SerreChe 2 Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 Japan is great in many areas but does not have many steep slopes within resorts. I saw this pic and thought I would post it. Avoriaz. Let's posting some more! Link to post Share on other sites
brit-gob 9 Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 Where is that? Link to post Share on other sites
mattlucas 0 Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 I'll grab some pictures this weekend of potential areas when I head into Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park Link to post Share on other sites
Fattwins 0 Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 yeah it sucks that japan ends in valleys but oh well better touring pow. Link to post Share on other sites
SerreChe 2 Posted September 1, 2006 Author Share Posted September 1, 2006 Avoriaz is in france brit-gob Link to post Share on other sites
daver 0 Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 not much for steeps in the park man. but long glacier turns and wicked yummy gladed pow pow there is much. Link to post Share on other sites
SerreChe 2 Posted September 2, 2006 Author Share Posted September 2, 2006 This one is a bit blur. Mur de L'yret, Serre Chevalier, France. Link to post Share on other sites
marnix 0 Posted September 2, 2006 Share Posted September 2, 2006 Technically it isn't Avoriaz, it isn't even in france. It is Champery and in switzerland. But it is all part of Les Portes du Soleil. The ridge line it the border between France and Switzerland. Le Mur de Avoriaz is supposed to one of the steepest controlled/slopes in Europe. Most of the bowl has a gradient of 40 degrees. and it is a moguls fiels with huge moguls, but the most difficult thing is to work your way around all the people and their gear that are littering the slope. Link to post Share on other sites
SerreChe 2 Posted September 4, 2006 Author Share Posted September 4, 2006 Thanks for the correction Sanno. Never been to Avoriaz so was repeating the site's comments for that pic. It said it was the "mur des suisses" or swiss wall on the Avoriaz side but it seems that it is on the champery side then. It is a nice-looking wall whichever side it is on! Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted September 15, 2006 Share Posted September 15, 2006 How did I miss this thread? Obertauern in AT. Never been there myself, but I am sure someone has. Not renowned for sheer steepness, just the most fun consistently steepish rolling natural terrain you could ever want in a resort on a powder day. Le Flegere in Chamonix. You can ride anywhere Grand Montets in Chamonix and the side country descents off the right under the rocky peak. Doesnt really look it, but GM has plenty of good steeps. The difference between Japan and French resort risk management. This picture is taken from the top lift station looking down into the resort. The upper part of the resort ground is a glacier. See the crevasses behind the lift wires - tracked out and in bounds. Another crevassed area a little further down the hill. Abunai. Link to post Share on other sites
SerreChe 2 Posted September 16, 2006 Author Share Posted September 16, 2006 Love that Obertauern pic! Never heard of the place before. The lower right section looks challenging. Gotta try skiing in Austria one of these days. As always the Cham pics look very nice although the pics seem to distort the impression of steepness. Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 You mean GM looks flatter than it is and Flegere looks steeper? Link to post Share on other sites
SerreChe 2 Posted September 16, 2006 Author Share Posted September 16, 2006 Flegere looks fairly steep on the pic but GM looks "not so steep" on the pic Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 Yeah, thats what I thoght. The Flegere pic is taken from the chair lift heading up GM and the GM pic is taken from a ridge line just out of the resort boundary at Flegere. Flegere is great fun, but it insnt as steep as the front on photo suggests. There is a lot of stuff in this pic. The main peak is no soft touch, its the Aiguille Verte, 4122m. That's the home to those extreme lines that SereChe was talking about a few months ago in the 'Most Desirable line' thread, ridden by Marco Siffredi (Nant Blanc, 50-60 degrees). The lines are over the reverse left hand side. Whats in a name? The Aiguille Vert: Well, "Aiguille" is French for needle, or peak. And "Vert" sounds all cool to the English ear. But it is French for green. Nice name, French guys! The Green Peak?? The top lift station of the of the resort is on a rocky outcrop a bit lower down the Vert ridge line to the left. The lift to the top of Grand Montets is a crap old cable car. They cant put in any other type of lift as they all require too many poles and the upper half of the lift line is on moving glacier. The cable car only has three pylons. On the right of the main peak is the famous climbing spire, the Drus, also visible is the light grey patch from when the massive area of rock that broke away during the night. From the resort top station you can drop lookers right into the lines under