J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by bedrock barney

Quick report for you all. We are two skiing days into our VDI holiday. lovely sunny day yesterday whereas pretty cloudy today. Temperatures are very warm. At village level (1850m) it was -5 1st thing on Sunday rising to + 5 by early afternoon. We had light precipitation today with the freezing at about 2200m. Therefore raining in town but snow higher up. Probably only a couple of cms though. A decent chunk of Espace Killy is open. Even the closed pistes are ok in certain circumstances, ie Cascade. Some of the runs are looking patchy with tufts of grass poking through. Also quite a few stones so I imagine the hired skis are going to take a battering. It was much busier today especially on the Henri blue down into Tignes Val Claret and i fear that the slopes will be in a poorer state by the end of the week.

Still, it's looking like sun for the rest of the week which will be very pleasant. it will simply be a case of choosing the right areas of the resort. Le Fornet will be a good choice. the infamous verte run probably not, judging by the state of it today!

will try to upload some photos although i'm stuggling to transfer between my iphone and ipad.

I started skiing in 2010 (in my 40's!).

I've managed to fit in 10 ski holidays in that time and for the 1st 4 or 5 I used to struggle with very fatigued quads. On long runs at the end of the day I was having to stop on a regular basis. I then had two days of personal lessons in Zermatt which hugely improved my technique. In the main I was sitting back too much and also skidding the turns. Therefore far too much energy was being spent holding my body in a lazy position rather than a dynamic leaning forward position. Committing to a higher speed smooth turn also helped reduce input of energy.

I'm still lazy at times and need to remind myself about technique. I'm also sometimes still inefficient on black runs and steep reds and I know I lean back.

It's partly mind over matter. On steeper slopes it's counter intuitive to point down the hill and let the speed build up. However, with the right technique it's easy to scrub off this speed into the turn (apparently!).

I now rarely have quad pain although I do get a fairly heavy ache in both calf muscles by day three. This is usually gone by the end of the week. I put that down mainly to my age and lack of ski fitness.

Best advice - have a private lesson.

Getting close to pulling the trigger on Are for feb half term. Ally - hold tight until I formally confirm same!

Dobby - I apologise in advance for potentially gate crashing your lovely peaceful holiday......... 8)

I've only been skiing since 2010 but for me at this time of year there is only one option - 'go high'.

We head off to Val d'Isere on saturday and I think the skiing will be ok. Not great for deep off piste but I wouldn't expect that until mid Jan onwards. See screen grab of the webcam at village level. Looks ok but then it is at 1,850m. Lots of skiing above 2500m.



We were in Zermatt this time last year and skiing was good there as well.

Global warming? Will only be truly definable in hindsight.

Old Andy - interesting that you mention the Salomon BBR 8.9. I tried it for 3 days when in Tignes 3 years ago. I really couldn't get the hang of it and never really felt in control. Swapped to Rossignol Pursuit 18 and was instantly much happier. Probably says something about my ropey skiing technique more than anything else......

Great report. Snow conditions look pretty decent. Very pleased that we are heading high at the end of the week. There is a lot of skiing above 2,000m in Espace Killy. :D

Looking ok in Val d'Isere. I'm feeling pretty relaxed for the Christmas week and there's bound to be more snow in the next 10 days.

One other thing as briefly mentioned by Andy. The Santons blue from Bellevarde can be an absolute shocker. It is a natural half pipe for part of the piste (maybe 800m?). If the conditions are against you it becomes an icy train wreck with skiers crabbing their way down and bodies everywhere, Worth experiencing though! I've skied it in great and awful conditions. There is a flat run out though into Le Chatelard which is a pain. Get your speed up as you come out of the half pipe. Quite a walk for boarders.

Le Face is another piste that will vary wildly depending on conditions, number of skiers and time of day. I've skied it comfortably on corduroy 1st thing but had a real sweat on at the end of the day when carved up with moguls and icy patches. The bail out to the right of the plateau is, if anything, even worse at the end of the day.