Winter Sports F.A.Q.

robinph

I've never been skiing/ boarding before, what do I need...

Clothing:
You want to wear layers, NOT any big thick apparently "warm" clothing. Layers being along the lines of t-shirt's + fleece + jacket.
You may want a thermal base layer rather than a t-shirt, and possibly thermal bottoms as well depending on the cold/ high altitude/ time of year that you are going. Thermals will wick any sweat away whereas a cotton t-shirt will hold moisture and can result in you then getting cold, many people manage without though.
The only real ski/ boarding specific clothing that you will need is probably the sallopetts though. Check in case one of your friends already has some you can borrow, otherwise you should be able to pick some up fairly cheaply in the like of a TKMaxx.
For a jacket you may already have something suitable but you do not want anything big or heavy, look at what is on the racks in the ski stores and if you already have a similar enough jacket that is waterproof it will probably do.
You will need gloves, nothing special required but you can get silk or thin woollen ones that can be worn under your gloves for an extra bit of warmth. You'll probably want a hat of some description to cover your ears as well depending on the weather.
You will need either goggles or sunglasses. If wearing sunglasses though be aware that you may land on them and break them and also some way of attaching them to your head might be useful too in the event of a fall. Goggles should have double lenses as this will reduce the chance of them fogging up on you.

For wandering round the resort just whatever you might wear on a normal night up the pub in the winter back home, unless that would normally include high heels. You will want hat and gloves though and although you should be aware that the roads will be icy, you shouldn't need to go splashing out on fancy footwear just for ambling round the resort.

Protection
Helmets an entirely personal preference, but some countries have a legal requirement for children to wear them on the slopes. They will not save your life if you crash into a tree at high speed, but they will save you from a more serious injury during crashes into other skiers/ boarders and your head hitting the ice.
For boarding then wrist protectors are recommended by a lot of people for beginners, as is some form of padding for your backside as there will probably be a lot of falling over as you learn to board. Skiers will probably not be falling over quite as much whilst learning and the back protectors you might see are only really needed for the advanced skiers who like going off cliffs and similar crazy stuff.

You can rent the skis/ board/ boots/ poles in resort and you can book this via the tour operator as well if you want rather than trying to sort it all out on arrival. You might be able to rent helmets from the same shop as well depending on the resort.

You should take some high factor sunblock as you will burn very quickly if the sun is out.

---

I love skiing/ snowboarding/ snow sports and now want to buy my own gear...

Ski Boots

Some excellent information worth reading before buying your own ski boots:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055748273

... more to be added here soon...

---

Snow forecast websites:
Generally only give up to 7 day forecasts, and any more than 3 day predictions can start to be wildly wrong but it's nice to have an idea anyway:
http://www.snow-forecast.com/countries
http://www.skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/snowreports/default.aspx
http://www.j2ski.com/snow_forecast/
...or for historical snow reports:
http://www.igluski.com/snow-history - previous 4 seasons available
http://www.skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/snowreports/historical/default.aspx - only last season for non-members

http://en.skiinfo.com/snowreport-all-ski-resorts-233-en.jhtml - Current snow depth reports for Europe

Stores:
TKMaxx - store locator
Great Outdoors - Dublin
53 Degrees North - Carrickmines, Blanchardstown
Millets
Aldi/ Lidl sometimes have winter sports gear on offer
BLVD - Dublin
Onboard - Dublin
Chain Reaction Snow
Irish Snowboards
Capel Camping - Dublin
Snow and Rock - Dundrum
MacSki - Belfast
... also consider looking in your local motorbike shop if your after things like back protectors or glove liners.

Insurance:
You do need insurance covering winter sports, different policy's may include off piste as well but check the details:
www.justcover.ie
www.getcover.com
www.acetravelinsurance.ie
www.123.ie
...???

Tour operators:
www.directski.ie
www.crystalski.ie
www.inghams.ie
www.topski.ie
www.highlife.ie
...???



