Off piste?

Road-Hog

Who enjoys the above? After 14 years of ski trips i have never enjoyed any of the limited off piste skiing that I've done? Maybe it's my limited technique?

cormee

Road-Hog wrote: »

Who enjoys the above? After 14 years of ski trips i have never enjoyed any of the limited off piste skiing that I've done? Maybe it's my limited technique?

Best avoided this year!

I enjoy it but it can be very tricky and progress is ridiculously slow compared to on-piste boarding/skiing.

Only advice I'd have on the subject is that, unless you're a local avoid depressions and bumps in the snow, follow where others have gone and avoid areas in tracks where it looks like there has been a lot of activity/turmoil. All fairly obvious stuff really.

SuprSi

I absolutely love it!! It's scary as you're going into areas where there could be rocks or branches and the year before last I became a cropper to some hidden rocks which sent me flying, landing on my arse, leaving me unable to sit down for nearly 2 days and black and blue for a further two weeks! I was just lucky that I landed on the fleshiest part of my body!! In Sauze D'Oulx we could go into the forest, between trees and out in the open and it was great, especially after a nice fresh blanket of snow.

In the right conditions it's my favourite type of boarding as you just float along - it's the nearest thing I've experienced to surfing. As cormee said it's much more physically demanding and you really don't want to fall off or end up in a depression as even picking yourself up out of snow that deep is very difficult.

I'm off to Mayrhofen tomorrow though I don't think the conditions will permit me going off-piste much - we'll see though!

prunudo

I'm not a skier but I love the feeling of boarding through fresh powder. I'm getting excited just thinking about it

CardinalJ

SuprSi wrote: »

I absolutely love it!! It's scary as you're going into areas where there could be rocks or branches and the year before last I became a cropper to some hidden rocks which sent me flying, landing on my arse, leaving me unable to sit down for nearly 2 days and black and blue for a further two weeks! I was just lucky that I landed on the fleshiest part of my body!! In Sauze D'Oulx we could go into the forest, between trees and out in the open and it was great, especially after a nice fresh blanket of snow.

In the right conditions it's my favourite type of boarding as you just float along - it's the nearest thing I've experienced to surfing. As cormee said it's much more physically demanding and you really don't want to fall off or end up in a depression as even picking yourself up out of snow that deep is very difficult.

I'm off to Mayrhofen tomorrow though I don't think the conditions will permit me going off-piste much - we'll see though!

Was in Mayrhofen last week. Had a good dump of snow when I was there but the off piste didn't look up to much at all. Was some off the top of the 150er but it wasn't heavily tracked due to the snow depth.

There was quite a lot of snow slip on pistes as the temps were fluctuating quite a lot. I'd leave it to be honest. 1) the snow isn't too deep 2) the temps are a bit all over the place and what ever snow is there didn't look great.

Might have changed over the week but id speak to an instructor or someone local before heading off piste at present. Also your insurance won't cover you if you're not guided, or not able to drag yourself back to the piste!

cormee

jvan wrote: »

I'm not a skier but I love the feeling of boarding through fresh powder. I'm getting excited just thinking about it

Same here - heading to the 3 Valleys tomorrow morning, lots of fresh snow there in the last few days, board is waxed and ready to go!

Have to say though, I do prefer the powder to be about, or just below, knee-level - any higher than that and it starts getting a little messy for me.

SuprSi

CardinalJ wrote: »

Was in Mayrhofen last week. Had a good dump of snow when I was there but the off piste didn't look up to much at all. Was some off the top of the 150er but it wasn't heavily tracked due to the snow depth.

There was quite a lot of snow slip on pistes as the temps were fluctuating quite a lot. I'd leave it to be honest. 1) the snow isn't too deep 2) the temps are a bit all over the place and what ever snow is there didn't look great.

Might have changed over the week but id speak to an instructor or someone local before heading off piste at present. Also your insurance won't cover you if you're not guided, or not able to drag yourself back to the piste!

Haven't been to Mayrhofen before but thanks for the heads-up. There's a reasonable amount of snow due over the weekend, though whether it's enough for a proper stint off-piste remains to be seen. I wouldn't go anywhere off-piste without an instructor though, at least at first so they can show me the routes.

As for insurance, I always pay a bit extra and go with Snowcard who cover off-piste and all the other funky stuff I might get up to

prunudo

cormee wrote: »

Same here - heading to the 3 Valleys tomorrow morning, lots of fresh snow there in the last few days, board is waxed and ready to go!

Have to say though, I do prefer the powder to be about, or just below, knee-level - any higher than that and it starts getting a little messy for me.

Good bit of snow forecast for the 3valleys next week so you might have to get used to the knee deep stuff

CardinalJ

SuprSi wrote: »

Haven't been to Mayrhofen before but thanks for the heads-up. There's a reasonable amount of snow due over the weekend, though whether it's enough for a proper stint off-piste remains to be seen. I wouldn't go anywhere off-piste without an instructor though, at least at first so they can show me the routes.

As for insurance, I always pay a bit extra and go with Snowcard who cover off-piste and all the other funky stuff I might get up to

Most insurers cover off piste, but the small print says you've to be with a guide. Best to double check.

Mayrhofens a great place. Get a roll from the gasser opposite the penken. Mo's is good for a few drinks if you want good fun but not as 'forced' as the ice bar. Ice bar still worth going to though.

prunudo

There's some nice mellow off piste in mayrhofen between red 13 and black 12 underneath the 6 man chair. Have a good time, it's a great resort.

CardinalJ

jvan wrote: »

There's some nice mellow off piste in mayrhofen between red 13 and black 12 underneath the 6 man chair. Have a good time, it's a great resort.

Actually if there's been another nice bit of snow, there might be good. Also it's one of the heated lifts.