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

It's gloriously sunny, the pistes are wide open and have practically nobody on them, the offpiste is soft, deep and plentiful and the kickers in the park are sweeeeeeeet.

The day before yesterday one of the other guys in the chalet saw something I've never seen in ten years of going to winter sports resorts - an avalanche. I'm kind of jealous. On the slightly grimmer side, that same avalanche killed at least one person.

Even more grim, yesterday in La Plagne some snow fell off the roof of a hotel and took with it some of the two and three metre long icicles you see hanging there. In this case, it took one of them straight through a woman who was standing below, killing her instantly.

And very recently just over the border in Italy, an avalanche crossed a piste and killed sixty people in one hit. It's been a bad winter for it in the Alps.

I think I might be getting too old for this...

SoRB

Ouch, being spit roasted to death.

I have always wondered whether that has ever happened.

At least its safer than being in a drugs trial!

Ignore everything I wrote yesterday, today was unbelievable, speed runs on wide open empty runs, solid jumps in the park, sweet offpiste, fresh tracks between trees and in the wide open high alt, and we rounded the day off sessioning a kicker, as the young people say. Which basically means repeatedly throwing yourself off the biggest natural ramp you can find into a soft powder landing. Heaven. Possibly the best day's riding I've ever had.

SoRB

So okay, forget all those dead people and think of fabulous powdery snow and fun stuff . . . *trying* . . .



What *is* this thing with snow?

Snow, schmow almost all my life, for eight months outta the year - up to your kneecaps most of the time. Not fun. Not even remotely fun.

So just can't imagine a holiday experience wherein one would actually seek out snow. . .

az

It's one of those 'mad dogs and Englishmen' sort of things.

You do know that it was us Brits who invented the whole going down a snow covered mountain at great speed thing.

I guess it came as a natural corollary to that other thing we invented - find the biggest mountain you can, and climb to the top of it.

Is that invented as in 'noticed the funny local johnnies doing it and rushed back to blighty to tell everyone about this new sport you've invented'?

Never saw the attraction really, don't like the cold much. Was persuaded to got once, to austria. It didn't snow and the snow they blew out of the machines was more like ice and had millions of people trying to head down the same patch which was all rutted and furrowed. Would rahter spend my money going somewhere that I can dive instead...

*Fake Snow* yet . . . the mind reels.

If I never see snow again it will be too soon.



az

Ah, yes, so thats why we a rubbish at it!

<>

Say it isn't so! Frankly, can't believe it.


az

<> (kelli)

As would any sane human. Well, in theory (I can't swim!)

Always thought I'd be totally great at après ski though . . . hanging out with a hot toddy in front of an obscenely massive fireplace.

az

Growing up in sunny Southern California, at the foot of 10,000 ft peaks, my family would make an annual jaunt up the hill to play in the snow... generally around Christmas time. Of course we never faced such weather on a regular basis, so cold protection involved a windbreaker and some socks over the hands for gloves... which, in the first ten minutes, became soaked through and were actually worse protection than none at all. I was always the one in the car half an hour into it, hands in pain because they were so cold, chattering and wondering why my family decided they liked this special brand of hell.

And don't even get me started on that year in North Chicago.

My wife dreams of someday living where it snows all the time. She'll have to live there with someone else.

So is only romantic or fun when you don't have to live with it 24/7, have to get to work through snow drifts and generally don't have to feel *that f**king cold* all the time.

az

(trust me, I know)

Um, 'snow' is only romantic . . .

oops

az

Gag of the week:

We're sitting on the slope, at the extreme edge of the resort we're at, looking across the valley at somewhere we don't recognise.

"Where's that, do you think?", I say.

The reply comes, from a guy named Giz...

"Val Tourettes. It's f**king brillant."



SoRB

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/F55607?thread=192835&skip=25900&show=20 You would go on holiday when a bible code believing creationist appears on the scene: Jungle_stud!

Yep, we invented down hill skiing as a recreation.
It's wonderful, and one of the best ways ever to spend a fortnight .

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/4816434.stm

This was the avalanche I referred to above, to which I can add some eyewitness reports, specifically from two of the guys who dug her out...

First, they were up hiking in an area well known for sliding, and were specifically warned by two experienced, properly equipped snowboarders not to ride there. They ignored this advice, and started the slip within minutes.

Second, her father said: ""She wasn't wearing the safety device and I don't know whether it would have saved her or not, or whether they could have got to her quicker."

Her reported injuries included a broken neck and a completely severed arm (being engulfed in an avalanche is a *violent* event), so in this case, as in many others, time to rescue was academic.

Scary stuff...

SoRB

From the article



This woman was a person whose job involved assessment of risk etc! Though knowing other people who work for the EA you do not need common sense to do these jobs so relating risk assessments to your personal life is sometimes too much to ask.

Very scary on many accounts.

It does seem strange when people choose to do very risky things like this - um, why?

For example, in this case, going off-piste and not wearing the safety beacon.

Hard to understand this. And very sad that this woman was killed as a result.


az

Back to fake snow...

http://www.skidubai.com/skidubai.asp