Any thing else that needs to be added? Any other useful links that people should know about?

Don1

www.chainreactionsnow.com - bought bike stuff off their cycles wing (chainreactioncycles.com) and found them very good
www.irishsnowboards.com Nice to support an Irish company. Also bought stuff here (bindings and wax) and found them efficient and helpful.

Imposter

wetter.orf.at is good for the weather and snow conditions in austria. It's in german! Click on the Schneelagen button to see the snow depths in the resorts (top of mountain, valley and then in the town are all displayed as well as the condition of the snow (griffig is best).

cailinoBAC

I don't know if this is the right place to put this. We decided to organise our own holiday, even though it was our first time. It's not impossible, but we had to figure everything out for ourselves. So this is how we did it -

Step 1
Book the flights, the obvious culprits being www.aerlingus.com or www.ryanair.com
We booked to fly to, Salzburg and fly back from Munich, so we had a bit of choice of where to go. I think Munich is just as handy as Salzburg for most places in Austria and there are flights every day, so if we go back we'll probably just fly there. Also, even if the flights are slightly more expensive, Saturday to Saturday might mean you have more choice of accommodation (we learn from our mistakes...)

Step 2
Decide on a resort and request brochures.
Most of the places, if you look them up in google you will come across the official website in first position and you can order brochures. We did this for about 5 places but Kitzbuehel was the first we looked at, it looked fine, so we decided to go for there

Step 3
Find Accommodation
I think this is one of the best aspects of booking independently, you don't have to know straight away how many are going. There are so many apartments that can suit different numbers of people, so you can have the flexibility to try and persuade people to join at the last minute.
This was the only time consuming and frustrating aspect of the organisation, and I think a lot of this was to do with the fact that we had unknowingly decided on the week when the Hahnenkamm race was on and the town would be full up. In hindsight, I wouldn't change anything, it was such a fantastic time to be there, even if it felt we had to contact every apartment owner in the town.
What we did was meet up with a brochure and a map, then tick all the apartments near enough to the town centre and which were reasonably priced, then first contact all the ones with email addresses, and only afterwards phone up (though we stayed in one we had emailed). There were a lot of replies saying 'Saturday to Saturday' only, or that they had been booked up long in advance for that particular week, but we were fine in the end.

Step 4
Sort out Lessons
Once again I thought the Saturday to Saturday thing would be the death of us. The only ski school I could find out about, www.rote-teufel.at told us we couldn't join a group mid week. However, we organised a private lesson on the first day (Wednesday) and it turned out on Thursday we were able to join a group who had started on Sunday, so we had progressed a lot faster, and I think it was great to be learning the basics in a group of 3 as opposed to 15. I saw another ski school there, I've forgotten the name, but it's probably best to stick to Rote Teufel, as they have much more experience. I really felt I did a lot in the 3 days of lessons.

Step 5
Equipment
If you have a guest card, you will get a discount, so the prices quoted on www.rentaski.at are higher than you will pay. We were going to book them in advance, but it seemed quite complicated, and there didn't really seem to be any advantage to it. There are Intersport shops everywhere and it's unlikely there'll be nothing left for you. Our Intersport was inside one of the lift stations and we rented a locker there so we didn't have to bring it all back with us every night

Step 6
Buying clothes
We bought the Penneys/Dunnes gear or borrowed. Maybe I'll invest in better stuff in the future, but they did the job.

Step 7
Getting there from the airport
www.bahn.de from Germany
www.oebb.at from Austria
www.sbb.ch from Switzerland

Step 8
Insurance
As mentioned in Robinph's post. Just don't forget it!

Step 9
Ski passes
The tourist office had sent us the price list. We just bought them at the lifts.

Static M.e.

