 Poster: A snowHead
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| ise wrote: |
Would it not be more effective if we refrained from posting things we'd made up or heard from a bloke in the pub and then presented as fact? I realise I'm running against the broad sweep of modern society in this but it would be a nice change. |
ise, are you saying that I posted something I made up and then I presented as fact?? I think you need to take a look back at what I've said and think carefully. I'd also be interested to know where you got your 'fact' that British TOs push France more than Austria. I've only got 2 brochures for next year, Inghams and Crystal - probably 2 of the larger operators. Inghams has 27 Austrian resorts as compared to 13 French, Crystal has 28 Austrian as compared to 31 French. Doesn't seem like pushing it to me - you didn't hear that 'fact' from the man in the pub by any chance?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Kramer - agreed on that one ( and that's my truth ) 
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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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| Cathy Coins wrote: |
| ise wrote: |
Would it not be more effective if we refrained from posting things we'd made up or heard from a bloke in the pub and then presented as fact? I realise I'm running against the broad sweep of modern society in this but it would be a nice change. |
ise, are you saying that I posted something I made up and then I presented as fact?? I think you need to take a look back at what I've said and think carefully. I'd also be interested to know where you got your 'fact' that British TOs push France more than Austria. I've only got 2 brochures for next year, Inghams and Crystal - probably 2 of the larger operators. Inghams has 27 Austrian resorts as compared to 13 French, Crystal has 28 Austrian as compared to 31 French. Doesn't seem like pushing it to me - you didn't hear that 'fact' from the man in the pub by any chance? |
No, I've got the figures right here. oops 
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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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All this blather about snow in Austria - we don't go anymore for a comepletely different reason ( and one that may apply to many others).
Because they are incapable of cooking a meal without dairy products. Cream, butter milk. Ladles full of the stuff. Ask the chef or the maitre d' if you can have it without, and they look at you like you are mad. Or worse, say yes and then sneak in a dollop.
And given my wife's lactose intolerance that's a bit of a problem.
Love the snow, love the apres, love the people. Just can't stand the cooking.
vive la France (and the North Americans) .
PS Welcome to Snowheads kosciosco ,  it a nice place really!!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| JimW wrote: |
All this blather about snow in Austria - we don't go anymore for a comepletely different reason ( and one that may apply to many others).
Because they are incapable of cooking a meal without dairy products. Cream, butter milk. Ladles full of the stuff. Ask the chef or the maitre d' if you can have it without, and they look at you like you are mad. Or worse, say yes and then sneak in a dollop.
And given my wife's lactose intolerance that's a bit of a problem.
Love the snow, love the apres, love the people. Just can't stand the cooking.
vive la France (and the North Americans) .
PS Welcome to Snowheads kosciosco , it a nice place really!! |
not much good for vegetarians either.
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[quote="slikedges"]I'm sure you're not proposing that we must have statistically representative personal experience of everything we post  . /quote]
I am actually, there's 2000 odd members here (some of them very odd), an extraordinary range of experience and knowledge. I'd not need to guess what it's like to ski in Iran for example, there's people here done it.
They've done most stuff, from learn to ski in Andorra, fallen down crevases, become ski instructors, been to nearly every ski station we can think of, won races, been to a snowdome, tried every variate of travel to get to a ski station.
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ise, Good point. There's a lot of truth in that, but whilst some things are completely valid and relevant anecdotally, nothing a small group of people experiences can ever really be statistically representative, so that imho reliable sources (which I appreciate may prove unreliable) still have value (fair dos that perhaps one should say "it is often said that" or "the common contention is" or "I've often read that").
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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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slikedges, I don't have a copy to hand, but I'll wager, we're a larger and more experienced group than those contributing to the Good Ski Guide.
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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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Be careful to distinguish between the Good Ski Guide (a magazine, largely containing advertorial) and the Good Skiing Guide (now called the Good Skiing and Snowboarding Guide, I think), published by the Consumers Association.
Having said that, the research budget of the Good Skiing Guide has never been clear and it's not known whether the CA fully finances the research travel involved, or whether the book primarily relies on the views of journalists who may have been on freebies via other publications.
