Skiing with a Garmin

get yourself a helmet FB! the latest ones arent too big and ugly and they keep your kead warm too. and dont just protect your head from crashes but from the chair lift too! we noticed last year that more people are wearing helmets than ever, theyre not  "uncool" anymore.

feeling a bit down as had call from Mr Meglet at lunchtime who reported he was at that time on the chairlift in the sun and the slopes were really quiet

fb I agree with Meglet I refused to get a helmet for years but made my youngest children wear them -where was the sense in that?Now we all wear them and several of us have had incidents where they have protected us and these were caused by others. I wonder though whether I now ski faster and take more risks than I did particularly on hard fast steep icy surfaces.

At  Whistler, marshalls on certain pistes  control speed together with banners that cut off parts of the pistes. I think that these sometimes cause bottle necks and increase the risk of collision.

My view is that if we are going to ski fast we do it where there are fewer people such as on the more difficult runs and away from popular and nursery runs.

We dont want to take all the fun out of it do we ? Only 2 weeks to go! Cant wait and the Euro is rising!

I've been skiing for twenty years and have never worn a helmet, and I don't plan to start.

I can't really put my finger on why, I just don't want to! 

(I don't cycle much, and I don't wear a helmet for that, either)

On imposing speed restrictions - how could that be enforced? 

What is "too fast"?  If you set an actual speed limit, you have to have some way for people to know how fast they are going, like the speedometer in your car.  Not really practicable for individuals.

It's a knee-jerk reaction to one incident - how many thousands (millions?) of people ski each year without coming to any harm?

yep, here are a couple of traces which look very pretty. i will also post to my Fetch account with some descriptions of the routes taken (when i have time!). the first one is La Tania/Le Praz (Courchevel valley).the frist shows elevation, the second speed, and the third is heart rate. The lifts show as straight lines at a constant speed. i was actually quite surprised my HR didnt go up further than it did

this one is from La Tania over to Meribel, up to Mont Vallon and then to St Martin in Val Thorens valley. Elevation first then speed. top speed 35mph.

it was just nice to have some stats. nearly all lifts travel at about 9mph! when i remembered i pressed the lap button at top and bottom of lifts, but havent really had time to look through the splits yet. 

Wow- thanks, that is amazing.  A whole new approach to ski maps!  Will take mine then.

Thanks Meglet, and the snow looks great, they've had 18 cm in the last couple of days, it's forecast to snow all week and then the first 4 days we are there are forecast sunny.

Awesome

the pretty pics are from RunSaturday btw.

i found the elevation trace on the Garmin TC seemed more realistic than normal, i guess cos more variation in altitude.

where are you going Foxy Lady? plenty snow when we went. will you avoid the half term crowds?

Villars. Switzerland.  Kids under 9 ski free.

Have to go for half-term as have two fox-cubs and I work in a school so we're stuffed! However driving out on Friday so should be on slopes Saturday afternoon all being well and there is lots of snow and can ski into the resort which you couldn't really do last year.

under 9s free, thats excellent.

 we do take them out of school but that may have to stop soon . we got an excellent deal for going in jan though, free ski passes and ski hire for us all, that was worth having with the euro price 

Meglet the maps look very good .As I am a technophobe how did you do them? Whats the best way of getting the most out of the Garmin when skiing-Apart from remembering to wear it. I went to Morzine and only used it one day but didnt always switch it on or off at the right times. The max recorded speed was 53kmph. I am going again soon so your input would be useful.

By the way I had good use for my ski helmet-Iwas walking through a car park when a barrier pole which was raised came down as I walked through and hit me hard on the head.I was fine apart from my mates having a good laugh at my expense! Without  the helmet I would have been hospitalised

2old, (ow for your head! but they also work to stop lift bashes too)

first day i just wore it and pressed start! i did enable the autopause though so it didnt count standing around waiting for friends. 

second day i pressed lap at bottom and top of lifts, just to separate out skiing time from lift time.

amazed how far we travelled. in just one easy morning we went 20 miles!!

to get the maps sign up to RunSaturday (.com?) and upload your runs from the garmin. its the only place i've seen so far to colour it prettily like that. they have logs/message boards and stuff like Fetch but so far have only had a little look.

*goes off for a sulk as everyone going off skiing now*