S2. E5 Ski News, Where's the best Snow, Ski Japan and Ski Park City

Time to mention today’s sponsors, Ski Independence & Canada’s Alberta.

The team at Ski Independence have been sending customers to Alberta’s ski resorts for almost 30 years. With oodles of personal experience, they know all about the best places to stay, the best travel options… and everything in between: from Banff’s best eateries, breathtaking scenery at Lake Louise and wildlife spotting opportunities, to how to get the best out of a multi-centre itinerary – they highly recommended road-tripping up the spectacular Icefields Parkway for an experience like no other.

 Book with tailor-made specialists Ski Independence before the end of October, and under 12s will ski & rent for free in Banff & Lake Louise, and lift tickets in Jasper’s Marmot Basin are half price until the end of November. Visit ski-i.com/alberta to find out more.

*****

NEWS:

New lift and ski area in La Plagne - Check out Laplagneresort.com for more info

Dartbus - Dartbus.co.uk

Ski Club survey - Skiclub.co.uk

H&M MOVE SNOW COLLECTION

SkiWeekends launch CO2 travel comparison tool -  skiweekends.com/news/travel-greener-to-the-alps

SNOW REPORT:

Our friend in Chamonix, David Robertson, this week and he says: “this is the best snow we have seen at this time of the season in the past 18 years I have been in Chamonix. There’s already a number of tracks up there – the mid station lifts are still open for hikers but it’s skiers that are taking advantage of it.”

No high pressure then blocking all that snow, yippee.

Tignes has announced that it will open a week earlier than planned, on the 18th November, the weekend after next, rather than the 25th.

Hannah Bolger of France-specialist ski holiday company Peak Retreats, contacted us about this and she said: “They’re opening up the Glacier with an option of a returning slope to Val Claret, via the Double M piste! With the continued ‘progressing-opening’ of the rest of the ski area from 25th November. It’s very exciting news for the start of the season!”

Kitzbuhel and Schladming in Austria OPEN this weekend, Madonna di Campiglio in Italy from the 18th and Arosa, Davos and Verbier in Switzerland from this weekend, joining more than a dozen glacier ski areas that have already opened.

Val Thorens opening weekend is scheduled for November 25 and 26
Switzerland is looking pretty good too and Austria
The Dolomites and the likes of Bormio in Italy also have snow
Cervinia is all set for the weekend’s downhill race and it is looking spectacular on the course right now
Arapaho basin and Keystone are already reporting around 45cm’s of snow on their upper slopes and there’s up to 10 cm’s forecast for the next week

GEAR

Helly Hansen – Ski Free - buy a jacket and get a free ski pass, or buiy one get one free for more details visit - hellyhansen.com/skifree

Planks on Rainkiss

Fauna Skisfaunaskis.com

Axiski

Resort Spotlight – Park City

BUCKET LIST JAPAN

LHR > Haneda

TOKYO - Senso ji  - Harmonica Yokocho - Tokyo Skytree a 2080 ft tower with 360 degree view

In the meantime Enjoy the mountains :) And Please do leave a review as it's the only way other like minded travellers get to find us!

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and contact us with your suggestions for further episodes at dom@InTheSnow.com / robert@ski-press.com

Transcript

  ha ha, look how much snow we've got now. So I'm a bit like a rotting apple I know my first ski suit was a CNA ski suit if there's a lot of snow this winter, I won't be podcasting. I'm going to be skiing Beautiful, beautiful. Skis that are better than Tarte exactly what I was thinking 330 trails. That's a lot. Can you imagine? We need to just go and, we've got to go together and do one of these, surely maybe, maybe we should invent a sort of Japanese version of tartiflette

So Rob, big shout out to our sponsors today, Ski Independence and Canada's Alberta. Do you know Ski Independence? Yeah, I do. I know our friends up in Edinburgh, Dom you know, they've been helping people holiday in Alberta for almost 30 years now. Woah, 30 years of experience taking people to North America and Canada.

I mean, that's incredible.  It is. They know everything from BAMP's at prey ski locations to wildlife spotting in Lake Louise to getting the best out of a multi centre itinerary like road tripping up the spectacular Icefields Parkway between Lake Louise and Jasper. That's an experience like no other.

That's incredible. Isn't it? You know what my suggestion is, Rob? Hmm. No, but with tailor made specialist, ski independence.  And get your booking in early this season because heading out to Alberta, perfect place for big powder, great ski destinations. Don't forget, listeners, go to ski  i.com/alberta.

to find out more about visiting the likes of Jasper's Marmot Basin Bound for Lake Louise and all of those awesome resorts out there



So welcome back to the fifth podcast this season.

Yes, it's the fifth already. I can't believe it. So just a reminder to our listeners that we released a special episode last week, looking at all mountain skis. We love that one. Didn't we, Rob? I love that one. I talk about skis all day. I haven't had my chance to introduce you like I normally do, Rob, but this time I'm going for my co host, the scruffy, the disorganized, the idiotic, the frankly terrible skier.

It's Rob Stewart! Oh, thanks, Dom.  Well, finally a bit of honesty from you, at least. I'm glad you cleared the air with that one. I do agree a bit. I mean, you know, this is the time of year I compare to apples. Bear with me here. So I'm a bit like a rotting apple Well, if you eat an apple in August, right, just before harvest time, they've been in storage for months, you know, I mean, forget about the fact you can get them from the southern hemisphere for a minute. 

And it's the same for me right now and skiing. It's kind of been such a long time, the very longest time before the season kicks off again. So I'm a bit like a rotting apple. Yeah, you always say this. You always say this. Not that I'm any better at the end of the season, to be honest. A bit more broken, maybe, and knackered. 

But, but happy. Obviously. I think there's a song about that, isn't there? What, Broken and Happy? Broken and Happy, yeah. Yeah, we'll work on that one. Yeah. Anyway, anyway, back on piste. What is happening this week, Don? I like what you did there, Rob. Well, this week we've got our latest gear roundup.

We've got where's good to ski now or where is the snow conditions because we've got some great news there. Can't believe what's changed in a week. And we've got our spotlight on Park City Resort. fabulous destination, which I was in just over a year ago. And  I thought we'd do a little bit of a Japan roundup as well. So yeah, we've got some pretty hot topics this,   week.  So quick reminder to our listeners we do rely on you leaving us a great review or a review.

And by leaving a review on Apple or Spotify, it does mean that more like minded listeners can find this ski podcast and that does help us create more fabulous content for you. So if you're on Apple. You can find it on the actual podcast itself, not the episode. Scroll to the bottom and you can then rate it and leave a review.

And if you're on Spotify, you can go to the episode, scroll to the bottom and it says Q and A. What did you think of this episode where you can leave that? Or you can find the podcast where there are three little dots on your Spotify account. You can click on them and click rate the show. We do appreciate it.

