Gauranteed Rental Quality

I've had 2 trips this year - one to St Jean D'Aulps with family in car and one spontaneous trip to Sauze via Ryannair. Rented skis on both occasions. The cost of shipping skis has made me think that buying skis may not be cost effective however the quality of the rentals varied - France were poor and Sauze good. How can you better guarantee the quality of kit so you don't end up floundering around on 8 year old planks with snow sticking to the bottoms every time you stop to catch a breath or 2? Are the deals on the Internet just a way of luring one into low quality kit ?

I know there is not much in it at the moment but you can't beat having your own planks

NIIIXSY wrote:I've had 2 trips this year - one to St Jean D'Aulps...

Hi NIIIXSY.

I've been to St Jean D'Ulps the last two years.

The previous year I rented from "Muffat Sport". Skis were damn nearly new and if you liked them you could purchase the same model in their shop. Skis were ready waiting for us with our name tags on them when we walked in at 8pm the day before our rental started. Later in the week my step father had a pole stolen when we had lunch. Returning to the shop we expected an outrageous charge. Instead the owner gave a French shrug and declared it to be his problem not ours and simply handed over another pole!

This year we rented from "Au Schuss". I was intending being a bit more serious this year so had bought some boots and gone for their 5* hire ski (a Dynastar Sultan 80, 2010 or equivalent.) They gave me a battered 2006 ski that did indeed allow snow to stick to the bottom if you stood still. Edges were in no danger of damaging my romper suit when carried over the shoulder. :evil: Worse still they insisted that helmets that were so large they could slide of the top of your head were correct. (Leaving the chin-strap round one's throat.) My first time with a helmet and it stayed in the chalet. This time we waited in line like sweaty cattle then the child setting the bindings didn't even use our weights or ability, just seemed to put them in the middle... They were cheaper than Muffat; now I know why.



So to anyone going to St. Jean, not all hire shops are equal.

Both rental were over the internet and not direct from the shop's own web site. I think I'd want a personal reccomendation on a shop in a new resort ar at least an email from the shop as to the exact model and year of ski they would rent. None of this "or equivalent" crap.

Cheers,

Owen.

Hi Niiixsy,
I think the thing to do is to take the skis (plus boots) if necessary back if they're not up to the quality you've paid for. We had to do this once with Twinner, and they hired us out fantastic skis and boots as a replacement for their duff ones, at the same price. They were mortified, once we'd explained the problem with the original ones.

We've generally hired from Intersport (in Obergurgl, Val Thorens and Courchevel), and never had a problem with them. We pay a bit extra for quality, but hire them ahead of time with up to a 40% discount. And if it's icy I take them back mid-week for re-sharpenening (or waxing if it's powdery) all free of charge. My skis this time were so sharp that I've damaged the gloves on my right hand just carrying them!

And my skis this year were only a year old (I checked them out when I got back, going by the picture on them) - K2 True Luv's.

Ally

I have hired three times this year, all through J2ski/Skiset. I book skis every year through J2ski.

I always book the lowest price, and have always had good skis and good service. Reinforcing Ally's point, if I feel the need to change the skis, I do so, although, given my attitude to skis, this is a rare event.

What this did allow me to do was to experiment with models/lengths, and I subsequently took advantage of the March ski sales to get a bargain. Well, there's a surprise.

People assume that lower category skis mean lower quality. What happens in many shops is that as a ski gets past a season old, it passes to the next grade..... and so on.

Given that I did ski on Blizzard Firebirds for 26 years before moving on, a couple of seasons old is not an issue for me.