J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by AllyG

Hi Jon,
Don't forget you can have too much snow - as in a total white-out, or blizzard. Before I went ski-ing it never occurred to me that too much snow when I was actually attempting to ski would be a problem and prevent me from ski-ing. And if it's very windy they often shut the gondolas, which sometimes means, depending on the resort, that you can't get up to the beginners area. You'll then need to bring swimming things etc. and find something else to do for the day.

So, if you're praying for snow, pray it snows masses before you get there, and after that snows only at night, and that the weather is beautifully sunny with no wind during the day (don't forget your sun cream and lip salve).

Which resort are you going to?

I hope you have a great time, and become totally obsessed with ski-ing like everyone else on here.

Ally

Hi Slamb,
I'm sorry to hear about your knee on the ice. It is pretty hard ski-ing on ice, and I can quite see why you didn't want to do it again. I broke my shoulder on the dry slope at Pembrey a few years ago, so I was also ski-ing pretty carefully on the ice.

It does look as though there's going to be plenty of snow for you, though. Have a great time!

It's a pity we weren't all together at the Edge to Edge Camp - it would have been four middle aged women together (plus my 16 year old daughter of course). I had to go during half-term so that she could come with me, and I had to fit it in with cleaning our holiday cottages on Friday and Saturday before we left on Sunday. So we skied Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. It is quite confusing because they have people coming and going every day all week, so they never have a full dining room at supper time, because some people are always on their way back to Geneva or on their way out.

If you haven't been to Geneva airport before - we eventually discovered that they have a Starbucks, Upper Crust, and Burger King in the 'Jardins de Geneve' area on the top floor of the airport, and the food there isn't quite so outrageously priced as in the cafes and restaurants below.

Ally

Hi Jonah,
I have been looking after holidaymakers in our holiday cottage here in Pembrokeshire for 12 years now. I have had some pretty whinghy ones over the years, but generally most people are great.

If something goes wrong (like the smoke detector went off in the middle of the night for no reason once) I try and give them a small gift to make up for it, like a box of chocolates. If something breaks I try and fix or replace it as soon as possible.

And I try and be tactful and not put my foot in it (like saying 'wife' instead of 'partner'). It is very difficult to get the right balance between being helpful and interfering with their holiday. Some people want to know all sorts of things, and others like to pretend we're not there and prefer to find things out for themselves. So I just try and go along with what they want - after all, it's their holiday.

If the weather's good (plenty of snow etc.) they are more likely to be happy, but if it's bad they're more likely to look for something to complain about.

I hope you have done plenty of research on the resort, so you do know the answers if they ask you about something.

Best of luck,
Ally

Thanks Bandit,
I haven't heard of anyone doing that before for just for one week in one place. Anyway, I still hope he has a good time, and doesn't have any awkward customers, but only happy satisfied ones.

Ally

Bandit,
How do you mean, kind of working? Like a teacher on a school trip or what?

Ally

Jonah,
I am going to Courchevel, but not until Feb half-term, sorry. I hope your have a great holiday,

Ally

Thanks Tony,
I will have a look in our local TK Maxx shop (30 miles away) next time I'm there. It is one of my favourite shops. But I will also buy one of these very expensive pairs of socks and see if I can tell the difference.

Ian, best of luck with your new socks. I'm glad to hear you're still splashing out on very expensive new ski gear in spite of the recession :lol:. I will expect a full report on the socks when you get back.

Ally

Thanks Eljay,
But I'm not sure I'm a 'star' on Youtube. I'm just lucky I have a daughter with a camera that has a video function on it, and she didn't mind videoing her old mother. It is funny to see the difference between how you feel when you're ski-ing and what you actually look like :lol:

I can see I need to improve a lot more.

I am trying to tot up the total cost of our 3 day ski-ing trip to Tignes, plus half a day going around Geneva.

£222 for the chalet etc. with Mountainsun Ltd
£160 return flights for 2 people Bristol to Geneva
£30 240 miles of petrol to and from Bristol airport
£90 for a room in the Holiday Inn Bristol airport
£40 parking for 5 days at the above hotel
£70 for a room in the Ibis hotel Geneva airport
£240 for food (approx) in airport cafes and mountain restaurant for 2 of us over 6 days
£85 for private lesson
£35 for extra for currency surcharge in chalet, and extra ski insurance
10 swiss francs each for left luggage at Geneva aiport train station
7 Swiss francs each for a day travel pass around Geneva

Grand total around £994 for both of us.

The most annoying item is how much we spent on food in cafes etc. Food at Geneva airport was incredibly expensive, like 4.8 Swiss francs for a bottle of water. And we spent 30 euros on lunch one day at the mountain restaurant at Tignes.

But I suppose if we'd been at home I'd have spent a fair bit on food and doing something to amuse my daughter during half-term.

Tony - that's very kind of you to ignore my worst faults and think I'm 'sweet'.

Ally