J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by AllyG

Thanks Andymol2 :D

I put my contribution in inverted commas, because I know symptoms like red eyes aren't strictly speaking symptoms of true altitude sickness.

But, we are describing how our bodies malfunction at high altitudes on our ski-ing trips. And I don't really know what else to call it. Even these minor symptoms can be bad enough to stop one from ski-ing (like the girl who had to come off the mountain because her brain stopped working properly and she couldn't speak).

Added together, these symptoms can be quite uncomfortable, and even alarming - red eyes, waking at night, headaches, feeling queasy, mental confusion, nose bleeds, feeling short of oxygen with heavy physical activity (like skating uphill on skis) etc.

Ally

SwingBeep wrote:Obviously this depends on the weather conditions, but on average the danger level here is forecasted to be at: level 1 for about 20% of the winter, level 2 for 50% of the winter, level 3 for 33% of the winter and level 4 only on a few days. Level 5 is rarely forecasted, on average only for one day a season.

Approximately 7% of recreational avalanche fatalities occur at level 1, 34% at level 2, 47% at level 3 and 12% at level 4. There are normally no recreational fatalities at level 5.

Thanks very much SwingBeep,
Presumably far more people go off piste with an avalanche risk of 1, than at a risk of 4, which is why there are so many fatalities even at 1? Does anyone have the figures for how many people go off piste for each warning level?
The insurers must be getting statistics from somewhere.

Ally

I am going to start getting fit again now - I didn't like the feeling of my legs hurting in Tignes. I reckon it takes me about 3 months to get fit when I'm in a bad state, like now.

I have found my Ingham's get fit to ski book. I just need to start doing all those star jumps and squats and running etc. again. Last year I got brilliantly fit and didn't ache at all after ski-ing all day.

Ally

How often are the avalanche warnings at a 3 or 4 as compared with a 1 or 2?

Hi Pablo,
Nice to see you again :D

Ally

Thanks for reminding me about this thread Bandit, and finding it :D

The euro rate today is 1.147, nearly 10% lower (from our point of view) than it was last time I posted about it. Oh dear ...

Ally

I rather think it's my fault he's gone :oops:

He hates wibble and I continuously go 'off piste'. I suppose he got to the point where he just couldn't bear it any more :cry:

I like him as well. I wish he'd come back. He was always very helpful and amusing, and it was amazing where he dredged up all those extraordinary photos off the internet.

Ally

Ian,
I'm very sorry, but I don't have any photos. My daughter forgot her camera (she was very busy just before we left). I was hoping to have a video to show you but the one our TDC instructor took of us didn't come out - he said the sun ruined it or something! I don't seem to be very lucky with instructors and videos - if you remember my Courchevel instructor had a very shaky hand when filming me going down that slalom course.

The only thing I have is the video (link on the previous page), which our instructor took in the morning of our second day, of his morning clients (who ski quite a bit better than us). We were going down that exact same short run in the afternoon, as well as the longer runs further over. Ski-ing was much easier on the second day, after they'd been over it with the piste bashers. Apparently they weren't ready on the first day, because they weren't expecting to have so much snow!

I don't know anything about skis, but my opinion was that those Rosa skis were too soft for me (or I'm too heavy for them, depending on your point of view). I could bend the skis like a bow, and when I was ski-ing over the low 'wall' between two of the pistes, the skis sank into the dip, which again I found rather alarming because I'm used to more rigid skis which bridge the gap.

And talking about the skis is still on topic, because one of the reasons for the Edge to Edge ski and snowboard camp at Tignes is for people to try out the new gear and possibly buy some. It taught me that if I was ever to decide to buy some skis, I'd need at least 3 days ski-ing on them in different conditions before I'd feel confident enough to buy them. And I'd definitely never buy skis without trying them out first.

Ally