J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by AllyG

Flying to Geneva, ski-ing in Chamonix, and then driving back for a few days in Geneva would be much easier, as it's only about one hour's drive from Geneva to Chamonix. And you could have a look at Annecy on the way, which is really pretty.

In fact, you wouldn't even need a car because there are plenty of buses from Geneva to Chamonix. We spent a day looking round Geneva and there's plenty to do and loads of very good public transport.

And flights from the U.K. to Geneva are very cheap - like £70 return with Easyjet if you get them early enough.

Ally

Thanks Swingbeep,
I've taken those out as well.

Oh ... I've just thought of something ... who's going to help me put my boots back together again :?: :lol:

I can see myself going all the way back to the Fulham road in London to Profeet and saying 'Well, you see, it was like this ...' :lol:

Ally

Thanks Bandit :D

I hadn't thought of putting newspaper in the liners, but I did think it might be a bad idea to put them on the radiator so I haven't. I will put the newspaper in them now.

I had quite a job to get the liners out, so I can believe that it will be quite difficult to get them back in. I will know which liner is which because the one with the squishy pebble in it goes in my right boot.

The liners have 27.5 written under them, so it's surprising they fit okay, when my feet actually measured 26.5

Ally

I have now tested my new boots out for 3 days ski-ing on the glacier at Tignes.

They are great. They don't hurt my feet at all, they seem to be tight enough (at the moment anyway - let's hope it lasts) and they seem to have corrected my stance so that I can turn equally well left and right.
I have got used to the 'squishy pebble' and I hardly notice it now.

And my new wheelie boot bag was accepted as a flight bag by Easyjet at Bristol and Geneva airports. I managed both this and my wheelie suitcase on the underground etc. no problem.

My boot linings had gone all wet after 3 days ski-ing so I've taken them out to dry. Is there anything I'm supposed to do with them before I put them back in the boots?

Ally

Thanks Snowbandit :D

We did have a really good time, and it was well worth the money and the effort involved in getting there. If anyone else wants to go, Mountain Sun also do 6 day breaks - it's not just the 3 day ones, and in general they seem very flexible.

Here are the Scott Rosa's:
http://www.revolutionz.co.uk/product/Ski-Hardware/Skis/Touring-and-Telemark/SCOTT/ROSA/-14247

They cost £534 as a package with them, so they're not cheap skis. I did see something that said they were designed to be 40% used on the piste and 60% off the piste.

My daughter was ski-ing on the Scott Maya's, which didn't seem to annoy her at all. They have a waist of only 76mm and a turning radius of 13m as compared to the Rosa's of 14.7m. Ellis Brigham are selling the Maya's, as an All Mountain ski, at £450 for the package:
http://www.ellis-brigham.com/skis/scott/700046/maya-%2b-tyrolia-peak-11

I couldn't find the Rosa's on the Ellis Brigham site, so maybe they're not selling them.

I forgot to say that my new boots worked very well. I reckon that the expensive 'squishy pebble' I have in my right boot to correct my stance is working, because I can turn equally well left and right now. I am going to add a bit to my buying boots thread on it.

Ally

I had a go using that DIN link, and I got 4.5, 5.5 and 6.5 according to whether I said I was skier type 1 (cautious), 2 (average), or 3 (aggressive higher speed skiing).

While skiing a few days ago I asked them to set the DIN for the skis to come off a bit more easily than usual because I wasn't very fit/flexible and they set it at 5.0. This seemed to work very well. The skis didn't come off when I hit piles of powder etc. but one did come off when I fell over.

Snapzz, I would agree with Bandit and if I was you I'd set them lower than usual when you're doing strange manoeuvres on the snow dome.

I never thought one could get hurt by having a DIN setting too low, but the other day someone cut his leg open doing fancy jumps in the snow park in Tignes because his ski came off in mid air and then he landed on it :shock:

Ally

Hi Biki17,
Transfers from the train station to resort are usually less expensive than from the airport because the stations are closer, or even in, the resorts. For example, bus return from Moutiers to Courchevel or Val Thorens is about 20 euros. And if you go to Bourg St Maurice you don't need to pay any transfers because Les Arcs is practically on the spot.

And as Ian said, quite a few chalets will do free transfers. The ones I have seen give a price for the chalet, airfares and transfers, and then if you don't want the plane tickets they give you a reduction which is usually a bit less than the price of the train fare.

If you belong to the Ski Club of Great Britain you can get a discount on the train tickets as long as you don't go at Feb half-term.

As I have said before it's only 6 1/2 hours on the direct day train from St Pancras to Moutiers, so the train can be pretty fast. The night train is much slower though.

Ally

Tony_H wrote:Ally. Simple question - if you thought those skis were the problem, why didnt you change them for some piste skis?
My guess would be that it was your technique or fitness level that was the problem.

I didn't change those skis because I was trying them out and I wanted to give them a fair trial. The first day I think they probably were the best skis for the job, because there was a foot of powder which hadn't been pisted. However, the second day they did 'bash' it nice and smooth (although I didn't know that of course until I got there) and then as the day progressed it got lumpier and lumpier with all the snow being pushed into soft moguls, exposing patches of ice.

And on the second day we had a 2 1/2 hour private lesson with Tdc. The instructor showed us how to make our turns on the steep slope without using the up and down motion to unweight our skis, but by initiating the turn by rolling the new inner ski off its edge and then bending the new outer knee and getting the ski right over on its edge (he said he wanted to be able to see the base of the ski!). The idea, apparently, was to make the turns while still staying in contact with the snow. Anyway, what I am trying to say is that there was a lot of edge work and I got the feeling that the width of the ski was making me work harder than normal. Those skis have a waist width of 89mm, and I suppose I'm used to ski-ing on ones with a width of about 70mm.

And on the third day we were trying to do what we'd been taught in our lesson.

I would like to know why they were vibrating when I was schussing. I tried to keep my weight forward in the correct position but it didn't seem to make any difference.

I stuck with them because the Missions are supposed to be really good, award winning, skis and presumably the ladies version is just as good. And the fashion seems to be for fatter skis so I thought I'd better get used to them. But as time went on I became increasingly irritated with them and little things annoyed me - like the way they didn't fit in the rack (because of being double ended) unless you left one ski out and then you had to make sure they were well jammed/locked together or they'd fall out of the rack.

I admit to being unfit, because I'd been ill for about 5 weeks before the holiday with one thing and another, and if it was my technique at fault I'd like to know where I was going wrong.

It felt like the skis were too wide and soft/flexible for me.

Ally