J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by andymol2

An enjoyable holiday is the key thing.
To achieve that you need a reasonable technique to be able to ski on piste safely - comfortable on blues and reds. I would say you would need to be able to ski most blacks, not necessarily fast or even with grace and style but well enough to get down safely if you need to.

Many would say their first week on the snow was their best ever but that's not an experience that can be repeated.

Beyond that it's really about personal preferences - some like the feel of high speed, off piste or moguls - in which case you need to develop a better standard of skiing (to do it safely) compared with cruising blues.

If you've never been to a particular resort the size is something most of us consider along with other things.

A few percent out is fair enough on a large resort. On a small resort a good skier may well find they've ski'd it out in a day or two.

For some skiing the same run time and time again to perfect their technique may well be sufficient to keep them happy. For me to justify a couple of hundred Euros I like a bit of variety and to see different sights on my weeks holiday. Some pistes are so nice I will gladly ski them several times in my week's holiday, some I'll ski several times because it's the route home.
Would I spend a week of my holiday at a Snowdome? No and for the same reason I wouldn't go to a tiny resort.
For most skiers it's a recreation - we are too old to be the next Franz Klammer an to consider it a sport is delusional. I jog but don't call it sport - I don't race. I swim but don't compete (any more) so it's recreation/fitness. So the facilities I do my skiing in matter.

In the end if you buy a dozen tennis balls and find there are only 8 in the packet you would feel ripped off. What's the difference with piste lengths?

Funny how some assume price, quality and brand are synonymous.
Oddly enough I've a pair of Five Seasons salopettes and they have proven to be more durable, breathable and waterproof than more expensive brands I have owned.

Whilst I confess to have been hypnotized by the contents of the salopettes in front -) that has never been influenced by the label!

I would strongly suggest that all beginners have lessons before they go.
Why? - Simple you will get much more from that first week if you do and a week's skiing is expensive enough without spending it learning how to put your boots on, side slip and do basic turns and stops.
Sure, if you can afford all day long lessons it may not matter too much but finding yourself alone on the slopes after your 2 hour morning lesson has finished is quite daunting. (At busy time in some resorts you may only be able to have afternoon lessons so some rudimentary training in the UK can make a huge difference to a first holiday.) If you've had some lessons at home you can confidently go and practice outside of the lesson.

After the first week will you get anything like as much from indoor lessons? - probably not - partly because the slopes are short and tame compared to the real thing. However that doesn't mean you can't work on specific skills which will improve things on the mountain proper, but it's a bit individual.

Ranchero_1979 wrote:Interestingly I have been advised against knee brace as affect proprioception.

The research evidence suggests that wearing a functional knee brace when skiing reduced the risk of repeat injury significantly.

Given that most of the rest of the time you won't be wearing a brace, even during rehab, there's no logic to the idea that wearing a brace will inhibit the recovery of proprioception. By the time you hit the slopes after a knee reconstruction proprioception should be fully recovered or recovered as much as it will.

The better your technique the less fitness you need. (Although as you get better you will ski faster and on more demanding terrain)
Given that technique takes time to develop a bit of fitness work is useful and most people's technique tends to go out of the window when you get knackered.
Aerobic stuff in the main and leg based - so cycling, running cross trainer are all good exercises. A bit of core work - sit ups/curls again will help.

Can't really comment - in that area I've been to Kreishberg and Turrachahoe which are both quite small although the former has one of if not the biggest half pipes in the Alps.

I've got lots of video of my shadow too!