I'm from a collection of students developing wearable technology for skiers. At the moment we're developing a prototype and intend to test the final version over the summer. We aim to spend about 1 month testing the equipment and I wondered whether it would work out cheaper taking 3 people to a ski resort in europe, or if it would be better to take the team to South America.
I've been skiing in South America before (Bariloche, Argentina) and found it pretty fun and cheap (once you are there). Probably about £800 to get there then about £20/day. I've never been summer glacier skiing in Europe and wanted to get the pro/cons and a rough estimate of expenses.
Obviously we'd be willing to pay a bit more to go to South America, since the skiing would be better. But we're pretty cash strapped so if the difference was huge we'd opt for Europe.
Thanks for taking the time to answer!
Cheers,
Jamie
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Kind of depends what you are trying to test.
Have you done a 'use case' test plan?
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?
Assuming lift passes are similar prices (I have no idea!) I'm pretty sure you could do Europe a lot cheaper, driving down and staying in a pension or camping near somewhere like Hintertux or Stubai (Stubai closes at the end of June though, so depends when your holidays start).
That said if you go much later than mid-May then SA will likely have better skiing. Though the snow seems to have been very intermittent there the last couple of seasons?
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Testing wearable technology for skiers in the summer (Europe) vs testing wearable technology for skiers in winter (South America). Skiing mostly occurs in the winter, coder temperatures, different weather, surely SA would make more sense, or is that just my way of looking at it?
What it is
How it will be used
Who will use it
What conditions it will be used in
Other nfr's
Exceptions and out of range testing.
You really need to understand testing folks to define your testing.
I am available and cheap if needed
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Thanks so much for the input everyone!
Sorry for not clarifying properly. The hardware consists of sensors that fit onto the body of the skier to measure loads of info about the performance of the skier. Our goal is to use machine learning algorithms to understand skier technique and to be able to separate good and bad skiers. Here is a the work our research is based on
Though Brodie (who made the video) just collects data, he doesn't do much processing on it, which is our plan.
For our tests we'd start with racing skiing. If we were happy with this we'd move on to general freeskiing. We could also have a look at off piste, but it's probably our lowest priority. We have some good racing/ general on piste skiers in our group, and might approach locals who were good at freestyle (but we couldn't pay). Our tests would be more about data collection than the durability of the product, as we aim to make our prototype durable during testing this Northern hemisphere season.
So we could probably manage by getting a lot data from a few runs on a glacier. However, living cost per a day is so cheap in Argentina (Lift pass is about £300/month in a small resort, accommodation + food is £10/day) I wonder if you stay down there for a month that the price might be similar. Even if it was 50% more it'd be worth it. I've had a look round at pensions in Tignes and it seems that you looking at £25/quid per a day just for accommodation and general living costs will be a lot more expensive.
If anyone can estimate the cost of lift pass+accommodation+living expenses for glacier skiing in France, that'd be a good start.
Thanks!
After all it is free
After all it is free
Sounds interesting and good luck. A couple of observations.
If you are looking to test at a cost, why not start on the dry slopes and indoor snowdomes. I would guess there are plenty of race clubs who would be happy to help.
After that look at what your data shows and where you need to spend the time on further development and testing, this should help steer where and how you need to be testing and this should be the decision and not can we have a cheap ski holiday in France or south america...
Also as with lots of sports whilst there is a mixture of good technique and bad technique it's not that clear cut. Paula Radcliffe has a terrible running style but at her best was a world beater. The same applies to other sports including skiing.
Good luck.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
@jamiegrant, staying for a month you'll get cheaper rates than any advertised, so you'll have to do some research on that. FWIW one night camping in Neustift (Stubai Glacier) is €5 per person. I'd imagine you can find a pension for not much over €10 a night per person too, but you'll have to do your own research on that too. 21 days WINTER pass at the glacier is €440 - after May 2nd that will be cheaper (glacier is open til end of June), and if you email them you can highly likely cut a deal for a month too (they won't advertise anything like that though!). I did my dissertation research on Nordkette summer 2011 and they gave me a totally free lift pass for a week (though I had had season passes there for 2 years prior)...
Accommodation costs in Zillertal near the Hintertux Glacier (the only glacier with year round skiing in the world as far as I'm aware) will likely be similar prices, but the pass is quite a bit more - €764 is the only price I can find for a long summer pass, but that runs from 22nd April to December. I'm sure if you email them you can cut a deal for a summer month there too.
Down in the valleys where you'd stay food is pretty cheap and not ski resort prices. With big bowls of spaghetti bolognese etc you can easily live on under €10 a day if you're cooking as a group.
OTOH, if you can swing South America why the hell wouldn't you??!
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Summer skiing in Europe goes from rock hard ice to slush in a matter of seconds without being anything remotely ski-able as it does it. Go to South America.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
OwenM wrote:
Summer skiing in Europe goes from rock hard ice to slush in a matter of seconds without being anything remotely ski-able as it does it. Go to South America.
Not disimilar to S America to be fair.
If S America is your choice, then the most consistent snow I've skied is at Chillan, Chile.
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.
Thanks for the all the suggestions. I've had a deeper look into prices and have a better idea now.
@clarky999 it seems that we could do it fairly cheap in the summer in Europe. I was thinking that perhaps the price difference between south america and europe would be enough to make a month trip similar in price. However, driving from the UK then getting a pension down the mountain somewhere in europe appears good value. If you are careful in europe I guess the daily cost isn't hugely different, unless we find a flat for a month in a ski resort in Argentina for a decent price. Btw, what was your research on?
@ansta1 we are indeed testing on dry slopes as much as possible. At the moment we're just getting the equipment reliable and working out how we can make a set of beta prototypes. We normally do this at Brentwood Ski Center, who are very nice and let us hang around with our equipment and laptops for the whole day! We'll have finalised the design over the next few months, but to design the ski analysis algorithms we need large quantities of data. We should be able to get this at the end of the season, but I'm worried we won't make any progress over the summer, so I want to work out a way we can keep skiing.
It seems that we'd save a bit of money by being in europe on the daily cost, but it's still going to cost an extra £500/person to get us to South America. A lot depends of funding etc, if we can go to SA we will (who wouldn't?) but it seems that europe won't cost nearly as much as it does in the winter here.
@Mike Pow, I found the snow in Bariloche pretty good when I went in 2010, but maybe I was lucky. My only criticism would be the weather was pretty bad, windy and not that many blue birds. Also, the lifts etc are pretty basic/slow. If we're going to SA I'll look into Chillan, but it'll probably come down to cost. Argentina's looking very cheap at the moment as their economy is in trouble.
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
@jamiegrant, I was mapping avalanche paths on the backside of the ski area. Conveniently it meant I got to go hiking a lot and scope out some new lines for winter
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