J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by SwingBeep

The Neo has a traditional construction (wood core, sidewalls and two layers of titanal) whereas the El Rey is a wood cored cap ski, a much cheaper construction. They are both fully cambered so neither of them are what you might call up to date. Ekosport in France has the 2012 El Rey on offer at 195 Euro.
http://www.ekosport.fr/armada-el-rey-12,11472302,p.html

Does it have to be bubbles or are other forms of uplift OK? If so Zermatt has a rack and pinion railway, and underground funicular and several cable cars that are all accessible to non skiers. All of them have restaurants close to the top stations. There are plenty of things to do in and around the village including walking, ice skating and swimming, maybe she might like to have a go at cross country skiing. Lots of people go there for a winter holiday and never put skis on.

They also have a VIP gondola that she might like

msej449 wrote: In theory, you would be able to stay down in the valley somewhere cheaper and try out a range of resorts. Has anyone actually used this?

My kids have used the Valais Ski Card for several years (I think they first became available in 2003) with no problems. I just top them up at the start of the season and they can access any ski area in the region apart from those in the Portes du Soleil, which have a different ticketing system without having to go to the ticket counter.

Bear in mind that day tickets work out much more expensive than weekly passes and there will always be a residual amount on the card at the end of your holiday which expires after a year unless you top it up again.

You could fly to Nice. That's right Nice, from there get the train http://www.limonepiemonte.it/turistico/index.php?options=com_limone&view=articolo&idArticolo=61&lang=en to Limone http://www.riservabianca.it/ where it's possible to get 2 days half board including lift pass (exc. weekends) from 121 Euro or 4 days (inc. weekends) from 239. If there are enough of you they might do a 3 day package http://www.hotelskipass.com/eng/offerta.html

When it snows there it can really snow.

The routes marked with a black dotted line on the periphery of the ski area, including the route back to Zug from the top of the Steinmähder lift are alpine touring routes so there is no obligation for the lift company to implement any safety measures. Some of them have uphill sections.

The shorter routes marked with black and red dotted lines within the ski area are ski routes (Skirouten). Precautions are taken against avalanches, but they are not patrolled. Even though the red route 48 back to Zug is a ski route it is regularly pisted.

http://www.tirol.gv.at/fileadmin/www.tirol.gv.at/themen/sport/berg-und-ski/downloads_berg_und_ski/piste.pdf (German)

In Switzerland precautions are taken against avalanches on itineraries (L'itinéraire / Abfahrtsrouten) marked with yellow poles down the middle of the route and marked in yellow on the piste maps, but as in Austria they are not patrolled.

http://www.seilbahnen.org/download.php?file=dcs/users/6/Verkehrssicherungspflicht_06_d.pdf (German)

http://www.seilbahnen.org/download.php?file=dcs/users/6/Obligation_d_assurer_la_securite_06_f.pdf (French)

Bear in mind that often the only avalanche precaution taken on these routes is closure, so if you chose to go down one when it is closed and have an accident you might have issues with your insurance.

Are you sure? I thought this was a boot / binding package, the bindings could be mounted on any ski, but it was only possible to use the matching boots.
A third company made a small number of specially branded skis to help the launch.

The lift was designed and built by Bartholet Maschinenbau AG (BMF) the company that built the solar ski lift at Tenna, Porsche did the overall styling and designed the seats.

The seats are heated using solar panels mounted on the back of the chairs.

On leaving the bottom station the chairs rotate through 45 degrees to face outwards (giving the passengers a better view) on reaching the top station they return to the normal position, the chairs are mounted on springs and some of the components are made from carbon fibre.

At 6 m/s it's a bit faster than most other chair lifts. Initially it will be fitted with 65 chairs capable of carrying 1800 P/h, if necessary a further 21 chairs can be added increasing the capacity to 2400 P/h.

If you lucky you might get some powder, it's forecast to snow on Friday! :D