J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Neiltoo

bandit wrote:Personally I think we were gazumped

I can well believe it, I saw it happen a number of times.

Tony_H wrote:

bandit wrote:

Tony_H wrote:

Pablo Escobar wrote:the Aiguille du Midi

I have been looking into the prospect of "doing" this recently. Looks, erm, interesting.

One of the Guides Bureau told me I wasn´t a good enough skier to do the Vallee Blanche (unless you`re really planning to ski the Aguille du Midi, in which case buy life insurance now) :shock:

Thats interesting. I read an article in the Sunday Telegraph about the Vallee Blanche, and the journalist who did it with a guide was an intermediate skier with little off piste experience, and he said he was fine, and that any skier who was competent and reasonable would be fine.

I'm surprised by that too. I booked guides for many groups to do the Vallee Blanche and their standard line (the guides, that is) was if you are confident on red runs you'll manage fine. They can vary the difficulty depending on the exact route and the snow conditions do obviously play a part but its not seriously difficult. If you have a problem with heights though, the access is pretty scary.

Admin wrote:

Ms Graham praised staff for keeping up with the demand without any problems.
"It was a huge ask to keep up," she said.

They also have a cottage industry involving turning verbs into nouns and then exporting them (via the BBC) to the UK )

I'm well impressed that he's still skiing at 80. This last winter is the first year that my father didn't ski for 52 years [he's 78] I hope I'm still up to it at that age.

It was the 'ski jump' term that got me. Its like if someone had a car accident and drove over a pile of gravel at some road works and the reporter said that a motorist had driven off a 2 meter car jump. )

Pablo Escobar wrote:'Serious backcountry' is open to a lot of discussion. I would be impressed if by serious you meant North face of the Aiguille du Midi serious :lol:

There was a time when I used to think that if snow would stick to it I would ski it. Then I spent a year in Chamonix :shock:

The definition of what is skiable seems to change when you enter that valley. :D

Was this written by a local reporter who doesn't ski or are "2 meter ski jumps" common place on Australian ski hills? or am I just behind the times? are they 2 meters in height or length?

goodacre88 wrote:

do you know much about the conditions that can be expected at la grave during late december early jan?

thanks

Changes winter to winter.
Are you looking for lift accessible back country or are you looking to skin up?

Verbier has the best lift accessible off piste in the world imho. If you are planning to hike in then you could do a lot worse than the Vanoise National Park, lots of places to base yourself but the better known ones Val d'Isere, Tignes, Les Arcs.

"Acquiring its stake in 1999, CDA brought its widely recognized expertise to Téléverbier's development and governance. However, CDA has since determined that the particularities of the company and its environment prevent CDA from fully carrying out its role of industrial operator in the medium term." said a company statement.

What a very polite way of describing the Bagnard mentality )

Their period of involvement did coincide with a marked improvement in piste maintenance and a less friendly atmosphere in the village - both, or either could be coincidental.