Talk:Downhill snowsports

ToDo

Glossary:

• expand it with typical movements and exercices; with equipment most frequently used by an average skier. --(WT-en) DenisYurkin 18:29, 13 January 2011 (EST)
• for every term, provide translation to languages of most popular destinations (French, German, Italian). --(WT-en) DenisYurkin 18:29, 13 January 2011 (EST)

initial comment

This article was begun as an attempt to begin a list of more prominent ski areas and to provide more information on the popular travel topic in general. Feel free to add on as always, but please list major ski resorts only. (The definition I worked with was "would I travel there just to ski?" meaning many smaller resorts, charming as they are, would be out.) (WT-en) Andromeda321 00:17, 26 Oct 2005 (EDT)

People could add other, more minor, destinations in region specific articles, such as winter sports in Australia. This is pretty much what I'm doing with Scuba diving and the two (so far) region articles Scuba diving in Australia and Scuba diving in Asia. (WT-en) Hypatia 09:36, 10 September 2006 (EDT)

Snowboarding?

Should this article cover snowboarding too? The sports are somewhat different, but they occur in destinations that overlap significantly and many of the safety concerns are the same. If we had a separate snowboarding article we could cover the different issues there, but the destinations would need to be partly duplicated. (WT-en) Hypatia 09:36, 10 September 2006 (EDT)

Switched Lead Photo

I switched the lead photograph, as it is already used on both the Telluride and Colorado pages. Three times seemed a bit much. (WT-en) WineCountryInn 20:50, 4 February 2009 (EST)

Nordic skiing

Should information on nordic skiing (telemark, cross country) be included on this page as I would be happy to provide information. ( Nordic skiing differs fundamentally in the binding at the heel wher it is unattached) Does a new article need starting even though it is a minority sport. This leads on to whether there should be an article on all snow sports?(WT-en) HJ.Phillips94 13:40, 27 February 2009 (EST)

I believe Nordic Skiing is worth a separate article. There are many nordic ski lovers in Russia, Scandinavia, Baltics and (?) Canada--this makes quite a wide audience. So please plunge forward. --(WT-en) DenisYurkin 19:17, 4 March 2009 (EST)

beginner with children: factors to consider

We are considering to go to Austria in January for a week of skiing. What factors are foremost to consider in choosing village/resort and hotel, if we are going with a 1.5-year baby, and ourselves are beginner level aline skiers? --(WT-en) DenisYurkin 16:30, 12 October 2009 (EDT)

how to choose skiing school; ski rental shop

What factors should be considered? It it's all about "research recommendations"--where such recommendations can be found? Spefically I'm interested for Austria, but looks like it's better covered here. --(WT-en) DenisYurkin 18:20, 3 February 2010 (EST)

Don't know about eastern Europe and the rest of the world, but in the Alps and Scandinavia, you're not allowed to operate unless the "teachers" have been on government approved courses, a passed a rather strict exam, which are all pretty similar in a given country (though there are moonlighters), so the competition factors are more in terms of group sizes and prices, than they are about quality - although as with most things you get what you pay for, the really cheap schools often has the least experienced teachers, but you are never going to get complete idiots teaching you, thanks to the strict government regulation.

As far as rental places go, you get what you pay for really, cheap=oldest equipment, expensive=newest equipment. And most rental places in the Alps will offer you a choice of both. Often (=90% of the time in France and Switzerland, at least) the chalet manager or hotel has a deal with one of the rental places offering 10-15% discount, so there is rarely any sense in going anywhere else.

But this is all very Alp specific I suspect, so it's probably not appropriate for this page. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 18:39, 3 February 2010 (EST)

But looks like it could apply to Austria, as most of its skiing (not all?) is about Alps. --(WT-en) DenisYurkin 18:50, 3 February 2010 (EST)

I guess so, I've never rented ski's in Austria, so while I very much suspect it's the same deal, I can't be certain. As for ski instruction yeah, though it may be more appropriate on the ski section of the Alps page, since there is now a standardized exam and certification on EU level (femps), which has been implemented in Germany, Austria, France and Italy (though not Switzerland or Slovenia) --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 19:40, 3 February 2010 (EST)

Then we should probably merge that piece (and probably some other ski-related pieces from Alps) together with Winter sports in Austria and Winter sports in Switzerland. --(WT-en) DenisYurkin 19:55, 3 February 2010 (EST)

I've attempted to add some basic recommendations on skiing schools [1]; please welcome to add whatever looks appropriate. Thanks again! --(WT-en) DenisYurkin 14:24, 23 February 2010 (EST)

showcase articles; pistes details

I wonder whether we have some mature articles which could serve a good example of describing a skiing destination from scratch. Specifically, I am looking for good examples of describing individual pistes and their features--see my first attempt for Mayrhofen: Mayrhofen#Pistes details: Penken. --(WT-en) DenisYurkin 18:06, 12 February 2010 (EST)

8 years later, I'm with the same question: what are the best-practice articles on alpine-ski destinations so far? Alternatively, what can be the better place to ask that? --DenisYurkin (talk) 19:30, 18 January 2019 (UTC)

The destination article I've worked most on is Snowshoe, which is fairly complete in terms of regular content (get in/around, see/do, buy, eat/drink, sleep). However I haven't put anything about the slopes/pistes themselves. To be honest, I'm not sure what information would be helpful. At all ski locations in North America, there are always maps of the slopes readily available. And since people have such widely varying skill levels and interests (racing, terrain parks, off-piste) and conditions vary day-to-day and year-to-year, I can't think of what description I might read or write that would be useful. If you have suggestions for what you think that kind of content should look like, definitely share it here. --Bigpeteb (talk) 22:33, 18 January 2019 (UTC)

I implemented some ideas in Mayrhofen article: see #Ski / snowboarding section and, specifically, #Pistes details. --DenisYurkin (talk) 08:42, 19 January 2019 (UTC)

Skiing on a budget?

