J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by AllyG

I think what Trencher means is you turn uphill in order to slow your speed down. The instructors call it 'finishing your turn' which I find a very confusing term because as far as I can see it's a totally new turn up hill after you've actually finished your original turn just to slow you down. So instead of following a nice S down the mountain you sort of put in little loops uphill in between each turn.

Ski instructors seem very keen on this technique and they keep banging on about it as you progress up the ski lesson groups. In fact, I got told off last month for braking after a turn instead of turning up hill as I was approaching one of those narrow junctions.

If you have some lessons you will very quickly learn how to do it because you just follow the same route on the snow as the instructor. When they were teaching me how to do it they made me ski straight down the fall line and then turn off and swing back uphill in order to slow down.

But it does make the next turn more difficult because you have further to turn.

If you're struggling on reds then I'm sure lessons would really help. Everything becomes much harder when it gets steeper.

Ally

Hi Tropicana,
I'm glad you're sorted now :D

KCAC,
I don't know where it is but it's in 1850, which is pretty small so it should be easy enough to find (I found Le Jump just by asking someone). I expect it's pretty central or the Ski Club of GB wouldn't be using them.

They seem to have a Facebook page (with lots of photos) so I'm sure you could find out anything you want to know. This is what they say about themselves on Facebook:

Location Courchevel 1850
About Opening night Friday 26th November from 8pm. Live music from The Tonics
Description Open daily from 16h til 02h.

KCAC,
Le Jump ws definitely a bar last year. I know because I was in it last year when the Ski Club of Great Britain were using it as the venue for their social hour after ski-ing. However, I've just checked, and this year they are using Le Refuge so maybe Le Jump is no longer a bar. Anyway, I'm sure Le Refuge would be fine for your apres ski :D

The strange thing is that where we live it's the other way round. The locals generally drive very carefully (apart from the idiotic kamikaze youngsters of course) around the bends on our single track roads, and it's the holidaymakers who go tearing round the bends on the wrong side of the road and can't reverse when they meet up with a car. With us, at any rate, the difference is down to experience. At some point we've all met a cow in the road or nearly gone into the back of a hay trailer etc. on a bend and we've learnt to slow down.

I do know what Iceman means. The last time we were in France we had a taxi from Moutiers to Meribel and the taxi driver nearly scared us all to death overtaking on the bends and made those sitting in the back pretty car sick. At one point I did feel like asking if we could get out and walk, but it was a long way to go with all our luggage! The bus, however, which we took back to Moutiers, was driven extremely well and we didn't feel at all nervous (or sick!).

I understand the point about winter tyres being faster than chains and that the locals know the road and can therefore drive faster on it, but it would be nice to know how many crashes there are on those mountain roads during the ski season.

Ally

Hope you all have a really good holiday. Congratulations Nelly on finally booking one!

Iceman - I'm sorry to hear you are soon to have an ex :cry:

Never mind, there are lots of tips on that romance thread to help you pick the next one more carefully :D

I live a long way out as well. It would take me about 6 hours to drive to Dover.

Ally

Re the cleaning row:

Strangely enough the opposite experience happened to me with Pierre et Vacances in Meribel over the New Year.

We had to be out of the self-catering apartment by 10 a.m. on Saturday and we wanted to ski that day, so at the beginning of the week I asked them if they'd clean it for me so that I wouldn't be too stressed and tired after cleaning to enjoy myself on the slopes. The standard cleaning charge was 35 euros and I reckoned it was well worth it when the three of us were paying about £25 an hour each for time on the snow, so that we could get out as soon as possible.

Anyway, I hoovered it the day before, and did a quick whip round clean in the kitchen etc. (but not my usual in depth clean) before we left. And then when we had it inspected they only charged me 25 euros and seemed very pleased. So I was happy to get an extra 10 euros to spend on hot chocolate etc.

I do think the tour agents and the apartment managers should improve the level of their communication - both with each other and with the holidaymakers. I rented the apartment through Igluski who got it from Ski Horizon who got it from Pierre et Vacances. All Igluski told me was the name of the apartment, the date, and the resort. And when I asked them for extra information the day before we left they said there wasn't any. But on the way out on the Eurostar I phoned them again and they said they'd sent me an e-mail - well it was a bit late then because I didn't have any access to my e-mails. And in fact I never did find out what it said because when I tried to read it in resort somehow it deleted itself.

But I'd stayed with P&V several times before so I knew the general rules re cleaning etc. You either pay extra for them to clean, do a really thorough job yourself (they expect you to wash windows and polish mirrors etc.) or pay a hefty fine as they inspect the apartment before you go.

I should think Odalys has the same rules and it was Ski Horizon that was at fault.

Edit
The man with the mop shouldn't have been so nasty and threatening, though, or pushed your dad. I would complain about that, if I was you, to Odalys.

Ally