J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Ian Wickham

caron-a wrote:I'm so proud of my eldest... He told me yesterday that he's know at school as "the ski boy" :D.

I suppose thats better than being known as "the ski girl" :shock: :wink:

bandit wrote:Wickers....Les Collons is quite a big resort by comparison, part of the Verbier system and quite a distance away :D Was that recently?, I saw one UK agent was offering places with the Swiss version of Leaseback, under which you get a couple of weeks in the winter and a couple in the summer.
Anyway I'm checked in now, seat reserved and I'm mostly packed :D

Grimentz must be incredibly small as when I visited Les Collons I thought it was quite a small place, I thought it was quite a pleasant place I even had lunch there, I suppose it was was three or four years ago.
The property were a bunch of refurbished apartments and chalets and yes it was on a lease back, which would always put me off investing, but a bolt hole does appeal, maybe one day :cry: :cry:

bandit wrote:

Ian Wickham wrote:Have a great time, I am not Jealous :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

I knew you wouldn't be :D Tiny resort, hardly any lifts, not much english spoken, no apres to speak of. Not your cup of tea at all.

I'm still on the mailing list of a couple of Swiss property companies and they had some apartments for sale in Les Collons, how would you like me as a neighbour,
before you start panicking I had to put it on hold I was struggling to raise the 50k deposit.
I tried selling my body for medical science but so far no takers, so I guess I'll just have to keep dreaming :evil: :evil:

As you all know we are off in the summer to the south of France for a week and then onto Livigno for the second week, the drive home last year though Switzerland to the overnight stop in Reims was quite a long one, so this year we plan to stop over an extra night and we thought we would aim for the Black forest area, always been quite partial to their gâteaux, now here is the question and for you people out there who are thinking this thread is not ski related, well it is, there is skiing in the Black forest, Granted not in summer, think I got away with that one, back to the question have any of you guy's stayed in any half decent hotels in the area of Baden-Baden, so good they named it twice.
Your advice and recommendation would be appreciated as I am sick of surfing the web looking at hundreds and hundreds of hotels, Help please help........ :D

Just to add, the last night stop over will be at Arras, and we hope to take advantage of the area to trace my Mums uncle who lost his life at the "Battle of the Somme" :thumbup:

Have a great time, I am not Jealous :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

Vincentus wrote:Any Kiwi, Japanese or fellow Aussies awake???
It's 10.30am and daylight saving is over. Bring on winter ! :lol:
I ski Buller, last 2 years and this year will drive the extra hour to
Hotham or Falls Creek.

Morning fella, good to see J2ski has coverage as far away as Aus, i'll be interested in your reports from your forth coming winter, I hope you have plenty of snow to take away
the disappointment of your forthcoming ashes thrashing, Bon Ski :D :D

Dave Mac wrote:Endorsing Idavies view of the Niederau red ski school, childrens classes demand the utmost.

Have also to endorse Idavies instructor credentials, since she taught both of my sons to ski.

Now, do I tip you L? Or do you reimburse me cos the beggars are catching me up? :P

I do not really want to start up the whole "N" debate up again, but the last couple of reviews given have been completely biased, we have heard in other threads that at busy times eg half term there has been
problems with kids in the "N" ski school being left unsupervised at the top of lifts, now granted this can happen in any village or country in the world so my concern is who do I believe you guys who visit year after year or the individual visitor reviews. I love the LGb but I give an honest open review including this year a poor instructor for Little W , all the previous 5 years the Instructors have been brilliant but this one was poor. I know you guys are really passionate about your resort but I as J2ski member would appreciate a more open honest representation of a ski resort so I can make a valued decision as to whether the resort would suite my family, the PR stuff I think can be left to the local tourist board.

Snow Time wrote:The top of Cairngorm was great today; the snow had firmed up overnight and the upper runs were in good condition. The cas car park was almost empty at 10am when we arrived, which makes a change, and the slopes were very quiet until lunchtime.

For beginners, the Ciste Bowl and Fairway are almost full width, and the Ptarmigan Bowl is (as always) full width, but looked a little icy in places.

Traverse, Upper Cas and the 105 are still fine until the lower parts of the run. Gunbarrel looked a little too bare so we didn't ski it.

It was snowing from about 1pm and with the forecast for cold weather next week we should have at least another week of skiing at Cairngorm, if not more.

I'm not sure where Wickers found the windchill of -50 but the temperature was about 0 deg when we arrived with 5 to 10 mph winds, which was perfect.

You Scots are so sensitive over your grass skiing conditions.....but mind you it's nothing that a sense of humour wouldn't cure :wink: