tufty

Heh. The best one I've had was a complete beginner skier who arrived just as I was going for lunch, so I offered to show him how the lift works, how to do it safely, etc. My colleague slows down the lift, we slide to the end of the runway, all well and good, chair arrives, he's turned all sideways, but manages to dig in the end of a ski and ejects the pair of us into the pit. Nobody's hurt, I'm checking he's OK and he says to me... "And that's the _safe_ way to get on?" I nearly cried with laughter. I've since seen the same thing happen to a chair containing 2 patrollers and a chairlift driver. Oh, for a camera on that one. Simon

I'd say that the two rules are not ambiguous at all. Yield when starting or entering - don't put someone who is already engaged in a situation where he has to do something dangerous to avoid you, and possibly put other people at risk. In France, that is formulated as : "the skier must always ensure that they can engage in a manner that puts neither themselves nor any other skier in danger" (replace skier by 'user' or 'client' or whatever you like). If you're stopped at the side of the piste, would you in all honestly start a big wide carve if there were a group of 'flat out down the hill skiers' coming, or would you wait? The second puts other people in a position where they simply cannot avoid putting you in danger from above, as they cannot know that you are there. Of course, both of these open up all sorts of legal ambiguities. They are all trumped, at least over here, by "The skier should not, by his behaviour or equipment, put into danger other users". Which is common sense, really. Now, I get right snotty about putting other people in danger : just above where I work is a red slope that comes down directly into an area for absolute beginners. There are nets, signs, poles, god-alone-knows-what to warn the people coming off of what is effectively a world-cup class race piste to slow the hell down. And yet we have at least 3 or 4 broken legs per season caused by (and I hesitate to use the word) 'people' who scream through the baby piste at insane speeds[1]. People like this make me very, very, angry. I should probably add that the worst offenders for this sem to be younger people on snowblades, who (in a sweeping generalisation) have absolutely no awareness of what's going on, or the danger they are causing. They are closely followed by the 'good' skiers (where 'goodness' is measured in thousands of euros spent on their gear, not in terms of actual ability, and who are aware of the danger but don't seem to think it matters because it's only poor people). Boarders, even complete numbnuts learners, seem to be more calm. Although there are a good few boarders who seem to think 'just under the big bump in the middle of a full-on-screaming-fast-red slope' is the perfect place for a spot of sunbathing. To each our vices, I guess. I think if we're honest, we've probably all done things that put other people in danger at least once, I'm certainly not perfect, but it is beholden on us all to act in a relatively sane and mature manner. Very few people will come out and seriously say "skiiers / snowbladers are a menace to piste safety", but one snowboarder being irresponsible and the backlash starts. Oh, and I'm generally quite a chilled guy, but I do take my job seriously. Too seriously, perhaps. On the upside, resort opens in 2 weeks, we have a good metre of puff at the top, my boards are tuned, the boots are tweaked, and I'm waiting for my mate to give me back my AT skis. And we had 25cm of snow at 900m this afternoon. :) Simon [1] These people are generally allowed to remount the lift, spend 15 minutes going up, before being met at the top by the security boys who strip them of their lift pass and put them back on the lift to go back down. 30 minutes getting cold and the removal of your slope priviledges tends to calm you down.

How can I put this? Hmmm. Gently, maybe. If you come from uphill and run over my kid, even if he is a beginner, and even if he is taking up the whole trail, it's 100% your fault. As will be the fact that you will have to deal with me. The ski patrol might get called, and if you're lucky it will only be to remove your liftpass and escort you off the mountain. Show the slightest sign of carrying on without stopping, and they will be hauling you off to have a little chat with the police[1]. And if you catch me on a bad day, they will be removing pieces of your equipment from unnatural orifices. Run into me, it's less of an issue. We're adults, and we can discuss it. But you run over my kids and get lippy about it, there _will_ be consequences. Your attitude is exactly _why_ people moan about inconsiderate boarders (and skiers, don't even get me started on completely out of control snowbladers). And that's as gentle as I can be on this particular subject. Simon [1] Carrying on without stopping and offering help after a collision is (quite rightly) a criminal offence here, and taken extremely seriously. It can carry a penalty of up to 18 months in prison.