There's also Where to Ski?, of course, which now seems to be the pre-eminent book of this sort.
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You know it makes sense.
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| David Goldsmith wrote: |
Be careful to distinguish between the Good Ski Guide (a magazine, largely containing advertorial) and the Good Skiing Guide (now called the Good Skiing and Snowboarding Guide, I think), published by the Consumers Association.
Having said that, the research budget of the Good Skiing Guide has never been clear and it's not known whether the CA fully finances the research travel involved, or whether the book primarily relies on the views of journalists who may have been on freebies via other publications.
There's also Where to Ski?, of course, which now seems to be the pre-eminent book of this sort. |
i know one ski instructor who mutters darkly about going to the Private Eye about the dodgy practices of one of the editors of one of those guides (probably shouldn't be more specific than that ).
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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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Of course, any guide to 100, 200 or 300 (or more) ski resorts has to obtain its expertise in depth from people who have travelled to these places. I think the generally-accepted wisdom is that journalists who have freebied to dozens and dozens of resorts are in a position to then assess them in relative terms, with reasonable levels of impartiality.
To some extent it's true, but the growth of forums like this is building such a wealth of consumer knowledge from paying punters that the role of the journalism is diminished. The search facilities and databases of the various forums take over.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| David Goldsmith wrote: |
Of course, any guide to 100, 200 or 300 (or more) ski resorts has to obtain its expertise in depth from people who have travelled to these places. I think the generally-accepted wisdom is that journalists who have freebied to dozens and dozens of resorts are in a position to then assess them in relative terms, with reasonable levels of impartiality.
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Generally accpeted by who? Journalists presumably.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| David Goldsmith wrote: |
Be careful to distinguish between the Good Ski Guide (a magazine, largely containing advertorial) and the Good Skiing Guide (now called the Good Skiing and Snowboarding Guide, I think), published by the Consumers Association.
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I was thinking of the latter, where readers have apparently submitted some very odd comments.
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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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As I say, Where to Ski? (edited by two ex-editors of Which? and Holiday Which?) has more consumer credibility now. Peter Hardy (editor of the Good Skiing Guide) didn't cut his teeth in the disciplines of testing washing machines.
The rigour of meticulous detailed book editing doesn't characterise the Good Skiing Guide any longer, but it is evident in Where to Ski?
The early editions of the Good Skiing Guide are worth having on your bookshelf. From memory it began in 1985, and had lots of original touches.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I find that " Where to Ski and Snowboard " edited by Chris Gill and Dave Watts and published by Norton Wood to be the best guide on the market.
It has detailed review on 150 resorts and shorter details on about 850 others. They invite reports from 100s of readers who send in reports on the resorts they visit. The 100 best get a free copy of the book and the best regular reporters get a week's free pass ( but I bet it is at the big resorts! ).
The book has interesting chapters on : issues of the season, what's new, drive/fly/train to the alps, choosing your resort, resorts at a glance evalatuated against each other by chart, family holidays, weekend breaks, and a comprehensive reference section with tour operator details,etc..
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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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What do people think of the Time Out guide? Doesn't cover as many resorts as some, but it seems to me that much of what it says is pretty on the ball. (As far as the few resorts I know are concerned, anyway)
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Wow, it all kicked off here and you will have to forgive me if I have missed anything relevant but I have skiiped quite a few of the comments because of the ruck.
For what it is worth, MY personal opimion - based on resorts I have been to would be;
Megeve, very attractive chic French resort on grassy meadows. Don't require too much cover but at the resort @ 1000 metres is low for France. A mountain village unlike some of the higher purpose-built French stations
I have spent two weeks here, one with brilliant conditions and the other with very poor conditions. Good gentle skiing. Should be ok in Feb'
Soll, in Austria, lively apre-ski in famous Tyrol, Good extensive area which beginners will probably not need but you should meet lots of like-minded newbies. Does this job well.. Don't know specifically about Ski school but they know the Brits well.
Westendorf, a bit like Soll, and area connected but more self contained, can't remember the pistes for beginners.
