:58 PM posted to rec.skiing.resorts.europe
Ace[_3_]
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Default Alps this year

On Sat, 16 Feb 2013 09:58:51 +0000, PipL wrote:

I think I can safely say that snow isn't a problem in the Alps this year,
certainly not in Flaine.


Yeah, tons of the stuff all over the place. I imagine Flaine was
brilliant. Must get back there one of these years - having repped
and/or lead holidays there just about every year from 1999 to 2006 I
do miss the place.

I also /need/ some all-mountain skis and another week's off-piste training.


Practice. No substitute for miles under skis. Of course training is
great, but unless you do enough 'variable' snow skiing it's likely to
go to waste. Come out to Engelberg one of these years and I'll show
you what it's all about.

I also later tried a pair of Dynastar Cham-87 skis: I was suspicious of the
discreet "Rocker technology" logo, but they were fine in fluffy powder (and
there was a lot of that around), on red-run bumps and scraped-hard red home
runs, and they carved well, maybe better than the Scotts.


A lot of the current crop of skis bear such logos, but on many of them
there's no sign of ab actual rocker. My off-piste tools of the last
couple of seasons are Salomon Czars, and you can really see the front
67cm (it says it on the ski) lift well up from the snow on a flat
piste. Makes carving 'interesting' as and when the front part engages
the snow part-way through a turn ;-)

Trouble is, I was finding my powder legs afer 3-4 years of mostly on-piste
skiing using carving skis, and despite a week's off-piste traning several
years ago, I'm not that experienced, so the subjective feel of the skis might
have changed over the week and it's probably not a fair comparison. I really
liked the Scotts - a revelation in powder after my own skis, but the Dynastars
might be the better all-rounder.


Maybe you should bite the bullet and go for a more dedicated off-piste
ski, rather than trying to find one 'all-rounder'. I've only recently
re-discovered proper piste (i.e. race) skis and am blown away by them,
so I have to make a conscious choice of what I'm going to be doing
each day, but they make piste days, i.e. teaching at a reaonsbly high
level, much more fun, while for free skiing I'll nearly alwayys take
the fat rockers out and just suffer a little bit when using the
pistes. I've also got some great all-round skis in the twintip 1080
Foil from some years back - lightweight, relatively wide shovel and
tail, quite shaped, and great fun. But I'd not use them for serious
on- or off-piste stuff if I have the choice, simply because the other
ones are much better for it.

Doesn't it echo in here, now?


Heh. Does a bit. Usually pick up a few replies though, mostly from
ukrm residents.



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Ace
Ski Club of Great Britain http://www.skiclub.co.uk/
All opinions expressed are those of the poster and in no way reflect those of the Ski Club or its members
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