Have you skied in the dark?

bedrock barney wrote:

Snapzzz wrote:Its amazing the difference true darkness makes to the night sky, sadly there are few places in the uk that now enjoy the absence of street lighting. Sometimes when we go camping we catch a glimpse of stars and it is outstanding.

No street lighting in our village. I think we get a £30 council tax discount! If you want to walk anywhere a torch is a must.

We do get some fantastic night skies, last night was pretty good. If I wasn't spending all of my money on skiing then I'd probably invest in a telescope.

I have a decent telescope but the light is often too polluted to use it.

As to the night skiing under floodlights, I often postpone skiing on very flat light days; preferring to ski under flood lights in the evening. I find it not worth the chance of injury to ski fast in flat light.

Never tried it as it's never appealed that much and I don't think my insurance covers night skiing.

Is it much icier out there than it is first thing in a morning?

There was moonlight skiing in La Clusaz last year, no flood lights everyone was issued with a little blue flashing light, so that you could see other skiers (batteries went flat after an hour though)
was one of the biggest adrenaline rushes I have ever had, mad Frenchmen flying about as if it were daylight. It is nothing like skiing in a white out as you can define the piste unfortunately contours were somewhat more difficult leading to a few airborne moments.

I have skied the run in obergurgl which has flood lights, if i recall correctly it is 7km( could be wrong) long and happens every tuesday night for a couple of hours. The middlestation has a display from the instructors and they did ski in the dark. The run under flood lights was bashed to death and was as flat as a carpet so not dangerous at all unless you had to much liquid before hand ;-)
speaking of which..i have been in the neiderhut and watched a few pepole ski down after a few hours in the bar..i was sensible and caught the gondola so was able to ski for the rest of the week unlike somewho did ski back from the neiderhut...

Have to say its never appealed to me. They do the Sarenne by torchlight some times, depending on conditions but I just don't see the attraction. Its a bit like night skiing - I've been out all day and had some food and a few beers....why on earth would I want to go out into the cold again and not be able to see as much?

I did however ski in the dark from the Hotel Beau Soleil (next to the DMC lift) in ADH at 6pm when it had gone dark down to the old village. A combination of darkness, a rush to get back, and the 4 large beers at the Beau Soleil resulted in me getting a corner into the underpass (christened The New Tunnel Run) by the Lobster Pots horribly wrong, hitting a massive bump on the snow and careering out of control through the underpass. I managed somehow to stay on 2 feet but felt my hand get bashed. On returning to the hotel I realised my thumb was bleeding under the nail and my gloves had been gashed open on the concrete wall.
So, skiing in the drak (after 4 large beers) is not for me thanks.

Tony_H wrote:Have to say its never appealed to me. They do the Sarenne by torchlight some times, depending on conditions but I just don't see the attraction. Its a bit like night skiing - I've been out all day and had some food and a few beers....why on earth would I want to go out into the cold again and not be able to see as much?

I did however ski in the dark from the Hotel Beau Soleil (next to the DMC lift) in ADH at 6pm when it had gone dark down to the old village. A combination of darkness, a rush to get back, and the 4 large beers at the Beau Soleil resulted in me getting a corner into the underpass (christened The New Tunnel Run) by the Lobster Pots horribly wrong, hitting a massive bump on the snow and careering out of control through the underpass. I managed somehow to stay on 2 feet but felt my hand get bashed. On returning to the hotel I realised my thumb was bleeding under the nail and my gloves had been gashed open on the concrete wall.
So, skiing in the drak (after 4 large beers) is not for me thanks.

I would never suggest night skiing after four large beers ...... but you have gotta try it trust me it is good fun.

Done the organised one once, I would much prefer to ski down and then have something to eat.

Some years ago in the good old days when I had friends we went to Slovakia and found a ski lift still working at 10 at night. So up we went.

Coming down in the dark with no lights one of our party damaged her ligaments and another her shoulder, spent most of the night in hospital.