Some Links for Livigno,

MADness School
Livigno Snow Report

Some Links for Andorra,

The apartments: http://www.solneu.com/
The roc hotel (next door): http://www.hotel-roc.com/

For info regarding lift pass, ski school etc:

http://www.grandvalira.com

For cheap equipment rental:

http://www.snowrental.net

jameshayes

Thanks for that step by step cailinoBAC, I always want to book my own ski trip but i've been a bit nervous about it. Next year I think i'll go to france or italy and organise it myself..

jameshayes

Intersport for ski rental?

bonkey

For Switzerland:

5-day forecasts. Most ski areas (or at worst, nearest town) are supported.

Snow report for all resorts Also has loads of other good info thrown in.

Both links in English.

ETA: Rather than the sbb link given above by callinoBAC, I recommend www.rail.ch. Its the same site, automatically in english, and easy to remember

Static M.e.

This one is for Snowboarders from Method Mag

Quick intro into into doing some grabs, 180's, 360's etc

ShayK1

great pdf.

Zamboni

Thanks for a great thread Robinph.

I'm on my first trip and it was very helpful.

I didn't want to buy expensive gear in case I'm not a fan.
I have to say I got some good help and gear from the lads in www.capelcamping.ie
Very good value for a beginner.

robinph

Just taken out some new insurance in preparation for this years trip to New Zealand with www.123.ie and unlike most of the other policies I'd been looking at they do seem to cover off-piste and heli-skiing (when with guides).

robinph

I just saw on another forum here that Snow & Rock is due to open a store shortly in Dundrum:

Clicky

robinph

Added historical snow reports link to top post.

Poster King

Some more links:
www.ifyouski.com a pretty comprehensive databse of ski resorts worldwide and lots more
www.highlife.ie Irish Tour operator

http://www.born2ski.com/

http://www.fis-ski.com/ The official website of the International Ski Federation

http://www.canadianmountainholidays.com/

http://www.skibandb.com/Pages/default.aspx B&B in Chamonix operated by Irish Guy - it would be great to get a list of all places run by Irish people.

http://www.saveoursnow.com/

http://holidays.ucpa.com/UCPA_wayoflife.aspx The UCPA are kind of like An Oige, you can get some really good deals in some of the top resorts, with guiding included often

paulicove

We would be delighted to get a mention on this site. Originally from Co. Mayo but based in Samoens France (just 1 hour transfer from geneva) we offer tailor-made winter hols, just book the flights we do the rest.
www.coveyski.com

Mmmm_Lemony

Poland
Ryanair and aerlingus flights to Krakow, 2h15m+ transfer by bus

Krakow--
www.cracow-life.com
My favourite european city, excellent pubs and music clubs, lots of museums

Zakopane--
www.zakopane-life.com
http://szymoszkowa.pl/
Nice for beginners, ski instructors very friendly, but, very limited and not suitable for intermediate - advanced. Apres Ski is pretty good. (Polish staff in restaraunts etc can be pretty rude so take it with a pinch of salt)
For more advanced slope in the area try;
http://www.kasprowy-wierch.pl/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasprowy_Wierch


Czech Republic
Ryanair and aerlingus to Prague, and again about 2-3hrs by bus (we rented a car for €15 a day so not entirely sure)

www.prague-life.com
Cheap wine, women and song

Giant Mountains
Rokytnice--
http://www.rokytnice.com/
Beautiful views, nice, scenic, intermediate skiing, quiet at night...
(Small little snow park with some jumps and rails)

Harrachov--
http://www.harrachov.cz/default-en.asp
Nice views and beginner/intermediate skiing, very family orientated. Dead at night! Sporthotel Harrachov is cheap and at the bottom of the main slope...

Spindleruv Mlyn--
(Main resort in giant mountains)
http://www.spindleruv-mlyn.com/en/
Great night life, great skiing, lots of jumps and tough runs (lots of snowboarders).
(Check out Domovilla for accomodation, I found them very cheap and friendly)

Slovakia
Ryanair to Poprad, or to krakow then across the border from zakopane...

