Horribly sad this . . . http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-20682608

Shows how dangerous a playground the mountains can be, no matter how experienced you are.

 

Awful Dunk

 

Aye not good, my next door neighbours mate disappeared in Cham a while back, left a wife and kids.

 

Horrible, she was working there and very experienced too, so easily done.

Mine was literally heading down the slope as fast as I could possibly go (declared it my last run of the holiday too, typical) and somehow the board stopped dead, must have caught some ice on a thin layer of snow and chucked me forward quite a distance but my knee went the second the board stopped, heard it pop, did all the ligaments other than the ACL but managed to over stretch it so may as well snapped them all.

 

That's bad! So many deaths and serious injuries in Cham.

Can't believe we all walked out OK after 6 seasons there. OK, i broke my back and the year before ribs. A friend fell over 30m down a crevass and came out unscathed.

 

A 20 year old french girl, and a ferrari test driver died in avalanches last week, and a 40 year old english guy was buried for 30 minutes yesterday in an avalanche in Tignes (the Sache unpisted area for those who know it), and had a cardiac arrest, but they got his heart going again and he's currently recovering in hospital in Grenoble.

1.5.m of snow in just over a week, 60cm forecast between now and Tuesday with more to follow after that, plus a spell of rain for a day in the middle. All makes for very unstable slabs and while the pisteurs do their best you never quite know.

I'm off there a week tomorrow and suspect that I will be avoiding the off piste this time as it's just too dangerous at the moment... but with the pistes almost like off piste at the moment anyway, it's going to be good


photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/123_456/

 

Nah, bit of T Cut and... oops = wrong thread

 

sache is a brilliant run, it was breaking up badly last March with small ava's dropping onto the lower slopes

 

Off to meribel in about 3 hours. First one of the season and just a little excited. Well like a 5 year old on Christmas morning. Amazes me after 15 years of boarding I'm still like it.

 

It is a good run normally and I'm sure the powder was very tempting, but...There was a big slide at the pisted bit of it up near Aigulle Percee earlier in the week and Brevieres isn't open until this weekend officially because of the overhangs so this guy and his 5 other mates were asking for it to some extent. They were well over to the left as you go down - closer to the stream.

 

It was high ava risk last year too.

 

If I go off-piste, I normally go with my mate who is well versed in Avalanche risk. Shovels carried and RECCO avalanche detectors worn.
Always wait a day for the new snow to settle and take note of risk factors.
Mind you, this all began after an incident in which he was buried for 30 min in an avalanche.
Lucky for him it was dry snow.

 

All 6 including the guy buried had all the kit which is probably why he survived (just) but, kit or not, they were stupid to be over there IMHO

I've skied off piste for 25 years. Not just snow settling - it's all about slabs and temperature changes ( risk factors as you say)so it could be a day and then fine, or it might be fine for 5 days and then it goes if some thing else changes. Scary stuff - a friend was swept away in a big one and luckily for him he popped up near the end of the slide, or rather it popped him up, in a sitting position buried to his waist and he still couldn't move or dig himself out as it set like concrete around him. Really gave him the ******* as until then he believed all the guff about try and swim to the top as you're going down and clear a breathing space if buried etc and he could do nothing during the slide or when it finally stopped. He didn't ski for a few weeks after that.

 

nothing to do with above but i spent a stunning day at aviemore, perfect conditions.

i manged to fall on the only patches of solid ice around, and suffered badly yesterday!!

 

Just finished three days in 3 valleys, snow is great, new powder everyday, quiet lifts and pistes and lots of untouched runs about late morning.

About to leave but only 4 weeks till the next one.

 

Excellent - 5 days til we arrive - trying not to look at webcams every 2 minutes...

 

Well just back from Chamonix, hired a guide and did the Vallee Blanche, avalance risk was 3 but its not steep enough to be of any risk, however the many snow bridges we had to traverse over crevasses were. First time I have ever had to wear a harness and carry an ice axe. Guide had ice screws, rope and various caribena's incase we went in. We all had tranceivers and you needed crampons just to get to the area. Will sort some pics and post them up.

 

I'll be snowboarding in about an hour ;-) The joys of living in a resort!
Conditions are okay but a week of snow has made it grainy and icy in places. Looking at a dusting over the weekend, missing the powder!

I was in Chamonix last year, moved to LAP in Early December, here till May then off to Morzine for the summer to ride/race my bike.

 

I skied in Selva two weeks ago -- best conditions I can remember (no ice and 'Squeaky' snow )

 

Driving to La Plagne at Easter.

Accomodation is from Sunday to Sunday, drive down Saturday, stay in Albertville and ski 3 valleys on Sunday before moving on to La Plagne.

Will get olympic gondala from Brides I guess.

 

Heading out to Mayrhofen in approx 12 hours time.

Excited much?


yep yep!!

 

:-)

 

I'm driving to La Plagne this Friday . Two trucks, 8 lads and 8 days skiing/boarding. That's the plan anyway..
First night will be spent sleeping in the trucks as we don't get keys to the chalet until Saturday afternoon. The idea is we all take second bags with ski stuff to change into so we can hit the slopes on Saturday morning.. Can't wait

 

It's going to be bloody cold staying in a truck, it was about -20 when I woke up. Where are you guys staying in the chalet? We've had a little bit of snow recently but not enough. Also, parking is a right putain! French Holidays.

 

You must've done the tourist route then. There's plenty of steep stuff up there.

 

Mayrhoffen is ready good.

My mum just got back from Jasna (Slovakia) last week. Had a fab time and the best snow she's had in 10+yrs having been to france, Switzerland x3/4, Austria x3/4, Andorra and Canada.

 

Yes, it's been a bumper year for many resorts.

Good for the smaller resorts, not so good for the larger resorts.

 

nope was on a board so guide took us different route so there was reduced chance of poling

 

Yeh I realise it'll be feezing. Some of the lads i'm going with also went to the same place at Xmas and stopped at the same chalet. We'll be sleeping first night in the underground carpark. Front and back seats of the Pathfinders recline. We'll chook the bags out to maximise space inside. Put it this way, i'm taking a sleeping bag and pillow purely for the first night!
At 41 i'm too old to sleep in cars but sod it, for one night only.. (Or half a night as we don't get there until around 3am).
Staying in Belle Plagne.

Nick

 

Long shot but anyone ever been to Red Mountain resort in Rossland, British Colombia?
Could have opportunity to go in January and having absolutely loved Canada ( snowboarded in Banff) it'd be silly not to go.