J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by bedrock barney

Quick report on our first two days. Arrived Saturday evening with the snow cannons going full blast on the nursery slopes. Nice and cold and clear skies. Sunday 18th was a beautiful day. Blue skies, no wind. Between -2 and -5. Pistes in pretty good nick and certainly better than this time last year. Quite firm but no icy patches. No queuing to speak of and the pistes generally quiet. We skied Le Fornet in the morning, then above Solaise before and after lunch and then finished off on the Bellevarde side. The new Solaise gondola is excellent. Really comfortable and speedy. It also lands you a little higher up the mountain which allows for a quicker connection into the pistes.

The town was disappointingly snow free. Not seen it like this before. The Foehn was clearly very punishing at lower levels when it hit earlier this month.

All suffering from colds (other than me) so we had a slow start today. Didn't miss much though. Conditions were radically different. Snow flurries at village level but snowing a little harder higher up (generally light though). Very windy as well and the wind chill on some of the exposed chair lifts was vicious. -10 at mid station but probably near -20 with the wind. We skied down the verte into La Daille. Much better visibility but very busy as the OK currently shut after the downhill races. Consequently the pistes were awash with mixed abilities and no fun at all. Skied above Solaise for an hour or so after lunch but all voted for an early finish due to flat light and cold lifts. The Arcelle lift was shut and the Madeliene lift also shut down after we used it, presumably because of the high winds. Came back down to Gondola although had to wait as the rope cordon blew over and got jammed up between a gondola and the platform. Lots of jumping up and down and hand waving to alert the lifties!

More snow forecast tomorrow but hopefully Wed to Fri will be sunny.

It is snowing here in Val d'Isere. No more than 1cm so far. Will report more later.

Bonjour j2ski peeps!! Family BB in Val d'Isere and currently prepping for our first day. The seasonnaires were murmuring about the arrival of snow when sorting out our skis yesterday. We shall see!

Sunny day today though.

Will report later.

a bientôt!

Good stuff adders. Keep the pictures coming!

Will try to post some from Espace Killy from Sunday onwards.

Meant to say that I have a superb pair of Oakley sunglasses for bright days. I'll see if I can hunt down the spec (they weren't cheap!)

We spent ages in a specialist winter sports shop in London 3 years ago choosing new goggles and helmets.

We tried quite a few combinations of styles and manufacturers. The best fit, by far, was a Smith Optics Vantage helmet and Smith Optics I/O googles. The goggles have been excellent and they have swap out lenses although I have to say that in flat white conditions I'm a grumpy skier whatever lens I'm looking through! No problems with any fogging and really comfortable all day long. The helmet has also been brilliant. Really lightweight with the added advantage that it's bright green and I can therefore be seen by daughter no 2 when she's blasted off down the slope ahead of the rest of us....

Interesting points raised by all.

For me, convenience is the most important factor. I don't want to own a pair of skis and then be responsible for storing in the UK, yearly maintenance and carriage to and from the resort.

I much prefer renting a more or less brand new pair of skis each time I ski and having these stored centrally.

It might be possible to rent skis for £20 to £30 elsewhere but's an impossibility where we tend to ski. In terms of a rental cost I'm probably looking at a range of cost from maybe £50 to £60 at the cheapest to maybe £150 at the top end. I usually go 'upper middle'. Therefore, I am effectively debating between spending £60 and £120. In the context of the overall cost of the holiday, it's a relatively small consideration.

£23! Cheapest ever week for me was probably last season in Are, Sweden approx £80 for the week. That was for their top rated ski, new that year.

Paying around £120 for our upcoming trip. If I shopped around in Val d'Isere I could probably find some economy skis for maybe £80 but not worth the effort frankly. We tend to pick a hire shop because it's centrally located with new kit in for the season and the ability to leave our boots and skis there overnight (and the ability to swap skis to another set for no extra charge).