J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Ranchero_1979

Has anyone ever tried Skier Edge trainer; if so how was it? Am a big believer in muscle memory and can see how it would help with body separation as well as fitness.

Big chap so even a really stiff ski is going to work. Personally I am not keen on Volkl as somehow feel am not 'man enough' for them. Definitely worth contacting the shop you intend to hire from in advance as most now seem to have their default skis around the 80mm mark. Whole lot less fun than something narrow if you can get hold of it. Remember you can go pretty short on these, around chin height with boots on.

Have to say am a little bemused by all this talk of where is snow. Right not we are no worse than any other season and glaciers are much better off due to wet summer and a lot of early high snow.

Historically if you go to a resort in Europe without a glacier skiing before 3rd week of December you are taking a gamble. Long term forecast is looking like freezing down to 1000m around 8th of December and snow from 12th onwards for Northern Alps.

Am off skiing on Wednesday in full knowledge that good food, wine, some time in gym or hiking is how my time will be spent. Many times better than work!

Interesting question and you are correct is confusing. A ski can be moved edge to edge as fast as your legs can work and certainly by today's standards it would be considered narrow. Only way to improve this is some quick feet drills on and off the slope. It does however have a relatively big turning radius ~19m, if you want to turn with a shorter radius than that you will need to combine an element of skid in your turn. Doing nice rounded turns is then simply a matter of practice.

I am going to assume that you actually felt the ski didn't help you engage into a turn fast enough. It would seem to me that you are probably just not putting ski on enough of an edge to fully let it steer, so it felt like quite a straight ski. Any ski with an early rise for powder can feel like a bit of a plank on-piste as you need to work much harder to engage the tip, with much greater angulation. Once you engage the tip you get that powerful steer feel. Skiing dynamic on that sort of ski requires a lot of effort from the skier.

In general I would suggest for piste skiing go for something 75mm or less. If you want to go offpiste go for 100mm or more. In-between you just end up with a compromise that requires a lot more effort from yourself.

Mark,

Looking at snow reports seems that they have a base up high. No resort in Alps has snow down to BG village level and would be an extremely rare year for this to be possible in November, I would relax, accept that your skiing will be limited to above 2000m and you will be taking a lift down. In my mind that is exact scenario that people would of told you to expect when you booked.

99% of the time a long lift wait in the morning is associated with delayed opening as pistes are still being secured. Dark mornings in early season make this a given and inevitably it results in a choke point for 30min after opening, whatever time that happens to be. Anyone who moans about that should have their pass revoked so others in line don't have to listen.

Have to see current forecasts are as good as it gets. We have had plenty of early snow up high to fill in glaciers so they are safe to ski. Now is clear and cold with freezing level around 1300-1500m for the next week or so, meaning next snows will form the base. Anyone wishing for snow down low so early in Winter is basically hoping for a weak layer that will ruin the whole season for most of us. Mid December - Late April is the season, hold off the snow dance for another 2 weeks at least.

Have to say I loved Bulgaria. Even if skiing is somewhat limited, is no less so than skiing Norwegian West Coast resorts. I would not read too much into absolute snow depths, given the vast majority of us would never notice if 50cm of 2m of snow was beneath us and most of the higher resorts in Europe suffer from requiring substantial snow to cover rocks.

Add to this great people and makes for an enjoyable place to dip your toes without breaking the bank.

Anyone who requires more than a hot shower and bed in a ski resort is frankly high maintenance.

Like anything in life, go with the correct mindset and you will have a great time.