Welcome to New Ski Club of Great Britain, Room 74. Please do not disturb.
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?
PJSki, You do realise . . . No, of course you don't
C/D. Goldenballs is a bit like Osama Bin Laden (that'll get some attention ) He's a bit of a numpty terrorist (and again!) . . . but he's our numpty and for all that he can be an enormous irritant, he does have a grain of valid query . . . which most of us find entirely inconsequential and we predominantly ignore. This thread is the sort of place we go to when we have little else to pontificate about . . .
And then there are you and some of your socks/colleagues . . . It should be astonishing to see such base, bilious, bickering from representatives of what people thought of as an august, venerable and slightly anachronistic organisation. You personally have managed to present the club as a venal and vituperous bunch of self-serving bumwipes . . . entirely supporting Glowingbum's position . . . it should be astonishing . . . but regrettably it's not. I'm seriously thinking of joining, just for the potential craic
As far as I am aware, only one member has behaved badly enough over several years to have had his membership terminated after having exasperated the staff,council, Reps and members beyond endurance - it is not a common occurrence!
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
thanks be to Goodness for that!!
After all it is free
After all it is free
Scrumpy, naturally you're welcome to express that point of view ... and I'll continue to reveal other 'members behaving badly' by fiddling statistics (regularly in the course of trade), scoring lavishly-paid expenses (on oddly unaccountable missions to top resorts) and generally running the Club (in a fashion in which it was certainly never founded) with disregard to the needs and aspirations of British skiers.
Happy New Year to you, and may history be your Leader.
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.
Masque wrote:
Comedy Goldsmith, Got too many passports for them to figure out who I am
Even by your standards, that's an impressively peculiar remark. In the course of my membership of the SCGB (two sequences of 10 and 26 years since 1962) I have not been asked to identify myself with photographic evidence or account for my geographical movements.
If you're suggesting that you could apply for SCGB membership by adopting various identities for which you own passports, then it's kind of amusing to anticipate SCGB HQ requiring you to prove any one of those IDs ... or requiring you to show your passport on entering the Republic of Wimbledon (perhaps for an annual general meeting).
As beginner membership aims to get you into snowsports, if you've had a Ski Club membership before you will not be eligible for this type of membership. Beginner membership does not include use of the Ski Club Leader or Ski Club Freshtracks service.
Ski Club membership benefits cater for every aspect of skiing and snowboarding. Save money with hundreds of fantastic discounts, ski with our unrivalled Ski Club Leader service, or book one of our unique Freshtracks holidays – as a member you can make the most of your time on the mountain.
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
The ... err ... New Ski Club of Great Britain wishes all readers a very happy and skiable 2014.
HAPPY NEWYEAR!
This video of madness from La Place Central, Verbier, last night ... filmed/filed by PlanetSki ... seems the best way to kick it off ...
Comedy Goldsmith, There are advantages to being a certifiable mongrel
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.
It's 11.30am on Saturday.
All five of Scotland's ski centres are open today, with fresh snow.
Glencoe and Nevis Range have been receiving really heavy snowfall and filling.
Here's the latest SCGB information on Scotland - "the best online" it says there -
reporting 3 of those centres "closed".
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
It's 11.30am on Sunday.
The SCGB report, above right, has not been updated. Scotland's actual situation is ...
Cairngorm: 8 out of 11 lifts running. 2 more expected to run.
Glencoe: 6 out of 7 lifts running.
Glenshee: 11 out of 22 lifts running. 2 more expected to run.
The Lecht: 5 out of 13 lifts running. 2 more expected to run.
Nevis Range: 4 out of 11 lifts running.
Worsening weather today, so the picture will probably change. In the meantime, a stack of on-snow reports and photos from yesterday (Saturday) suggest that another successful Scottish ski season is a deepening possibility ...
It's 9am Monday. Normal start of the skiing day.
The SCGB report, above right, has not been updated since 13.30 Friday. Scotland's actual situation this morning is wild and mainly stormbound, with the exception of The Lecht and Glenshee: eastern locations a little more sheltered from the south-westerly Atlantic gales and able to open.