Febrebrunn - Austria - Nice compact village and good slopes in the local village or Steinplatte which is worth a bus ride. This might not be required for beginners though.
Meringen. Switzerland. Village a walk from the slopes - didn't use the bus - but the skiing is good and varied. Quiet at night and mostly hotel accomodation.
For an all-round ski holiday Soll would be my recomendation
Oh, I forgot Belle-plagne which is a modern purpose resort which works well for beginners. But first or second year skiers might not make the Les Arcs connection as it is a bit too far...!! If you must have that facility stay closer..
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| JT wrote: |
Meringen. Switzerland. Village a walk from the slopes - didn't use the bus - but the skiing is good and varied. Quiet at night and mostly hotel accomodation.
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It's got an amusing car park as well, it's hidden in a wood near the lift, you can't see it from more than a 100m away and certainly not from up the hill. You park between trees and on an icey day it's quite interesting
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David Goldsmith, I really don't wish to cast nasturshums (no idea how to spell that!) on your profession, but if a journalist has had dozens of freebies to dozens of resorts, what will they think when they're expected to pay? I think it's fairly clear.
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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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| easiski wrote: |
| [b] I really don't wish to cast nasturshums. |
I think these are flowers that are edible 
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snowbunny, Didn't know you could eat them - do they taste good? 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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easiski, it ispossible that you are casting nasturtiums
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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 think the word she was looking for was " aspersions "
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hibernia, I prefer the yellow ones.
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You know it makes sense.
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hibernia, a common pun, shurly.
Last edited by You know it makes sense. on Sun 26-06-05 20:42; edited 1 time in total
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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 wrote: |
| snowbunny, Didn't know you could eat them - do they taste good? |
I've tried a couple - they taste rather like good strong watercress or rocket. My soil's a bit too heavy and rich to grow them properly though (they really want the poorest, sandiest soil you can find)...and as I have just about every variety of munching bug known to man in my garden the leaves get stripped in no time flat!
And aside from the common one, there are some lovely climbing relatives. T. peregrinum is an easy annual that gets covered in 1-2cm flowers that look just like a flock of Woodstocks, and I also have a perennial that appears some years called the Scottish Flame Flower - small flowers of the most wonderful scarlet that look stunning trailing though yellow leaved shrubs (although the very thin stems do look very weedy). Unfortunately this year it died off in about April after it looked as if it was going to give me another woderful show. I've not tried growing the other perennial - T. tuberosum, which is only half hardy and supposed to be rather tricky.
Last edited by Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name: on Sun 26-06-05 20:50; edited 1 time in total
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Poster: A snowHead
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GrahamN, perhaps we could trade some soil: mine's like a beach when it dries out!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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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laundryman, so are you on the Hog's Back ridge or the Woking sands? When I was trying to make some improvements to mine, a friend of living on the chalk ridge jumped at the chance of about a dozen bags of heavy clay I'd just dug out of the back garden.
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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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GrahamN, the latter - Pyrford. Where are you? Guildford?
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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 lot couldn't follow a thread if it was tied to yer todger! 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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laundryman, yep, on the way to Wood St. Village. The other feature is I'm overhung by a huge oak tree, so last autumn I got 16 binbags of leaves off my (v. small) back patch of weeds loosely termed a lawn. May be able to do you some leaf mould for next year!
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Masque, the title of this thread is "Advice needed". So kosciosco's been getting some advice....on matters journalistic, horticultural or culinary as added bonus tracks to his main enquiry. Ow't wrong wi'that?
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ise, quite so. If it it has a couple of decent restaurants and a bar or two, that's fine for me. I understand, 'though, that sometimes the 'young people' like to go to 'clubs' where they can do the 'twist' or the 'mashed potato' to the swinging sounds of the latest beat combo, sometime staying there until 11.30 or even later.
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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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'Tis the snowHeads silly season. Starved of snow, overheated, disappointed by the British Lions, soaked at Glastonbury, it's not so surprising there are a few loopy thread diversions. Life would be really boring without them. 
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FAQ
