J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Wanderer

I am travelling to St Anton on 1 January. In previous years, I have been able to keep cost of ski hire down by using one of the online booking sites. However, with St Anton, I seem to be coming up against a standard pricing for all hire shops.

Surely this is contrary to EU Competition law.

Anybody know anything about this or have any suggestions for ways of by-passing the local cartel?

You could also have a look at La Belle Plagne. Most of the accommodation is true Ski-in, ski-out and very close to ski school. Extensive ski area for the rest of the group as well.

ADH is great, especially for kids but most of the accommodation is not really ski-in/ski-out.

... nice to see that Franz appreciates great Irish golf courses :lol: (he is wearing a jumper from the Old Head Golf Club in Kinsale, outside Cork)

Dave: I am guessing that you were visiting the Dunhill?

Bandit

Not sure of dates yet but Irish schools normally close for the same week as the UK schools and this is usually at the peak of French school holidays as well. THe extra demand on the TOs enables them to load an average of about €300 onto each package for this particular week while child discounts, etc, are often reduced or not available. I reckon it could cost me up to an extra €2,000 for a family of 2 adults and 2 kids to travel that week compared with, say, 2 weeks earlier :evil:

Thats why I am anxious to be creative in looking at alternatives that might not be attractive in other weeks.

I will have a look at Switzerland - I get the impression that it is not as badly hit by the mid-term madness :wink:

On my most recent trip, an instructor advised a pal to ski on the balls of his feet, essentially to lift his foot and use the ball of his foot behind the big toe to initiate and apply pressure on the turns. He also was pretty dismissive of the shins on the front of the boot advice that I have been striving to maintain for years :shock:

I should perhaps mention that my pal is somewhat inclined to crouch down, especially when under pressure, as am I. This sometimes leaves us in the backseat. Having tried the technique a little bit, it did seem to improve our posture so perhaps it was more a drill to get us more upright that a technique in its own right :!:

We have all been skiing for a good few years and this is the first time that any instructor has given this particular piece of advice. Does this make sense to the more experienced skiers out there :?:

I am just back from a wonderful week in Flaine :P. We normally go to France for large ski areas and ski-in, ski-out accommodation, usually Crystal club hotels.

However, a number of people in my group are anxious not to take the kids out of school next year and so we will be under pressure to travel during the mid-term break. We know this will be (much) more expensive :evil: and also more crowded :evil:.

However, I wonder can any J2Skiers recommend any decent resorts in Europe, preferably France, Austria or Switzerland, that will have relatively short lift queues even during this week or have any other ideas for taking the pain, financial or otherwise, out of the experience :?:

I think ski theft in Meribel featured in another thread so it does seem to be an increasingly frequent problem. On my recent trip to Flaine, I heard of two people having their skis nicked so the problem is not confined to Meribel and at least one of these were hire skis. :evil: :evil: :evil:

In fairness to the police, you cannot really expect them to get excited over opportunistic thefts of gear left lying around unsupervised. However, perhaps it is time for resorts and businesses to provide more secure facilities though whether we would be prepared to pay for them is a whole other question :shock:

I guess we all need to be more careful with our gear, especially as insurance companies unlikely to pay out if skis left lying around outside bars and restaurants. Apart from ski splitting, I am not sure what you are supposed to do - bringing the skis into a restaurant is obviously not a runner.

Well, I have finally succumbed to the helmet brigade and bought a new helmet on my trip to Flaine last week. Having worn the helmet for most of the week, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at how comfortable it was in both hot and cold conditions (though adjustable vents would be advised). I also did feel a little bit better protected, especially when skiing on any hard packed areas where a fall could hurt!

Having had a mild concussion after a very gentle fall a couple of years ago, I guess it makes sense, though obviously will not protect you from all possible dangers.