S2. E7 Ski News, World Snow Conditions, Ski Courmayeur, Gear Reviews and Ski La Grave

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NEWS

A new rail strategy has launched intending to increase train services from the UK to the French Alps. 

Alpine World Cup season start update.

Black Friday deals

Wham – 40 years since Last Christmas video

Club Med indoor dome in China

Bad news from Swindon

WORLD SNOW CONDITIONS

GEAR

Ecoski and plus sizes ski gear - visit EcoSki.co.uk

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Heat Performance ® POWER Ski Sock – RRP starting at £99.95

HeatPerformance® CLASSIC heated ski gloves – RRP £149.95

Heated underwear set HeatPerformance® MOTIVE – RRP £209.96

heatperformance.co.uk 

Reusch Gloves

An Icon re-visited! After being a skiers favourite for many years the Down Spirit model has been updated for even more comfort. Featuring a premium natural down insulation, high quality Gore-Tex waterproof and windproof insert, technical soft shell base with resistant goatskin leather, they keep the hands comfortably warm and dry in even the harshest weather conditions.

Recommended Retail Price: £150 Places to buy: Snow + Rock & Ellis Brigham

Courmayeur Spotlight

Lachaumiere bistro on the mountain its rare i rave about a foodie place this is exceptional with exceptional views

The Skyway cable car

Restaurant Chiecco very close to that central hub area of Plan Checrouit. 
100 km’s of slopes give or take a few

Resort height is 1200 The main skiing area goes up to 2,755m - but obviously Skyway is much higher.  There’s 18 lifts, 59% of the area is red runs, 27% blue and 14% black

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

  Don't say that in China.  You'll get locked up.  Heidi, hopefully I've said that right. They have a number of holidays with a straight  ID. Lady Last Christmas. making friends, maybe a little bit more

A thousand pounds off a booking? Jeebus creepers. That would be really good.  Isn't that Japanese? Yeah, I think it is.  it means dark valley  because they get a lot of snow

Do you not have names for your fingers? Surely? it is very steep, very rocky. And very dangerous



So, hi, and welcome to the seventh episode of the season of the Whiteout Podcast. Yes, seven episodes already, and the ski season hasn't even properly started yet!  As I'm always welcomed by my fabulous co host, the marvellous, the wonderful, the talented... It's Rob Stewart! 

Hi Dom. Yeah. Well, I'm glad you're back on track with those intros after the last two, which were let's say less complimentary, but, but thank you. It's very kind. Actually, I think the past two podcasts,  you know, we, we did, were way more honest and accurate. But I'm happy to take the compliments. 

You're being modest. You're being modest there. The big question is Rob, have you managed to get on any snow yet? No, not yet. A few opportunities have sort of passed me by actually this month. Mm-Hmm. And I'm stuck in deepest, darkest herford here. Mm-Hmm. Worst places to be than that. Well, well, yeah, absolutely.

That's true. I was, I was, you know what? I was watching the England North Macedonia football match early this week.   Lucky for me, maybe not   in the city of Sia, which I've, I've been to and. And there's snow on the, on the mountains around, which is really good sign for the start, sort of start of the Balkan ski season at this time of year.

That's the closest you've got to being on snow then. It is. It is a bit, just good memories of seeing the mountains and just just a little shout out to our friends at Shire Outdoors, they're just an hour's drive away from, from Skopje.  So yeah, they're seeing some snow, but anyway, it's how desperate I am. 

I'll take any little bit of snow I can, even, even in an England football match. What about you, Dom? Good on you. No, I've not got out yet, but I have some. Rumblings of some nice trips coming on, Rob. So maybe I  impart some of that on you into this 'cause I don't think you know about yet. So yeah.

 Where are you going?  You want me to start that many  new new year. I think I'm going to head to the Aosta Valley  somewhere that I was pre COVID. I was in the Aosta Valley and love that place.

So hopefully. They will have some good snow conditions and I'll be able to pick up myself a nice new block of Parmesan before I come out of there. So that, that should be fun. So probably gonna head up to peeler for a few days with Okay.

Inter ski. With inter ski, if you know them. Oh yeah. And then sure, of course. I'm either gonna drop in at, call my, or drop in at LA on the way back, so that should be fun. Okay.  And I guess now is looking. Okay, pretty good over there. We'll get to that snow report soon, but what else have we got in store in today's podcast, Dom?

Well, we've got our usual news second, Rob. We'll take a look at what's been going on around the snow globe, which we've got plenty of news. We've had to even narrow it down this time, otherwise we'll end up talking for an hour about news. We've got weather reports as usual. Where's best to ski now? Where the resorts are starting to open up early, where there's tons of snow, and where there is slightly less snow, and our usual gear round up too, and then we have a nice resort spotlight on, would you believe, Courmayeur as I've just mentioned that I might stop in there, so that's quite a coincidence, and we have our bucket list destinations, the fabled, the mythical, the frankly crazy mountain, rambling between Les Deux Vallée, where is it Rob? 

Ah yes, that place called La Grave. La Grave, yeah.  So there we go, that's what we've got coming up in this episode.  Okay,  right, what are we going to do before the news, Dom? Something very important. Oh yeah, so yes, Rob, time to mention today's sponsor, Ski Independence and Canada's Alberta.

The team at Ski Independence have been sending customers to Alberta ski resorts. For almost 30 years, with oodles of personal experience, they know all the best places to stay, the best travel options, and everything in between. From BAMP's best apres ski locations, easy for you to say, to breathtaking scenery at Lake Louise, or how to get the best out of a multi centre itinerary.

They're highly recommended road tripping to the spectacular ice filled parkways between Lake Louise and Jasper for an experience like no other. So, listeners, visit ski i. com forward slash Alberta to find out more about booking Canada's Alberta with TaylorMade Specialist Ski Independence. Lift tickets in Jaspers Marmot Basin are half price until the end of November. 

And can you believe Rob, Ski Independence... I booked one of my very first ski holidays with them, and I've only just remembered that. Oh, wow. Oh, really? Yeah. I went to Whistler. Where did you go? On one of your first ski holidays? To Whistler. Yeah, as you do two weeks as well. I mean,  and it was, I was two weeks in the Fairmont Chateau.