If you can go ahead and do that...



first up our new section, Rob, what is happening or am I up first?  It's up to you, Dom. Take it away if you want, well, got the new lift and ski area in Lapland.

 One of the most popular ski resorts in France, Lapland. Opening a brand new gondola lift for the start of the season. It's the first stage of a huge product linking Plane Belcote with the Glacier. Or Glacier, however you prefer to say that. Potatoes, potatoes. This first stage is the 10 seater glacier gondola starting from Roche de Mio and going up to 3000 meters.

So that's very good news for Laplan. It will be be opening up a new terrain for skiers and snowboarders and apparently offering panoramic views over the Vanuatu glacier, which can't get any better. A lift will operate during the summer too. It's a 10 minute journey and the lift will carry 2700 people an hour.

That sounds pretty cool, doesn't it? Looking forward to trying that out. What do you think?  I'd love to try it out because I've never actually been skiing in Lapland before. Wow. Ever. So that's crazy. I mean, it does seem a bit, I've driven past it. You know, hundreds of times. Hundreds of times. Why haven't I stopped?

I don't know, but it does sound, that does sound great. Oh Rob, if you need, if you need more information about that, you can go to leplanresort. com so you can go and find out for yourself about this new lift that's going in there. I'm going to do that.  And actually I've got a new story that sort of links in with...

Possibly going to La Plaine this winter as well. There's a new,  uh, transfer service called Dart Bus. It's a British owned and operated company. It's launched a new service that links Geneva airport directly with some of the largest ski resorts in the French Alps and operates exclusively to the Tarentes region.

So. You know, direct destinations. That's one of the things that they, they really want to make clear.  Direct destinations include Val, Val Thorens, Tignes, and Val d'Isere. And if you do want to go to La Plagne or Les Arcs, there are stops in, in Moutiers for Meribel and Courchevel, and actually in Aime, Aime for La Plagne and Bourg Sainte Marie for Les Arcs.

So. Okay. And we're talking about bus.  This isn't a mini bus, this is a full on bus. No, it's a bus. Okay. I think it depends on the group size, but they have got full size coaches. Okay. So, fares cost 50 for one way, direct to the resort or 90 for a return journey. Wow. Pretty good value.

Including ski or snowboard equipment. The tickets are flexible as well, so they can be changed up to one week for travel and any passengers that experience sort of flight delays, they'll be moved onto the next available bus. So, there's also a dedicated DART bus.  Bus desk at the arrivals hall in Geneva Airport on the Swiss side, and you can check it out@dartbus.co uk.

I hadn't heard about that. That's very interesting.. I'll, I'll jump on one of those buses to LA plan. Yeah, no. Yeah. And go and see LA plan's, new lift. That sounds like a great idea. I What about the ski club survey? Rob,  yeah, it was a survey that's just been released and it's the state of the UK Snow Sports Market in partnership with Snow Rock and the Mountain Trade Network.

And it's quite interesting. You know, this is a survey that ski club run every year.  .

 Some of the interesting findings I picked out were, like, 39 percent of the respondents said they intend to book. Two holidays for this winter, which is actually up from only 33 percent last year. But 40 percent are saying the reason why they didn't book a skiing holiday last season was due to cost.

  But apparently for around 20 percent of the market, cost isn't an issue at all. I guess that means 80 percent of the market cost is an issue. And the booking season is also becoming more polarised. That means, you know, more early bookings. 55 percent of skiers booking more than six months before departure compared to 35 percent pre Covid.

 And 31 percent saying they intend to stay in a four star hotel this winter and last season only 23 percent said they did. So the intent is to stay higher. Dreaming versus reality, isn't it? I'm always planning on staying at a five star hotel and I always end up in a tent. Right.  And I think when you do see, you know, the intent is really interesting and to compare that with actually what the reality is and the intent is often, you know, a little bit.

a little bit higher, let's say, than the actual reality. So 70%, 77 percent took a flight for their skiing holiday last winter. This year, 12 percent of respondents intend, again, intend to take a train. Compared to only 2 percent taking the train last season. So it would be interesting to see how many people actually do take the train.

Yeah, absolutely.   A combined 92 percent say that more train services and lower costs would be the most likely factors and encourage them to take. taking the train in the future. I'm sure. Which I think is fairly obvious.

 In other words, skiers say they care deeply about sustainability, but other factors. And most notably cost, they currently rank higher in, in skiers, priority sustainability, although the growth of the growth of that is, is, is very high.  Cool. UK skiers apparently, apparently getting more fitter compared to pre COVID years when 15 percent of respondents admitted doing no exercise between ski season.

And then skiers are also dreaming about the kind of experiences they would like to have. Heli skiing and traveling to long haul destinations with Canada and Japan top of the list. But you know, perhaps more realistically over 30 percent would like to try ski touring at some point.

So that's, that's a high number and almost 30 percent intend to ski tour this winter as well. So 30 percent of that big demographic wanted to try ski touring. That's a lot, isn't it? You can check out more information on skiclub. com. I'm always very skeptical about these statistics. I think what is interesting is to compare, you know, the historical data that comes out. Yeah, when you do compare the historical data, there are trends there.

So yeah, some of it you can take with a pinch of salt. I don't agree, but there are some historical trends. Very good. A quick shout out to our charity partner Snowcamp, the game changing national youth charity who turn young lives around with the power of snowsports. We both know Snowcamp, don't we Rob? We love these guys. Yeah, yeah. They do amazing work harnessing the power of skiing and snowboarding to develop life skills, qualifications and positive opportunities for over a thousand hard to reach young people every year.

Please listeners, go ahead and visit snowcamp. org. uk to find out more about Snowcamp, our charity partner today. Well, I don't know whether this is so much a news story as it is for a gear story, but H& M  the family clothing store that you get in the high street.

They have launched a snow collection, a ski collection of clothing. So it's called the H& M move snow collection. I was looking at this stuff yesterday while I was at the the snow center in Hummel Hampstead. And yeah, I mean, I had a couple of 25. year old ish people trying on the H& M clothing and they were absolutely loving it.

So I mean, price, style, quality, technology, it really was neat stuff. I have to say especially one of their shell layers was, was an astoundingly nice piece of kit. Good prices, nice quality.  It's not a super high end scale. So you're not talking about your sort of Arc'teryx North face type stuff, but actually in that sort of mid range, lower priced end stuff, really, really nice quality, great styling, definitely worth looking out for the H& M move snow collection.

I'm not being paid to say that it was because of the fact that these people genuinely did say. Please make sure you tell H& M we really like their gear and I was thinking, wow, that's, and these were quite funky sort of 20 something year old doodish that you'd sort of think would be happier seeing wore it wearing, I don't know, planks or rusk or something like that.

