ICE - how common?

Interesting thread, mostly for good reasons.

I'm certainly interested to hear what people have to say concerning varying conditions.

I'm pretty inexperienced having only skied freshly pisted new snow under blue skies up until last year.

Next trip consisted of some of that but also slushy snow, rippled concrete snow, and some visibility such that on the chair lifts you couldn't see one support tower from the next.

I'm back to Les Gets in a couple of weeks and so far reports are of negligible new snow in weeks and hard packed snow on the runs. Hence anything I can soak up from here means I could be better prepared when I get there. (Especially after a minor head injury in the party last time out in good snow.)

So although the odd old hand may find this topic less than captivating it is certainly of interest to others so cheers Emma. :thumbup:

On the banter topic I'm new here but have moderated another forum. We had huge amounts of pretty aggressive but tongue in cheek banter and felt that the overall freedom stopped real flair ups of aggro. However as the newbie it is hard to tell the difference between long standing in-jokes, banter, minor irritation and full on aggro. This thread seemed to cover all of them in a couple of posts!

I was surprised partly as so far everything I've read on J2Ski seemed fun or constructive but also because this topic deals with safety. When people are looking out for their safety and those they ski with why would you mess with that?

Skiers generally being a thick skinned lot though I hope it wouldn't ultimately put anyone off asking what others may perceive as daft questions though.

Cheers all,

Owen.

rippled concrete snow

Owen, thanks for your input.

I've never heard of this type of snow... can you enlighten me?! I'm intrigued. :lol:

EmmaEvs wrote:

rippled concrete snow

Owen, thanks for your input.

I've never heard of this type of snow... can you enlighten me?! I'm intrigued. :lol:

Nasty bloody stuff I tell you!

Imagine a smooth innocent bit of piste, flat as you like but with the odd bit of chopped track from previous skiers.

Now imagine those tracks have morphed into solid granite for no apparent reason so any reasonable attempt to nonchalantly glide over them sends ones skis clattering into each other and much pointing and laughing from onlookers as said skier wipes out on the easiest bit of the hill... :oops:

As I say, nasty devious stuff, probably banned in the Geneva convention somewhere.

Owen.

Sorry. I have to admit to chuckling at that! Well it's a new one on me. Never heard of rippled concrete snow before. It seems the demon ice has discovered a way of evolving into a new and even more cunning enemy :lol:

Glad to be of service...

Perhaps if you'd glare at this demon for a while he'd melt?

[Off Topic stuff removed - use PMs please - Adders]

Marksman wrote:Perhaps if you'd glare at this demon for a while he'd melt?

I do believe you've inadvertently stumbled upon a solution. Chef's blowtorches. Hit a patch of ice. Get to work with the blowtorch, comb it over with a miniature rake. Job's a good 'un. Obviously it'll be too late for the first person who encountered the ice, but the satisfaction of foiling the demon's evil plan would be pretty good.

Good intentions Emma, like your style. :thumbup:




Personally I'd rather return with a tank and gently massage the offending snow lump-let back into the mountain.

I tried to melt ice with an oxyacetalyne torch once and was amazed at how much energy it took.

Owen.