J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by SwingBeep

A taxi from Zürich airport to Wengen will be expensive, I would expect it to cost in excess of CHF 700. Why don't you just take the train? There is a railway station beneath the airport, a second class single ticket to Wengen costs CHF 87.40, a ticket to Lauterbrunnen will be a bit less. If you are returning to Zürich the Swiss Transfer Ticket will cost less than a full price return train ticket, but you must buy it before you arrive in Switzerland http://www.sbb.ch/en/leisure-holidays/holidays--short-breaks-in-switzerland/swisstravelsystem/swiss-transfer.html

No matter what make or type of helmet you buy it's most important that you do the strap up properly, if you wear it loose like this

it could come off in a fall or collision.

Last season whilst riding on a chair lift I saw a helmet rolling down a piste, the person who had been wearing it was lying unconscious some distance above it, shortly afterwards a helicopter arrived.

Next time you're standing in a lift queue, look around and see how many people haven't got their chin straps fastened properly.

I don't need to find out which way the wind is blowing, I have a live feed from 21 local weather stations :D . This is today's trace from the weather station at Felskinn above Saas Fee; Richtung = wind direction.

I think Ingams have also stopped ski hosting in Italy
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/snowandski/skiing-news/11241435/Ski-hosting-cancelled-in-Italy-as-prosecutions-loom.html

If any TOs are still offering ski hosting in Italy they are taking a big risk. According to article 18 of Italian law no. 81 "Legge-quadro per la professione di maestro di sci e ulteriori disposizioni in materia di ordinamento della professione di guida alpine", only qualified ski instructors or mountain guides can provide this service. As in France ski instruction / mountain guiding is defined as paid accompaniment ("l'accompagnamento retribuito di clienti"). As these are regulated professions abusive practice is subject to criminal sanctions. If the authorities catch someone working illegally they are prosecuted under article 348 of the penal code "Abusivo esercizio di una professione", they also use this law to prosecute people who practice medicine without a licence. In April the Senate voted to dramatically increase the penalties (I don't know if they have come into force yet) if found guilty you could be fined 10,000 - 50,000 Euros and imprisoned for up to 18 months, anyone employing an unqualified person can be fined the same amount and imprisoned for up to 2 years. If someone is killed or injured whilst being accompanied by an unqualified person the terms of imprisonment are up to 18 years in case of death and 3-12 years in case of injury.

If that wasn't bad enough, under article 2048 of the Italian Civil Code ski instructors / guides are responsible for any damage caused to third parties by their clients. If it was found that they were working illegally their insurance would most likely be void.

It's also been very windy.

Most tour operators have stopped ski hosting in Italy, they were informed in September that it contravened Italian law.

The ESF did not bring the prosecutions, they were brought by the French authorities, under French (and Italian) law ski instruction is defined as paid accompaniment. The ESF is a civil party (partie civile), the French legal system offers people who have suffered injury as a result of another's violation of the law, the possibility to claim compensation. When the victim chooses to take this opportunity in a criminal proceeding, he declares himself a partie civile. The ESF is a cooperative, the local ski school directors and committees are elected annually, if they hadn't declared themselves as a civil party they would have risked losing their positions at the next election.

Some people employ an instructor just to guide them round a resort, make restaurant bookings for lunch etc., you don't have to have instruction if you don't want it. One of my friends works in Zermatt, he spends about 30% of his time doing this http://stoked.ch/en/ski-and-snowboard-school-zermatt/adults/vip-unlimited/

According to the letter of the law there is no legal requirement to use winter tyres in Austria or Germany between the end of October and the end of March, the laws are situational. It is only mandatory to use them when the road conditions are 'wintery', if there is neither snow, slush nor ice you don't have to use them. There is also no legal requirement for car hire companies to provide them. When the laws first came into force the hire companies charged extra for them, but these days they are fitted as standard and the cost is included in the price. If you book via an agency they might still charge extra for them.

If I need a hire car I usually rent one from Europcar, their German website states (unfortunately only in German) that between 31.10 and 31.03 all their cars are fitted with winter tyres http://www.europcar.de/mietwagen-winterreifen

Winter tyres are also fitted as standard in Austria between 01.11. & 15.04. and in Switzerland between 01.11. & 31.03

They are not fitted as standard in France and Italy, but they are available. Try the search strings: voiture location pneus neige and noleggio auto pneumatici invernali.

Iceman, as mentioned previously I've lived in the Alps for quite a long time, this is my 25th season. The 1989/90 season also had a really bad start, it didn't snow until about the middle of January.

In the early years I used to help out with snowmaking at one of the small local areas, back then it was a pretty labour intensive business, manhandling snow cannons and fire hoses at temperatures of –10°C and below is extremely hard work. These days most of them are plumbed in and controlled from a nice warm control room. So I know from firsthand experience how much snow a snow canon can make at a certain temperature.

I found the information about snowmaking in Tyrol in an article on the website belonging to the Austrian equivalent to the BBC http://orf.at/ I thought "Wow that's a lot of snow" or something roughly equivalent!

Austria has invested an enormous amount of money in snowmaking, about 60% of the pistes there are covered in artificial snow. In order to do that they have made some pretty big alterations to the landscape, I don't think you could get away with building something like this elsewhere.



Unfortunately I don't think they have much choice, winter tourism, ski equipment manufacturing, building ski lifts, piste machines and snowmaking equipment account for about 5% of Austrian GDP. The UK retail sector also accounts for about 5% of GDP, so it's tremendously important to the economy.

The future is going to be challenging http://www.academia.edu/3213455/Snowmaking_and_climate_change_Future_options_for_snow_production_in_Tyrolean_ski_resorts This year has been the warmest since records began 247 years ago, November and December were over 3 degrees warmer than the average temperature from 1981-2010.