Chicherit that dude was a beast. Had the pleasure of skiing some laps with him @ Alta years ago before one of the old Bird comps. Dude opened my eyes as to what was possible in less than ideal conditions.
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Chicherit that dude was a beast. Had the pleasure of skiing some laps with him @ Alta years ago before one of the old Bird comps. Dude opened my eyes as to what was possible in less than ideal conditions.
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I can't find the other vids, but the big cliff faces are lift served cap de vaqueira north face. (Pretty scary because some lines end in big cliffs) I did my research some years ago because I considered going. Pyrenees 7 years ago means pow for ages....hell I still know a spot or two in the alps that do last a while.
Cap and tuc du vaciver also have pretty Intimidating terrain right of the lift.
Snowfall is an issue. That's why I've never gone.
I don't know how you measure this acres thing ( no Euro resort gives you that number?), but did you include all terrain or just groomers? I mean the distance from one furthest lift in the North to the one in the south is about 10km and east to west is about 3 to 4km. So that corridor is a conservative 30-40km2 so roughly 6000-8000acres.
I still wonder whether the fwt will change the crowds there. I know it hasn't for arcalis because arcalis' terrain sux. [emoji3] (even the contest face is meh)
I didn’t really want to start a pissing match but the idea of just dismissing Mammoth and, uh, the entire Eastern Sierra like that didn’t really sit right with me. Anyone who dismisses those mountains has no idea what they’re talking about. I guarantee no one on the tour would do that.
; ) thanks it is more about subtle never gives me longterm forcasts. But guys i dont want to interupt you with what skiarea has a bigger.... face.... or what....
I will never find out. But isnt rod93xx our local down there?
He likes it.... and he could compare as he knows both i guess....
Paging rod!
I thought he was in chamonix when he was there.
I think the point is Canary Islands are like Hawaii, constant small eruptions, versus Mt. St. Helens, blowing the top 3,000 ft off the mountain and changing world wide weather patterns for months.
I don't know what makes a better venue, Mammoth vs. Pyranees, but avoiding CA personally injury attorneys and US liability laws is enough to give Euro venues the edge.
The whole Mammoth vs Pyrenees argument sounds like "tell me you haven't skied in Europe, without telling me you haven't skied in Europe". I'd argue there isn't a ski area in the U.S. that could compare to most European resorts in terms of size and access.
Here’s a venue lineup:
January:
1) Hakuba
2) Jackson Hole
February
3) Kicking Horse/Revelstoke
4) St Anton
March
5) Monterosa (Alagna)
6) La Grave
April
7) Chamonix
8) Verbier
I like it! Only change would potentially be Jackson. Where would the venue be? Everything is pretty short compared to the Euro stops. Maybe trade it for Snowbird, Tram Face at Squaw (if it's in), or maybe Big Sky? Off the top of my head, very few venues in The States worthy of a FWT stop. Kirkwood meets the bill for sure, but I'm struggling to think of any venues with more than 1000 feet of vert.
Oh! and what about Fieberbrunn? I really like that venue.
I didn't mean to dismiss that area at all. I spent about half my weekends in college at Mammoth, and I spend about half there now. I spent half a decade skiing Squaw. I absolutely love the Sierra. I always find it funny when I hear people in socal talk about 'skiing out of state' as if it is much better than what is found in California. California compares favorably to any state in the US when it comes to skiing. I don't want to get people to start comparing things, but I think lots of socal people don't realize that they have one of the truly great mountain in North America within weekend shooting distance. Judging by the crowds, obviously many DO realize it. But I sometimes hear them talk about going to Colorado ski much better mountains, and I don't think they really get what they have here.
I have never skied in Europe, so it is really hard for me to know how it compares. I have seen tons of footage/photos of Cham/Verbier and those spots, I just don't know all that much about the Pyrenees. I think most would say that Verbier is in a different league than Mammoth, but I am not the person to ask as I ski Mammoth, not Verbier.
I grew up skiing back east. Sorry to piss anyone off, but the mountains in the Sierra DESTROY the places in New York and Vermont that I skied as a kid. I would think we can all agree on that. :D
I feel incredibly lucky that my winter weekends are a decision between Mammoth, or Baldy and maybe some surfing. I also think that among big resorts in the US Mammoth is one of the most underrated.
