The Andorra 2024/2025 Skiboarding Report

[ysb33r]

It's October so I am goingt o start this thread now. Not that much is happening yet. We had some surprising early snow twic already, but that should melt way again shortly.

Grandvalira is also installing additional snow cannons on some of the lower elevation routes. This is presumably to get people to ski out again and not overload the gondola.

[ysb33r]

I am going to some new experiments on touring on skiboards this season. Last season I took the bindings off the Summit Invertigos and planning to sell the boards. The bindings I'll reuse in my experiments.

Meanwhile though, I have invested in a new pair of poles for ski touring and snowshoeing. I like to have to one pair that will work whether I am on touring skis, touring skiboards or snowshoes. For many seasons I have used a Black Diamond pair, which are really sturdy, but they are only insulated right on the top, not ideal when you have to grab the pole lower down in freezing temperatures.

I have now obtained a pair of Komperdell Titanal Exp Pro poles, weighing in at 594g for the pair. Definitely not light, but really sturdy. I could have gone a bit lighter by opting for the carbon-fibre version, but decided that for the odd occasion where I might have to bury the poles and tie a leash off on them, I am definitely going to trust metal over CF.

What I like about the poles is how far the grip goes down the shaft - really handy for boot packing up a slope and no need to adjust the poles. The leashes are pretty long too, which makes adjustment for bigger gloves a joy.

[ysb33r]

The season started late. All the resorts opened about a week later than planned as the snow levels were low. Then a big dump arrived. THat has got us going. Now we have lul in between with tempeartures just above freezing. More snow expected the next couple of days, but unfortunately also wind. That is probably going to meen wind-swept pistes. It will probalby also been more ice.

I spent two days kibaording so far, and all of the other days I have just been on touring skis. Yip, walking up in-resort and riding down. It is part of the fitness plan. I have been ending up riding those 161cm touring skis like skiboards now.

I think we are going to have to wait until January to see what the snow looks like.

[ysb33r]

Not much to report so far, so I have been keeping quiet. We had enought snow to form a reasonable base in places, it gave the pisters a better start this year to add artificial snow on top. But some of the south facing pistes are getting bare again. I have been mostly out on skimo gear as I can choose my exercide track and then ski out on a reasonable piste.

I've been out on skiboards today. Out at Arcalis most of the pistes are well maintained. They hard underneath, but they had a nice little covering of snow in the morning. I was riding out with a number of skiers this morning. Two of them come from a racing background. They were amazed at how fast the Slingshots were. I overtook them a couple of times as their carving skis cut better grooves in the hard sections and I had just had to bang through with narrower turns. Measured 76km/h at some points.

I had to explain a couple of times that people do not realise how work have gone into skiboards over the last decades to make them as good , fast and stable as they are.

[Steeps]

People still seem to have some sort of folk memory telling them that longer skis are faster. It doesn't really make much sense if you consider the mechanics of skiing.... there's more friction over a larger surface, and one's weight is spread out further, reducing the pressure needed to create the glide layer of water under the base necessary to reduce friction between the base and the snow.

I usually ride wide boards which can have a pretty decent surface area in contact with the snow (compared to old-school long and narrow racing skis), but it always blows me away how fast skiboards can accelerate from slow to warp speed once you put them on edge.

The lower weight and lack of long tails also helps with the ability to hold speed... you simply don't get thrown around by the board encountering obstacles as much as you do with long skis. There's a lot less consequence to getting one board a bit off-kilter at speed, because it's light enough to get back under you.

I remember in my pre-skiboard days how much work it was to ski on heavy powder days, trying to lift and throw those tails and tip around. Now it's just lean back and tail surf.