newbie going to livigno

Kev

I'm probably going snowboarding in livigno at the start of january, as i've never been snowboarding before i have a few questions.

Whats a good hotel to stay in, from looking at the brochure, san carlo and silvestri look good.

Is it worth buying a board and boots, although ive never been boarding it looks like something i'd like to do again. what about other gear like clothing and goggles ?

any other tips appreciated.

DeVore

Heres a mail I sent a load of new boarders who came with me last year. (saves me typing

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1. Clothing.
You'll need warm fleecy clothing for night times, a jacket (waterproof and breathable if you have it) for up the mountain during the day. Considering that you will be falling over a LOT, you really need something waterproof at the very least.
You also need leggings. Preferably you would have snowboarding sallupettes but failing that waterproof, breathable leggings will do. You will be spending a LOT of time sitting on your arse, both intentionally and unintentionally so you REALLY need these to be waterproofed as much as possible.

You will need knee-high warm woolly socks. The higher up your calf-muscle the better. Trust me on this one.
When not sitting on your arse, you will most likely be falling on your face. This brings me to the single most important element of clothing. Gloves. Dont scrounge on them, a pair of wolly mittens wont do. In a perfect world you would get snowboarder gloves which have wrist supports in them but failing that a pair of ski gloves will do. If you have in-line skating wrist supports (or something like them), bring them. Basically you're wrists will get ****ed over the week and you need as much support for them as possible.

Sunglasses. Wanting to look as cool as **** while you fall over, you are going to need a pair of kick-ass shades. Vital for standing by the shops learning on your board checking out the honies while pretending you were just tweaking-out on a big kicker-jump. However they have another purpose! Being snowblind is NO fun... you need more then tinted glasses up the mountain. Decent UV filtering, as dark as you can get them and with as tight a wrap to your face as possible. Cycle-racing shades are prefect. Alternatively you can go for the "raccoon-on-a-tray" look and get big assed skiing goggles. These are better for bad weather.

All of this you can buy out there if you want, its cheaper then buying it here.

2. Beer and food.
Livigno is a duty-free town, which means its like spending 7 days living in the airport duty free shop. Food is cheap even to eat out and beer/alcohol is even cheaper. Up the mountain is a different story but you wont get ripped off as badly as other resorts and the food is good. I wouldnt expect to spend more then 30 quid a day tops!

3. Learning to board and dryslopes.
DONT go to the dry slopes in Kiltirnan to practise. Its lethal.
I've been boarding for 9 years now and I found it very dangerous out there.
Its NOT a fun place to learn (hard concrete under an inch of carpet isnt forgiving)
and it doesnt really feel like snow for boarders anyway. Its sometimes hard to hear the instructors up the
mountain so some simple advice can save you days of trying to "make this things go/stop!!"

5. What can you expect of your abilities?
I've seen people learn to snowboard in an hour and be up the mountain by the end of day 1 I've also seen people who were up the mountain by the end of day 1 and came down the mountain as a head,hands and feet sticking out of a snowball. Usually by day 3 you are confident enough to do some easy blue runs
and by the end of the week you are firmly in control of where you are going.

No matter what happens it will be fun though! Just dont expect to be doing 180's and off-piste stuff on your first trip.

Most of Livigno (about 70%) is blue runs (the easiest). The rest are red (middling). Even the red runs are fairly easy in comparison to other resorts. There are three black runs, if you are on them... something is very very wrong

By the end of the week there is a looong blue run from the very very summit of Snow Mountain
(the highest mountain in the range) Its about 45 minute long run (maybe an hour) depending on speed etc... but the
cable car ride up is just insane (its actually about 2 cable cars, and two chair lifts!)

The first trip is always the worst because of the initial expenditure and because you spend so long learning, but it has to be done.

DeV.

DeVore

Originally posted by Kev
I'm probably going snowboarding in livigno at the start of january, as i've never been snowboarding before i have a few questions.

Whats a good hotel to stay in, from looking at the brochure, san carlo and silvestri look good.

