Stolen skis

"PG" wrote in message
...

"Paul ( Skiing8 )" wrote in message
...
|
| A wee tip for you. If skiing with someone, swap one of their skis
over so
| that you stack both pairs with an odd one. Then you should place
your skis
| apart, opposite ends of the restaurant area etc..
|
| A thief will not bother if he finds two odd skis stacked and
certainly
| wont
| spend time looking for the other one amongst the dozens usually
found
| outside restaurants.
|
| This has the added bonus that if a dumb theif does take your odd set
of
| skiis anyway you can always ski on one ski back down the mountain,
hard work
| but its better than walking!!!!!
|

Except that most thieves aren't stupid and are actually watching you
arrive at the restaurant, and see precisely where split skis have been
put (given how obvious most people make it). Proven by the recent
experience of the SnowHeads forum admin in the restaurant top of the
Sauliuire, who thus lost his much-loved Pocket Rockets.

Thats true but on the other hand if you make it so obvious its no barrier. A
little bit of sense could go a long way! Its unfortunate that it happens but
if you can minimise the risk its worth doing, you have nothing to lose and
lots to gain by attempting to making life harder for thieves. Two sets of
Pocket Rockets arrive - skier A plonks his in the snow and rushes in for his
vin chaud, skier B splits his and attempts to make life awkward. Which skis
will a thief take? You cant stop it happening but you can minimise the
chances of it happening to you.

K.

PG wrote:
"Simon Brown" wrote in message
...
| "Steve Haigh" wrote in message
| ...

| I write my name on my skis with a big thick indelible marker.
| --

Acetone, alcohol, lemon juice, are effective erasers - or so I hear....

So's a thumbnail, doesn't make much difference if the ink's indelible or
not. I've written on my skis but it's easy to scratch it off.

KMM wrote:
A wee tip for you. If skiing with someone, swap one of their skis
over so
that you stack both pairs with an odd one. Then you should place your skis
apart, opposite ends of the restaurant area etc..

A thief will not bother if he finds two odd skis stacked and certainly wont
spend time looking for the other one amongst the dozens usually found
outside restaurants.

Even a totaly cretinous theif isn't going to be fooled by this. If you
wanted to nick some skis you just need to sit around, wait for the pair
you want to be parked, split or not, watch the owner go out of sight and
take them.

AH wrote:

I don't think they put quite this much effort into it.. and if they were
watching when you split your ski's up, I'm sure they'd just think "Too hard,
next sucker"..


They clearly put effort into not being caught so watching people arrive
and leave the skis unattended is exactly what they do.

On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 16:36:56 +0100, Ian Spare
wrote:

KMM wrote:
A wee tip for you. If skiing with someone, swap one of their skis
over so
that you stack both pairs with an odd one. Then you should place your skis
apart, opposite ends of the restaurant area etc..

A thief will not bother if he finds two odd skis stacked and certainly wont
spend time looking for the other one amongst the dozens usually found
outside restaurants.

Even a totaly cretinous theif isn't going to be fooled by this. If you
wanted to nick some skis you just need to sit around, wait for the pair
you want to be parked, split or not, watch the owner go out of sight and
take them.

Well yes, but it must offer a degree of protection, especially if it's
busy - the tea-leaf's only got one pair of eyes, and as someone else
pointed out he'll be going for the esier target.

I must say, though (or repeat, as I think I said this quite recently)
that theft of skis is incredibly rare. In all the group skiing I've
done I've not been with any member who's had their gear nicked.

--
Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club.

"KMM" wrote in message
...

Thats true but on the other hand if you make it so obvious its no barrier.
A
little bit of sense could go a long way! Its unfortunate that it happens
but
if you can minimise the risk its worth doing, you have nothing to lose and
lots to gain by attempting to making life harder for thieves. Two sets of
Pocket Rockets arrive - skier A plonks his in the snow and rushes in for
his
vin chaud, skier B splits his and attempts to make life awkward. Which
skis
will a thief take? You cant stop it happening but you can minimise the
chances of it happening to you.


Exactly. You don't have to make your skis thief-proof. You just have to make
them a bit harder to steal than everyone else's.

I'm not at the buy-my-own stage yet, I still hire them, usually from the
tour-operator. But I still here every year about at least 2 or 3 pairs being
nicked from the TO, and in my experience they tend to be the 'ordinary' skis
being stolen. They are invariably last years model (at least) and have been
skied to hell and back. I normally hire the premier skis, then use the
"split-them-up-with-a-mate" technique.

Walter

"Ace" wrote in message
...


I must say, though (or repeat, as I think I said this quite recently)
that theft of skis is incredibly rare. In all the group skiing I've
done I've not been with any member who's had their gear nicked.

I agree with your experience. Not once in over 20 years skiing have I known
anyone in my party to have their skis stolen on the mountain. What I do have
is knowledge of is breakins to boot rooms at the back of hotels etc. Not my
own kit but even then I can only cite 2 instances where friends have lost
skis this way.

K

On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 16:13:13 -0000, "KMM" wrote:


"Ace" wrote in message
.. .


I must say, though (or repeat, as I think I said this quite recently)
that theft of skis is incredibly rare. In all the group skiing I've
done I've not been with any member who's had their gear nicked.

I agree with your experience. Not once in over 20 years skiing have I known
anyone in my party to have their skis stolen on the mountain.

Me too.

What I do have
is knowledge of is breakins to boot rooms at the back of hotels etc.

Yep - in around 98 our chalet in Cham was broken into and they cleared
out the gear of 10+ people - boards, boots, jackets, gloves -
everything.
--
Champ

Champ wrote:
On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 16:13:13 -0000, "KMM" wrote:


"Ace" wrote in message
. ..


I must say, though (or repeat, as I think I said this quite recently)
that theft of skis is incredibly rare. In all the group skiing I've
done I've not been with any member who's had their gear nicked.

I agree with your experience. Not once in over 20 years skiing have I known
anyone in my party to have their skis stolen on the mountain.


Me too.


What I do have
is knowledge of is breakins to boot rooms at the back of hotels etc.


Yep - in around 98 our chalet in Cham was broken into and they cleared
out the gear of 10+ people - boards, boots, jackets, gloves -
everything.

In December 2004 we were staying in an apartment in Arc 1600 - on the
top floor of a quiet block where there were only 1/2 dozen apartments
per staircase per floor. When we came to leave I went downstairs to pack
the skis (which interestingly I had left outside the locker for over an
hour) while my wife packed bags upstairs. As she finished each bag she
put them outside the open door of the apartment while she cleaned up.
Someone stole 2 of the bags from there.

They must have panicked when trying to leave and saw me at the entrance
of the block packing skis, because we found the bags 2 hours later
hidden in a fire extinguisher cupboard. The gendarmes were not
interested in the slightest; even though we knew the bags had not left
the building.

Anyway we learnt the old lesson – nothing is ever totally safe. Unless
you are watching all the time someone will eventually try to steal it.

BTW my wife had her skis stolen a few years back from Courchevel. Once
again we made the cardinal mistake - we let them out of our sight.

John

On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 08:06:02 +0100, "Simon Brown"
wrote:

"Nick Hounsome" wrote in message
...

That's not likely to stop them being stolen (certainly not in a ski by
theft) and the thief is hardly likely to bring them back if he sees that
they are no good to him.



The reason is that this was recommended to me by my local ski shop. Here
it's mainly expensive snowboards which get stolen, happens quite frequently
or so I hear.

From my experience, I reckon your local ski shop is not the Intersport
one in Flims, is it