J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by ise

how much does it cost though?

as someone who's not skied before though I doubt it would work too well for you really.

fft100 wrote:When looking at prices, dont forget to check what you get and the price of extras. The price quoted in Germany may be for the vanilla version and if you are going anywhere near a ski resort then you will also need winter tyres and snow chains (legal requirement in places). These can set you back another 20+ euros a day.

That's not really true, it would be against the law to charge you for something that's a legal requirement. If winter tyres are required by law then they'll be fitted, but the new law is largely moot anyway, the hire company insurers have always wanted them to use winter tyres anyway. Chains are just something it's prudent and advised to carry which is why they're an optional extra, roads can be closed to vehicles without chains but that doesn't make them a legal requirement. Winter tyres are the norm' in Germany as it happens.

Suzi Pilling wrote:

Paul McD wrote:Suzi,
They have traineaux in Les Arcs, with a little pound full of dogs in their kennels. Traineu is French for sled or sleigh, traineaux is the plural.

fantastic, french lessons as well, and boy do I need them. Michel Thomas is great but I need more input. thank you

yes, I found that interesting as well, I've been mistranslating that "chiens de traîneau" from the verb traîner which then means dogs that drag or similar, it did seem to make perfect sense but it does look like sledge dogs is a more accurate translation.

Suzi Pilling wrote:

ise wrote:you might try the Tourist Office at Les Mosses, they're very big on these sort of activities and I've seen people doing it there. I think in part that's because the downhill skiing there is a bit poor but the area is fantastic so snow shoeing, cross country, ski touring are all good options.

thanks for that :-) how reliable is the snow, I see the altitude is reasonable?

not bad really, quite a long season outside of the downhill skiing. For that matter Château d'Oex might do some skijoring as well now I think about it.

bandit wrote:
I'm not sure actually. I have noticed that you point and laugh out loud, when you see what you call...and I quote y

I know there's one local guy who has some but I've always assumed he was a hairdresser and drove a suzuki vitara. There's another guy who's got some as well but he manages to carry more kit than I've got in the whole chalet about his person all with silly stickers on it as well. I've never seen either of them actually ski though so I assume they don't.

Rossfra8 wrote:
And they will look great nailed above the fireplace next year :D

good point, we've got to look to the future, there's already more wooden skis over fireplaces than were ever made, what would we have over the fire in future? I'd say my old force 9's but I may have thrown them away so my zags are a good looking ski which would look OK.

bennyboy wrote:
Much more commonplace in North America really, but fat skis are getting more popular over here. Its much more of a "culture" in Canada and the US though, if you see what i mean.

I'm not sure we do see many around here, maybe bandit has noticed? It still seems the rarity and once we're into proper back country it's so very rare, in fact if you see someone touring on 90mm plus skis you can nearly guarantee that a) they're English and b) they bought them in Chamonix and c) they're slow :D

I suppose that's because while a a metre or so of powder isn't unusual then more than a couple of metres is fairly rare. Even so, I'm impressed at people in the US touring on 100m skis, they must be a nightmare to kick turn although I wonder just how common it really is despite the hype. I can't help but notice that pre-cut skins at those sizes aren't really common and Fritschi and Dynafit don't bother making crampons that big either which makes you wonder.

If I had ten pairs of skis I'd probably have something at around 100mm but otherwise I can't convince myself.

karen72 wrote:that reminds me. I am sure I read on one of the forum messages about bamboo socks. I paid £5 for a pair to try them out as they are supposed to stop your feet sweating and smelling. Well I just thought I would tell you that they may work for some people but they definitly didnt work for my hubby. He didnt notice any difference.

It was worth a try anyway but I thought I would let you know my findings.

Karen

I think someone on one of the walking forums said just the same thing as well. I'm not sure I really understood why they were supposed not to smell, the argument seems to be that they're anti-bacterial but that's not the single reason you get smelly feet I thought. OTOH, there's a lot to be said for bamboo socks, pretty sustainable as a product and helping some of the poorer parts of the world at the same time.