Messages posted by : verbier_ski_bum
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I don't know about France, but end of March there is a Caprice festival in Cran Montana, also around mid-April there is a Zermatt Unplugged. But you might want to check with resorts what they have lined up. I would also recommend High Five in Verbier, it's not a gig in a normal sense of the word, but definitely epic. This year I had my drink served by Didier Cuche:)
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I love Chamonix, the buzz that this place has is increadible and it does a fantastic job at promoting skiing. I thought I could ski and wasn't bad at it and then I went for a weekend in Chamonix... Needless to say it made me take a two-week holiday and come back and back to lessons. My first real off-piste and my first real black from top of Grand-Montets. Will definitely be back. I suppose bus can be a hassle but I hardly noticed it. It actually even adds to the excitement that this place offers. If you like places with authentic feel and not purpose-built resorts then bus rides is a part of the package. I found lift lines in Argentier a bit too long, particularly if you want to go all the way to the top, basically two rides top to bottom is all that can be realistically done in a day on Saturday when weekend crowds are there. But still these two runs will do more for your skiing than looping cruises for 2 days.
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I heard lot of good things about Engelberg and even that it's not feasible for my weekly skiing, I keep in on my radar for long trips. They have very good snow record. Even last season though poor by their standrads was way better than in most places.
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So, we agree that it's not the equipment issue:) |
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Three days sounds great, and I don't even need to fly to Geneva and won't need to bring my own skis:)
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Every training/practice of skiing in avalanche terraine is mostly focused on reducing the risk exposure. That's it if there is at least one burial mistakes have been made, if there are two burials these mistakes were huge. So I feel that while knowing your equipment is very important more time should be spend on learning how to reduce the possibility of ever having to use it. I practice searches with digital/analogue transciever maybe 2-3 times a year, for about an hour, but don't spend much time on multiple burials, 2 victims max. It bugs me far more seeing people cutting slopes above each other and skiing off-piste as if it's some sort of amusement park. I read in one blog that when a group goes off-piste it should be equiped and know their equipment but it should ski as if no-one has an ABS, transciever, shovel and probe. And I agree. Just because equipment is the lastest technology it doesn't mean it's OK to increase the exposure, and if only one person is exposed at a time analogue transciever can probably do the job just as well, particularly if no slide occured. When three skiers are searching for their three mates with "dated" euipment it's not the choice of equipment that will be questioned. Too many factors involved in succcessful rescue. Digging is very hard too. Location, depth of burial. I don't think that with a full burial unless it happened in the nearest vicinity of a busy ski area with accident clearly visible 3rd victim has any realistic chance reqardless of equipment, so this emphasis on equipment is misleading. The last avalanche victim this season actually even had an ABS and wasn't buried but he still died when his friends reached him.
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Absolutely!:) Given a choice I will take a powder day over non-powder day any time. |
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How true! Love powder. To me it's all about anticipation and letting go and flying, and skiing to the point when I can hardly stand anymore and then smiles on people's faces at the end of the powder day. I just wish we had powder days more often. Every day actually should be a powder day:)
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