world reviewer
Sally James
Not quite a winter Olympic athlete, Sally James is hoping to make it there one day (even if she's only watching the pros.). Brought up on the Queensland beach Sally knows her way around a surfboard but has found the thrill of the smaller snowboard an exciting and compelling challenge. She's given up the warn weather to become a snowboarding instructor and has worked in some of the biggest resorts in Australia and New Zealand as well as spending several seasons in France. Sally's background in surfing influences her freeriding style and her love of big waves has given her a thing for moguls. This Australian season will be her first off the board as she's currently too heavily pregnant, but she's using her time to write a snowboarding book especially for female boarders.
Sally James's activity
- 17 Sep 2009
Sally James reviewed Snowboarding St. Moritz in St Moritz, Switzerland
It may seem unlikely from her glamorous reputation, but St. Moritz is a good place to some to learn new tricks, there's a 90metre half pipe, a huge quarter pipe and jumps ranging in size from beginner to four meter jump-this-and-you-might-want-to-start-c…"
Sally James reviewed Davos in Davos, Switzerland
Deep powder, natural half pipes, and the man made ones, tree banks, off piste options, a boardercross circuit and lit up runs for night riding – Davos has a lot to offer snowboarders. It's also known for having a good vibe and for loads and loads o…"
Sally James reviewed Val d'Isere in Val d'Isere, France
The area around the Pissaillas glacier has challenging gullies and ridges, and the run called Col Pers, which starts, slap bang in the middle of all that dramatic scenery - the glacier below you, and below that a wide bowl, offers all sorts of potential.…"
Sally James reviewed Snowboarding Andermatt in Switzerland
At the base of Piz Gemsstock in the Usern Valley, Andermatt gets regular dumps of thick, inviting powder, especially on its north facing slopes, and the high altitude means it keeps the snow for longer – steep gradients and loads of easily accessib…"
Sally James reviewed Snowboarding Chamonix in Chamonix, France
"The off piste terrain of the Chamonix Valley is some of the world's best, but anything that exciting looking is going to be dangerous. Argentihre is where most of Chamonix's all season boarders hang out – the north facing runs above the resort have…"
Sally James reviewed Davos in Davos, Switzerland
Deep powder, natural half pipes, and the man made ones, tree banks, off piste options, a boardercross circuit and lit up runs for night riding – Davos has a lot to offer snowboarders. It's also known for having a good vibe and for loads and l…"
Sally James reviewed Nordpark in Innsbruck, Austria
Nordpark is just above Innsbruck. It's tiny, but steep, with only six pistes but views over Innsbruck and scenic surrounds. Some of the runs have 65 degree inclines, finishing on daring ridges – in scenery that looks sheer as Alaska. You w…"
Sally James reviewed Snowboard Val Gardena in Veneto-Dolomites, Italy
This region offers easy access to the sky scraping backdrop of the Dolomites. There are three resorts along the valley floor: Seleva is the best known, by both skiers and boarders, Ortisei is the main town and Santa Cristina is somewhere in the middle, …"
- 16 Sep 2009
Sally James reviewed Snowboarding in Killington in United States
Killington's superpipe is 430 feet long with 18 foot walls, it has six parks and 87 miles worth of trails running all over and around the seven mountain peaks the resort calls its own. The natural terrain offers the 'something for everyone' cliché…"
Sally James reviewed Snowboard Crested Butte in Mountain States, United States
To call this terrain varied is an understatement. There are tree heavy sections, and steep sections and runs with lots of ridges, and trails with lots of boulders and cliff jumps, and all sorts of things going on. For bowls, couloirs, vertical drops an…"
Sally James reviewed Snowboard Big Sky in Mountain States, United States
3,500 acres spreading over two mountains – there's a lot of sky here. The terrain is varied, there's easy access to the intermediate terrain, but it's only the addition of a few more lifts in the last few years that's opened up the top of the moun…"
Sally James reviewed Squaw Valley in Squaw Valley, United States
