 Poster: A snowHead
|
Ok I am going to add a story from early on, not first trip so breaking rules. But it’s a good story.
No kids. Lots of flexibility.
Partner and I simply scan until we find cancellation. Inghams, 199 gbp all in reduced from nearly 900. Train to top chalet Meribel.
Gather up gear, jump on train and enjoy dinner Gare du Nord, jump onto NCEF sleeper train.
Cram into compartment with others. Bright chat with strangers…partner gaily announces ‘yep we managed to get the top suite in chalet BeauSoleil for 199’ - a deep chill descends on the conversation. I could guess why. Yep, they were going to the same chalet. Much smaller room…and had paid 900 per person. I was worried about dying of knife wounds during the night…
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
1975 or 1976. School bus to Ski Rossendale, about 20 minutes away. Our school charged 50p a week for the bus and a set of 10 1-hour group lessons, including ski & boot hire. The buildings smelt of new wood and sweaty feet. The bogs smelt terrible. I think you could buy Mars bars or similar there, as this was after school and made us late for us tea.
The hire skis were relatively short at around 1.75m. At that time novice skis were short; old timers and instructors would have bigger fancier gear, although there was much unconvincing debate about exactly why. Even then fancy gear didn't always look so fancy when it was being used. The skis had sidecuts and camber; the instructors didn't know about it, but our physics teacher was an excellent skier and he explained how the things worked. They were of course narrow - boot width - and had fancy shaped turned up tips which look very different from today's tips. The skis were poorly waxed, but there were waxing pads available at the top of the slope.
Hire boots were all front entry clip plastic: this was just before rear-entry took over the world. The slope used a "plate" system to make all the boots effectively the same sole length, so they didn't need to tweak binding length for every hire. The bindings were very simple heel clips with a ball type front piece, which I think provided the entire release mechanism. Obviously no one used helmets (!) and no protection was mandatory; 10 years later we'd still be riding in shorts and t-shirts at some dry slopes.
I probably wouldn't have been here if the council hadn't built a slope and the school hadn't taken us there. I think I liked the ide because it seemed a very long way from our dirty old town and the dreary spectator/ team sports people were obsessed with there. When I realized we were supposed to snowplough I think I felt cheated. After all, the instructors didn't snowplough when they were showing off. I decided I was going to teach myself to kick their asses. It took a few years.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
“The skis had sidecuts and camber; the instructors didn't know about it”
Late 80s I remember the discussions about the new fangled parabolic skis.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
1995, UCPA Chamonix by coach, college ski trip. Parabolic skis were a thing way beyond the reach of broke students, knackered straight skis all the way. Spent all day every day in lessons, which was fine by me as our instructor was great fun, seemed pretty competent and we got on rather well. Two clearest memories are the instructor pirouetting on one ski in front of me as we cruised along a run with the group strung out behind (good) and getting stuck on a single chair lift that crossed a ridge and stopped for 15 mins in howling gale (less good, I had ice all over me at the top of the lift).
Chamonix gets a bad rep as a learner resort, but it worked out fine for me.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
1968, I think. Began skiing on mats with equipment and tuition provided by Charlie Wilson, PE adviser for Cumberland County Council. (They wanted young teachers to learn to ski so that we would then take school children skiing). My wife and I spent a week at Christmas in Solden. The snow was excellent and we both found it so much easier than those painful mats.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
1993 I think aged about 14/15..
School trip to Wildhaus in Switzerland. I have fond memories of a gorgeous ski instructor (we were an all girls school, he wasn’t much older than us!), accidentally skiing over a mogul field and almost skiing off the mountain (my ski got caught round a tree otherwise I’d have been in trouble) and terrible soup every night for dinner. I recall “brown flour soup”, “clear soup” and green pea soup.
Also remember the slalom race on the last day because I won, and because our RE teacher lost control, skied into a stream and emerged with blood all over her white ski suit! Her glasses had smashed onto her face - I’ve never dared ski in sunglasses as a result.
I loved it, and just put my son’s name down for his school ski trip. They’ve closed entries early as they’re already heavily oversubscribed but I really hope he gets his name pulled out the hat!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Quote: |
I have fond memories of a gorgeous ski instructor
|
i cannot believe i left this off my story, i still remember my instructor to this day, a french ESF girl in VT, her name was Lulu, she was the same age as me (25), and a stunning blonde hair, blue eyed beauty.
she had a brilliant sense of humour (and unfortunately a 6ft plus tall French boyfriend who worked for ESF also, am sure i would have been in for a shout if it wasnt for this  ), her slang word for derriere was "pomp-pa-dou", ie "your pomp-pa-dou is sticking out to far" with a gentle tap on said part of the anatomy with her ski pole as she skied past you.
ah, happy days!!!!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ok - no posts for 48 hours so I think we are done - see the table of dates on page 3.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
I won! Oh, hang on, that's because I'm so bloody old. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Quote: |
that's because I'm so bloody old
|
and because you have a much more cosmopolitan background than many of us, who only got there because of school trips.
But congrats all the same! 
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
| Origen wrote: |
| Quote: |
that's because I'm so bloody old
|
and because you have a much more cosmopolitan background than many of us, who only got there because of school trips.
But congrats all the same! |
Well, I guess it's true our family friends weren't English (Swedish/French). It was also lucky that they were wealthy and generous to invite me. I don't think my parents would have paid for me to go on a school trip, though that was academic, my school didn't do skiing trips, or any other foreign trips for that matter. Shame that was the end of skiing for me for ages after that, I had to wait until I could pay for myself to go!
|
|
|
|
|
|
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
|
@Hurtle, you did! Hurrah!
And in a Confucian society age is highly respected…
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
My school, as well as our wonderful one-off ski trip, did French and German language exchanges (which I never did). A shame this isn't a Confucian society. More a Confusian one.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