Yeah. They were generally impressed with the ski gear. So yeah, really nice to see that. Anything that can help is great. Yeah, it's great. I think it's great that a high street shop like H and M, you know, some big brand is is offering ski clothing. It sort of harks back to me. It's a little bit like the, the, you know, back in the, in the day with CNA I know my first ski suit was a CNA ski suit and it was affordable and it was available and it didn't have any kind of, you know, there was no airs and graces about it.

Was it, it was just functional stuff. It looked great. And you're still wearing it now, Rob. You're still rocking it now.  Oh gosh, I wish I had that. I wish I had that old ski, CNA ski suit. I wish I'd, I've kept a few things, but that would have been fun. Anyway, no, that's good news. Very good. And then another one that caught my eye, Ski Weekends, our friend at Ski Weekends Ski Weekends.

com launched the CO2 travel comparison tools. This is pretty, pretty nice. So Ski Weekends are very into their flexible and short break specialist travel arrangements. So people can go any day they like and come back any day they like. That's specialism. They've launched an online tool that enables people to check their carbon emissions and compare what they would have used against traveling by train or, or car.

So for example, they use Val Toren to demonstrate that if you fly and use a transfer bus, for example, you'd use 233. 3 kilograms. But if you took the train to Geneva and then got the bus, it would only be 15. 4 kilograms obviously a massive difference. But if you drove all the way there in a car 104.

9 kilograms. So. Yeah. If you drove there almost half than if you were flying, except if you're me, surely when I'm driving an electric car, it's going to be a lot less than that. I'm sure that's based on a petrol car. Yeah, they point out that it's based on a, on a, I believe that data is based on a petrol vehicle.

Yeah. Yeah. So they point out that actually over 70 percent of the carbon emissions we use on a ski holiday is actually from flying. And every resort page on their page is now giving that opportunity to do the comparison. So obviously they're not going out to solve the world's problems, but it's definitely highlighting the challenges that is creating awareness, which in turn, I'm sure will drive demand for ski for train travel.

And hopefully increase those services and, you know, hopefully drive down prices. They also say that taking the train from London is pretty much the same as flying. That's if you're based in London, obviously, and taking airport times into consideration, but obviously a lot of our friends that are based slightly further away from London airports may find it a little bit trickier.

Our editor based in. Inverness, for example, he always has to do that extra schlep down here before you can get off into Geneva. But to be honest, it's hard to beat the plane for time, but there's not a huge amount in it. And I can say from experience, the whole experience is more relaxing and less tiring, be it on the train or in the car.

Let's be honest, airports aren't as glamorous as they as they maybe make out. You know, when you're sitting around for a couple of hours and you're sitting on the floor somewhere and then a little delay, it is amazing how much more time you can get motoring. I'm going to be heading out over New Year and I will be driving down in an electric car.

And hopefully that is a nice green way to travel to the Alps.  Yeah, definitely. Right. This is the exciting part of our podcast today. I think Dom, for reasons that are going to become very, very clear, very, very soon, our weather section. So

we are definitely talking snow. We are talking, looking like as we get to into that sort of business end of the autumn. Yeah, well, firstly, we caught up with some friends in Chamonix, in fact one of your mates there, Dave Robertson of Action Outdoors, he's based in Chamonix, he said, this is his quote,  This is the best snow we've seen at this time of the season in the past 18 years!

I have been in Chamonix, I love it! There's already a number of tracks up there, the mid station's still open for hikers, but I tell you what, it's skiers that are taking advantage of it now. Did that sound like Dave? It was his words. Yeah, it was his words. It his definitely his words. And how cool is that?

That was a co that was a couple of days ago. He told us that, wasn't it? And, and I know that now it's ev it's snowing even more. And this weekend it's snowing even more. I spoke yesterday to the tourist office in, the Leger and Snow was. forecast into town and I've also saw pictures coming out of Switzerland, the Valais region of Switzerland today, places such as Cromontana and other ski resorts.

It's snowing heavily there right now. There's pictures coming from everywhere. I love it. It's, yeah, and there's no, no high pressure this year blocking all that snow. That's basically the situation. The main feeling is that snow is now secure. Now that we're getting into November, it just keeps on building on that snow with temperatures looking set to remain cold.

Up to the sort of altitudes you'd expect to see. Early on in the season, so yeah, it's looking good looking good it is I mean what's what's looking like the best bet for an early season trip Then i'm planning to head to the french alps on the first weekend of december nice idea So well, let's start in the french alps then tons of snow reports social media images piling in so loads and loads and loads of images coming out of tons of resorts. Mainly above 1500 metres. Firstly, Teen Great News announced that they are opening early.

So they now plan to open on the 18th of November the weekend after next rather than on the 25th. So that's super cool once you get resorts opening earlier. Hannah  of France specialist ski company Peak Retreat contacted us about this and she said they're opening up the glacier with an option of a returning returning slope to Valclaret.

Via the double M pace. So with the continued progressive opening of the rest of the skier from the 25th of November, it's very exciting news for the start of the season. So that's great news coming from our friends at peak retreats that we've mentioned before. And it's not only teen opening early, but a number of other resorts have announced early openings over the next few weekends due to the snowfall in the Alps, including Kitzbühel Schladming in Austria this weekend, Madonna de Cambiglio in Italy from the 18th and Arosa.

Davos and Verbier in Switzerland from this weekend, joining more than a dozen glacier skiers that have already opened, but Thien is the first French resort to announce that they're opening early. I actually heard this morning that Verbier had opened their lifts already, so they've just got on, they've just done it, I think, so yeah.

Let's just do it. Yeah. Let's I don't blame them.  So resorts and alps have reported up 60 centimetres, that's two feet to you and I Rob, of snow on the high slope since last Friday and more significant snowfall is in the forecast for the week ahead expected to be heaviest in the French and Western Alps.

Val Thorens opening weekend is scheduled for the 25th and 26th, the Grand Premier, and checking the webcams it looks like the middle of the winter is already there with snow way below the resort, 45 centimetres of snow forecast for Val Thorens over the next seven days. On top of what they've already got.

So that's looking good. And I'm sure we're going to see the list cranking up early there too.  So good news. I'm sure. I mean, this is, this is absolutely the best start to a winter for years. And in fact over a couple of days ago, I heard. Like officially from, I saw that the Northern French Alps there was a, there was something official that came out of that area saying this is, this is the most snow since 20 20 0 2.

Oh wow. Was the last time they had this kind of snowfall, this early in season. Wow, fantastic. Over 20 years ago. Yeah. That's awesome, isn't it? Well, looks like a great start, that's for sure. Let's keep our fingers crossed. Yeah, what about elsewhere? So, Switzerland's looking pretty good too, and Austria, the mountains are looking pretty white in St.

Anton, although the snow levels there isn't quite down to the resort of 1, 300 metres, it's pretty close, and there's around 30 centimetres more forecast down to the resort level in the next week. Dolomites and the likes of Borneo and Italy also have snow, certainly on the higher slopes, but in many areas the snow is pretty low down too. 

