J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by ise

bandit wrote:I suggest that Gstaad would suit Rose, as it's closer to the airport, has plenty of expensive shopping, and a railway station :D

I have been, but it's a while ago, but I do remember that the slopes were not crowded, but the restaurants were :lol:

Gstaad would be great. Is it closer though? No direct train from an airport and a fair drive from GVA. Both easier on the train.

Dave Mac wrote:Your local knowledge would be helpful here Ise. Still researching a New Year trip, suitable for beginners and experienced skiers.

Preferred option, Austria, is proving difficult, charter flights appear to be fully booked from Scotland, the EDI~MUN flight has gone expensive.

We can get a reasonable easyjet flight to Milan Malpensa. The drive to Brig looks to be achievable by road. Does this road tend to remain open through the season? And might the journey be around two hours?

If this does look OK, would have further questions, but one step at a time.

I'd take the train from Milan, there's a through service from Milan to Geneva actually. Bandit might know more, I think she looked at that option for going to Grimentz.

RoseR wrote:
Switzerland has always been on my wish list, but never sure where?
I have always fancied Grindelwald but know little about it.

i can understand that, it's somewhere people looking for the things on your list do go. I'm not a fan but it's partly because although we've a house nearby it's a pain to go to, there's always a traffic jam. Packed with tourists all the year around of course.

The attraction is the Eiger and Jungfrau but you need to ride the train to really see them, otherwise Kandersteg is at least visually impressive along with a dozen other places.

Leukerbad does sound exactly what you want though. Not sure how many jewlellers there are though.

RoseR wrote:
I think thats it, does a place like this exist?

Switzerland is full of them ) Gstaad or Leukerbad would tick all the boxes but there's a lot of others.

you should crop the bottom of that :)

RoseR wrote:Does every-one on here, keep fit all year long? or do we do anything special about a month before we go?

You've got to work out where your balance is going to be, obviously it's a holiday so on the one hand you want to get the best out of it but on the other it's not supposed to be an ordeal. To me, getting the best from it probably means being reasonably prepared and being sensible while you're there.

The main thing is aerobic fitness, that's the ability to perform exercise for a long period where you're getting oxygen from the air and transferring it to muscles, the measure of this is maximal aerobic power ( Vo2 max ). To develop that you're looking at any exercise that raises your heart rate and keeps it there for over 15 minutes.

Some anaerobic fitness is required for burst type activity, skiing bumps for example.

What works it things like cycling, keeping an even pace mostly just at the point of breathing hard but able to converse with the odd sprint up a hill thrown in. Hill walking is great for aerobic fitness and walking generally is now reckoned to be around the best exercise about although how far we each need to go to get a 'burn' depends.

There's some balance required of course, that can be learnt or reflexes conditioned, things like balance boards or home made versions are good for that.

The minimum is that aerobic fitness, that can be the most fun to do, at least to my way of thinking, I'd rather be out on the bike for a couple of hours than doing squats in a gym at lunchtime and it's a better focussed exercise anyway. Obviously not everyone's got the time for longer things.

While you're there it's worth thinking about diet and hydration. A decent breakfast, something to munch while skiing like dried fruit and nuts, reasonable lunches and keep hydrated. The diet followed by some holiday skiers would kill me or leave me seriously ill over a season and it's not helping them really get the best from their holiday either. But as well, avoid overdoing it, you see people tearing about at their limit and then they're wrecked for days as conditions like DOMS kick in.

Tony_H wrote:

ise wrote:
There's nothing wrong with being an intermediate and wanting to cover a bit of distance, taking in the odd black etc, but it really is a phase that people pass through. We've all done it, there's nothing wrong with it at all and there's some good and big ski stations to go and do it at.

Is that whats known as ski snobbery?

I said, and you even copied it, there's nothing wrong with and we've all done it, how is that snobbery?

tino_11 wrote:Tux is open all year round, in the summer it ios limited to aboyt 18km of runs. In spring there was nearly 80km open (May) so I am assuming October and November will be similar.

That's not how it normally works, on glaciers we need the snow of the winter to make it safe and fill the holes in. There's always more open in spring than the autumn. By summer it's melted somewhat, hence spring skiing isn't summer skiing and neither are quite the same as it'll be in the autumn.

It is a great time to ski on glacier though, the colder temperatures keep the snow better longer, although not much terrain opens it's nicer with some snow on the top and the autumn colours in the valley are great with a clear light to enjoy them.