It snowed almost every day.  I think I came back about a stone heavier with the fabulous food. Yeah, it's only just jogged my memory here that's yeah, that it was ski independence that that took me there, which was fantastic weeks, two weeks in Whistler in the Fairmount Chateau, did you say that's it? 

Booked through ski independence. That's why they must love you so much. The best customer. Remember that guy, Don Killinger. You booked that two week holiday with us.  Probably you probably you probably kickstarted their business for them. Yeah. Yeah, probably did. It was a great trip I felt very well. I've been going 30 couldn't have been 30 years ago But anyway, it wasn't 30 years ago, but I reckon it was I reckon it could have been 15 15 17 years ago.

Yeah, so yeah. Yeah, i'm sure i'm sure it was all right. Anyway enough of you bragging about all those, great ski trips you've managed to get on over the years and let's get a lot more to come a lot more to come  Yeah, well, yes, absolutely. I'm sure i'm sure you have right  Okay, Dom, kick the news, kick the news off for us.

The news. So a new  rail strategy has launched intending to increase train services from the UK to the French Alps. Obviously, we heard last week about people saying that they would travel to the Alps more if there was more train services. So there's been a lot of news and discussion around train travel this year for obvious reasons.

And we can see From the recent data that skiers do want to travel more to the resorts by train. But company does help that that owns several ski areas in France and owns the tour operator, travel ski, who already operate a train service to Borg Summer Ace was direct from London, but not this year.

And that's another story altogether is launching a European request for bids to offer its customers a recurring low carbon transport service. They say by train from France, the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium from Paris, London, Amsterdam, and Brussels. Brussels to the French Alps over the three year period, 24 to 27.

But basically what I think this means is that it's a, it's a shout out to train operators to say, look, we can get these trains booked up. If you can offer the services, the demand is there and growing, but we need more trains and ideally direct ones to get more people traveling. So this tender means other operators can come along and presumably compete with each other to offer skiers and snowboarders more, better and possibly cheaper travel by train.

It's not an easy thing to achieve. As we all know,  I mean, in the UK we're all restricted by customs issues post Brexit. Although in fact, because we were never in the Schengen, then actually we had issues before Brexit too. So for example, a direct train to Geneva from London would be great. I'm sure it will be.

Pretty popular, but despite Geneva railway, railway station having its own customs area, it would need, it would need a bunch of upgrades and for it to work for a direct Switzerland to London. So yeah.  Interesting. Anyway, interesting. Sounds like pretty positive and proactive development from company does help.

And yeah. We'll keep an eye on that because I for one would be, you know, for certain jumping on that train if I could, and if it was, you know, if it was a great service. So you can already book ski holidays that include train travel through travelski. com or through agents like Ski Line. So there is, you know, there is definitely options there.

It just takes a little bit of seeking out for sure.  It does. And, and, and we know that skiers want to take the train and I think if the train services are there, more people will take them. Right. That's, that's pretty obvious. thEre's an opportunity, there's an opportunity and good on, good on company does out for for, you know, pushing that, I guess.

Yeah. What do we got? Okay. Well, I've just got a bit of an Alpine World Cup season start update, so I'm just going to focus quickly on the racing side of things. Okay. It was a very exciting weekend last weekend. It, you know, but also controversial start to the Windsor's Alpine World Cup ski racing calendar.

And we're going to kick off with Zermatt Civinia double downhills two weekends of downhill racing for the men and then the women on a new course that crosses from Switzerland into Italy with the Matterhorn, you know, or Civin as it's known on the Italian side as a backdrop.  Yeah, last season, a lack of snow forced the cancellation of all of all four races. 

And this season, both too much snow for the men and then  strong winds for the women has also forced the cancellation of all four downhills. And so that's four races this year and four last year. And it's fair to say that that is a complete disaster for the, for FIS, the International Ski Federation.

Nightmare. For the racers as well, for the fans and for the sponsors, and of course, nobody can control the weather. These decisions weren't easy to make, to cancel them, but they had no choice. Yeah. I mean, the weather wasn't good enough, you know, it just wasn't going to work. There's obviously big questions though, about the viability of holding a race like this so early on in the season, and then also so high up as well.

The start point is at 3, 800 meters. Yeah. It could be, it could be the most spectacular downhill race we've ever seen. But so far zero eight to the weather doesn't, doesn't really bode well for the longterm future. Not good. I did manage to catch up with you know, legendary British skier, Conrad Baltelsky  this week.

And he was pretty opinionated about the whole thing.  He, yeah.  Well, yes, we know Conrad,  but you know, he, this is what he said to me.  That the Zermatt debacle happened is absolutely no surprise. Whoever thought  that one could run two downhill races, let alone one downhill race up at high altitude in the middle of November.

Certainly that crazy idea has been an awfully huge waste of money and also of athletes time.  The fist.  International Ski Federation talked about reducing the traveling for the athletes by holding this event in the Alps instead of flying over to Lake Louise yet now the Swiss one squad, the Swiss one squad, he said, are heading over to Copper Mountain to do their training.

The insanity of the Zermatt experiment is a sad reflection of the questionable thought processes within the ski racing bureaucracy.  I'm just still quoting Conrad here, by the way,  he continues, the sport was extremely well served by having the November Downhills in Lake Louise. And it is sad that the changes were made and that they have proved to be an abject failure, end of quote.

So yes, I can hear what Conrad is saying about the future of this race. It is in serious doubt, that's for sure. You know,  anyway, then we had another new ski race in the Austrian resort of Erbe Gurgel.  Can't really, that's probably not how you pronounce Erbe Gurgel, that's another debate. But but wow, you know, didn't that start with a bang?

The course looked spectacular, proved to be just a little bit tougher. Then some were predicting this was a men's slalom race run in the usual format  with the top 30 from the first run going in reverse order to the in, in the second. Manuel Feller from Austria stormed ahead in the first run, but all three British skiers, Dave Riding, Laurie Taylor, and Billy Major all made qualification in the second run.

Not the first not for the first time, you know, in British ski racing, but again, Conrad, Conrad reminded me of that similar thing happened last season in Madonna, the Campiglio, but still. Absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, Laurie blew out in the second run despite the fact that he was in the lead in that at that point, he was absolutely flying.

