J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by AllyG

ParalyticSkiCrazie wrote:Sorry to hear about your toe Ally - hope it gets better soon and is not making you too immobile. Glad you enjoyed the holiday although I have to agree with others that ESF would never be my first choice. My son trained with New Gen and they really do take care of their customers. There are many other English speaking schools out there now too, Magic, Snowscool, Parallel Lines. I have lots of French friends and can converse quite well but found (most) of them quite reticent in lessons, took it all too seriously, revered the ESF instructors whether they were crap or not and took opportunities to slag off the English in their native language with them. In Chamonix we swopped to Evolution 2 who were much better. I have not had lessons with a school for a long time preferring to potter around where I want. As an early bird I often get up on the first lift and ski on my own for a couple of hours which I find invigorating and meet up with the others later. My son tries to teach me how to improve but I soon get bored with all the drills and end up pleading to be left to ski down in my own fashion plus at my age I think I'm a lost cause. )

Hi PSC,
I did think about trying one of the other schools before we got out there. However, the ones I thought looked okay were incredibly expensive, much more so than the esf. Also, last year we skied with Prosneige at Val Thorens and really they were just about as bad as esf. I had an awful Prosneige instructor in the morning (with an unbelievably badly balanced group) and a fantastic one in the afternoon with a really well balanced class. My daughter, however, had a good time in the Prosneige teenage lessons both morning and afternoon - going over jumps, off piste etc.

And as for getting on with the French people in the classes - I think we all got on very well. Our morning class was supposed to be an English class, but as I said they didn't have enough people to make up the different classes, so they combined the slalom and the off piste and put 3 French people in our class - to make 8 originally in the group. However, the worst skier decided she didn't like being bottom, and left to join a lower group, leaving me as the worst skier (never a comfortable position to be in).

There were two charming French teenagers in our English group, brother and sister, aged 16 and 18, who were really nice to us, and we had lots of interesting discussions on the chair lifts, comparing where they went to school and what their parents did etc. with our own lives. They could speak some English and my daughter and I have a fair bit of French, especially when we're together, because I'm better at French grammar and she's better at understanding French conversation.

And we had quite a few laughs as well. Like, for example, I told the boy (in French) that I thought he was the best skier in the group (which he definitely was) but that I was the worst, and he tried to say something in English which to me sounded like 'Av Raj' and I couldn't understand what he meant so I asked him to say it in French and he said 'moyen' (medium) and it took me ages to realise that what he was saying was that I was 'average' just because of the accent - and we had a good laugh about whether my French was better than his English (and it was very kind of him to say that my ski-ing was average for the group).

I was exceptionally touched when they asked me to 'tutoyer' them (i.e. use the familiar 'tu' form) because although they were teenagers they were adults really and I was being very careful not to offend anyone.

My afternoon French ski instructor was really great. He didn't mind at all that I was English and in his French ski class. And neither did the others in the group. There was a Belgian lady a few years younger than me, who could actually speak quite a lot of English (far more than my French) but we stuck to French as much as we could (for one thing the instructor couldn't speak any English so it would have been very rude if we'd gone into English), and then the 2 teenage French girls, cousins, spoke French to me, and it was about 4 days before I discovered that they could in fact speak perfect English but they wanted me to continue speaking in French to them.

I had a really lovely time speaking French with my afternoon instructor and it turned out that he likes just the same awful sort of jokes as me! So, he was continually teasing me about how we were going to go down some really dreadful looking bit of off piste, and I was saying things (in my limited French) like I was going to go and phone my husband to bring his tractor up here and flatten 'les bosses' (all the moguls) so that there wouldn't be any more moguls left to ski in Courchevel (because they were causing me so much trouble). And at one point we were in the chair lift discussing my problem with moguls and another French esf instructor sitting with us joined in and said his bag was full of alcohol and if I drank all that I'd be able to ski the moguls no problem!

And at the end of the week my afternoon instructor gave me a big hug and a kiss. He is a really nice person.

Pablo,
I'd like to think my problem with moguls was to do with my boots, but I've had several different pairs of boots in all the resorts we've been in, and the problem has persisted :cry:

Also, my daughter has the same hired boots and she has absolutely no problem with moguls at all.

Plus, I have actually improved with my foot turning action. In fact, it was a very lucky thing I'd spent the whole previous afternoon practising in moguls because I discovered that one needs just the same foot action to turn in powder.

Brooksy - I'd quite like to see a copy of the X-ray as well. However, as long as my toe gets better I don't suppose it matters whether it was a break or not. It feels pretty good this morning, but I haven't tried walking on it yet.

And whoever it was who wanted to know about the luge run (sorry I forgot about it) - we didn't go on it but it is apparently pretty good. It goes all the way down from 1850 to 1550 so I suppose it's a mile or a mile and a half long, and it crosses the piste at one point. You don't have to pay to use it but you have to buy/bring/hire a plastic sledge. People were using it during the day and especially in the evening. I think the gondola kept running until about 7 p.m. so that people could use the toboggan run. We could hear the screams (of delight) from the people using it because it ran pretty much past our apartment.

