J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by andymol2

Interestingly some of the holiday companies have moved their charter flights to Northern Spain as the French were seen to be less willing to keep the roads open in bad weather than the Spanish.

I've always wondered what would happen if I declined to pay the surcharge for winter tyres on the French side.
Would they really have time to take them off and put summer ones on?
Mind you as I now hire from the Swiss side I guess I'll never know.

That's expensive scrap as the demand for them as garden ornaments must be minimal.
Even if they were hoping to sell them to another resort they would be pricey!

I think the concern is that chalet hosts who volunteer to show guests round will be seen as paid guides.

The problem is proving that they are doing it on a voluntary basis. The authorities seem to take the line that as they are employees it must be part of their job.

There is a world of difference between a host saying
"I'm skiing today - would you like me to show you around the resort and some of the interesting runs."
" I'm going off piste today would you like to come along?"
and
"Would you like to pay me to guide you?"

For me the latter is clearly a role for a qualified guide. For me the second probably is too.

The first is an entirely different kettle of fish. Making that require a qualified guide is essentially protectionism dressed up in health and safety clothes and as such will achieve nothing positive. I'm not going to pay some one to show me around the pistes - if someone volunteers great, if not I'll read the piste map and ask for tips on where to go.

A lot of the US resorts have volunteers who do this for free in return for their pass.

Apparently this is more of an issue nearer the border with some of the old Eastern Block countries.
Rumor has it great numbers find their way into Bulgaria.

More is to be taken from reading the review rather than a star rating that the reviewer has nothing to reference too.
The things I take note of are:

Was it dirty? No excuse whatever the budget.
Was it noisy? In which case it's not form me.
Are the claimed facilities really there?
What do they say about the food? I'm not a fussy eater but again comments re cleanliness are relevant. Likewise a 4* hotel that just serves burger and chips is probably to be avoided by me.
Does the plumbing work? I expect ample hot water in a hotel whatever the budget.

Sure most reviews may well be negative - but read what they are negative about and then make your own judgement.

My daughter had her ACL repaired in early August, miffed to wake up with a splint on as she couldn't drive for 4 weeks, but is now fine - sore at times and doing her rehab.
Fortunately I work with a good orthopaedic physio as some of the advice she's had from the NHS physios was a bit alarming in terms of lack of understanding of what should be relatively commonplace rehab these days!
It varied from reasonable to out and out testiculation.

How is she doing - on a bad day she complains a lot but that seems less than convincing when in her next breath says she's contemplating going on the uni ski trip over new year! She know's that's too soon but does reflect her knee is feeling good most of the time. Besides I think she'd make a good chalet girl for the family ski trip!

Different countries both of which have differing resorts.

If I had to pick one over the other probably Austria - they tend to take themselves less seriously and seem to go out to enjoy themselves which makes the atmosphere in the resorts quite fun.
The French are more reserved and as I've got older I am getting less tolerant of being patronized by zitty oiks who don't understand the concept of service and thinks it's OK to imply that the customer is (because he's English) automatically ignorant about food and wine and that he (spotty oik) is automatically more sophisticated because he's French. When in reality the customer is actually being terse with him for continuing his personal conversation before getting off his a**e to serve his customers and is never going to be overjoyed by paying £18 for a canteen grade spag bol.

Please note this is not generalization that can be applied to the French in general but to to far to many young waiters. (And some ski instructors who forget that their job is to help weaker skiers to ski better and thus to enjoy skiing)