TR/Vid Courchevel late season off-piste

AllyG wrote: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

I'm gonna lay an Ally trap today :wink: I'm not gonna tell you when it will be though :lol:

AllyG wrote:

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

Bear in mind that this is actually probably a good plan...!

To explain (and I am always wary of getting techy on the internet as people often interpret things the wrong way..! (as per me above)):
If you 'carve' in powder then you are going to go fast (as 'carvy' skiing by its nature involves speed). Do you want to ski fast in powder (to start with) or do you want to cruise at a mellow pace?
If you are going fast round curves in powder then there tends to be greater pressure build-up which you have to be able to deal with to stop one (or both) skis sinking (un)predictably. This needs very quick reactions (unless you are on uber-fat "cheat-sticks"). Also extra speed mean any changes in terrain/snow consistency etc come at you faster, so unless your reactions/agility can keep up with this then life will be 'interesting'.
Powder skiing does require a minimum amount of momentum, but in reality a 'skiddy' turn s often the best way to come at it until you really start to develop the 'feel' for skiing on a soft platform...

Thanks Offpisteskiing,
I will continue to do my slidy turns until I discover, or I am taught, a better way of doing them. I certainly don't want to catapult over the front of my skis by misjudging a carving turn at speed :cry:

I do feel rather like a puck in shuffle board when I'm doing them, because I have the strange sensation of feeling like I'm not going to be able to stop, and I have to judge them fairly carefully or I know I'll spin round too far. But looking at the others falling over in my ski lesson, it's very comforting to know that I'm not the only one who has difficulty ski-ing in powder :lol:

I suppose I will gradually improve with practice :D

Ian,
I'm not going to answer any of your posts today, in case I fall in your 'Ally trap' :lol:

Ally

I guess I'm very much the same as Ally, enjoy taking the kids on unpisted runs as opposed to off piste, I tend to invest most of my time and money encouraging and giving
the opportunity to my daughter to improve her skiing and have been threatening over the last couple of years to invest in my self and learn some off piste skills but as of yet I have
done nothing about it. So I definitely think for next season I will book myself a couple of lessons in tackling the great unknown.

get some 90mm skis too-makes it much for enjoyable!
btw i meant to ask ian were you in bormio at all this year?

rossyhead wrote:get some 90mm skis too-makes it much for enjoyable!
btw i meant to ask ian were you in bormio at all this year?

I think my skis are 81 mm and unfortunately Rossy I did not get over to Bormio this trip and stayed in Livigno skiing the so called Blacks :shock: , although we did have a couple of
powder days which were great fun.
What are your intentions for next season back to Bormio or pastures new

ahhh ok im sure i saw a large group of folks that seemed (in my head) to fit how you would look! i got over to livigno a fair bit towards the end of the season-the day before we left (monday 12th) we spent there and had a blast at the apres ski!

Not sure what im doing, depends how well i like being back in gloomy glasgow and how my work pans out-not liking it right now but will give it til october half term and assess then! been aksed back but would need to quit, is tempting though, could do a season instructing with a mate in oz after!

rossyhead wrote:ahhh ok im sure i saw a large group of folks that seemed (in my head) to fit how you would look! i got over to livigno a fair bit towards the end of the season-the day before we left (monday 12th) we spent there and had a blast at the apres ski!

Not sure what im doing, depends how well i like being back in gloomy glasgow and how my work pans out-not liking it right now but will give it til october half term and assess then! been aksed back but would need to quit, is tempting though, could do a season instructing with a mate in oz after!

I was there March 7th and could be found most nights in Bellavista and the Bar Agata, and there was only me and Mrs W travelling this time 8)