Snow for the Euros.

[Buster Highmen]

Corvatsch was a gas: nice 30+ cm on top of who knows how much in the last week with just enough stability to hit the W. side couloir and stuff face with wonder yuropow. Constant face shots today. Back to Andermatt now for the swan song tomorrow; hope they open the Gemstock

[Foggy_Goggles]

Nice Euro dudes and vacationers! I've already committed to go every other year. I need to bump that up to every year.

[twat]

can anybody recommend a guide for bormio?

[Arno]

Corvatsch was a gas: nice 30+ cm on top of who knows how much in the last week with just enough stability to hit the W. side couloir and stuff face with wonder yuropow. Constant face shots today. Back to Andermatt now for the swan song tomorrow; hope they open the Gemstock

i'm going to start booking my ski vacations to coincide with yours - you've really hit the jackpot for the last couple of years

[kix515]

Cant wait to come over next month. I'm thinking Italy and the southern regions should have a nice stacked base. Only a few inches in my yard here in Tahoe...

[ropeducker]

Any thoughts on where to ski tomorrow from Klagenfurt?

[twat]

today at kühtai - skied the west flank of muifkogl again.
15cm of fresh cold blower pow
started with -5degrees on 2000m at 08:30
föhn kicked in quickly - the sun did its job
snow was moist by 12:00 packed my gear and left for italy. (ok took me 30min to pack. did other stuff all afternoon)
i am stuck in switzerland until tomorrow. place called santa maria val müstair. any idea for good trees?

[AyasFreeski]

dumping. Its a week now that it can't stop, won't stop. And probably a good thing the pictures don't upload!

[panchosdad]

can anybody recommend a guide for bormio?

No, but we're headed for the Ortler area in March and would appreciate any beta you've got to share. Good place to stay when not touring? How's the lift served in Bormio, Santa Caterina, Sulden etc.

Thanks!

[freak]

you are aware that you will not be able to drive from bormio/san caterina to sulden via the stilfserjoch-road in march, right?
just wondering because you mentioned them as if they would be close (which of course they tecnically are, but you have to drive all around the mountains, quickest way would probably be on skis (at least sulden to san caterina).

other than that, bormio has terrain, but is quite italian (which means it is usually prohibited to ski this terrain), i havent been to san caterina and sulden has a bit of everything. long runs down to the valley from the top, some nice tours from the lifts, some trees, not too much of all that but nice overall.

freak~[&]

[beer30]

No, but we're headed for the Ortler area in March and would appreciate any beta you've got to share. Good place to stay when not touring? How's the lift served in Bormio, Santa Caterina, Sulden etc.

Thanks!

Can't speak for those three but Val Senales/Schnastal is a pretty cool spot, real high elevation and lots of glacier. That whole Vinschgau valley is stunning too, palm trees and glaciers. Viva SudTirol!

[freak]

Sulden beats Val Senales in every aspect imho. better terrain, way more snow, possibilities to ski trees, much nicer to stay in the old and somehow traditional village of Sulden than in the artificial things in Kurzras. views are great in both places but imho sulden is even more stunning...

freak~[&]

[Hugh Conway]

I thought Solda was quite pleasant, but that's old info. Dunno, like most of those ski villages I don't think there's a bad place to stay, just varying amenities based on price/location. That was true pretty much everywhere in the Alps, ime. Except for a few hostels, nothing horrible, everything else scaled quality & location with price. Ask the tourist center (or the map online) and you can find it all. In Sulden the village itself is a bit of hike/walk/freebus from the cable car; but the cable car end of the valley is really sleepy. Not that many places to eat either, just pick one and explore stop asking for the best. If you've got a short bit in the evening/before it closes the town museum in Sulden is an interesting bit of history; imagine dragging artillery up to far, far above your head or when tourism was really big there 100+ years ago. Messner's mountain museum was interesting in a quirky way.

[JoeStrummer]

I thought Solda was quite pleasant, but that's old info. Dunno, like most of those ski villages I don't think there's a bad place to stay, just varying amenities based on price/location. That was true pretty much everywhere in the Alps, ime. Except for a few hostels, nothing horrible, everything else scaled quality & location with price. Ask the tourist center (or the map online) and you can find it all. In Sulden the village itself is a bit of hike/walk/freebus from the cable car; but the cable car end of the valley is really sleepy. Not that many places to eat either, just pick one and explore stop asking for the best. If you've got a short bit in the evening/before it closes the town museum in Sulden is an interesting bit of history; imagine dragging artillery up to far, far above your head or when tourism was really big there 100+ years ago. Messner's mountain museum was interesting in a quirky way.

