J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by AllyG

Hi everyone,
I was ski-ing with someone last week, for 4 days, in group lessons, sitting together on chair lifts etc. and I was convinced she was a girl - but even the ski instructor wasn't sure, and in the end he had to ask her brothers, and it turned out she was a he!

How embarassing :oops:

It's very difficult to tell when people are wearing a load of ski clothes, and in this case the boy's voice can't have broken yet.

And it's just as difficult when people are using avatars and nick-names etc. on-line. Just to be clear - I am female.

Ally

I have been several times now to Moutiers and Bourg St Maurice from London via Paris on the train. You have to get the Eurostar from St Pancras to Paris Nord and then go across Paris on the RER, two stops, to Paris Lyon and get the TGV train. It takes about 8 hours from London. And then it's about another hour, I think, from Moutiers to Meribel by bus.

I had a look at prices for you going out on the Friday and coming back on the Monday, and total return price was about £180- each, but they didn't seem to have any early trains on the Friday.

When you get to Moutiers you get the Altibus,altibus.com, to the resort. We went to Val Thorens, same area, and the price was around 25 Euros each return and the bus took an hour and a quarter. You can get the tickets online before you go.

But I don't think you could do it for under about £200 each total whether you flew or went by train. Flights are cheaper, e.g. £115 return each with Easyjet to Geneva out Friday back Monday, but transfers are a lot more expensive e.g. bus is 115 Euros return each from Geneva to Meribel.

I haven't tried driving, but there would be fuel, plus ferry or tunnel, plus road tolls, plus emergency recovery and insurance to drive in France, plus possibly chains etc.

Hitching a lift with someone sounds like the cheapest option.

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful,

Ally

Hi,
I am a newbie, but I can't think of anything particularly interesting to say right now except that I really like ski-ing, but I have just had my holiday, and I'm trying to work out how to survive without ski-ing until next February.

Do they sell ski patches anywhere? (sort of like nicotine patches, for ski addicts). Or is this board a ski patch perhaps?

So, I am feeling very sad.

Ally

Hello everyone,
I've just realised I forgot to say hello. I've been using this website for information about ski-ing for the last couple of years, without registering, and when I saw Jonny's post I thought I'd better answer it, seeing as I'd just come back from ski-ing with Prosneige in Val Thorens.

Sorry everyone.

Anyway, Jonny, I forgot to tell you where the Prosneige meeting point is. It's not with the ESF school (red ski suits), which is at the bottom of the Retour run that runs down through the middle of the village. We were ski-ing down from the Caron area to Prosneige, so we went down the Retour run and turned right, about where the ESF school is, and then skied on down the slope alongside the back of all the apartments etc. to the Prosneige meeting point (they have huge green flags up and they're all dressed in green ski suits). They are opposite the Cascade lift. And they have numbers up so you know where to stand. I think beginners are number 0. But there are loads of people around to ask if you're not sure where to stand. And with us, anyway, they had printed lists of all the people who'd paid and we didn't have to go to the office first, we just had to give in our names.

But I don't know how to walk there, because we never did, or where the shuttle bus stops. The roads in VT are very strange because the village is built on such a steep slope. They wind around like a serpent and if you try walking along one of them you pretty much double back on yourself. So, they have built in lots of short cuts for pedestrians. Like, there is one through the sports centre and the bus station next door. And there are several walkways over the road, and I believe, even under the road. It took someone in my ski group several days to work out the short cut from their apartment to the Prosneige meeting place, and as far as I remember he said it involved walking along a passage way, down a lift, and through a tunnel under the road, and out at the back onto the slope.

So, I would suggest you have a walk around when you get there and work out how to get through from the lowest road to the slope and the Prosneige meeting place.

I hope you have a lovely holiday.

Best Wishes,

Ally

I'm not sure which one you mean by the piste de Caron.

I have the piste map here and there is the black combe de Caron,the black cristaux, and the red col de l'audzin (which I think I did), all coming down from the Caron after you go up the Cime Caron.

As far as I remember (and I may be wrong here), the only black piste my daughter's teenage group refused to ski all week, was the black one under the Cascade lift, because I think it's the one which is horribly steep and plastered in really nasty looking moguls. If you want a challenge, how about this one?

