Skiing

Do you need Swiss health insurance if you're staying more than 90 days? Or is annual travel insurance good enough?

The former, I'd imagine. Annual policies tend to have max 90 day limits.

You need a ‘permis de sejour’ from the commune where you will be living. You will be unlikely to get this without a work contract. If you get a work contract, it will include mandatory accident insurance. They should be able to tell you what additional health insurance you need.

So you can't be a slacker for 4 or 5 months any more? Curse those Swiss

Not officially...

You will be unlikely to get this without a work contract

The commune I'm familiar with has an exception to this if you have more than 10 million CHF in local funds.

In gold bars?

I've heard similar stories of expats who have paid their entire life's taxes in one up front cash sum.

Ha. I think usually has to be 10+ year bonds.

Ouch, 10 million par for 10 years at negative yield of -0.005%

And as I understand it you don't even get the right to buy property although that is negotiable depending on your means.

A childhood friend of my wife owns a chalet in this particular commune. She grew up in Dubai, he's from a wealthy emirati family. Its easily worth 30m CHF. He only uses it for a week every year and doesn't rent it which is completely against the occupancy rules. I would love to know how much money he had to commit in order for them to turn a blind eye.

anyway, tldr, spending a season season in Switzerland is much easier if you're minted.

Switzerland is much easier if you're minted.

True.

True of pretty much everywhere/thing I'd imagine.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CGP_Y7gpHyy/

There are second property's (aka ones non-Swiss can buy) but they are rare in tourist spots and go for serious money.

"If you are a foreigner without a residence permit, the Swiss Federal Law on the Acquisition of Property by Persons Abroad (LFAIE) also known as “Lex Koller” applies to you (effective since 1984). This law restricts the amount of holiday homes that foreigners may purchase to 1500 a year"

You don't have to be minted to live there either, it's just not very easy (I've lived there twice but both times in the Canton the work was in)

well I guess you might need a decent bit of cash given the property prices lol (rent is almost on par with San Francisco)

If you live and work here it's fine; the (unofficial) minimum wage is ~20CHF/h. Getting a job might become more difficult for Brits next year though.

And yes, property is expensive and buying a property as a second home requires at least 40% deposit. (I'm not sure about buying as a foreigner, might be even more).

Aren't they (the Swiss) going to limit the number of jobs British types can have to something like 1500 across all sectors?

I think it still depends on the outcome of Brexit. They made a 'pre-deal' in case there was no deal I believe.

So who is looking at some new gear this year?

I'm in dire need of some new boots, but I keep eking another season out of mine. Keep finding something else to spend £500 on, which tbf last season was some atris and pivots.

Looking at the lange XT3 as the plan is to set another set of skis up with some shifts at some point.

I went to a few shops and tried out which make and model boot that fits then picked up a lightly used second hand pair for £40 instead of £350

Bit cheeky towards the shops but considering their service was laughably bad my conscience is intact

Promised myself new boots as the toes/heels on my existing Tecnica Rival X9 (2003!) are shagged and last trip one boot had an occasional problem clipping in.

Had planned on looking for some full fitting with moulded insoles deal over the summer but Covid stopped that.

Very unlikely to go this winter (either a boys trip or a family trip in Feb half term) so I'll save up a bit more and look for another deal Spring/Summer 2021.

May also get a new lurid jacket to go with the new lurid ski pants. Tried on a mate's bright orange jacket for the full binman look last year:-

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Nothing wrong with the bin man look.

Its not a conscious decision but for whatever reason if there is an orange option it's the one I end up buying.

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Have just bought a new jacket and trousers for the first time in ~5 years. Went all out on Goretex Pro as my previous Haglofs jacket with the same fabric has been faultless.

Also just received a rather splendid looking pair of norseskis.eu Freeride. They will be mounted with shifts in order to replace my Faction Candide 4.0 with Kingpins.

Decision seems a bit foolish as I'm in the process of buying a house, but hey ho, it's fun!

Bought the Technica Cochise 130s last season and they were amazing, super stiff, comfy, and orange (to go with my lime/yellow Patagonia shell and bright orange Patagonia salopetes. Not to mention the bright pink poles....

Now need to replace the black helmet with something more garishly luminous

Also picked up some new black crows atris for £350 which felt like a bargain