J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by bedrock barney

I was heading for a my 1st fall-free ski week......until yesterday evening when I decided to tackle The Face in Val at 4.30pm. I skiied down to the main slope, looked down, gathered my wits, skied about 5 metres, fell over and then slid another 5m on my side. The heavy perspiration started at that point (with 10m covered and 890m to go)

Got down without falling again but was ready for a beer at the bottom!!

I'm a newbie (only been skiing for 18 months as well) and really enjoying this forum. Seems to be plenty of good advice and tongue in cheek humour.

We're part way through our week in Val D'Isere. What a great place. Easily the best resort we've visted - lively town with good apres ski (Blue Note Bar) has become our regular. Skiing is fantastic although piste classification is ridiculous - my wife has been using some very choice words when looking down runs that are apparently blue.

The glacier skiing in Val and Tignes still shut though due to avalanche risk.

2 weeks too late for us (otherwise I'd have graciously let you buy me a pint!).

13 hours and then we're rollin'

I bought my boots from Lockwoods in Leamington Spa. Excellent service. As above, I was not sold the most expensive boot. Loads of time spent checking and measuring. Apparently my left foot is half a size smaller than my right (I'm surprised I can walk in a straight line!). This explained why I developed a mega blister after 20 mins of my 1st ever indoor ski lesson with rental boots, my left foot was moving around too much. In the end I went for the custom shell Salomon boot (Impact eight). Bloody uncomfortable to start with to be honest but nicely broken in after a full week's skiing. Probably the best decision I made to move along my skiing.

You know what it didn't even cross my mind to go back to the shop and say I didn't like the skis.....

I won't name the establishment but they didn't seem very interested in providing us with advice or decent equipment.

My Gopro has just arrived (Cornwall to Lincolnshire in 21 hours flat, not bad!)

Looks a nifty bit of kit although I broke a nail trying to get it out of the damn box. Sniff...

I'm heading off with my better half this weekend to the Alps for our 4th skiing trip. I think I'd describe myself as a reasonably confident intermediate - happy on greens, blues, reds. Pretty tentative on blacks and moguls. My wife probably a cautious intermediate, happy on greens and blues, not so happy on reds, won't go near a black.

Our 1st 2 skiing hols were in Norway and the ski equipment was excellent. Seemed almost brand new and we progressed well.

Our 3rd hol was in Les Arcs and we were less than impressed with the skis we hired there. I ended up with Volkl unlimited R1 skis (109/70/96) which looked like they'd been round the block many times. My wife was given Volkl Attiva (sp?) (111/66/98). We both felt very uncomfortable on day one and felt we'd moved back in terms on ability. Both sets of skis felt like they wanted to catch an edge? At the end of the 1st day one of my wife's bindings snapped (quality stuff eh!?) and we trudged back to the shop where they swapped the skis for Volkl R1 (109/70/96). My wife was happier with these although still not as happy as we were in Norway. I can't find my notes for the spec of these but I'm pretty sure we both had brand new Head Peak skis. they seemed much more stable and I think the waist was wider.

By the end of the Les Arcs week I felt I'd moved on and was dealing with the skis although they always felt slightly edgy.

We'll be hiring from Snowberry in Val D'Isere and I've pre booked their premium skis but not specified a make/dimensions.

Boots (me) - Salomon Custom Shell Impact 8

Boots (better half) - Salomon Custom Shell Idol 8

Any advice much appreciated. I'm wondering if the waists to the Volkl skis were a little narrow??

We're having a half day private lesson on the 1st day and I want to make best use of it with the right skis.