 Poster: A snowHead
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I agree with you Megamum, off-piste doesn't appeal to me at all for the reasons you mention, plus it would be way beyond my abilities. I don't cope very well with deep fresh snow on piste either. I must be too heavy 'cos I just sink! 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| queen bodecia wrote: |
| plus it would be way beyond my abilities. |
I doubt it is 
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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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I see some confusion with my my use of the term guide - and yes, given the common understanding of the word 'guide' on here, which is as GrahamN describes my use is not right. I was chasing a term for someone that could guide you where it was safe to ski. Within reason I should think an off piste instructor would only take you where they deemed was safe (in terms of terrain and the skier's abilities), a judgement that I wouldn't have the skills or experience to make myself. However, its still immaterial as don't think off piste and me are really ready for each other yet  My instructor Gaele on the EoSB popped us off the edges for the odd few minutes for some fun, but that's really the only time I'd follow anyone off piste, unless possibly the area was so tracked out it looked like a bit of piste anyway!!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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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 have done that before, i.e. crossed a bit of 'off-piste' to get from one piste to another. Usually thousands of people have gone that way before me but I do worry about the lack of insurance thing so I wouldn't make a habit of it.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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GrahamN,
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The only place an off-piste instructor can't take you is onto a glacier (off-piste),
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I'm not sure that's strictly true. Yes, an off piste instructor will most likely be qualified to take you everywhere other than a glacier, but local rules may vary.
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Megamum, "Feel the force Luke" works for me (except when it doesn't!) My first taste of powder was on piste really deep really exhausting and fantastic fun, even the face plants. Haven't experienced such good powder in the following 5 years though. If you do get some make the most of it. Don't bank on it happening again though!
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PsychoBabble, I think you are right BMF_skier said in ten years he had never seen the equal of the snow that we got last year.
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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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queen bodecia,
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I do worry about the lack of insurance thing
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Quite right too, the small print needs to be inspected before these little forays take place. Also, I understand that a very high percentage of avalanches occur within sight of a piste.
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Hurtle, it's not just the travel insurance, my income replacement insurance only covers ' accidents whilst participating in normal recreational piste skiing whilst on holiday, not working or residing in a ski resort'. That's the crucial one for me.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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queen bodecia, that's pretty restrictive, bummer! Most travel insurance policies (in my experience) will cover off piste with a guid or instructor, but that woudn't even let you take an off piste lesson.
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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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| queen bodecia wrote: |
| Hurtle, it's not just the travel insurance, my income replacement insurance only covers ' accidents whilst participating in normal recreational piste skiing whilst on holiday, not working or residing in a ski resort'. That's the crucial one for me. |
Yet again I am stupified by the T&C of employment in your industry. Most employees don't have personal income replacement policies because the employer covers them for reasonable periods of absence for legitimate reasons. Even dark satanic mills have more employee friendly policies. Are you sure your employer isn't taking you for a ride?
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fatbob, I can't imagine any employer would pay someone for absence due to injury outside of the workplace. How on earth could any employer afford to do this and pay an additional person such as a freelancer to cover for the person on absence? There's a real world out there mate and I work in it!
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You know it makes sense.
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queen bodecia, er, I think they're required to by law? Don't they call it statutory sick pay? Admittedly it's not much, but most income replacement policies don't pay out much either... They also normally have a time delay before they start paying out.
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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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queen bodecia, all four of my previous employers would have paid me sick leave for a period of time and covered my absence in some way or other if I needed time off work for injury or illness. Just out of interest, are you on a standard employment contract or some sort of self-employed freelance status with your company? I used to place a lot of work with a small design consultancy (3 people, plus the boss) and when one of the designers needed a few weeks off for an appendectomy they got somebody in for a couple of weeks to cover a rush job. Isn't that just one of the perils of being a small company?
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Poster: A snowHead
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| queen bodecia wrote: |
| fatbob, I can't imagine any employer would pay someone for absence due to injury outside of the workplace. How on earth could any employer afford to do this and pay an additional person such as a freelancer to cover for the person on absence? There's a real world out there mate and I work in it! |
Really? My own employer, although not especially generous with their benefits have a company sick leave policy that doesn't discriminate between injuries incurred outside the workplace or illnesses. The alternative at the extreme would be stripping people of anything other than statutory benefits for things like car crashes - "You were driving the car for your own leisure purposes - tough". I wouldn't imagine that this is atypical for any employer in the UK that wants to retain a reasonably content workforce in the 21st century, though I acknowledge that small businesses simply may not be able to afford the slack.
