J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by AllyG

Rossyhead,
I'm very glad to hear it. It's nice to know I'm not the only person who still falls over :lol:

Ally

Nelly,
I found my original 'fit to ski' book. It was exactly where I thought it was, only for some ridiculous reason I couldn't see it last time I looked. I can give it now to my husband's relative for her to use, as she's coming ski-ing with us.

And I've got a cold, so no running for a few days, just walking. What a pity. I was just starting to get fit again.

Ally

Nelly,
20 years of ski-ing is a long time - you must be pretty good now :D

I wonder what you ought to buy yourself as a 20 year anniversary gift ... china ... platinum ... mmm ... I know - another ski holiday! :D :D

It is also an anniversary for me - 40 years since I first skied! But I'm afraid I had a 30 year gap with no ski-ing :cry:

Anyway, congratulations on your anniversary.


Ally

La Rosiere?

Tony,
The falling over was just a joke. I thought you knew that?

Actually, I fall over a lot less than anyone else in my group. I don't think I fell over at all during my last holiday in Val Thorens, in either of my two group lessons. And yes, I did fall over at Tignes, but as I said, so did a member of one of those national ski teams ski-ing down the same patch of ice as us.

Some of the other people in my group in VT did some really dramatic crashes, though. One of them I remember was because the instructor skied down a fairly steep bit ahead of us doing lots of small turns and then made us ski down one by one, seeing how many turns we could make. I started off pretty well, but I was a bit over-ambitious and I nearly spun out of control, got myself back under control and finished okay. But another person totally lost it and catapulted forwards through the air to pretty much end up flat on their face at the instructor's feet.

And the last day, we were carving pretty fast down a red, and I was right behind the instructor, really enjoying it, and one poor person went 'smash' at top speed and nearly knocked themselves out.

A good lesson, I feel, is one that pushes you to your limits, without frightening you or endangering your safety, so you get the exhiliration, but not the fear. And naturally, ski-ing at that relative level of difficulty, sometimes people do fall over.

Ally

Just to add to the confusion;

In February, in Val Thorens, I had ESF group lessons morning and afternoon with two different teachers but at the same level - Upper Intermediate.

The morning lessons were really great with a very well balanced group of people and we got on to carving reds, beginning off piste, very small jumps, blacks etc. and at the end of it the instructor said I should move on to the advanced ESF group next holiday.

The afternoon group was very badly balanced, with lower intermediate children mixed in with the adult upper intermediate group and ski-ing was very difficult. However, we still did off piste, over small jumps, blacks etc. and at the end of it the instructor said I should stay in the Upper Intermediate group, but that I was a strong intermediate.

So, even instructors from the same ski school have a different grading standard.

As far as lessons go, it doesn't really matter anyway, because in all the lessons I've been in the instructors always grade you on the first day and then move you during the week if you progress faster/slower than everyone else so that they can try and keep everyone in the group at roughly the same level.

On Tony's list I would grade myself as a 6/7 and I would call myself a strong intermediate.

I think you'd have to be pretty confident in your own abilities to call yourself advanced, and I should think that very few British holiday skiers get to expert standard.

Ally

Tony,

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Thanks Tony,
I can do most things on here now. I haven't tried posting a webcam yet, though, so I don't think I can do that, and I don't know what those other buttons do - 'code' 'google' 'flash' or 'WMV'.

The other thing that bugs me is that I'm not sure which smiley means what - like what does a red tongue symbolize? The other website I used to go on told you which smiley meant what, when you hovered the cursor over it. And I also think, if you're very clever, you can import smileys from elsewhere.

It's a great pity I don't apply myself nearly as much as this when I'm trying to sort out our accounts for the taxman :roll:

Ally