J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by verbier_ski_bum

Chamonix will be the closest and there is a scheduled bus service between Geneva/Geneve Airport and Chamonix. Chamonix is higher than Port de Soleil. I know that Morzine/Avoriaz and other places in PDS got lot of snow and base is good, but the snow preserves much better at higher altitude. Regardless of the base thickness one abnormally warm week can make the snow really bad, and we seem to get plenty abnormally warm weeks this year. TBH, all this season has been abnormally warm. Snowfall was good, but apart from couple (abnormally) cold weeks temperatures stayed very mild from December onwards. If it wasn't for the really big snow December/January there would be nothing to ski on by now.
And I second Bandit that Chamonix will make for a greater skiing experience. While car is a plus it's not a must and you can get around Chamonix by bus which is free and runs fairly regularly. And being a proper town it has a good nightlife, even a strip club and a casino:)

bandit wrote:

verbier_ski_bum wrote:

My non-rockered 94mm-waisted ski that I ski 90% of the time has almost 20 m (19.6)TR and they carve great.

A tighter turning ski when compared to my favourite non rockered narrower Movements. Skied at just over head height, they also carve nicely, and handle powder well too, just ask Chamfreerider :D

I guess that where I spend most of my time, local style rubs off because folks just go skiing, there is a "run what you brung" mindset. Having had skier alignment and fore/aft balancing done, I'm not feeling any great benefit from Rocker additions I've tried. I can ski what I want with what I use.

On a powder day yesterday I skied with a bunch of ski instructors on day off and most of them were skiing on GS skis. The problem is that I don't get to ski as much as I would love to and powder days are rare - especially that I need them to fall on weekends or Mondays/Fridays, other weekdays are no use for me, so my powder skills are very limited, but rockered skis make me look and feel as if I can ski pow. There is no way I could keep up yesterday on non-rockered skis. And tree skiing to me is plain scary without rocker because rocker allows to turn quickly while going fairly slowly - and this is important quality in trees. I know instructors who refuse to ski rockers, but maybe if I was skiing since 5 and also for a good few years skiing on a daily basis, I would probably still be skiing old-schoool straight skis - one of my friends still does and is doing great. He simply doesn't feel the need to change. But for an average recreational skier particularly late learners technology is there to help. Straight skis worked for years for many skiers but I won't be in any rush to buy them now.

At least 30 cm in Verbier. Great powder day, well worth of the day off taken:)

bandit wrote:

verbier_ski_bum wrote:Jam is the old design, these days it's all about rocker:)

Yes, fashion and all. Right now I do have a pair of skis with rocker, but my best performing skis don't have it. :D

It's about efficiency not performance. Why do things harder way if you can do them the easy way?:) Movement make some nice light skis that should be good for touring.But I am rocker convert and there are many skis on the market these days that have rocker and don't have too much weight so can make good touring skis.

Trencher wrote:

verbier_ski_bum wrote:Blizard Bushwacker is getting excellent reviews, maybe it's time to update your Neo's? :) 173 should be a good length for you. With a rocker you won't even notice 7cm extra over your Neo's. I haven't seen it selling here. Blizzard's are relatively rare in my experience.

That does look like a good ski. I hate it though when they only give the radius for one length in the specs. The 180 is 21M so would guess the 173 at about 18+M. That would be my only concern, on the groom it would harder to carve unless you have plenty of room.

I don't find it to be the case. My non-rockered 94mm-waisted ski that I ski 90% of the time has almost 20 m (19.6)TR and they carve great. Took me a couple of days to get used to slower edge change as I was coming off 76mm-waisted ski, but after that I was fine. Last year off-piste was abyssmal for most of the season and I skied groomers more than I thought I would but had no issues with either width or TR. Bushwaker is a rockered ski, so turn initiation should be pretty easy regardless of TR.

Jam is the old design, these days it's all about rocker:)

Blizard Bushwacker is getting excellent reviews, maybe it's time to update your Neo's? :) 173 should be a good length for you. With a rocker you won't even notice 7cm extra over your Neo's. I haven't seen it selling here. Blizzard's are relatively rare in my experience.

I wish they groomed less:) Though if I get up early enough I quite enjoy skiing fresh cordiroy. But this season I skied so little piste that I only had my edges sharpened end of February after I skied almost 30 days.