carving session next year

[Tim]

Who's wants to join? Some time ago there has been a thread on bomberonline in which many euro's expressed their interest in an carving session in europe, so I'd say, lets have one! We could start off simple by just picking a resort and a date to meet eachother next year. If there is a lot of interest we migth later be able to arrange a more official event with demo equipment, etc.

Also:
1. Who would like to be there?
2. Which resort to go to?
3. What date and how long?

Personally I would say we arrange a week in a not so busy period. We could go for january for the lower prices, but later in the season might be better for the snow conditions. For the resort , I don't have a preference for a country, France has better runs, Austria generally has better grooming. I really like Tignes, but the grooming is lousy there. Les Trois Vallees has very nice terrain for carving, especially in the Courchevel area, but on the other hand a smaller resort might be better because then you meet eachother a lot more often on the slope. Maybe the locals have some well kept secrets to share with us?

Oh, I don't think Jacques and Patrice should be allowed to attend because they will make the rest of us look like beginners.

[MennoB]

Hi Tim (and others),

I was the one who started the thread on bomberonline about the euro-expression-session.

I will join if possible next year.

Went to Soelden last week. First time in Austria for a long time; normally go to France.

I would say that is the EES would be held in Austria, Soelden should be the place. Excellent grooming, some nice slopes with lots of space, and most of all:

LOTS and LOTS of hardbooters already concentrating there.

In the week I was there, my estimation would be that 30-40% of snowboarders rode plates. That proportion is a lot larger than in any of the French resorts I went to.

But in general, I would prefer France.
Better snowconditions and larger areas.
In Soelden I saw all of the slopes in about 2-3 days.


What area in France would be best?
I went to several (Tignes, Val Thorens etc).
IMO, it should be a resort that is alpine-friendly and where an over-average proportion of snowboarders already ride hardboots.

Val Thorens has the right slopes and good grooming.
On the other hand, often very crowded slopes.
A nice run would be the red on the "La Masse" opposite Les Menuires.

The Tignes area would be very good too, and less crowded.
The runs on the Grande Motte are very good.
Also the lower part of the black competition run towards La Daille (Val D'Isere) is very good. Grooming should not be a problem if an event like EES would go there???

[nils]

Giving back to cesar what belongs to him:
i think something was started by the fellow carvers at pureboarding but not sure...
The difficulty with organizing is that it needs an organiser (aka fin/bomber and sean/donek) etc.. that has time to dedicate to it and sponsor it...
For now on, in europe we could either ring the big names bells ( oxygen, F2 and Hot ) and ask them for sponsorship, or start from small organisations like pureboarding, extremecarving, Oxess, Rissler etc..
then find a place that is in the middle ( swiss seems to fit in the criteria, or northern french alps..)
Any ideas?

Who wants to start??

N.

[Tim]

I don't think we need to worry about organisation to much just yet. To start it is enough to agree on a date and a resort to go to. If the number of participants stays small we just go there, ride together for the week and have a good time. If interest is big we can than start to organize more. If we have like 50 people who will go there I bet it will be little trouble to get demo equipment, maybe arrange a run to be roped off etc. If you approach them it is a lot easier when you can say 'there will be at least 50 people attending from extremecarving.com' then when you don't now if there even will be anybody. So everybody who would like to join, respond!

As for organisations to approach. I think it will be easier to get the small ones interested. Plus it will probably more fun as the guys behind these organistions are often hardboot enthousiast themselves and might want to join in on the event personally.

[Christian]

I think it is not a good idea to go to a big resort like val thorens. You can't find anyone again if you lost them. I would prefer some resorts in austria or switzerland or italy. These places are much more central. So more people will come. And the people there are very friendly.

Best grooming i think is in italy (south-tirol), followed by france, austria, germany. I never was on a slope in switzerland so i cant say if its good or bad. But i was serveral times in val-tho, soelden, zillertal, schladming, kronplatz, sulden and so on.

Count me in.

Christian

[Degun]

You can count me in....

I only know resorts in the area of Grenoble. Maybe we have to choose a resort with high slopes to be sure to have snow and good snow, especially if we plan the session a long time in advance. This Year I have to ride a lot in Les Deux Alpes, not the best resort I know, but good snow and quite good to carve.
Courchevel is very good for grooming: it's seem they finish the job with a rag!!!

[McFussel]

I´m on it too....


I would prefer a place in Austria or Switzerland...


Say time and place and I´ll be there ;o)

[SHRED GRUUMER]

Hey, I vood like to go two, already makin plans fur das trip in Switzerland for 2003. Jan 31 to feb 8th Im am zie going to Flims Laax Falera. Why you ask.

