J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by AllyG

OldAndy wrote:

AllyG wrote:
So - my ski boots are ready for the group holiday! :D

Just you to worry about now then Ally??
:roll:

Yes Andy :D

My day in the snow dome showed me I'm not fit enough yet for the group holiday. I'm trying to get fit, but if I don't manage it by 12th January you can always just take my ski boots for a holiday :cry:

I forgot to say that at the end of the 5th video in the snow dome, the one with me being dragged down the slope, you can see one of the Inside Out instructors (dressed in blue) ski-ing down behind me - showing how it should be done :D

OldAndy wrote:Never been to a snowdome - they look quite good fun :D

Andy - it was fun :D

But I think if you went ski-ing in one with no particular aim/task/challenge in mind, you'd get bored quite soon. I've been twice to the one in Milton Keynes and once to the one in Manchester. I went to the one in Milton Keynes a few years ago to try out my new ski boots and I skied in the 'Ladies morning' session. I wrote a report on my boot buying experience here:
http://www.j2ski.com/ski-chat-forum/posts/list/8320.page

I decided to go back to Profeet, seeing that I was in London, and ask them to check my ski boots, before the group holiday in January. I wasn't having a problem with them but they have a life-time guarantee on them, so it wouldn't cost me anything, and I thought there might be something wrong that I hadn't noticed.

So - I made an appointment and went. I was quite surprised how thorough they were. I got a boot technician all to myself again and he checked the fitting of the boot (by taking out the liners and doing a shell check with my feet in them)and had a careful look at my feet and legs up to my knees. He said I am between boot sizes but mine are fine, unless one day I decide to upgrade to very tight fitting boots and then I could have a smaller size (which I'm not very keen on because mine are very comfortable).

And he gave the boots a thorough examination for wear. They do have slight wear on the soles and tips, from walking up metal gondola steps etc. I suspect, but he said it would be another couple of years before any part of this would need to be replaced. So I must remember to go back there in a couple of years.

And he very kindly dried the liners out for me, as they were a bit wet from ski-ing in the snow dome. He said I mustn't put the boots on the boot heaters in the chalet in Tignes, because the heaters would damage the special insoles I have.

I told him I would like to be able to tighten up my right boot more than I can at the moment, because there isn't space on the clip. So he moved the clip over for me, which was very kind of him. And he checked to see exactly how tight I normally do up my boots, and said I should really do them up tighter. I told him I only do them up really tight like he did if I'm going down a scary, icy, black slope and then slacken them off again afterwards to go down the easier slopes. And he said I should slacken them off at lunch time etc. - which I do.

And he put me on the pressure testing plate, like last time, to see how I distribute my weight. It was just as bad as last time, until I put my ski boots on, when it improved. And once I started flexing like I was ski-ing it was fine. He showed the pressure scans to me afterwards. It's very clever the way they managed to fix the way I stand and move by altering the insoles in my boots.

And there was no charge at the end of this :D

So - my ski boots are ready for the group holiday! :D

If anyone else wants me to put them on the list would they please say so and post up the date and destination and Excel will calculate how many days/sleeps they have left.

Here is today's update (Friday 16th November).

