Les Diablerets / Glacier 3000
28th October 2006
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As Les Diablerets / Glacier 3000 had a lift running it was an excellent chance to get out and test my new ski boots, a pair of Garmont Endorphins.
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Currently it’s not possible to ski from the Cabane/Glacier lift, instead you descend on the Glacier chair lift and, according to the Glacier 3000 web site, a 15 min walk to the Dôme drag lift. In fact, they were running a shuttle service in a piste basher but it’s an easy walk for 5 minutes before a skier can start to skate and descend slightly to the Dôme lift.
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The work going on here is the installation of what they’re calling an Alpine coaster and they claim it will be the highest in the world at 3000m with a 1000m track, 12 turns with one at 560′, 11 waves, 3 jumps and 2 bridges all on burning rails apparently. It’s scheduled for opening in December this year and will operate year round. This is the first visible project after the area went bankrupt (see MySnowsports story), it probably makes a lot of commercial sense, they have a big local catchment area for day trippers, summer and winter, and this could be quite successful in getting non skiers up to the Glacier, for example more traditional sledge runs are very popular at many local ski stations here.
A current attraction is the option of dog pulled sledge ride and that’s two of the staff above right!
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This is a view over to the Matterhorn, Dent Blanche, Zinalrothorn etc.
And the boots? Just fine so far, I’d like to extend one buckle very slightly but the shell fit is excellent and they’re fine to ski in. The Endorphin allows three forward lean settings, walking and two ski positions at 20° and 25°. I set them initially in maximum forward lean and just couldn’t get on with them at all in that position which rather surprised me, I’ll have to try that again as possibly I’d not got the buckles adjusted quite right at that time. It’s hard to tell on a glacier run exactly how well the boot performs but they seem able to drive my Stockli StormRider XL’s which are mounted with Fritschi Diamir Freeride Plus touring bindings, the Endorphin boot and freeride plus binding are well matched at the free ski / touring fusion area.
There’s a school of thought that says any boot needs a good amount of flex at the ankle, to an extent some of this is nonsense of course, but, the Endorphin certainly has that flex. The vibram sole, which won’t work with normal Alpine bindings of course, together with the walk mode and buckle positions make this a really comfortable boot to wear while not skiing. Walking across to the Dôme lift was as easy as a few weeks back in my alpine hiking boots.
I’ll add a fuller review when I’ve used them more and had chance to try some more varied conditions.
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