CHavinia is all set for the weekend downhill race, and it's looking spectacular on the course right now. I think it will look properly winter like when you see that, and if you get a chance to catch on Eurosport this weekend, that'll definitely get you into that winter feeling. There's not quite as much snow forecast for the Southern Alps over the next week, but there's still 17 17 so it's pretty decent snow down there too.

So that's all good news. Yeah, and it's getting it's getting better. I mean, yeah. What about over in North America, Don? What's happening there? Yep, pretty good snowfall out there too. So places such as Arapaho Basin, I mean, are always famed for having their huge long season. I feel like we're only just saying on the podcast that they had their last run of the season and now they're doing their first.

So they always have a massive season. Keystone already reporting 45 centimeters of snow on their upper slopes. And there's up to 10 centimeters forecast for the next week. They snow all the way down too, so it's a fantastic start to the season in Colorado. And the likes of Utah Montana, Wyoming, all looking good.

It's looking sunny and cold in California this week, but again, they have had snow and there's more forecast in the next couple of weeks.  And then over in the east, you've got Killington starting to open and it's. Fairly cold. So they may make, start making snow there. It's been very warm over in Japan recently.

They've even just recorded a record November temperature of 27 degrees in Tokyo, so that's a bit of a different story, but the good news is it's turning much colder in Hokkaido and which we're going to hear about a little bit later on in this podcast and snow is forecast for next week. But temperatures do need to drop further in Hakuba we know they will and I've got a good feeling it will be over the next week or so they will start moving into snowy conditions and no doubt they are going to end up shouting at us and saying, ha ha, look how much snow we've got now.

It's going to happen. So overall, I think, Rob, I think we can say it's a good start to the winter. We've been saying that we are due a good one. I'll tell you now, if there's a lot of snow this winter, I won't be podcasting. I'm going to be skiing. And interestingly, just to add, I saw this morning that obviously the race is on.

The new race in Zermatt, Givinia is on this weekend and they've had to cancel the training today, the downhill training, because there's just too much snow.  Just, it's been dumping it with snow and they have to clear it all. So whilst last year they had to cancel the race because there was no snow this year, it's looking like, I mean, hope it goes ahead obviously, but if it doesn't go ahead it's because there's too much snow this year.



 

That's a great start of the season. So what's up next Rob is we're going to do some gear reviews. We've got our hands on some cool gear this, this week. What have you got for us? Okay. Yeah. Well, this one it's a really nice story. It's not a specific about a specific piece of gear, but it's it's from one of our favorite brands Heli Hansen and it's called Ski Free.

And you get a day of skiing in one of over 50, you know, proper top resorts in Europe or North America when you buy a ski jacket or pants from the latest Heli Hansen ski collection. That is a good deal. So I think it's a good deal. There's some fantastic sort of world class resorts in the mix. You know, we've got Chamonix, Verbier, Stade, Halffjelland obviously those are Chamonix in France, Verbier and Stade in Switzerland, Halffjelland and Vipvel in Norway Kicking Horse one of my favorites in Canada and Snow Basin in Canada.

There's just, that's just a couple of the North American resorts on offer. There's, there's. Loads of European, loads of North American resorts. Glen Shee is on the list as well. So, I quite like that because it's perhaps an opportunity to go up and ski in Scotland this year with, I love the fact that you get Glen Shee mixed in.

Glen Shee, Chamonix, Verbeg,  that's fantastic, I love it. Ation Glen, she . Exactly. What are the co what, what are the comparisons? What are, what are, what links those three things together?  Very good. It's not that obvious, not always that obvious actually. Yeah. But, you know, get up Scotland, bit of bit of good kit with you.

You are, you are probably need it, so, but. Quite like that idea. It's, it's a, it's a pretty simple deal. You know, the website is very informative as well, very clear about where you can ski for free and how it works. Right. So like I said, you either get free days at the pass or for some areas it is a two for one deal.

Yep. It does look like a bit of a no brainer if you're thinking about buying some new kit for the season, you know, I mean, why not get a free day skiing in as well. Absolutely right. Check it out. Where do we get more information on this? HeliHansen. com forward slash, forward slash ski free. Fantastic. What a great initiative.

They've done this before, haven't they? So it's great having that this year as well. So very good. What else have we got? So Planks, we've got a story out of Planks. Are you going to tell us about that one?  Yeah. You know, our friends, again, our friends at Planks they, they say Planks on Rain Kiss, the freshest recycled poncho drop,  uh, in time for Christmas.

So coming out of Manchester Planks the makers of. Proper good ski gear. That's what they say. They're a buzzing apparently I've been working in collaboration with the people at rain kiss as they release their new recycled ponchos and bucket hats they they say this is   planks, they say, as proud Mancurians, we're all too familiar with non stop filthy downpours but you can trust in this gear to keep you dry from Piccadilly to Amsterdam, and all the way to the mountains.

I don't know what Amsterdam's... Got to do with it, but probably follow my guess, but yeah they keep on talking in their sort of cool down with the kids way and I kind of like it. So in their words, not mine. If your rainy day tunes are ironically drying up, just scan the QR code on the cuff of the poncho for a weather update.

And fresh new collab playlist from Planks and Reinkiss. This gear won't just make you look sick, it'll provide the beats as you stomp through puddles or fly down mountains. Oh my god, I'm feeling my age.  Yes, well that's why, that's why I wanted to quote them because you know, obviously I can't do this. At Planks we champion the versatility of our gear.

And this collaboration is no different. The unisex kit blends both functionality and fashion with a hand designed print, ensuring your remaining STEEZY and dry on any rainy day. I don't actually know what that means, but anyway. I had meant to tell you how sick you were looking today, Rob. Yeah. And STEEZY



only Jim at Planks could write a story about a raincoat in Manchester and get coverage for it. On a skiing podcast. That's all I've got to say. . Very good. My find, well, my find of the week was a young gent that I bumped into at the ski show who had a lovely stand called Fauna Skis, F A U N A, Fauna Skis. So I met him at the ski show, very young, very enthusiastic, far too good looking for his own good and very cool as well, talking about sick stuff and rad and stuff like that, which I didn't understand the first few minutes.

But once I got into his ski, 10 years of research, five years of developing and testing designs built by his very own hands. Beautiful, beautiful. 80 percent of his life, basically developing the ski. Exactly. I know.  Exactly. Fabulous wooden skis. These were. Yeah, better than you know what. So these free skis started out as park skis, so dealing with all things I also know nothing about, like fighting the the difference between edge cracks of factory detuned skis with thick edge sidewalls versus performance and keeping the skis looking good, Rob, obviously.

