J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by bedrock barney

I'm sure these phone operators are making a mint on data roaming abroad. I switched on data roaming (iphone) on the 1st day for a short while and KAPOW! £20 spent in a matter of a few minutes.

Fortunately our apartment hosts generously gave us a dongle to use with our laptop and we were able to check weather/converse with our children on facebook etc in the evening for free.

It probably is. In the brochure it would say "farmyard chic"

Spotted this shack when in Norway Christmas 2010.

Weekly hire rate - very favourable.

Features - ski in ski out, comes with built in Christmas trees

Some piste feedback:-

Arcelle (red - VDI) - nice run down into a valley with circa 700m vertical drop. I tackled this a couple of times late on (around 4pm) when it was pretty lumpy but still enjoyable. Later in the week i did a run before lunch and the piste was much cleaner.

Santons (blue! - VDI) - had heard that this was a tricky blue late in the day. I think we tackled it around noon. Didn't seem too bad although there were quite a few people going very slowly. Kind of a half pipe set up. Didn't like the flat section taking us back to the lifts though. Most of the boarders ended up walking this section. Wanted to go back down Santons at the end of thr day to see how it had changed but other half had the casting vote.

Verte (green - VDI) - this is the long green down to La Daille. We'd heard that it was a fairly notorious end of day run and were not disappointed. We finished off in La Daille a couple of times and got the bus back into the main village. Very very lumpy and a neat little narrow section lower down which certainly seemed to be testing beginners. We saw quite a few fallers on this piste. I'm glad it was not my 1st week on skis.....I think my confidence would have been ebbing away..

The Face (black - VDI) - this is the 1992 winter olympic run. I stupidly tackled this on my penultimate day at 4.30pm with tired legs, the sun going down and bloody great big moguls and icy patches. Without doubt the sweatiest moment of the week. Had a fall at the top but counted to 10 and mentally repeated the mantra of 'apply your technique' which got me down slowly but safely. Should have tried it the next morning on groomed slopes - will do next time

Germain Mattis (red - VDI) - a nice run down to La Laisinant through the trees (1st of the photos above). Did this on our 1st day late morning when it was already carving up. Probably very tricky at the end of the day. A few narrow sections to test your technique. Nice to have some trees whizzing by.

Wish I'd done the Sache black run over in Tignes but it would have been on my own and it didn't seem fair to let my wife work her way down the mountain on her own via a blue run she hadn't faced before. Definitely on my list for next time.

tspill wrote:Which piste is te first pic of?

This is the red down to Le Laisinant - Germain Mattis. Pretty tricky to be honest, very bumpy and narrow in places. Nice one to get our ski legs in on the 1st day!

Got in extremely well with my new GoPro. I splashed out and went for the latest model. The footage shot at 1080 with 170 degree field of view is very impressive. Quality appears decent even when watched on our 46' telly.

I tried the helmet, chest and pole mounts. Not entirely convinced about the helmet mounts as the footage is a bit jerky.

The chest harness was very good. Footage is more stable and points down hill quite well (presumably not so good for boarders?). Also was able to turn on/off and adjust settings without removing the camera from the harness. Did notice that it was picking up my heartbeat when we watched some of the footage on the tv - pretty creepy via surround sound!!! Particularly when I was skiing down the Face black run. Think I hit 200 beats per minute at the top!!

Had a go with the pole mount on the last day. Attached via the Ride hero mount onto my ski pole. Very interesting video effect and I wish I'd tried this one earlier. Will be great with the family when we go skiing at Easter.

All in all very impressed. I'll upload some video to youtube in due course. It might be rough as I don't possess any kind of video editing software.

Thanks to Snapzzz for the timing of this thread. I don't think i would have bought the camera otherwise.

Hi Andy. I'm reporting in!! :D

Had a fantastic week. Blue skies every day other than the 1st when clouds came in after lunch. Between about minus 12 and 0, other than last day which was pretty chilly. Ski conditions extremely good. Hardly any icy patches, plenty of moguls/lumpy stuff at end of each day but easy enough to push though (although my other half would disagree!). Max 5 minute wait for lifts - much much better than Les Arcs last March. Presume Jan is low season?

Hugely impressed with VDI and also Tignes. VDI town is great. Really compact with plenty of bars/restaurants. We had a couple of tasty meals in Bar Jacques and visited the Blue Note Bar for a couple of apres beers each day (+ free nibbles). I managed to blank out the prices for food and drink - we went through our 250 euros in record time!

Found the skiing very challenging (piste classifications a bit of a joke although better in Tignes). However it's definitely moved my skiing on (now have 4 weeks under my belt). My wife found it difficult but carried on plugging away and again I'm sure her skiing has improved a lot. Really enjoyed the week and we'll be back in VDI before too long. A few photos below.

Have a good 'un next week - wish I was joining you.

I bought a GoPro 10 days ago and used it last week in VDI. Brilliant piece of kit - I'll post more about it elsewhere. I bought the Ride Hero clamp for £20 and simply attached this to one of my ski poles. The only downside was the diameter of the pole being too small at the base so I had to mount it about 1/3 up the length.

When doing my research I think I read that some telescopic poles are inadequate, ie weak connections which fail or too much 'bounce' when fully extended.

For my next trip in Easter I'm going to see if I can pad out the end of the ski pole so that the camera can be affixed there (giving a better panoramic view)