J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by andymol2

I guess they price at level the market will stand! Peak season is a battle for limited flights & accomodation so tour operators get away with higher profit margins. Off peak the situation is reversed when it can be a case of minimising the losses by selling holidays at a loss.

Rip-Off Britain is far from dead. That said some of the tour operators have ceased trading so it's no as simple these days.

If you are prepared to drive and make your own arrangements then half term can be a lot cheaper than if you opt for a package.
Half term prices don't seem to jump so much for North America.

There are to sound ways of buying boots.

1) Go and get them fitted by a proper, experienced boot fitter. (I got mine from White Mountain in Wolverhampton).

2) Good second hand from ebay. It's usually better and chaeper than a smelly hire boot. If they don't fit you sell them on all it costs is postage (unless you collect). They may fit, they may not but you are no worse than with a poorly fitted new boot and more money in your pocket.

Ebay is great for kids boots - recycling & no hire charges!

Adults may get lucky & get a pair that fit well but once you know you are hooked on skiing you should go for option 1 but only buy new from a reputable fitter.

We went at half term 2 years ago to El Tarter which is just up the road from Soldeu (not as much Apres as it's a small village) however they are part of the Grand Valira ski area and are just a few minutes skiing apart.

Pas De La Casa didn't look too inspiring to stay in - we popped up there to do some shopping.

There is pleanty of skiing unless you want advanced off-piste stuff. Contrary to popular myth there were negligable queues (considerably fewer than in the Portes Du Soleil the year before). They have a lot of snow guns and make use of them so a lot of the slopes are kept open even in poor snow years.

My challenge was to learn to few word of the local language which failed miserably as most of the hotel and mountain workers were Argentinian students who were working their vacations. They spoke Spanish & English fluently but no Catalan.

The on mountain cafes were not great but we found that skiing down to the bottom in El Tarter took us to hotels with terrace cafes that backed onto the piste for lunch.

I'm sure I'll go back at some point (nearly went this year for a boys weekend but no flights available). My wife would like to ski it - she spent that week in the hotel gym rehabing her knee after her cruciate repair (the year before) & my eldest missed half the week with tonsillitis!

bandit wrote:Right, now I've got decent connection and the right cables. Here is the image of my pal's helmet with the offending rock in his hand.



The area where this happened is in view just above and right of the helmet, you can see our tracks where we came back onto the piste.

I'm not convinced that a bobble hat would have been much use :shock:

It would - you could put it over the helmet to keep his head warm where the hole is!

It is sad to watch the snow retreat up the mountains.

I guess the Southern Hemisphere is a tad too far a week on the snow.

Is that the place that the "Hairy Bikers" visited on one of their tours.

The unforgettable sound of Dave Myers skiing past in his bike year yodelling as he went past Si King cooking one of the local dishes on the mountain!

There was ample profiteering going on by the sound of it.
One of my partners was in La Tania - the chalet company wanted E200 each to take them to Calais.

He rang our manager who arranged a local coach firm (GH Watts of Leicester) to drive out & pick their party and another group - 28 in all at £90 a head including the crossing & drop offs at airports to collect cars.

I'd take all temperature readings in Canada with a pinch of salt.
Toronto has lots of temperature indicators on it's buildings - they seem to try and see who has the highest readings. Some were reading 26 degrees c & I needed a jumper! So I suspect the ski resorts do the same with the minus figures!

It's April, so it's not unusual to see pistes melt away in front of your eyes (almost). Last year in La Plagne one of the reds down to the cable car that links it to Les Arcs dissapeared within a day. Wednesday it was fine - Thursday it was open only to give us an "Oh Sh**" moment as we bombed round a bend to discover the piste was now just grass.
It's not unique to tremblant at the end of the season.
Drunken students are hardly unique however I guess the proximity of Tremblant to the States may well make it a popular venue with those who take advantage of Canada's lower dingking age - (Presumably an issue in the school/college vacations)