But anyway, once he nailed that, he then started looking and thinking, right, we don't want to just do park skis. We want to do an all mountain free ride ski. So they've got the pioneer as the ski is called it was built finding a balance between weight and stability. All of their production now is moved out in batches from a specialist factory in the Czech Republic, using the very best quality materials 

so very nice, beautiful wooden skis. They've got the alpaca and the pioneer, and they have more skis in development. So their skis start at about 425 quid, unmounted, go up to So grand I think is a set of mounted skis of the of the all mountain skis Super nice.

You're not gonna be sitting on a lift and finding every Tom, Dick and Harry with a set of these super passionate Yeah, very impressive well worth looking up And I would check them out at Fauna Skis F A U N A, faunaskis. com. Sounds good. I will check them out. And when you say better than you know what, I presume you are talking about Tarte Flette.

Yes, exactly. Better than Tarte Flette. Skis that are better than Tarte exactly what I was thinking, Rob. Okay. Thank you for, thank you for putting that in. Maybe  Faunaskis could use that as their strap line. Yes.  Yeah, exactly. So what do we got? That sounds good. Yeah, just one more thing on the gear side. I just wanted to highlight this time of year, you know, you start thinking about.

Winter in the UK as well. And if you've got kids, you know, is it going to snow? Is it going to snow this winter? Are we going to go be able to go sledging? And I've got, you know,  you see them at the ski show a guy we know really well who runs a company called AxiSki and AxiSki is a very simple, nice, easy product.

It's basically like a board. Made from like a strong plastic material  and they say ditch the sledge and get the edge, is their kind of, is their struggle. Yeah. Yes, I've seen this. I've seen this. Yeah. It's like a snow, like a snowboard, but a super flexible version with a, with a rope on the front.

Isn't that? It's exactly that. It is like a snowboard with a rope on the front, you don't need snowboard boots, you just wear normal winter shoes, jump on it and slide down. You can sit on it, you can stand on it, you can slide it down sand dunes if you want. in the summer as well as on the snow and I have got one and I have tried it a couple of times and it is a lot of fun and the cool thing is it's very easy to carry you know it's super lightweight it's not like a big plunky old thing so if it snows you can chuck it in the back of the car easily or just whatever you're going to do, you know, however you get to your chosen slope.

It's just a, it's just a really, really nice, neat little thing to have. 35 pounds. You can buy it online at axiski. com. That's A X I S K I. com. Axiski. com. Axieski. com. They are a British company and they are selling this all over Europe at the moment. Yeah, I've been seeing them everywhere. I've been seeing them everywhere and they look super cool.

And the other thing, because I was looking at it thinking, when we drive down to the Alps, very, very skinny bit of kit that you can just slide in the car. Do you know what, when the kids fancy some fun in the evening, we're just sitting having a tartiflette. That's going to be the new codename now. They, they, they can jump on their Axieski.

Such a cool idea. And then, you know, it will go in the boot and it wouldn't take up any room. Yeah. Yeah. No room at all. It's really, really quite, you know, it's, I don't know how many five millimeters or something like that. So yeah, you could get a couple of those in the boot easily without, without really kind of impacting your space.

So that is good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mentioned that because I'll give him a little shout out. It's a nice product. I like it. I like it a lot. Very good. So that's all for our gear this week. Nice little gear roundup. We had some good stuff there. The AxiSki that we've just talked about, the Forna Skis, the Planx  Poncho.

What else do we have? Oh, of course, the Helihansen SkiFree. So you don't get better than that for a week's a week's bunch of gear. I wonder what we've got coming up next week. Something just as exciting, I expect. I'm sure we'll find lots of new gear to talk about next week as well, Don, as we always do.

Very good. I love it. I love the gear. I love, I love gear. Love gear. Yeah. We all love gear, don't we? So,  yeah, what's next Dom? Resort spotlight, Park City.

What about Park City? Park City in Utah. Do you you know Park City

in Utah? I've just, it's the silent T. Yes. I have not skied there, Dom. No, I have not. So, yeah, I know a bit about it, considering I haven't been there. But, yeah. Well, let's see what we can piece together. I've been out there. So, Utah's strap line is the greatest snow on earth. And yes, maybe it is a bit of a clever marketing thing, but let's face it, they aren't wrong.

The 2022 23 season was absolutely record breaking. Over 600 inches of snow in Park City through the winter. So, that's so good. 15 meters. I mean, seriously? That is a lot of snow. Yeah, but not only that, because it's because, because of Utah's location on the western side of the Rockies, they get massive snow fronts coming in from the Pacific.

They get the moisture sucked out by the desert. So when it snows, it's super light fluffy snow out there. That's why they claim to have the greatest snow on earth. And of course, it's a super play on words. We love it. It's such a great thing to say. Ah, yeah, right. So. Really, it's the greatest show on earth, maybe, as well as the greatest snow on earth.

It is, it's the greatest show on earth, without a doubt. Well, one of the great things about Park City is the fact that there's direct flights from Heathrow straight to Salt Lake City and then it's literally a 35 minute skip to the resort and that's really nice. So whilst it might be a big long journey on a flight, 35 minutes into resort is Blooming super cool.

So you get a nice rest on your flight. Take a couple of sleeping tablets. I didn't just say that out loud and wake up land and get into resort. So, of course, you get two resorts there. You get Park City and you get Deer Valley  and they're not very far apart. We're talking 10, 15 minutes apart. Deer Valley, no snowboarders.

It's Lindsay Vaughan territory. It's where she's got one of her massive condos. It's super slick, super smart.  Really, really, really nice in Deer Valley Park City. Also super nice. You haven't been there. No, it's more of a bit of a cowboy town. You know, it is, you know, almost sort of bordering on your sort of Breckenridge style.

So sort of saloon bars, massive ski area, 7, 300 acres of terrain, loads of shops, bars, restaurants. You can easily go there as a non skier. I mean, if you went there and you were there for a week, you could easily go there and entertain yourself for a week there with, with so much going on, plenty to do, plenty of places to eat and drink.

And obviously they have the Sundance Film Festival every year as well, which was super cool. You get the. Great distilleries in town as well. So the old gin distilleries and that sort of stuff. So that's really nice. it's obviously based on an old gold mining town, so you can go and visit. They got a very cool museum.

I'm not one to go skiing and end up in a museum, but I have to say their museum is super cool. And you can even go ski touring around and go and see all the mining areas and see the old preserve mine shafts as well. So that's, that's quite cool. Like it. So very sustainable as well. So they have their, their public transport system is what they call on their trolleys, but they're trans to you and me.

They're zero emissions. That's a real commitment to being eco friendly. So that's really nice getting around resort on those.  Very nice hotels. The Pendry was the latest edition when I was out there. Super slick hotel there. I didn't get to stay there, but also. Loads and loads of condos which is great for that sort of more budget conscious and same in Deer Valley too, lots of options, but out in Deer Valley, you get the real big, whacking great condos that are all owned by these superheroes.

