Poster: A snowHead
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Hi, Phil Smith here from Snoworks. Interesting reading all the comments re pre-season training especially Tignes. Graham, you've been with us a few times before and it does look like you've been pretty unlucky with the weather and conditions the past two years. We have been running courses in the Autumn in Tignes for over 10 years. Up until two years ago I do not think we had ever missed two days of skiing on the trot. Then in 2006 we had a bad week followed by another bad week or two in 2007. I think you must have been on both these weeks Graham.
This last year Tignes has been working hard on it's image and it's organisation. Simi Johnson (I think correct spelling) has been employed in a fairly high role at Tignes development and Jean Luke is in charge of the training on the glacier. They seem pretty open to suggestions for improvement. I think they begun to get the idea that they were loosing clients. Such as yourself Graham.
The new Swimming pool complex with Gym is fantastic.
We have stuck with Tignes as this is our home and our family is based here so moving across to other glaciers is tricky. We also feel that the service is improving with Simi now involved. We are heading up to Tignes this Friday and hopefully will get a chance to meet with both Simi and Jean Luke before we kick off on Oct 25th and give them some suggestions re this coming autumn.
Stewart Woodward can give an overall view as he has been on the glacier all 8 weeks of the autumn for the past few years.
We will be there as always every week from the 25th October.
I will let you know how it is. Cheers, Phil
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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philsmith, Hi Phil, welcome to snowHeads - good to see you around here.
Rob (Rees)
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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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Hi Rob, I'm often around but tend to stay in the background. It's unfortunate that Tignes has upset people such as Graham. It's yours and ours local glacier. It's in our interest to try to get Tignes to win peopple like Graham back.
Are you in Tignes this autumn?
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philsmith wrote: |
Are you in Tignes this autumn? |
I'm hoping to be, but no definite plans yet. I'm starting on my ISIA this season (did Common Theory back in May) so have to find time to fit in a couple of BASI courses this season. Hopefully I'll get to see you and Em before Christmas.
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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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philsmith, welcome to snowheads. No slight on your organisation intended at all. I went with Snoworks last year and really enjoyed the training i got from Emma. Unfortunately the weather didnt cooperate and we only got 5 runs in the slalom course one morning during the week but did have some great powder to play in which was excellent along with some training on the pistes.
Cant complain about the weather but as Graham mentioned the communications from the lift company was very poor and noone (including the coaches) seemed to know what was happening with regards to the glacier or train opening times. Hopefully their service will improve with the new guys in place and they start to realise that Tignes isn't the only game in town.
i would like it to improve as it is the most convinient place for me to train.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Back later, looking after the kids upstairs! Good to chat. More comments to follow.
Phil
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philsmith, welcome to snowHeads!
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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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GrahamN, I have always found the people in the STGM office to be really helpful at giving credit days when all the lifts have been shut and at modifying passes for other reasons.
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rjs, that's fine for you guys that spend weeks out there at a time, and they would have been happy to extend the pass, but I was going home the following day. What they had me do, after about half an hour of being sent from one office to the next, and a lot of shoulder shrugging, was get me to fill out a form, which resulted in about a month later them sending me a credit note for about half a day's lift pass. Same thing when I tried to redeem that voucher - OK one day late, but how many trips a year do they expect a typical punter to take to a given resort? After looking at the voucher, it was first of all "non - c'est pas valide", then after a phone call to clearly higher authority, and lots of waving of hands all I got was a "NON" and very Gallic shoulder shrug. But the lift-pass money wasn't the main issue - it was the time lost by simple bad planning on their part. We spend a lot of money, and valuable leave time getting to their resort and spend that money in resort, so I do expect them to be efficient about providing resort services. As an illustration, on the one day that week last year when we actually got onto Rossolin, the guys to de-ice the cables didn't get there until well after the punters were there - they should have been out at 6am getting things ready for the people who pay their wages! And as for the times when they screwed up the cable-car de-icer, and then lost complete days on the entire glacier because they couldn't get that one lift sorted out . I fully understand about the safety issue from icicles and those overhead cables, but having a storm overnight is clearly not an uncommon occurrence, so they really ought to know how to deal with it.
As I said before, this was in such complete contrast to the efforts made by the LDA lift company, who showed what could be achieved with will-power and attention to customer needs.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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GrahamN, I admit that I never buy a pass for the whole time that I am going to be there, then if there are closures I can use up the extension.
I got the impression last year that they were too busy getting ready for the Freestyle WC to do all the work needed on the glacier.
