J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by AllyG

No,
My family have been very strange for generations.

Ally

Thanks Ellistine,
That hostel looks fine and very cheap too. But thinking about the exhaust is making me feel sick already.

Ally

Thanks Ellistine,
Which youth hostel was it - if you can remember?

I just need to get over the global warming/sick in a coach after more than 1 1/2 hours problem and I could go ski-ing in October for 3 days for only £150-

Ally

Tony,
I hope your daughter finds a 'proper' job, after going to all the trouble of getting a degree. It must have been tough on you and your wife, having a baby at 18.

What you said about Uni's made me think a bit. I went to Uni, so did my mother before me, and her mother (must have been one of the first women - she was at Glasgow Uni in about 1910), and her father before that - he was a Doctor and a Minister and he worked with Lister in Glasgow Royal Infirmary. But I don't know if his father went.

So, we have a long family history of going to Uni.

Ally

Ellistine,
What is there to do in Geneva? I don't like art galleries or museums, although I do like castles and old buildings. And I don't like fancy shopping either, unless it's to do with home furnishing or building. But I do like walking, and sailing.

How does it work - trying out their gear? How do you pick what to try out, and do they let you use it for the whole 3 days? I'd want skis and boots.

Thanks,
Ally

It's a pity we couldn't get the train to Bourg-St-Maurice, instead of Geneva, because it's only 1/2 hour transfer from there and the bus tickets are only 26 euros return, but I don't think there are any direct trains there from Paris until the ski season starts.

The only options I could find were changing again in Chambery Challes, or getting the overnight train from Paris Austerlitz. But the tickets were cheaper, around £200 each from London.

Ally

Well, just be grateful you don't live on a small island in the South Pacific ocean, or you'd probably become a refugee within the next 10 years.

Although parts of London, for example, may well disappear under the waves in the next 50 years or so. And the climate for all of us is becoming more violent, and unpredictable due to global warming.

Ally

Admin,
I think it's impossible to get a true measure of how much carbon we produce when we go on our ski holidays, but I'm quite sure that it's a lot less going by train than by flying.

Eurostar says that their train only produces 14 Kg of CO2 on the return trip from St Pancras to Bourg-St-Maurice, whereas the plane produces 148 Kg CO2.

There are a lot of factors to consider.

For example, short flights are actually worse than long flights, per mile, presumably because of the extra fuel required for take-off and landing. And the carbon efficiency of all forms of transport depend on how full they are. So I would imagine if I was the only person on the train it would be much worse than a full plane.

But we travel during Feb half-term, and the trains from West Wales to London, and the Eurostar from St Pancras to Moutiers, are full (as presumably would be the planes). In fact, the Feb half-term direct train to Moutiers sold out practically straight away and I was lucky to get tickets. And I think we all know how full the underground is when we cross London!

And, it's not just the journeys one has to consider, but the CO2 produced during the production of the trains/planes, and maintaining the railways and airports etc.

Plus, one also has to consider other things in one's lifestyle - like heating during the winter, car travel etc. I produce a lot of CO2 driving around during the year, because we live in the country and I have to drive everywhere and I do about 10,000 miles, or 16,000 Km p.a. which equates to about 2,200 Kg of CO2 with my car. But during the winter we usually only have one radiator on in the house, so we don't use much fuel, although I can't measure it because we share our oil tank with the holidaymakers - and likewise with the electricity.

Ally