Strbske Pleso
http://www.parksnow.sk/tatry/en/index.php
Conditions were very poor when I was here its fairly basic and it was very quiet at night. If conditions are poor in zakopane they are generally alot better here.

Starý Smokovec (No link)
As above

Chopok
http://www.ski-jasna.sk/
Going on the 3rd so I'll let you know...


Eastern Europe
Pros - Cheap, nightlife in certain areas is wild, for the most part locals are friendly, beer and food and spirits and equipment and beer is cheap... did i mention it is cheap? Great place to learn the basics without having to sell the car...

Cons - Conditions are not always the best, flight is mostly with ryanair, you may get browned off with the limited amount of runs available.

edmund_f

Harrochov - no no no no - went there about two years ago, 2 runs, crap lifts, dead down in the town. Go anywhere else!

Jasna (Chopok) www.jasna.sk very cool little place - heading back on the 14th for our end of season St. Paddy's day sking!

East is very good if you expect to get what you pay for and are willing to go off the beaten track a little

NMoore

I'd recommend Whistler - I was there last year, it was AMAZING!!!! Huge resort, tons of snow, English speaking (a first in a resort for me - I've been in resorts where they speak French, Spanish, Italian and Japanese, but to deal with everything through English was an unexpected pleasure...!), fab restaurants, i really couldn't reccommend it more. www.rideonwhistler.com (funny name, great people!) were awesome! You can even bungy jump at night (which was scary!) and go trampolining!

behy

going Sking in france in december so bought all my gear on ebay. Got it all yesterday. Top stuff at Very cheap prices compared to all retail stores I had visited. Search for ... on ebay. more of my friends ordered from them last night after see what I got. Irish based company as well so fast shipping and supporting local business. Cant praise them enough

check em out

robinph

Added link to Fattes thread with information on buying ski boots to the first post.

Mmmm_Lemony

Doesn't have 'every' hotel or pension but its handy when deciding on which package deal to take.

keezer

paulicove wrote: »

We would be delighted to get a mention on this site. Originally from Co. Mayo but based in Samoens France (just 1 hour transfer from geneva) we offer tailor-made winter hols, just book the flights we do the rest.
www.coveyski.com

Great service, have used them in jan 2009, look foward to using ye again.

Tanks paul and gang

Shiny

I have tried to research this myself that last few evenings but it is
still not really clear.

Is it worth the extra money to rent premium equipment as opposed
to the standard equipment?

So far it seems that the premium gear has been worn less, has less
visible wear and tear, scratches etc.... The "newness" factor wouldn't
matter to me but if you definitely got boots that were of much higher
quality/comfort for example, then I would be tempted of course.

Feel free to delete this post and perhaps add the answer to the sticky?

opinion guy

Shiny wrote: »

I have tried to research this myself that last few evenings but it is
still not really clear.

Is it worth the extra money to rent premium equipment as opposed
to the standard equipment?

So far it seems that the premium gear has been worn less, has less
visible wear and tear, scratches etc.... The "newness" factor wouldn't
matter to me but if you definitely got boots that were of much higher
quality/comfort for example, then I would be tempted of course.

Feel free to delete this post and perhaps add the answer to the sticky?

Absolutely 100% yes. The premium stuff is usually top notch, usually new. Personally I wouldn't waste my time renting the standard stuff

robinph

But, there is no need for a complete beginnner to be spending the extra money to start off with. After you've been a few times you'll start to notice the difference between the skis more.

opinion guy

robinph wrote: »

But, there is no need for a complete beginnner to be spending the extra money to start off with. After you've been a few times you'll start to notice the difference between the skis more.

Yeah maybe. But I wonder about that to be honest. I think starting out on stupidly soft boots and skis with zero torsion can only make it harder. Someone is tellign you to do your snow plow and put your downhilll ski on its edge but instead it just flattens out and you don't know any difference and just are getting frustrated. And if you learn quick you could certinaly be suffering the effects by the end of a week.

dwiseman

Gear: Once you have been boarding or skiing you will know pretty quickly if its fr you and if it is you might look at purchasing your own gear as you progress.