Gah. Happened to me last year. Coming up on the lift, see my colleague's daughter digging around in a metre of fresh snow searching for a ski, so head down to give her a hand. She's on the completely ungroomed black, no problem as I'm on my (unwaxed, yeah, I know...) freeride board. Find ski, she heads off, I clip back in and go mess about in the pow for a bit. This particular black drops onto a very flat, very long, and very narrow, blue run that can only be done in a tuck on a board unless you particularly enjoy skating. So for the last 50 yards or so of the black, I go into tuck mode, and blast down the blue. No problem, and kind of good practice. Of course, true to form, about 100 yards from the end of the flat section, there's a family of L-plated skiers skating along at 0 mph and using 120% of the width of the piste. As it's considered bad form to knock kids over when you're wearing a resort jacket, I slow down and finally, due to unwaxedness of board combined with freshness of snow and the fact I'm currently heading mildly uphill, grind to a halt. Rather than unclipping, I bounce along for a while, muttering imprecations about #)$%&)!@ tourists. Until the local ski club come blazing past, and a 7-year old gives me a tow. The _shame_ of it... the _SHAME_... Simon I've got lots of shame stories :)

Ditto. The skiers I care about know that I go as fast as they do, and the ones that I don't care about can eat my powder. Simon

You come to Praz? I drive the Telesiege de la Varoche (the big long slow bastarding thing that goes up from the car park and they still haven't replaced yet), if you're over this winter drop in to the cabin for a coffee (or perhaps if you arrive at the right time, something more), ask for Simon or "L'Anglais" and we can arrange to go for a play. Actually, that goes for anyone here that's dropping through Praz, freeriders skiers or hardbooters, I don't care. Always up for a play. Simon

Wow. You have patrollers who work on boards? I can't speak for other resorts here, but certainly where I work (Praz sur Arly) the patrollers all have to work on skis. I guess maybe some of the bigger resorts over here might have board patrollers, though. There are a couple of boarders among our patrollers and one of them is a complete psycho hardbooter (there are 3 hardbooters who work on the resort : myself, Francois, and one of the guys who runs an altitude restaurant). I'll see if I can get some photos of us all 'suited and booted' when we've opened. Simon

Yeah. Missed out on one last year, mate of mine runs a skishop and is a hardbooter, had a couple floating about that he needed to get rid of (not much rental call for hardboot gear). He turns up one morning with a client. "Nice board", say I. "Yeah, just bought it from Franck", says he. I turn to Franck, ask if he has any more. "Last one" he says. "You should have asked..." Grrrrrrrr. Still, he lends me his skwal, so he's not all bad. Simon

My reading of 'spoiler' is 'hi-back', and the photo looks like he's using 'ride' type bindings, although the writeup would tend to imply the 'two pins at the side' type binding. Colour me confusled. I'd be a bit cagey about using the spanwise pin type binding for this application, I've seen a good few of the 'bars' bent all to **** by 'normal' snowboard usage, and they are not terribly strongly attached to the boot itself - self tappers, I believe. Maybe he's made some bastard ride/rossignol binding hybrid? 'scratch' is most definitely velcro - i.e. the 'power strap' shown at the top of the front boot. Looks like he's strapping the boot to the binding at the top of the high back, which would make sense to increase lateral stability, I guess. my €0.02, and probably not worth that. Oh, and skwals are fun. Terrifying, but fun. Simon

That would worry me. I drive a chairlift, and see a _lot_ of broken (ski) boots when it gets cold (below -5c or so) and although it tends to be older boots that have taken a lot of beating, it's models that are noticeably 'stiffer' in the cold (we particularly see a lot of busted Nordica and 'Trappeur' boots, I've had both and they really do stiffen up). Seems to be red boots more than any other colour, so maybe it's related to UV ageing as well. Not seen any busted board boots yet, but we don't see many hardbooters where I work. Small 'family' resort, mostly skiers. Oh, and Hi. Only just found this place. Simon