Cairngorm: "On hold. Reviewing at 10am"
Glencoe: "Stormbound. No snowsports today"
Glenshee: 8 out of 22 lifts running
The Lecht: 1 lift open. 6 more expected to run.
Nevis Range: "On hold. Reviewing at 9.30am" [Edit: now 4 lifts open]
What about SCGB snow reporting more generally?
These are the current reports for the 30 "Leader" resorts: http://www.skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/snowreports/snowconditions.aspx#.UspyQvvUbIW
I guess the acid test for these is whether they differ markedly from the tourist office or other 'official' sources - i.e. are they more objective and geared to the interests of travellers making selective choices involving large expenditure?
A critical comment on the SCGB chat forum about a report for Garmisch, which encouraged the poster to make a "800 kms" journey to find superior snow ... http://www.skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/membersonly/snowtalk/discussion.aspx/Snow-Conditions?discussionID=14661#.Uspy7PvUbIU
In fairness, the 130cm upper figure for Garmisch seems to come from an official source - and the SCGB hardly has the resources to check figures like this against other sources, but it does claim to do exactly that ...
"The Ski Club’s snow reports are the best online" [current website statement].
"What makes the Ski Club’s snow reports different is that it’s not just automated data from the resorts – we have a team that gathers and checks the information every day. This is how we can deliver unbiased and accurate snow reports to you." [statement on SCGB Snowcast video 26 Nov 2010]
Social media is now the key to snow reporting, as we've discovered over the past 10-15 years: skiers who've paid for their holidays, kindly and helpfully reporting back to fellow skiers. In Scotland, it's all about up-to-the minute forecasting for the day ahead and - again - reports/photos/videos from those on the slopes.
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
People will not choose to look at out-of-date snow reports. Still less get them emailed to them.
This should worry the SCGB. It is well in to the ski season now. Signing new members up from those who receive emails was a central plank of Wee Frank's scheme to boost membership numbers.
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
This official SCGB claim about "automated data from the resorts", and the assertion that this data needs checking, is particularly puzzling.
My understanding is that the Club had at least one meeting with the Scottish ski areas in the past year to sort out the problems with its Scottish snow depth reports, which were often way out of line with what was being observed on the ground by - among others - the SportScotland Avalanche Information Service, which cuts its own snow profiles daily and publishes snow depths. The SCGB had claimed [Facebook 3 May 2012] ...
"Regarding depths, then there are no official depths available from the Scottish resorts so we aim to report representative depths as it states in our site. We do this through various means including talking to skiers in Scotland as well as people within the ski industry who are in Scotland."
... but then seemed to be seeking exactly what it claimed to distrust ... "automated data from the resorts".
There's obviously nothing wrong with automated data from resorts, if the automated data is reliable and trustworthy.
Soldeu: The best conditions can be found on the upper slopes
Ischgl: A dusting of snow has improved the pistes
Kitzbuhel: Best skiing on groomed runs, variable elsewhere
Obergurgl: Very good piste conditions, best at top
Zell am See: Hard base, light dusting of fresh snow
Fernie: Great skiing thanks to the new snow that fell over the weekend
Whistler: Great conditions - wax up your skis!
Alpe d'Huez: Great conditions - wax up your skis!
Argentiere: Great skiing thanks to the recent snowfalls
Avoriaz: Good skiing on well groomed pistes
Courchevel: Great conditions - wax up your skis!
Flaine: Great conditions - wax up your skis!
La Plagne: Spring conditions across the resort
Les Arcs: Great conditions - wax up your skis!
Meribel: Very good piste conditions, best at top
Tignes: Great conditions - wax up your skis!
Val d'Isere: Great skiing thanks to the recent snowfalls
Val Thorens: Today's fresh powder means fresh tracks!
Cervinia: Very good piste conditions, best at top
Sauze d'Oulx: Very good piste conditions, best at top
Davos: Great conditions - wax up your skis!
