How steep are these slopes?

[Whitey]

Just curious: how steep (degrees or percentage) are Le Col and Barthelemy? How about the last part of the Piste de L'Aigle, the one with safety nets?

[fivat]

Just curious: how steep (degrees or percentage) are Le Col and Barthelemy? How about the last part of the Piste de L'Aigle, the one with safety nets?

In this old post viewtopic.php?t=535 people tried to calculate the steepness of Barthelemy from the videos Opus 2 "Extreme dreamer" and Opus 3 "Stoked".
Estimation is about 30 degrees, what is about 58%.

You can try to make your own estimation from this picture:



The piste de L'Aigle is even steeper. You can try to make an estimation from this picture:



About 35 degrees, 70% ?

Patrice Fivat

[raphael]

The second picture seems to be perfectly horizontal.
The piste goes from one angle to the other.
The picture being 4/3, it would make a pitch of 75%.

Looks scary anyway !

[Whitey]

I do agree, L'Aigle might be something like 70% (which is absolutely too much for me). However, I quess that 70% is more likely quite close to 40 degrees.

However, this is a slope called 'Harakiri' in Austria. Never been there, just found this picture:

It looks a crazy as L'Aigle to me!

[fivat]

Yes, this slope is a dream!

But skywalker told me there (in German) viewtopic.php?p=34174#34174 that it's often in bad state, very icy and with many skiers.

Patrice Fivat

[Whitey]

Ah, this topic had already been discussed earlier quite throughly. I was a bit too hurry to use the Search

[fivat]

No problem, the subjects can always be discussed.

35 degrees is a lot for a slope. But not for freeriding in the powder...

Patrice Fivat

[Arnaud]

yes, over 70% is very steep.
A very good one here More picture of "pista n°3 Franco Berthod"

[fivat]

Yes this piste is great (I have been there with you Arnaud ). But it's written: max 73%. The value is lower than this in most parts of the slope.

An average value of 70% over 200-400m is very seldom! It's nirvana ... or hell for people falling.

Patrice Fivat

[Felix]

From my personal impression La Corne is steeper than Harakiri. However Harakiri is more difficult to carve down. 1. many people sideslipping down. 2. no good snow conditions, 3. it's not so even. 4. not so wide.
Harakiri is supposed to be max 80% in the steepest section, but it's not long either. I've seen people going straight down in the early morning on DH skis in a tuck. Not sure if anyone would dare on La Corne.

I can lookup the pretty much exact figures for Harakiri in the Amap (computer map with height lines every 25 meters) if you want so.
The run down to the valley in Zinal definitely felt steep to me. Maybe someone with Swiss Topo25 on his PC can check for the gradients of La Corne and l'Aigle.

Most exact would be someone taking his GPS with him and stand still on the entry (to get many points for a good average) and ride down to the bottom of the steepest section, stand still again and on both points register the height with a seperate altimeter (and then afterwards analysing it on a computer.

For me the steepest groomed slope I've been on, ist the run to the valley in Zinal in the section with the safety nets not besides the slope but on the slope.

For Freeriding you can't compare. 40° for freeriding doesn't feel steep anymore if you got lots of experience. That's a problem cause if you wan't to go down somewhere that still feels steep to you (for me on pow above 55°), but avalanche danger 90% of all days makes this impossible meaning you have to wait for the spring days in early morning to go down there, and then it's often so critical that you have to use a rope because falling is no option.

[fivat]

For me the steepest groomed slope I've been on, ist the run to the valley in Zinal in the section with the safety nets not besides the slope but on the slope.

Yes, this is the piste de L'Aigle which we are talking about above (see the second picture).

For Freeriding you can't compare. 40° for freeriding doesn't feel steep anymore if you got lots of experience. That's a problem cause if you wan't to go down somewhere that still feels steep to you (for me on pow above 55°), but avalanche danger 90% of all days makes this impossible meaning you have to wait for the spring days in early morning to go down there, and then it's often so critical that you have to use a rope because falling is no option.

Yes, above 55° it's very steep!
I have seen a slope of 60-65°, 1000m in difference of altitude, off piste of course (on the summit "Pigne d'Arolla", Switzerland). But I don't dare to ride this: you fall and you are dead... The feeling on top is crazy.

Patrice Fivat

[Vitaly]

Good information post...

And anybody knows what degrees of piste №31 in Solden?

It's interesting too

[Pogokoenig]

I know this piste very well and i guess it is something around 35°. I love it.

[Felix]

Copy this into text document, name it .html and open it in word or browser, nice assembly of steep slopes.
Taken from this thread: http://www.carving-ski.de/phpBB/viewtop ... sc&start=0
Oh and Harakiri is 38° max, Soelden - I would guess well below 30°. Harakiri is often claimed to be the steepest groomed slope in Austria (in advertisments), but it's not. Cause that title belongs to the Diretissima on the Katschberg.

It's not complete at all, and with some measurements I've got my doubts. According to the information within the steepest groomed slope would be the Diretissima at the Katschberg in Carinthia/Austria with max 45°. But on average it's only 15° so not interesting. It's the same for the Mausefalle in Kitzbuehl, once you've gathered some speed your already down.

Code: Select all

...

[code removed by the Forum administrator: see the file further in the thread]

[sorro]

Yes 60° is just crazy... look at that :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoCeLvm ... ed&search=

At 2:18 with the speed, the snowboard is barely in contact with snow, the slope looks even steeper there...