J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Dave Mac

not didier wrote:Hi Crusher
We went to Borovets about 15 years ago and would never return, I'm sure some things will have changed since but the hotel was worse than any barrack room I ever inhabited and the food made AB biscuits look like something from Heston Blumenthal.
However the wost aspect was the ever present local gangsters who appeared to be running the resort and made everyone, but especially the young women, feel intimidated and uncomfortable.
No doubt others will have had better experiences but that was ours.

Also been to Borovats, a few years earlier. The skiing was fine, the ski school for the kids was one of the best I have come across.
The hotel was pretty well as ND describes, but we did a cockroach hunt every night before going to bed, and it was fine.
Yes, there were gangsters, but they were just ordinary gangsters, nothing to really worry about. I just told them I was from Manchester, but have now become a naturalised Scot, and they hastily backed off.....
Best thing about the food was the display cabinet, displaying three dishes. While the dishes remained the same, every day, they changed the description!

Ranchero_1979 wrote:"single clip rear entry boots" old school. Still were good enough for the legends in the fist ski movies I watched so why not :-)

Old school? My late ski buddy Mel and I used to have daily jokes that I would have completed two runs before he had fully clipped up his boots. However, he later made a salient point, I had not realised, that all the best Auslanders who taught in our ski school, all wore single clip boots.

Of course the late great Bill Johnson won Olympic Gold wearing the same model Raichle boots that were my first pair. Olympic Gold medalists are soooo old school.....

Then, of course there is a minor local Tirol village record, that of the Niederau day run record. This is the number of runs in a village in a day. In Niederau the first record was set, in 1948, by Toni Seelos, an Austrian international racer from Seefeld, who started a ski school for international racers in Niederau. There have been several other names added to the record list, as, over the years, the number of run counts has increased.

Of all the names that appear on the list, only one name, (cough, cough), appears twice. On each occasion, I was wearing single clip boots. Funnily enough, on both occasions, no one mentioned the boots.... Nor has anyone who has skied with me....

I would never, ever, again wear a multi-clip boot. Uncomfortable, and difficult to get on, and off. Awful, if you have bad knees.

And of course I would always be two runs up on Mell....





I am guessing that you have never worn a pair.

My boots are carpet slipper comfortable from day 1.

That said, I only ever buy single clip rear entry boots. There are shell micro adjustments, that allow for setting up the boot well, and then modifying as time goes on.

I have three pairs of single clip boots.

I guess I find it difficult to think of Brighams as a "chain store". When I first started skiing, there was only one store, in Cathedral Street, Manchester. Ellis ran it, following a family history, starting with his grandfather, Frederick Ellis Brigham. He designed the first soft climbing boot, which became known as a pair of FEBs.

My ski travel business, Trans Pennine SC, ran on every winter Friday night from outside that shop, overnight to Cairngorm, and back overnight on the Sunday..... 13 hours each way.

I met Ellis this summer, and he still plays an active role in the business, but is not involved directly with the shop side. I will try to think of a way of passing the general feelings about fitting through to the family management.

Incidently, Ellis sold me my first ever pair of skis, a pair of Elan Jets, screw in edges, cable bindings.
£3.0s.0d. I still tell him he was a robbing beggar.

Having said all of that, if I still lived in Lancashire, I would consider a trip to visit Colin Martin at Solutions4feet. It's a bit of a drive, but you are there and back in a day, with a pair of boots that you are very unlikely to have issues with.

I would not buy boots on holiday. If you have issues, there is a time conflict, in that the boot fitter needs them, and you need them. Then when you get back, and next winter, in another resort, you have issues.....

Well said, BB.

Last season I had three weeks in Austria, a week in France, and two weeks in Vail, (Yes, it was an exceptional winter).
The cost of Vail still brings a tear to my eyes, especially because of the poor lift pass info from Crystal. Alp D'Huez was also costly, with average food, and was double the cost per week of Austria.
Skiing in Vail and Austria was great, in France was OK.

Life is not just about exchange rates. If it gets out of hand, I will find another way to get there.

Life has a way of balancing out. If costs get too high, and this affects vissitor numbers, then both local businesses and politicians will swiftly swing into action.

The exchange rate flutters according to circumstance. Costs in ski destinations also fluctuate.

In my first season staying in Niederau, the Austrian Schilling lay at 72/£.

Hence, I paid £0.33 per night for my B&B. Yes, that is 33 pence per night.

My season pass cost me £50.00, outrageous.

Dobby, looking at your three listings, I will be returning to the Dolomites this season. I looked at Passo Tonali, but was told in no uncertain terms, by the second greatest skier in our house, (this view is contested), that "WE ARE GOING TO VAL DI FASSA".

Faced with such a degree of flexibility, how could I refuse?

Rauris is an area that I have put forward on many occasions as a good beginner resort.

Niederau. Hmm, not sure. I will be trying it, with my sons in mid January, (that will be 47 years, but just getting to know it).

Then, I would recommend Vail, Beaver Creek, Keystone, Arrapahoe Basin, Copper, Whistler, Niederau.......

munich_johnny wrote:Kiefersfelden adds less than 10 minutes if no traffic. Yes it's very simple - just come off at Kiefersfelden and don't drive on any Austrian motorways after that and you are good to go.

Until 3 years ago you were allowed to drive off at Kufstein Süd but that changed and became a huge political punch-up.

Last two winters, I got off at Kiefersfelden OK, but on the return journey, couldn't get the route either year. Guess I need to work on this.