For me family is in Schweitz land so if any ting happens I wood be ok. Its very easy to get to. Train from Zurich almost stops right there. A lot of magazines and veeklys rate it very high even to Zermatt and Davos.
Can get to other places from there, I beleive now day are offering a pass good for Flims Davos and Klosters.

But has anyone been here they talk it up like its a big carving mecca.
Kessler snowboards and Phillop S. PGS winner is from Flims Dorf.

If this is the date great if not I am sure someone will meet up or if it is the date and not the place, I could always do a day trip and catch ya Ja!

Anyone know where I can get a pre made Kessler.

Right said Shred

[fivat]

Tim, you can count me in!

Last year, I precisely bought the name www.eurocarving.com with the idea that an European Expression Session (EES) could become a reality a day or another!

February or March are the best months if one wishes to get enough snow (there were too much stones on the swiss/french pistes during this bad winter).

A small resort is great, so we can see each other riding on the slopes.
However, if we choose a big resort, we should decide precisely on which slopes we could meet and carve mainly. Usually there are few "ideal" pistes: black, long and steep enough.

Finally, the altitude must but 2500-3000m for the best slopes. These last years the tempearture was often too high and the snow was good only at this altitude.

Now which country? Austria? France?
By the way, the biggest resorts are not the best: too crowded and sometimes no good pistes for extreme carving (Verbier in Switzerland, for example, is what I hate above all ).

What do you think?

-Patrice Fivat

[Tim]

I agree that a smaller resort would be great, with something like a 100km of pistes. But I don't know the perfect resort yet. One of my favorite resorts is Obertauern in austria, it has great runs, good grooming, a good size (120km), top quality lifts, and is one of the safest bets for snow in the alps (and I've been there +20 times ), but sadly enough it has become freaking expensive over the last decade.

So if there are any local here who could advice on some secret relatively unknown resorts that would be great. I have my list of favorites (St. Anton, Ischgl, Tignes, Trois Vallees) but those are really standard resorts, well known and crowded. I think we'd better go for a bit less known resort, a bit smaller, but one that offers the conditions we want.

Like Nils said, it should be relatively central, also western austria/vorarlberg, switzerland or the northern french alps. We should go for good snow, so indeed either feb or march. We surely want avoid the school vacations, I experienced that once and it was a nightmare . Anybody know when the vacations will be?

For the resort I think we should start naming options and then have a poll to decide which on it will be. Do you have personal favorites you would like to share with us Patrice?

[MennoB]

In my opinion, for a resort to qualify for the EES, it should have:
-A good number of wide runs, of red or black gradient
-Height of these runs at least between 2000-2800 metres
-Runs oriented away from the sun (avoid slush when warm)
-Good snowmaking
-Fast uplift
-The right attitude towards hardbooters (amongst others, good grooming)

I don't think it MUST be a large resort.
In 30 years of wintersport, and 12 years of snowboarding, I've visited a large number of resorts in France, Switzerland, Italy and Austria.

Here's some names of resorts I think would be suitable. Please react on this list when you also have experience with any resorts, or add to the list:

France
-Espace Killy (Grande Motte red glacier run; Black competition run towards La Daille).
-Trois Vallees (La Masse red run opposite Les Menuires).

Italy
-La Thuile (runs toward road on Pt-St-Bernard pass road)

Switzerland
-Been to several resorts (amongst which 4V aka Verbier), but none of them match my own criteria...

Austria
-Soelden (went there last week; several good runs; right attitude)

[MennoB]

Maybe it's also a good idea to also make a list of resorts
NOT
to go to

I've also been to St Anton.
I can only recommend not to go there.
Lousy grooming, busy slopes, long liftlines, many (near-) accidents.

[Shred Gruumer]

Mennob, Great Idea of list of resorts, Its seems to be very difficult to get any info about grooming and carving in Swizerland and Austria, for Christ Sake man you guys live there. Your going to have to help us in the USA out! Myself and friends do not know jake about what it is like there. I mean should I really waste the money and come over when I have so much groom in the US and Canada. I must Say Canada is such a great deal, Just about been everywhere searching for the best mountain, with no crowds. So If I Go You are the guys who should know.

And there has to be someone who has been To Flims Laax,

If I had this list before i booked it would have been much easier for us over hear to make the decision.

Im sure some of us are going to go but remeber. It is 2 times the amount for the same here. Well yea its not the Alps, but they do not groom the whole Alps!

Right Said Shred (BOL)

[Mellow Yellow]

I'm in...hmmm... now who is going to pay for my airfare....

[Aracan]

Dachstein West (in Salzburg) wouldn't be a bad choice either. Medium size, decent grooming, not too well-known, high probability of snow (esp. in February). I don't know about accomodation prices, though.