J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Dave Mac

Powderjunkie. On J2ski, the smart thing is to display your preferred airport(s). We then fall over our skis trying to outsmart each other as to the best deal.

What is a good deal from the midlands can be lousy from Manchester, Newcastle Edinburgh!

Given the conditions this year, then there will be so many places in Europe to choose from. Start with the lowest cost, and check if the location meets your ski parameters, as well as your travel ones.

If it is a half board deal, as Dgou says, add in your equipment hire/ski carriage, lift pass, and day costs.

I retain two standard speadsheets, one is diy, one is with T/Os. Both have a "day cost" section. This includes No x cost of drinks, lunch cost, evening drink cost, and, if diy, evening meal costs, and a contingency.

This makes budgetting so much easier, as I can pull up the format from previous trips. Austrian cost have hardly varied in 5 years, so they are the easiest! I always manage to bring a few Euros back!

Your airport, and preferred dates?

I guess I have, many times expressed the view that if your life is bound up in snowsports, Colorado and Zermatt maybe should be on you horizon. Until you see the Matterhorn, you will be unable to imagine the visual effect. I have been several times, and can still recall every time, on the train, that the Matterhorn came into view.

The slopes are quite varied. As Bandit says, one of the better J2ski boarders has elected to live there. I have financed a boarder to stay in Zermatt, and she thought it was good boarding country.

I did not take the view that Zermatt was expensive. For such a resort, you might expect to pay around £600 hb. The day costs are much lower than France, and a little more than Austria.

Far Queue wrote:Nice little hobby you have there Dave, and a perfect excuse to get out there each winter. Do you sell any or are they just for fun?

Don't need an excuse, I was going anyway! Have sold lots in the past, but my plan now is to build up a quantity, and hold an exhibition ~ with all proceeds going to Guide Dogs for the Blind. Not quite a plan yet ~ if I hold it locally, it would catch only a fraction of snow 'n alp lovers.

Far Queue wrote:I too am an artist :twisted: just not with paper and ink, but it too also gives me a good reason to get out to the mountains with a dedicated band of fellow artists each winter!

Yep, my skills, built up over many years, do extend to sharing your particular mode of artistry. :wink:

While I have found painting in March easy to organise ~ sit on the balcony, glass of wine, paint the view, January has presented difficulties. Paint late in the day, and the water freezes on the brush. Licking the brush too often, to defreeze, can lead to an imminent visit to the Krankenhaus, should one be using a cadmium colour. :shock:

So my daytime sketches have been made on small pads, then worked up into a painting later. Or carry a rucsac with larger boards.

This year, I figured out I could get a 10x7 water colour pad inside my ski jacket pocket. This meant I could draw whenever I stopped for a drink, or some food. The sketch could then be worked up directly, without a re-draw.

Main benefits for me, is that I can get a greater output for the same time, I get more paintings finished, and the 10x7 , when mounted, is still a decent size.

So anyway.......
The Album Cover:


The Old bakery



The Gross Rettenstein:



Mountain Chapel


A few more to follow.....

Stunning pictures, Mick 1583 ~ I was there at the same time, didn't have you on my list ~ met up with several other J2 skiers. Yes, I have lots of pictures of the same atmosphere ~ skiing just about as good as it gets.

Also managed to do a drawing/painting almost every day. I measured my jacket inside pocket, and bought a w/c pad the max size that would fit! Very pleased with the results, cos they are drawn on the mountain, during normal breaks.

Mick, beautiful photos, thank you.

My start was much closer to that of Pavels. I arrived, in mid December, with 5 others of the same ilk, and slept on a number of different floors, and for a week, in a cupboard.
No work, and very little money.
A season pass cost £50! How was I to earn it? I just did a variety of jobs, such as ski & boot fitting.
Went skiing at 8.00 am every morning with the locals, who kind of understood. Skied every spare moment, and when I could manage a standard, asked if I could join in Instructor training mornings. I have to say, the locals were great, they helped me at every opportunity.
Things rapidly developed, and, and halfway through the season,I was working for the ski school, staying until mid-April. Subsequently got my ski-qualification, and had more seasons.
The key thing, is to put yourself in a place where opportunities can occur.
It all started by being prepared to sleep in a cupboard.....

Top post Grizwald. I like the day vertical too, and chose Breckenride as a centre ~ five resorts covered on the one pass. Vail also offers a lot of variety, A-basin some good challenge.
Whistler and Blackcomb also terrific, but ~ subject to whiteout weather.
The Titons have good peaks! - )

andymol2 wrote:Short of smashing her pelvis at 14 weeks the baby is well protected and the exertion is not a risk for the baby.

She's passed the peak time for miscarriage.

Take the chance now as it isn't so easy to fit in skiing holidays when you've got a young family.

This is a pretty balanced view, the human body was designed to cope with bears, wolves, caves and campfires.

There is no indication of coercion, so I think it would be a tad paranoiac to suggest so.

Way back when, one of my fellow instructors taught skiing while pregnant, from 5 months. She skied until 7 months, I still have a photo of the bump, and I'm not talking about moguls.

We always had someone skiing behind her, not because of the nutters, carvers hadn't been invented the, but because, if she fell, she couldn't get up by herself!