Billy ended up in 16th place, personal best for him, and Dave just missed out on the podium by one one hundredth of a second.  Yeah, that is incredible. Second home for Dave, as he calls it the gurgle. Congrats to the Austrian triple though, one, two, and three with Manuel Feller taking top spot, then Marcus Watt and Michael, Michael Matt, just pipping Dave to that third place spot. 

Right now, Great Britain is in the overall fourth in the world rankings for Alpine scheme Alpine scheme racing, but probably won't, well, that won't last for long, but it's an incredible achievement. Yeah.  But then,  well, Yes, I don't know if you've heard about this Dom, what happened just before the end of the race.

Five races to go. Climate activists run onto the finish area, spraying orange paint across the snow.  This obviously disrupted the race, they were dragged away by security and police, but it wasn't a nice scene to watch. In the middle of that, Norwegian ski racer Henrik Kristoffersen,  who we interviewed last year, if you remember that, decided to take on some of the activists himself.

Nice. It was, yeah, wow. Yes, I suppose yeah, it was an impressive display of attempted violence against these people, and when I say impressive, I'm not condoning the violence in any way, it's just, he tried to take them on single handedly and had to be held back by security. He was clearly very angry and frustrated.

I think I would be too. Obviously, we understand there's a huge climate challenge, but there is...  You know,  probably that's always debatable, right? Better ways to voice this kind of thing than putting people in danger, essentially, which is what the group did one way  or another. Yeah, they obviously got some attention.

So I don't know. But anyway, it's not great to see. But let's hope we don't see more of that through the winter. Yeah, absolutely.  Tricky. Anyway, quick mention also for Luca Carrick Smith, 18 year old rising star that won a national junior Austrian race as well. Big deal. Yeah, absolutely. His two brothers, Freddie and Zach are hot on his heels as well.

And Molly Butler, she managed a 10th place in the girls race as well.  They're really encouraging results for British ski races isn't it? We do churn out some incredible talent and yeah, I don't know how much it's on the radar, the British public, but you know, it's quite incredible really in a nation, you know, we're a relatively flat nation, aren't we?

You know, in  comparison with the European, the Alps and  to be turning out some of these races is just phenomenal.  It is. And, and, and we've, we've managed to do that through the years.  And and, and it's, it's testament to, I guess, I think just the way we feel in this country about, about something and  maybe some of the history that we've got and, and. 

And people that have been there, you know, the top of the top of ski racing before that maybe, maybe spare, spare others on. Yeah, exactly. It's good to hear from listeners to know whether they are, how interested they are in ski racing and, you know, whether I don't know what the viewing numbers of things like ski Sunday and stuff like that are now, but you know, how good people are.

Yeah, I'm sure they are.  So yeah, it'd be good to hear if anybody fancies writing in hello in the snow. com to tell us what do you think of ski racing?

Do you want to get more news out of us about that? Because we could get in experts that talk to us every week about ski racing if we wanted to. So yeah, it'd be good to know. So what?  Yep. Black Friday deals is my today is Black Friday, I believe. Yes, it is. This is the time we can mention some of those deals.

They're right here now, loads on our doorstep. So it's a good time to jump in and book a ski trip, I'd say. We can't mention them all, but there are a number of offers right now. Right. We've got a chunk on the website@inthesnow.com. There. I give a plug there. We, we publish some of the best Black Friday deals and discounts that come out.

So one that I've got here, peak retreats, 10% off, perfectly located Alexan in Samoa 473 pounds per person, including Euro tunnel crossing for a car off ends November the 30th. So that's a pretty cool one. Heidi. But in there, it's because you pronounce someone perfectly don't someone perfect pronunciation of what a lot of people would look at and go some way in, but it's not some I am just being pedantically but you you spot on that I'm Yeah, very, very, very compliment.

. Heidi, hopefully I've said that right. They have a number of holidays with a straight  ID. Lady Have a number of holidays with a straight 50 off per person. Flying out on January 13th for a week with prices including flights and transfers. Sunweb, several deals with 100 off per booking starting from 553 per person and lead us up  for a week self catering including flights and transfers.

Igloo up to a thousand pounds off a booking. A thousand pounds off a booking? Jeebus creepers. So now,  yeah, this is true. I've, I, because I looked at that and it is actually a thousand pounds off the booking. Wow. So now 1, 600 pounds for a four star hotel in St Anton,  bed and breakfast, including flights and transfers.

So apparently 1, 000 pound discount on that. Blimey, I'm going to go and book that myself next. All of these offers can be found on inthesnow. com forward slash deals forward slash black hyphen friday. So just search black hyphen black black friday on inthesnow. com. There's also deals with Mark Warner, SkiBeat, F& B Travel, Pire and Vacances Snow, that's S N O, and VIP Ski.

So lots to look out there.  Other operating agents that have Black Friday Friday deals also SkiLine, SkiLine. co. uk with 20 percent off. Club Med holidays and up to 43 percent off offers there. So that's pretty interesting. Ski weekends. com. They've got up to 40 percent off selected chalet holidays. We've checked lots of these out are all genuine deals, but they do change and they do get sold out sometimes pretty quickly.

The minute they go live, you know, these people are marketing themselves all the time. So it's worth mentioning.  Keep an eye out. Yeah, lots of deals to be had. I might get myself another two weeks out of Whistler, Rob.

You never know.  Wow. . I'll be on the phone  after this. Ski independence, well, there's a story. Your first, where was your first ski holiday? It's always a nice story. Your first ski holiday, two weeks, in Whistler in the Fairmount Chateau. Where was my first ski holiday?

Not, not taking anything away from Westendorf in Austria. Of course. Very pretty little village. But in those days they had one chairlift going up the mountain. Hyper connected now, aren't they?  to the whole Kitzbuhel one side and Seoul the other side in those days. So I had one little chairlift going up the mountain.

But I was happy. I was happy with the I'm sure you were. pension and  Anyway, if only I'd have known you then, Rob. If only I'd have known you then, I could have been, mind you, you were probably 14 and I was 35. I was  slightly younger than 35, but yeah, anyway, so the next story we've got, Rob, Last Christmas.