Squaw offers some pretty exciting terrain over its six peaks and ridges. There's vertical drops to soar off, tree filled gullies to negotiate and bumps and runs to get you travelling pretty fast. If you want more than just moguls and epic nat…"
Sally James reviewed Jackson Hole in Jackson Hole, United States
This is supposed to be some of the most epic looking countryside in the US: sweeping views from the Snake River to the Rendezvous Mountains. It's also supposed to have the largest vertical drop in the US on Rendezvous - of the double diamond runs. …"
Sally James reviewed Snowboard Sugarloaf in United States
Sugarloaf's newest snowpark is called The Yard, and has three sets of jumps, as well as all the other features boarders want to play around on – rails, boxes etc. Before the park was built Sugarloaf was still the tallest skiable peak in the area, …"
Sally James reviewed Snowboarding Mount Hood Meadows in United States
Mount Hood Meadows has slopes high enough to board on all year round. It's also got a superpipe called Meadows, which is 500 feet long and 18 feet high. Mount Hood is close enough to Portland to make it a comfortable day trip. It's right by Timberline…"
Sally James reviewed Snowboard Snowbird in Mountain States, United States
Snowbird gets about 500 inches of snow a year – which is a lot. It's the high altitude that does it, and it feels high after you take the tram 11,000 feet up in only eight minutes, but it's also the mainly north facing slopes with their steep angl…"
Sally James reviewed Snowboarding Mt. Bachelor in United States
This resort has a 400 foot Superpipe with 18.5 foot walls – supposedly one of the best in the US, as well as a mini amusement park of rails and ramps and other play things. They also have a run called the 'Air Chamber', which is a mile long with r…"
Sally James reviewed Mammoth in Mammoth, United States
This is supposed to be one of THE best places for late season boarding – the nights are apparently freezing, but the days sunny and lovely, and the highest slopes stay white and open very late. There's a gondola from the top to the village, which …"
Sally James reviewed Snowboard Kirkwood in United States
Kirkwood has the highest altitude of any of the Lake Tahoe resorts at 2380metres. The highest lift heads up to 2990m. The varied look and high quality of the natural terrain have given cause for some people to call this largest natural snowpark in the …"
Sally James reviewed Snowboarding Alpine Meadows in California, United States
Alpine Meadows is one of 15 ski and snowboarding resorts in the area around Lake Tahoe. While many boarders know about Squaw, and Alpine Meadows is pretty close by, it's always been known as a skier mountain – but that was before they got the Shrea…"
- 21 Aug 2009
Sally James reviewed Zell am See in Austria
This is another really pretty resort. It's the lake surrounded by mountain peaks that does it in this case. The pedestrianised city centre is a nice touch and it's a nice place for families as well as people looking to have some apres ski fun. The bes…"
Sally James reviewed Gstaad in Switzerland
Gstaad is really really pretty. It's got a castle, which the whole town is built around, and at night they light it up so that it looks even more like a fairytale village. Between the Alps and the Bernese Oberland, it's also snow country, with 250kms w…"
Sally James reviewed Seefeld in Austria
Seefeld has a pretty good reputation for coverage, but in times of need they back it up with snow making machines on all slopes. There's not a lot of choice when it comes to runs and ski grounds, most of them are beginner to intermediate standard, but Se…"
Sally James reviewed Bad Gastein in Austria
There are supposed to be 200kms worth of slopes here. I don't know how that's measured, but there's quite a bit of choice I'm told. Push off points are as high as 2700 metres, which means pretty good snow cover, in fact this resort has a pretty sound r…"
Sally James reviewed Lillehammer & Hafjell in Norway
I remember watching the Lillehammer Winter Olympics on TV, which is probably where most people know the name from, so it's got some winter sports credentials from that already. These days I wonder how stressed the organisers must be about snow condition…"
- 20 Dec 2007
Sally James reviewed Cervinia in Cervinia, Italy