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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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philsmith, hi Phil. As Rob said, good to see you post on Snowheads. I'm Emma C by real name, as you know I'm in the BASI system now as well, I will do my L2 in April or July all being well. No doubt I will be seeing you and Emma again sometime this season coming up. In fact I think I mentioned to Emma a while back now that by coincidence, I see you are in St Anton in Jan at the Rosanna same time I'm there on a holiday with some people at the Rosanna too, so see you then I expect! Bye for now.
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philsmith, Welcome to Snowheads.
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You know it makes sense.
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Hi all. Hintertux has just opened a brand new funitel lift from the bottom station, that means it now has a three stage lift system that opperates on funitel lift system (double cables). This kind if lift can run in much higher winds so the chance of closing due to high wind is much reduced. This is the last stage of the system and will now mean they can run the lower lift when they experience lower altitude cross winds.
If you like beer, thats € 3.5 for a large one too! On the mountain you will get lunch and a drink for around €8.00. I think some of the French areas are basically taking the p***! Only YOU can allow yourself to be ripped off.
If you want to run gates in the UK, we will be offering that facility at our new centre www.thesnowcentre.com
Was on site today and its looking great, all on time and ready for use in April.
Regards
PSG
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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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Was thinking bout going out to hintertux in late november early december for a few days. So much cheaper than france.
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Poster: A snowHead
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gilleski, will the gate training be for adults as well as juniors? will it be club based or just a regular slot at the ski school?
i think there is a good market for adults race training in near london. MK talked about doing this some months ago seperately from the Xscape race team but it never happened.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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skimottaret, we will run adult race coaching as a seperate session from the clubs. There are many clubs using us but they are independent private opperations. Think you are right, there is a good market for higher performance training for adults (with and without the use of gates). One thing we can be sure of, high winds will not close the lifts!
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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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gilleski, I would definately be interested in that.
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skimottaret wrote: |
gilleski, I would definately be interested in that. |
Me too.
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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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skimottaret, rob@rar, Looks like thats one more product decided on then!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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skimottaret, Why not train at MK ?
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rjs, I think skimottaret answered that at 12:33 (although I suppose he could do it as part of the Xscape Race Club)
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GrahamN, He is one of the coaches of XRT.
I think some clubs miss out by not making adults welcome at race training sessions. At the CFe races last weekend a fair proportion of the officials had been to training sessions at Castleford.
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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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rjs i thought that would come up Two reasons really
I could train with XRT but until i get some basic gate skills under my belt and feel comfortable running SL gates i dont want to embarrass myself in front of those i coach and am looking at doing some training outside the glare of my collegues to get my own level up. Hence looking at an alpine camp, and/or, other dome venues. second if i am just training for myself Hemel will be much more convinient to travel to.
I agree about adults not being that welcome, seems to me that most clubs tend to limit membership to parents and very experienced racers who will compete at races. Why the clubs dont offer "introductory" type race training slots i dont get. At XRT we have a few disabled adult skiers who train regularily plus some forces guys and a small handful of parents.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Good to know there will be somewhere offering race training for adults in the UK without having to do a course abroad.
Last edited by snowHeads are a friendly bunch. on Mon 10-11-08 21:19; edited 2 times in total
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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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rjs, skimottaret,
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I think some clubs miss out by not making adults welcome at race training sessions
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Plug for my club - Bowles Ski Racing Club... we like everyone to ski - regardless of age. Currently the oldest is 77, youngest 8.
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skimottaret, as you know, rule with the xrt is that all members should train with the intent to race. With that proviso, all are welcome including the inexperienced, however few they may number. Also mk does run a race training session under the expert tutillage of mark dickson, a cscf3!!! no less.
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You know it makes sense.
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slikedges, But that doesn't help him with his particular problem thuogh does it? I think skimottaret, is right - train elsewhere until you know you're going to impress the people you coach.
gilleski, Good to hear, I did have some intelligence from skimottaret, Hemel was always a nice slope and well run so I'm sure it will be a huge hit.
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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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easiski, sorry, re-read my post, wasn't clear - the race training session I referred to separately is non-xrt.
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Poster: A snowHead
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gilleski, do you know yet who'll run your adult race coaching?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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slikedges, does Mark D set gates during his training? i didnt know about him or the training he runs... most of the training at Mk i heard about was from Steve Jordan and was teaching based and not race type stuff.
easiski, I have a long long way to go before i "impress" anyone. the good minis keep up with me no problem... I would like in the years to come to progress into coaching CH1 as well as minis and need to be competent as racing so have some training to do...
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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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skimottaret, whenever poss
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Just in case anyone is interested...last week in Tignes. Sun and cold snow all week. 8:15 and 8:30 trains rammed - but the 8:45 was fine. Lanes were busy, but not too busy. Skiing until 3 pm each day. Great week
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