J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by steverandomno

bandit wrote:I've skied in low temps over the last two winters. Ends of fingers can split, so good gloves and some Nutrogena Hand Cream are essential for me. A balaclava is a must, with goggles.

Before Christmas met a guy from Zurich who had frostbite on his face. He was skiing in shades in still air temps of -25 ish, add on wind chill and skier speed to that. His pals thought it was quite funny.

Tried a face mask in Zermatt, could not get on with it at all :roll: Made my goggles steam up!

Watch each other's faces closely, any white bloodless patches, go inside immediately.

Something I have found works reasonably with face masks is to have a separate scarf for my neck and then ware the face mask with the bottom part loose over my chin. The idea is that it encourages the 'exhaust' from my breath to go down and out of the bottom of the loose face mask rather than up through the eye hole(s) to steam up my goggles.

As somebody mentioned earlier, it's not just cold temps but the combination of cold and wind. -20 and still is probably better than -10 in a storm. Add to this the likelihood that, in a storm, it will take longer to find your way down to the nearest refuge, and it's a recipe for frostbite.

Weather in the mountains changes very quickly, so you need to be prepared.

Apart from the risk of frostbite. It's just not much fun.

Zermatt was between -15 and -26 the week of the 12th. We had to stop every 2 runs to warm up with some ridiculously overpriced drinks. My girlfriend has wind burn on her face from one run from the top of the Klein Matterhorn area. This was a result of a tiny gap between her goggles and her face mask. It was -26 but very windy. Not much fun.

Also, when the snow becomes really cold (-30'ish and below) it can feel like skiing in sand. You can find cold weather wax specifically designed for low temps, which aims to reduce this feeling.

I would be surprised if they run any lifts below -40c.

Update - Direct ski buses from major hotels to Lake Louise will resume in Banff.

http://www.banffcragandcanyon.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2900002

Dave Mac wrote:An extract from BBC news:
Helsinki airport had 188cm (six feet) of snow last winter but the last time it was forced to close because of the weather was in 2003.
That closure lasted for half an hour.

Like all these things, it is only a question of good management.

The full story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12042213

...and money.

Having spent a week without seeing much in the way of fresh snow, we got back in to London City from Geneva yesterday at about 9pm, having had our original Saturday morning flight cancelled, then rebooked onto a Heathrow flight for Sunday morning, also cancelled.

The airline, Swiss, really looked after us. They put us all up in a good hotel for the night and fed us well.

It looked like if you could make it out, you will find plenty of fresh powder. Unfortunately we only got to drive on it on the way home.

An interesting short video showing a glimpse of the pre-season work of ski patrol. In the video, the reporter/blogger ends up triggering his own small avalanche. It's quite interesting to see this on a relatively tame slope rather than stuff you see in the ski movies.

http://www.skiinggolden.com/journal/2010/12/1/dec-1-2010-video-update-bringing-t2-inbounds.html

Great hill, amazing scenery - I highly recommend it.

They installed the Northway chair the summer (2007) after I visited. It looks like a great area. Has anybody on here skied it?

Late March/Early April.

I would say your best bet for a mixed ability group, from a skiing perspective, would be Sunshine Village near Banff. At that time of year, Sunshine is most likely to maintain the quality of it's snow for longer after each dump. You can get good powder days right up till the end of May. You are also within easy reach of Lake Louise and Kicking Horse.

On the other hand, if you want a good shared lodge/condo, then you will not find it in Banff (as there are no proper large condos for hire partly due to Parks Canada's need to reside bylaws http://www.banff.ca/locals-residents/housing/need-to-reside.htm). However there are loads of reasonable priced decent quality hotels. I would recommend the Banff Park Lodge, which is conveniently located and has some great ski package deals (http://www.banffparklodge.com/u/ski.phtml). Also, unless you have a hire car, you will need to make your way to the centre of town and get the 20 min ski bus every day.

I'm no expert on Whistler. The snow is generaly considered to be 'wetter' than the interior resorts, and in a bad year, you will be forced into the higher altitude slopes for good snow. The expense will be much greater than Banff. I'm slightly biased against Whistler having only seen mediocre or terrible conditions whenever we have tried it.

For accomodation, Whistler trumps Banff in having lots of condos available. However, it can be very expensive trying to hire one during spring break (March).

Big White, might be a good choice. There is lots of reasonable on hill accomodation of various types and budgets. The snow should be good, although not as good as Sunshine. The terrain suits all abilities. It is a very family oriented resort. It is not realy considered party central when it comes to apres ski, but there are plenty of restaurants and a few bars/pubs on mountain.

P.S. SkiPatrollerDave makes some good points about the smaller Canadian ski hills.