This way, you do a short pitch, make it to the top without resting, and feel good – you completed the route! While it’s basically the same as doing a really long route and resting half way up, it feels much better, and gives you more confidence for the next one.

Of course, now I’ve told you this, will it still work…

This list doesn’t contain any from La Grave, one of my favourite spots. I recommend L’Alpe D’Huez Hors Pistes (English and French; also covers La Grave and Les 2 Alpes) if you’re interested.

What’s your favorite? Let me know what you think I’m missing, or if you know a good guide for couloir routes anywhere in Switzerland.

You can also download the KML for Google Earth.

Most manufacturers don’t seem to quote surface area, so I needed to come up with a way of comparing skis of different lengths, widths and side-cuts. Rather than doing it properly, I made a simple model, where a ski is shaped like this:

and the waist is bang in the middle. This allows you to break the ski down into a long rectangle (A in the diagram below), and four triangles, B1, B2 (of equal area, which together make a rectangle) and C1, C2 (likewise):

The area is of course: A + B1 + B2 + C1 + C2

or:  l * w + l/2 * (t – w)/2 + l/2 * (p – w)/2 <=>  l(w/2 + t/4 + p/4)

I ran this into a Google spreadsheet and calculated values for a my old skis, my Volkl Mantra freeride skis and the two touring skis I was considering (Volkl Snow Wolf and Dynastar Altitrail Powder).

I also did a rough calculation of ‘sidecut ratio’ to see which was the straighter ski (important for steep skiing – my passion – and icy slopes – unavoidable).

Dynastar came out top and along with this glowing recommendation on PisteHors.com, my mind was made up. It was a good choice as seen here.

A couple of weeks ago, I came across a report on a new carbon fibre ski that did quote surface areas. Based on this, my model was coming out about 5% too high, so I applied a fudge factor to the above calculation to get the final numbers you see in the spreadsheet.

Given that the actual surface area doesn’t matter, and it’s the relative values that are useful, perhaps this calculation is good enough – and there’s a limit to how accurate you can get without measuring the actual shape of the ski. That said, does anyone have a better model to replace this series of fudges and approximations?

Fortunately, a number of manufacturers have developed 32-bit Vista drivers, and the one from Belkin for their USB to Serial adapter F5U103vea works on the Windows 7 beta as well. Simply download and follow the instructions on this page:

http://www.belkin.com/uk/support/article/?lid=enu&pid=F5U103vea&aid=8137&scid=0

Here’s the proof:

Garmin eTrex Summit with the GPS Warehouse / Prolific USB to Serial controler on Windows 7 Beta

but if you’re still having problems, the Prolific driver download page points to some other manufacturers who have produced Vista drivers.

What's wrong with this picture?

That’s right – five climbers, roped for glacier travel, on vertical terrain with no protection or belay.  So if one falls, they all go. While we’re at it, they’re not even roped properly for a glacier – not enough rope between them (Glacier Travel & Crevasse Rescue by Andrew Selters is a good reference if you want to know more about this topic).

No wonder the financial system’s in such a mess!

The roof of the shelter has a very slight slope – perhaps 1:30, and is made of smooth glass. It snowed on New years eve  (2 days ago) just after dark, first raining, then turning to snow as the temperature dropped. It’s been through two melt / freeze cycles since then (between about +/- 2 degrees C). The roof faces more or less south:

The overhanging snow is now hard and icy to the touch.

I have no idea why some panels have slid more quickly than others, but I particularly like the one on the left that has curled all the way back on itself.

Update: 24 hours later, these have more or less turned into ice underneath (like all the other snow round here):

Sorry about the lousy photo quality – this is about as good as it gets after dark on a Nokia E51!

Putting photos in so many places is a bit of a hassle, so when Google announced they were buying Panoramio, I was pleased – hoping for a speedy integration of the two. So far that hasn’t happened, but it’s getting closer – Picasaweb now has support for tags, displays the location of georeferenced photos on a map next to the photo (or for the whole album) and allows you to locate photos using a google map widget very similar to Panoramio’s.

Tags and Locations: Picasaweb on the left, Panoramio on the right

What’s missing? The option to submit your photos to the Google Earth ‘Panoramio’ layer, and a map centric cross-album view of georeferenced photos (like the ‘see this area’ link on the Panoramio screenshot above) and we’ll be there – Google, please hurry up and finish the job.

And while you’re at it, how about adding some GPS tracklog-based georeferencing functionality into Picasa or providing addon support so someone else can do it for you? The current Google Earth-based approach is painful at best, rarely seems to be accurate and doesn’t use GPS tracklogs. Given the Panoramio acquisition and what’s happening now in Picasaweb, this would really make a lot of sense…

The following list may help. I know the Torino area pretty well. Please add a comment if you have any questions.

The best place to find lists of stores are the distributor lists on the web sites of the big clothing / equipment brands. The “La Sportiva” one is pretty good, as almost everyone in Italy stocks their boots:

http://www.lasportiva.com/Italiano/Contatti/Italia/Piemonte.htm

In particular, I’d recommend:

• In Torino:
  • B-Side shop (http://www.bshopzone.com) – they are part of the B-side climbing/bouldering wall complex, and actually have pre-discounted prices for most stuff on their website! Cool!
  • Orizzonti Verticali (http://www.orizzontiverticali.to.it)

• Near Torino:
  • Alby Sport (http://www.albysport.com) – Near Susa, easy to get to from the motorway – run by an alpine guide.
  • MOUNTAIN SICKS (this is not a typo) in Riverolo – see http://www.scuolamotti.it/Varie/Negozio01.html – frequented by the CAI ‘Motti’ Alpine School
  • Ski-Alp (http://www.skialp.it) in Cuorgne’ – partners with the SUCAI Scialpinismo (ski-mountaineering) course

As a rule, everywhere is shut on Sundays and Mondays (at least Monday morning). However, if you’re actually in the mountain valleys, particularly in high season, this may not be the case – but don’t count on it – and in Italy, always ask for a discount!