 Poster: A snowHead
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It's always interesting to read a newbie's experience of skiing. Here, Fred Mawer takes his family to La Rosiere and leaves with a glow: "That all four of us were able to descend blue and green runs by the end of the week was enormously satisfying." But he didn't like the early mornings:
This report from Telegraph.co.uk: 'First-time skiing with the family'
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Our first concern was that young children invariably learn to ski separately from adults. We were worried about whether the boys were going to enjoy their lesson, or whether they would be warm enough. We even debated postponing our initial lesson until the second day so we could keep an eye on them.
Second, we all had to be breakfasted and kitted up in all the unfamiliar gear – not least the ski boots, equipment designed to make life hell for the uninitiated – by 8.30am each day, ready for our lessons. Early mornings did not feel like a holiday. In fact, back home, getting out the door and off to school has seemed a doddle ever since. |
At what stage did you discover skiing's best-kept secret - that it's not compulsory to eat breakfast with your ski boots on?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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It occurred to me overnight that this might be something specific to La Rosiere? Maybe one of this resort's many admirers and publicists could address that point.
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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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we all had to be breakfasted and kitted up in all the unfamiliar gear – not least the ski boots, equipment designed to make life hell for the uninitiated – by 8.30am each day
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Ernst Goldsmith, your inference that this meant getting kitted up before breakfasting is mistaken. Indeed the syntax suggests the reverse was the case.
He should try Les Deux Alpes in the Summer. At the lift, breakfasted and kitted up, by 7 am. 
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Ernst Goldsmith, Why on earth post with te ridiculous false subject line, and then ask a question which has no justification whatsoever?
There is absolutely no indication whatsoever that the journalist put ski boots on before breakfasting.
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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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On our last day, we decided, after much agonising, to take the boys up the mountain proper. Esprit offers a "family guiding" service, expressly for parents who do not yet feel confident about taking children out on their own. But we wanted that real family ski-bonding experience. So we had declined. Big mistake.
The plan was to do a benign green run through the forest that Emily and I had tackled a dozen times over the previous days. Although the boys hadn't been off the nursery slopes, their instructor told us they were up to it.
But our downfall turned out to be the long drag lift.
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The drag lift is short and can hardly be described as "the mountain proper"
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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pam w, alex_heney, agreed (at least with the less strident post.)
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| Frosty the Snowman wrote: |
The drag lift is short and can hardly be described as "the mountain proper" |
Do they have lifts in La Rosiere, I though it was just flat? 
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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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Quite probably nobody fell off the lift at all; it just makes a better story.
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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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| pam w wrote: |
| Ernst Goldsmith, your inference that this meant getting kitted up before breakfasting is mistaken. Indeed the syntax suggests the reverse was the case. |
| alex_heney wrote: |
Ernst Goldsmith
There is absolutely no indication whatsoever that the journalist put ski boots on before breakfasting. |
Hurtle clearly agrees with you both, but I wonder how many other members of this literate community do so?
The sentence construction ...
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Second, we all had to be breakfasted and kitted up in all the unfamiliar gear – not least the ski boots, equipment designed to make life hell for the uninitiated – by 8.30am each day, ready for our lessons. |
... invites one to disregard the middle of the sentence (between the two dashes) to glean its meaning: that the family probably had to be fully kitted up (including ski boots) by breakfast time. There is, at least, an ambiguity here.
Perhaps Fred Mawer will clarify this for us. I'd be happy to be proved wrong.
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Ernst Goldsmith, only someone that is well practiced in twisting words could come up with that interpretation.
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You know it makes sense.
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No - they had to have already eaten and be kitted up by 8:30 for lessons. It doesn't say anything about being kitted up for breakfast, in fact the word order suggests that breakfasting came first.
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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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| Ernst Goldsmith wrote: |
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Second, we all had to be breakfasted and kitted up in all the unfamiliar gear – not least the ski boots, equipment designed to make life hell for the uninitiated – by 8.30am each day, ready for our lessons. |
... invites one to disregard the middle of the sentence (between the two dashes) to glean its meaning: that the family probably had to be fully kitted up (including ski boots) by breakfast time. There is, at least, an ambiguity here.
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No, not "by breakfast time".
The important phrase is indeed the one before the bit between the two dashes. "We all had to be breakfasted and kitted up". To any normal reader, that carries the clear implication of breakfast first, then kit up.
There is certainly no indication that the kitting up was likely to happen first, never mind any possible implication that it must.
Although personally, I have actually breakfasted in ski boots, when I was in Canada. We preferred the breakfast options at the base lodge in Lake Louise (and Sunshine for that matter) to what was available at the hotels.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Charlie Chaplin was forced to eat his boots in 'The Gold Rush'. Looks like I'm heading in the same direction.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I would quarrel with any member of any "literate community" inferred from that sentence that the kitting up was necessarily done before breakfast. The syntax doesn't, it is true, exclude that possibility but the word order suggests that the breakfasting probably came first. Indeed many hotels and chalets specifically ask guests not to wear ski boots indoors.
We must all be very bored today to be bothering with this. I am cooking a meal and my sauce is just simmering......
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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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In all honesty, when I first read the piece I pictured the Mawer family eating their Shredded Piste or
Ice Crispies with boots on.
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alex_heney, It's certainly handy to get the gondola up to Sunshine Village as early as possible and have breakfast there, but... what on earth was your hotel serving that made the daylodge option preferable!!??
Our hotel last year was full of evangelical Christians at a conference, so breakfast there didn't seem too appealing. On the other hand, Melissa's across the road was great.
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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 love this post. It's good to see that pedantry is alive and well after so much in the news that the art of grammer (deliberate mistake) and command of the English language is dead. 
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Craghopper, Nothing to do with pedantry or grammar. Yer average 5 year old, being told "Do a wee and get into the bath" would know what he was expected to do!
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Breakfast is mentioned first in the sentence so I will bet you a pain chocolat they had their breakfast and THEN put on their gear all by 8:30.
Please could the man from the Telegraph join this thread and confirm that he didn't eat breakfast in his ski boots!
I'm still trying to think which green run they are referring to?!
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| we all had to be breakfasted and kitted up in all the unfamiliar gear |
is a million miles from
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| we all had to breakfast kitted up in all the unfamiliar gear |
Not even remotely misinterpretable.
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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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Obviously I'm hoping that Fred Mawer - man in boots, but not necessarily breakfasting in them - will give us the final word on this.
£20 will go to a charity of his choice if I got the original posting wrong, or he can have a £20 Boots voucher.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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its better than trying to eat your breakfast out of your ski boot
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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 can't believe I wasted five minutes of my life reading this thread!
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queen bodecia, I'm rather proud, as a known pedant, of my restraint. I contributed but a single pithy comment. 
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You know it makes sense.
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Hurtle, I always enjoy your pedantry comments 
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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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I fear you will be paying £20 ...
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Just sent:
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To: fred.mawer@telegraph.co.uk
Dear Mr Mawer
This is your opportunity to win £20, or have £20 donated to a charity of your choice.
I wrote a posting on snowHeads.com which makes mild mockery of your breakfasting habits in La Rosiere. The thread speaks for itself:
www.snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=60943
Perhaps you'd give us your definitive account, either in response to this email, or to the thread itself.
Best wishes
David Ernst Goldsmith |
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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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Ernst Goldsmith, you have way too much time on your hands.
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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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Given that it was a 'get out of jail card', that comment's hardly sensible
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FAQ
I think you may be in a minority, though. 