J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by SwingBeep

It sounds like he was really lucky https://www.blick.ch/sport/wintersport/ein-wunder-ist-passiert-zuercher-skiakrobatik-unglueck-mit-unglaublichem-happy-end-id7169946.html as is often happens after this type of accident he was put into an induced coma. He fell whilst training for the Mettmenstetten Freestyle Masters competition.

The skis weren't up to much even when they were new, but they are fitted with a pair of 7tm Power Releasable Telemark Bindings http://7tm.de/ which would have cost about 250 quid when new, don't chuck them away.

To remove them you will need a No. 3 Pozidrive screwdriver. Any decent ski shop will be able to mount a pair of alpine bindings on them, the only proviso being that none of the holes needed to mount the new bindings should be closer than 1cm to the old holes.

As the skis are pretty old it would only make sense to put alpine bindings on them if you could find some really cheap and mounted them yourself. You can find paper templates to aid drilling the holes here http://www.bindingfreedom.com/paper-tempaltes/ they will also help you to identify possible conflicts.

Alternately you could take up telemarking.

If you were going to get stuck you would be better off finding a room for the night, if you did get a taxi I wouldn't expect there would be much change out of CHF 600.

Since that photo was taken they have perched another crane up there, it's between the blue fleck on the snow and the entrance to the existing cable car station, they are using it to erect the third pylon. Most of the equipment and materials are being brought up from the Italian side via a specially built material transport ropeway. You can get a reasonably good view of progress via the Panomax webcam at Plateau Rosa.

According to todays edition of La Stampa the solution to the problem of financing the new lift from the Val d'Ayas to Cime Bianche is to increase the lift pass prices and close the lifts at Antagnod, Brusson and Gressoney-Saint-Jean.

As I understand it the original plan was to build a two stage 3s lift from Frachey in the Val d'Ayas up to the Colle Cime Bianche above Valtournenche. The latest proposal seems to be for a gondola instead of a 3s lift, which would go all the up to Plateau Rosa via Cime Bianche from where a cable car up to the Klein Matterhorn is planned.

An environmental impact study costing €250,000 has already been carried out for the 3s lift and the villages involved have already voted for it, only Ayas held a referendum and around 80% of voters were in favour. If the new proposal is to be pursued they might well have to start again from scratch. There already seems to be some opposition to it http://www.lastampa.it/2017/07/21/edizioni/aosta/cime-bianche-nuovi-progetti-contestati-BATwl6LRSvH2LDlnvkWVNL/pagina.html

Most of the lift companies on the Italian side are in public ownership, they are owned by Finaosta S.p.A. a regional development agency whose capital is owned by the Autonomous Region of Valle d'Aosta, they make little if any money so Finaosta would have to provide the finance.

Over on the Swiss side construction of the cable car from Plateau Rosa to the Klein Matterhorn has already started, a platform for the top station was blasted out at the same time as the one for 3s top station.



Construction of the lift itself is due to start in 2018 although this might slip as there's not much point in building it until the Italians get their act together. When it's finished it should look something like this.

Zermatt tourist office reported 20 cm of new snow on 11.08.17 taking the total to 80 cm, before then they were reporting 60 cm with the last snowfall as being on 28.05.17. https://www.zermatt.ch/en/Snow-report#snowreport

Curiously they state that the measuring point is located at 2900 metres. There is no snow at 2900 metres as you can see if you look at the Trockener Steg webcam https://www.matterhornparadise.ch/en/current/webcams/trockener-steg_webcam_881?
The lowest point in the summer skiing area is at 3410 metres.

Before the latest snowfall Saas Fee was reporting 90 cm (J2Ski's Where To Ski or Snowboard In August 2017) now 4 days after reporting a 41 cm snowfall they are reporting a depth of only 50 cm!

J2SkiNews, surely you are aware that nobody actually measures the snow depth for these tourist office snow reports.

Summer in the Swiss Alps arrived in the middle of May and since then the monthly temperatures have been at least 2°C above the average for the last 30 years. If you would like to see the actual and past state of the glaciers check out the Panomax webcams at Plateau Rosa https://cervinia.panomax.com/plateau-rosa# and Mittelallalin https://panocam.skiline.cc/saas-fee/allalin both have archives going back 12 months.

As you can see it's going to take a great deal of new snow to adequately bridge the crevasses. Not a worry if you stick to the pistes as they fill them in, which is just as well as some of them are 40 m deep.

It's year-round ski-centre neighbour Zermatt currently reports a 60m base and has 16 trails to choose from.

Curiously the lift company website only lists 7 pistes in the summer skiing area https://www.matterhornparadise.ch/en/winter/lifts-pistes#the-pisten Are there some secret pistes that are not listed?

There are quite a few bare patches on the main piste at the moment.



What exactly does "a 60mm base" mean? Surely the base depth should describe the minimum depth of snow on the pistes.

As you can see the snow conditions on the glacier are pretty grim at the moment. If the weather continues to be as warm as it has been they might struggle to keep the summer skiing area open.

A far cry from how conditions were in the 1960s, when you could ski all the way to Trockener Steg

The Daleboot is sometimes recommended for people with problem feet, very high arches, very high insteps etc. The OP didn't mention anything about his feet, his main problems seem to be hypermobile ankles and tibia vara.

The fitter the OP visited is only a short distance from a shop that used to sell Daleboots, when he was of the opinion that Daleboots would be the best option he referred the customer to them. As they were still trading when the OP went for his fitting I would have thought he would have referred the OP to them if he thought they would be suitable.

At about $800 you would want to be absolutely certain they were going to work before getting a pair.

The fitter you saw is by far the most knowledgeable, experienced and best equipped boot fitter in the UK.

DIY is not an option because of the amount of work involved and the specialist tools and skills required.

You say your knees are around 7" in front of your toes, that is a massive amount they should be roughly over your big toes. Your "very bow'ed lower legs" may be bowed beyond what any boot's cuff alignment mechanism can accommodate. The back of the boot would have to be flared out to accommodate your large calves and you might need a thinner liner. Your "extreme hyper mobile" ankles would need to be controlled by a stiff boot, there are safety issues with putting novices in stiff boots. There may also be other issues, you haven't told us anything about the size, shape and volume of your feet.

There is no point in having a biomechanical analysis as you've already had one, you gave the results above. It looks like the range of movement in your ankles, the circumference of your calves and the amount of bow in your lower legs are all well outside the range required for skiing. Did you suffer from Blount's disease as a child?