J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by andymol2

There's a good interactive piste map for the Portes Du Soleil
http://live.skiplan.com/moduleweb/2.0/itineraire.php?domaine=pds
You can put in the departure, destination, time and ski ability. and it will calculate a route.
Check carefully as it does come up with a few odd ones such as the Swiss wall for an intermediate.
Not sure I would have got that one past Mrs M and lived to see the next day.
If you are in a car then you could drop down the hill from Morzine to Montriond & get the bubble up from Ardent which brings you out at Les Lindarets. There's free parking and not as busy as Morzine first thing in the morning. It's s simple enough by bus too although I'm not sure if the buses would start early enough. The a relatively simple ski to Chatel without the hold ups around Avoriaz.

Blind studies on the effectiveness of helmets with real people are going to be limited. Ethical approval for real life crash test skiers might prove difficult.

At the extremes of impact they will be irrelevant.
Moderate impact with be reduced - hopefully by enough to reduce life changing injuries into something less severe.
Skull cracking by impact with pointed rocks may also be prevented.
Cuts and scrapes may well be reduced as the helmet should stay on when a woolly hat might not!

Whether that is enough to justify wearing one is an individual choice.
The stats from motorcycle accidents suggest they make a difference but social skiing is vastly less dangerous than riding a motorcycle on the road so reducing the risk may not translate into big numbers of lives saved.

You may well find swimming hats are required in most pools in Italy unless you are bald!

Ski'd there last year.
Last minute deal after getting the all clear from injury,sadly coincided with the heatwave that hit the Alps, but still got some good skiing.

Not a huge amount of steeper or difficult stuff but good for intermediates. Novices are sell sorted as the easy blues are literally on the doorstep - step across the road from the town and there are a row of straightforward slopes served by lifts all along the road so no big queues as you can jump on any of them to start working your way up and across depending on your destination.

Been a couple of times - first time in El Tartar (Hotel Euroski but that was fine but a minibus to the gondola) in Feb when there was some snow but not a vast amount but enough to keep the runs open . The second time I stayed at the Piolets (which was a bit run down but right on the gondola) but there was so much snow it was above the retaining fences.
Would happily go again but probably wouldn't stay in Pas - that area seemed much busier than the rest of the area.

And when it's time for a wee?

Having suffered with a cold finger after a neck disc problem I always ski in mittens.

Had several pairs over the years - North Face were very good and surprisingly the Aldi mitts were also as good as any I've tried.

All this snow so early when end of season skiing is the best I can hope for!

Ruptured my achilles 5 weeks ago so another four weeks in a Vacoped boot then the rehab begins!