J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Max Cottle

Hi There,
Usually when you go skiing your hotel, Pension or whatever will have a boot room with heated boot stands. If not use a hair dryer.

cheers

Max

Hi There

There are many different helmet manufacturers they all do their cheap versions and their more expensive ones.

For the Children, if they are still quite young I would reccomend hiring helmets rather than buying some because kids will out grow their helmets very quickly. Kids helmets are very cheap to hire.

For an adult I would go and try a few different ones on. I would do this at a resort where you will have more choice and they are likely to be competitively priced.

Myself I don't subscribe to one helmet being as good as the other. I paid 300Euros for mine and would suggest that you pay as much as you can afford to get the best helmet possible.

Be aware that helmets make your head hot so make sure that the one you buy has adequate venting.

Most important is the padding inside it. look at different helmets and compare suitablilty.

I am seeing more and more full face helmets on the pistes some people like them some people don't I would say that they do offer more protection from injury and the elements.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Max

Hi There,

You know if you are a new skier and you don't want to spend too much money your best bet is to buy some cheap goggles.

Your main concern should be that they are anti fog, I would speak to someone and get them to reccomend a cheap pair.

My friend bought a reasonable pair for 65 Euros in St Anton this year and they were fine in BLizzard conditions and sun.

These other more fancy goggles are more for when you are on the mountain and you are a hard skier so that you can still see the contours of the snow in poor visablity, nice to have but if you are a new skier all you are really concerned with is seeing where yu are going and protectin your eyes.

I think buy a cheap pair, probably wait until you got to your resort and spend time looking at a wider cheaper choice and when you are ready and feel it necessary you can upgrade to you £130 pair.

hope this helps

cheers

Max

I would reccomend Maria Alm

It is beautiful the Instructors are English speaking and good fun. Everything is central and it is very cheap.

There is plenty to do there and I would say that it is very much geared up for beginners

http://www.hochkoenig.at/cms.php/4041/1/0

Have a look at this site.

Also if you want somewhere cheap with exceptional service send me a private message and I'll give you details

cheers

max

Good Luck you will be fine

have a great time

Cheers

Max

Yes 5 weeks is a long way away but I was out there for New Year when not many places had snow. St Anton Did. It is snowing out there now and all though I don't have "The Sight" I am pretty confident that you will have good snow and plenty of it in 5 weeks when conditions are Typically better in Europe. Forecasts say snow snow snow for St Anton at the moment.

Nasserein.
At the bottom is where they teach the children and absolute begginers. Take the Nasserein Bahn up to Gampen and you'll enjoy some good skiing.
you can take Blue 20 down to the bottom of black 2 take the chare lift up from there to Galzig and you will find some nice runs there. Black 2 is Awesome.

Red 37 on the Gampen side at the top of the Kapall lift is great and when I was out there it was quite mogully and I would say pretty challengin for a Red. In fact there were many blues out there that I considered to be pretty challengin for their grade.

expect some good hard skiing and some thigh burn. Best resteraunt is on the Galzig side there are two one upstairs and one down stairs. the downstairs is a pizza place pretty good freshly made and typically not as busy as the resteraunt upstairs which has traditional fayre. there is a good shop there too.

Buses are quite regular although if ou ae staying at Nasserein ou wont be needing the bus.

Enjoy you holiday I did and I am getting jealous thinking about it.

Best most challenging skiing I have done. Probably not what you want to hear if you are a begginer but if you are looking for a challenge..my friend you have picked the right resort.

Enjoy

Cheers
Max

Hi Dean,

Good question, I think I will defer to the experts on this but my understanding is that the shorter the ski the easier it is to control but the longer the ski the quicker it will go, the hight thing is to get the closest balance between the two.

If you are a more advanced skier you will pick a longer ski in general.

I think that if you hire skis it will depend on the resort that you go to. Some resorts will give you shorte skis resorts like Maria Alm in Austria and the instructors will advise you to buy a shorter ski where as Resorts Like St Anton will advise you to buy a longer ski.

I don't know if you remember the skis in the old days but they were huge, skis have become progressively shorter in general over the years.

There are other factors that can make certain skis easier than others as well.

These are just my thoughts by the way, I am not an expert I look forward to seeing what the experts have to say on this.

Cheers

Max

Spinning will strengthen your knee and keep you ski fit. I hut my knee playing squash and was off for 18mnths whilst I wasted time with Phsyios and doctors in the end I just did the spinning and my knee is vastly improved I can play squash again I can skii and I don't have the constant pain that I had.

Good luck

Cheers

Max