Yeah, careful, because there's that, there's that whole thing, isn't there, where people, if they hear Last Christmas played on the radio. It's a competition that run, I know my wife does this and with her, family. I mean, I don't understand it myself. You know, it's kind of like they play this game and you're out if you've heard last Christmas on the radio anyway, wham, 40 years since that last Christmas video. 

It's a really nice story. 40 years, of course, George Michael and Andrew Ridgely, they filmed the video to the song last Christmas in the Swiss resort of Sazfay. Wow. Fabulous.  Yeah, they apparently needed somewhere high that would get snow in the autumn because they filmed it in the autumn and wow, didn't they get snow?

You know I actually just watched the video  probably for the first time since 1983 on Top of the Pops. But that sort of glamour of visiting a ski resort seemed like a distant dream for most of us. Yeah. And  I was in the Fairmont at that point. Yes. It was actually around the time. I think it was just before I, I, I went to Westendorf. 

I, I, but just before, I think it sparked something in me that, that video and the opening scene, the opening scene of it. Reminded me of a bunch of season airs turning up at the start of winter,  making friends, maybe a little bit more the clothes they were wearing. They, they wouldn't have got too far out of the slopes of those 1980s clothes.

It would have been their last Christmas, I think, that's for sure.  But anyway, Saz Faye remembers the crew fondly. It's a great memory. I, I've been there myself a few times over the years and occasionally stayed in some of those cozy chalets as well, but,  I didn't get those incredibly good looking models to go with it, unfortunately.

I'm sure the people I was with were very nice. Hey, hey, oh, you know first of all, you know, I've never been to Sarsfey. That is somewhere that's on my, yeah, I know I've been to Zermatt Sarsfey and I really, really would like to go. So I must, I must get that. It's a special place. It's a special place actually.

It's a special place. Yeah. That's very cool. Well, I'll tell you another special place. Another, another special place. Rob, Club Med in China, have opened an indoor snow dome in China. Right.  Wow. I think it will be actually. They have opened an insanely huge hotel and sports complex close to Shanghai in China.

And it's it's very own indoor snow dome and ski slope attached. I'm sure it has everything you'd expect from Club Med. Great food, high standards of accommodation, great service. There's now 50 indoor slopes in China, can you believe?  But this one has been  Taicang Alps.  Oh.  You mean that's what it's called?

Is it?  I think, yeah, I think that's right. It's what it's called, isn't it? Oh, wow. But this one, yeah, it's been called Taikang Alps, and it's it's big, it's bold, and it's super blingy too, as you'd expect. So, Club Med is actually owned by a Chinese company called Fosun and Guo Guangchang. Obviously the chairman of FSO said for you.

Yeah. The the chairman of fso international state, and it's not easy to develop a masterpiece in five years, but like everyone else, we firmly believe that the Chinese people's desire for a better life is always strong. And we believe that domestic demand for cultural and tourism consumption is robust.

I'd say normally calling something a masterpiece is reserved for the ones not actually creating the thing in the first place. Like, I guess it's hard to argue with Mr. Guang Chang. It does look pretty impressive. I've seen the pictures. It looks massive. I mean, it does look like an actual ski resort, but undercover, which is yeah, it's amazing. 

Yeah. Next to the, next to the very, very nice hotel as well. Yes. Of course. Yeah. As you do. It's incredible. I've actually got a friend that lives in Shanghai, so I'm going to ask him to go there and make a little report for us. I think that would be really nice, wouldn't it? That would be fantastic. I need to get a hold of him anyway.

Yeah. And he's a good skier. Very, very good skier. So yes. A shout out to Mr. Newton or a hero. Probably. I always pronounce his name wrong. And he in Shanghai, get down to the club med. I'll maybe I can hook him up  and do a report for us. That would be really good.  Isn't that Japanese? Yeah, I think it is. 

What have I just done? Don't say that in China.  You'll get locked up. 

Anyway, right. Moving swiftly on. Let's get to Swindon. Moving swiftly on. Yeah, right. Swindon. Yep. It was on. Then it was off. Then it was maybe on. Then it was on. Spades in the ground, we were told.  Then there was silence. Now, it's definitely off.  Yeah, the dream of a snow centre at Oasis in Swindon that would have been operated by the team from the highly successful snow centre in Hemel Hempstead is over as the legacy of COVID 19 on visitor numbers and increased energy costs are the official reasons for the project's cancellation,  as well as moving on from Brexit issues as the reasons given for, you know, construction not starting back in the late 2010s.

Planning permission was granted in 2018, at which point it had 270 million as a price tag.  Plans being considered by Swindon Council are that the current leaseholders of the site, Seven Capital, will be given exclusive rights to buy it for a minimum six million once the swimming pool element has been refurbished and reopened.

So for now it's definitely off. That's a dead duck.  Dead Duck, we keep hearing about these stories about indoor domes around the UK, don't we, there's, you know, regularly a story pops up, I might pop one up myself, talk about building one in in Buckinghamshire, maybe, but yeah, we keep getting lots of stories about there's going to be a slope here, and there's going to be a slope there, in fact, yeah, there was one, wasn't there up Wales Way or something that we reported on,  not too far from me, actually, yeah.

Yeah, never, never materialized. At least you could, at least you could improve your skiing, Rob. So  moving on to the words.  Moving on to the weather, Rob, what do you think?  Well, it is looking, I think it's looking fantastic in places. Yeah. But where, where's, where can you actually ski right now?

Where is open right now, Don?

 A quick plug, , on inthesnow. com. We do have some pages that are called where is best to ski now, and that does keep an eye, a regular eye on this.

. Well, it's getting cold across Europe into the weekend and beyond. So that's pretty good news and easily cold enough for more snowmaking. So many resorts across the Alps forecast around 10, 20 meters snow over the next few days, which is good. Some areas could get a lot more than that, which is obviously good news.

So yeah, good start.  Yeah, right now it's mainly the high glacier areas that are open for skiing, but conditions are very good. The likes of Hintertux and Solden in Austria and Thénin Val Thorens in France that opened early are experiencing good conditions. Some of the pictures coming out really are very, very nice indeed.

thE link between Tien open next weekend, which is pretty early. So that means the main ski area or ski area will be open for business. So that's pretty cool.  What else have we got in Switzerland? Sarsfej as we just mentioned and Zermatt, they're open and Verbier has been open on the weekends too. But we'll start opening through the week after next weekend.

