 Poster: A snowHead
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time wise London to Geneva by train is possible in a little under 7 hours including check in time, by air the flight is under 2 hours but by the time you get to the airport 2 hours before check in and allow up to an hour at the other end to get bags etc you are only 2 hours slower than a plane, throw in a bit of fog or snow and you may arrive much sooner by train
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Comedy Goldsmith,
How far in advance did you book your Easter trip, and who did you arrange it with please.
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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 can't believe this thread is still going!!!! It has clearly become a sort of lounge that certain people just go to hang out. Clearly THIS is the new SCGB chat forum. Well, not a lot happens in the other one.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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musher, I'd have to check on the timing - roughly 2-3 weeks before travelling. Bought the ticket, return St. Pancras-Visp-St. Pancras, from Swiss Railways in London.
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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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Thread views update:
Just passed 144,000. Welcome to any Jehovah's Witnesses.
[that's a joke, BTW. Please stick around]
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| snowball wrote: |
| Clearly THIS is the new SCGB chat forum. Well, not a lot happens in the other one. |
Perhaps this is the New Ski Club of Great Britain. Yes, a bit quiet in the SCGB forum - no posts so far today, 14 hours into Friday.
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Comedy Goldsmith,
Thanks. That might be this Easter sorted now. Mrs M does love her Swiss trains.
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| Comedy Goldsmith wrote: |
| - no posts so far today, 14 hours into Friday. |
In low season often a week goes by with no posts. I put in a fair proportion of those there are.
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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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musher, despite the low ticket prices the TGV to/from Visp from Lille (which is where you connect/change to go to Switzerland) was about 20% full. As you're probably aware, the Eurostar/TGV service has been cut right back after its first winter - presumably because of the low demand - and is only operating on certain dates this season.
On the 144,000 thread views, for comparison it's worth noting that ...
Skiing Europe/Chris Reynard - Children's ski holiday left in ruins.
http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?p=1734339&highlight=chris+reynard#1734339
... which revives occasionally, has over 178,000 views over 60 pages - a much higher view rate per page. That thread is also in 'The Piste'.
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| Comedy Goldsmith wrote: |
| musher, I'd have to check on the timing - roughly 2-3 weeks before travelling. Bought the ticket, return St. Pancras-Visp-St. Pancras, from Swiss Railways in London. |
What day of the week and what date did you travel on?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| D G Orf wrote: |
| Comedy Goldsmith, as I understood things the £100 was for reps who went by train, are you saying it was for anyone who used a train via the SCGB Fresh tracks holidays ? |
Going back to that question again, there's actually a bit more information. SCGB director Richard Bird refers to £3600 (i.e. 36 x £100 presumably). And the Club itself says £1600, for the £100 payouts in another season presumably ...
| Richard Bird wrote: |
| - Freshtracks "Ski Holidays by Rail " promotion £3600 |
| Ski Club of Great Britain wrote: |
| - Freshtracks is including train travel options to Les Arcs for members in this year's holiday programme. The EWG is allocating £1600 to help keep the travel costs comparable with plane travel. |
That information from this post a couple of days ago ...
http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=94856&start=2760#2412737
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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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| richjp wrote: |
| What day of the week and what date did you travel on? |
I'm pretty sure the service only operated on Saturdays (but every Saturday) last winter. We went to Visp on 6 April and returned on 13 April.
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| Comedy Goldsmith wrote: |
| richjp wrote: |
| What day of the week and what date did you travel on? |
I'm pretty sure the service only operated on Saturdays (but every Saturday) last winter. We went to Visp on 6 April and returned on 13 April. |
The 6th and 13th were both Fridays when you probably got a better price.
Most people who are in full time employment will want to travel on Saturdays when availability will be lower and prices will be higher.
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You know it makes sense.
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| richjp wrote: |
The 6th and 13th were both Fridays when you probably got a better price.
Most people who are in full time employment will want to travel on Saturdays when availability will be lower and prices will be higher. |
Eh?
According to my diary (Ryman, 2013), which I use daily for work, 6/13 April were Saturdays. We travelled on Saturdays. The service didn't operate on Fridays.
Which publisher's diary are you using?
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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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Comedy Goldsmith,
Yes you are absolutely correct, however the 6th April was the Saturday after Easter so you were travelling out when everybody else was coming home, hence the reason you were able to get an end of season low price.
You were implying by stating that you were travelling in the school holiday period that you were getting a good price during a peak period.
I think that was misleading.
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Poster: A snowHead
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I wasn't trying to imply that at all or mislead anyone. That's a somewhat pejorative remark.
The price was £119 return to Switzerland on any date from 2 March to 13 April.
We're straying away from the point, completely. Why is the Ski Club of Great Britain making £100 payments to members and representatives to travel by train?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Our Easter holidays were 28th March to 16th April this year, so CG could have been harassed by my little darlings.
