J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Wanderer

Admin wrote:
There are various reasons; not least being that the majority of skiers want it to be like that! Some resorts even reference the energy-saving / green aspect of "pistes nature". :roll:

I think there is a trend away from "over grooming" runs, at least in France, with a resulting return to more natural, more varied and much more interesting pistes. Variety and a little challenge is what improves us as skiers.

I think you are being too kind Adders :wink: . I suspect any lack of grooming in France is really a cost saving exercise dressed up as a "green" measure. The grooming in Austria is far superior. With most of the Austrian resorts much lower, they have to work harder to keep the slopes in shape whereas the higher French are inclined to save on overtime and let nature take its course :shock:

Just back from Soll after a long weekend. Its our 5th year going and we love it and I would happily recommend the Skilwelt area to anybody.

The only reservation I would have is going so late. While they do an amazing job maintaining the snow, it is very low down and conditions by late March could be very poor - they may even by closed by then depending on conditions next year.

If you stuck with those dates, you might want to consider a higher resort or one with a glacier. St Anton is pretty impressive and should still be good at that time of year. Its expensive by Austrian standards but probably not if you are used to Swiss prices :shock:

bedrock barney wrote:31 to go. The temperatures need to start coming down. I think I've developed OCD. I'm looking up the 9 day snowforecast.com twice a day.

Don't worry: that is perfectly normal behaviour for most users of this site :lol: :lol: :lol:

This is not actually a skiing site. It is really an online support group for all of us seriously affected by the skiing bug :shock: :shock: :shock:

The resort is ideally suited for the group with a fantastic array of slopes for both levels.

I have not skied it that late in the season and would be a bit concerned about snow quality. From memory, most of the resort is south facing and it is not known as the L'ile de Soleil (island in the sun) for nothing.

You might have to live with reasonable skiing in the morning while afternoons might be better spent relaxing in the very nice town pool :shock:

.. beautifully expressed as alway Pavel. I am not sure that there are too many of us who are capable enough to bounce from top of slushy mogul to top of slushy mogul.

I'm just back from a weekend trip to Soll and experienced the classic spring conditions being discussed with day time temperatures of 12o celcius :shock:

Skied in a light golf polo shirt and light fleece one of the days it was so warm.

As for the skiing two comments:

1. As well as conditions changing by the hour, conditions were often dramatically different on individual runs with perhaps hard packed snow at the top and increasingly chopped up slushy moguls the further down the run you go :wink:


2. I can remember instructors over the years telling me to be the "boss" of the snow - to take charge:!:. I never really understood that comment until this trip when it was essential to be "firm" with the piste. I found it really important to be very positive and determined in my movements and if I did that, I got through the soft moguls fairly easily :D . On the other hand, any hesitancy and I ended up forcing the skis into turns with a very heavy toll on my ageing knees :oops:

Unfortunately, I was not forcful enough on a regular basis and came home with very tired and sore knees :evil: but it was still a wonderful and most enjoyable trip :mrgreen:

Spitz

42,734

I cant comment on NA v Europe. However, the inconsistency in Europe is ridiculous and potentially dangerous. :evil:

In my view, resorts will always try to conform to a set mix of grades, preferably as close to 40:40:20 as they get, in order to attract as many skiers as possible. No resort wants to admit that it has only very limited skiing for beginners. Equally, none of the easier ones want to admit that there is very little for higher intermediates/experts ....... so they "massage the gradings.

Last year, I skied in Lech for a day with a bunch of kids. We stuck to Blues all morning and even the kids found them too easy - if these had been in France probably would have rated Green. After lunch, we moved onto a Red which started out easy but then hit a really steep pitch. I was not happy about having the kids on it but thankfully they managed fine. Given the easiness of the Blues, I would have expected the Reds to be similarly fairly easy - not striaght up to Black. It was really infuriating :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

Because of the poor consistency, I am extremely reluctant to take the kids on runs that I have not done :x