So that's quite nice,  really good start for getting to December and we'll start to see the resorts opening up their areas with good conditions pretty much across the board. It did warm up a little bit and there was a little bit of rain that we saw and a bit of melting snow, but it is getting much colder again and snow is forecast.

So that's pretty good, pretty good, pretty good. We are still really good. Yeah. Mid to end of November. Yeah.   What about Norway? I've seen some great pictures coming out. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty fantastic conditions in Norway and Sweden right now.

The resort of Haffel is open. Just a two hour train journey from Oslo. I must do that. And I'm not, I've not done that yet. Oh yeah. Great. Great thing to do. Yeah. I'm sure. And I'm, you're, you're pretty experienced on that. You know pretty well, don't you? Well, I know that area pretty well. You know, that, that train, that Oslo train up to Lillehammer, yeah.

I bet that's good.  Conditions look incredible. The rest of Scandinavia too, with cold weather moving in. Mørkdalen on the west coast is forecasting around 15cm of snow this weekend on top of a base. And temperatures are due to drop to about minus 15 or lower. That's on the west coast. By next week, the maximum temperature in the town of Lillehammer will be minus 10 with sunny skies.

So... You can imagine that must be lovely.  Yeah. So yeah, pretty good. Nice and cold. Great. And yeah, I think that it gets, they get more snow than anywhere else in Europe. I've been told  on that West coast.  Yeah, yeah. And Mekdalen,  or whatever it's, however you pronounce it, but I think, I think in English it, it's it means dark valley  because they get a lot of snow.

They get a lot of snow, great powder apparently. Anyway. Anyway, what about North America? How's that looking North America? Well they have had some snow in Colorado and temperatures are dropping. It's looking a little dry and sunny over there. Next week or so with a little bit of snow forecast, same in Montana.

They're probably looking at getting a bit more snow as we get into the. The other side of Thanksgiving, but the East Coast area seems to be getting really cold and snowy weather in with Killington expecting around 30 centimeters in the next week. It's really good news for the East Coast after a pretty average winter last year.

Up in Canada, things are looking pretty good in Banff already. They look good. Where I was last year cold and dry conditions again this week. Whistler. Woohoo.    The same, but they are expecting heavy snow by the end of next week, which is good. So, yeah, we've got somebody going out to Whistler in a week's time.

So we'll get a live report of exactly what it's like.  Right. That should be interesting to see as well.  And what about Japan? Because we heard, we heard that it was really, really warm there recently. Yeah, it was. But the good news is the North Island of Hokkaido has a cold, it's got a lot colder and there's some snow forecast with more forecast over the coming week.

So the likes of Niseko will start to look good. It's still a bit mild down in Hakuba. So they haven't had the best start to the winter yet, but there is no forecast for next week and potentially, you know what it's like over there. They could get quite a lot.  sO yeah. Interesting. What's the season for them?

Well, that's a great roundup, Dom. Thanks. Yeah, I think certainly looking positive in Europe and I was checking the weather maps out myself. It is good to see those. Sort of low pressure fronts piling in instead of that high that we had last year. That's what stopped the snow. Yeah, those low pressure fronts with cold temperatures as well.

You know, and it feels like this season could be a big one. Yeah, let's hope so. 

Let's get out skiing.  So excited.  I'm very. I'm, yes. Very excited. This time, this time next week. This time next week, Dom. That's all I'm, that's all I'm saying. You're going to be out there.  Well, yes. I'm saying yes.  You're not sure where, not sure how, but you are going to be. Yeah, exactly.  Right yeah. 

 As you're heavily involved with our gear reviews, Rob, and you're very good on the gear side, what have we got? You're going to kick us off.  I can kick us off. I'm very, very quickly for our listeners that can't see it. I'm just going to do a very quick shout out for snow for now, because I just got one of their jumpers.

And I've already commented on it, Rob, because you had one list.  Yeah. Yeah. But it didn't look, I mean, mine looks good, but yours looks. About 10 percent better. Well, looks really nice. So, if you do go to the In The Snow YouTube channel, you can actually see me wearing the Snow Fennel jumper on the video camera. 

So, yes, it's rather smart. It is.  Anyway, that wasn't really, that's not a planned thing for this podcast, but I just thought I'd mention it because I got it yesterday. Anyway, do we have anything planned? Is anything planned in this podcast? You clearly have a plan and you never told me about it. You, ah, sorry.

Yes. No,  so should I kick things off with EcoSki?  A little story from EcoSki here.  Actually, no, let me say that again because that doesn't sound right. It's a pretty big story from EcoSki. I don't think that sounds right either. Hang on a second. No, seriously.  We have a story from EcoSki about plus sizes for ski gear.



Yeah. So new to hire or to purchase for this winter season.  Ecoski. co. uk.  You've got ski wear sized. Across the board from triple  XS. So, you know, really small to four XL  for women and from XS  extra small to four XL for men. So right across the board, you know, it's sizes for everybody.  And they say this by stocking these much needed inclusive sizes in ski wear, ski wear, sorry.

We are cementing our position as a platform that wants to encourage change across the industry. And that's. Eco ski founder, Rachel Westbrook.  He also goes on to say two in three adults in Britain are larger than the sizes we see on all ski brand models. Yet there are limited options available for anyone plus size, taller or shorter than this for proper technical ski kit.

She also says this. By offering these extensive ranges this winter, we are not only changing the way we approach shopping and acquiring stroke wasting of ski gear, ski wear, but also to be inclusive of everyone.  This winter we are stocking plus size ski wear from Myosports and Halti,  but haven't found any other larger sizes in other sustainable ski brands.

So there you go other ski brands. Yeah, I wanted we want to take this opportunity to call on the ski industry to start  Interesting, right? 

So, EcoSki, EcoSki. co. uk, they are, they're all about hiring ski wear. That's what it's about, isn't it?  Hiring ski wear, and recycling, and recycling ski wear. Yeah, rather than people just going out and buying a new kit every year,  that's good.  So this week, Rob, I got my hands on  heated gloves and socks, the ultimate solution for those people who really do suffer with. Cold hands and feet, or even cold bodies.  Heat performance. So, they, quite amazing kit. I got hold of these and I tried them out in the snow centre at Hammelheimsted last week. 

