J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by ise

ellistine wrote:

ise wrote:It's largely a UK/US thing really, obsessing about kit in some way, in the Alpes you'll find most people just buy a pair of skis and go out and use them.

I think there's probably a reason for this (at least there is with me) - In the UK we spend probably two weeks a year actually skiing and 50 weeks thinking about skiing. That's a lot of time spent browsing the internet, reading reviews, researching techniques etc etc. When the 50 weeks of waiting finally comes to an end we want to know our gear is correct and not hindering our efforts in any way. On my bicycle I can tell if the seat height is out by a few mm. I can still ride the bike with the seat too high or too low but at the right height I save the most energy. Most people you see riding bikes do not have their seat hight set correctly and simply are unaware of the difference it can make.

That's exactly what I was thinking, on the one hand I can see that anyone wants to arrive with everything perfect. On the other, you can't help thinking just relaxing and getting on with it might not be a bad idea :D

Some people are experimenting with binding positioning. You can say there's normally potentially three positions on many skis, male and female to reflect differences in balance and freeride/freestyle for difference in application.

I'm extremely dubious about this personally, the problem is that over a average day on a variety of terrain I doubt you can find a perfect position. If you spent all day carving on groomed piste I think you'd easily find a good position. Likewise any ski racer will benefit.

It's largely a UK/US thing really, obsessing about kit in some way, in the Alpes you'll find most people just buy a pair of skis and go out and use them. If I wanted to mess around like this I'd probably need to go to Verbier and find a store that's used to dealing with English.

That article makes some remarks about tester feedback for some very similar skis, I think that's all a red herring as well. If you test skis before you buy them then it's entirely irrelevant, you're going to buy the ones you ski best on. Mostly of course skis are bought based on the impression we're trying to give in the cable car :D

Geoff Smith wrote:Hi folks,

Don't our heights have something to do with appropriate pole lengths?

Geoff Smith

That's why there's the common test that ellistine mentioned. Given those classic proportions Leonardo used in the Vitruvian man drawing I think your optimum pole length is going to be 70% of height, which should place the pole length at around your centre of gravity, how does that sound? :D (just for fun)

bandit wrote: I was advised recently that I should buy 120cm poles and have them cut down to around 118cm. That seems too much like hard work!
:D

which goes to show you know some strange people :D

For most of us, slightly shorter is better, it helps us mortals bring our weight forward a bit. The measure you mention is good but take it as the max length in my opinion.

And mine ? Komperdell powerlock touring poles anywhere between 110 and 150 :D

Hamish Macbeth wrote:Planning on taking my daughter here in February mid-term. This will be her 2nd year skiing.

Anybody have any feedback?

Not very well know outside Switzerland then :D I've never skied there personally although I keep meaning to take a look. You probably already know the main facts, there's three distinct areas, the Oeschinen which is pretty low topping out at around 1800m (I think from memory), Sunnbüel which is up around 2000m which has 4 or 5 blue runs and Lauchernalp which is actually a train ride through the Lötschental tunnel. The Lauchernalp area is altogether more substantial as a ski area, it's actually in the Valais on that side of the tunnel and I have skied here, technically to here from the Jungfrau though and I've no idea what the pistes are like.

What's you plan? For her to take lessons? There's certainly more than enough skiing for a two week skier although you'd probably want to try all three areas.

In that area Gstaad and Adelboden/Lenk are also worth a look. Obviously there's Grindelwald/Wengen etc but they're not the best ski stations in the Bernese Oberland by a long way despite their popularity.

mikey111k wrote:Well i understand what you guys are saying about the poles but i was thinking of the biomex support because for what i understand the support is on the top side of your hand to help limit hyerextending the wrist. Also i liked this style because the wrist guards are removable so if they do become annoying she can remove them and just use the gloves. She needs new gloves anyways because when she hurt her wrist they had to cut her glove off so even if they dont work then she can just use the glove. Does anybody have any other ideas about protective gear. I heard of skiers wearing knee braces such as what volleyball players wear. Does anybody recommend any kind of knee support.

I think the only skiers who routinely wear some types of knee support are telemarkers with the obvious exception of anyone with existing injuries of course.

I'm a bit dubious about the whole thing to be honest, there's a high incidence of wrist injuries for beginner snowboarders measured around the world so it's prudent to take some precaution, likewise there's some uncomfortable mild injuries that beginner 'boarders commonly suffer from that are preventable with some padding.

I'd probably try and focus in on the instruction and forget the protection, it sounds like your GF might have a confidence problem after that fall so a private instructor might work well?

iLoveSkiing wrote:

mikey111k wrote:thanks for all the input. My next question now is since you think wrist guards would be helpful would it be worth getting the level gloves with the biomex integrated guards? I looked at the f.........................

Mikey111k, Like all systems I'd stick with separates because you then only need to change one part rather than the whole system if a part is damaged.

Last time I went skiing gripping a pair of skis by their edges each time I got off a gondola or had a short walk eventually resulted in the edges cutting through the outer shell of my left ski glove.

That might work but there's a problem there as well, the separate wrist guards you can get won't fit inside a "normal" ski glove unless you oversize the glove considerably and then you're going to struggle with the pole again although this time it's a compromise rather than close to impossible.