J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by msej449

Is it me? Am I the only one who thinks that Ed Leigh looks like a, well, middle-aged trendie? That beanie would be a challenge to carry off on a 20-year-old. I thought my beanie was mildly embarrassing but his takes the biscuit. Or am I being ageist?

See

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/winter-sports/20935081

I'd echo the recommendation of taking your liners out and warming/drying them overnight. The first time I did this, I was astonished at how damp both liner and boot were. Even in the heated equipment room, they're not going to dry as well. This is, of course, a pain: it means going back to the boot room; struggling to get the liners out; and then getting up earlier in the morning so you can reverse the process. In the end, I tend to take them out every couple of days.

I've driven from Vegas to Denver in the summer - it took five days, four nights. Although we were obviously not pushing it. I doubt you could comfortably drive it in less than three days. You have to cross some pretty barren landscape and I don't know what it's like in winter. Remember that the Continental Divide is between you and LV.

So my advice is to go out to one of the freeway resorts like Vail and then come back to Denver and fly to LV

Vail is about 2-1/2 hours out of Denver and right by the main freeway. I've also been on a 1-day trip to another of the local resorts but by the time we'd driven from the freeway to the resort, we could have got to Vail. I think there's one even nearer to Denver - Copper Mtn?

.

I assume you know that the southern Swiss area and Geneva are French-speaking and the German spoken in the North is quite a bit different in vocabulary and grammar? My understanding is that the schweizerdeutsch population makes a point of not speaking High German, although they would speak it to someone who was from Germany. If you're trying to get colloquial German exposure, you might do better to look at opportunities in Germany itself, or perhaps Austria?

My son was considering the Swiss instructor certification after he signed-up for a week's advanced group instruction and no one else turned up - they still ran the course and he got a week's 1:1 tuition. They school said he could use it as Week 1 of an instructor's course, and go on to complete at a later date. So this implies that you can probably split it up a bit, if that makes life easier.

If you are looking for accommodation for a block of weeks, most apartment owners would consider a reduced rate for a guaranteed period - especially if it included January, which is a quiet period (after New Year week). And remember that the Big Name resorts often have cheaper satellites. So my son did his week from La Tzoumaz, although he was skiing mainly around Verbier. So it'd be worth contacting a few local rental agencies and asking them, once you have decided where you're going.

I had a problem develop with my skiing and finally went to the sport injury clinic that's attached to Snow+Rock in Chertsey. They did various tests on my feet and legs. It turned out in my case to be related to muscle asymmetry and a shorter right femur. They built me some insoles specifically for my normal shoes and for my boots. And this cured the problem.

Obviously, in your case, it might be a different cause, but they did say that it wasn't unusual for physical issues to suddenly manifest themselves. They were also a bit critical of boot technicians diagnosing complex medical problems and 'solving' them with a bit of boot blowing or standard inserts.

So I would recommend seeing a qualified podiatrist and a similar sports clinic.

Here's the problem with chains, and why winter tyres are so good. Even for UK winters.
___________________________________________________________________

You're driving along a French road on the way to skiing in the Alps. Outside, the temperature is around 0°C to -2°C and the skies are grey. "We're fine – the snow chains are in the boot, so we're prepared. And we're front-wheel drive anyway." you say. But you are already at a disadvantage against the French and German cars around you. They have their winter tyres on and you're on the summer tyres fitted as standard to all British cars. This means that when you brake, you'll take 20%-25% more distance before you come to a stop, even on tarmac.

Now it starts to snow and after a while you're driving through patches where you're alternating between tarmac and snow. But you can't stop easily and anyway, the chains aren't suited to this. "If it gets heavier, I'll put the chains on – but no one else is, so let's see. I can't keep putting them on and taking them off." The car starts to slide a bit on the snowy patches and you slow down to compensate, but everyone else seems to be coping fine. That 25% difference in stopping distance is now more like x2-x3 but it's not obvious. And there's a queue building up behind you. "Can't these people see it's snowing?" In fact they can, and since this is a regular winter situation, that's why they have their winter tyres on. They don't need to slow down until the conditions are much worse. And it looks like they're behind a typical English driver who seems to think that having chains solves everything.

Snow now covers the road, but it's not that deep and you're debating whether to stop and put the chains on when you approach a corner and slight incline. Each car ahead happily takes the corner at 50Kms/hr but when you do the car slides alarmingly. You just about keep it on the road but halfway up the incline (it can hardly be called a hill) you gently glide to a halt, skewed slightly into oncoming traffic, the wheels spinning. Further back in the queue, another English car coasts gracefully into the rear of a French delivery van and at the corner, a similarly unprepared young Dutch driver pitches quietly into the ditch.

Your chains are still in the boot.