Advice Needed - Canadian Carver coming to Europe

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oldon
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Advice Needed - Canadian Carver coming to Europe

Post by oldon » Wednesday 15 November 2017, 23:25

I am Canadian and will be coming over to the Berchtesgaden and Kitzbuhel areas Between Dec 27 and Jan 3. Air Canada usually loses or delays my Carving gear beyond belief and using a luggage forwarding company is really expensive.

Can Carving Board/Bindings/Boots be rented in Kitzbuhel or nearby? If not......big trouble and $$.....Help....

Also, would anyone recommend any particular runs or resorts between Berchtesgaden and Kitzbuhel? I understand the Jenner is closed this year...

Thanks

Tom

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joemzl
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Re: Advice Needed - Canadian Carver coming to Europe

Post by joemzl » Thursday 16 November 2017, 15:19

Hi Tom,
welcome to Europe, a snowboard Mekka. :hello:

:oops: ok, but not really at that places. :oops:
Only good place to rent board and hardboots is Soelden,
180 km from Kitzbuehel and more than two hours to drive by car.
(Although I don´t know if they will give you gear, if you tell them,
you stay at Kitzbuehel).
You should contact Sport4you or Sport Riml in Soelden if you want their gear.

Other possibility: Petr has same demo Swoards (but no hardboots) in Hintertux,
100 km from Kitzbuehel, a nearly two hour drive.
Don´t know, if there is a possibility for rent. Please contact him if there is interest.

Next: Buy used gear from the forum, German eBay, or whatever.
(BTW: I´m selling a Donek Freecarve I :wink:, or would you like to rent it? )

Or: softboots and similar gear you will find everywhere in the resorts for rent.

Did I forget something? :think: Enough to think it over.
And afterwards we fill find the resort/slopes you like.
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Re: Advice Needed - Canadian Carver coming to Europe

Post by Arnaud » Thursday 16 November 2017, 20:42

For the new season, Petr should have also some pairs of boots. You should contact him.

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oldon
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Re: Advice Needed - Canadian Carver coming to Europe

Post by oldon » Saturday 18 November 2017, 20:55

Thanks for the info. The drive distances are too far for sure. Thanks also for the kind offer of a rental. I have found a luggage company that "guarantees" my equipment will arrive in Berchtesgaden on time and undamaged for a very good price (2/3 less than UPS or FEDEX) - so I will go with that....fingers crossed

Do you guys have any recommendations for best carving not too far from Berchtesgaden - will be staying there and am told the Jenner is closed...a few people recommended Obertauern the Kitzsteinhorn glacier, and/or Kitzbuhel......

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Re: Advice Needed - Canadian Carver coming to Europe

Post by joemzl » Sunday 19 November 2017, 11:57

You won´t find a better time over the year, where the slopes are more crowded. :(
So don´t choose Kitzbuehel :snooty:
Obertauern is a good place for carving, but might be crowded too.
Kitzsteinhorn: hmm, some say, it´s too flat.
There is an older advice for Muehlbach am Hochkoenig from a good carver.
Haven´t been there, but has something of a secret spot.
Not the hole place, but I´m sure, you will find one or two slopes, that are good for carving.
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Re: Advice Needed - Canadian Carver coming to Europe

Post by oldon » Monday 20 November 2017, 3:10

Thanks for the Muehlbach am Hochkoenig tip - will research it

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Re: Advice Needed - Canadian Carver coming to Europe

Post by everts72 » Monday 20 November 2017, 9:40

About 30min from Obertauern you also have Katschberg ski resort. There are few (tschanek, direttissima etc) great slopes for extremecarving!
Big pants, duck stance… No chance!

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Re: Advice Needed - Canadian Carver coming to Europe

Post by joemzl » Monday 20 November 2017, 11:42

Agree, but from Berchtesgaden it´s one and a half hour to go.
Ok, for other resorts you need min. one hour.
Waidring/Steinplatte could be an option too.
Flachau is a bigger resort. Für Carving maybe ok, but extremecarving, hmm. And crowded?

