Who is going skiing and where in 2017

[shirt]

you're preaching to the converted. i wear safety boots every day and spend £200+ a pair once custom soles are accounted for. pays to look after your feet. just seems anathema to me that i can't approach ski boots in the same way. the foot bed or custom liner should be the important part for fit not the whole shebang.

[feef]

Marcellus said:

DO NOT BUY A PAIR OF BOOTS ON LINE [/endofdiscussion]

I think you have a couple of choices;
a) if you can slide through the UK on your way to teh Alps and go to Profeet or solutions4feet and have a proper fitting.
b) choose a resort with a very good boot fitter, i can't remember the name of them now but there's one respected fitter in Chamonix and one in Courchevel 1300.

In Cham it would be Sole : https://solebootlab.wordpress.com/
In Tignes, I can recommend Jojo in Nevada sport
In Avoriaz, Rene Collet is good, but I would try and make sure it's him and not a seasonaire that's doing it.

In the UK, I use Colin at Solutions4Feet (in fact I need to call and make an appt before I forget)

[//j17]

shirt said:

ok thanks for the advice. i am passing through heathrow 4 times in the next couple of months so will see if i can get an extended layover and book a fitting.

i have no issue paying a few hundred quid for a pair as i am super fussy about what i put on my feet, even my safety boots have thermo formed insoles! just wanted to confirm it wasn't all jargon to try and drive sales.

ProFeet are only in Fulham and probably easiest to get to from Heathrow, though you're talking about 2-3hrs for the fitting (not the 30min I've seen them churn people through at some of the high street stores on a December Saturday). They start by examining your feet, then produce a few pairs for you to try on sans-liners that they believe are best suited to your foot size/shape/how you spread your weight across your soles. From there you narrow things down and try with liners till you get the best out-of-the-box fit. That's only about half way though as they then fit the liners and footbed to your feet, streatching/trimming/adding extra supports where necessary. You then get taught how to put them on and buckle them before spending some time in them to make sure no issues come up. Even that's not the end of it because you walk out the door poorer but with a lifetime fit guarantee. Find they're rubbing your left big toe after a week on the slopes? Book back in and they will tweak the boot/liner to fix it for free.

I used hire boots for my first couple of ski weeks and at the end of the only thing I wanted to do was get them off. With my fitted boots I've hit the apres ski for a few hours in them before realising I hadn't even losened the buckles and they were still skiing tight!

Solutions4Feet have been known to refuse to sell someone a pair of boots at the end of a fitting. Not because of some personal issue but because they didn't believe any of the boots they had were a good-enough fit for the customer and would rather send them off with a few other places to try/specific boots to ask for than sell them something that wasn't right for them.

shirt said:

Mothersruin said:

Skiing is the best thing ever!

it has promise, but doubt will replace track days for outright thrills

Tops it for alcohol intake though

[feef]

as to where I'm going skiing, I'm probably going to head to Avoriaz for feb half term again, as the wee man has been enjoying the Village des Enfants there, and with it being 9-4, with lunch included, I can get some good skiing in at the same time.

Also likely to be in Grindelwald at the end of Jan, but that's not 100% confirmed yet.

I'd like to get one other trip in, and I'm dying to scratch a La Grave itch, so might see if I can get a long weekend there this year

[NRS]

shirt said:

you're preaching to the converted. i wear safety boots every day and spend £200+ a pair once custom soles are accounted for. pays to look after your feet. just seems anathema to me that i can't approach ski boots in the same way. the foot bed or custom liner should be the important part for fit not the whole shebang.

It's like sitting on a leather or plastic chair. The plastic on the shoes will bend slightly, but is much stiffer and so you can easily get pressure points as it will never properly mould to your feet naturally. With a softer material such as leather it will adapt to your feet much better for the most part (but even then you want to get the right fit to a certain extent).

