J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by andymol2

Having been insured with Direct Travel for years I have had to look for a new insurer as they seem to have gone under.

It is remarkable how many insurers exclude off piste without a guide or instructor. At first this sounds sensible (going off into avalanche terrain is plain daft without local knowledge and safety kit) until you realise that their definition of off piste isn't just what the Americans call back country, but also means skiing just beyond the of edge of the piste on the bumps the instructors take you over or cutting 20 yards off the marked piste to your chalet.
How many of us have found ourselves off piste when the visibility is poor by accident? Is that covered?

Helmets seem to generate a debate. 3/4 of an inch of padding is only going to make a limited impact on the deceleration of your brain when you ski into a tree at 30 miles an hour, but it will move the threshold up before injury occurs and presumably the threshold between minor and significant injury.

Besides sharp edges will cut hats and scalps easily so may save cost and wasted ski time if you get hit by your own skis when you wipe out and need stitching up!

There is not a linear relationship between price and quality.
I know we live in an era of designer bull*** which has distorted the concept of price and quality out of all sensible understanding.

I still have an Aldi ski jacket that I bought for my first ever ski trip and has outlived my others in spite of being the one I use to wrap up my ski's. The sallos didn't fair as well but that was more to do with my daughter mis-timing a hockey stick stop, wiping out and putting her ski through the gusset narrowly avoiding performing a slopeside vasectomy. (ironic that she's about to do her finals at med school this winter)

I have a pair of their ski mitts which comfortably perform similarly to my other vastly more expensive pair of a well known brand. (In fact I lent them to a friend when we were sking in the 3V's at -20 who was stunned to find out that a £5 Aldi pair were better than his £50 gloves)

Helmet protection is a moot point- you can measure deformity and penetration but it's much harder to measure brain injury. No trial will permit randomised double blind trials of skiing volunteers into trees with and without helmets so it gets tricky to assess how much (if any) brain protection they provide other than by statistical analysis and even harder to compare which design is better and which test is best at identifying the best helmets. Does the standard equate to brain protection?
Can of worms!

If you are beginners/early intermediates you will probably only need the La Plagne pass for 5 days - it is joined with Les Arcs as part of the Paradise Ski area but you probably won't justify the extra cost of the full Paradise Ski pass for just a 5 day trip.
The gondola ride between the two is quite picturesque.

Methinks the lady doth protest too much. Comes over as an arrogant rant from someone in denial of the truth. The only part of Courcheval I would chose to stay in would be La Praz - at least it has a bit of a real town feel rather than the purpose built concrete of the other variations.

As for the rest of it - the 3 valleys is huge and you certainly get better value for money in other parts yet ski the same slopes. No doubt they could come out with the old drivel that it's expensive to take things up the mountain but it's no more isolated than many of the French and other European ski resorts to justify the rip off prices. They saw the Rouble and thought it was carte blanche to print money at a stroke driving off their regular visitors (mainly the Brits) When the Roubles whent elsewhere there was little sympathy for the greed of the resorts like Courcheval.

Shame about the bird sounds!

There once was a time where it was the taking part that mattered.
Post Eddie the Eagle the Olympics have been so against anyone who isn't an elite competitor taking part. Heaven forbid the spotlight be taken away from the sponsors!

I guess it is understandable for ski-jumping on safety grounds but a GS?

If the Thai Olympic team were prepared to enter her that should have been enough and if you have to fudge a competition to enter, it says more about the the Olympic spirit being lost than it does about the competitor.

Shame - having visited Kashmir in the mid 80's before the troubles really began - the area has a fantastic climate and was really working hard to develop its tourist industry.
Got a hint that things were brewing even then - it was shortly after the Golden Temple situation.