Is this carvable?...not me in this lifetime...

[Zone]

http://www.mayrhofner-bergbahnen.com/en/100304/100252/view/594/harakiri_fis_rules_mayrhofen_steepest_slope.html

Just wondering???

[Zone]

Oops, never mind. That was 78% which is around 38 degree. I first read 78 degree....

[Furi]

man thats a seriously steep pitch...

I sometimes wonder how steep some of the chutes I do are...but they are usually so short I do 2-3 jump turns then point straight down and pray for soft snow further down to slow me down...and pray my nose doesn't dig so I dont have to listen to my buddies laughing at me cartwheeling down

[David Glynn]

Looking at the picture of the slope I would say that it is indeed 38 degrees not 76. 76 degrees would not even hold snow in most cases. The piste in the pic looks carvable in a flowing but very demanding way. Shorter boards with an 11 meter or shorter radius are easier on steeper terrain.

[Furi]

There two kinds of boarders in chutes, Furi-

Those who huck 'em the way you describe, and those who lie.;)

heh no doubt. Sadly I have video to prove my cartwheeling abilities :)

I doubt the little chutes I do in the sierras compare to big mountains in BC, CO, and utah so definitely not talking up my backcountry experience...there are some serious backcountry guys on this board and I couldnt even imagine the stuff they bomb off.

[David Glynn]

My roof is about 23 degrees.

The pictures of the run clearly show in my mind that the run is steep but not even close to extreme. If you notice it is groomed( probably winch catted) with bumps along side so it gets a lot of traffic. Even the small pic of someone edged into the hill on skies shows that it is not extreme, steep yes.

It wouldn't be the first time that we the public were assaulted with false or misleading promo.

P.S. It is snowing so hard right now................. YEHAW!

THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR PITCH. MILK RUN IS OPEN!

[Fat Old Bastard]

http://www.mayrhofner-bergbahnen.com/en/100304/100252/view/594/harakiri_fis_rules_mayrhofen_steepest_slope.html

Just wondering???

Which is pretty steep but definitely rideable. Just don't crash

[Skwalleur]

Which is pretty steep but definitely rideable. Just don't crash

It's about 45 degrees:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=78+percent+to+degrees&btnG=Search

And yes definately carveable. Me and Joerg from Pureboarding and some other guys at the Swedish SES last year did the wall in the Swedish resort Sälen which is shorter but the same steepness. As long as it't properly groomed, no problems. Just some guts to dive in and then it's just like williamblake said - no effort to get the edge in properly.

[pokkis]

By correct calculation 78% is 37.9 degrees ;)

Deepest i've seen is slope 75 in Trysil, they claim it to be 45 degrees, and it looks steep, steeper than Väggen in Sälen, both are also not too wide either. Slope in Trysin is also clearly steeb for quite long way :)

[GeoffV]

I think it is 78 degree, actually.

Europe is funny with degrees commas an decimals.

You could carve it, no problem.

If it really is 78 degrees...no way

I grew and learned to snowboard in Austria, there is no way that slope is 78 degrees. I have friends that have been down that slope. Yes it is super steep, and the conditions are usually terrible. If I compare that pitch to Tuckerman's head wall which has around a 65 degree pitch there is no way that pitch is 78 degrees.

1. A 78 degree pitch would have high avalanche danger. If it was groomed it would not hold any fresh snow on it

2. To steep to even winch groom it.

3. Not carvable

This is a picture of me on the Tuckerman’s head wall in 96. The pitch on that ranges from 60 to 65 degrees.

This is not carvable….

I have carved 45 plus degree pitches, yes you can get a great edge hold if conditions are good, but 78 no way....

[Chubz]

Running Tucks is a hoot. only ever got to do it once on a freestyle board but it was well worth the trip and hike to the top. for em the scariest part was trying to get buckled into bindings.

We have a fairly steep face at Blue Mtn in Pa, nothing like what is shown here , but carving the top head wall of Razors edge does demonstrate that the steeper it is, the easier it is to carve to a certain extent.

It would be interesting to try

[felix]

It's looking steeper than it is on photos. La Corne in Zinal (with la corne the slope ridden most often at the ECS) is about as steep as that slope in Mayrhofen. The run down to the valley in Zinal is definitely steeper and too carveable. With 38° max its the steepest groomed run (that's what is understood as piste here) in Austria as they claim (be it or not, 2 other resorts claim that title for themselves too, all have about the same steepness).