I have absolutely no expertise in this, but any tips on alpine skiing on the cheap, from choice of resorts and accomodation would be very much appreciated. Student reporting. —The preceding comment was added by (WT-en) 134.225.241.176 (talk • contribs)

Broad improvements for this article

This article could use some love and attention. I just did my first ever snowboard trip, and now that I look at this article, it's pretty weak. I'd like to see something more comprehensive, along the lines of cruise ships, so that anyone who's never done it before and has no idea what they're getting in to can understand what's required of them and how to set up a trip. (Although if we could avoid the amount of bloat the cruise ships article has accumulated, that would be nice.)

My broad suggestions, which I'll happily do when I have free time again (work is keeping me busy):

• Be inclusive of both skiing and snowboarding as much as possible, since 95% of the travel advice applies to both.
  • I strongly suggest we avoid calling it "Alpine" skiing... some of us live on a different continent than the Alps! Calling it "downhill" skiing is accurate, inclusive, and intuitive.
  • For that matter, does Nordic skiing really deserve its own article, or can it be folded in to this one? Are there other activities besides skiing and snowboarding that could be included?
• Taking in to account the above, this article really should be moved to a new name, but I'm not sure what.
• Expand the "Understand" section. It should start early with an overview of what a trip is like: lodging, the resort/mountain itself, what you must buy (e.g. lift tickets (explain what those are, too!)), buying vs renting equipment, etc.
• The advice for people with children or people on a budget is good. I think some of it could be incorporated in to the rest of the article text, but some should remain separate like it is now.
• The list of destinations should be pruned. It doesn't seem helpful to me to list entire countries like Romania without giving specific places to go.

--Bigpeteb (talk) 18:25, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

Nordic skiing refers also to cross-country skiing, which has very little to do with downhill snowsports – other than that you can ski to the downhill location or go ski touring from a downhill resort.

Telemark skiing, on the other hand, should be included. The technique is different from Alpine skiing, but the resorts are the same. Telemark skiers go off-piste more often, but off-piste skiing should be handled here anyway. Cross-country skiing should of course be linked for some aspects of skiing to more distant hillsides.

There are other downhill sports, such as ski jumping and (bob)sledding. I think mentioning them in passing would suffice for now.

The issue about destinations is raised also on Wikivoyage:Travellers' pub#What to do with list of ski resorts?. I think the discussion is relevant for most travel activity articles.

--LPfi (talk) 08:14, 4 February 2015 (UTC)

What to do with list of ski resorts?

Swept in from the pub

I've been working on Downhill snowsports (a general guide) and Snowshoe (guide for a specific resort). I couldn't find much guidance on the latter... obviously if there's a ski resort that's part of a large city, its information should just go there, but it seems like a lot of ski resorts are far enough removed that the only thing around for many miles is the ski resort and a few inns and restaurants for budget-minded travelers who don't want to stay at the resort. So giving it its own article makes sense to me.

My question is, right now Downhill snowsports contains a long list of "ski destinations". Some of these are individual resorts like Vail and Breckenridge, but others are just entire countries like Romania.

I can see a strong argument for keeping a list, as you really can only ski in particular places. But should it be moved to a separate page? Do you have any other advice for how to clean it up and prune it? --Bigpeteb (talk) 22:06, 3 February 2015 (UTC)

I raised the same issue at Whitewater sports. In Downhill snowsports it seems any resort you would go to from abroad is meant to be listed, not only some especially noteworthy places, as I suggest for the former. I think separating the list from the main article would do little good, but pruning will be needed at some point.

There is no use linking country articles with no mentioning of snow sports. I think some countries are linked now because there are good ski resorts, but none described in our articles. A short paragraph in the Do sections could be added for those, (red)linking to a few top resorts.

As the Colorado and Montana sections show, the list will soon be a mile long. We could have separate lists in articles by country, such as Winter sports in Switzerland and Skiing in Lebanon, where also country specific issues can be handled (also extraregions, such as Swiss Alps could be used). For some regions downhill sport destinations can be handled in general articles, but having a large section on snow sports in, say, USA or France, is hardly ideal.

--LPfi (talk) 09:41, 4 February 2015 (UTC)

We now listed 60 destinations in the USA, which I think is clearly past any sensible limit. Of those, a dozen had redlinks, a dozen external links and a few didn't link anywhere.

Colorado#Skiing and snowboarding and Montana#Winter sports each have a list of resorts making this list redundant – they actually seem to be identical copies to the lists here. New Mexico#Ski has a good non-list overview mentioning all resorts listed here. Vermont#Skiing and mountain activities has a longer list including external links. I replaced the lists here with links to the sections.

Utah#Do has a shorter similar overview, but it doesn't link destinations, nor does it mention all that are listed here (ten across five bullets; eight redlink). I assume we should remove the list here, but assume some edits are due there (or in lower level articles) before the deletion.

Down to 8 destinations + Utah and the links to state article sections. Seems OK only Utah gets handled. Adding a lead paragraph or two on what to expect from North American ski resort would be good, to make the destinations section less listy.

–LPfi (talk) 10:18, 29 June 2023 (UTC)

Winter in the Nordic countries#Ski resorts has a commented list, making the 17 bullets here redundant. Replaced with links. Winter sports in Switzerland and French Alps probably allow pruning 11 more. –LPfi (talk) 10:33, 29 June 2023 (UTC)