Where are people thinking of this year?

A little disappointed with St.Anton last year, too commercial for me liking, so will look for a quieter resort in Austria this year. Hopefully back to Tirol region maybe Fieberbrunn, has anyone been?

3V in mid Jan a strong possibility here.

Chamonix and Ischgl already booked
Looking at Sweden for a third trip later in the season.

cormee wrote: »

Holy god! It's all go.

Timmay: wherein 3v you thinking of?

Don't really mind, VT definitely an option, but open to anywhere which has some bit of night life and decent lift access. Could well do another UCPA if our group isn't big enough to rent a chalet, that means VT only I think.

cormee wrote: »

Val Thorens is also ugly as hell (not that that matters too much) but the nightlife is supposed to be great. Given its altitude you do run the risk of getting snowed in if conditions turn bad. I was thinking of trying to convince my lot to go to Les Menuires this year, it's in a good location, in terms of the 3V, and there is a very large, excellent ski area called La Masse on the other side of the valley from Menuires, that doesn't get a lot of people using it.

Is les menuires lower down with less risk of being snowed in? In terms of VT being ugly, it couldn't be much worse than Tignes ha? That was the huge difference between Tignes and val d'isere, if I was going back to Espace Kelly I'd defo pick VDI ha.

How much mtb experience ya got! Full downhill is proper hardcore, and well more dangerous than any sorta skiing in my opinion ha. I do a decent bit of normal mtbing though, it's a lot more practical, no need for uplifts or pushing your bike back up the hill ha, and certainly a good bit safer ha. It's a bit like slalom racing against normal skiing ha.

Is this going to turn into a mtb thread??

cormee wrote: »

My wife was encouraging me to try that, good way to keep distracted and keep fit. Where do you do it? Is there anywhere you can rent the bike and gear to try the sport out before investing?

Look up ballinstoe in wicklow and ballyhoura on the cork/kerry border. Ballyhoura in my opinion is more fun, ballinstoe can be a bit of a slog. Rental is generally is around €30-35 for a hardtail bike , so 3-4 trip rentings and you will already be thinking of investing on your own insted.

Since you learned how to board/ski you should know all about getting hurt/perseverance paying off , so be patient.

If you eventually want a bit of a taster for downhill, try http://bikeparkireland.ie/ Went there a few week ago, my first experience of big full suspension more downhill orientated bikes and caught a bit a dangerous expensive bug from it.

Funnily enough, I've taken up MTB this year as well for the "off season". Started off renting up in Ballinastoe and went all in on a shiny new bike a few weeks ago, just to add extra expense to my year!

I have to say in terms of the same buzz as skiing it's well up there, you definitely need the "no fear/stupidity" factor though which I have in abundance

Puibo wrote: »

Is this going to turn into a mtb thread??

Sorry Puibo. My bad.

Wilder Kaiser?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iafmPpNXgGM

zagmund wrote: »

If you think ski hire (and lift passes) is expensive, try bike hire in Tignes. We were there at the start of the month and while we didn't hire any bikes, you could see the prices and it was about €80 per day for the bike and protective gear. Check out this link - http://www.location-vtt-tignes.fr/

On the plus side the lifts were free for bikes and pedestrians, although only *up* for pedestrians for some strange reason. It made planning a walk a bit of a nightmare as you couldn't just take a lift, go for a walk and then take the lift back down again.

On the minus side, it appears you have to look like some sort of clone of Sean Pertwee - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0675730/?ref_=tt_ov_st. Pretty much all the blokes looked like that.

On the other minus side, they were absolutely destroying (in the old sense of the word, not the bad=good sense) the hillsides up there. Tignes looks ugly at the best of times, but now it looks even uglier with dirty big dust tracks across the hillsides.

From what we could see, people either ski'd or biked. Certainly the people we saw skiing didn't look like all the biking clones we saw later in the day.

z

Rental is expensive with good reason , if you want a bike suitable for the terrain in the alps and with stand abuse for the entire season they are going to be expensive , i rented a bike in bikeparkireland a few weeks and it turned out the thing cost 2.5 to 3k brand new. Not to mind the constant maintenance required on the bike when they are brought back to the shop. Its a totally different level of expense to ski hire.

Its a bit much to say that trails have ruined the countryside up there , considering the amount of pylons for chairlifts scattered around every resort. But i know what you mean , it would be nice to see untarnished greenery and trees during the summer but thats the way it is , these place we go have amazing beauty just not untouched, but they are still plenty parts of the alps untouched. Don't think anything will outdo ruining the scenery like they ugly apartment resorts built in the 60s and 70s.

What authorities have learned with mountain biking all over the world is if you don't offer say 5 sanctioned well maintained trails , the bikers themselves will start carving 20 of their own where ever they like with no cognisance of environmental impact , drainage , tree felling etc.

Take rosstrevor in Co. Down the hill was littered diy trails , but NI tourist board took on themselves to build 2 world class cross country and 2 world downhill trails of unimaginable quality for the island of ireland. There's little interest by biker in wander off the sanctioned track now.

The emergence of mtb in the alps has made the economies less dependant of the 4 months of the year the slopes are open.

AlternateID wrote: »

I tend to use downhill as a go to phrase when describing mtb as everyone I know with bikes wouldn't go further off road then the pavement. When I say downhill to them they know there's no asphalt involved. Guess I need to learn the lingo. Haven't gone mad doing it since I was in school when I had zero fear.

I see links have already been posted to rent and places to go so I won't repeat. Haven't been to Wicklow yet but planning on going in a few weeks if anyone want's to join in. Should have a someone with me to act as a guide.

A mate in the UK I snowboard with is into it and finally convinced me. This video from the start of Megavalanche 2015 really got my attention. I'd love to do it but wouldn't. This guy finished 7th overall. Winner completed it in 40 mins.

Now like a real snowboarder who's got their priorities straight I need to buy some crazy coloured shorts.

That video looks utterly insane! I'll put it on my bucket list ha! In terms of DH against mtb, the basic distinction is in DH you wear a full face (motocross) helmet and full body armour! So go figure there haha. Also with huge 8inch or so suspension travel, pedalling uphill is largely a no no! So normal mtbing is what ya want ha.

When I'm not flat out at athletics (April to July) I'd aim to head out on the bike every fortnight at least, good few places around north wicklow, if anyone wants to jump on feed free to pm me. We take it reasonably easy, well on the uphill anyways ha, in fairness my cycling fitness is fairly rubbish, also any seasoned skier will take to mtbing like a duck to water!

Also, who here is a mod? Maybe no harm to split this thread ha, and make a separate thread for mtbing!