 Poster: A snowHead
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This lady - Freya Kingsley-Pallant - reminds us of the double-barrelled consequences of having your skis nicked from outside a high mountain restaurant in the middle of a big ski area:
http://www.planetski.eu/news/1273
It's not just the loss of the assets ... it's not just the loss of hours of great skiing on a blue-sky day ... it's the immediate crisis of how you get off the hill. And that's before the hair-tearing ordeal of reporting to a foreign police station and an insurance company.
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I immediately went to the pisteurs hut and explained that I had a long skiless journey ahead of me and what were my options. He was incredibly helpful and called ahead to the next pisteurs hut ...
They arranged for me to be collected at the top of the lift station on skidoo and then take me to the Cot Brune Pisteurs hut where a pisteur was busy preparing me some skis. The skis were odd skis previously found in the snow. |
The full agonising story is worth a read.
Tip: Never split your skis and hope for it. That's exactly how my brand-new K2s were nicked in Les Deux Alpes. Take a ski lock (not those pathetic toy combination ski locks) that would require a thief to use a heavy duty cutter to break. You'll have to ski with a backpack to carry the lock, but skis are almost as frequently stolen as bicycles these days.
Any other tips or ideas on ski theft?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Terrible. I don't know how she can recover from having that name.
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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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A friend of mine was sold one of these "pathetic toy combination ski locks" for €10 with ski hire and it promptly broke within a couple of days. Worryingly I see the same model rebranded almost everywhere. I bought and use a kryptonite bike lock with a long and thick cord on it. It was one third of the price of any decent looking ski lock and uses a key rather than a combo lock - far more secure.
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That full story has to be a wind-up.
Polly Filler en vacance?
I did hear of a skier who recently had his skis stolen in Val Thorens and decided in order to both get home and evade any additional charge at the ski hire shop that his best option was to steal someone else's. After lots of huffing and puffing the ski shop still declined his trade-in, charged him the retail price of the pair he'd lost and forwarded the stolen pair of skis (private not rental!) to the police.
Perhaps Freya should get in touch?
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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'm not sure exactly how it happens, because surely then someone has to ski down the mountain with a pair of skis over their shoulder?
Doesn't someone ask these people where they got the spare set? Or do they leave their own cheap battered skis at the restaurant and adjust the bindings for themselves?
Curious really. It is something I am mindful of, more because of damage from someone messing around with them then theft (partly because our skis whilst lovely weren't very expensive at all) so keep an eye on these things by sitting at a window where I can check on them, or on the balcony near them. It also helps that our skis don't look like £500 thief magnets, they're several years old and certainly resale value would be lower than most of the other ones in the rack.
Shouldn't be too hard to bodge a decent lock together that secures the skis, bit of chain and a good padlock should be enough - doesn't even have to be a long piece of chain so not exactly cumbersome. Could easily fit in any pack or pocket if it was a priority.
Then again I won't be going back to Andorra in a hurry so chances of chavs nicking off with them is significantly reduced 
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This is not a new problem. Lots of skis were being stolen on Cairngorm (or in Aviemore) when I worked there in 1974-6, including an entire rack of them removed from a car.
Fellow instructors used to stick gaffer tap along the top surfaces, to make their top-notch skis look like trash.
That's cheaper than a lock, if you can't face using a lock
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Hmmm - outside the Folie Duce bar at Val T. The very same bar that has Cristal champagne on the menu for 900 Euros!! We stopped there for a coffee the other week - very nice bar, but really crappy ski racks outside and we did comment on this at the time.
I reckon a ski lock is just a deterrent - I'm not prepared to lug round half my wight in iron just to secure my skis, although I don't mind using one of those rubbish combination locks. My skis aren't that desireable I'm sure!
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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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| albinomountainbadger wrote: |
I did hear of a skier who recently had his skis stolen in Val Thorens and decided in order to both get home and evade any additional charge at the ski hire shop that his best option was to steal someone else's. After lots of huffing and puffing the ski shop still declined his trade-in, charged him the retail price of the pair he'd lost and forwarded the stolen pair of skis (private not rental!) to the police.
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Welcome to jail - he'd get done for stealing them, and the ski shop would get done for handling stolen goods. No excuse for it - that's like coming out of my house to find my car nicked and stealing somebody else's from next door! Sounds like urban legend, but just in case anybody fancied having a silly moment when caught in the same circumstances...
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*half baked idea alert*
if bindings were optionally keyed (not uniquely but enough combos) at the toe and heel then you could get the boot toe and heel pieces keyed to match.
I warned you it was not well thought through. 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Monium, sadly it happens far too often to be an urban myth.
The bulk of ski 'theft' is people simply being too stupid to recognise the pair they have just hired or bought and grabbing the nearest set that seem vaguely familiar. Normally the victim without a pair is left to take the other person's (what has happened slowly becomes apparent as skiers start leaving restaurants and a pair just like yours but slightly different is left looking unloved on the rack). After some fiddling with bindings everyone gets down the hill and the hire shops sort it out between themselves over the phone. Once you start crossing valleys things become more complicated.
p.s. I can assure you that in my experience the police are less than enthusiastic to treat it as a serious crime.
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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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Now that I have my own skis, I'm going to take a bicycle lock with me this season (see other thread on this subject). I'm not entirely sure I'll ever find something to lock my skis too but maybe the visual deterrent of a lock will be enough in a small resort.
This opens up another can as none of my pockets are big enough for my small bicycle lock so I'm going to have to start skiing around with a small backpack too. Which is fine other than faffing about with it for chairlifts. Still, all these are minor inconveniences compared to having my skis nicked.
