J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Ranchero_1979

One pair of old socks sounds minging!

Always buy the best socks you can afford, 35 euro seems to be about the going rate for them these days. Personally I prefer something not too thick, and make sure you get correct size (smaller is better if you are between). Unless the boot liner or sock itself is wet thin socks are good enough for all but coldest days.

Climbed Chevallier Couloir on 29th and topped out on PAV, brilliant conditions when stable. All the couloirs NE slopes leading up there are 40-50 deg (assumption they were on one of them) so perfect for holding snow. Must have been tough going before the incident. For sure they won't be the last to get caught out this week, stay safe.

Another 10cm in town overnight and now is coming big :-). Only 1.5M in the 2 weeks forecast :-0. If anyone is about and wants to ski on morning of 6th let me know.

Have to say I really doubt is the boot cant regardless of where they are set you will have enough power to flex them where they need to be. You seem to have linked your boots to skiing badly when is almost certainly a combination of technique and flexibility.
The good news is boots are never very comfortable for the first week until you have packed the lining out, so at least this will give some relief. However if you really want to fix the problem:
1) Book a few morning lessons. As soon as you are off balance point it becomes very difficult to properly flex knees and ankles. This in turn is resulting in your feet ligaments being stretched and hence the pain. If you don't fix this the below will not really help that much, just delay the onset by a few runs.
2) Start ankle and calf stretches now. Flexibility makes a huge difference to the comfort of your feet whilst skiing.
3) Buy a golf ball and start to roll it under your feet focusing on the inner and out foot ligaments. This will help to lengthen them a little before ski holiday.

Is falling pretty hard in Chamonix and looking like a huge week of snow ahead. Only part of me is glad it has arrived, superb climbing and glacial skiing conditions to be found over the last few weeks on very stable snow base. Yes piste skiing was getting a bit hard but main issue was people flocking to GM from the lower resorts in region. Anyway few days of watching out the window and then time to get the fat skis out and cross fingers that can't touch the bottom.

Skied Chamonix this morning, piste conditions are not bad. Main issue is everyone is being forced to same areas which means you cannot really open it up. Still good to feel a bit if burn.

Courmayeur should be a good choice, plenty of sun, good snow record and great restaurants on the slopes. The Easy skiing extends high up the mountain although am not sure where the beginners slopes are. Either way would recommend a few lessons in UK, so you can get on blues which opens up the whole mountain.

Have never really considered heli skiing in NZ, but having done a few weeks in the resorts it is the only thing that would tempt me back. In my mind it seems to offer something very similar to that available in Europe. You are above the tree line on big slopes, which must make it hit and miss on terrain availability depending on snow pack. I would imagine it compares to say getting a getting a drop in Courmayeur or Monterosa but I doubt it can match the vertical of Europe where ~2500m.

Heli skiing in Canada was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed the challenge of tree skiing in Canada which was far superior to anything I have experienced in Europe. The vertical did frustrate me though as we seemed to spend more time in helicopter than skiing as avalanche risk was too high to get out of trees. Yes it was just a bad week but still.

Personally for me the best experience would be some heli assisted skiing. Get dropped off somewhere remote, where some nice person had already made a fire and put up tent. Spend weekend with perhaps one or two drops and rest of time skinning (which is by far the most satisfying skiing you can do).