Lech/Zurs/Stuben, Austria, Jan. 19, 2017

Tony Crocker

Administrator
Staff member
We were both a bit worn down by the past 4 excellent ski days, so we took the bus to Zurs and started with 2 groomers from Seekopf in the morning sun. It was soon evident that weather was returning to normal with clear skies and high temps in the mid-20’s F. Liz at Seekopf with view of Madloch in background.
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Both of us there with view south to Muggengrat.
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We took a lap there with me poking around the shaded powder for a few turns. The backside of Muggengrat is one those great Alps runs with a wilderness ambience. Overview of that area taken later from the Flexen gondola:
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There is a piste in there, shaded above and barely visible lower down when zoomed.

View down from top of the chair, directly south.
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I skied a chute just out of view partly shaded by rocks, then traversed left to a section of the bowl that bent to west facing. I put down some tracks next to these.
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We crossed the road and took the two stage gondola to Rauz like the day before. This time we rode the new Albonabahn gondola up to the top of Stuben. From there is a good view of St. Anton’s Valluga and the broad valley draining to Rauz at lower left.
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We skied down to the backside east facing chair. From there I traversed skier’s right to look for some north facing leftovers.
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From here you see the off piste area dropping into that canyon, which I skied twice with Piste-to-Powder in 2013. There is a road down there with bus pickup once per hour.

Next we skied down the front side of Stuben into the town. This faces north but is unfortunately subject to heavy wind stripping.
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There were no tracks off piste due to the thin cover, though the piste had some good sections of windsift.

We took a break and had a delicious strudel at Murmele in Stuben, then ascended the old chair and skied to Rauz to catch the gondola back to Zurs. Liz got out at midway while I took Trittkopf to the top. I skied a soft skier packed upper pitch with a nice view down the valley toward Lech.
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Lower down I varied between pistes and mellow powder pitches but followed one of those too far and had to sideslip around shrubbery into a gully, then traverse out the other side. Meanwhile Liz, who got out at midway because she was tired, was lured skier’s left to a powder bowl and ended up on the road near Flexen Pass. She had to flag down a cab to take here to Zurs and then went back to Lech on the bus.

I crossed the road in Zurs, went up 2 chairs to Madloch and skied the White Ring route as on Tuesday. Once again I traversed off right halfway down to the north facing powder. It was decent but of course more tracked and I took my first powder header of the trip. Back on piste I missed the cutoff to the Zug chair and this skied the long flat trail into Lech. Totals were 6,100 vertical in Stuben and 13,500 at Lech/Zurs.

As it was our second to last night and I had been finding a few rocks in the low tide conditions under the powder all week, I went into Strolz to get my skis tuned up before we moved on. I found that one edge had been displaced from the sidewall so the Bonafides are probably toast. The Strolz guy could not repair them, but when I said I was from California, he said the one possibility for repair would be fiberglass surfboard glue.

From my records I quickly determined that I have skied 155 days and over 3 million vertical on the Bonafides, and that doesn’t count any days they were being demoed by others at Mammoth before I bought them Dec. 17, 2012. This is comparable to the 147 days I skied on the Volant Power Ti’s until one of them delaminated in June 2008, and more than on any other ski I have owned. So I’m guessing the Bonafides were near the end of the line and I’ll be looking to get new ones soon. I brought the K2 Recons along here, and they are just as good for the piste skiing we will likely be doing the rest of the trip with no new snow in sight.
 
For now, if you want to ski the Bonafides just put that edge on the outside.
 
Tony Crocker":15s1hfmz said:
I went into Strolz to get my skis tuned up before we moved on.
I haven't been there in ten years, but that Strolz store in Lech was a trip: the ultimate high-end retail ski experience. All of the people in the store looked like the models in the website photos -- what Deer Valley aspires to be.
http://www.strolz.at/en/


Here's a TR from one of the places I'll be next week -- Tony, how does your displaced edge compare to this one?
http://www.alpinforum.com/forum/viewtop ... 53&t=56957
 
I bought a hat and Liz sunglasses in Strolz to replace lost/broken items, about 40 Euros each, not ridiculously priced. Strolz also has a bar on the 4th of 6 floors. Floors 1&2 are underground to preserve exterior architectural look.

admin":3cdl45ao said:
For now, if you want to ski the Bonafides just put that edge on the outside.
I was already doing that due to a small gouge next to that edge. Due to frequent changing of skis at gondolas I probably didn't remember to put them back on correctly every time.

Admin rather than James' pic has the correct visualization of the problem. The Strolz guy shoved the edge back in so it is flush with the sidewall. It is not broken but only a close inspection from the side shows that the edge is no longer sealed to that sidewall. He explained that the damage is not to the edge itself but to the core inside.

As we are now skiing mostly manmade groomers we want all of our edges to be functional.
 
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