h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Something must be siad about snowboards.

My advice is:
If you are a beginner snowboarder, things will go horribly wrong and you should calmly accept this.

If you are a skier, make sure there isn't a snowboarder in the same chair as you because things will go horribly wrong if there is.

I like to make sure there isn't a snowboarder on the same mountain as me. However, this is getting harder and harder to do......

In Europe, I've found that as snow boards are getting more main stream, the excesses of behaviour seem to be being tempered - the 'big' issue I find (I'm a skier), is that the side-slipping carving loved by snow boarders, scrapes the snow off the slope, leaving patches of either ice or rock/field which are truely unpleasent to find unexpectedly !

Tigger

The snow boarder areas, with half-pipes etc., seem to help alot too

Stay well clear of snowboarders when skiing in most European countries, especially Bulgaria. When their twirly bits have cut away the snow, it is very likely that what has been exposed is liquid manure that the farmer sprayed on his fields before the snow fell.

Share the mountian. I an a snowboarder and have been for many years(even before most people thought its shold be considered a sport) but have not lost any respect for skiers. Way back when i used to be one too. have fun, go boarding, go skiing!!

I don't mind sharing the mountain - however, I would gladly give up one resort to be snowboarding-only to have another that would be skiing-only. There used to be places that banned snowboarding, but it became "economically dangerous" to do so.

I have been and am a skier and snowboarder, I must reply to the advice of not riding on a lift with a snowboarder, yes chair lifts.... you have a point. However, snowboarder's with skiiers on a t-bar is most highly recommended- particularly to beginner boarders, skiiers add stability!

Hi Mez,

Tried snowboarding, but didn't get on with it - my loss.

Re. snowboards & t-bars, it really depends on the sex of the snowboarder !


Tigger

Ahhh is that so. Well I have to say that I dated a skiier for a few years, never could get her to change over, but we weren't too bad a team.

We could cover most of the mountain together no prob, except for those moguls, you skiers are MOST welcome to have them all to yourselves!

As a snowboard instructor, i can say that it is perfectly true that snowboarders will sideslip along a trail, particualry the steeper parts, but it is only the beginners because they are too scared and dont belong on that steep of a hill anyway. The more seasoned snowboarders prefer to carve, and leave more snow in place that skis. Secondly, having skiied myself, it is generally the skiiers that are the ones cutting off the snowboarders when they make their traverses and swing their poles everywhere. Having said that though, i have met some very nice and very skilled skiiers who take up no more of the trail than i do, and share many of my same complaints about boarders, and skiiers aswell.

As a snowboard instructor, i can say that it is perfectly true that snowboarders will sideslip along a trail, particualry the steeper parts, but it is only the beginners because they are too scared and dont belong on that steep of a hill anyway. The more seasoned snowboarders prefer to carve, and leave more snow in place that skis. Secondly, having skiied myself, it is generally the skiiers that are the ones cutting off the snowboarders when they make their traverses and swing their poles everywhere. Having said that though, i have met some very nice and very skilled skiiers who take up no more of the trail than i do, and share many of my same complaints about boarders, and skiiers aswell.

AND, your "snowboard areas" are now just as populated with skiiers as they are snowboarders, maybe even more so.

keep on riding
the rodent messiah