J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by SwingBeep

"Areas reporting 20cm or more include resorts on the west of the country that were particularly needing it like Arosa, Davos and St Moritz. Andermatt and Laax"

Last time I looked they were in central and eastern Switzerland.

The problem is caused by the bottom of the plastic cuff on the boot liner snagging on the top of the shell cuff.



When you put the liner back in stop when you feel it won't go any further and pull the shell cuff out of the way. It should then slide in without any trouble.

If you have lace up boot liners you can put them on first and then put them in the shells, but the extra wear and tear will reduce the life of the liner.

How often you have to take them out depends on how badly the boots leak and how much your feet sweat. If you have really sweaty feet and you don't dry them out they will soon stink to high heaven as the foam provides an ideal breeding ground for bacteria and fungi. Water conducts heat away from the body 25 time better than air so if the liners are still wet when you put them on the following morning you are more likely to get cold feet.

Happy Christmas Everyone

Spare a thought for the 130 skiers currently being rescued from a broken down gondola lift at Cervinia. https://twitter.com/tgrvda

Admin, where does it say that laws have to make sense? It maybe a stupid law but it is still the law. The current EU customs code (EU No. 952/2013) is a regulation, the EU defines a regulation as a binding legislative act that must be applied in its entirety across the EU https://europa.eu/european-union/eu-law/legal-acts_en

As far as I can see the situation is crystal clear


http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/vehicles/cars/car-rental-abroad/index_en.htm

I can't see the point of asking anyone working on a car hire desk as they are unlikely to know anything about current EU customs regulations, if they did they would be able to get a much better job. I would seek written assurance that it is still legal for a EU resident to drive a Swiss registered hire car into the EU from the hire companies head office, verbal assurance is of no value. Europcar Switzerland is a franchise, it's owned by a subsidiary of the Swiss car importer AMAG:

Europcar AMAG Services AG
Steinackerstrasse 20
8302 Kloten
Tel. +41 44 804 46 46
Fax +41 44 804 46 47
info@europcar.ch

Alternatively you could contact the Swiss car rental companies trade association, they claim to provide information on current economic and technical developments as well as relevant legislation and jurisprudence http://www.autovermieterverband.ch/portrait

Pahadia, if I were you I would print out the relevant pages from the documents that I have linked (they are all from official EU websites and as far as I'm aware describe the current situation) and show them to the person on the desk and insist that they provide you with a EU registered car. If you are stopped by French customs and they decide to pursue the matter they could require that you pay import duty (up to 10%) plus VAT (20%) of the car's current market value and a fine. If you can't pay or won't pay they could impound the vehicle.

Most Swiss hire cars are registered in Appenzell Innerrhoden (pop. 15,974), because it has the lowest car tax rate. As VBS says they are very easy to spot.

I'm a bit surprised that so many skiers only consider comfort when buying ski boots, obviously they have to be comfortable, but what about performance, longevity and safety. Oversized boots aren't much of an issue if you're a complete beginner, but once you decide to buy your own surely you would want them to fit and function as well as possible.

Most recreational ski boots are sized according to the Mondopoint sizing system, which is defined in ISO 9407:1991. It's based on the mean foot length and width in millimetres, the inner length of the shoe/boot is supposed to be equivalent to the foot length plus 1 cm. Unfortunately the ski boot manufacturers don't stick to it, in the 1990s they started to make the boots longer than the marked size indicates so that they feel comfortable in the shop. On average they are 1-1.5 cm longer than they should be.

The Mondopoint system only covers length and width, the most important area of fit in a ski boot is around the instep.

If they aren't a good fit here they won't work very well and there is very little that can be done to modify the fit in this area. The manufacturers don't give any information about the sizing of this area so the only way to check the fit is to look at how the barefoot fits in the shell.

The design work on ski boots is mainly done at one size, usually size 26.5. The boot manufacturers then send resin models to the toolmaker who scans them into his CAM software and scales them up and down to get the range of sizes required. Humans don't scale like this, small feet and large feet have different proportions.

So without the aid of a reasonably competent boot fitter the odds of getting a pair of well fitting boots are slim, even if you don't have any issues with your feet. It's estimated that that over 75% of Alpine skiers buy ski boots that are between one and two sizes too big http://www.nordica.com/schweiz/stories/the-seven-most-common-mistakes-skiers-make-when-buying-new-boots/?backstage=1 it's pre-programmed by the manufacturers to drive sales.

This doesn't mean that your boots won't be comfortable if you don't go to a boot fitter. I skied in boots that were miles too big for years and never experienced any discomfort, they just won't work as well as they might. This might not be much of an issue if you only want to slide around a ski resort for a week or two a year, but if you want to progress well fitting ski boots are essential.

I have never paid anything for boot fitting. it's always been included in the price of the boots. In fact since I started buying them from a boot fitter I've saved money as I don't have to replace them as often.

Brucie, ski boot fitters aren't snake oil salesmen, but there are snake oil boot fitting systems such as the Fischer vacuum, Surefoot, Strolz, ErtlRenz and AquaNovo, which curiously involves standing in a tank water! Boot fitters generally try to repair the damage that the snake oil salesmen have caused. The real snake oil salesmen in the skiing equipment business are the sales and marketing people and people who do gear reviews, who for the most part haven't got a clue.

VBS, the sun is much too low in the sky at this time of year to melt the snow, the damage was mainly caused by the Föhn. It blew for the second longest period since records began. It causes massive damage to the snowpack http://pistehors.com/foehn-call-24662200.htm

At the moment there is a high pressure 'block' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Block_(meteorology) it won't snow until it disappears. Fortunately it's cold enough to make artificial snow.

You were very lucky with the weather Ade73. Unlike most of the other Tarentaise resorts such as Les Arcs, La Plagne and the 3 Valleys which get their heaviest snowfalls from the north west, Val d'Isère and Tignes can also get snow from the east/south-east via a phenomenon is known as a "Le retour d'est" (return from the east). It doesn't happen very often, but when it does there can be massive snowfall https://www.j2ski.com/ski-chat-forum/posts/list/17129.page#153333 see last post.

On the northern side of the main alpine ridge we got the Föhn, which blew for second longest period on record so lots of the snow that fell earlier in November has disappeared.

Lago Agnel near Ceresole Reale in Piemonte

Just over the border from Val d'Isère