Distance of the 3 Vallees Route

funkraum wrote:
Ace wrote:

Ian Spare


I see that FaceWest sell the Orotovox Inclinometer :

http://www.facewest.co.uk/Products%2...ccessoreis.htm

Got one built-in on my compass (Suunto). Much easier.



You will find all the very best skiers carry a Suunto
compass/clinometer.


No they don't.. .I don't have one, I've two Silva compasses.. oh.. I
see where you're going with that.....

, Rob Nicholson writes
T-bars are an exception of course, most of them climb at an angle close
to the vertical:-)

Esp. the one at the side of the Tiger @ Glen Shee!! I can feel my legs
hurting already..


But how long is it? The glacier T-bar at Zermatt is as near flat as
makes no difference, but it's so long that your skis wear out, never
mind your legs.
And due to relativity, when you finish you're three minutes younger than
when you started and your clothes have gone out of fashion.
--
Sue 8];(

But how long is it? The glacier T-bar at Zermatt is as near flat as

I don't think it's actually that long but it feels like it goes on for ever.
Not helped by the fact that it always seems to be just ice, now snow, so you
have to keep those thigh muscles locked...

Rob.

"James Hart" wrote in message
...

Righty ho, you've skied 1.15 miles on that 1 mile run but what about me,
zig
zagging my way along at a reasonable pace or my friends merrily snow
ploughing away behind me doing 50 yards across the piste for every 20
yards
they're doing down the piste? Is there any rough 'n' ready reckoning for
working this into the equation?

I reckon most of my troop would have been skiing double the length of most
slopes compared to the straight line approach and have guessed an average
day's skiing at about 10-15 miles per day. Would this sound about right
for
a bunch of late 20 somethings doing most of the day on blues and reds
going
at the pace of the slowest at about 2 weeks experience?
We sat down with the map and were trying to come up with a 'real' figure
based on the piste figures.


This is partly why using a GPSR is useful - you can measure the distance
actually covered. I just got back from a week in 3V, and I'm still checking
out the tracks I made, but its quite interesting looking at runs earlier in
the week compared to those later on. They definitely become straighter as
time goes on. I can even see where I took a fall on Combe Roc Mugnier.

For those new to this, a GPSR leaves a trail of 'breadcrumbs' every few
seconds or metres, or when you change direction suddenly. You can measure
the exact distances, and the paths taken, then replay the tracks over
digital maps using software applications like OziExplorer. I use these
tracks to maintain maps of a few resorts. If anyone else has any recent
tracks like this, I'd be happy to incorporate them into the maps, which in
turn, I am making publicly available.


Walter

-------
"Its all downhill from here"

"Rob Nicholson" wrote in message
...
I'm going to use my etrex (which I use for mountain bike trail
navigation)
to measure my top speed on the piste - I've always wondered......

Good idea - I'll pack mine as well. Off to Val Thoren in 3 weeks.


Rob, if you manage to save your tracks, any chance of mailing them to me so
I can update my 3V map? I haven't been over to the Val Thorens end too much
so that part of the map is a bit 'guessy'. (I made it to Les Menuires and
St. Martin last week but its a long hike from C1650).

Walter

--------
"Its all downhill from here"

Rob, if you manage to save your tracks, any chance of mailing them to me
so
I can update my 3V map? I haven't been over to the Val Thorens end too
much
so that part of the map is a bit 'guessy'. (I made it to Les Menuires and
St. Martin last week but its a long hike from C1650).

I'm not sure if I can :-) Mine is the basic bottom-of-the-range etrex and
I'm not 100% sure if it has the functionality to save tracks - never tried!
My friend, whom I bash the odd munro with, has the more upmarket model as
well as a serial link to his iPAQ which happens to have most of the north of
Scotland download to it for instant route planning. So he tends to do all
the downloading.

I'll have a go though!

Cheers, Rob.

Rob Nicholson wrote:
Rob, if you manage to save your tracks, any chance of mailing them
to me so I can update my 3V map? I haven't been over to the Val
Thorens end too much so that part of the map is a bit 'guessy'. (I
made it to Les Menuires and St. Martin last week but its a long hike
from C1650).=20
=20
I'm not sure if I can :-) Mine is the basic bottom-of-the-range etrex
and I'm not 100% sure if it has the functionality to save tracks -
never tried! My friend, whom I bash the odd munro with, has the more
upmarket model as well as a serial link to his iPAQ which happens to
have most of the north of Scotland download to it for instant route
planning. So he tends to do all the downloading.
=20
I'll have a go though!
=20
Cheers, Rob.

I've got an etrex - tracks can be saved and downloaded (buy a cable and =
get a free download of 'MyGPS'). Make sure you clear the track log =
before you start the trip, so when you finish you can save the entire =
log (into the etrex memory) - saves confusion.

--=20
cupra (remove nospam please to mail)

Sue wrote:

, Rob Nicholson writes
T-bars are an exception of course, most of them climb at an angle close
to the vertical:-)

Esp. the one at the side of the Tiger @ Glen Shee!! I can feel my legs
hurting already..


But how long is it? The glacier T-bar at Zermatt is as near flat as
makes no difference, but it's so long that your skis wear out, never
mind your legs.
And due to relativity, when you finish you're three minutes younger than
when you started and your clothes have gone out of fashion.


If it is the drag going up the left hand side of the glacier then I
find it particularly useful for target practice. One of the few ways
you can practice avoiding a spinning car in front of you on a track
(or road) is by attempting to schuss through a drag lift at speed. To
avoid the spinning car, aim at the back or it - ie where it has just
been and keep aiming there. Same with the victims on the drag lift:
Aim at where the victim has just been and keep aiming there. Your
route presents itself.

Steve Haigh wrote:

Roger wrote:

A GPS device will do this for you. And it can tell you other things like
max speed during the day. Very amusing stuff.


A bit sad though... ;-)
On a skiing holiday, on-piste in a ski resort, yes I'd say it was pretty
sad... I'd be glad of one if I got lost in the back of beyond somewhere,
but it's hardly essential kit in a ski resort. Even more sad is when
your mate uses it to calibrate the speedo in the hire car... for what
it's worth the Golf we had was reading 5kmh too high @ 130kmh...


Hmmmm......I might remain with mechanical compass/clinometer +
mechanical compass and a map. Even these are superfluous for piste
skiing.

I suppose if I was conducting some friends around a resort and wished
to make certain of not taking a wrong turning, then a GPS system might
be useful.


funk- "****ed-up old hack baffled by new technology" -raum

(Adrian D. Shaw) wrote in
:

Yn erthygl , sgrifennodd
Steve Haigh :
Either way, a 15% or 30 degree slope is steep in any language:-0

This brings up an interesting topic:
Is there a league table of steepest blacks in the Alps anywhere, with
their gradient? I'd love to know where the black down the Titlis at
Engelberg comes.

Adrian

There doesn't sem to be such a list...?

It's difficult to compare apples and oranges, some give the gradient for
the steepest part, some for the steepest part that is longer than 100
meters, some for the "main part", some for the whole piste...

But perhaps we could at least list some "famous" black runs? Some are very
well-known, steep pistes, but actually much less stepp than we are told.
Some are also so very wide that you could zig-zag down it at a much less
stepp angle.

But I think we should only have "real", marked pistes - no "ski routes"?

"Le Mur" in Avoriaz is one always said to be so very steep. But only the
top part is steep, and there are mainly the tall, icy moguls right at the
beginning that are at all any difficulty. Skiing out at the left side makes
it an ordinary piste. But does anyone know how steep it is? (the "main
part", and totally - including the very flat transport at the end...) would
be a good reference...

/Tommy P.