Some Holiday Snaps

Robert Frazer wrote:Sometimes I have trouble deciding whether we're elite for avoiding ski-lifts, or just barking mad...!

...I think you need to be a little barking mad to be elite at anything anyway.

Looks like an awesome trip mate.

Those are some awesome pics, I've personally never gone skiing/snowboarding/climbing/hiking in mountains. Something I should do, as the views are amazing.

Avid amateur snowboarder here. But only in the states, nothing exotic and ballsy like this. Well done sir!

Thanks for sharing,I enjoyed the pictures

Alfisti wrote:...I think you need to be a little barking mad to be elite at anything anyway.

+1
You took the words right out of my mouth

It might seem a bit weird but the only times I've been to the Val d'Isère is during the summer!
There was no skiing but the scenery was still beatiful

Absolutely spectacular Robert!

What type of bindings do you use for this combined cross-country/downhill?

theprodigalson: It's not so exotic, really. I wouldn't go anywhere without a guide, for one, so I can't claim to be some mountain goat bounding from peak to peak and chasing the knife-edge of avalanches. I know it can be difficult in some places in America - there's land ownership issues and some places you can only get to by helicopter - but the advantage of Val d'Isere is that because off-piste skiing is so plentiful, it's also very accessible - you can go further, but a few hours' skinning is enough to get you to many good places, and some locations like the Sachette and the Pays Des Herts have their ingress point literally just off the piste itself. Snowboarding also is well suited to off-piste; they were originally designed with powder skiing in mind, what with their large surface area for good grip.

Professor Voodoo: While you do need some additional equipment to go touring - skins, a shovel for pit-testing and an avalanche detector are necessary, couteaus and an ice axe are optional but handy - the actual basic equipment need not be sophisticated. I wear a pair of touring boots (which are similar to ordinary boots but have a flexible ankle for walking), but the skis themselves do well enough with ordinary alpine ski bindings; you just unclip the rear binding from its bed while walking so you can lift your foot. My father used to use a pair of touring skis with lightweight minimalist bindings, but he went off them after an episode where he fell, a ski came off, and twisted itself into ski-mode as it did so - with the brake raised, the damned thing travelled literally 800 yards and would have gone off a cliff if it hadn't been stopped by a mogul!

Robert Frazer wrote:
but the skis themselves do well enough with ordinary alpine ski bindings; you just unclip the rear binding from its bed while walking so you can lift your foot.

This is interesting because of a question my own Father had while we were out cross-country skiing (come to think of it, that was 23 years ago...jeeze).

A cross country binding is only connected to the boot at the toe, which makes going down hills difficult (at least it did for us). He wondered if there was a way to clip the heel in for short downhill runs, but leave it free for the flat & uphill sections.