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You know it makes sense.
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queen bodecia, consider something like the new Reverse range from Decathlon - unclip one buckle and the bag can be swung round on to your chest.
Example: http://fr.decathlon.com/Reverse-Authentic-Kaki_115_2839810.htm
I've never had a problem with a low-profile bag myself but understand how sitting slightly forward on might bother some. I've also never had a lift tell me to take a bag off despite all the signs saying you must.
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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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albinomountainbadger, my small backpack actually comes from Decathlon. It's much smaller than that one, I'll only have a hat, phone, piste map, tissues, sun cream & lock to carry after all. I probably will keep it on for short chair lifts, it's so small I'll probably not notice it much (I hope!).
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Poster: A snowHead
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We locked our boards together at the mooserwirt... not to stop them being stolen but to stop a drunk idiot picking up the wrong board!
Do they ski down with another pair? I dont know but on the way home from Mooserwirt, in the dark, was a man crrawling down the slope with a pair of skis..  we all stopped to ask if he was ok, which he was, I presume he just fancied a slower trip than everyone else? Didnt he realise there was a bus stop?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Nadenoodlee wrote: |
| Didnt he realise there was a bus stop? |
Maybe he was told there was a bus stop and thought it was on the piste - these kind of misunderstandings arise between nationalities, over alcohol.
Are you talking about the piste with the zebra crossing?
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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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Had a pair of skis nicked at Gloucester dry slope the other week after being left for around 3 minutes, first time I've lost a pair but it's made me very aware of security now. I'll be locking up my (rather more expensive) replacements when they arrive next week even if I'm leaving them for a nano second! The main thing is the distress and hassle of phoning police and the anger at having been been 'done over', at the end of the day the skis themselves were a few seasons old and I was planning on replacing them anyway no no massive loss.
Looking on the bright side I have to admit that at Gloucester the trek back to base was a trice shorter than the one that faced Freya whatsername! 
Last edited by Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see? on Tue 26-01-10 14:55; edited 2 times in total
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I didn't realise it was this bad at ski resorts!
I have just come back from Sweden and never saw a lock on any ski's? People left bags and boots in warm room shelves too.
I figured ski resorts were full of like minded people! I guess i'm in for a shock next year if i go to France or Austria???
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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 a small lock which someone could easily cut if they wanted to. However I do lock my skis to my hubby's snowboard so it just makes it that bit more difficult - I hope
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droo, I've never seen locked skis either, but theft is clearly becoming more commonplace.
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halfhand, well IIRC our revered leader had his skis stolen a few seasons ago from outside a mountain restaurant. And a friend of ours had theirs stolen.
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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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If you take a look at my folder of client police reports you'll see it is a very real problem.
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I always assume the tele bindings put people off. At a minimum it means there is no chance of them beeing taken by mistake.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Ernst Goldsmith, he was english and crawling down No.1 back to the Galzig
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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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Oh well, I'm just saying as I see it
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We always do the ski swap thing, and although this isn't full proof by any means, it does prevent someone taking the wrong skis and as it takes time to find the set, it could be a deterrent, and proof they were stolen rather than taken by mistake.
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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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Poster: A snowHead
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It's not just ski's that get confused.
Last year my buffoon of a mate was the first up and out in the first morning and he duly kitted up and took the kids to ski school.
I arrived in the locker room later to find my snowboard boots were missing. After everyone else had been and gone there was a solitary pair of snowboard boots left in the locker room, which of course after a number of phone calls turned out to be my mates. The dosy pillock had put myn on. OK so they were salamon and black, but thats where the similarity ended. I had a different lacing system, and he was a size larger than me, but he'd still managed to ram his fat feet into my pair and waltz off with them.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Dave Horsley,
True I worry less with the tele bindings on them. I did have the police take mine once and the idiot who took them didn't file a report, 2 weeks later the police found them in their office. After a large ski trip with a inferior pair of skis.
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Dozy cow didn't lock them even with a pathetic lock so zero sympathy.
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| queen bodecia wrote: |
| albinomountainbadger, my small backpack actually comes from Decathlon. It's much smaller than that one, I'll only have a hat, phone, piste map, tissues, sun cream & lock to carry after all. I probably will keep it on for short chair lifts, it's so small I'll probably not notice it much (I hope!). |
Once you are used to wearing it, you won't notice it at all.
I have never taken mine off for a chairlift, nor had any liftie suggest I should. And nor have other people I have been skiing with when they have had backpacks.
As for locks, I carry a coiled bike lock, but I only tend to use it when leaving the skis in a rack at the base of the mountain, or at the top of a gondola (i.e. places where people can easily get to on foot and carry away skis). Most often, the places I stop for lunch or chocolate are places halfway down a run, where I really think mistake is much more likely than deliberate theft. I've rarely seen locked skis in those sorts of places in Austria.
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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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Unless I'm carrying a shovel and full kit I always keep my pack on with no problem on the lifts.
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Never had anyone tell me not to wear a pack, have occasionally forgotten that I've got one on and been surprised that I suddenly don't fit on the seat... The lifts are not really designed with people with packs in mind and if you have a large pack because of mountain kit or perhaps an overambitious packed lunch then might be worth slipping it off before getting on... What is definitely worth checking is that you don't have trailing straps as these can get caught when you try and get off making you look daft as you dangle for a short period before something snaps...  (it will also probably cause the liftie to slam the breaks on which may not make you that popular).
This obviously has little to do with stolen skis for which I apologise!
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FAQ
Bike lock fits easily in knee pockets.
s to carp on about ? 
, luckily she was never returned 