Ally

Hi Jonny,
It sounds like you got on very well at the snow dome.Well done. It took me 2 ski holidays to learn how to do parallel turns and I still struggle sometimes.

I think ski-ing uses different muscles to the normal sort you use in the gym. I have a special ski exercise book I got free from Inghams, and it has lots of very useful exercises in it, that you'd never think of doing normally - like standing on one leg and leaning forwards and backwards like a hen pecking grain. And another one is standing on one leg and going up on your toes and then back down without actually touching your heel to the ground, and doing this 10 times on each leg. It is surprisingly difficult. Star jumps are another good ski-ing exercise. I did all these exercises for months before we went ski-ing and I can honestly say I didn't ache at all, or even get tired, after very demanding lessons morning and afternoon.

I had lessons morning and afernoon, with different teachers, and so did my daughter, so between us we sampled 4 different teachers. They were all very good at English. In the afternoon my daughter's teacher had to speak English, French, and Dutch, as they were a mixed bunch of teenagers, and he seemed to cope very well. All the teachers have to speak at least two languages. Have you looked at their website? I think it's prosneige.fr or something like that. They start the lessons an hour later on Sunday, at 10 a.m. to give everyone time to get their skis etc.

We got our skis from the Intersport shop in the Caron area, and the staff were very kind and helpful. I booked them on the internet months before, and got a very good discount on the shop price - I think it was a 40% discount, but it was ages ago. I had to pay a deposit on the internet and then the balance in the shop. They let you pick your skis to a certain extent. You specify blue, red, or black, for piste colour/experience/price, and then pick skis within this range. There were quite a few people in there, but I went early in the morning on Sunday, and it wasn't overcrowded. My red skis were great, really fast, and I even overtook the instructor (and everyone else) on the flat. And my daughter's boots were brand new.

I usually try and pick a ski hire shop which is the nearest to where I'm staying. I think there is a Twinner ski shop in the Balcons area, which is sort of like a mini resort above the rest of the town. There is an interactive map on the Valthorens.com website showing where everything is, and when you're there, the Tourist Office on the Grande Rue is very helpful with maps and anything else you want to know. I think there is a Prosneige office in the Balcons area as well, although I've never been up there.

I booked the apartment, lessons, ski hire, ski pass, trains and buses over the internet before I got there, which saved a lot of time. You can buy the ski passes on the Valthorens.com website before you go, and get them in the post. I think there is a specially cheap learners pass but maybe if you are a very quick learner you will want the whole Val Thorens pass.

It can be very cold and windy in VT so bring lots of warm clothes, like a neck warmer, and thick gloves, or an inner and outer pair. On one of the chair lifts there was a sign saying it was -15 degrees, and the week before we went it was down to - 30 with the wind chill, and apparently the doors on one of the gondolas froze so that no-one could get out until the lift men had somehow melted the ice.

If there's anything else you want to know, just ask and I will let you know, if I know the answer myself.

Best Wishes,

Ally

Hi,
Just got back from Val Thorens today, after staying up all night in the night train, so am very tired.

We had lessons with Prosneige, and found them fine. They will assess you the first morning, and then continually thereafter, so that you could easily move groups during the week - up or down, depending on how fast you learn and how you compare with the rest of your group. The teachers want as compatible a group as possible, because it is easier to teach that way.

I had a look at the Balcons Chalets, from the Plein Sud chairlift, which goes over the top of them. There seems to be a really horrible off piste black looking 100 yards or so to ski back to them. I saw lots of people stuck trying to do it. I should think the best thing would be to use the free 'Navette gratuite' ski shuttle bus which I could see goes to the Balcons area and all around Val Thorens.

I think it would be a horribly long walk from the Balcons to the Prosneige school, especially back up hill. At that altitude anything more than about 100 yards is killing when you're wearing ski boots and carrying skis.

We had a lovely week at Val Thorens - our second visit, and I'm sure you will too.

The other tip I have - is to get fit. It makes a great deal of difference to how you ski. And do lots of special ski exercises, like squats. It's surprising, but you also need good upper body strength so you can get up when you fall over, otherwise you just lie there like a stranded whale (this happened to me - most embarassing!).

Best Wishes,
Ally