Right. Even skidding there was very dangerous it was so steep. Even on a better day nobody skis down that slope, everyone just does the traverse judging by all the frozen tracks. But it was absolutely not the right day to go to that slope. I did not know Alpental had such a slope. Every other steep slope I remember has gradual mellowing the lower you go, including Adrenaline. But here it's the other way around - it's super steep at the top, and then it goes even steeper, like a surface of a ball. It was probably the scariest moment in my skiing life, or even in my whole life.
This time I decided to warm up at the Edelweiss Bowl before attempting the icy Felsen. Chair 2 had people, not a line, but almost every chair going up had one or two people. So the slope was also busy. And it was sunny and soft. Internationale lift, on the other hand, was almost completely empty. When I came to the lift, I was going up, I did not see a single skier on the Felsen slope under the lift. So I descended on the middle International instead. Only the next time I saw people descending with no problems, and then I started going that way too. At the end I decided to mix things up, and this total scare was the result.
You did say leave a comment :) Next to your feet, at 8:11 I can see a huge gap between the skis and the ice. Basically only the front and rear of your skis are gripping the ice. It's scary as heck. It sounds odd, the the old straight skis of 30 years ago worked well for this sort of thing. For myself, I have narrower skis with less side cut for ultra icy days. They are hard to find however. You'd going to kill me: Two weeks ago, those trees were hiding un-tracked powder. Thanks for your video, glad I'm not the only one doing sketchy stuff.
Thank you. Exactly, it was a very scary moment. The same day I fell down on Edelweiss Bowl in some ordinary situations. On this icy wall I knew that the price of a misstep would be injury or worse. My skis are 186 cm, 1 cm taller than me, so it's not very easy to manage them in such situations. And at one point the fear and panic totally gripped me, and I felt muscles not listening to my brain properly. I'm glad I was able to make progress to slide down bit by bit. It was the worst day to find yourself on such a slope. And the reason was: six days ago I was on Felsen under the lift, and it was scary. It was my second run of the day. So I decided that today I would warm up well on Edelweiss. And it worked - I descended Felsen under the lift several times with no problems. Then decided to mix things up at the end, and from the lift this slope looked just fine. 😳
@@SeattleDiverSkier I've though about your video a lot, and was wondering if there were some lessons in here. I think this was right at the edge of my ability, and it's icy enough that there could have been drastic consequences. I ski with the alpine BD whippet head in my backpack to give me something to self arrest with. I'm honestly thinking I should have bootable but dull crampons to give me the option of just walking out of situations like this.
I think that the cover was so bad and the slope is so steep that even a full blown climber's pickaxe would not be efficient to self-arrest a fall there. I was really playing with dеаth there.
Yikes, that must have been super scary. Im probably not gonna go to the 2nd floor this week.
I am glad I survived to tell the tale! I really was thinking I might not survive.
That looks very icy and steep. I would have done the same thing, side skid down.
Right. Even skidding there was very dangerous it was so steep. Even on a better day nobody skis down that slope, everyone just does the traverse judging by all the frozen tracks. But it was absolutely not the right day to go to that slope. I did not know Alpental had such a slope. Every other steep slope I remember has gradual mellowing the lower you go, including Adrenaline. But here it's the other way around - it's super steep at the top, and then it goes even steeper, like a surface of a ball. It was probably the scariest moment in my skiing life, or even in my whole life.
I was noticing I didn't see other skiers, which seems odd for a weekend
This time I decided to warm up at the Edelweiss Bowl before attempting the icy Felsen. Chair 2 had people, not a line, but almost every chair going up had one or two people. So the slope was also busy. And it was sunny and soft. Internationale lift, on the other hand, was almost completely empty. When I came to the lift, I was going up, I did not see a single skier on the Felsen slope under the lift. So I descended on the middle International instead. Only the next time I saw people descending with no problems, and then I started going that way too. At the end I decided to mix things up, and this total scare was the result.
You did say leave a comment :)
Next to your feet, at 8:11 I can see a huge gap between the skis and the ice. Basically only the front and rear of your skis are gripping the ice. It's scary as heck. It sounds odd, the the old straight skis of 30 years ago worked well for this sort of thing. For myself, I have narrower skis with less side cut for ultra icy days. They are hard to find however.
You'd going to kill me: Two weeks ago, those trees were hiding un-tracked powder.
Thanks for your video, glad I'm not the only one doing sketchy stuff.
Thank you. Exactly, it was a very scary moment. The same day I fell down on Edelweiss Bowl in some ordinary situations. On this icy wall I knew that the price of a misstep would be injury or worse. My skis are 186 cm, 1 cm taller than me, so it's not very easy to manage them in such situations. And at one point the fear and panic totally gripped me, and I felt muscles not listening to my brain properly. I'm glad I was able to make progress to slide down bit by bit. It was the worst day to find yourself on such a slope. And the reason was: six days ago I was on Felsen under the lift, and it was scary. It was my second run of the day. So I decided that today I would warm up well on Edelweiss. And it worked - I descended Felsen under the lift several times with no problems. Then decided to mix things up at the end, and from the lift this slope looked just fine. 😳
@@SeattleDiverSkier I've though about your video a lot, and was wondering if there were some lessons in here. I think this was right at the edge of my ability, and it's icy enough that there could have been drastic consequences.
I ski with the alpine BD whippet head in my backpack to give me something to self arrest with. I'm honestly thinking I should have bootable but dull crampons to give me the option of just walking out of situations like this.
I think that the cover was so bad and the slope is so steep that even a full blown climber's pickaxe would not be efficient to self-arrest a fall there. I was really playing with dеаth there.
wow
It was scary as hell.