J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Wanderer

There is a small regional airline in Ireland that services some of the offshore islands. They use small planes carrying about 10 passengers. As part of the check-in procedures, each passenger is weighed and allocated a seat accordingly to make sure that weight is evenly distributed around the plane!!! Thankfully, they haven't yet started to charge by weight!!!

It must be fun telling your pals where you are heading! Did it take you long to perfect the pronunciation. As a name, its right up there with the Icelandic volcano that tortured newsreaders all over the world!!!

Sorry, can't help you with accommodation.

Skied in Lech in 1st week of January. Conditions were great, though the last section into resort in the evening was beginning to get quite icy - nasty blue tinge coming through. I think they have had a reasonable fall since then to freshen up the slopes so you should be fine there.

Kitz on the other hand, I think, needs a decent fall soon. But look on the bright side - after several weeks of nothing, the odds must be on a good dump by the time you get there! At least that's what I am counting on as I am heading to Soll on 5 February!!!

Unfortunately, The rules in this area seem really ambiguous with different approaches being taken by airlines, airports and even different staff. I seem to recall, members of this site previously reporting being refused permission to bring boots as carry-on while a friend of mine was even refused permission, at Chambery airport, to carry on a ski helmet. He proceeded to check it in but it never reached his destination!

To be sure of getting away with your boots as cabin baggage, you should ideally get prior written confirmation from airline/TO and both the departure and arrival airports.

I am convinced that resorts will almost always aim to have their mix of runs broken down roughly 40% blue, 40% red and 20% black as this gives them the widest appeal to the market (admittedly, the odd one will make a virtue of being particularly easy or difficult in order to appeal to a niche market).

This can mean that at the margin, some runs are graded up or down to meet the ideal profile and can result in some rather difficult blue runs.

St Anton and Lech are great example of this: most of St Anton's blues are really quite difficult and would probably rank as reds anywhere else but this would leave the resort with very little to attract novice skiers or groups with novices. On the other hand, the blacks (in reasonable conditions) are not that difficult at all. By contrast Lech has lots of very easy blues that would probably be graded Green elsewhere but that might make the resort look a little too easy and unattractive to most skiers.

As regards picking runs for kids, this is always a tricky area. One of the great advantages of ski school is that the instructors know within about 30 seconds what the kids can manage, while still pushing them along. I find it difficult to judge what my kids can manage and will tend to err on the conservative side.

Having said that I have several experiences of bringing small kids down runs with steep pitches that were at least one grade above what you might expect on a blue/red piste. My approach is to lead them slowly down with big wide traverses and pick the turning point carefully - any kid that has been through ski school a few times will be well used to following in your tracks (with another adult taking up the rear to deal with any fallers). Few small kids are able to manage a lengthy spell of side slipping. If at all possible, I try to stick to runs that I am familiar with when leading inexperienced kids.

You dont say where you are starting from or whether you intend travelling around. If you are going from UK or Ireland and are happy to stick with one resort, it might be just as easy to fly.

As regards countries, Austria is probably the most authentic ski destination overall in Europe (possibly Switzerland is similar but tends to be quite a bit more expensive). France is great for skiing but a lot of the resorts can be grey concrete monstrosities and a bit soulless. Italy is very laid back with some lovely resorts but snow cover can be a bit of an issue. These are sweeping assumptions and all have lovely cute resorts if you can find them. Best approach is to do some more research and come back with more specific requests for info.

My two at 10 and 8 are not quite up to skiing the mountain backwards but having started young, they had no problem with the demanding reds and some blacks in St Anton this year. They are not too far below my level already and I probably have only 1 or 2 more years before they consider it boring to ski with their "auld fella".

However, it does seem to me that kids will go on ski trips with you regardless of age (especially if you are paying) unlike sun holidays where they lose interest at about 16.

As regards clothes, the secret is to get to know lots of other parents who ski and pass around the ski gear as the kids get older - we have been really lucky in having gear passed on to us and are happy to pass it on again when ours grow out of it. This, and Lidl/Aldi, help make the whole thing affordable. Also you have to look carefully at the various deals available from Tour Operators and in resort. Many offer free places for kids and free kit in resort if parents renting, etc. These deals vary enormously from resort to resort but it is important to check these things out. Even the Swiss railways give free travel to U16s travelling with parents!

Bottom line is that it absolutely lovely to bring your kids skiing and a joy to pass on your love of the sport.

You will probably find good deals online but I don't think this is a good idea with helmets.

When I bought mine, I had to try about 10 different shops before I found a comfortable fit (I bought in a ski-resort).

Sizes and shapes seem to vary considerably from brand to brand. Unfortunately, this can be a bit of a hassle and can result in you paying a littel extra for a helmet but if it doesn't fit right, it will drive you mad and you will probably stop wearing it!