J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Dave Mac

WE tried lst year, to add ski carriage during the week prior to leaving, and were told that the passenger and ski carriage list had been sent out on the Tuesday, 4 days before the Saturday departure.

Klosters ~ very Pleasant skiing, and good value lift pass for the amount and quality of skiing. Run over to Davos is very pretty. Klosters is a fair sized town, so watch your location to the ski bus or gondola.

You will almost certainly encounter some plum-voices in the Gondola, just try not to feel too sorry for them. If you are sharing the Gondala with Prince Charles, just tell them Davy Mac sent you :wink:

Tony-H wrote:

but I see Crystal are doing 2 for 1 lift passes if you book in the next few weeks for a handful of resorts, including Selva, Zermatt, Verbier and Serre Che. Nice.

Tony, I remember you once said that Zermatt was on your hitlist. If you can get that kind of deal, (2 for 1), then given the international lift pass price of £216, you would save a lot.

Can recommend Hotel Atlantic as a quiet hotel, modest cost, in the town. Good food, no bar after the meal. Mostly German-speaking guests, which I prefer. At that time of year, pay the £4.50/day for a mountain view. Think they are Inghams though.

Agree with Trencher and Bandit. If you don't know what you want, then I suggest you rent skis. You generally get a good price from SkiSet. Explain to them what you think you want. Try them for a day or two, and think about how they are performing for you.

After a day or two, exchange them for a shorter, softer pair. You will be surprised at the difference in performance.

Then, unless you fall in love with the skis, ( I have had several passionate romances over the years), change them again. Do make a written note of the ski specifications, and what you felt about them.

After two/three holidays like this, you should be able to have a fairly good grasp of what suits you. It costs you a rental fee, less the amount you pay for air shipping your own skis, less something for the facility to try new and different skis.

So now you have the "what". Then go to the "how, when, where, how much" so as to buy some skis. By that time you may have decided that rental is a good way for you to keep up with modern skis.

Good luck

Ahh Pavel. I think you reveal too much. This post will test relationships! Far better to quietly acknowledge the ladies' skills, but do so quietly. Now for your points.

1. Don't teach your wife to ski (or drive) it is too emotive. The man will try to resolve the emotional problem, not the technical issue.

2. With regards to skiing with my wife, there is no greater skiing joy for me than skiing side by side, turn for turn. Last year, in Saas Fee, there was a set of conditions, (moguls with deep fresh snow over, that cried out to use downward unweighting as the best technique. I wanted to show our friends how this could help, so I asked my OH to demonstrate. With good reason, I have to say, she is heaps more stylish than me at DU. What a coward was I!

3. Know about skiing. This may be good advice. It is not true in our situation, I have the engineering principles as an advantage. But when you look at the way Bandit approaches issues, she is clearly knowledgable, and interested in furthering ski knowledge.

4. Complaining about ski conditions. Mmmmm .... nope. Not in Niederau. This is where my Blackburn ski friend, halfway down a sheet ice run, says "Not bad Mac, you can move it, know what I mean!"

Not that we ever actually use the word "Ice". "It's a bit marbley Mac?", "Bubbley underneath", "Bit nippy, here and there" All of which, my frau says, "Sheet ice then?" This is realism, ours is male bravado. Don't get me wrong. The OH is just as capable, skiing the difficult stuff. She just prefers to have a G&T, and look at the view. And who can knock that? Much smarter than me.

5. No arguements with this one Pavel. My OH is always keen to try new equipment, and discard if it doesn't work, try something else. I, on the other hand, skiied on the same skis for 26 years. Length ~ 210s!

After the above reflections, what I agree with is:

No ski is too hot for a women!
No ski run is too difficult for a women!
No ski condition is too bad for a women!

It all depends on your attitude and skiing competence!

Hi Pavel,

Confirm Karen72's observation, the jacket picture did not appear in the initial posting.

Having seen it, I quite fancy that jacket myself. I have a lightweight Berghaus for March/April skiing, yours looks more stylish.

Would you accept an entry from a Davina Mac?

Ise wrote:

This matters as off-piste avalanches tend to occur around the 28 degree mark so knowing a slope angle is a big deal, that's a reflection of a two part fluid dynamics problem if we looked at a spontaneous failure of a slope but it's also worth considering the mechanics of a skier on the slope, a skier creates about twice as much traction on a 45' slope as opposed to a 20' slope. This is why skiers need to understand a little of slope angles and maths if they're venturing off piste and be able to read and understand information in guidebooks and on maps. It's also why I personally carry an inclinometer.

Steep off-piste is easier than steep on-piste in my book but that might be relative

Interesting tech info here Ise, I have seen some wind slab avalances on slopes that looked quite innocuous. There must a huge number of off-pistes with a slope greater than 28deg.

I think that a piste steepness value can be mis-leading, in that a key factor is how much space there is to work with, ie sustained slope width. I'm sure that you will have done the odd run where you had to make the turns. Conversely, where the piste is wide, there is space to get out of trouble should you miss the turn.

I do believe there is scope for improving piste info to give more than "red", or "black" America does give a bit more, in qualifying black runs.

Tony-H wrote:

ON THE PROVISO that you find some things similar in Niederwhatsit and post pics on here.

I have hard discs full of N pictures, and a few paintings of same. Only prob is, I don't know how to post pictures on the site.

Have only just worked out how to opereate a VCR, only to find the rest of the world is using a DVD thingy.

Need help, (with posting pics, not the VCR)