Which is, to be fair, it's pretty cold. Once you've been in there. Oh yeah. It's easy to walk out there and go, oh it's cold.  Once you, once you, once you've been standing there for sort of 20 minutes, 30 minutes, it's pretty cold if you're not skiing. And, so I did that. Went and stood out there for half an hour, got myself cold.

Okay. Properly cold. I was doing something. I wasn't just standing like a lemon and I, I took out some heat performance gloves and I thought, actually, I am getting pretty cold. I'm going to put those gloves on just to keep my hands working. Wow. They were fantastic. They've got a high performance battery.

I think, I think it's a five amp battery, which is a higher performance battery than, than all the other heated Okay. Yeah. Heated gloves and socks out there which give you up to seven and a half and sometimes up to 10 hours, depending on the setting you put it on. Wow. I have warm hands within, I am talking probably under a minute or so.

You can set the power, so you can have on low power, medium power, high power. They do gloves. They do socks. Very slick little system. You just slip a tiny little battery pack in a little button on the side and yeah.   I think it's three or four hours to recharge the batteries and that gives you seven, eight, nine hours of  heating time.

They also do so that you've got the gloves and you've got the socks, but they also do a body suit. So if you're one of those people that you love skiing, but you just hate being cold. Well, this lad put it on. Wow. He said it was fantastic. He just said, as soon as it was like a, like a base layer, but heated and a little pocket on the waist and. You know, he said, I am not taking this off. He's an instructor at the Snow Centre at Hemel. Okay. And he's about to go out and do some instruction out in Japan as well.

And he said, this is an absolute game changer. So, heated socks, heated gloves, and heated body suits from the fabulous Heat Performance. So, well worth checking them out. So 150 for the gloves, 100 pound for the socks. Okay. And 200 quid if you want the full bodysuit. So well worth looking up heat performance in the UK.  Right. I mean, that is a good investment and an interesting, you mentioned ski instructors there because obviously as a ski instructor, you're out there every day. 

And often if you're teaching beginners, let's say, especially if you're teaching beginners. You're not as active as you would be normally, and you can get quite, you know, you can get cold. Sometimes if the weather is particularly cold, right? I mean, I always say anything below sort of  minus five or six, it starts to feel a bit nippy, right?

Yeah. It's not like that every day in the out,  for example, we know that, but it can, it can get cold. Yeah, it sounds like a great investment. It's neat, it's neat stuff. Love it.  Okay. I'm going to have a look at some more traditional kit here from Royce gloves.  Yeah. Great gloves. They are. I have got some Roysh gloves and they are fantastic.

Me too. And they're, they're the sort of, you know, they're called the, is it the lobster? The lobster shaped ones are brilliant. Oh yeah.  Anyway, this is an icon revisited apparently after being What? Lobster shaped gloves?  Is it lobster? I think it's lobster.

Is it the lobster grid? Yes. Yeah. That's what I mean. We're doing the action and no one can see it.  Or the action of a lobster. Yeah. Yeah. We're all doing the lobster. Well, that's what it is, isn't it? Because it is. It is a lobster. I like that lobster thing because you get the, you get the finger and the thumb, don't you?

But the rest of them are all toasty together. Yeah. You get the index finger and the thumb separately. And then your three other fingers, whatever they're called in one, in one little mitten.  And then it's like a lobster. Whatever they're called. Do you not have names for your fingers? Surely?  I don't call them anything in particular.

No,  I don't.  So  anyway,  this is for many years, the down spirit model has been updated. For even more comfort and it's featuring a premium natural down insulation.  It's a high quality Gore Tex waterproof and windproof insert with a technical soft shell base with a resistant goat skin leather. So properly, properly good technical gloves.

They keep the hands really , comfortably warm and dry, and even in the harshest weather conditions. So they've got a Gore Tex membrane, which is waterproof and windproof.  And a natural feather down insulation, which offers a really, really good warm to weight ratio, soft and light, fluffy goat skin, leather palm, very tough, very flexible as well.

And, and then a shell, which is a soft, soft shell, premium soft shell. So you. Really, really nice looking glove. This one from Royce. Lots of other features as well, like a heating pocket, so you can put a heater, a little heater  thing in there, adjustable wristband strap leashes, powder cuffs, 150,  you know, that sort of top end price point for a very, very good off piste, free ride, warm glove that will last you for years, I'm sure. 

They're just seriously good glove manufacturers. I mean, like they are you, you know,  you're gonna see them on Goal Key International goalkeepers. You're gonna see them on True, you know, the biggest ski racing names that you can mention? Yes. It's always a Roche gloves. So you know, if you, if you want all of serious Yeah.

Isn't it? If you want serious gloves for sit for skiing. Even if you're not doing big back country skiing and you're just a, a holiday skier, Roche gloves if you know they are. Yeah. They're fabulous gloves. No two ways about it.  You know, other glove manufacturers are available, but I would definitely always say you won't go wrong at all.

I would say you can buy these gloves from Snare and Rock and Ellis Brigham as well. So they are in stock in retailers across the country.  Very good. So that's our gear roundup for this week, Rob. Very exciting. I love a bit of gear. Love seeing all the new stuff coming out. And we've got some good stuff there and we've got some good stuff coming on future episodes, but next we have something equally good.

And that is our resort spotlight. And this week is on the resort of Cormier. Cormier.  Nice. I think we've both been there, right? We've both been there. Yep. I have only done a couple of days there and I'm about, I might try and stop in there after new year as previously mentioned. But yeah, I think you probably know better than me, so it'd be best if you tell us about it.

But yeah, I think  I was certainly very taken with the place. Yeah. Yeah. I've been there a few times. summer and winter. I'Ve either stayed there, you know, in town in Cormier or I've skied there by traveling through the Mont Blanc tunnel from Chamonix.  You know, it's literally just the other side of Chamonix, the Mont Blanc tunnel. 

It is incredible as you pop out of the tunnel into Italy, you really feel like you've suddenly materialized in another country. within that sort of short drive through the tunnel.  Although it has been closed for several weeks. As we go into the end of November, it's, it's not. Going to reopen until December the 18th, late, late at night on the 18th.

