Posts Tagged ‘snowboarding’

Nothing can compare to snowboarding on fresh powder on a beautiful sunny day. This is not to say that you don’t need to safety conscious when out riding on your snowboard. This article mentions a few safety tips for when you’re out there on the mountains.

Looking for signs of past events is part of planning your route down a mountain safely, and is an important skill to practice. Anytime there is a huge avalanche, you hear about it on the news. The news stories do a good job of showing how devastating and unforgiving this natural disaster can be. What you may not realize is that a small avalanche can kill you just as easily as a big one. It’s really about experience when it comes to reading your routes. It’s also not the easiest skill to acquire either, but it’s not something you should ignore. It can be difficult to detect the variations in the terrain but you need to learn to study them. Doing so can show you potential hazards as well as signs of past damage to trees. Neglecting you equipment is a mistake, maintain your snowboard gear properly and inspect it regularly as every part is critical to safe snowboarding. Head to your local snowboard shop to get it checked out and services regularly.

For beginner snowboarders, be smart and get some lessons before you go out tearing it up. Learn from a very experienced buddy or a professional snowboard instructor. This is one of the cleverest things you can ever do. Think about wanting to learn the proper way to snowboard from the start because if you don’t, then you are actually putting yourself in some extent of harm’s way because you’re possibly performing a move inappropriately. Check out your first snowboard lesson online here by reading our article about the parts of a snowboard.

Obviously like any sport especially extreme sports, you can’t stop all of the potential injuries from happening while you are snowboarding, but you can do your best to prevent a lot of them.

It usually just depends on where you are snowboarding. If you’re out in the back-country, then you need to take extra precautions for obvious reasons. If something happens you might be all by yourself. Going out snowboarding alone (which is absolutely not recommended) is not a good idea as it invites extreme risks. So, give some thought to what you’re doing and where you’re going.

The snowboard resort of Bansko in Bulgaria is a snowboard resort that you have to visit with the right mind-set. Many other reviews of this resort will be very negative because the reviewer is comparing it to the more expensive snowboard resorts in France or Snowboard resorts in Austria.

Bansko is an up and coming snowboard resort and is being improved every year. There is a lot of building work going on around the resort and the town but unfortunately a lot of these buildings are half built which is more than likely down to the global recession. The area near the main gondola is not the prettiest of towns and you need to keep your wits about you at night because you may come across a few man-holes without their covers on.

There also seems to be an aweful lot of stray dogs around the town which could upset those people that are scared of dogs. They will do you know harm but it’s probably worth mentioning.

There is only one way to describe the transfer from the airport to the snowboard resort and that is different. When you’re not dodging potholes, you’re dodging oncoming traffic, the roads in Bulgaria really are terrible. The transfer from the airport is around 3.5 hours. The town of Bansko is nice and very cheap (especially compared to other snowboard resorts) to give you a rough idea, a 2 litre bottle of beer is around £2 from the shops and a Pint of beer in the pub is around £1.50. If you are a lover of meat then all of the traditional Bulgarian restaurants are perfect for you, large fillet streaks for around £6. If you’re a vegetarian then there is an excellent Italian restaurant opposite the gondola which is very popular with local people and visitors to Bansko.

The local people seem nice enough, especially down in the town and the staff on the mountains. Some of the local snowboarders and skiiers in Bansko can be very rude when it comes to queuing for the ski lift. They will cut in line and barge past you, but this is only a minority of locals.

The mountain itself is more than adequate, it is also great for snowboarding. For more advance snowboarders, you could find the mountain a little bit limiting after a while. This is not the type of snowboard resort that best suits those snowboarders that like to go as fast as they can down every piste it’s just not big enough. For a week away it’s fine, especially if it is your 1st snowboard holiday or you are beginner-intermediate snowboarders, but Bansko could be too small and unchallenging for an experienced snowboarder unless you a a fan of off-piste.

There are some nice off-piste nice tree runs between runs 5 and 10 and some gentle off-piste around the snowboard park which is particulary good for beginners. The snowboard park in Bansko isn’t really worth mentioning it has 1 kicker, 1 small pipe, 1 low box and about 5 rails, which were all badly looked after because there was no snowboard park crew. Hopefully the snowboard park in Bansko is something that will be improved over the next few seasons.

