 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Lecht 1987 - great conditions and instruction.
Cairngorm 1988 - great conditions and instruction.
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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?
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Tauplitz -vAustria over New Year 1985/6. Terrible. Loads of snow, but I chipped a bone in my knee on day 1 and spent the week in hospital 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Scladming, 1990, threw down with snow on the first day, but battled through, then had 4 wonderful blue ski days. Top class instructor and had a wonderful time.
Last edited by You need to Login to know who's really who. on Fri 28-07-06 10:05; edited 1 time in total
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I've never had a skiing holiday. Primarily, my wife was the skier, so we bought a place in the Alp(e)s for her and also because I love being in the mountains. In my younger days I never had the time to go skiing but I took a close interest in the racing side (downhill) of the sport. Of course, when the season started I had to give it a go and of course I was hooked. Better late than never!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Zell am Ziller, Austria on my own. Fab week, mostly great conditions, instructor was 18 (not much younger than me) and in his first season as an instructor, but was local and had skied since he was barely walking. Great laugh, but I was hopeless to start with once it clicked Loved, Loved Loved it! 
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Xc in Venabu, Norway, 1991.
Fell on my poles in the first hour & cracked 2 ribs, but carried on for the week using strong painkillers.
Loved it & went back the following year
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Ah well now, I was 4 at the time, I must have enjoyed it though as I kept at it, the location was of course Wengen 
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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.
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19.. Chateaux Doex Switzerland, brilliant instruction from an Excellent teacher, have been skiing every year since. 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Soll, 1979 (I still have my lift pass!).
2 weeks in Pension Ingeborg. Instructor was very good (Klaus). Snow conditions excellent, but I do remember thinking that everything was very expensive compared with my native Wolverhampton.
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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.
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I was 18, and had to reschedule my medical school interview in 1977 so I could go to Sauze D'oulx with 3 friends who had all skied before. 3 of us arrived in resort (1 broke his arm the night before), and clad in Motor Cycle News shiny padded jacket and plastic over trousers I was put on a single chair lift, sitting sideways skis cradled in arms. At the top my mates set off with a "follow me" and by the bottom I could sort of ski. No ski brakes meant each time I fell the skis flailed around my face because the were taped on to the boots, an I still have one of the scars. A night at the Andi Capp bar, my first taste of wood oven pizza and I was hooked, and the rest is history
(I even went back 2 years later)
Last edited by 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  on Wed 26-07-06 8:51; edited 1 time in total
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You know it makes sense.
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Geilo, Norway, in 1963. School trip, which cost £40 and required the cashing in of all the savings certificates and Princess Anne savings stamps my grandma had bought me since I was born. Fantastic. Skis as high as the arm could stretch above your head, the most handsome instructor in the world - Hans "face de walley" - and my first encounter with "continental quilts" (not with Hans, sadly, but in girls dormitory in Youth Hostel; don't believe all you read about the 'sixties). Loved it to bits but nobody in the family had ever been ski-ing and I couldn't afford to go again until I was nearly 40, with 3 kids. Am now making up for lost time. 
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Saalbach, 1995 (or was it 96?)
I only went for the Apres with a couple of mates, and then got kinda hooked.
On my first day on snow, they took me down a red. The next day, in lessons, I asked the instructor when we would be doing one of the blues, and she said we probably wouldn't. Then she asked me why, and I explained that I'd spent the previous day skiing it several times. She moved me up a class...
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Poster: A snowHead
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Sauze D'Oulx 1986
Shocking novice facilities. No drag, no anything. Basically walk up and crash down. Ski school lessons with Luciano, a very talented but very small instructor. We shared the lessons with about 30 cockernees. My abiding memory was all these London girls swooning over this tanned dwarfish ski god, constantly calling out "Lewchaaaaaarno". Many of the easy routes back were along paths through the trees. I couldnt snowplough very well and would end up throwing myself into snowbanks to slow down  . Night life was good but outr room was above the hotel disco. Food was very basic Italian, but very nice. The italian for "yes please I would like another helping" is "corra" (spl)
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Fantastic trip to ADH 14 years ago. I remember fondly the most fantastic sexy ski instructor. We took a day trip to Serre Che and I spen most of the day falling down the reds with some serios slides.
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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?
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| Quote: |
I remember fondly the most fantastic sexy ski instructor.
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I mis-read that as:
I remember fondling the most fantastic sexy ski insturctor.
My hopes were lifted momentarily.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Chateau D'Oeux 1990 aged 15 with school. Straight up on the chairlift before I'd even skiied which meant me and my chairlift friends ended up in a heap whilst trying to get off the lift! Our instructor was quite old with no sense of humor but he did take us off-piste on the 3rd day through the trees and instilled a strong sense of self-belief - either that or I was 15 and fearless! I begged my Dad for months to let me go again and it worked!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Frosty the Snowman, so things didn't change much in 10 years from 1977! The second time I went we had a ski godess for a ski instructor called Daniella, and I was heartbroken to be promoted out of her group!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Soldeu, Andorra in March 2003. Finally got to Hotel after what seemed like the longest coach journey in the world from Toulouse airport. Stayed in the Hotel Austria which is just a bit out of town, but very good.