So really the 19th, if you're going to drive through. So big warning there for anyone planning to drive before that. You won't be able to get through the Mont Blanc Tunnel. But let's, anyway, let's start with the town of Courmayeur itself. It's very pretty.  It's got a long pedestrianized street. Remember that full of sort of boutique type shops and cafes and bars. 

And of course you're in Italy. So yeah, very stylish, but there's also plenty of restaurants, Italian restaurants, of course, . Right. You're going to eat well in Cormier that that's whether you're off the mountain or, or, or on the mountain. Oh Rob, I had one of my favorite meals in Courmayeur.

Oh really? In a place called La Chaumière Bistro, and it was on the mountain. And I tell you, it was, I've got this most fabulous picture I'd love to show you. But yeah, well worth looking up La Chaumière. I'll put it in the podcast. It was, It's got the most spectacular, I mean, I know you got a lot of great mountain views, but this place and the food was, was superb.

But anyway, carry on, please do carry on.  Well, yes. And I will touch a little bit on the, on the food as well. When it comes to Courmayeur, but the town just The town is quite compact  and the accommodation, you know, it's mostly hotel based accommodation. I mean, there's a few little hamlets around as well, like Delon which has got a lift connection.

You can ski back there at the end of the day, unlike the main town itself.  But, you know, the normal route to the ski area from the town is via a cable car to Plan Chequy.  I don't know if I pronounced that right but Planchiqui which is also used to get back to, at the end of the day as well, from there back into town via the cable car.

It's kind of like a central hub area with restaurants and other lifts spanning out from that, from that area as well as the ski school that's based there. And there's a beginner's area there as well. Sure, it's quite a nice central point. There's another access point to the skiing area that's closer to the Mont Blanc tunnel at Val Vigny, just as you come out the Mont Blanc tunnel, where a large car park serves, you know, anyone coming through from France, just park there and get the cable car.

It's also close to the Skyway cable car that goes up the other side of the I'll tell you. Is that the one that does? Is that the one that turns?  It revolves. It revolves as you're going up. It's a revolving cable car. You did a YouTube video of that. It's very good to see. 

So, the main ski area, a bit like the town, it's  quite compact. YeAh. I mean, I'd go so far to call it a technical ski area. What I mean by that, it's got some really interesting terrain.

It's very varied. Yeah. So from wide mellow runs through the trees to steeper. Slopes, mogul slopes, that can be really challenging.  And then there's the off piste, which is abundant, really. And in places very steep and challenging. I've had some, you know, really interesting skiing in Courmayeur off piste.

You've got to be careful. A guide is highly recommended,  um, because the area, you know, it,  it's, it's, it's pretty technical. It's pretty steep. So I would always go with a guide there,  but the general ski area suits best suits strong intermediate and advanced skiers. I would say that they'll get the most out of it on piste and off piste. 

And then you've got Skyway Cable Car, which we mentioned, it opened in 2015. It's, there was a cable car before that, many years ago before that, but they rebuilt it. It hadn't been open for a while. They rebuilt it in 2015. It's a two part ride. As you say, this cable car revolves, stunning views. It goes up to 3, 400 meters, just above that,  making it one of the highest in the Alps.

It's, it's a spectacular journey to the point Helbronner. Literally the other side of Mont Blanc from Chamonix.  During the winter, it provides access to the Vallée Blanche ski down to Chamonix Vallée Blanche, and then back through the tunnel again. Or you can, in the right conditions, I've never done this, but ski off piece back down to the middle station,  possibly down into down, down further than that, if it's very good snow, but I've never, I've never done it, but you know, I've been up there in the summer and it's.

It's steep. I mean, looking at that terrain, it's steep. A guide here is a must, absolute must, I would say.  tHe Society of Alpine Guides based in Courmayeur is the oldest mountain guide organization in the world. They were founded in 1850  and you can book a fully qualified mountain guide with them. So check out guidecourmayeur. 

com.  So very adventurous, adventurous skiing, Dom. Yeah, it is. But I actually took my family here once. We had a great time. Yeah. Yeah. So, Eight years old at the time. Yeah,  I took my young children there and we had a great ski around for two days and fabulous food.

And I absolutely love the place and I actually feel like I want to go back and remind myself because that was pre COVID and COVID sort of seems to have elongated your sort of thought process. It feels like a long time ago.  It doesn't it,  there's such lovely people and the great food. .

Went there with the kids, had a really nice ski around. Great food, great wine, great people. , and some stunning views and, so easy to access as well, so easy to get there. So facts and figures. You got facts and figures for me, Rob. I  have. I have indeed. Okay, let's run through some of those. 

Resort height is 1, 200 meters. That's good height. Yeah. Main ski area goes up to 2, 755 meters. So, so high. That's obviously Skyway is much higher than that as well, but that's the main skiing area, 27. So  big vertical. There's 18 lifts, 59 percent of the area is made up of red runs, 27 percent blue runs and 40%, 14 percent black.

So good mix. Yeah. It can take as little as one and a half hours to drive from Geneva airport if the tunnel is clear. Bear  that in mind. It can take longer. anD it's two hours from Turin.  Lots of tour operators go there. I am, you know, including FlexiSki, for example, got hotel accommodation in town,  Momentum  run a gourmet weekend there.

Lots of celebrity chefs go along. I know, you know, people like Heston Blumenthal have done that event before, Marcus Waring, those kind of big name chefs, because the food is important. in Courmayeur. If you are a foodie  and you like skiing,  probably no better place  than Italy in general, but certainly Courmayeur has some great restaurants.

I've got a memorable meal there as well, Dom. I know you mentioned your place, but I went to a restaurant called  Checo. I think that's how it's, there's a little drag left there called Checo and the restaurant's called Checo. Okay. Very close. That's actual hub area of plan,  however you pronounce that.

But what a place.  What a place. I mean, one of the best meals I've ever had in the Alps. Oh wow. Fantastic. Quite a lot.  . That's very cool.  Oh yeah, we, we both. We've both had one of our best mountain lunches in Courmayeur. That's interesting, isn't it? Really memorable. And I went there with my wife and my daughter to this restaurant, and my daughter still talks about that place.