So, yeah, very, very nice indeed. So it's the largest skiable area in the U. S. right now. 000 acres of terrain, 40 lifts, 330 trails,  330 trails. That's a lot. Can you imagine? We need to just go and, we've got to go together and do one of these, surely. What, do the whole 330 tours? Well, we need to just go and do one of these mega resorts we keep talking about, these amazing places, and we've never, we're always doing it separately.

That's true. Oh.  Okay, well, maybe that's a goal for this season, Dom. Yes. We're going to go and do one of these resorts together. Yeah.  Right. So, you know, when we go through, they get a two for one, don't they? Podcast. Yeah. Goodbye. Bye. Helly Hansen gear. Get a ski pass. Anyway. So yeah. Park city. So yeah. 330 trails. There's over a thousand vertical mate vertical meters to with the base at 2000 and the peak at 3000. So yes. Great. Great. Great. Yeah. Very smart. High, the snow is dry, seven terrain parks, tons of skiing for all levels, beginners to experts.

In fact, 50 percent of the trails are marked black diamond. So there's just tons of space for everybody. So it's a big, big resort and a great town as well. And that's before you even start going and skiing in Deer Valley. So super smart upmarket there. Of course, that was the location of the moguls competition in the 2002 Winter Olympics.

There's the Olympic Park, yep, the Olympic Park just outside Park City. That held so many other events such as the bobsled, skeleton, the luge, Nordic combined events. A lot's going on out there. And you've also got Wood Park, Park City as well. There's 80 acres of indoor and outdoor action sports too, so. 

It's a huge action sports center there with its own terrain park for skiers and snowboarders. It is, it's the place to be, Rob. Park City, this is where we need to be going. It sounds, it does sound great. You're selling it to me. Yeah. I also knew you were going to talk about Park City today, so I checked out some of the webcams this week, and it is looking white even down into the town, so...

Is it already? It must be really exciting for people there to see that in early November. That's, you know, yeah, so it's it's a place for the list, isn't it? Everyone's got to get to Park City. It's such a, I don't know. There's something about those places. I'm, I must admit, I'm getting more and more I don't know.

I just feel like I'm getting more and more drawn to those North American and Canadian resorts, you know. I was actually at World Travel Market in London this week at Exxon. It's a huge travel travel trade show with lots of countries represented there. And I sat down with a guy from Jackson, Jackson Hole in Wyoming as well and chatted.

That's another kind of town that would be on my list as well. But certainly Park City is right up there with,  yeah, gotta, gotta go, right? I mean, it's the biggest, it's the biggest. Skiing area in North America.  , Deer Valley obviously very, very, very famous and very famous for its upmarket upscale kind of accommodation if you're a snowboarder, obviously, sorry about that. I guess you're not welcome. You're not welcome. It's controversial, but at the end of the day, that that's, that's what they've decided to do. And you know, that, that, that would be for some people, for some skiers.  That they, that's what they, that's clearly what they want.

Otherwise they wouldn't do it, right? Yeah, absolutely. They wouldn't do it. So,  yeah. No let's go. Very good. Let's go to Park City. Let's go to Park City. Definitely. So yeah, that's a good one. And next is our bucket list destination.   The bucket list destination this week is a whole country which is Japan.

And again, a place that I haven't been to Dom, but I know you've skied there.  You know, I really, really need to get there myself one day.

That's how I feel. No excuse for it. Really. I just, just haven't,  uh, I've even got a very good friend that owns a huge ski lodge in Huckabee. I've never been to visit. So it's starting to get a bit, bit silly now.    I kind of know at least why I want to go,  uh, you know, the powder, the food, the cultural experience the cities that have strange vending machines that sell little plastic things that are completely useless.

Or vending machines in petrol stations that sell you ready made noodles, Rob, that's the best. I couldn't believe. I love all of that. I love all of that. I mean, I'm probably more going for the powder and the food and you know, that's my priorities, but yeah, all of those kinds of cultural things are really cool.

But apart from all of that Dom, why, why should I?  That's the question I've got for you. You know, why should I spend loads more money going to Japan than hopping across to the Alps this winter? Why, why would I do it? This was interesting, Rob, because I knew you were asking this. So I did prepare a little bit.

And when I started preparing for this, it really did make the memories flood back and I was thinking I've got to get back out there. So I flew a direct Heathrow to Haneda, which is Tokyo's main airport. I have to see. It did feel quite daunting heading out there. I was sort of thinking, you know, what am I doing?

Where am I going? And what is this going to be like? I didn't pay through the nose to get those flights. So that was, I had a pretty good result on getting flights. I Was going to a place where I had zero hope of understanding any words, even by staring at it any longer or trying to shout out an English word much louder in the hope that somebody would understand it.

I knew that I was going to be plunged into pretty much nothingness here. So Hanedo Airport the immediate thing that hit me was how helpful and polite everybody was. Locals were coming out and trying to help. The cleanliness, super organized, super slick. I loved all that. Got myself a cab to the nearby it was just an airport hotel, so that was nice.

It was, it was sort of along the lines of a holiday inn or maybe a little bit better than that. And I thought, you know what? I'm heading into Tokyo. I want to see the city. I'm going in by tube. And I grabbed hold of a map that quite closely represented a paper form of a bowl of noodles. It was literally hundreds.

If you think the London underground network is spicy, this was something else this had under the lines.  And I pointed at where I wanted to be, i. e. the center of Tokyo and a guy told me to get on this train and don't get off it until whatever. So very helpful. And I did think I would probably never see my family or my, or my suitcase again.

. So I got out of this tube map. I got on the train and I got into central Tokyo, had an absolutely fantastic time. I know nobody wants to hear about my time in Tokyo. They only want to hear about the skiing, but I am going to tell you a little bit about Tokyo because Absolutely fantastic.

Few highlights for me. I did two days, one night in Tokyo. I did excuse my Japanese expressions here. So I did Senso ji, which is their temple area where they have, this was an incredible experience. I wouldn't say I'm the most religious or yeah, it's probably not massively my thing. But this felt fantastic.

These huge five story pagoda stands right in the center there. There's incense burning. There's loads of not only local Japanese, but tourists flocking around these insects. But this is all outdoors. There's lots of, there is lots of touristy stuff being sold as well, because they know we're all going to go there.

Culturally, that was absolutely a fantastic start to staying in Tokyo. It really was. And it, and it's what you expect to see on every postcard coming out of Japan. I then went on to harmonica your cultural. So this is a bunch of sort of very narrow alleyway stuff to the girls with hole in the wall E threes.

It was incredible. Mainly men couldn't understand that bit, but it was mainly men. They're sitting cheek to cheek sort of eight o'clock in the morning. Eating like they haven't eaten for weeks. I wasn't quite bullish enough to go and sidle my way in between these guys and eating all this food.

