Thanks for your comparisons Liquid Yellow, I am heading for my first ski trip to the US next season and have been gazing at the trail map wondering how many of the runs I might actually want to attempt given the different classifications. I have skied in Austria and Switzerland, I will ski most red's and I will take a black if I am feeling brave, or my other half is coaxing me into it, so it sounds like I should be able to manage quite a bit, perhaps just avoiding some of the narrower double-diamonds.
You're welcome! Some of my group attempted a few double black diamonds in Sunshine Village (I think one was called Waterfall) and said they were TOUGH.
Your vid of Le Tunnel was horrific, I wouldn't have even gone up there! If I had I certainly would have bottled after seeing the drop-in. That is completely mental!
There is no way in my life I will ever do it, even if I do go back to ADH. No way. EVER.
As in some of the earlier posts, I too shout encouragement at myself when I am finding things a bit tough, so there are probably quite a few people out there who have skied past me and gone away with the conclusion that I am completely bonkers!
But I don't care, I love the mountains too much to let fear keep me away so I am determined to work hard at conquering my nerves and to be the best skier I can manage.
Yeah, I think you're right. In St Anton last week I had to tackle Black 2, which is pretty steep. I was talking to myself allllll the way down, just saying "Don't stop, don't stop, you can do this, nearly down!!" I did a bit of singing too...
To Liquid Yellow's post, I wonder if that was the black 11 into Zell am See? There are blues crisscrossing that you can go on but the last 100m or so, you have to do? My friend and I decided to do the run instead of getting the gondola down and even the blues through the trees were icy in places. We both ended up getting freaked out and snowploughing! (forgotten how much that makes your quads hurt!) when the last bit of blue ran out and we were faced with the black we went right over to the far side and snowploughed on the narrow drift of snow at the edge! We must have looked like complete novices but trying to turn on that ice was not an option by then! We were too scared! We saw a few people take their skis off and walk down! On the piste map it showed the blue running all the way down the edge of the black but it was no flatter there. Bearing in mind that European blues are USA greens, the contrast is too much. There should be a warning at the top of the run (like we encountered in Vail, CO) that it's not for beginners. Maybe a flag warning like you'd get on a beach when there's a rip tide? Then, when conditions are icy the flag would mean expert skiers only. When conditions are good, everyone could enjoy it.
Yup, that's the one! There's one bit which is a real 'leap of faith' over the edge where everyone stands in a row. It goes down under the main gondola, and you have no choice but to ski it! It's a proper black, easily the toughest one in Zell I'd say, the rest of the blacks weren't so bad. In fact, Zell is the only resort where I can say I've skied every black run! (There are only about 5 haha)
Actually in France they do put up signs saying 'expert skiers only' if the conditions are bad, not so sure about Austria.
Re "Le Tunnel" at Alpe d'Huez-I recall seeing it from the cable car on the way up a few years ago. I thought "no way"! The film clips, no matter how dramatic, do not do justice to how steep it really is.
I can feel the fear just looking at the videos. It's one of those "I'd rather be anywhere on earth than here" runs, in my book!
I am getting better. I recall about 8 years ago being complete freaked out by La Face in Val D'Isere (a long, mainly straight, black, steep and moguls by the end of the day). The whole leaning back thing took over, mainly because of the fear. At the end of the day, skiing is a learning process, and when I was there in December 2011, I skied La Face 3 times on one day (it's the easiest way straight back to the village) and wondered what all the fuss was about.
Yeah, I wasn't too happy on Le (la?) Face, it was sheet ice rather than moguls when I did it, and I was putting in snow plough turns to be brave enough to get round! I made it down though. I'm going back in March, and if the conditions are OK, I'll give it another go. Now I know I've done it once, I can do it again.
For those who've never seen Le Face, here's the main face, beautifully pisted. I wouldn't mind it like this!
It's steep as buggery, and usually mogully, wickedly icy or both - and it continues on that pitch for a VERY long way:
I still think I will visit a hypnotist to deal with the Vallee Blanche Arete issue. That's nothing to do with skiing, that's just fear of heights. Personally I think I'm being perfectly rational!
It worked for me. I was having full on panic attacks! In fact I might go for a refresher session at some point, because it really did help.
Blimey I've rambled for a long time.