[vetrof]

NRS said:

shirt said:

you're preaching to the converted. i wear safety boots every day and spend £200+ a pair once custom soles are accounted for. pays to look after your feet. just seems anathema to me that i can't approach ski boots in the same way. the foot bed or custom liner should be the important part for fit not the whole shebang.

It's like sitting on a leather or plastic chair. The plastic on the shoes will bend slightly, but is much stiffer and so you can easily get pressure points as it will never properly mould to your feet naturally. With a softer material such as leather it will adapt to your feet much better for the most part (but even then you want to get the right fit to a certain extent).

Key difference though, is that your footbed or liner is not what is connected to the ski.
The stiffer the boot shell the more connected you are to the edges of your skis and the more control you have.

[shirt]

getting it now thanks. its like replacing bushes with rose joints.

[marcusgrant]

Can anyone recommend good websites to look for a self catered chalet in Val d'Isere for a group of 8-10 late 20's lads?

Last couple of years we've been Chamonix and booked though AirBnB, just not too much choice on there.

[feef]

marcusgrant said:

Can anyone recommend good websites to look for a self catered chalet in Val d'Isere for a group of 8-10 late 20's lads?

Last couple of years we've been Chamonix and booked though AirBnB, just not too much choice on there.

https://www.homelidays.com/location-vacances/france/val-disere/r505

A step up from AirBNB but cheaper than going the full P&V

[malks222]

marcusgrant said:

Can anyone recommend good websites to look for a self catered chalet in Val d'Isere for a group of 8-10 late 20's lads?

Last couple of years we've been Chamonix and booked though AirBnB, just not too much choice on there.

owners direct?

[Marcellus]

marcusgrant said:

Can anyone recommend good websites to look for a self catered chalet in Val d'Isere for a group of 8-10 late 20's lads?

Last couple of years we've been Chamonix and booked though AirBnB, just not too much choice on there.

Piers and Claire @ http://skipierdor.co.uk/services.html

or

chalets direct/solutions room?

[feef]

Just booked an apartment via Homelidays/Homeaway.

Anyone else in Avoriaz for feb half term?

[kennydies]

Just booked a week in Val Thorens in January. Myself and a friend went there over 10 years agao so it is long enough not to remember it well

[popeyewhite]

kennydies said:

Just booked a week in Val Thorens in January. Myself and a friend went there over 10 years agao so it is long enough not to remember it well

I'll remind you then - the skiing's excellent. Went last Spring and had a great time.

Just booked Arabba for January 2017.

[Mothersruin]

Livigno, Italy, 3rd week of Jan sorted.

[NorthDave]

feef said:

In Cham it would be Sole : https://solebootlab.wordpress.com/
In Tignes, I can recommend Jojo in Nevada sport
In Avoriaz, Rene Collet is good, but I would try and make sure it's him and not a seasonaire that's doing it.

In the UK, I use Colin at Solutions4Feet (in fact I need to call and make an appt before I forget)

I found Sole to be poor. I paid upwards of 700E for a pair of boots I could have got for less than 300E online and after 3 attempts they still couldn't get me comfortable. After the third attempt where they removed the custom tongue and custom liner (which had bumped the price up initially) I gave up and went to my mate in Morzine. He fitted them and they were perfect. I was travelling from Morzine to Cham to get the fitting and it got very tedious after the third trip.

Next time I will just buy the same make and size of boot online and get them fitted locally. I do have the benefit of knowing what works for me though.

[Jarcy]

La Plagne in January (probably - my son is doing the season and he's (provisionally) allocated to La Plagne)
Verbier in February - lads piss-up, plus I've never been to verb before so really looking forward to it.
Alagna in March - off piste luvly stuff. Done Gressoney/Monte Rossa before but never got down to Alagna.

Really looking forward to the season

[Nobby Diesel]

Morzine booked for 1st week Feb.
Beautiful chalet, superb location, amazing hosts in http://rschaletcollection.com
Can't wait.

[S47]

Anyone else on here ski on one of these??
>
>

[Mothersruin]

Ah, memories of pastel onesie skisuits and the French of the late 1980's.