TR/Vid Courchevel late season off-piste

offpisteskiing wrote:Ian Wickham

Not sure if that is a subtle dig at me or if I'm being overly sensitive, but if it is then I will quite happily not take the time to post any further videos/pics here... you just say the word.

I'm sorry but I don't do subtle, and I have no idea what you are talking about :shock: :shock:

Offpisteskiing,
I'm afraid that for some unknown reason I can't see your lovely vimeo video, but the frozen picture at the start was quite enough for me!

I'd have been terrified out of my mind :shock:

I can't ski off-piste either, but I will be having lessons next year in Courchevel (if there's any off-piste to ski). I am good at typing, but not so good at ski-ing :oops:

Ian has already admitted that he's not very good at moguls (because of his knees) or the snow park (but his daughter drags him through them), so I wouldn't be at all surprised if he does need off-piste lessons. And I'm sure he wasn't trying to be subtly unpleasant - if he has something to say he usually just comes out with it :wink:

In fact, I would think that many regular posters here can't ski real off-piste.

Ally

Ally, make sure you have HD turned off if your internet is particularly slow.

AllyG wrote:
In fact, I would think that many regular posters here can't ski real off-piste.

Ally

Ally, how would you define real off-piste?

Ian Wickham ignore me... just being overly sensitive... :) (some might say thats a first!).

bandit wrote:

AllyG wrote:
In fact, I would think that many regular posters here can't ski real off-piste.

Ally

Ally, how would you define real off-piste?

Bandit, I wouldn't attempt to define off-piste, plus I can spot an Ally trap a mile off :lol:

I just know that what I have done I wouldn't count as 'real off-piste'. I have never been more than about 100 yards away from the real piste. I've been through the forest on those little tracks and over the hillocks (like sand dunes only made of snow), and in the natural half-pipes and through a small mogul field, and generally skied along the side of the piste but not further away from it than about 100 yards.

I had one instructor, once, who kept complaining about how all the pistes have been over-flattened, or whatever you're supposed to call it, and how it wasn't at all like real ski-ing, and he pretty much refused to take us on the piste at all and we had to keep ski-ing down the side of it, on the natural 'rough' or whatever it's called.

I certainly haven't been ski-ing through really steep unpisted couloirs with 3 feet of powder, or anything like that at all!

And as I said some time ago, I don't know how to carve in powder. All I do is very gently slide round, both skis pretty flat and parallel, on the surface, and pray that one ski doesn't sink and throw me over the front of my skis (again!)

Ally

No Ally traps, except those of your choosing. The point about "real" or not real is that it's all off piste. The terrain away from the piste markers is unprepared and not secured. Off piste deserves respect and requires you to make judgments for yourself.

You may choose to ski a pleasant slope between the pistes, but what's above it? Why is it not another piste?

Check your insurance policy before renewal :D

I agree with your instructor about the pistes being over flattened.

Bandit,
The only time I'm ever 'off' the piste, is during lessons - and I follow the instructor as closely as possible.

I also pay extra for the carre neige insurance (so I'm insured twice over) and I'm sure I'm covered for the sort of off the piste ski-ing I'm doing.

I'm glad to hear you're not laying 'Ally traps' for me :D

Ally