Snowboard@ I have a burton custom X 158 which I was quoted around €680 to buy in snow and rock at the time. I ended up buying the same board on ebay and including shipping and taxes I go it for €320 from the states so it pays to shop around. I went for Flow NXT bindings as I like the way you can clip in coming off the chairlift without needing to sit down or stop if your path is clear!

Protection: Helmets are at your discression in most countries but its a no brainer really. Experience doesnt stop you falling, in fact if you dont take a few falls you probably aren't pushing yourself or progressing, that's just my opinion. Wrist gaurds are essential too for borders as broken wrists are the most common injury. Padded shorts or the rector protector as I have heard it called is great too, you will be glad of it if you take a fall in icy conditions!

Lessons: ski school can be fun for a bunch of friends to do together but a one on one lesson will take you alot further alot quicker, same way a grind would in comparison to being in a class. Alot of the instructors from ski school will be in local bars in the evening and there is always a deal to be done in regards to a one on one lesson, these guys needs to make a living too and are only more than happy to cut out the resort from the payment and do business with you directly, saving you money! So price a one on one lesson through the resort and then get bargaining that evening.

opinion guy

dwiseman wrote: »

Protection: Helmets are at your discression in most countries but its a no brainer really.

....I see what you did there......:D

dwiseman

opinion guy wrote: »

....I see what you did there......:D

I like your style...

Mrs. Doyle

robinph wrote: »

Just taken out some new insurance in preparation for this years trip to New Zealand with www.123.ie and unlike most of the other policies I'd been looking at they do seem to cover off-piste and heli-skiing (when with guides).

Hi,

Just wondering how you got on with 123. Son had insurance with BMC but they don't appear to be covering ROI people any longer. Any other recommendations out there for long term stay for snowboarding for Worldwide cover? Seems very expensive on a lot of sites.

opinion guy

Mrs. Doyle wrote: »

Hi,

Just wondering how you got on with 123. Son had insurance with BMC but they don't appear to be covering ROI people any longer. Any other recommendations out there for long term stay for snowboarding for Worldwide cover? Seems very expensive on a lot of sites.

Believe it or not VHI have a decent affordable worldwide travel cover. I can't remember the details for how many days etc but I'm sure there website will tell you. There are options you can tailor to your needs (e.g. winter sports cover or other stuff)

Mrs. Doyle

opinion guy wrote: »

Believe it or not VHI have a decent affordable worldwide travel cover. I can't remember the details for how many days etc but I'm sure there website will tell you. There are options you can tailor to your needs (e.g. winter sports cover or other stuff)

Thanks for reply. He's not insured with VHI any longer so don't think he can take out policy with them because of this aspect

"Medical Emergencies are handled through Vhi Assist under your Vhi Healthcare Hospital Plan"

We got a quote some years ago when he was insured with them and it was extremely expensive because of the 'dangerous sport' snowboarding!

opinion guy

Mrs. Doyle wrote: »

Thanks for reply. He's not insured with VHI any longer so don't think he can take out policy with them because of this aspect

"Medical Emergencies are handled through Vhi Assist under your Vhi Healthcare Hospital Plan"

We got a quote some years ago when he was insured with them and it was extremely expensive because of the 'dangerous sport' snowboarding!

Nah I think their travel insurance is separate nowadays.
Here are the details:
http://www.vhi.ie/info/MainServlet?action=travelProductSelect
Click on optional add ons for the winter sports cover

robinph

Site listing current snow depths at various resorts around Europe:

http://en.skiinfo.com/snowreport-all-ski-resorts-233-en.jhtml

added to the first post as well

blue note

Is there a good website to find ski chalets? I'm guessing there's a website where they are all listed (it's easy enough to find holiday homes in Ireland like that), but I can't find one.

Specifically if we're looking at chalets I'd be thinking of Spain.