Theft of skis Meribel

Hi

New skier just back from my first weeks ski holiday in La Tania in the 3 Valleys.

Had a great time (once I got out of La Tania as not beginner friendly slopes) until our last day when my partners skis were stolen from outside Le Sporting restaurant in Meribel, 50 yards away from the police station. We had spent most of our time in Courchevel as the slopes were kinder there and my partner had never been to Meribel and didnt know what it was like.

Skis and poles left everyday along the fences, on the ground etc and no problems at all. We had split the ski's on occassion and I guess we got complacent. We went for lunch for 40 mins to return to an empty spot where my partners skis had been. Totally gutted. Put a dampener on the holiday big time. Went to the information office where we were told it didnt happen often.....were directed to the police station, you have to go to the Gendarmerie and not the municipal. Susprisingly all the shop keepers have an excellent hold of english yet the police cant speak english at all, my french wasnt very good either mind you but I dont work in a tourist area.....The officer told us it happened everyday and handed out a form for us to fill in..... I take it it happens so often they have no interest in catching the perpetrators??? No CCTV??? No details asked for us to show where they were placed or anything. Perhaps the cops are helping thierselves, who knows.....they certainly did not seem interested at all.

So, if you are new to skiing and have all the new kit etc dont find yourself £400 out of pocket (depends if insurance pays or not, quick enough to take your money but hate giving you it back) swap and lock your skis.

If you are offered an almost brand new pair of Nordica skis and Leki poles without the wrist strap as its still attached to my partners gloves then please give me a shout......

A sour taste has been left in my mouth after this....as did the £5 bottle of coke from Bel Air lol....

Moan over....hopefully have something more positive if I ever go on another skiing hol....may just pray for good snow in Scotland every year.... :-)

I know it must seem a complete pain in the neck, but it seems sccording to reports it happens a lot in the three valleys area, in thirty years of skiing I have not experienced theft of any kind.
i hope the insurance company pays out. :evil:

Hi Dixiefee,
Best of luck with getting your money back - and keep an eye on Ebay!

We've always hired skis, and it seems they don't bother to nick hired ones (at least we've never had ours nicked) and this time our skis actually had 'rental' or something like that written across the length of them.

I'm glad to hear you had a good holiday apart from this. I was in Courchevel a few weeks ago and I reckon it's a great place to ski.

Ally

I think ski theft in Meribel featured in another thread so it does seem to be an increasingly frequent problem. On my recent trip to Flaine, I heard of two people having their skis nicked so the problem is not confined to Meribel and at least one of these were hire skis. :evil: :evil: :evil:

In fairness to the police, you cannot really expect them to get excited over opportunistic thefts of gear left lying around unsupervised. However, perhaps it is time for resorts and businesses to provide more secure facilities though whether we would be prepared to pay for them is a whole other question :shock:

I guess we all need to be more careful with our gear, especially as insurance companies unlikely to pay out if skis left lying around outside bars and restaurants. Apart from ski splitting, I am not sure what you are supposed to do - bringing the skis into a restaurant is obviously not a runner.

It happens everywhere, don't let it put you off a particular resort. Keep an eye on them or lock them up - I wouldn't be surprised if your insurance doesn't pay out on the basis that you left them totally unattended for 40 minutes.

Resorts should start installing the skikey system - it really is great and gives me the illusion of security.

What if a restaurant/bar had a ski check outside, with an employee to watch skis. From the sounds of it, they would clean up. Maybe the towns Chamber of commerce could operate ski checks near bars/restaurant/shops.

Trencher

Hey

Thanks for all the posts...

The skis were within watching distance but like I said we did perhaps become complacent and when nature calls sometimes you cant watch them 100 % of the time anyway.

The restaurant we were in did not have anywhere to put skis and there was nowhere safe to put them within the restaurant so obviously we followed suit of everyone else and put them against the fence line.

Perhaps it is time for these busy resort areas to take a bit of responsibility and install something where skis can be left securely, being new to skiing I dont know what the options are.

I do think in busy areas like the area of Meribel should at least have CCTV, they have it in Courchevel and I know from speaking to people there is not as much of a problem with ski theft over there, perhaps it is a deterent and extra patroling from officers during busy spells would perhaps work. I saw some officers in Courchevel and the only ones I saw in Meribel were in the office asking each other if they wanted a coffee lol...

Its happened now and we can only hope the insurance pays out. It has certainly put me off a little bit but perhaps this is only while it is still fresh, will keep taking lessons and probably pop to the slopes a few times, artificial and indoor snow ones and see what happens next holidays....

Oh and I have my beady eye on ebay already. Not that it will make much difference as we still have to prove the skis were ours, our little scottish flag stickers would no doubt have been pealed off by now...

Just get a simple cable lock. If someone is determined it won't put them off but it can act as a deterrent to the opportunist.

Next time you buy skis you should record the serial numbers (they are a unique identifier) which is the only real way of telling if they are yours.