J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Wanderer

1. My strong advice is to book into lessons for the full week. As long as the classes are not too full, and they shouldn't be at that time of year, they are usually good fun and very sociable. Even a very average instructor will bring you along much faster than you will manage yourself and will ensure that you keep out of trouble - there is nothing worse on a 1st holiday that finding yourself standing at the top of a steep slope utterly terrified and with no other way out than to ski it or slide down on your bum!!!

Most experienced skiers will continue to take lessons from time to time - otherwise you do not develop and bad habits become ingrained, habits that will let you down when faced with more challenging terrain.

2. Alpe D'Heuz is a great resort for beginners - there are extensive easy slopes within easy reach of the resort and it tends to be bright and sunny. The conditions at the time are really a matter of luck but there should still be plenty of snow. In any event, there is no point worrying about it.

3. Don't sweat the draglifts - they are intimidating at first but like everything else you will get used to them quickly enough.

4. You will be astonished at the amount of progress you will make in the first week, particularly if you do opt for lessons. Relax and enjoy it - 99% of people fall madly in love with the sport (and many become obsessional about it - be warned :twisted:).

It should be no problem on the way out - you will be going skiing and sufficiently excited about the prospect of flying down the mountain ..........

........ but on the way back with PSD* setting in, it could be pretty grim :twisted:



* Post Skiing Depression: An extremely well known condition to which members of this site are particularly prone. While looking at photos, videos and getting involved in sites such as this can alleviate the symtoms, the only known cure is to book another trip as soon as possible :lol:

I practically started a row on the forum last year with this posting about whether you could use safely bicycle helmets (assuming that you have no shame of course):

http://www.j2ski.com/ski-chat-forum/posts/list/3419.page

Is it Soll/Scheffau?

Obviously, you should really consult your doctor if you are worried.

However, I can tell you that my then 6 year old was hospitalised with an asthma attack a few days before our ski trip two years ago. He was released on the Thursday before we flew out on Saturday! The docs said it was ok for him to travel but to watch him and give him the ventalin inhaler a few times each day. As it happened, he was absolutely fine and had a great week skiing every day with no problems :lol:. If anything, the dry clean mountain air seemed to help.

Naturally, his 4 year old sister did not like being upstaged and came down with tonsilitis on the trip - I lost a full day of skiing minding her :evil:.

In Italy last year, one of the restaurants was offering donkey stew :twisted:

I have no idea what this topic is doing on a skiing website - I guess the lack of skiing at this time of year is beginning to get to some people. However........ I am just back from a short trip to St Petersburg in Russia where they have caviar flavoured crisps :lol: - posh or what :shock:

Naturally, as an Irishman, I believe that Tayto cheese and onion flavour are your only man :lol:

I know there are many people who ski on artificial slopes regularly throughout the year. Personally, despite being reasonably obsessed about skiing, I find it difficult to get enthusiatic. In terms of usefullness, I did a course of 4 lessons before I went skiing the first time. It did help a little but not much. We did get some extremely basic things drilled into us like not turning up the hill that our instructor on our subsequent trip to Austria didn't seem to even notice (because he had skiied before he walked!). I suppose it was useful to get used to the equipment as well but, as I say, limited benefits.

Since then I have tended to go for a session or two before ski trips simply as a means of giving the ski muscles a bit of a workout - again of limited value.

All in all, I doubt that they have influenced what happens in the mountains to any extent and they may occasionally be responsible for putting some people off the sport - a fall on the upturned brushes can be much more nasty than a fall on soft snow!.