List of J2Skiers off ski-ing/boarding in 2012/13
Tino_11 going to Andermatt in 1 days on the 17/11/2012
Gaz C going to Tignes in 15 days on the 01/12/2012
Verbier_ski_bum going to Verbier in 15 days on the 01/12/2012
Bandit going to Grimentz in 24 days on the 10/12/2012
Beban going to San Martino di Costrozza in 26 days on the 12/12/2012
Gareth Fair going to Meribel in 27 days on the 13/12/2012
Geno68 going to Davos in 35 days on the 21/12/2012
Colinlambert_1 going to St Gervais in 36 days on the 22/12/2012
Joe Colin going to Morzine in 36 days on the 22/12/2012
Cath Davies going to Cervinia and the Aosta Valley in 36 days on the 22/12/2012
Snapzzz going to Les Arcs in 43 days on the 29/12/2012
Bedrock Barney going to Val d'Isere in 44 days on the 30/12/2012
Snowy0000 going to Morzine in 44 days on the 30/12/2012
Gaz C going to Scheffau in 50 days on the 05/01/2013
Lanewalk going to Sauze D'Oulx in 51 days on the 06/01/2013
AlistairS going to Lech and Zurs in 51 days on the 06/01/2013
Smartski going to La Plagne in 51 days on the 06/01/2013
Horsesforcourses going to Kuhtai in 57 days on the 12/01/2013
Blackpool-Skier going to Alpe D'Huez in 57 days on the 12/01/2013
Oldboarder going to Les Arcs in 57 days on the 12/01/2013
ATOO going to La Tania in 57 days on the 12/01/2013
Caltonhat going to Les Arcs in 57 days on the 12/01/2013
Ian W going to Manigod in 57 days on the 12/01/2013
Old Andy going to Tignes in 57 days on the 12/01/2013
Catp going to Tignes in 57 days on the 12/01/2013
AllyG going to Tignes in 57 days on the 12/01/2013
Tiger7 going to Tignes in 58 days on the 13/01/2013
Daved going to Tignes in 58 days on the 13/01/2013
Ade73 going to Tignes in 58 days on the 13/01/2013
Joe Colin going to Tignes in 58 days on the 13/01/2013
Felthorpe going to Tignes in 58 days on the 13/01/2013
Far Queue going to Tignes in 58 days on the 13/01/2013
Brooksy going to Tignes in 58 days on the 13/01/2013
Lindylou going to St Foy in 63 days on the 18/01/2013
Andyhull going to Meribel in 63 days on the 18/01/2013
Andyoneill going to Val d'Isere in 64 days on the 19/01/2013
Tony_H going to Champoluc in 65 days on the 20/01/2013
Paulh764 going to Samoens in 72 days on the 27/01/2013
GreenGoblin going to Les Arcs in 77 days on the 01/02/2013
AlistairS going to Sauze D'Oulx in 78 days on the 02/02/2013
Scarletgirl going to Mayrhofen in 78 days on the 02/02/2013
NelliePs going to La Plagne in 84 days on the 08/02/2013
Caltonhat going to Arabba in 85 days on the 09/02/2013
Dobby going to Risoul in 86 days on the 10/02/2013
Bald-eagleman going to La Thuile in 92 days on the 16/02/2013
Lizzie-B going to Morillon in 92 days on the 16/02/2013
Dan55 going to Yllas (Finland) in 93 days on the 17/02/2013
Michelle63 going to Sauze D'Oulx in 93 days on the 17/02/2013
Far Queue going to Lech in 99 days on the 23/02/2013
AllyG going to Tignes in 106 days on the 02/03/2013
Brooksy going to Obergurgl in 113 days on the 09/03/2013

Hi Jastem - I hope you find yourselves a great holiday :D

I'll add you to the list as soon as you have the details sorted.

I went for my pre-ski holiday coaching day in the Hemel Hempstead snow dome, on Monday, with Inside Out Skiing. It was a skills clinic for 'short turns and steep terrain'. It was supposed to cost £100 for the day including ski hire and the use of the snow dome, but I got it at the discounted price of £50

I really enjoyed the day, and it was challenging and exhausting, which is fairly surprising for a day spent in a snow dome! They were good at thinking of inventive ways to improve our ski-ing and show us our good and bad points.

