J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by ir12daveor

I go to Lenzerheide fairly often. I'm not so sure about getting the passes in advance but if you already have a Dataski card from a Swiss resort then you can load it online through the Lenzerheide website. Churwalden is part of the Lenzerheide area and it is quite well linked. The 3 seater seat from Churwalden up to Alp Statz is quite slow but it does get you into the resort in a relatively pain free way.

If you are staying in Churwalden there are a few other resorts near by if you like to check out other areas. A day trip to Tschiertschen might be worth while.

I'd look at resorts that are over 1200m in altitude or so if you want guaranteed snow. You don't seem to mention when in December you are planning on going, but somewhere like Davos, Grindlewald or Engadin should have reasonable snow cover by then.

The 3x3 and reduction methods are already in use in Europe.

In this situation piste colour is largely irrelevant. It appears that the slide came from a steep slope above the piste. Due to piste machines and skier activity the snow is heavily compacted and unlikely to avalanche on-piste. If there are steep slopes above a piste which receive a critical amount of new snow through wind deposit or precipitation there is a danger they can slide onto a piste (regardless of what colour the piste happens to be).

It happens a few times a season. Two years ago a child was killed in an avalanche (that he or his parents set off) which ended up crossing a piste in Davos, Switzerland. I seem to remember at least one (possible two) slides crossing pistes in Zermatt in recent years and also in other resorts in the Valais in Switzerland. I saw some small slides reaching the edge of the piste in Lenzerheide, Switzerland two weeks ago.

The resorts tend to do their best to bomb potential avalanche dangers close to pistes but sometimes the bombing might bring nothing down and a skier passing through might still release something. (I've seen this happen in the past too!)

It would be interesting to know if that slide was spontaneous or skier triggered.

It's quite a nice resort. Conditions should be quite good up there at the moment. The area has more snow then the average for this time of year.

If you are heading up during the day the train journey is really scenic. The town itself is a little spread out but there is a bus service that easily gets you from each of the three access points to the mountain.

I've already been skiing on just the other side of the hill in Lenzerheide this year and below about 2100m the conditions were brilliant. Above that there was a lot of wind effect on the snow. This shouldn't be as bad in Arosa as its a bit more sheltered.

Enjoy it. I may very well be skiing in from Lenzerheide at some point if conditions stay as they are.

I find the better I get at skiing the colder it becomes. Especially on piste you start to work less and suffer from more windchill. The same applies to a certain extent off piste but there is always a little more work to do to at least help keep warm.

I find that with good layers of technical clothing you can wear almost the same regardless of temperature and it seems to adjust to your demands a little.

My personal preference. is base layer of thermals top and bottom. Goretex shell ski trousers.

On top I wear a windstopper base layer over my normal base layer and then a thin fleece. Then a primaloft synthetic down jacket followed by a Goretex shell ski jacket.

If it's really cold I can add a fleece and if its warm I can loose the down jacket.

I did a night time ski tour on Wednesday night and going up I only needed a fleece and windstopper layer but at approaching -20 on top with windchill things got very quickly very cold and the down and goretex all came out of the back pack.

I've got the Michelins (Pilot Alpine PA3) on my car and to be honest I am not happy with them on snow and ice. They are great for normal driving and even more fuel efficient them my summer tyres!!! But, for snow I've driven better.

It's a trade off, if you don't drive on snow/ice that often they will be perfect and they will for sure get you out of trouble. But living at 750m altitude in Switzerland plus a minimum of two trips to higher altitudes a week they will be replaced with something different when the time comes.

When the context is taken from the meaning it's even funnier. It was a comedy sketch on TV here a few years back. I nearly wet myself the first time I saw it.