People who have been to the snowboard resort of Bansko would usually tell you they’d definitely go back there again. At a fraction of the cost of some of the other european snowboard resorts, why wouldn’t you? Everyone loves a bargain and Bansko definitely delivers this. In summary, if you visit Bansko expecting the resort to be like the three valleys then you will be truly disappointed, but if you have an open mind and treat it as a completely new experience, you will have a brilliant snowboard holiday.

Les 2 Alpes is going to be home to a brand new quad chairlift for winter 2010-2011. This new addition to the snowboard resort is one of the many upgrades that are being made in preperation for the coming snowboard season.

The new list will cost 2.7 million euros to build and it’s main aim is to improve the access to the La Fee sector of the snowboard resort. The new chairlift will be 474metres long and 164 metres high and it is estimated to carry 2,000 people per hour.

The new chairlift is already being worked on, the seven new lift towers are being installed this month and they plan to have everything read for testing in October so that the lift can be fully operational by November.

Some of the other improvements you can expect to see at Les 2 Alpes snowboard resort include a drastic improvment of the signage throughout the resort with more than 500 directional arrows, 160 sign posts and 15 electronic notice boards with scrolling information being installed over the next 2 years at a cost of over 1 million euros.

The areas of La Fee and Thuit are also being improved. There are plans to protect power lines and improve the safety of the resort employess by spending 700,000 euros on new CATEX avalanche triggers.

La Parva is located next to and just north of Valle Nevado and is a host to a plethora of refuges and rentable apartments for the winter season. Once you have purchased your lift ticket you are able to take the shuttle to and from lifts and lodges.  La Parva with 9,673 meters offers 13 chairlifts. It was easy to reach all parts of the mountain. La Parva seemed to be the most popular resort of the three and with good reason. It was well groomed, offered high altitudes with accessible lifts. They also offered Heli-skiing with their take off point from the top of a lift which was neat to see for people who dream of trying.

La Parva being bigger than Termas de Chillan offered a greater variety of runs, it was almost impossible to have the same run twice.

Termas de Chillan, located three hours south of Santiago is a resort, spa and casino! With many hostel options prior to the resort itself, you can save some money for boarding, food and the casino. With over twenty eight groomed trails and five lifts, Termas de Chillan actually offers the longest run in South America (13 kilometers). The lower height allowed for more trees and great scenery but unfortunately the resort lacked on the grooming and some of their black diamonds / tallest runs were pure ice and all bumps.  What were great were the long trails that went through paths of trees and also offered great side walls. For this reason I preferred Termas de Chillan over Valle Nevado.

Valle Nevado is located just east of Santiago in central Chile. With 3,000 meters in height and over twenty three thousand acres of accessible terrain it is said to be one of the most popular resorts in Chile.  As the host for the World Cup of Snowboarding the resort is ready for snowboarders with South America’s ONLY Super Half-Pipe. Valle Nevado also offers Heli-sking options. At such heights, Valle Nevado has little to no trees and high winds toward the top of the mountains. The view from that height is beautiful of mountains and more mountains. There are also little to no lift lines which helps cut back the time it takes to get all the way up the mountain. The style of the runs left little side wall available to play with. Access to three touching mountains, Valle Nevado, El Colorado and La Parva, allows for over thirty-five groomed trails.

The Chilean currency is used but for the most part prices are still comparable to major snowboard resorts. There are three hotels located within the  Valle Nevado snowboard resort, but because Santiago is less then an hours drive, it is cost saving to look into hostels below the mountain that also offer group discounts or rides to resorts. Unless you are going with a group, tour or guide be ready for the ride up to Valle Nevado. At 3,000 meters high car tires are required to have chains put on the wheels. Your car will most likely be a rental car, and unless you splurged for the four wheel drive, count on pulling over and dealing with these chains.  Because of the multiple resorts with one access road start driving early or mid morning to avoid the up mountain traffic.

Fix your summer snowboard craving and head south of the equator where the hemisphere allows you to feast on powder at high altitudes. The Andes are on the west coast of South America and are the longest continental mountain range. Resorts open for the season starting in June and go into October. Chile offers many options for high altitude boarding.

Below is a list of three snowboard resort reviews in Chile…

• Valle Nevado Snowboard Resort Review
• Termas de Chillan Snowboard Resort Review
• La Parva Snowboard Resort Review

The Andes in Chile offer powder at high altitudes, Heli-sking and amazing sunsets. If you have the motivation for a snowboarding adventure head south.

If you have been to any other snowboard resorts in Chile or in any other part of the world and would like to write a review of provide our readers with some feedback about a particular snowboard resort, then please send an email to info@snowboardrespect.com