The Galli hotel is VERY good if a little pricey. It doesnt really matter about accom as you wont spend long there. Somewhere to
get your head down is all you need but shoot for further UP the village then lower down as the beginners slopes are where you need to be. MArcos pub is the centre of everything for beginners so look for somewhere round there.

Is it worth buying a board and boots, although ive never been boarding it looks like something i'd like to do again. what about other gear like clothing and goggles ?

You'll have to buy clothing etc and its worth investing in it (especially gloves as indicated above).

The rental boards are good and worth taking advantage of for a few years. I have my own now but I bought too early and wished I'd knew more about my style beforehand.
The rentals are all brand new each year usually so they are good, they also save you lugging a snowboard around and makes it less expensive on the first trip too!

any other tips appreciated.

Tons but you'll pick them up as you go along. Also, I'm thinking about organising a group of us to go this year from boards.ie so if you arent committed (or with a group) then you could bunk in with us. Its better as a group.

Have fun, its a total rush but you need to work hard at it on the first week or it will seem unrewarding. The last few days should see you carving and boarding if you do.

DeV.

Kev

loads of good info, thanks

i think someone is already organising a trip to kiltirnan, hopefully its not too lethal, should have plenty of time to heal broken limbs before january anyway.

Thanks.

DeVore

There are loads of webcams too.
heres one for instance:
http://domino.livnet.it/live_cam.nsf/telecamere/camera1?OpenDocument

As for Kilternan. I'd be REALLY careful about it, I didnt like it much and it didnt feel like snow to me but then I guess to learn the very basics of boarding you might give it a shot. Personally I wouldnt. Bring wrist protectors for SURE if you do go. Jayk there will tell you aaaaall about it

DeV.

Jak

True true ..

Before going on my first Snowboarding trip - I went to Kilternan (sp?) for lessons ... and managed to break my wrist cleanly and fracture my forearm on the second last lesson.

I enjoyed the not so extreme world of mountain hiking for my first holiday : /

Second holiday the following year I decided to sod Kilternan and get lessons while over there. Snow was much more forgiving for learning and although I still managed to injure myself eventually - a few days of physio and I was fine - which was a godsend as I flew to Barbados on the last day of that snow holiday for some proper sports

DeVore

if you cant stand the heat... or should that be the cold

DeV.

Shad0r

Originally posted by Kev
I'm probably going snowboarding in livigno at the start of january, as i've never been snowboarding before i have a few questions.

Dont "probably" go. Definitely go. It will be worth it.

Originally posted by Kev
Is it worth buying a board and boots, although ive never been boarding it looks like something i'd like to do again. what about other gear like clothing and goggles ?

I wouldnt buy all the gear first time out. You can rent really good equipment in Livigno for alot less because you never know if you'll do it again.

Whether you go back depends on what type of person you are really, I think. There's probably a certain element of luck and the people you go with but if your the type of person who gets a kick out of conquering your mental fears you'll love it.

Originally posted by Kev
any other tips appreciated.

The first day you are there book yourself in for a massage for one of the days after boarding (slightly closer to the end than the start). Also I'd recommend doing the Jacuzzi, sauna etc one of the days.

The thing is that when your on the board, its really your mind, gravity and adrenalin that will be doing all the work for you. But dont think that just because its not aerobic that you wont have musscles that hurt because you will. especially the ones you didnt know you had! I would STRONGLY recommend, if your apartment/hotel room has a bath, fill it up with as hot water as you can take and just lie in it for a half hour when your finished boarding every day.

I did it. It became a little bit like a ritual and towards the end of the week I used to look forward to it. I'm convinced that that muscle soakage was what enabled me to still be able to get on the board on the last day.

Also if you go up the mountains towards the end to do higher blues or reds, bring some sweets Your gona need the energy.

g,luck and enjoy

bombidol

a boards snowboarding session would be extremely cool
Dev you know the score, why dont you look into it and give us a rough price and timeline?

id be into it , bigstyle
bomb

DeVore

My protege... *sniff* he's all grown up ...

