J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by andymol2

There is no significant evidence of harm from having the jab 4 weeks post covid.
They changed the advice to 12 weeks partly because there seems to be limited gain from a jab soon after covid. You have to weigh this up against the impact of the potential hassle not being jabbed will have on your holiday.
If there is no PCR (and thus no recovery certificate) it is unlikely any vaccinatination centre will decline to give him his second shot.

The need for a PCR test was dropped when Omicron was at it's peak because of the sheer numbers and when there is a lot of Covid around, proportionally the numbers of false positives are relatively small. The flip side is that for those who are travelling a PCR can remain positive for a long time after recovery and that might be a problem if a PCR is demanded for travel so cynically I would suggest that if you have symptoms or a positive lateral flow get a PCR as that will both confirm the infection and automatically generate a recovery certificate at 10 days.

I have heard it said that if you report a positive lateral flow the recovery certificcate may take up to 29 days to show although I don't know for sure. My PCR and my wifes PCR showed recovery certificates at 10 days.

SwingBeep wrote:

andymol2 wrote:They are hot on mask wearing in queues and lifts. The masks have to be FFP2 rather than surgical or home made masks. Puzzling as this grade is a slightly higher grade of snot catcher/deflector but afik not significantly more protective, unlike FFP3 which is effective at protecting the wearer rather than others around them.

According to tests carried out by the Max Planck Institute in Göttingen a tight-fitting FFP2 mask provides up to 75 times more protection than to a well-fitting surgical mask.

The problem is they rarely fit well and/or the users don't adequately wear them which renders them little more effective than surgical masks. Most of the FFP3 masks are more conforming which makes them more effective but, as somone who has to wear them at times thay would not be well tolerated by the majority of users.

Certainly the attitude of the Italians was much more positive to wearing maskscompared to the UK where make up is deemed more important!

Thank you for the info.

Just come back from Madonna Di Campiglio.

They scan the QR code from UK certificate's most recent jab. Not sure what they accept for children as our vaccination program differs from Italy for children.
Every morning skiers had their passes scanned by the officials at the base lift, followed by the green pass and the two linked for the day. Our UK one was read seamlessly as if it were the green pass. But we were all triple jabbed adults.
In theory you should be able to do this on the Dolomiti Superski app but they had technical gremlins with the app. (Affecting the locals with the Green Pass too)

When we have been we have tended to use the Ardent lift just outside of Morzine.

For me the French side of the Portes du Soleil is overdeveloped. Yes there may be lift capacity but the runs are crowded particularly in the second half of the season when the low lying runs have gone. The town of Morzine is nice and the runs would be good but for the volume of traffic.

I suppose the testing requirements of different countries are so fluid and the tour ops are a bit reluctant to take the blame for erroneous information. Some of the smaller ones probably haven't got the capacity within the organisation to be fair.

The changes to the UK return tests are truly illogical. Why decide to drop return tests in 2 weeks time? Either make the change as of now or wait and see what the situation in Europe will be in 2 weeks time? In reality the situation will not change much so do it now and save the hassle of certified testing.

It may be that Europe is planning some announcements and the UK changes are timed to be with that.

Interestingly my son-in-law's Covid vaccination record also showed his relatively recent infection as a recovery. (Caught it around the time of his booster)

At present, if you have been triple jabbed, all you need is your NHS Covid pass and a certified negative lateral flow test done within 24 hours of your scheduled arrival in Italy. You could do a certified PCR within 48 hours of arrival, but if you have had a recent infection there is a risk of this coming back positive because of remaining RNA in your system which can hang around for many weeks after infection. The lateral flows are a safer marker of ongoing infection.

The reality is that until the requirement for a negative lateral flow, no traveller can be sure they are going until they have the negative certificate to show at the departure airport.

The nhs Covid vaccination record, or more to the point the QR code of your booster works fine when you are required to show your green pass for bars, restaurants and linking to your ski pass to enable it each day. Save as a pdf on your phone's front page and just expand the QR code of your booster when you are asked to present your green pass.

They are hot on mask wearing in queues and lifts. The masks have to be FFP2 rather than surgical or home made masks. Puzzling as this grade is a slightly higher grade of snot catcher/deflector but afik not significantly more protective, unlike FFP3 which is effective at protecting the wearer rather than others around them.

The passenger locator form to return was a pain. Firstly rather than let you upload your Covid vaccination record, it requires an image of your 3rd vaccination QR code to uplaoad. Doesn't work well on an iPad unless you have already got it as an image file already on it. Easier on android (or a laptop where you can crop the QR code to 250*250 pixels)

My wife is due to have surgery on her foot to sort a bunion.

When sorted she is thinking of changing her boots which are getting old and getting new boots fitted to her "new" foot.

However I have heard that new boots won't be compatible with the bindings on "older" bindings. Marker bindings on K2 Superifics which are probably 7 or 8 weeks on.

Is this true? She loves the skis and doesn't want to change.