J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Wanderer

music, drink, food, drink, friends, drink ..... :lol: :lol: :lol:

For board hire, J2ski have a link up with Skiset that might help

http://www.skiset.co.uk/j2ski

Alternatively, you could have a look at:

http://www.snowrental.net/be/ski.asp

BTW, it looks like both use the same hire shop in resort :shock:

You could check out the local tourist office for info on ski passes - generally only available from the lift company and few enough of them have any online facility yet - you may have to get them in resort on your first morning (don't forget to check whether you need photos).

For nightlife, Austria is probably best (massive simplification but there you go :wink:.)

For snow at that time of your, you need to think high and/or glacier. Others have suggested a number of options. One I would highly recommend is St Anton - its high, its high quality and its fun.

For inexpensive: tricky - as a few have mentioned the tour operators price Easter as a peak week :cry:. To make matters worse, they generally stick you with Saturday to Saturday trips and will certainly not accommodate a trip that starts on say Thursday and ends on Tuesday. The answer: go independent. I did it a few years ago - got cheap flights with Swiss to Zurich, train to St Anton and got acommodation through the St Anton tourist office - it worked out quite reasonable. Finding accommodation can be tricky but if you are not too fussy, it should be possible to find something suitable (obviously this gets much more difficult the larger the group!). Generally speaking, the accommodation, including pensions, in Austrian resorts is of fairly good quality. :lol:

A cautionary tale re. bindings.

On my second ski trip, a number of years ago, I signed up for ski school as usual. Initially, the instructor seemed nice and appeared to be pretty good (it was in Italy and he was a bit older - not some young hotshot). However, as the week went on, his whole approach had a single focus - faster, faster, faster :!:. After about 3 days, my poor technique, which he had given very little specific direction on, was no longer good enough to cope with the speed he was pushing the class to and he dropped me to a lower class (where the pace was more moderate and the instruction much better:lol:.)

However, for those who survived the pressure for more speed continued until the last day - race day. It turned out that all the classes at each level completed a timed race course and it emerged that the instructor had a bet on with the other instructors over whose pupils would win the race. His sole ambition for the week was to win the bet :evil:.

As part of his "preparations" for the race, he "happened" to mention to the class that their bindings might be set too low for the race and a number of them went back to the hire shop and had the settings set higher.

On race day, one of the guys completed the race course but went into a load of soft snow at the end of the course at high speed - his skis stopped but he didn't and the bindings did not give - result: very serious compound fracture of his leg :twisted:.

The instructor should probably have been "struck off" if such a facility exists but I am not sure that his behaviour was even reported and he could still be at the same crap today for all I know :evil:.

You lot are frightening me - I spend quite a bit on getting new boots in resort last year and they fit beautifully. Now I am terrified that they will "pack in" and be too loose within a short period. Thanks for the worry :evil: :evil: :evil:

That drag sounds seriousy scary :roll:.

Dont worry Tony - the apres ski is optional and is not in your face 8).

We are not talking Sauze here :lol:. In some resorts, you can get lager louts who happen to ski a little bit if they are not too hungover :twisted:. In St Anton its different - more a case of skiers who want to have a bit of fun after a full day of awesome skiing :mrgreen: :lol:. If you want to avoid it, it is easy and there are plenty of classes for a quiet and classy beer if thats what you prefer :!:.

Anyone who has let them go on the Trolles black run down into Tignes Le Lac will know what speed on skis feels like - I've not idea how fast you actually get up to and Ise is probably right - not as fast as you might like to think .....

..... but, as you pick up speed schussing down that hill, praying that you don't catch an edge, absolutely crapping yourself, it feels like a 100kph+ :shock: :shock: :shock: