J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by verbier_ski_bum

Sad news indeed. They are such dedicated professionals and in a very rare profession too. It's a loss in many senses and a tragic reminder that mountains is a hostile environment. Always have been and will always remain.

Snowblades used to be in fashion a few seasons back but I don't see that many people on them now. Actually I see less snowboarders too in comparison to 5 years ago.

As for your wife, it really depends on what is causing her confidence issues, and what sort of issues they are. She feels she should be "more confident" but doing what exactly? Reds? blacks? Off-piste? Carving in general? 4 years on skis is not awfully long especially if you ski couple weeks per year with long breaks, and really says nothing about her actual progress. My true breakthrough year was the 5th one, and I ski every weekend. Is she going to ski-schools when on ski holidays? How about her boots? Snowblading may help to develop better balance, but blades are less stable than skis to begin with. Much shorter length is not everything and it doesn't guarantee more confidence. Maybe she should try a bit shorter skis instead?

Walkie-talkie can be better as sometimes the coverage is not very good in the mountains.

I will agree to a point. But if your healthcare is State-provided the costs can become too high for the public. This is the general rationale and it's fairly reasonable. Plus, of course, there can be a certain pressure from insurance companies if at the certain segment their pay-offs are going up. They know exactly how many various head injuries they had to cover, and how many they have to cover now, they know the statistics, so at some point they just don't want to pay at the current premiums. Because insurance only works when nothing or almost nothing happens, if certain things start happening more often and very often it becomes a losing business.
So, the choice is kind of yours but you can only be fully entitled to it when all the costs associated with risks that you take, you are paying out of your own pocket. And buying insurance is not "paying out of own pocket", it is in fact paying out pockets of others.

Alps are big, so is Valais;)
http://www.verbinet.com/snow_report.php
The good news Tortin is open again.


SLF gives the general conditions, but the level of actual danger will vary from one resort to another one. I would expect that the more accurate informatin is that provided by resorts with SLF averaging it.

I never went for any off-piste itinerary when the danger was above 3. At 3 I went three times with a guided group and 2 or 3 times with couple of friends and we were all geared up. We went few times at 2 and most of these times I was without a packpack, we've had level 1 for a while now, and it's not even fun. I don't think I will ever go off-piste with the level of danger higher than 3. Extreme care might not be enough at 4 and 5 sounds totally suicidal.

OldAndy wrote:

verbier_ski_bum wrote:In France, if I am not mistaken, health care is free and provided by the state, which means they should make wearing helmets a law.

Hang on verbier .....
Following that argument then skiing must be banned irespective of helmet wearing as it is dangerous and more people are injured in ways that a helmet would not protect from than are saved by helmet wearing.
Also, don't forget to ban driving, cycling, alcohol, obesity etc. etc. etc.

I was talking about specific case of head injuries. Insurers work on the base of statistics, not in general;)As for helmets my friend had a fall, she was taken out, walked away and didn't think much of it until she saw a dent at the back of her helmet. As for 'ban' there is a thing called 'regulation'. And why ban something if they can make you be the one paying everything out of your own pocket if something goes wrong?

I guess it's related to insurance. Head surgery is not an easy or cheap one, so with numbers of head injuries increasing it's becoming a bit expensive for insurers who are used to big profits and don't want to see them fall - which is inevitable if they have to pay more often. Premiums don't provide good enough margins with current rates of injuries. Apart from that (and, how could I foget, the need to protect the minors) it's entirely personal choice. In France, if I am not mistaken, health care is free and provided by the state, which means they should make wearing helmets a law.

I did my first avalanche training last year and was thinking of doing another one this season too. However we still have the avalanche danger at 1 out of 5 and if you go off piste the risk is to hit the rock rather than being buried, and snow on South facing slopes is so thin you can see through it were it still exists, if it slides it won't bury a cat. Last time I wore a transceiver was the very beginning of January, since then it was all about the back protection. (i understand that for mountaneering it can be different, when you tour far in the backcountry in the heart of the mountains, but anywhere in the proximity of the resorts there is no need so far to worry about it) I doubt much will change this season, it has been already stated on TV that this winter is the driest in 60 years for the region. Oh yes, snow finally arrived - whole 10 cm of it whereas about 1 meter is desperately needed to repair the damage and make resort skiable till the end of the season which is April 30 this year. If March is warm and snow cannons can't be used, it can be all closed before then. The funny bit is that my friend quit his job in States and got a contract here so that to spent a season in verbier/chamonix and they are having a record snow fall over there (he is from Denver on top of it, but I was told that even the East Coast is snowy).