And I am talking, they are racked up, literally racked up on benches, just eating, just having a breakfast outside. Yep. Sort of outdoors, but with, yeah, sort of outdoors with canopy, super narrow streets. They would just pull open a window in a, in a place and then they'd all be sitting out that window eating, but they're eating.

It certainly wasn't cornflakes and it wasn't granola. I mean, some of these things were wriggling in bowls. So yeah, very, very cool. I mean, it really was epic. I ate some street food. It was not Tartiflette then, obviously. There was no Tartiflette, no, I'm afraid not. So those narrow streets of that area, Harmonica, your culture was really, really...

You know, it's exactly how you imagined Japan. I then walked a lot further than I expected to walk across the city to Tokyo Skytree, which is a 2000 foot tower, 360 degree views of the city. Super slick. Shibuya, which is the busiest intersection crossing. You've probably seen aerial pictures of the crossing where everyone is standing like robots at the side of the road.

And it's about a four or six way intersection in the middle of Tokyo city. And then the lights go red, the cars stop, and then thousands of people cross at once, it's just, it's incredible. And then into Shinjuku National Gardens, they've got a lot of green space in Tokyo, fabulous parklands, I mean it really is absolutely stunning.

And Rob, I could tell you now, I could talk for hours about the Tokyo part of this trip alone, but I know... Everyone's saying to me, look, not interested. Tell us about the skiing bit. So I think it is, I think it is interesting to hear about that because I guess we, we know we do want to hear about skiing and obviously what, what the deal is, but we know, we know a bit about skiing and I'm sure listeners know about skiing, but when you go on trips like this to be able to do stuff like that is great.

And, and I'm sure people coming from America. To Europe or any other destination in the world, Australia maybe, skiers that are coming over to Europe, you know, they also want to go and see France or Paris or whatever, well, they're here and it makes a difference, doesn't it?  Absolutely, when you've done that trip, I mean, I couldn't, you know, I could not go all that way to ski in Japan and not do Tokyo, I had to see it, and it was big, bright lights, big city, it wasn't quite as...

technically, I thought, I thought there'd be technology everywhere. Do you know what I mean? When I went into hotels and everybody says that to me about Japan,  it's surprisingly untechy. Yeah. It's when you're there. I mean, there were incredible sites. I mean, the cultural change was fantastic. And I felt Or I walked a long way through Tokyo, a lot of walking.

I've got no camps and I felt very safe. It was very clean. People were very helpful.  People would come out of office buildings.  And be running up to me and saying, you know, are you okay? Do you need help? Where are you looking to go? They'd spotted me out of their office window. This generally happened two or three times.

They'd spotted me out the window looking at a map, and they'd come running out and say, what do you need? What are you looking for?  Wow. It, it, it was exceptional. I mean, you'd, you'd think that they were very used to seeing Yeah. Westerners, you would western people. Yeah. Walking the streets of Tokyo, wouldn't you?

Yep. Like. Maybe if you went there 40 or 50 years ago,  that would have been, but yeah, you still get that. That's interesting.  It was, it was everything I wanted it to be. I mean, there was, I was fascinated by these huge areas of almost like slot machines and they were packed with people on these slot machines.

Not, not like one armed bandits, but I don't know, they were winning strange toys or playing strange games in these, in these. And there was hundreds of them. But it was, and it was all fascinating. But as I say, the one, the one thing that really struck me, cleanliness, helpfulness the organization wasn't quite as.

I thought it might be sort of 22nd century type and it didn't feel like that. The hotels didn't feel quite as flashy as I expected them to be, but I would highly recommend at least a minimum of two days in Tokyo because I did two days and I felt like there was so much more I wanted to do. So then after two days and a night in my airport hotel, I did manage to find my way back in the spaghetti junction of underground trains.

I don't know how the hell I ever did that.  But I ended up getting a flight out of the Tokyo airport that I've flown in the international airport, Haneda. To fly up to new chat in Hokkaido, the chat airport. So I got on the plane and we're just about to take off and the pilot says Hi there, everybody in, in his Japanese accent.

Hi there everybody. We are gonna shoot up to Hokkaido. It's pretty snowy, but we're gonna give it a crack . Okay? You can see quite a few people. Thanks. Grasping hold of the hands on of the arms, on their chairs and all sort of thinking. Give it a crack.  I mean, this wasn't a small plane. This was a proper plane.

So anyway, we fly up to  Hokkaido. We land in heavy snow. It was it wasn't a hairy landing, but there was a lot of snow. I mean, when we landed, it was like we landed in a bed of snow. It was piling over the windows. Quite incredible.  And I was very lucky that once I got into Al-Qaeda, I was being looked after as a member of the press and they picked me up in a 32 seater gold gold bus to myself with my translator which was very handy, I have to say.

And I'm aware that you know, not everybody's gonna be picked up in a gold bus and shipped around with a translator. But it did mean I got to see a bunch of resorts all at one time, which was very handy in a short space of time. I was there doing a bit of a ski safari. So I wasn't hitting the big names.

My first resort is called Rizutsu. It's about 90 minutes from the airport. It's the largest all season resort in Hokkaido. So, but we are talking  Rizutsu. Yeah. Okay. So we're only talking four gondolas, 14 lifts servicing three peaks, about 37 runs, so bit of a variation of runs, nice little resort.

And we are talking low price ski pass. I think it was. Somewhere in the region, about 30 quid a day, something like that. Lovely little resort. I had a good friend that worked there for many, many seasons. Oh wow, okay. Yeah. So, it is very nice. I wouldn't want a week there, but a couple of days, a day or two, was great.

And for this sort of ski safari idea worked very well. I moved on then to a place called Sapporo Kokusai. Small popular resort on the outskirts of Sapporo city, which I'll come on to in a moment. I say it's on the outskirts. It's about an hour outside of town, but all of a sudden done by the time you get there and you park and everything else, it's very simple.

The hotels there again, pretty simple, stayed out there. It was a relatively placid resort, nice skiing, some nice tree line skiing. So anybody who's inexperienced wants to try a bit of tree line skiing, that was really nice. You could ski through the trees and then back out again onto the runs. I can remember the colors of the trees and the, and the sun.

It was all, it felt almost like you're in part of a sepia photo. It was a beautiful place, again, a smallish resort. So you wouldn't want to be going there for a week at a time. But if you're going to do a little tour around these Hokkaido resorts, definitely Kokusai is one to go to. And then I went and spent a day in Sapporo City.

I was lucky to be there just at the time of the ice sculptures, which are massive. We're talking about there being the size of building fronts, these massive ice sculptures, and they create. Bases and buildings, and they create stories in these huge ice sculptures. And then they play massive loud music with light shows up on the ice sculptures.