Got up on the first day and put on layer after layer thinking, as there is snow and mountains, it must be quite cold up there - I was sweating buckets, it was so hot!! Had ski school for the whole week which was great (got moved up a class halfway through the week). Ski school every morning, then lunch, then skied the afternoon with my other half, mainly on blues and greens (well, it was my first holiday!!).
Hooked ever since!!
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Martin Nicholas, I do remember one stunning blonde instructress. She was a babe.
jb1970, Even through early atges of intermediacy (?) I would be like a steamed pudding when stopping for a drink or lunch. Sitting outside like an active volcano. And i was fit in those days.
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| Frosty the Snowman wrote: |
| ... We shared the lessons with about 30 cockernees... |
So it wasn't all bad then
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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.
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Oberau/Niderau, school trip 1986. I was hopeless and kept falling over when getting off the chair lift.
Unfortunately, my outfit was very similar to what the instructors wore so people who saw me stationary thought I was going to be brilliant and must have been pretty disappointed when I set off.
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Aged 15...after several years of dry slope skiing, finally persuaded the parents to take me to Grindelwald in the Winter. It was Feb 1/2 term, the beginner slopes were sheet ice, they packed it in after a couple of days...I loved it (having started off on red runs!!)
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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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.
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Rissoul 1985. Went with the school. I was most indignant to be put in the intermediate class despite my extensive dry slope experience (a couple of trips to Hillend during my summer holidays), and so as soon as the first lesson was over, myself and a mate went off and found the closest black run and skied it with very little style, but a great sense of achievement. Despite that, I've continued to have lessons. Can't remember much about the fitness of our instructor, although he didn't do much for a load of teenage boys - AFAIK!
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brian
brian
Guest
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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little tiger, Wow. What an amazing story; puts the rest of our mundane experiences into perspective....
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Soldeu Christmas 2001 - good conditions, great instruction and a very sociable crowd in the hotel; guess that's why I got hooked
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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?
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Brand, Austria, January 1971. Remarkably hot. Wore leather ski boots and used black skis with wire bindings.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| pam w wrote: |
| little tiger, Wow. What an amazing story; puts the rest of our mundane experiences into perspective.... |
Pam - it was a truely AWEFUL year... (more horrid stuff than I typed happened)....
I watched a heap of people repeat our family's experience grieving their loved ones, while I was still grieving for my brother...
the guy that did survive the land slide had his wife die next to him.... he was friends with my ski instructor... media were pigs(what is new) he was nursed by the nurses that nursed my brothers ex-gf when she nearly died in a car crash.... too many links to bad stuff all running together... (I later had lots of lessons with a best friend of the husband of the instructor I had chosen that died.... We would do memorial skis for them all when we felt the need)
the snow cover was so so.... so not the best ski year ...etc etc..
BUT - I learnt to ski and to love the mountains in winter (I had bushwalked in the area and loved summer in mountains but always hated the cold)...
My brother was a telemark instructor, back country guide, mountain climber and training to be an alpine guide(taking people up mountains)... he would love that I am skiing - although he actively campaigned against new resorts and resort expansion here - so he would want me out back country skiing....
His friends still chuckle at the thought that I would never have considered skiing if not for his death... they say it is his ultimate trick on me (he was many years younger and I fed, burped, changed etc him as my mother was unwell when he was small....as he grew up he was always trying to get me to do stuff I would not have done by my own choices)
I think it is a perfect example of karma in action... sometimes bad stuff happens so you can learn things... if you learn the lessons you come out a better person.... (else you can just become bitter and twisted)
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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little tiger, What a year indeed. Sort of makes me glad that I don't know you. Well done for putting it all behind you.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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1961 - on a school holiday to Mount Cook New Zealand. Large, well-fitted hut. Glorious sunshine. Rope tow - you clipped on to the rope with a "nutcracker" clip - which you tried to run over pulleys as you went up. Wooden skis, much longer than my height. Cable bindings. Ordinary hire walking boots, with a groove gouged into the heel to take the binding.
Austrian instructors. Snowplough turns. The only way I could stop when the going got fast was to fall over. Tremendous fun. Didn't ski again for over 20 years - when I found the kit had changed radically! I've tried to make up for lost time.
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Soldeu, Andorra.....can't remember the year! Had a horrible time, hated every minute on skis and spent more time on my bum than I did standing up! I only ever went back because Mr HH was hooked from day one. Went back the next year, different instructor, and I was hooked!
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veeight-I wished
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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.
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First time on skis 1969 or 1970 in the field in front of the 4 Seasons hotel Aviemore. I would have been four or five at the time. The first proper holiday was the year after in Austria, Biclebach I think, although we had also gone the year before to Soll.
My lack of formal lessons since may explain my feet together style.
I believe the preferred technique has now changed.
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FAQ
I think he is joking..... Eventually he convinces me to go and see the doctor for an assessment...
as they have never managed to get me back from the evil sport of downhill skiing....