Powdork,
I would agree that Mammoth is not necessarily the best place to hold an inbounds comp. Don't get me wrong, I love the mountain, but while it does have some technical steeps and cliffs it's more about long, open lines. I have never competed, even when Iived in Tahoe I sucked, but I would guess that for a comp you want long lines with multiple cruxes. There is not really a whole lot of that in Mammoth. In the Paranoids area you could start in the P4/Kiwi area, but once you are done with that there is not another area below it. Unless you are doing something NUTS like Guerlain it does not offer a whole lot of options with multiple cruxes.
Back when I lived in Tahoe (I left in 2004) some of my buddies competed in a comp at Mammoth. I guess the guy who won on the first day straightlined the Paraniods. The last day was held in the Top of the World, which is a sick place to start, but you would want at least one more zone below that. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing guys ski the TOTW and rip lines I ski VERY slowly and cautiously, and that is only in big years, but you want a bit more for a comp. I'm trying to remember who put that contest on, but it was a ways back.
I think years ago they were going to do the final day of the Mammoth comp at Mt. Mcgee. I'm not sure if that ever happened.
The line Guerlain Chicherit put down is still one of my favorites to watch. What is crazy is how different what he did was compared to everyone else. I actually saw this on TV back after it happened. I saw guys like McConkey, Kreitler, I think Davenport, maybe Gordy Pfeiffer, all guys I had been watching in movies for a while. Then this French guy I had never heard of comes in and just goes nuts. I wish there was more footage of Chicherit available.
This europe vs mammoth debate is baffling my mind. European skiing accesses terrain at a scale and scope so far beyond anything in the USA that they may as well be different sports. They are completly different. Its really not even worth the energy to try and compare the two.
Regarding the FWT, has there been an athlete list published yet?
Who said Europe vs Mammoth. this was Baqueira vs Mammoth. And it was said they can't even be compared to each other. It's true. Mammoth is sooo much fucking better than that 15 rope tow, 3rd world country 'resort'.
Also, your entire quote is completely full of shit. 100%. To say they are not comparable just shows how ignorant you are.
Okay, you mad bro?
When skiers leave Cham to go to Alaska
Quote:
It can be hard to leave the Chamonix ski scene especially in spring when the more ephemeral lines come into condition. But I was hungry for a big adventure, the type of adventure that the Alps can’t quite provide. We invited Ben Briggs and Enrico Mossetti to round off an experienced team. Ben, Enrico and I had skied the first descent of the Caroline Face of Mt. Cook on our last trip together in 2017, one of the world’s biggest unskied lines. I knew a trip with these three good friends would mean our sights would likely be set on some fairly ambitious ski mountaineering objectives.
I'm over people gushing over european skiing like it's something magical we don't have here in North America. We have literally 10 times the mountains here that they have. They are taller. They are as prominent. They get as much or more snow. There is nothing magic about skiing in Europe (and definitely nothing real world) that makes it any better than skiing here in the states. And yes, i've done both
Sure we’ve got more mountains and more snow. But the terrain accessible from lifts in Europe is a different level. They’d put a lift right up Mt Whitney and let people ski it with no avalanche control work.
Praise the baby jesus we don't let that shit happen here. People ski Whitney all the time anyway. Alkasquawlik had to bring Honnold with him because it's not that exciting. Also it would be ridiculous to not include Canada in this equation.
Praise be that you can ski 1run of 400m
( MORE THAN 1000FEEET OF POW!!!!!!)vertical pow with 1000 others and wait in line for 2hours for another chop run and call it a pow day.
I mean I get your patriotism, but get a grip. Every second resort in Europe trumps 90+% of the terrain in North America.
I mean I only skied revelstoke in NA....but I was pretty underwhelmed.
I've skied Austrian family resorts with better terrain.
You talk about patriotism and bring BS statements like "Every second resort in Europe trumps 90+% of the terrain in North America". And yet you've only skied one resort in NA, and neither of the resorts this discussion is about. Sounds like blind patriotism to me.