The day was made up of three 90 minute coaching sessions with elevenses and lunch to split up the sessions. And during the breaks the instructor went over our videos with each of us individually, freezing them and running them backwards etc. to emphasize what he was saying. And he was pretty nice about it - not too rude and critical :lol:

So - the drills we had to do were as follows:

1.Ski down a very narrow route at the side of the dome at the top (where it's steepest) marked out on one side by the instructor with short peg markers , and on the other side we were limited by the return of the drag lift. On the video you can see me ski-ing close to the markers, but not quite hitting any of them :D

2. Divide into pairs and ski straight down the slope with one person towing the other one, using 2 pairs of ski sticks tied together to simulate 2 tow ropes. This was extremely difficult and I made a real hash of it. It was basically like being dragged down a couloir about 5 feet wide and having to do multiple very short turns. But at least I didn't fall over. The couple in front of us did. And when we swapped places and I had to drag my partner it was even more scary because I couldn't see what he was doing behind me. I had to ski straight down, with skis parallel, relying on him to slow me down, and sometimes this resulted in a very sharp braking action and at other times it felt like I was free-wheeling and accelerating out of control.

3. Side-slipping. First of all we just side-slipped like normal down the slope, changing sides every now and then as we went. Then we had to do it on one leg, and change sides again. And finally we went into pairs again and had to drag each other down the slope in a side-slip holding onto the ski poles tied together. I found I could do it reasonably OK on one side, but not on the other. So obviously I need to practise this.

4. The instructor set out a course for us so that we had to ski parallel through 2 markers put very close together, and then do a hockey stop/emergency stop before the next 2 widely spaced markers. This was the only thing I did perfectly all day, and it was only because I cheated at the beginning and cut my speed down with a snow-plough before I went parallel to go throught the first set of markers. And after that the instructor made it even harder by setting up a second set of markers so that we had to nearly stop and then continue through a repeat of the same course.

5. The instructor asked us to do several runs using the up and down movements to make lots of very short turns as slowly as we could, pretending the slope was a really scary black one.

6. In pairs, we had to criticize each others ski-ing, and I discovered I am really talented at being critical :wink:

I brought a memory stick with me and the instructor saved my videos onto it, and then a friend posted them up on YouTube for me. There were 6 altogether, but we only managed to get 5 of them up.
Number 1 is me ski-ing down the narrow route, and I'm ski-ing as I normally do. Number 5 is the one of me being dragged down the slope and it's a good example of what I think might be called 'survival ski-ing' as in I didn't fall over but I'm not really doing what I was supposed to! The other ones show what happens when you try to change your ski-ing. The instructor told us to emphasize our up and down movements, pivot our skis, and make very short slow turns without pushing out our heels. He seemed happy enough with my efforts (because I did do what he asked) but it resulted in some really awful body rotation movements which is a problem I have been struggling with for years.

Anyway - I know what I have to work on during our group holiday in Tignes. I need to work out how to stop my body rotating. I am thinking of asking the others to take turns dragging me about the slopes with ski poles, like in the video, because I certainly couldn't rotate my upper body when I was being dragged :lol:
And also I need to get much fitter because my legs ached the next day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-TXHBLByFs

If you click on the link above then you can find all 5 videos, labelled 1 to 5.

Edit
If anyone else is thinking of going to the Hemel Hempstead snow dome by train from London, then they may be interested to know that a return ticket from Euston costs £12-50 off-peak, or £17-90 anytime, and the taxi from the station to the dome cost me about £6 (it's quite a long way to walk). There are 2 sorts of train from London Euston running fairly frequently. The fast one takes 24 minutes, and the slow one 32 minutes.

Iceman wrote:How is it calculated? Is a day the same as sleeps?

Icy - my Excel sheet is only counting the days before everyone goes on holiday, because Excel doesn't know whether you will be too excited to sleep the night before you go on holiday, or if you will be sitting up awake all night stuck in an airport etc. etc. This is one of the reasons I added the holiday date to the sheet, to stop this sort of confusion. And I would imagine that Excel alters the number of days at midnight.

If anyone else wants to go on my list, it's currently on the previous page of this thread.

Thanks Old Andy - sterling effort that :wink:

Sorry for the slight delay in adding you to the list Bald-eagleman, but I'm sure you'll excuse me when you hear I've been ski-ing (admittedly in a snow dome but it's better than nothing!).