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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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It is now over a year since obvious and provable concerns were expressed about the information on the right ...
... which is headlined "What does the Ski Club do?", from the Respect the Mountain section of the SCGB website:
http://www.skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/respectthemountain/environment/skiclub.aspx#.Uqwueyff7Is
Enquiries were directed to both the SCGB treasurer and chairman of the SCGB Environmental Working Group. No replies at all were received.
Yet the figures - which just don't add up, and don't begin to match the funds accumulated (£80k to £90k?) - continue to be published.
If any SCGB directors are reading this, maybe they should do something about it.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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"raising" £6816 from the "sale" of the wristbands. Does that take into account the manufacture of the wristbands ? seeing as such a large proportion were not sold and that it was an awareness project i would have thought it was a loss making exercise. It states that the green jackets were introduced as part of the awareness project which again would have cost a fair amount. 200/300/400 ? jackets bought, 200/300/400 ? jackets embroidered etc would come to ??... a lot ! another loss making promotion and advertising of respect the mountain exercise ?
using the original figures in your post of 8 x 18000 x 50 = 72,000.
the expenditure shows at c £47,000 leaves c £25,000 without incorporating losses as above.
25,000 over 8 years = 3100 per year...... Hardly a gravy train and hardly likely to pay for someone to ski free for a season expense free as you suggest..
£1500 pa allocation to website and personnel to maintain the respect the mountain issue ? (looking for 1600 pa )
plus as you say they give away £100 per train journey as part of the promotion and advertising of the environmental cause ..( there has to be 16 journeys to cover that surely )
It hardlly leaves anything to be accounted for on that basis...
I hardly see it as the big coup .. or am i getting it wrong ??
if you have a grievance as to why they offer such incentives to promote the environmantal issue then that is another matter.
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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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Well from the list of projects, Bristol Uni seems to have done well with apparently two £4000 grants, and a third student (James Lewis) got his research project funded, I'm really not sure how green disposable ashtrays are, nor m I sure why the club would contribute £7500 to what appears to be a planning application in Chamoix, nor am I sure as to why they would need to commission snowcarbon to do something that snowcarbon already seem to do
As I understand things they have spent about 1/3rd of the total raised on 3 University projects with debatable relevance/benefit either to club members or the environment, another nearly 25% has gone on tree planting with limited scientific backing as to the benefits of such actions (though imho planting trees can't hurt) and about 20% seems to have gone to support a planning application in Chamonix
Glad I'm no longer a member or I might be getting blackballed for asking awkward questions at the AGM 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| limegreen1 wrote: |
| "raising" £6816 from the "sale" of the wristbands. Does that take into account the manufacture of the wristbands ? |
The so-called bio-degradable eco-friendly silicon versions of those things cost about 15 - 20p each so they may have spent all the money raised on the manufacture.
The cheapo plastic ones are 10p ish.
Add skip hire to take away the 31,000 left over of course!
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| Bode Swiller wrote: |
| Add skip hire to take away the 31,000 left over of course! |
Is that, in any way, related to ski hire?
Conversation in skip hire shop: "Do you have any skips suitable for an intermediate who enjoys a little foray off-piste?"
"Yes, sir, I thing we have just the thing for you, manufactured in France - the Sxxxmxn Skip - has a tendency to deviate slightly in the hands of the wrong driver, but a very good parker."
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| limegreen1 wrote: |
| "raising" £6816 from the "sale" of the wristbands. Does that take into account the manufacture of the wristbands ? |
That question, and the others you pose, are best dealt with through a straightforward exposition of income and expenditure: promised but, as yet, unfulfilled. The Club originally publicly stated that "all proceeds" of Respect the Mountain merchandise would go to the environmental fund, and there was then a discussion as to what that meant - gross revenue or net revenue after cost of manufacture?
I think it was decided that the cost of manufacture would be deducted, so maybe the £6816 is net.
However, the wristbands were - in fact - only one line in a whole range of RtM mech - there were hoodies, t-shirts and the rest. The proceeds from these are clearly not itemised in the panel above.
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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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SCGB renames President
In an apparent security measure Frank Gardner, BBC Security Correspondent and President of the Ski Club of Great Britain, has been renamed - in preparation for a talk on 'Unusual Spelling' on 30 Jan. Gardner is a very amusing and interesting speaker, so this should be a great evening ...
http://www.skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/eskishop/item.aspx?itemID=418#.Uq18Oyff5xU
In a further measure to confuse opposition forces, the Ski Club and its location have also been renamed (see third paragraph).
[report by Rabid Goldmitt, snowHea ds security desk]
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Sun 15-12-13 13:59; edited 1 time in total
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Seems rather sad that despite the large sums being spent on the internet no one can spell the club presidents name, the country name or the club address, particularly bad when the correct club name and address can be found at the bottom of the web page. 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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D G Orf, I wonder what former eminent SCGB President (and Comedy Goldsmith hero) Sir Arnold Lunn would have made of such egregious errors....