I realise you are in a special position and I'm not trying to pick on you but to me when you post about anything to do with your employment I only think how far out of line it is with my employers to date.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| queen bodecia wrote: |
| fatbob, I can't imagine any employer would pay someone for absence due to injury outside of the workplace. How on earth could any employer afford to do this and pay an additional person such as a freelancer to cover for the person on absence? There's a real world out there mate and I work in it! |
Every place I've worked has a period of sick pay on full pay and then the same period on half pay  . Where I am now it's 6 months full pay, 6 months half, regardless of how or why I'm ill.
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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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I too have a sick leave policy that does not discriminate 'how' I became sick and was very handy when I smashed my femur up whilst skiing, and is the reason I do not pay for income replacement insurance!!
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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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Lordy! Is this pick on Clare day??? 
I'm really not in a special position. I work for a large design and print company and our terms of employment are pretty standard across the industry. We get three weeks full paid sick leave in a rolling year but it does not apply to injuries caused outside the call of duty. This is standard stuff I've had with pretty much every job ever, not just in the design industry. Otherwise you get people milking paid sick leave for spraining an ankle during a tennis match and whatnot. Why is that any responsibility of an employer?
I have income replacement insurance which pays out after four weeks for sickness absence and immediately for injuries. It pays out about £200 per week, enough to keep the roof over my head in addition to SSP of about £70 per week that I would be paid through work.
Yes, many of you may have better arrangements with your employers, but in this day and age I think the number of employers who can afford to pay people for not working, is probably going to become fewer and fewer. There's no discrimination or unfair treatment, just honest businesses trying to stay in business.
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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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queen bodecia, not trying to pick on you, honest. Just surprised about your terms of employment. Have to say I wouldn't be inclined to work for an employer who wanted to differentiate between illness and accident in terms of sick leave. Fortunately I've not been in that position as all the employers I've had have taken a more balanced approach to their employees having normal lives (and all the 'perils' that go with that)
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I'm surprised too.
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Obviously any sick leave policy is subject to milking. I can think of one employee who spent 2 years of minimal attendance due to "chronic fatigue", was bulletproof from a redundancy perspective and no-one was even allowed to formally appraise her performance. I have no idea about the genuineness or otherwise of her condition but personally if I was running the HR function I'd have been a little less circumspect in tackling the issue.
However I can also imagine staff retention & morale would be very difficult if my employer suggested that certain leisure activities fell outside its scope of sick pay cover so I guess on balance at the top a decision has been taken that the risk of the odd pisstaker is worth it for reasonble employee satisfaction. Maybe they are just more trustng of their employees in general.
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I also wouldn't expect any employer for someone with an office based job to accept abscence due to a sprained ankle... If you don't have a manual job none but the very most serious skiing accidents would keep you off work for more than a week or two.
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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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I thought I was being a good employee by coming into work on crutches quite quickly after having my ACL repaired. Then our office manager came over to me and started grilling me about whether I would be a health and safety hazard in the event of a fire !
(I worked on the 6th floor at the time so lots of steps to descend...)
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I don't suppose it's for 'milking' purposes but since the most common reason for sick leave in the UK is indescriminate back pain I can totally understand why many employers choose not to pay their employees for that sort of thing. Employers need to make a profit and stay competitive.
In fairness though staff retention is low in the design industry and high staff turnover is seen as a good thing. Fresh new blood = new ideas after all and people that have been employed less than two years do not qualify for redundancy pay. It benefits us designers too, moving around means getting to work on lots of different accounts and across different industry sectors. Since leaving Uni in 1992 I have had 13 jobs and worked in 6 different UK cities. But always with very similar terms of employment. Evenutally I think the design industry will move towards abolishing full-time permanent design staff and employ freelancers on temporary bases only. It's the only way they'll stay competitive and respond to changing client demands.
Anyway, enough already. And I still can't ski well in powder!
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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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Boredsurfing, try larger arcing turns and turning till your going up hill. these longer swoopier turns will slow you down.
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| queen bodecia wrote: |
| Otherwise you get people milking paid sick leave for spraining an ankle during a tennis match and whatnot. |
Actually, I think it's far easier to milk the "sick" part of the leave than injuries.
It's really quite hard to fake a broken hand. Much easier to say I've got carpel tunnel syndrom and can't come to work (and go hill walking instead)!
Or maybe designers are better at faking broken legs than the rest of us? 
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FAQ
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