Skiing vs Snowboard

Hello

Was browsing the forum and thought i would drop by and say hello and pick your brains!!

Me and the boyf are looking to take the plunge into skiing/boarding this years and complete beginners. I know this has been asked 1 million times but booking up resorts is soo hard if you dont know where is godo or bad

We have narrowed it down to

Niedearau
Soll
Sellfeld
Yllas Finland
Bankso

Can anyone shed some light on the best place to go for beginners. Ideally looking for
Short Transfer Time
Good non skiing activities
Bars for the evening beers (although not mega lively)

Also whats best snowboarding ot Skiing?

Hi Welcome to J2ski there is no better or worse as the two are completely different experiences. (Other than the joy of fresh air and being in the mountains. Both will argue their corner.

For beginers I think its best to look at the differances.
The Learning curve is completly different (although with modern skies its getting closer.)

With skiing you will be able to move about straight away and should improve to a standard that you can get around the mountain a little bit on easy runs within a few days however once you have the basics and move into what would be termed intermidiate you may find the progression slows down and in some instances you can plateu off.

Boarding is completely the opposite you spend the first three days sitting on you backside and falling over getting covered in bruises however once the basics are mastered many people go on to improve to a reasonable standard quite quickly.

From a personal perspective I never really took to Boarding mainly because i was already a pretty good skier and want to use all available time out on exploring the mountain and im also a coward and I have seen too many boarding related injuries. It might be worth trying both and seeing which one you prefer.

I await the responses contradicting all this. :)

Hello

Thanks for your responses, i think i may have to pursuade the other half that skiing is the way to go, i dont fancy toooo many bruises

Have you any preferences on resorts, im finidng it very very hard to pick a few

Resort wise Zell am See is good. Nice area with lots to do off the mountain to and good nightlife. I alwasy get there at least once in a season (as well as visitng new resorts).

Dave

We board and ski and have had 5 trips to Seefeld. Always suited us as relative beginners. Have done Ruka/Finland and enjoyed it so much we are doing it again next year with a second week to Yllas.

Finland is expensive and dark. Ylas is inside the a Arctic Circle for goodness sake.

Boarding is darker still. Short modern skis are snowboards but you don't have to learn as if you're in a three legged race with you legs shackled.

Shame about the short transfer requirement because Andorra sounds right up your street.

Check out the Arc 1950 thread for another suggestion but for a short transfer you need to go via Chambery.

http://www.j2ski.com/ski-chat-forum/posts/list/8/6847.page#54219

How can I argue that boarding is best? I can't as I've never skied. So I will argue it's merits rather than it's possible superiority.

Jonah is completely right, unless a natural it is knackering, painful and difficult to learn with no snow experience.

Ski resorts were not designed for snowboarders, but progressive modern resorts certainly cater to them.

Snowboarders are often treated with some contempt from the older hardcore skiers. Would not include any of the lovely people here of course, but try a pull lift on a glacier in August and you will see.


Snowboarding is fixed, no bail-out, no ISO settings, the only level of security is your speed, ability and resilance. For this reason it is very personal, your limit lies where you feel comfortable and your unlimited pleasure is fractions away.

Snowboarding requires concentration to get by and an abandonance of it to enjoy.

It is less likely to injure your knees.

There is less to carry.

You can walk around in the boots.

......and it's bloody great :)

I have learned both, snowboarding is good on certain days but skiing wins 90% of the time.