Grindelwald: Great conditions - wax up your skis!
Klosters: Fresh snow on upper slopes
Murren: Great conditions - wax up your skis!
Saas Fee: Great conditions - wax up your skis!
Verbier: Great conditions - wax up your skis!
Wengen: Great conditions - wax up your skis!
Zermatt: Great skiing thanks to the recent snowfalls
Aspen: Today's fresh powder means fresh tracks!
Jackson Hole: Great snow conditions throughout area
12 out of those 30 Leader reports say "Great conditions - wax up your skis!". This phrase now seems to rival "Best snow on upper slopes" as a SCGB classic, but it doesn't help support the assertion that "automated data" is distrusted. 'Automated stock phrases' such as "wax up your skis!" have appeared with striking regularity in recent years.
Is there really a future for this style of snow reporting? Back in the pre-internet days of the 1980s and 1990s the SCGB made big revenues from premium phone line snow reports - called by skiers as a resource that wasn't available elsewhere. Were those revenues used to keep the Club ahead of the game?
What's available now ... left, right and centre ... is "automated data" ... from lots of different places. j2ski.com, for example, has done quite well out of this. Well organised social/snocial media sites like this one (or Winterhighland for Scotland) enable skiers to file their own reports etc. Webcams are very widely consulted by skiers.
Where does this leave the Ski Club of Great Britain, in strategic terms, in 2014, with its supposed scepticism of "automated data"? Who's going where, for the information, and what are they looking for? A critical question for snow-based web and social media sites.
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Mon 6-01-14 13:59; edited 3 times in total
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Comedy Goldsmith wrote:
Where does this leave the Ski Club of Great Britain, in strategic terms, in 2014?
I'm not really sure. All I know is that I've just got back from a brilliant week in Argentiere skiing off piste with folk I've met through SCGB and one via Snowheads. But of course I know that's completely irrelevant to your crusade
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?
Comedy Goldsmith wrote:
12 out of those 30 Leader reports say "Great conditions - wax up your skis!".[/b] This phrase now seems to rival "Best snow on upper slopes" as a SCGB classic, but it doesn't help support the assertion that "automated data" is distrusted. 'Automated stock phrases' such as "wax up your skis!" have appeared with striking regularity in recent years.
Wow ! What a day. Skied the Flaine Bowl in the morning. Pretty much every run that is open which is most of them. Every run was amazing, the snow was fresh from the night before. We went to Les... (click through for full report)
Resort snow report:
Great skiing thanks to the new snow that fell over the weekend
feef, yes, skiers may be aware that by paying a SCGB subscription they can get a SCGB rep report that goes
beyond "Great conditions - wax up your skis!" [as quoted above for Flaine]
But, for no cost at all (depending on whether they elect to donate/subscribe to snowHeads) they get a stream of reports from others ...
So, where does that leave the SCGB in terms of 'unique selling proposition'?
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Comedy Goldsmith, does the SCGB genuinely believe its highly dubious snow reports to be a unique selling proposition? If so, they are in far more trouble than previously estimated. One post on Snowheads, one quick peek at twitter or a webcam and you'd have all the info you need to make the right call on where to ski. All that said, I don't know many who leave it late enough to use snow reports to make much of a call on where to ski, which is another reason I gave up looking at weather forecasts and snow reports some time ago - we are going to a resort, we will find the best snow by talking to the locals and a bit of trial and error, and if it isn't great then we're not going to decamp to another resort unless the resort is closed (which usually means all the others in a reasonable radius are in a similar position)
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Further to that point it's significant that - with ski sites strongly attracting snow report checkers at this time of the winter - skiclub.co.uk is ranking below j2ski.com, and snowheads.com for traffic
Wouldn't it be logical for the Fogg card (competes with Carte Neige?) to be sold on a Freshtracks holiday?
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.
Intriguing post in that last link concerning the woman in Austria who had to use her credit card to pay in the ambulance to taking her to the medical centre - and the skier with the broken leg in France who had to pay the mountain rescue team in cash (credit card not acceptable) before she was taken for treatment.