Neil has good points and it IS all in your mind (and your sense of balance).

DeV.

cerebus

This is more of a general tip/suggestion for when you're on the slopes with your board:

Don't sit in a long line across the run with all your mates. Especially on blind corners. Head to the sides, or somewhere else out of the way if at all possible when you want a bit of a break. You won't get speared by surprised skiers.

Also, if possible, encourage someone on the trip to ski instead of board. That way you've got somebody who might extend a ski-pole and pull you along any flat sections of cat track or traverses you might have to do - very handy (It's a lot easier for a skier to skate along a flat section than it is for a boarder to hop/trudge)

DeVore

Yes, dont sit in the middle of the slope and *especially* dont sit just over the brow of a hill. You'll get a ski in the back of the head.
Be polite to skiers (and everyone on the slope) but be careful of the "we own this mountain, they shouldnt let riff-raff like you on it" attitude you'll get from some skiers.
(conversely dont be an arrogant im-cool-you-suck boarder )

Here's a personal tip from me. During the afternoon you may get a cracking run. One where *everything* just goes sweet for you.
Get off the mountain. Go have a beer, a bath, whatever. There is nothing better to get you buzzing for the evening then to stick a run and then call it a day. If you go up again and fluck it up you'll just be annoyed with yourself.

personal tip, take it or leave it, but it works for me!

DeV.

s10

if you are a lazy bstd
id do stomach crunches
every night for
@ least the month b4 hand if not three months
the difference of getting up quickly
or falling back down again

everytime u fall over you have to pull yourself back up
using those muscles
the more tired you are the less balance you have,
example tie your legs to either side of your computer & try 2 stand up , easy?
put on 2 trousers 3 jumpers 2 coats go for a 10 min sprint
& try againn
its easy after your first hoilday



my first year was spoilt by screaming stomach muscles
& four foot powder ( can't put your hand down to push yourself up it just sinks)

just don't over spend on gear

DeVore

What s10 said (though dont skimp on Gloves.)

Jesus S10, 4 foot powder on your first trip is rough hahahah!

My first trip I distinctly remember trying to sit up the third morning and my stomach muscles giving out. Now its my calf muscles which is apparently a sign of progress

But trust me on the gloves.

DeV.

s10

i went to endinburgh last august with girlfriend , they boast biggest dry slope in euro (prob only when it was built ) foot n mouth so no horse riding , got girlfriend lessions for boarding ,
some 14yearold working behind counter .
any gloves? no... just soggy bluemould smeling might as well be knitted by a blind ox ,
kept falling over ? couldn't understand ?
nearly tore my thumb off
couldn't go boardin last year
since i drive a bike . took 3 months b4 i could use horn or indicator
on left hand
i said regular , so he gave me a goofy board
ti7s
thumb is f@@ked for life wont outstretch

THIS IS A WARNING don't buy goves that allow your fingers to
bend backwards & dry skislopes @ your own risk
only with an instructor if you want to pick up basics

Mystic Fibrosis

There are three black runs, if you are on them... something is very very wrong

Dude, black slopes are funfunfun. If youre good enough to try them. I remember the first time I went down a black.funfunfun. going 0-30 in about 3 seconds wasnt.

DeVore

Its not the 0-30 speed that bothers me, its the 30-0

Nah but seriously, I've dropped off or boarded down slopes that they wouldnt even attempt to create a piste out of and while its a killer adrenaline rush for a short while its not the same as the black runs.

Black runs can be fun alright, but not for beginners. Also Black runs are a *type* of fun in the "jesus this is steep, woooah nearly lost it there" kinda way.

For me the best crack is on the red runs which are nice and wide, steep in places but mostly interesting to bounce off mogels and carve wide lazy turns while goofing off with mates.

If I want extreme, I'll go off piste, if I want fun I'll go Red with my mates, if I want a bunch of asshole skiers who arent as good as they think they are shimmying their butts and having to deal with mogel fields built for skiers only I'll go on the black stuff...

Just my 1/50th of a dollah!

DeV