Please test all resorts and we will know for next time. :wink: :D
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Re: Advice Needed - Canadian Carver coming to Europe

Post by tali » Monday 27 November 2017, 16:48

oldon wrote:I am Canadian.
Hi! :hello: Nice to meet a fellow Canadian here!
Where do you normally ride in Canada?

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Re: Advice Needed - Canadian Carver coming to Europe

Post by oldon » Monday 4 December 2017, 3:17

My home hill is Poley Mountain - great carving. Original home hill to Mark Fawcett

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Re: Advice Needed - Canadian Carver coming to Europe

Post by tali » Tuesday 5 December 2017, 16:37

Your vertical drop is 32 m more than ours... :bravo:
How good is your hill for extremecarving?

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Re: Advice Needed - Canadian Carver coming to Europe

Post by frunobulax » Thursday 7 December 2017, 12:48

Hi Oldon,

I live some 60-75 minutes from Berchtesgaden, so I think I can help you concerning the resort. Maybe the Muehlbach advice joemzl refers to was mine in the beginning.

Unfortunately Berchtesgaden itself doesn't have a good carving resort (in spite there's lots of impressive mountains there, e.g. the famous Watzmann). There's a couple of smaller family skiing hills but nothing you would choose for carving, let alone extremecarving. And there's the big Hochkoenig which blocks the direct way to the south, so the road to Koenigssee is a dead end.
All the resorts I would suggest are roughly a 1 hr drive.

Maybe Werfenweng is the first resort on your way, but I've never been there. From what I hear there's no steep slopes there.

Maybe Muehlbach/Dienten is really the best idea. The secret spot times are gone, but it's still a bit less crowded there than in the other resorts in that region. There's some steep slopes in the middle between Muehlbach and Dienten (if I remember correctly the steepest should be Wastlhoehe, directly under the chairlift, maybe called Zachhofalm), and a lesser crowded rather steep one in Hinterthal. Beautiful wide and partly steep slope is the one from Buerglalm to Dienten.

There's a couple of rather big and famous, but also very crowded resorts in the direct vicinity, such as Flachau (where Hermann Maier comes from), Zauchensee, Zell am See, Dachstein-West, Saalbach. Probably of those I would choose Saalbach (parking at Leogang), but no real recommendation from my side. Saalbach is a very big resort, wide slopes, everything fine, but no steep carving slopes.
Dont' go to Flachau/Wagrain, since it's completely overcrowded. Zauchensee/Flachauwinkl too, but not as much.

Fieberbrunn could be an option. Nice resort, but things may have changed since hey have closed the gap to saalbach recently.

If you can spend an additional 30 min in the car, Katschberg is worth the drive. The direttissima is the slope you should have seen, but there's a couple of others too. But don't go there on windy days since Katschberg has a wind problem and lifts maybe closed if it's too strong. Best thing about Katschberg is it's not overcrowded, and on good days slopes may be flat and carvable until the lifts are closing. Bad thing about Katschberg (apart from wind) is sometimes it lacks snow. But no problem this year as it seems, because it's been snowing here since 3 weeks and there more snow to come. Best season opening I remember for a very long time back.

Obertauern is not worth the drive if the other resorts have enough snow. Obertauern is best when the lower regions lack snow. Kitzsteinhorn doesn't make sense around new year's eve, that's a rather flat glacier. Kitzbuehel is fine, but I'd say it's more like a musthaveseen than a really good carving resort, and highly crowded.

Ok enough for now. Have fun and don't hesitate to contact me for further questions.

fruno

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Re: Advice Needed - Canadian Carver coming to Europe

Post by benttech » Saturday 9 December 2017, 9:49

Tom, you are visiting during absolute peak season so do expect crowds, long lift lines, and the such. I was at Kitzsteinhorn just last week so if you have any specific questions feel free to ask. There are only two good carving runs there but I like the resort.

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