J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by SwingBeep

The Swiss authorities have issued level 3 & 4 severe weather warnings for tomorrow and Christmas day; they are expecting a Föhn storm with winds of up to 140 km/h and in some places heavy snowfall.

Mouse over the map for more info http://www.meteoswiss.admin.ch/web/en/danger/danger.html

Snow Secrets has ceased trading. Unless somebody has started up a chalet operation very recently i think the only accommodation there is either in hotels or self catering. Ski 2 Holidays, http://www.ski-2.com/accommodation/ has a list of the hotels and a map showing how far they are from the lifts.

You could join one of the groups organised by the Compagnie des Guides for €82 p.p. if you have the unlimited skipass http://www.chamonix-guides.eu/Produit/20/Categorie/12/17-winter-activities.htm
Try to avoid doing it on a Friday as lots of people like to finish the week with a trip down the VB.

I've been repairing and reinforcing all sorts of outdoor gear including ski gloves with McNett Aquasure (now called Aquaseal) for over 25 years it's a moisture cured polyurethane adhesive / sealant so it's very tough and sticks to most fabrics. There's now a similar British product on the market that's a bit cheaper and not as viscous called Stormsure. The stuff Trencher mentioned is called Plasti Dip http://www.frost.co.uk/brands/plasti-dip-coating/plasti-dip-coating-429ml.html

If you can't extend their life I would look at other brands as well as Reusch. The top end Reusch gloves are very good, but most of the rest are pretty ropey, poor quality leather with cheap liners and insulation. Sport Burkhart in Garmisch-Partenkirchen sells nothing but Reusch gloves http://www.reusch-skihandschuhe.de/

The best ski gloves are made from goatskin rather than cow or sheep hide, have Goretex liners and good quality insulation such as Primaloft. Other brands with a good selection of good gloves include Hestra, Black Diamond and Leki. I would wait until you get out to Austria, you might get lucky in the New Year sales.

As a stop gap you could try a pair of Venitex leather ski resort workers gloves http://www.deltaplus.fr/index.html 15 quid from Snowshepherd http://shop.snowshepherd.co.uk/epages/es122028.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/es122028/Categories They will need waterproofing before use, don't use Dubin as it contains stuff that's detrimental to the leather and the stitching, wax based products such as Nikwax are much better.

There are off the shelf footbeds that will take up some of the slack and hold your foot better than those that come with the boots, the green ones from Superfeet are quite popular.

There are also other things you could do to take up some excess volume. Try cutting a piece of dense cardboard about 3-4mm thick the shape of the boot board and place it under the inner boot or wear a sock over the liner.

There are also some aftermarket products that might be of use http://www.stopheellift.com/products.html sells volume reducers and pads to stop heel lift. http://www.celsosport.it/italiano/boots.htm (scroll down to the bottom) sells a thing like a cut down wet suit bootee to put over the inner boot.

If you eventually buy some boots make sure that they are the right size for your smaller foot and have the other one enlarged to fit the bigger foot. My feet are both the same length but different widths; my boot fitter just makes the one that's too narrow a bit wider. If your feet are different lengths they can also be made longer if the fitter has the right tools.

Providing it's not too icy any of the skis you have listed should be fine. Unless the Head Titan you short listed is the new model (black & blue graphics) I would go for the Salomon, the Atomic is a bit too stiff in the fore body and the old Head Titan was a bit numb.

But, how the skis are tuned makes an enormous difference to how they perform, a well tuned mid range ski will ski better than a poorly tuned top of the range model.

I agree with Dave Mac that most skiers would be better served by a softer flexing mid range model. This is because lots of skiers have difficulty flexing their ankles, so they tend to be too far back on the skis which makes it difficult to apply enough pressure to the front of a stiffish ski.

No matter where you go there will always be a price spike during the school holidays. If you go to somewhere off the beaten track, the spike won't be as great as the one you are likely to experience going somewhere well known via Geneva. Check out Limone via Nice, Abertone via Pisa and the Alto Sangro area near Roccaraso via Rome or Naples.

The new regulations don't come into force until 1st January so if you're traveling before then there shouldn't be any problems unless the Swiss taxi drivers carry out their threat to blockade the airport on the 10th, 12th, 14, and 15th December.

David, if you pick your friend up from the Swiss side you will have to buy a Swiss motorway sticker (CHF 40) when you cross the border. You can avoid this by picking your friend up from the French side, finding the way can be bit tricky.



http://www.genevaairport.net/French-Sector/French-Sector-Sign.php

J2SkiNews wrote:

The Geneva Airport issue comes a few months after the Swiss authorities ruled that all staff working in foreign owned chalets should be paid the Swiss minimum wage, which is far higher than the normal package of perks including accommodation, skiing, food and living allowance many chalet staff receive and, some chalet operators warned, would mean they'd need to raise fees for holidaymakers making Swiss chalet holidays even less affordable.

Again that new legislation is currently being 'discussed at a high level' according to Swiss tourism officials.

As yet there is no minimum wage in Switzerland, but enough signatures have been collected to force a vote on introducing a minimum wage of CHF 4000 per month, which is about 2/3 of the average wage.

But, there are legally binding collective labour agreements that regulate working hours, holidays, and minimum wages in most industries. Until now canton Valais has issued permits for UK chalet staff without requiring that their employers pay the minimum wage for the hotel and restaurant industry, which for 2014 is CHF 3407 per month. At the moment they are thought to get CHF 1160 a month. In May the Zermatt hoteliers association made a formal complaint to the cantonal authorities citing unfair competition and in September the canton announced that they would require that the chalet operators complied with the collective labour agreement before issuing permits http://www.ollo.ch/medien/VSLO_GV_27_09_13.pdf

This is not new legislation, the federal law governing collective labour agreements came into force in 1941 and the hotel and restaurant industry has had one since 1999. This isn't really anything to do with the Swiss tourist authority. The relevant authority is the cantonal Department for Industry, Trade and Labour and the person to talk to is Peter Kalbermatten http://www.vs.ch/Navig/navig.asp?MenuID=21525&Language=fr