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
It's approaching 12 noon, Wednesday - effectively the last point at which anyone would consider skiing on a Scottish mountain today (if local).
The SCGB is again reporting 3 out of 5 Scottish ski areas "closed" (information from yesterday at 13.30).
In fact all 5 centres are open today. Of those reported "closed" by the SCGB:
Cairngorm: 5 out of 11 lifts open (2 more expected)
Glencoe: 5 out of 7 lifts open
Nevis: 3 out of 11 lifts open (2 more expected)
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Comedy Goldsmith, your posts show consistent traits of anger, feelings of rejection and compulsive obsession. Have you considered therapy? And before you succumb to any temptation to respond snidely, this suggestion is offered genuinely and with your best interests at heart.
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.
Quite.
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Codemy Goldsmiht, you can not be serious. A phrase once heard in Wimbledon ... and a phrase which echoes through the upper slopes of the village to this day ...
You're welcome to disclose your real name (and credentials in psychoanalysis) ... or simply to play the game. It's just not tennis to behave in this way. You're not batting with a straight bat, and your ball(s) is out of the question.
If you're not willing to address that ... are you, just as a matter of interest, 'a member'?
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Codemy Goldsmiht, Another Teat Club sock Perhaps if you did something about the creaking insouciance of your institution, C/D Goldfart would have much less kvetch about.
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Masque, or maybe a SH who is bored of CG?
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Comedy Goldsmith,
Quote:
Interesting comment on the SCGB forum, by Peter Thomas:
Quote:
I was on a Ski Freshtracks holiday last month on which the leader was selling additional Carte Neige insurance, which I did not take up.
It's in the latest posting (at the time of typing) on this thread:
Well, he posted again:
Quote:
Peter Thomas
Posted: 07 Jan 2014 00:38
I see my last comment has been quoted on that thread on SH. Not that he bothered to ask if I minded, of course.
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Masque, thank you for your understanding and sympathy, as always.
Did you miss the word "to" out of the last 3-4 words - i.e. I wasn't certain if you're using "kvetch" as a verb or noun?
Information: https://www.google.co.uk/#q=kvetch
They can not be serious.
David McEnroe, on behalf of Jef Kvetch and Comedy Members.
Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Wed 8-01-14 15:27; edited 1 time in total
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?
Filthyphil30k, CG is boring! well I never
It can be fun to poke the rotting corpse of the Teat Club . . . the escaping gas that posts here is highly entertaining in their asshattery
The good ship Janet Nettleship comes across as a sensible person. Why make things more complicated than they need to be? Clearly, no one wants to be shelling out cash or card payments to be lifted off a mountain. Least of all a member of a national ski club. If UK ski insurance policies - generally, or in specific cases - are unrecognised by ski patrollers, ambulance drivers or heli teams, then clearly something must be done.
Time for cards, or other forms of proof of insurance, with some sort of common international logo, that are recognised by rescue services anywhere?
Time for cards, or other forms of proof of insurance, with some sort of common international logo, that are recognised by rescue services anywhere?
Carte Neige
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
stewart woodward, +1
To my mind it should be part of every lift pass sold and not as an add on . . . even here in the Land of the Limited, getting you down off the hill to a first responder is part of your pass (as long as you are 'in bounds') can get complicated after that.
After all it is free
After all it is free
Quote:
Carte Neige
does that work in all the countries that are not France?
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.
A reminder of the insurance cover provided/included/offered by other European national ski clubs would also be useful. This is a core issue of a national ski club's offer. I don't see the logic of the extra card, if everyone obviously needs the same emergency contingency.
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
andy wrote:
Quote:
Carte Neige
does that work in all the countries that are not France?
FAQ
Poster: A snowHead
) He's a bit of a numpty terrorist (and again!) . . . but he's our numpty and for all that he can be an enormous irritant, he does have a grain of valid query . . . which most of us find entirely inconsequential and we predominantly ignore. This thread is the sort of place we go to when we have little else to pontificate about . . .