So absolutely Sapporo city is well worth going to nothing like Tokyo whatsoever. Entirely different. Quite high rise ish, but yeah, get there during those ice sculptures. I mean, what an experience. I mean, I was just like a big, you know, a kid in a candy store. It was just incredible. So, after Sapporo city, I went on to Tenye, Sapporo Tenye, another small resort, so it's where the Olympics were held back in, I think 19,  

72. 72, I think. Sapporo, I believe, 72, Sapporo. Was it? Okay. So I was there. The owner of the resort came out. He looked of an age, I have to say. I thought he surely isn't going to ski, but he did. And he skied very fast and he showed me around the resort. He was probably in the Olympics in 1972.

Probably was, yeah. And he could ski powder. He could ski powder. He was good. Loads of fun there. Téné again, smallish, smallish resort and low cost lift passes. The lift systems were... Not of your most modern standards. We didn't have we didn't have wi fi or heated seats but I have to say it was a spectacular few resorts. 

I Then went on to Sahoro. That's it. We had a fabulous powder day there. Fabulous tree skiing there. Again, the beautiful colors of the Club Med resort there. I didn't stay in the Club Med resort. I stayed in a much lower class hotel while I was there.  But that little safari of a few smaller resorts packed out a week.

And every day, I mean, I was very lucky every day was a powder day. I mean, I think they said something like in a, in a 30 day month, it snows for 25 days out of a 30 day month. I was lucky. It snowed every single day. I was there almost all day, every day. So what I would say is those people who are sort of looking at Japan thinking, I'm a novice skier.

I'm too scared to go. It's all big backcountry, deep powder. I can't manage that. I'm not absolutely don't be put off because in fact, they are pretty, they are actually quite strict about the whole backcountry skiing. So it's quite heavily roped off. Plenty of people do do it, but it's quite frowned upon there.

Yeah. But you know what? Ski down the piste, waist deep snow, unbelievable, because it's just, they just can't get on top of it. So it's homely snowing, ski down through these lovely trees. The trees almost grow at the most perfect distance to ski down between the trees. So that's super fun as well. You don't get as many mountain hut restaurants like you do in the Alpine resorts.

But what you do get is when you get to the bottom, a fantastic Japanese beer and fantastic Japanese food, and that's another massive bonus is the fact that you're getting down, you're getting these fabulous noodle dinners, and I mean, it honestly, the lunches and all that were, it was just spectacular and such a nice refreshing difference from  your tartiflette.

Well, I was just going to say, maybe, maybe we should invent a sort of Japanese version of tartiflette. Imagine. It's got to be done. It's like that comfort food. Yeah. With all of that stuff in it, but more sort of Japanese style. Yeah. Yeah, the food really was exceptional. I mean, it was a big highlight of my trip, and I wouldn't say I'm a, I'm probably not the most adventurous food person.

I think you're probably more of a foodie than me, but I have to say, I mean, sitting down in these restaurants with your legs crossed and your shoes off and bringing you  barbecued fish, you know, that are still on the hot griddles and all that. I mean, honestly, the food, you, you, you would, you'd love it.

It's, it's so... Yeah, it's definitely a draw for me. I love, you know, Japanese food, Asian food, but Japanese food and, and for me to go to Japan to ski, it would definitely also be one of those things that I would, that would draw me to the country anyway. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I wa I was kind of stitched up by the translator.

'cause once she got the measure of me. Significantly younger than me. She once she got the measure of me, she took me to dinner one evening not telling me that there would be 30 people waiting to greet me Mr. Killinger from In the Snow. Nobody told me about this. I arrived into dinner to find a basket of something wriggling around alive while she looked and sniggered at me.

And yeah, my palate didn't take to the live animal that was in there, so they took it away did whatever they had to do with it, barbecued it, brought it back, and it was, it was pretty tasty, that so that was some fun I guess my only regret of that big travel was the fact that I didn't get to the, the big resorts so I didn't get to places like Niseko, Furano, or down to Okubo, or anywhere like that, But I have to say that if you fancy a ski safari like that, where you're doing a few resorts and you're taking in Tokyo as well, it really did work for me.

So as a holiday maker, I probably wouldn't have sat there and thought, right, I'm going to visit these five or six resorts in North Island and none of them are resorts that I'd ever really particularly massively heard of. But I have to say now that I do know them, I would highly recommend people looking them up and, and looking out for that sort of  trip.

And I think next time I probably will take in the bigger resorts of Niseko, Furano, Hakuba, those sort of places just to see. How much more advanced they are and how much bigger they are. I'd like, I'd like to see them. So, yeah, so that's my, that's my experience of Japan. It's quite exhausting. So I've worn myself out there.

I think I need to lie down. Well, it is a whole country we're talking about here, not just one, one ski area. So it's fair enough. You know, you needed a bit of we needed, we needed a bit of time for that one. And I think the Tokyo thing is great. 



 , I believe January and February are the best times, you know, I've always looked at Japan and for me, it would be easier to go towards the end of the season, but people sort of say, well, you know, you won't get the powder experience.

  It's kind of like, if you want that powder, you need to go January, February time. Well, yeah, all of those reasons. I hope that was useful to you. And I hope it was useful to our listeners. I hope I didn't ramble on too much.

But yeah, very passionate about skiing in Japan. And I'm very, very keen to get back   

I know it feels like a long way, but actually, you know, once you fly into Tokyo and you get those couple of days rest there, even though it's, you know, you do want to dance around and see everything, it's, it's so worth the trip and yeah, highly recommend it. So Rob, sounds great. Yeah. I feel like I've done a lot of talking this week.

 And it's been a good week. Snow on the ground. What more can we hope for? We're going to be going skiing soon. I mean, surely in a couple of weeks time, we'll be heading out to the mountains.

I'm going to tune in tomorrow morning to the ski race on Eurosport and watch that Trevigneux Zermatt, or Zermatt Trevigneux, I suppose downhill this weekend. I think Levi's on as well this weekend, so lots of skiing on. It feels like winter has started already and we're only just out the first week of November.

I am, I think  I'm probably this weekend about to book. An easy jet flight to Geneva for the beginning of December to get out to get out to Val d'Isere, I think the the start the first weekend of December.   It's all excitement. And what else have we got next week?

 We've we've also got our very own Shemi Alcock coming onto the show in a week or two's time.

So that's going to be very interesting too. Looking forward to that, getting some different insight on things. Thank you, Dom. I wonder, I wonder what we'll be saying in a couple of weeks time or in a week's time when we talk about the snow conditions. I wonder what we'll be saying about the snow then.

Let's hope that it's all still there  and there's more of it. I, I, I would put money on the fact that there'll be more of it. I am pretty, pretty confident, pretty confident. Yeah. Fingers crossed for a great season.  , rob, very excited to talk to you this week. It's been good fun. Really enjoyed it. You too, Dom. And I've just got to say, happy birthday. You're going to get that in at some point as well. I haven't got anything more to say on that note.

I will speak to you in a week's time. Good to talk. See you then. Adios. Right