J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Ranchero_1979

Your main issue is 100% technique related, do some group lessons. Still absolutely the most fun you can have skiing and guess what watching others both rests your legs and allows you to visualize mistakes until your body can actually feel what is wrong which will take 20+ ski weeks.

As for fitness apparently most of us ski for 45 seconds before stopping. That means when trying to get fit you need to work in this sort of time frame and obviously need to be able to do 4-5 repetitions 1 min apart in order to simulate a ski run.
Few things you could try to test if you are actually there.
Squat with say 50% of body weight on bar for 45 seconds
Spinning flat out at medium torque and 100+ RPM
Skipping rope 45 seconds
etc, etc.

Excellent climbing conditions though, time for people to diversify.

I would strongly recommend having ski lessons for first few weeks. Without them you simply won't progress or worse still you will hit a low plateau because of bad habits previously picked up. My major regret in skiing is not having more lessons and perhaps even some casual race training. Yes I can ski okay but technique or lack of eventually shows up.

Saas Fee is not one of the resorts I would associate with Geneva; from where there are 10's of good resorts within 1 1/2hrs drive. Early season conditions are looking good; there is a 1/2 decent base which will will be nicely consolidated by the current cold stable conditions. That means you can basically take you pick.

Looks like there was a good dusting overnight. How much we get today and the temperatures over next fortnight will determine how the ski season kicks off.

US and Canada are always much cheaper than Europe (30-50%), especially Canada this year due to currency deflation associated with oil prices. All things being equal you should really just buy the best equipment you can afford. If you are only doing 2-3 weeks a year then good clothing, boots, backpack etc. should last 10+yrs. Just buy the best brand that fits you well. Outdoor equipment is really one of those few areas where the tiers of branding is directly correlated to quality and durability of equipment.

Skis; I still think there is a lot of innovation happening with ski shapes so really question value in buying given you can rent literally any ski these days. If you do buy then price should be of little consideration, just go for the best one you tested and no regrets. You can always get deals in resorts close to ski factories e.g. Bulgarian, Pamporovo, Atomic; but bit of a strange logic to plan your holiday around buying skis (nothing against Bulgaria which I still think offer good value skiing).

I think it is your terminology which is confusing people you have contacted.
A Guide in France by definition is IFMGA certified and is around 350 GBP a day but is highly unlikely to be interested in what you described above.
A private ski & snowboard instructor is what you need and any school would be able to provide you with this. Sounds like a job for one of the newly qualified instructors. Hope weather is good as can only imagine the faff involved with a group of that size.