J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by LOTA

Thanks; that's a spendid suggestion. I will drop Interski an e-mail and see if they can assist!

Does anyone know of an alternative to the Valle d'Aosta ski school in La Thuile.

I ask because once again I have come up against an inflexible ski school office, similar to Saas Fee last year.

We're arriving in La Thuile on a Monday, first ski day on Tuesday and my partner wishes to join group lessons from Tuesday to Friday (four days). The ski school says it is only possible to do Monday to Friday in a group and private lessons are the alternative and, of course, much more costly.

This is similar to our experience in Saas Fee last season where Optimum were not even remotely flexible on group lessons. Happily, the official Swiss Ski School were as good as gold and very happy to sell us three days of group tuition.

Any assistance would be much appreciated.

You describe a completely different issue, Ranchero. This is the failure of the resort lift system, not delays due to safety measures being implemented.

I stick by ridiculous, Dave, given that Bankso had a major and expensive redevelopment programme within the last decade.It seems someone got things wrong IF this description is a true reflection of the situation.

Like you, I've skied in old-established resorts that are constrained by location, terrain etc. Can't comment on Zermatt as have only skied and gawped at Monte Cervino from the Italian side. But the worst queue in recent memory was one Friday morning at Engelberg, a long-established ski area that is constrained by sheer cliffs and glacial terrain. The wait was so bad that the lift company opened up the ancient funicular railway - used only on high days and holidays - to get customers up the hill. The point I'm making is these are not 'modern, planned resorts' but ski areas which were developed in piecemeal fashion over many years. Bankso, it seems, had a blank piece of paper a decade ago and may well not have got it right...

Chris1 wrote:It really depends what time of year you go. At half term and New Year the queues at the bottom are bad but for the last two seasons the resort has been running free buses that take you up the mountain to ease the queues.
The chalets in town have minibuses for a bit of queue-jumping too!
There are a couple of drag lifts but you can easily avoid them and use the chair lifts instead.
Hope that helps :)

This is even worse: so we have a supposedly modern, planned, resort with a lift system so overloaded you have to get there at 8am, take a taxi or get in a bus or minibus operated by tour ops and chalets.

Even more ridiculous! :evil:

Snowcrazy, to continue our conversation from 'somewhere else', I'm feeling quite inspired to do the day trip as you described. Checked the lift pass price and ski rental plus the rail ticket and although expensive, it would be tremendous fun. I think I would prefer a Saturday in late March or April in a bid to minimise the chance of poor weather!

Edit: just realised the trains don't run after the Easter weekend. Grrrrr!

Guilty of reviving an old thread but I have vowed never, ever, to buy the Daily Telegraph (was the Daily Mail) Ski and Snowboard magazine again. I bought the October edition and there was absolutely nothing in it, apart from one feature on obscure and difficult to reach resorts in Canada, re-hash of resort reviews from the Where to Ski and Snowboard book, some kit reviews and loads and loads of advertorials written by the resorts themselves. Rubbish and very poor value for money.

Just a tip that might help J2ers avoid a little bit of grief when hiring a car from the French sector at Geneva airport.

Recently went to watch Gloucester play at Oyonnax in the Jura so we hired a motor from Enterprise/Citer in the French sector.

Everything went well until we went to fill up at the petrol station marked on the Enterprise map/instructions before returning the wagon.

Being a Sunday, the garage, on the Ferney road near the airport, was closed (no mention of this on the instructions, of course) and being tight for time to check-in, we were unable to find anywhere else that was open.

Enterprise certainly charged a 'premium' price for the diesel. Next time, I'll fill up earlier and not rely on their instructions. -)