You are mellowing, man. The old Hugh woulda slayed anyone for bothering with the Ortler!

Does Messner still have that yak restaurant? I haven't been around there since 2008.

[twat]

did not know they had pillows in bormio.
maybe i find it again tomorrow? thirty-three was good. nobody skiing of piste. the italian system works very good for me.
it rained in town when we arrived today. the cons where good up. a lil warm but snow was good. first time of the season my 183 bc felt to small. first time of the season no skiing on rocks.

[panchosdad]

you are aware that you will not be able to drive from bormio/san caterina to sulden via the stilfserjoch-road in march, right?
just wondering because you mentioned them as if they would be close (which of course they tecnically are, but you have to drive all around the mountains, quickest way would probably be on skis (at least sulden to san caterina).

other than that, bormio has terrain, but is quite italian (which means it is usually prohibited to ski this terrain), i havent been to san caterina and sulden has a bit of everything. long runs down to the valley from the top, some nice tours from the lifts, some trees, not too much of all that but nice overall.

freak~[&]

Thanks for the road beta, I'd been trying to figure out if that was open or not. Seems like we can't go wrong one side or the other.

[jumpturn]

Skied the Marbrees Direct again in bluebird conditions. Nice change to have a good supply of stability testers in the form of team Dave (who were cheery but their submen were serious) and the angry Frenchman duo (they were uncommunicative... just as well). The latter got angry and wanted to fight border Luca, but the tram operators kicked them off the first bin. With all that affect below, my skiing was chill on some quite deep pow.

I made the mistake of skiing first tracks on Pavillon and rerigging wound costing me a 3 benne wait to get back up. I haven't seen such a crowd at the Funivie. Must be cabin fever from days of poor visibility crossed with bluebird pow frenzy. Most of the crowd was heading for the toula.

Always a sign that you're on the right powder line, and that stability will not be an issue (by the time you get to it)!


When the Kuro is your everyday ski, you need to make sure you're in deep!


8 wide tracks groom the rock garden nicely, and of course demonstrate that the whole slope is not going to rip out.


And still, there is so much empty canvass. After dropping in from the normal entrance, the three Italians below skied right of the half pipe above a major cliff and then skied out way left through the zone below the South Face of the Dent du Géant and other objective dangers.....

[MrsG]

This thread needs some lovin' and moved back to the first page

Heading to Cham at the end of the month and love the updates!!!

[jumpturn]

This thread needs some lovin' and moved back to the first page

Heading to Cham at the end of the month and love the updates!!!

Update: plenty of snow and not enough visibility.

The midi reported 220+cm of snow fall in the last 4 days, with a meter fresh this morning. Lower areas have reported less snow, but GM probably picked up close to a meter over these 4 days.

More snow tomorrow.

[LC]

Courmayeur didn't suck today. 40cm fresh, no clouds, no crowds, no attitudes.

[Goniff]

Keep the stoke coming! I arrive in Cham in two weeks.

[Powdawg]

PLEASE DO!!! Goniff, I'm 9 days out from being in Cham too. But whose counting. Have a blast! Vive la France!!!!

[Meathelmet]

Can anybody identify the location of this wicked double chair??!Attachment 150194

Tried to use my google-fu to locate that place...it does look wicked!

Found that pic only on three russian websites, under the title From Switzerland to Italy : Valle d' Aosta - a family affair, by Roman Berger.
In this page there are more pics, and most of them are from Aosta valley.
But what confuses me is that I have skied almost all the resorts in that valley, and I cant remember seeing that chair...
It could be from Pila resort, never been there.

Waiting eagerly for other peeps answers/guesses, that lift look awesome.

Edit: The more I look at it, the more it looks like the belvedere chairlift from champoluc side...or one lift that connects la thuile with la rossiere...or...

[gergberg]

Tried to use my google-fu to locate that place...it does look wicked!

...
It could be from Pila resort, never been there.

Not from Pila, unfortunately. If it were, I might not be skiing anywhere else this winter.

EDIT: However, there is still some pretty good terrain accessible from some chairs in Pila.

[BerettaRacer]

Can anybody identify the location of this wicked double chair??!Attachment 150194

Thats looks like the chair on the back side of La Thuille where it crosses the border to France to La Rosaria (sp?) If so there is an old fort and small service hut at the top.

Here's a pic I took last year.