If anyone else wants me to put them on the list would they please say so and post up the date and destination and Excel will calculate how many days/sleeps they have left.

Here is today's update (Wednesday 14th November).

List of J2Skiers off ski-ing/boarding in 2012/12
Gaz C going to Tignes in 17 days on the 01/12/2012
Verbier_ski_bum going to Verbier in 17 days on the 01/12/2012
Bandit going to Grimentz in 26 days on the 10/12/2012
Beban going to San Martino di Costrozza in 28 days on the 12/12/2012
Gareth Fair going to Meribel in 29 days on the 13/12/2012
Geno68 going to Davos in 37 days on the 21/12/2012
Colinlambert_1 going to St Gervais in 38 days on the 22/12/2012
Joe Colin going to Morzine in 38 days on the 22/12/2012
Cath Davies going to Cervinia and the Aosta Valley in 38 days on the 22/12/2012
Snapzzz going to Les Arcs in 45 days on the 29/12/2012
Bedrock Barney going to Val d'Isere in 46 days on the 30/12/2012
Snowy0000 going to Morzine in 46 days on the 30/12/2012
Gaz C going to Scheffau in 52 days on the 05/01/2013
Lanewalk going to Sauze D'Oulx in 53 days on the 06/01/2013
AlistairS going to Lech and Zurs in 53 days on the 06/01/2013
Smartski going to La Plagne in 53 days on the 06/01/2013
Horsesforcourses going to Kuhtai in 59 days on the 12/01/2013
Blackpool-Skier going to Alpe D'Huez in 59 days on the 12/01/2013
Oldboarder going to Les Arcs in 59 days on the 12/01/2013
ATOO going to La Tania in 59 days on the 12/01/2013
Caltonhat going to Les Arcs in 59 days on the 12/01/2013
Ian W going to Manigod in 59 days on the 12/01/2013
Old Andy going to Tignes in 59 days on the 12/01/2013
Catp going to Tignes in 59 days on the 12/01/2013
AllyG going to Tignes in 59 days on the 12/01/2013
Tiger7 going to Tignes in 60 days on the 13/01/2013
Daved going to Tignes in 60 days on the 13/01/2013
Ade73 going to Tignes in 60 days on the 13/01/2013
Joe Colin going to Tignes in 60 days on the 13/01/2013
Felthorpe going to Tignes in 60 days on the 13/01/2013
Far Queue going to Tignes in 60 days on the 13/01/2013
Brooksy going to Tignes in 60 days on the 13/01/2013
Lindylou going to St Foy in 65 days on the 18/01/2013
Andyhull going to Meribel in 65 days on the 18/01/2013
Andyoneill going to Val d'Isere in 66 days on the 19/01/2013
Tony_H going to Champoluc in 67 days on the 20/01/2013
Paulh764 going to Samoens in 74 days on the 27/01/2013
GreenGoblin going to Les Arcs in 79 days on the 01/02/2013
AlistairS going to Sauze D'Oulx in 80 days on the 02/02/2013
Scarletgirl going to Mayrhofen in 80 days on the 02/02/2013
NelliePs going to La Plagne in 86 days on the 08/02/2013
Caltonhat going to Arabba in 87 days on the 09/02/2013
Dobby going to Risoul in 88 days on the 10/02/2013
Bald-eagleman going to La Thuile in 94 days on the 16/02/2013
Lizzie-B going to Morillon in 94 days on the 16/02/2013
Dan55 going to Yllas (Finland) in 95 days on the 17/02/2013
Michelle63 going to Sauze D'Oulx in 95 days on the 17/02/2013
Far Queue going to Lech in 101 days on the 23/02/2013
AllyG going to Tignes in 108 days on the 02/03/2013
Brooksy going to Obergurgl in 115 days on the 09/03/2013

Thanks very much for that - it was most amusing!

But I couldn't get your link to work - so here's another one:

http://snowcarbon.co.uk/blog/plane-vs-train-race-alps