J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by ir12daveor

bandit wrote:eric@skilodge welcome to j2ski 8) Your place is pretty chic :thumbup:

Last time I was in the resort, the Laub was "shut" (not enough snow!)

I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that the Laub was never "officially open" Its not marked on the piste map as a freeride route so you are officially going "out of bounds" any time you are going down it. Its the same with the Steinberg run under Titlis, to do it you pass under the rope and accept your own risk.

Eric may correct me on this though.

I haven't done it, but have looked at it many times. The times it looked good to do and I had the right equipment with me the Avalanche risk was "Considerable" and I had been "freeriding" with guides previously in the resort who did not take us down that run on the same Avalanche risk so I wasn't going to chance it the times it looked good. It was totally tracked out anytime I've been there when the Avalanche risk was down lower. :-(

I know quite a few people that have ridden it and they all loved it. I've had friends call me at the bottom giving me the usual "you should be here" call on a few occasions too. :-/ It is one of the classic "freeride" runs in a resort that is internationally known for "freerding". In my opinion the pistes in Engelberg leave a lot to be desired, but the off-piste can be superb.

If you are interested in checking out some of the other runs in the area you can get in touch with the guys at www.rockandpowder.ch Their website is only in German but I think they do speak English. They do "Powder Days" on the first sunny day after every snowfall and quite often use Engelberg as the area. I've been on a few of the "powder days" and done Avalanche courses with them and they know what they are talking about. They fit every client out with an ABS rucksack before taking them out and are very safety conscious.

snowb4ndit wrote:
Light weight! :wink: :lol:

I know, I'll work on it and try to improve next weekend. :D

I managed to temporarily cure my addiction on Saturday. I OD'd on skiing to the point where I couldn't ski on Sunday. That hasn't happened in a VERY long time!!!

That's what about 2 hours of skinning... skiing down an Arete, dropping into a 42deg couloir, skinning another hour or more up to another ridge and then dropping into another face before skiing through the trees to a XC skiing track at the bottom of the valley and having to XC ski out of the valley back to civilisation.

It was 24 hours before I could think of skiing again... now I'm back at work and thinking about next weekend!!! :D

This may sound silly, but practising braking (stopping) may actually help with confidence at speed. If you know you can stop under any circumstances then you will ski relatively comfortable to the speed where you know you can stop in control.

I spent some time practising this by straight lining a couple of metres down an EMPTY slope, then braking. As I got more confident I went a bit further in a straight line and slowly built up the speed I was comfortable with. I still won't be entering any world cup DH events, but it certainly helped with the fear of speed that you pick up with turning.

BTW... in this case I am talking about parallel stops, not snow plough.

For those people saying lean backwards go to a piste. Now lean backwards on your skis and try to initiate and complete a turn.

In deep snow leaning back makes you lose control of the skis. I think this might have been a technique with old style skis, but everyone I know that can ski powder well has told me to "stay forward", "Stay out of the back seat" or "if you're falling make sure you are falling forward".

What works for me is to lean right forward and stand up to unweight the skis and get them pointing down the mountain, as you come across the fall line you can then drop down but your knees should still be pushing forward into your boots. I sometimes fall back accidentely at this point but most of the time can get my hands and weight back forward to recover and get into the next turn. If I stay back I either can't get into the next turn or I fall.

I also thought and heard that you need to lean back to "finish" the turn from some people. In the end I saw who could ski powder well and went for their tips!!!

Yes, and to be honest even at the end of the day in spring the runs can be better then the end of the day in mid winter. Slushy snow at least makes it possible to get an edge in. In mid winter when the surface powder is gone off the steeper slopes it leaves chopped up irregular mogul fields where there is bugger all grip between the moguls. At least in spring if you are not used to moguls you can slice through the slushy lumps. Its a bit heavier on the legs, but in my opinion technically easier skiing.

They are only used in mid and early winter when temperatures are below freezing. The resorts generally lay down a base with the canons to guarantee their season and then let mother nature do the rest. In easter you'll have whatever snow is left from winter. The good news is spring snow is far more fun then icy winter snow if there hasn't been a fresh snowfall in a while.