Steeps. Getting over the mental barrier?

[bounceswoosh]

I had a few powder days in Europe (one was a full 3 feet overnight in Chamonix! ), but the snow does tend to be heavier than we get spoiled by.

And there was an east coast segment in Pretty Faces. Obviously you can have great snow anywhere, but on any given day - well, honestly, I think Breck has the best. But I may be biased ;-) That wind fills in the bowls nicely.

 

[abc]

I had a few powder days in Europe (one was a full 3 feet overnight in Chamonix! ), but the snow does tend to be heavier than we get spoiled by.

I had good luck skiing in Europe. I had one day when half a meter of snow fell and it was light and fluffy. The mountain groomed all their regular runs as usual. Nobody was skiing the fluffy snow next to the run because it's...off piste!

That's one of the beauty of skiing in Europe, the lack of powder competition in mellow terrain. The guided off-piste groups are going far away to the steep and deep. The guides got paid big money so he knows his clients will not be satisfied with tooling about next to the pistes. That leaves cheapscape like me to enjoy the mellow stuff inbound but off-piste.

The same is also true even in the US, but not to the same extent. Everybody beeline to the steepest terrain they can find, leaving the powder on the blue runs undisturbed. However, the easy powder only last till Mom and Pop can get their little one out the condo and onto the lift. By 10 or 11, even the easy terrain will be full of crawling little devils. Unlike in Europe, where the powder would lay untouched for a day or two.

 

[santacruz skier]

I had good luck skiing in Europe. I had one day when half a meter of snow fell and it was light and fluffy. The mountain groomed all their regular runs as usual. Nobody was skiing the fluffy snow next to the run because it's...off piste!

That's one of the beauty of skiing in Europe, the lack of powder competition in mellow terrain. The guided off-piste groups are going far away to the steep and deep. The guides got paid big money so he knows his clients will not be satisfied with tooling about next to the pistes. That leaves cheapscape like me to enjoy the mellow stuff inbound but off-piste.

The same is also true even in the US, but not to the same extent. Everybody beeline to the steepest terrain they can find, leaving the powder on the blue runs undisturbed. However, the easy powder only last till Mom and Pop can get their little one out the condo and onto the lift. By 10 or 11, even the easy terrain will be full of crawling little devils. Unlike in Europe, where the powder would lay untouched for a day or two.

I have skied in Europe a number of times and noticed the same thing. Everyone is on the piste and right next to it could be a mellow ish ungroomed run and no one is going down it. That was the case in Wengen and Grindelwald last year.. Also, in Chamonix, the guides are taking their clients who pay big bucks to the serious off piste steep and deep. A friend and I skied a somewhat mellow area from the Grand Montet down to the bottom. (a guide and his group were skiing in front of us - we just sort of followed them so we wouldn't get lost)… Don't necessarily recommend that strategy.

 

[lynseyf]

Unlike in Europe, where the powder would lay untouched for a day or two.

Honestly, still? The only place I've seen this was in a tiny Italian resort we were at which was really flat so not much fun to ski ungroomed even with light and fluffy powder. I agree a lot of people don't like being far from pistes so you can find nice snow if you are willing to hike or know where to go but most places I ski you would be lucky to find fresh powder in the afternoon in view of a piste.

 

[abc]

Honestly, still? The only place I've seen this was in a tiny Italian resort we were at which was really flat so not much fun to ski ungroomed even with light and fluffy powder. I agree a lot of people don't like being far from pistes so you can find nice snow if you are willing to hike or know where to go but most places I ski you would be lucky to find fresh powder in the afternoon in view of a piste.

I tend to take my ski trip during the less busy part of the season, March/April. Quite often, there weren't a lot of people skiing at all. Even fewer off the piste. And I'm talking about rather well-known big mega-resorts.

 

[klar]

Skiing off-piste has been getting increasingly popular over the last few years in Europe. In the areas I frequent things are more like what lynseyf is describing these days. 5 years ago almost nobody left the groomers. After easter it's a different story as most people simply stop skiing and everything gets really quiet, both on and off-piste and especially in the big mega-resorts where the locals make up only a tiny part of the clientele. Very few tourists seem book a ski trip after the easter holidays.

 

[Liquid Yellow]

In every resort I've been to, by the end of the first morning after a snowfall, all the available 'just' off piste next to the slopes is all tracked out!

 

[snow addict]

Honestly, still? The only place I've seen this was in a tiny Italian resort we were at which was really flat so not much fun to ski ungroomed even with light and fluffy powder. I agree a lot of people don't like being far from pistes so you can find nice snow if you are willing to hike or know where to go but most places I ski you would be lucky to find fresh powder in the afternoon in view of a piste.

I would say 10.30 am within a view of the lift Unless it's beginning of the season or the very end of it. Or avalanche danger is too high so people are waiting for the snow to settle a bit, but once it does there is a race to ski it

 

[Xinga]

Thought I would post an update that the steeps are indeed getting notably easier and less scary for me.

I think the main reasons are:
1) skill improvement, I've improved some mechanics and technique a bunch this season, which translates to confidence in more terrain,
2) repetition, repeated exposure definitely helps,
3) push comfort level and try even steeper things sometimes (when the conditions are right).