the Drus. You end up in the bottom right of the photo on the end section of the Mer de Glace (the end of the Vallee Blanch) The wide open bowl on skiers right of Grand Montets resort is =called le lavancher. You can guess what that means in the local dialect. It is awesome, just like some of the tree lines down into the valley (seriously steep and tight trees with big drops and clear channels that slide. A tricky place). The remainder of the resort is over the back and out of sight. No lifts back up, just a huge 1000m long powder face (gotta be early!) down to a glacier and then a traverse on a marked piste back around to the bottom left of the picture and back to the lift system. I have climbed both the peaks in the very distance and ridden down the back sides. Although of the two background peaks, I have not been right to the summit of the one on the left and only rode from the lower left shoulder near where the brown rock meets the snowy ridge. I have also ridden down the front side of the ridge down the long couloir and down the snow slope (which is also the ascent route). On the same snow slope you can see a cliff band at the very bottom. At the lookers left of that cliff band is a set of popular ice waterfalls for climbing. I have never been near them, but on dusk they turn bright blue. In the picture they appear as light blue/white vertical streaks. This place is a true playground, so much to do in one little spot. Link to post Share on other sites
SerreChe 2 Posted September 16, 2006 Author Share Posted September 16, 2006 Nice summary Spud. I wonder how many years it takes to have a fairly comprehensive experience of all the lines available. Endless. Link to post Share on other sites
big-will 7 Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 There is not enough time. Link to post Share on other sites
SerreChe 2 Posted September 17, 2006 Author Share Posted September 17, 2006 How about this, 78% , Hintertux !!! Have not seen any pic, so not sure how consistently steep it is. Link to post Share on other sites
SerreChe 2 Posted September 17, 2006 Author Share Posted September 17, 2006 Apparently the start of it. Have not found a good panoramic pic of it yet. Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted September 17, 2006 Share Posted September 17, 2006 I don't like slopes being expressed in percentage terms. It has no intuitive meaning to me. Are you in Rondon at he moment? That pic is steep, but the camera is angled exaggerating the steepness. Look at all the things that are normally vertical. In that pic they are learning over. Link to post Share on other sites
SerreChe 2 Posted September 17, 2006 Author Share Posted September 17, 2006 Actually I do not mind percentages. Yes, been in Rondon for 2 weeks, 1 more week to suffer... Completely agree with you on the camera angle. I saw some other shots of that slope, and to be honest it does not look that impressive. They are probably referring to one of the side banks or something, probably 78% for 2m or something like that. Wonder if anybody on that forum has done that slope. Sanno? Link to post Share on other sites
SerreChe 2 Posted September 17, 2006 Author Share Posted September 17, 2006 That Obertauern pic looks a lot more impressive. I may dare to say that it is actually very sexy-looking! Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted September 17, 2006 Share Posted September 17, 2006 What is it a % of? 78% of what? You should have come over to Germany for the weekend and we could have had some beer and a pork knuckle large enough to feed 5 people (or was your family joining you?) Link to post Share on other sites
SerreChe 2 Posted September 17, 2006 Author Share Posted September 17, 2006 Quote: Originally posted by le spud: we could have had some beer and a pork knuckle large enough to feed 5 people (or was your family joining you?) No family is back in Tokyo unfortunately, can't wait to go back and spend some time with the 'lil one. Very kind invite from you on the pork knuckles, but I have been working on week-ends as well, hopefully I will not have to spend so much time in Rondon next year. I guess they use % and degrees interchangeably, when they say 78% that means 78 degrees or 12 degrees away from being vertical (90 deg angle). But from the pics, it looks more like Niseko Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted September 17, 2006 Share Posted September 17, 2006 No way 78% is 78 degrees? I reckon your employer is going to move you to London early next year. Its all over for you. Link to post Share on other sites
SerreChe 2 Posted September 17, 2006 Author Share Posted September 17, 2006 yep 78 degrees supposedly. I know I could not believe it when I saw it, but it seems like a marketing ploy, N-style. One of the conditions when I joined them was for me to stay in Japan, which they kindly agreed to. Unfortunately, until we find somebody to help in Rondon it looks like a bit more travel for me. The toughest part was when I had to come in March this year, it shot the end of the season for me. Link to post Share on other sites
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