Ally

bandit wrote:I think we should see a pic of your broken big toe Ally :D

I'm afraid it's all wrapped up in a big bandage at the moment, Bandit, so there's nothing much to see. I'm supposed to go back to the GP on Friday for them to have a look at it, but presumably they'll just re-bandage it.

Sorry to disappoint you :wink:

Ally

Hi everyone,
I really don't know what happened to my toe. It is as much a mystery to me as everyone else. But I did have some pretty spectacular falls and goodness knows how much pressure they put on my foot, even through my boot.

I'm pretty sure I didn't have an infection in it when I was ski-ing, because my daughter's cousin who was ski-ing with us is actually a staff nurse on the surgical wing of our local hospital, and she had a careful look at it and said something like she thought it was physical trauma rather than an infection.

And I showed it to the vet yesterday, and he didn't think it looked infected either. But last night it started hurting again, and by today it looked quite red and swollen and nasty. It was especially painful because of course all the pressure gets trapped under the nail. Maybe some dirt got into it from my wellies when I was wearing them yesterday out with the cattle. And I wouldn't be at all suprised if I had some rough or broken skin somewhere on my toe. My feet did get all hot and sweaty when I was ski-ing (even though I had my nice new expensive socks on) and that's pretty bad for feet.

Broom - what sort of holiday are you looking for? If you decide on your priorities first it is much easier to pick the right resort - like - good nightlife, no drag lifts, ski-in and out, short transfers etc. :D

Ally

Hi Bandit,
Thanks for your concern. I'm pretty sure the boots did fit very well, because actually I had to take them back after the first day and get new ones. We were in such a hurry the first morning that I didn't notice that my right heel was lifting in the boot without lifting the boot/ski.

It must have either been actually ski-ing the moguls or falling over on them that broke my toe. I can't think what else it could have been. My foot was fine at lunch time when I skied down to my apartment for lunch and a rest. And I certainly didn't whack it before or after I put my boot back on - I'd have noticed that all right!

I think it is only a very minor break. I had it X-rayed and then afterwards I asked the radiologist (or whatever she was) if it was broken and she said the doctor would tell me. So I asked the doctor and he said something like 'Well, it's got a red dot on it but I'm not convinced and anyway it's not displaced so it doesn't matter', and I wondered what he meant. I asked the nurse and she said that the radiologists mark the breaks with a red dot to help the doctors, and she thought the radiologist was more reliable in this area than the doctor, and that it was broken.

My foot really hurts at the moment, but that's because the doctor stuck all those needles in it. Hopefully when the infection has quietened down the break won't cause me any problems. And anyway, I'm not planning on ski-ing again until October :D

Ally

Next installment:

My injuries

I was okay pretty much until Thursday. Thursday afternoon was spent with my nice French instructor and my 3 new friends learning to ski moguls. I was really hopeless at it. I don't know why but I was having a lot of difficulty turning my skis on top of the moguls in order to ski down the valleys. I could ski up and down the moguls in a straight line (if they were small enough) but I just couldn't get the foot twisting action to turn both skis parallel at the top of the mogul, say 45 degrees for example, and ski down the valley.

I could ski the 'canyons' (natural half-pipes) no problem, which is strange because as far as I can see one needs the same foot twisting action to go up one side of the canyon, twist and then go back down before going up the other side of the canyon.

And I could also ski the jumps in the boarder cross and the little ones in the forest tracks no problem.

I had a very annoying tendency to try climbing over the moguls one ski at a time, instead of keeping my skis parallel, and every time I tried doing this my very observant instructor would tell me off.

So, I spent the whole afternoon doing this, up and down moguls and going crash when I fell over. Eventually I got reasonably good at it.

Anyway, after my lesson I got back to my residence, took off my ski boots, and then my right foot started hurting - specifically my right big toe. I didn't pay much attention to it, and ate and drank and then I had a hot bath because I thought it would be a good idea to soak it. After this I gave my husband a quick ring to say hello, and then just after I'd said bye to him I found myself sitting collapsed on the kitchen floor - fainted :shock:

After that my toe was absolute agony, and I took some pain killers and put ice on it and lay in bed feeling awful. I didn't sleep very well but the next day I managed to get my boot on okay, so I thought I'd ski, and I had quite a difficult time because it was Friday, the powder day, and even though I told my critical morning instructor that I'd hurt my foot he still insisted on testing us and telling me off for not doing enough angling of my skis and leaning when carving.

I skied all Friday afternoon, and all Saturday, and managed to carry luggage round the place in order to get home - Eurostar 11 p.m. to 7-30 a.m. (slept on the floor in the buffet bar) and then our train home from 8-30 a.m. to 3 p.m.. And then yesterday I had to help my husband with a T.B. test with the cattle (I asked the vet to have a look at my foot as well!).

Today, I have been to casualty and I have a broken big toe which is now infected as well and the doctor stuck a huge needle in it 3 times to anaesthetize it and then drained out all the infection from under the nail. I also have antibiotics and pain killers.

