J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by AllyG

Ian Wickham wrote:Just scrapped the car AGAIN, just about to pick up a client then down to Heathrow this afternoon to try and rescue a client who has been trying to arrive from Paris since Sunday, here's to third time lucky.

Ian,
Scrapped or scraped the car? How many cars have you got? :lol:

Do you think maybe you and Tony picked the wrong weather to become taxi drivers? Wouldn't you like to be in a nice warm office again working 9-5?

Emma,
Yes, Cardiff airport is doing well coping with all this. Heathrow is a national disgrace :evil:

I'm hoping the trains from London will be running okay tomorrow because my older daughter's coming home.

Ally

We are forecast heavy snow for this evening - but I'm hoping it doesn't happen - my snow chains haven't arrived yet!

The weather forecast seems to be very unreliable as regards snow/no snow. Throughout the day our forecast changes continuously. I suppose it must be a very hard thing to predict.

I hope all the roads/trains/planes/ferries do get going again soon :D

Ally

Hi Jabski,
I would say that Zell am See is great for beginners and lower intermediates. We went there when it was my first time back on snow for 30 years and I was at the level of being able to ski down a blue run but not a red run.

As long as you realize it's not a ski in ski out sort of place. We stayed in the Hotel Heitzmann, a luxury 4 star hotel with fantastic food, in the old part of the town. We had to walk for about 5 minutes from there through the town to the gondola (which was hard work in ski boots and carrying skis but I believe if you're quick you can rent lockers at the gondola). And there was a queue for the gondola. The ski school meets at the top of it.

I found the runs nice and wide and easy, and well sheltered with trees each side (apart from right at the top). And the mountain restaurants were fantastic - great food and log fires. The view of the lake from the mountain is superb.

Prices - I had a look at the Heitzmann just now and with Igluski it's £684 for a week at the end of Feb - not cheap, but then it is quality, with free sauna etc. My sister stayed in the Eder Victoria which is a much cheaper hotel, over the Crazy Daisy disco and bar.

Ally

Sm4sh,
I wouldn't count on eating in the hotel if I was you, most of them have pretty inedible food for our fussy Western tastes. But eating and drinking out is pretty cheap.

Have a look on the Bulgariaski website - they have a forum with the answer to all your questions. Before we went to Borovets I read a great many posts very carefully - forearmed is forewarned! They advise you to be careful with taxis, money changers etc. etc.

Admin- I 'borrowed' all these posts from the Bulgariaski website http://www.bulgariaski.com/ and Bandit, I don't count it as Spam, I think it's quite interesting because it's much more truthful than the official version, and no-one has to read it if they don't want to. But it does explain why so many of us here are fairly negative about Borovets and Bulgaria in general.

Hopefully there will be more snow by the time you get out there Sm4sh, didn't we manage to persuade you to change to a later booking?

Author : Kas&Bobby (---.speedy-net.bg)
posts : 70
Date : 12-19-10 09:32

Morning,

A slightly better start as Yastrebets is open today. The Gondola is not but that is because of conditions at the top rather than due to wind - basically there is not enough snow to open any of the Markudjik runs and from the top of the gondola down to the Yastrebets / Fon Fon is very poor with rocks etc.

So:

Markudjik - all lifts are closed - this will be the case until more snow as there is just not enough to open it.
Mussala Path - closed - as above

Yastrebets - the 4 man chair is open today - with Popangelov & Yastrebets 3 open. The conditions on both these slopes are excellent, although the operators are worried that a predicted rise in temps will affect the conditions. These slopes are already busy, but predominantly with Sofian's / locals.

Rila - no change since yesterday except, higher temps meant they couldn't have the snow cannons on so snow conditions are detoriating.

Godola - they may open this later, but it will be for walkers only.

We need a lot more snow to see any major improvement, but compared to this time last year, it is certainly better!

Reply to this message
re: Borovets Conditions / Lift Update - Dec 19th
Author : Kas&Bobby (---.speedy-net.bg)
posts : 70
Date : 12-19-10 09:51

The gondola has just opened BUT it is for walkers only

Reply to this message
re: Borovets Conditions / Lift Update - Dec 19th
Author : Shey (---.soton.ac.uk)
posts : 6
Date : 12-19-10 12:03

Many thanks again for your updates.

What is the local forecast for the next week or so? Any indication of colder temps.?

Reply to this message
re: Borovets Conditions / Lift Update - Dec 19th
Author : Carnage (---.11-2.cable.virginmedia.com)
posts : 17
Date : 12-19-10 12:23

Groan! This is deja vu from last year
I am getting a tad depressed now (not shooting the excellent messenger btw!!)
We are due out in a fortnight. After last year I said "never again", but then Boro drew me back. The locals had said last years lack of snow & warm temps "was a 1 in 20 year event".
Maybe not boo hoo

Reply to this message
re: Borovets Conditions / Lift Update - Dec 19th
Author : Pamporovo Pete (87.115.65.---)
posts : 12576
Date : 12-19-10 12:25

2 weeks ago Carnage there was no snow at all.
An awful lot of snow can fall in the period of time!

