J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by ellistine

Yer but...

Stewart,

If you're looking to improve your skiing by simply pounding the same straight, wide and easy blue run for a few days then you the Grande Motte Glacier might be just for you (a bit like on a dryslope but with snow!). I know sometimes the fear of an unknown slope can have it's own effects so three days skiing on the same slope may be what you and your partner need to get your mojo on.

Just a thought.

:wink:

Been skiing nude again Tony?

Admin wrote:I assume they'll have quite a range of equipment on test so may be looking for a range of abilities.

Last year they pretty much had the full Atomic ski range and some of our group had not skied before.

Looking back I don't think I would recommend it for complete novices but only because of the lack of schooling.

We did the bootcamp last year in November and had a great time. The staff we're great and couldn't do enough for us.

You just need to remember that it is the off-season so not a lot of the town is open and there aren't any ski schools running (or very few at least).

The accomodation, although officially a hotel, is run more like a hostel with a very relaxed atmosphere. In the morning the staff cart you up the hill from La Breviere (spelling?) to the Grande Motte Funicular and pick you up at the end of the day to bring you back down again.

The glacier itself has a nice easy blue run plus some red runs which tend to be a bit icier.

Hope this helps.

You looking to get some red pants like Tony's?

What's the matter Mr H? Scared of the beast?

My turn. Dry slopes aren't like skiing on snow - they are harder, much harder.

That is a good thing. If they were easy and being as short as they are it would all get a bit dull very soon.

You need to think of the dryslope as some sort of plastic furred beast.
The challenge is to tame the beast and make it your friend. However you won't achieve this by cheating. Any weakness in your skiing will be pounced upon by the beast in it's attempts to bring you to your knees.
To tame the beast you must make the most of it's weaknesses - and it does have many but these are it's main ones;

Speed: Dryslopes are slow compared to snow but then that means you can concentrate on your technique without the fear of shooting off down the slope.

Consistency: Dryslope don't change. The slope is always the same so when trying to nail that perfect move a lot of the variables are removed.

Grip: Dryslope grips the skis fairly hard. This means to make a good turn you can't rely on a good'ol portion of foot twist to get the skis to turn. Instead you have to rely on good positioning and weighting of the skis to get the turns in without the beast noticing.



Last year I tormented the beast twice a week every week. It got very sweaty at times and I melted some skis but it was good. This year I've been playing with another plastic beast - our new sailing dinghy but come the Autumn I'll be back up there giving him some grief.

I always recommend dryslopes although I always say they will hate it at first. It takes quite a few visits to get the mojo flowing but when it does it will all start to make sense.