J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by msej449

Just uploaded an edited version incorporating a few changes (thanks everyone who fed back). Mainly to remove background noise and add some nice high-res stills at the end.

Perhaps presumptuous, but I thought that people might be interested in seeing this compilation from August 2011 and February 2012.



Enjoy ...

Apologies. I got the wrong end of the stick. I thought that you were hoping to come back on another cheap day return. But I assume that you're out for a while and will just book a standard single.

And then they politely say "I'm sorry Mr. X but this isn't a valid ticket unless you've travelled on the outbound portion. I'm afraid you'll have to buy a full-price single." Since my earlier posting I asked someone I know who tried this and this is exactly what happened to them. Although it was 5-6 years ago, and on a ferry crossing, I'm not sure that much has changed, but you might be lucky ...

I have also had very good experience with my home insurers (Ecclesiastical) and car insurer (Tesco). The former handled a home claim for £000s completely through emails and scanned documents. After being sideswiped by a truck on the M25, Tesco even managed to get my excess back from the Amsterdam-based insurer of a Belgian truck driven by a Latvian pulling a Dutch trailer! Hence the frustration with the AA and their subsidiary Drakefield, who are the complete opposite end of the customer service scale.

There is also a memorial to a young English snowboarder, Heyden Lamb, on the Bisse Saxon below Pierre Avoi (this is in your slide set). This is on the section between La Tzoumaz and Saxon - right round in the opposite direction towards Martigny. That section also has a couple of 'dodgy' bits where rockfalls run across the Bisse and the drop into the Rhone valley is severe - you definitely wouldn't survive, summer or winter.

It was a great surprise when we came across it, as we couldn't work out how he could possibly have got there, even in a whiteout. We had thought that he had traversed below Chez Simon somehow, thinking that he would hit LTZ. In fact, if you look at the piste map, the previous version was completely wrong - the left hand red down from Savoleyres down to the Chez Simon 6-man chair was marked as going over the arête (above the Bisse). On piste, it's obvious where to go but if you followed the map slavishly then you might go that way. But it didn't seem likely.

However, I can see that if you were guided that way, then you might do it. If the guide used the summer walking map, they'd perhaps think you could traverse below Chez Simon down to the Bisse and then take a spectacular walk around to La Tzoumaz. But no one who had actually walked it in the summer would consider for a second doing it in the winter, however well-equipped they were.

I'm not sure that you can. I investigated the same idea (Book two UK->France->UK returns) with ferries, and at that time, it wasn't feasible.

If you book a second cheap daytrip from the UK (for your return leg) then you can't 'materialise' in France having 'missed' the outbound leg or similar excuse, because you've clearly managed to get there somehow. They will say you have to buy a standard single.

If you have a foreign bank account and a legitimate foreign address, then you can get round this by using your foreign plastic and address to book a France->UK->France return and missing out on the return (from the UK) leg.

But if you only have a UK address then you book your second UK->France->UK trip, but arrive at Eurotunnel Calais conspicuously not having made the outbound UK->France leg i.e. you 'materialise' in Calais. Even if you tried it with different companies (e.g. Eurotunnel out and P&O back) you'd still have the problem that it's logically impossible to get to France without first having crossed the channel on a ferry/Eurotunnel.

They may even be on the lookout for this: You book two UK->France->UK day returns and if you don't turn up for the trip home then they 'flag' that you're probably going to try it on with the second booking. Remember, they'll have you car registration. So when you 'materialise' they know what you've tried to do and just turn you away. After all, it's your problem, not theirs - your the one stuck in France with your car insurance running out; no valid ticket home; and no option but to pay the full whack for a single ticket.

And even if you got away with it because you had a foreign address/plastic, I suspect that they would eventually pick it up when you crossed the Channel subsequently. "Sorry, Mr.X, but this car should theoretically still be in France ... could you just park over there and answer a few questions?". Remember in these days of heightened security, this sort of anomaly might cause you all sorts of problems.

This was about five years ago, so things may have relaxed since then.

2 weeks ago, we walked along the Bisse Saxon from la Tzoumaz to Isérables (the route to Nendaz) and came across this. The buildings in the distance are at the base of the Tracouet chirlift up to the Nendaz summit. This section is in the small valley that runs down from Le Fou (above Lac des Vaux) to Isérables. The Bisse originally ran across to about half way up the photo. You now have to climb up above it. This fall has been here for about 5-6 years but is now stable and there's a deviation across the top. There are still signs telling people not to stand still or stand close together!

If you were in the snow, you'd just assume that this was a treeless section. It's more precpitous than it looks and we were climbing with our hands for part of the traverse, even on a fairly clear track.