So, ski-ing moguls seems to have broken my big toe :shock:

And I managed to ski for 2 days on a broken toe. Ski boots are obviously very good at acting like plaster casts and keeping breaks in position (my break isn't displaced or anything).

I will write the next installment about the actual pistes when I am feeling slightly better.

Thanks everyone for your comments - they are very much appreciated :D

Ally

Hi Gadget Girl,
The ESF 1850 meeting point is just outside the gondola that comes up from 1550. I noticed the different group signs hanging on wires up in the air. We just went straight away to the 1550 meeting point with the e-mail in our pockets (and they had our names on their pieces of paper).I don't know where the 1850 office is, but it may well be in the lift station. There seemed to be a lot of stuff in there when I walked through it. It's somewhere in that area anyway, and the place is just swamped in red suited ESF instructors first thing in the morning.

I booked all our lessons ahead of time, just to be sure. Why don't you try e-mailing them to see about your lessons?

I'm sorry you had such a useless first instructor, even if he was kinda cute :D

I think it's just the luck of the draw what sort of instructor you get. So, best of luck with your instructors :thumbup:

Ally

Tony,
You have to remember that you and I are very different people, and clearly we enjoy ourselves in different ways. I have had a really lovely holiday :D :D :D

The only thing I would change if I could, would be to make my morning instructor more relaxed and less critical. Quite honestly, he looked like someone who could do with a holiday himself :cry: I think he was only teaching us himself because they were so short of instructors at half-term. He also had all the work of managing the other instructors and trying to sort out the problems with people who were in the wrong group etc.

I like having two lots of lessons, and two different instructors, because apart from anything else it means that I have two chances of getting a nice instructor. I'm not sure how I'd have stood up to the constant criticism of my morning instructor if I hadn't had my afternoon instructor praising me and my efforts all the time. And it wasn't just me, the morning instructor criticized everyone. I only heard him say once 'parfait' (to one of the French in the group who was a brilliant skier - he'd been ski-ing for years).

Our morning instructor kept testing us all the time - making us ski individually while he watched us, after he'd given us some new technique instructions which generally didn't make much sense. And he made me very nervous. Like one morning, Thursday I think it was, he watched us turning individually on a steep slope (me first) and told me that I moved up and down too quickly (I bobbed up for a very short time to make my turn and then went down nice and low and secure pretty fast). My daughter did exactly the same thing as me, and also got told off, and then he said we'd all done it wrong like that.

So he said for an exercise we were to stay up and 'dive' down the mountain before turning. I don't think any of the English except me knew what he meant. And in French he said something like 'faire le grand virage et tout droit et controller la vitesse', which meant make a big turn and go straight ahead in the middle of it but control your speed. I only knew what he was talking about because I'd seen the excercise in my ski book, and I'd done something slightly similar but much easier in a previous ski lesson.

I was feeling really cross with him because he'd criticized me for going too slowly the day before, so I thought I'd let rip, and it was the most fun I'd had all holiday. I was sure I could do it under control because the slope was almost exactly like the bottom of the black one we'd spent 3 days ski-ing on in Tignes (when it was covered in ice). He skied down to the bottom and waved his ski stick and some others went down ahead of me (one of whom lost her ski and fell over).

Anyway, when it was my turn I thought I'd really go for it and 'dive' down the mountain. I stood up totally straight (like he'd said) and went straight down the mountain until I thought I was going fast enough to frighten him a bit and then went low into a carving turn and across the slope and then did exactly the same thing at the other side and all the way down, going really fast but not out of control so that when I reached the bottom I could ski slowly across to him. And he said I'd frightened him because he was afraid I'd lose control and I said 'Je gagne la medaille d'or?' which means 'I win the gold medal?' but even that hardly made him laugh. He had a totally useless sense of humour. So I said I'd buy him a drink to restore his nerves. And I said he should congratulate me for not falling over. As far as I could see I'd done the exercise perfectly but he could still only criticize.

I suppose I have a nasty sense of humour because I was laughing about it to myself for ages afterwards - because I'd frightened him a bit.

I do really like the social side of lessons. We all have a really good laugh together, and everyone is very kind at helping each other when we fall or we don't understand something. And I like improving my French.

Ally

Tony,
To be quite truthful, I don't think I fell over any more than most of the others in my group. Perhaps it is just because I ski in quite demanding lessons?

I wasn't really counting, but I'm pretty sure one person in my morning group fell over 3 times in one morning. And another morning I fell over first, because I couldn't see properly in the fog and the poor light and I didn't see a bump and I went over backwards, and then my daughter actually fell over :shock:

My daughter hardly ever falls over. She is a really stable skier. But she says that in one of her afternoon off piste lessons she fell over 3 times. She was, however, ski-ing in pretty difficult places - real off piste on moguls, not just down the side of the piste.

I suppose I should have kept a falling over tally for you - but I'm afraid I was having too much fun to keep count of all my falls :D

Ally