J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Innsbrucker

No point in spending a lot if you might not take to skiing, you can never be certain. Try it first.

I like to see the girls with their fashionable ski outfits, often white trousers. But that is something else, not necessary for practicality.

Base layer? I have longjohns but almost never wear them. But my ski pants are thick. Too thick for ski touring, where you would buy trousers which can be stripped off in two layers. But that kind of layering approach means carrying a rucksack, which most people do not want to be bothered with on piste.

Ski pants should be waterproof. Ditto gloves. So they do not get wet through with snow when you fall. This is not a problem with the jacket in my experience (I have loads of experience of falling...). Really you need proper ski trousers and gloves, though any warmish and moderately waterpoof gloves and trousers would work. I did ok for a while with normal wool gloves, but try to keep them out of the snow.

For beginner conditions and speeds goggles are IMO not essential unless you are determined to ski even if there is a blizzard, in which case you buy some at the resort. I don't like goggles owing to restricted side view, but I am the minority on that. In southern Spain in March I did find sunglasses essential. But it is a personal thing. I have skied maybe 150 hours without owning goggles or helmet, and rarely use sunglasses. They might help you see the snow surface better, and spot ice patches.

As noted, the helmet issue is something else. If no helmet, get a bobble hat.

For top I do use normal t-shirt plus sweatshirt. Over that a ski jacket would be nice but I find my grey anorak is just fine, with a couple of zip pockets for stuff you do not want to risk losing if you fall, and it has a ski pass pocket (but the electronic passes normally trigger the sensors without having to pull them out if they are in any left hand pocket). With its removable inner lining attached the anorak is too hot for most ski days.

WARNING: on a two person T shaped schlep lift, if instead of a ski jacket you have a jacket which is more than waist length, you must check the bar you lean on is outside the jacket, otherwise it can get caught under the jacket and carry you in the air when it is time to hop off. Very dangerous, happened to me once, there is scene where that happens in Bridget Jones II.

Lift passes are dear. I have to say it would not worry me if half the lifts were closed, as I rarely use more than two pistes at a resort. But things look a bit different to me as my skiing is the odd afternoon, when I am in Austria for other reasons.

I guess if 40% were closed it was not high season so passes in most resorts are alreay a bit cheaper, though not much. Probably if going before mid-Decebmer (or later in December in a bad snow year) it makes sense to pick a very high resort or glacier resort.

In Tirol there are three different pass cards which work all year, covering all or parts of Tirol. All are cheaper than a full year at a single resort. I think at least one can be bought by non-residents. But of course they are not good value for most people who are doing a single holiday in the year.

Thanks again. Advising me to get shorter skis, well I should try with skis with smaller radius. Though my last ski day was on snowblades. And turning them scared me just as much :x

Not least because I was not sure how they would cope with snow-cannon made ice. I might start a thread moaning about that. At all four Austrian ski areas I have tried this year, the ice has added to my woes over increasing speed, and the blue runs have tended to be worse cuplrits than the reds, which is crazy.

The last thing I need are skis which cope less well with ice than my relatively straight and long old skis, which often slide sideways even after being re-edged (though they hold a bit better when worked hard, probably as they are quite stiff).

I do push myself a bit when the piste is empty. But have to keep an eye on hazards beyond the edge. Busy pistes with vastly mixed ability skiers & boarders, at mixed speeds, are the biggest worry.

It is also true the length of my 180s caused problems as they cross so easily, though I have largely got the hang of managing their length now.

Thanks again. I am going back to UK today, will try to get back to piste and try it in a couple of weeks.

Thanks again! :thumbup:

At lowish speeds my GF proceeds down the mountain with small wiggling turns, relatively effortless, upper body hardly moving. Starting this thread came out my session trying to learn to imitate that, but probably it is not carving, and she does not call it carving. Maybe I can teach my straightish skis to do tighter neater skidded turns for the times (actually, most of the time) when I want to be slow. It is no good asking her how to do it, she just says '1. face down the mountain, and 2. ski and ski ski.'

I know a guy whose surname is mis-spelled on his passport, and the ticket usually the correct spelling, so does not match: he said he never had a problem. But don't take it from me.

If it is a credit card, not a debit card, the easiest (and probably correct) thing is to take it up first as a dispute with the credit card company.

Thanks for that, it brings a lot of clarity.

I guess even if I do finish the turn (as I think I do, sometimes I end up on a flat traverse 90 degrees to the fall line), since the skis' natural radius is big, I am gaining more speed through the turn than I would on skis which like to make tighter turns. Is that the point?