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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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Alastair, I should perhaps remind you that the SCGB's entry in Wikipedia - a slim affair, it might be said - does not note Sir Arnold Lunn as a "notable president" of the Club.
I'm not sure what Sir Arnold is/was expected to do to achieve 'notable' status (he invented and promoted slalom racing to become an international sport, inspired generations of skiers and edited or wrote numerous journals and books about the sport) ... but he clearly didn't do enough.
Can we have suggestions, please, as to what a resurrected Sir Arnold Lunn should do to supplement his knighthood and finally become a notable president?
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... he would be introduced on the erronious website as an abbrev dictionary entry ... Snr, An old Unn ..
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You know it makes sense.
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The New Ski Club of Great Britain Chat Forum has now achieved 145,000 views.
To mark this landmark, the comedy MP and "I'm a celebrity..." Nadine Dorries has (allegedly) claimed £145,000 in taxpayered wages for herself and her two daughters, and will no doubt be seen on the apres/ski slopes.
Guido Fawkes blog:
http://order-order.com/2013/09/12/taxpayer-pays-dorries-girls-145000/
Standby for further irrelevances ...
Last edited by You know it makes sense. on Sun 15-12-13 14:17; 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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Comedy Goldsmith, well its Wikipedia you could just add his name in 
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Poster: A snowHead
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Alternatively ... the 27 staff of the SCGB might be usefully employed in doing so ...
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Comedy Goldsmith wrote: |
| Alternatively ... the 27 staff of the SCGB might be usefully employed in doing so ... |
In general Wikipedia doesn't like contributions from interested parties. You would also have to back up your claim that Arnold Lunn was once a president of the Ski Club with an external reference. This thread Snowheads would probably be a good enough source.
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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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Have popped a link to the idiocy above on Frank Gardner's Facebook page ... as a security measure ...
https://www.facebook.com/FrankRGardner
Not sure about the "add to basket" button next to his photo (above), by the way, but we'll let that one go.
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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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Apropos of Sir Arnold, I note that according to the SCGB, Sir Arnold Lunn was the first recipient of its Pery Medal in 1930, the reason for the award stated as "Valuable contributions to our knowledge of mountaincraft in relation to skiing, Lunn also made a huge contribution to British ski technique. His enthusiasm, energy, understanding and judgement also deeply affected the regulations of organised ski racing throughout the world."
However, I was surprised to see that in the citation for Ali Ross, who was deservedly awarded the same medal in 1998 it states "Ski technique guru for many years. BASI trainer and author (How We Learned to Ski) which was the first ski instruction book (published in 1973) (my italics)." I would have thought that many people had published ski instruction books prior to 1973, including pioneers such as Mathias Zardsky with his Lilienfelder Skilauf-Technik of 1897! Quote from the German article: "Seine im November 1896 (mit der Jahreszahl 1897) erschienene "Lilienfelder Skilauf-Technik" war das erste Skilehrbuch der Welt"
Another glaring error on the SCGB website I'm afraid.
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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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Alastair, yes, and the landmark book (not How We Learned to Ski, which was a slimmed-down version) was We Learned to Ski - by the Sunday Times editor Harold Evans and two ST writers Brian Jackman and Mark Ottaway ... for which Ali Ross masterminded the instruction pages. That's the title which was first published in 1973.
It's incredible that either of these could be described as "first ski instruction book" - yet, as you've pointed out, that garbage is exactly what has been published by the SCGB. There really is no point in the organisation existing any longer, dishing out these falsehoods and endless promotional guff ... instead of doing what it was founded to do.
The first serious British instructional book on skiing - as far as I know - was Ski Running (right), by Somerville, Rickmers and Richardson, in 1904. And that book was "Dedicated to the Ski Club of Great Britain" (which was then only one year old).
That indicates how quickly the SCGB gained a national standing, thanks to the quality of its founding membership, maintaining that stature through two world wars. After the 1950s the rudder seems to have steadily wobbled and fallen off.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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The second edition (1905) had a much-improved front cover. The book must have been a big hit, to have been re-published and re-designed so quickly.
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A successful exchange of postings with Frank Gardner on Facebook.
His website is worth a look, by the way ...
http://www.frankgardner.co.uk/awards/
I guess the expression 'don't shoot the messenger' was almost made for him [that's not an attempt at a cheap joke, BTW), but the way he's risen above that dreadful experience is what makes him such an impressive figure. When he arrived by wheelchair at the SCGB AGM in 2011 he had a folding metal contraption on his lap.
At the point when he was invited to start his acceptance speech, he unfolded it and pulled/pushed himself up to his feet by using his arms. With his arms outstretched downwards to support his standing body, he gave a full-length speech.
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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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The President of The Ski Club converses with an expelled member shock.
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You're right. I probably should have pointed out my status to Frank, since he might consider this a security risk.
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FAQ
).