[bumpyride]

This is the beta for my home area Alpental.

Quote:

Nash," the local's affectionate nickname for International, is as steep as it gets in-bounds. The upper third of the trail is at least a 50-degree pitch. And even trickier are the two entrances to International. Both are intimidating. The first 20 feet or so are usually scraped off due to the high traffic in the entrances and the steepness of the terrain. The first few turns may be on rock-hard ice, but the gut of International is a fabulous ride. Each edge set causes miniature avalanches of cascading snow. It's terrain like International that makes for spectacular footage in Warren Miller ski flicks. In fact, Alpental was featured in Miller's 1998 film Freeriders. The steepest pitch on International is to the skier's right.

I board Upper International skiers right, as my favorite start to this run. I usually have it all to myself, and most times it is quite hard except after a fresh snow. Burton Ultraprime 156 which is very stiff and very light with the lowest swing weight I've ever been on. Very necessary to keep the shoulders perpendicular to the fall line. Often times the whole back side is closed due to ice, especially on spring mornings. I see better skiers doing it, (skiers right) but not often a boarder. You can figure a 2 city block slide if you miss a turn. Jump turns are de riguer, and you can figure about a 10' or better drop on each turn. You don't want to stay on edge any longer than it takes to initiate the next turn. The skiers left is not nearly as steep, but still pushing 45 degrees and bumpy. Worst fall was on an icy day, went to do a jump turn and caught the downhill edge in a sluff that had accumulated at the top of the bump, flipping me upside down and dropping me 10' on my head. Probably the only thing that saved a broken neck was the pitch of the slope. That was the end of boarding that day. That fall was on the skiers left. I've never fallen on the right, but had a lot of hip checks.

[Jack M]

I think it is 78 degree, actually.

Europe is funny with degrees commas an decimals.

The sign says 78%, which is 37.9 degrees as Pokkis posted. Nothing ambiguous about that.

45 degrees = 100% slope because you're descending 1 foot vertically for every 1 foot you travel horizontally.

[bumpyride]

on it

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Get News Feeds

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Robert Stern

March 30, 2001

Print Email

Tom Burt carves down the slopes of Alpine Meadows Ski Resort on his snowboard with absolute control. He is fluid and looks like a man made of flowing water as he navigates the slopes on this sun-drenched spring day.

Considered to be a pioneer among those in the snowboard community, Burt, 36, is known for his mountaineering expeditions, which have taken him on steep descents around the globe to places such as Alaska, Peru, New Zealand, Bolivia and Europe at elevations of 20,000 feet plus.

But his steepest descent was achieved at Donner Summit, just a few years ago. It was a descent he had scoped for six years, but one that needed the appropriate snow fall. So one day in February, after it had snowed for nearly 30 days in a row, he plunged down the 70 degree pitch without a scratch. But it took some quick maneuvering including a front flip, which resulted in a 60 foot free fall, to avoid a disastrous collision with jutting boulders.

Burt said to perform on such gnarly terrain, it takes extreme concentration in which he reaches a transcendental state of consciousness.

"Many times it's very scary with rocks and cliffs, and you can really injure yourself or kill yourself," Burt said. "I turn that fear into focus . . . You become very aware - hyper aware. It's kind of like time slows down and you have time to do all the things you need to do."

Although his snowboarding has made him a world traveler, Burt has not moved far from his boyhood stomping grounds - tucked in the lush pine greenery of Lake Tahoe's North Shore. Driving from his Kings Beach home to Alpine Meadows, he points out the house where he grew up, only two minutes away in Tahoe Vista - a rustic structure built by his great grandfather, the first of four generations to live at Lake Tahoe.

Burt grew up a skier, and at 4 years old carved his first turns at Alpine Meadows.

But in 1983, he bought his first snowboard, a Sims for $50. He hiked up Mount Rose and got his first taste of riding a board on snow. Not a completely foreign concept, after all he had skateboarded and even surfed a few times, but when he and his friends decided to snowboard the back country steeps they had conquered on skis a new world opened.

He got his first real taste of snowboarding glory in the mid 1980s when he was filmed taking jumps in a Juicy Fruit commercial. He was paid $12,000. It may not have been a fortune, but it was enough to make him put his fledgling career as a math teacher on hold. He never taught again.

