British Invasion

[Domeskier]

I'm thinking about doing a reverse British Invasion and skiing some of their sweet domes some time. They don't know just how good they've got it.

 

[VTKilarney]

I'm thinking about doing a reverse British Invasion and skiing some of their sweet domes some time. They don't know just how good they've got it.

Don't forget their dry slopes.

 

[Domeskier]

Don't forget their dry slopes.

Good point. They are on the cutting edge of 21st century skiing.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

Pretty much everything about major ski resorts in Europe is better than what we have in the North-East. The boring stuff is less boring, the extreme stuff is more extreme, the food and beer tastes better. There is a lot of great stuff inbound that is no more dangerous than here. The size of some of those resorts is incredible. Les trois vallées has as many lifts as Whistler-Blackcomb has runs. We are talking about a few hundred thousand skiable acres compared to 8000 for the largest NA resort.

Most of the high Alps are covered with glaciers so going off piste adds another level of danger besides avalanches. In all of the resorts I have skied, they was no problems with anyone going out of bound. Backcountry entrances are often well identified with transceiver checkpoints. Off-piste insurance highly recommended as heli rescue is the only way out in many areas. It's not like here where yahoos go out of bound and fully expect to be saved in case of trouble. You are expected to be fully competent at rescuing yourself.

I never look for groomers, but I would nonetheless say that there is probably less grooming done in Europe than compared to similar resorts out West in the US and Canada. The one annoying thing about skiing in Europe is that lifts can be a bit of a zoo with often no roped areas and nobody to direct traffic, so it can be a bit of a stampede. Skier behaviour varies wildly depending on the citizenship.

well yea, northeast kinda goes without saying. my question is more like Jackson Hole v Chamonix. At Jackson I know I can ski every bit of terrain, boundary to boundary, including all trees, bowls, chutes, and whatever else, and while
I'm inbounds I can be fairly confident that I will not trigger or get caught in a slide, and that everything boundary to boundary will not strand me in the middle of nowhere. In Europe it seems that if you leave the piste, even slightly, you are entering potential Avalanche terrain with zero control work, and you may wind up very far from where you need to end up, like in a different town or country. To me, that doesn't sound very fun. The whole reason I love western North America resort skiing is the resorts offer me big mountain terrain without (much) backcountry style risk.

 

[chuckstah]

Pretty much everything about major ski resorts in Europe is better than what we have in the North-East. The boring stuff is less boring, the extreme stuff is more extreme, the food and beer tastes better. There is a lot of great stuff inbound that is no more dangerous than here. The size of some of those resorts is incredible. Les trois vallées has as many lifts as Whistler-Blackcomb has runs. We are talking about a few hundred thousand skiable acres compared to 8000 for the largest NA resort.

Most of the high Alps are covered with glaciers so going off piste adds another level of danger besides avalanches. In all of the resorts I have skied, they was no problems with anyone going out of bound. Backcountry entrances are often well identified with transceiver checkpoints. Off-piste insurance highly recommended as heli rescue is the only way out in many areas. It's not like here where yahoos go out of bound and fully expect to be saved in case of trouble. You are expected to be fully competent at rescuing yourself.

I never look for groomers, but I would nonetheless say that there is probably less grooming done in Europe than compared to similar resorts out West in the US and Canada. The one annoying thing about skiing in Europe is that lifts can be a bit of a zoo with often no roped areas and nobody to direct traffic, so it can be a bit of a stampede. Skier behaviour varies wildly depending on the citizenship.

Agree with this except for "the beer tastes better". Never have had a beer I like in EU.