Reply to this message
re: Borovets Conditions / Lift Update - Dec 19th
Author : Kas&Bobby (---.rdns.blackberry.net)
posts : 70
Date : 12-19-10 12:55

Hi Guys,

We know how you feel...we were so excited about opening the restaurant and trying something different but it's not to be...yet!

We have just come up on the gondola and it's not great. Yastrebets is as before and very good conditions, but skiing down from the top is a no-go - a couple of boarders have tried it but we saw them walking as there is nothing to board on up until you get to the Yastrebets 4 man chair.

At the very top, it is in total contrast to 2 days ago. All the new snow has totally blown away (following yesterday's wind) - I know all the webcams show 'white' up here but they are too far away to see the 'real' picture - all that is left is the compacted base which is about 2cm and certainly not enough to ski!

Carnage - I'm really sorry but the local tv says no snow expected and rising temps...

We may just have our own 'lock-in' up here and just stay here till the snow arrives!!

Kas

Hi Sm4sh,
What you want to look at is how many of the pistes are open, not the lifts. I found this, although I don't know how reliable it is:

http://www.bulgaria-hotels.com/en/borovets_ski_conditions.html

According to this the Markudjik pistes are closed, presumably these are the lower ones (I can't remember now - it was years ago I went), but the other ones are open.

Querying the quality of artificial snow isn't a stupid question at all. It's a very interesting question :D

As far as I know, artficial snow can be of varying qualities according to the machinery that made it, and the weather conditions at the time. Sometimes it is awful - like ball bearings, and sometimes it's quite good. Even in a snow dome the quality can vary - last time I was ski-ing at Milton Keynes even the instructors were complaining about it.

Generally speaking I'd say artificial snow isn't as good as the real stuff, but then the quality of 'real' snow varies a lot as well - it can be icy, fluffy, slushy etc.

Ally

bald-eagleman wrote:Thanks for that Ally. We have decided to transit via Bristol to recover lost son then go up to Gatwick early and stay at a hotel. Never thought I'd be saying " thank goodness there is no more snow today" :lol:

Good luck to everyone traveling away today and I hope you all manage to get to your destinations. BUT above all....BE SAFE.

Well, watch out you don't get stuck in your car in minus 10! I was reading the news and it seems even Jeremy Clarkson had to abandon his car near Oxford, because the roads were so bad.

Going to Gatwick early and staying in a hotel (if you can get a booking that is!) seems like a very good idea :D

Best of luck everyone.

Ally

Out of curiosity I've just had a look at a few airport websites.

Stansted - open
Heathrow - more or less closed
Cardiff - open
Gatwick - open
Luton - open but bad weather affecting many flights.

Even the airports that are officially open say they are still having problems because other European airports may be shut - so I suppose they either don't have the planes they're supposed to because they couldn't get there, or you wouldn't be able to land when you did get there so they're not taking off.

Anyway, it does look better than yesterday so there is some hope for everyone trying to get away today :D

The current Gatwick forecast is light snow this evening and then going down to minus 10 C tonight :shock:

Ally

Jabski,
I reckon your dry slope 'against' list is pretty accurate :D

Last time the topic of dry ski slope lessons came up my advice was don't go on the dry ski slope within 6 weeks of your ski holiday, in case you hurt yourself.

I broke my shoulder falling on the dry ski slope in a lesson, and it took about 6 months before I got back the full use of my arm. It wouldn't have broken if I'd been on real snow. I broke it 2 days before Christmas and 2 weeks before our family ski holiday - my first one for about 30 years. So I couldn't ski on the holiday - only watch others ski - which is rather frustrating.

And it's not just me. Plenty of other people have had breaks and minor injuries. It's fine if you leave plenty of time to heal before the ski holiday, just in case! You can of course also get hurt in a snow dome, but it's less likely.

I have been to a snow dome a few times, and the experience is much more like real ski-ing, plus it's indoors so you can do it in comfort whatever the weather. The only down sides to snow domes are that there are less of them, so you may have to travel further, and they are more expensive than dry slopes.

With these provisos, I would recommend going to a dry slope/snow dome before one's first ski holiday. On holiday it can be quite intimidating as a total newbie to the sport - the hire shops can get really busy and just learning how to carry all the gear and do up your boots etc. is difficult enough, without coping with possibly ratty instructors and trying to find the right meeting place for beginners etc. It's all much easier if you have some sort of an idea of what to do before you get there.

Ally