He has since appeared on National Geographic Explorer and in several commercials, snowboarding films, and been featured in magazines such as Outside and Snowboarding.

Now Burt is a backcountry guide in Alaska for Out of Bounds and he is sponsored by O'Neill, Da Kine, Avalanche and Alpine Meadows, where he also organizes the Tom Burt Big Air Snowboard Classic, a charity event for the Boys and Girls Club, which will be held April 28 at Alpine Meadows.

But for Burt it is all about snowboarding, travel and mountaineering. This spring he will take yet another trip to Bolivia.

When asked where in the world is the best snow, he gives a sly grin before answering.

"Wherever it just snowed," he said. "It could be good anywhere."

Here's a link with a picture of what 70 degrees starts to look like

http://outside.away.com/outside/magazine/200102/200102tomburt1.html

[Gecko]

Crazy Horse at Targhee has a section that is purported to be 52* along with some 45* and 48* sections...I know it's one of the steepest groomed trails that's not winched...the roll over onto the the steep section is...interesting but even years ago I was able to carve it...resisting the urge to lean back from the abyss is very hard

[pokkis]

Gecko, i dont know what * means after number but i believe if they dont use winch then it anyway does not refer degrees.

[Gecko]

* is a way of conveying degrees for all the time I've typing oh well regardless...I rode with a groomer one morning before opening in the mid 90's he was going on about how steep it was and how it was one of a few trails in North America that steep that wasn't winch-cat groomed

[NateW]

Did anyone else watch the commercial?

http://www.mayrhofner-bergbahnen.com/en/100196/100481/harakiri_spot_mayrhofen_steilste_piste_osterreichs.html?S=

:lol:

I think they exaggerate the pitch in one of the shots, but it looks like about 45 degrees in the shot that counts. (You'll see what I mean.)

[Menno]

I have been there 3 years ago.

As always in Austria - the size, quality an difficulty of anything to do with the skiing area is grossly exaggerated.

Yes, the slope is steep. It is a nice black one. But it is nothing special.

And the steep part is very very short too - 100, maximum 150 vertical meters.

After all the fuss, I was not exactly impressed.

One nice aspect: this slope is groomed regularly.

The black Caron in Val Thorens is steeper. And the steep part is at least 5 times longer. And this slope is groomed too.

The tunnel piste in Alpe d'Huez is much much steeper. And it is an uninterrupted 500 vertical meters. But it is not groomed. In spring conditions however, the whole slope is good; and only small part is bumps.

The "Mur de Chavanette" near Avoriaz is both steeper and longer.

The list goes on and on and on.

Below is a photo of the start of the tunnel piste in alpe d'Huez.

[Gleb]

If it really is 78 degrees...no way

I grew and learned to snowboard in Austria, there is no way that slope is 78 degrees. I have friends that have been down that slope. Yes it is super steep, and the conditions are usually terrible. If I compare that pitch to Tuckerman's head wall which has around a 65 degree pitch there is no way that pitch is 78 degrees.

1. A 78 degree pitch would have high avalanche danger. If it was groomed it would not hold any fresh snow on it

2. To steep to even winch groom it.

3. Not carvable

This is a picture of me on the Tuckerman’s head wall in 96. The pitch on that ranges from 60 to 65 degrees.

This is not carvable….

I have carved 45 plus degree pitches, yes you can get a great edge hold if conditions are good, but 78 no way....

never say never. When those pros are getting 250-300 days a year of riding, they can do just about anything.

[pokkis]

It does not help even training 600+ days per year, one can not carve on 78 degree slope

[Phil]

Skip the intro then go to "Show the angle"

Then draw your own conclusions.

[queequeg]

45 degrees = 100% slope because you're descending 1 foot vertically for every 1 foot you travel horizontally.

Interesting!!! I've always wondered why 100% gets equated to 45deg and not 90. that makes perfect sense now. It also adds greater degree of specificity for the more usable ranges of terrain pitch I suppose.

[Neil Gendzwill]

1.First- 60 to 64 degrees is, in fact, carveable.

I've carved on similar pitch, in races

I'm sorry, I call BS on this one. Those kinds of pitches are ones where you have to watch your shoulder doesn't hit the snow and knock you off your edge as you traverse it. That's extreme skiing terrain, not race course terrain.