Cervina is one of my favourite resorts, it’s got a bit of everything which is what I prefer as a freeriding fanatic. There are seven parks, my favourite is the Indian Park, and plenty of different terrain. Some of the best on-piste boarding is at Fornet…"
Sally James reviewed Chamonix in Chamonix, France
This is another obvious choice, but for me I just love boarding against a backdrop as inspiring as Mont Blanc. Like everyone says it does look like a chocolate box view and I can’t look at a Toblerone box without wishing I was there. On the practical si…"
Sally James reviewed St Anton am Arlberg in St Anton am Arlberg, Austria
St Anton is great for its night riding and freeriding, its also a fairly funky resort and its got a fairly good reputation amongst snowboarders so you get a lot of people coming down whose skills are worth watching, which I think is half the fun. The be…"
- 17 Dec 2007
Sally James reviewed Ski Whistler in Whistler, Canada
Whistler is probably the biggest resort I’ve ever been to and it’s got three big parks and lots of guys who really know what they’re doing to go with it. It’s got a reputation for heavy powder and when I was there it was definitely living up to it’s rep…"
- 06 Aug 2007
- 26 Jun 2007
Sally James reviewed Les Deux Alpes in Les Deux Alpes, France
The Les Deux Alps resort is good for summer boarding because it’s got it’s own glacier so you can board long past the end of winter. The snowpark here is called Nitro and it’s one of those places that is being constantly upgraded and is really really w…"
- 20 Jun 2007
- 11 Jun 2007
Sally James reviewed Snowboarding in Hirafu in Hokaido, Japan
The Niseko Resort in Hirafu is another great nightriding spot. It’s got a lot more trees than Alts Bandai so it’s runs are more interesting, but don‘t worry, the trees are pretty well spaced out so although the nightriding is more challenging it‘s not d…"
Sally James reviewed Alts Bandai Boarding in Tohoku, Japan
Japan is very popular with Australia and New Zealand boarders and you’ll find lots of talent here ripping up the four parks. There’s good powder and wide open runs which are pretty ordinary during the day but really come alive at night under the lights.…"
Sally James reviewed Snowboarding Madonna di Campiglio in Veneto-Dolomites, Italy
I’m a scenery buff and I’ve always wanted to board in the Dolomites and Madonna di Campiglio is probably the best place to do it. It’s more popular with the tourist crowd than serious boarders, but there’s plenty of space and I found some surprisingly g…"
Sally James reviewed Folgaria and Jurassik Snowboarding Park in Veneto-Dolomites, Italy
This was one of my most recent trips and it’s recommended in the Footprints snowboarding book, as well as by some friends of mine who really know their stuff. When you first get to the resort at Folgaria, you’ll probably wondering what all the fuss is a…"
Sally James reviewed Snowboarding Val Thorens in Val Thorens, France
This is one of the world highest resorts, it’s totally above the treeline, so the snow is always good. The off side of this is that when visibility is bad it’s just do dangerous to go out anywhere. There’s some great runs, Cime de Carons’ best for spee…"
Sally James reviewed Ste Foy in Ste Foy, France
St. Foy is gradually getting discovered by more people, but when I went it was pretty quiet. I went with a friend who knows a lot more about where to board in France than I do, and when we got there I swear there were about 50 other people and the runs …"
Sally James reviewed Meribel in Meribel, France
Meribel looks like you think a French ski resort will. It’s gorgeous. It’s has a pretty town, a huge off piste area to explore and hundreds of lifts, I’m not joking. There are also loads of groomed runs, two parks and two half pipes. Meribel covers t…"
Sally James reviewed Les Arcs in Les Arcs, France
Le Arcs is linked to La Plagne and like it’s neighbour it’s good for beginners and intermediates, with lots of wide blue runs. The guys at Les Arcs really look after their runs so there’s lots of good packed speed runs. They also look…"
Sally James reviewed La Plagne in La Plagne, France
La Plange is another resort I’ve chosen for the setting. The town bit has been built in front of a crevassed mountain range that looks as if it’s been poured over and folded with slightly brittle white chocolate. Lots of people think the town is ugly, …"