You know, she was only eight.  She's like, oh my god,  what an incredible food.  So there we are. Very good. Courmayeur. Love it. Just the other side of the Mont Blanc tunnel there, just over the back of Chamonix. What a great place to visit.  And Rob, we both love Cornwallia. Definitely a place to get on your list if you haven't been there before. And if you're a foodie, definitely somewhere to be heading because we've both had our favorite lunches there.

Can't get better than, better recommendation than that, Rob. I can't believe it. We've never had that conversation. No. Brilliant. Brilliant. So,  yeah, I can see what you've done here. You've done this on purpose, haven't you? You've got two destinations that you know best than me, because you've been feeling, you've been feeling a bit of an underdog the last few weeks when I've been rambling all over America. 

Yes.  Bucket list destination, Rob. You have a bucket list destination this week. We are talking La Grave in France. I know nothing about this place, so you're going to educate me today, like you always do.  What can you tell me and why? Would I put La Grave on my bucket list destinations, Rob?  Well, that's a very, very good question, Dom.

Why would you put La Grave on your bucket list? I think, first of all, before we start talking about La Grave, it's got to be,  we've got to be clear that it's a bucket, it is a bucket list destination for, I'd say for any, for any ski enthusiast that likes to ski off piste. Huh. And likes adventurous skiing.

Yeah. So that's why you would put it on your bucket list, Dom. Yeah.   You know, it, it,  it's not an easy place to ski in, that's for sure. And  it, it, it, although it's in between Le Deux Alpes and Sir Chevalier, which are both great ski resorts and  offer  Huge choice and variety of ski slopes for all levels of skiers.

Mm hmm.    La Grave is very, very different.  I've only been there a couple of times myself, to be honest. I mean, I, I, I'll admit I don't know the place like the back of my hand or anything like that. But I can at least share my thoughts on the experiences that I've had there. I mean, the first time I went there, I got interrogated  by a mountain guide at the bottom of the cable car.

He sort of checked us out. He came and checked us out. Made sure we had sort of avalanche safety kit on it was quite funny. Actually. He asked me he asked me where it is  Where do you normally ski? And I said Verbier  I said he said you better going back there then 

Okay. I was like, right. So I asked him if I, if he had any recommend recommendations for the best route. So I've had a piece of map and I waved the piece map up. Well, it's not really a piece of map. It's kind of a map in front of him. And then he pointed out one of two marked routes that are on this map. 

And he told us to head there. And then he said, it is very steep, very rocky. And very dangerous. That's nice. And I said,  Oh, I said, all right. I said, maybe, maybe there's another route then. Yes. He said, of course there is, of course, go here. It is very steep, very rocky, very dangerous.  So you  can either have the steep, rocky, dangerous route, or you can have the steep, rocky, dangerous route.

Which one would you prefer? Right. I love it. Exactly. Exactly. And he was right. I mean, firstly, the gondola ride takes at least 40 minutes to get to the top. Okay. And then just getting into the skiing area itself, as the guide said, I mean, you know, he was spot on. I mean, it actually involved jumping over this large cordis just to get onto a very steep slope just to get into the skiing area. 

You're really selling it to me.  There was no one around um, except we did see one family that just looked sort of perplexed and frightened. It's sort of, that was me, that was me,  they were clawing their way back up to the cable car  after realizing they should probably have stayed on the nice slopes of Linde's Alp.

Yeah.  You know, it's a, it's a seriously extreme place to ski.  And it's seen many casualties over the years, including the legendary extreme skier Doug Coombs, who actually died in an accident in one of the area's famous couloirs. I mean, he lived there for a long time  and very sad. Rob, I'm really, I'm really enjoying this. 

Well,  give me a, give me a minute because, you know.  I'm just, I'm building things up here. When you say bucket list, is it the hole in my bucket where this goes out of?  It's generally probably the last trip you're going to do on your bucket list. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it sounds like it. Oh, come on. I mean, it's, I don't know.

I mean, I just want to make, I just want to make it clear that it is, you know, it is truly. Yeah, not a not a normal ski resort. And when we're talking about places like the Grav, we've got to be clear that, you know, it isn't a normal place to go skiing. If you stick to the couple of marked descents, you know, there's, there's nothing particularly extreme about those compared to sort of many of the other off piste itinerary runs, you might find in other resorts in the Alps known, you know, well known free ride resorts like Chamonix Yeah.

It's sort of similar to that. I mean, I think. But that time we had to sort of get in over that cornice. The snow conditions were a bit tricky and a lot of the time you might not have to do that. It's got a 2, 000 meter vertical. It's got a huge amount of terrain. Okay. I mean, using the services of a mountain guide, if you want to explore anything beyond that, one or two marked, marked, I say marked, you know, in inverted commas, routes is an absolute must.

Don't attempt to ski here alone or without someone that knows where they're going.  Preferably a professional.  The village itself is very small. It's basically a one bar town. To be honest, probably more than one bar, but you know what I mean.  Accommodation is available there. You might want to stay in Sao Sevalho or even Brianson.

Drive up in the day as well. There is an official website.  La gra  dash LaMi, which is L-A-M-E-I-J e.com. Bit complicated. La la  is the mountain that's there. Okay. Bit complicated, but the resort says this, this is what the resort says.  Some days you will ski the off piece route in la gra  with pow in powder snow, sometimes in cold and compact snow, and sometimes in difficult snow or in challenging conditions.

Mm-hmm, in the graph the mountain demands respect. And you need to know how to deal with the current conditions. Every run down the mountain is a new adventure. And every time you stop there, are marvellous mountain views galore. So, you know, even, even the tourist office say, you know, basically, if you like tough, off piste skiing, then it's the place for you.

If you don't,  then stay away. No tubing park there then. 

Yeah. Best way to get there is to fly to. 

There's a few operators offering the chance to book holidays there, including Igloo and Heidi, I saw, but I think even then you'd need to actually speak to them because they don't sort of offer  general typical packages. Ski Club of Great Britain run a few courses there. There's a February one this year that sold out, but a few places on the March trip, I believe. 

So that is La Grave. Yes, it is a destination if you're, if you're a free ride skier and off piste ski enthusiast that you should check out at least once. It is an amazing place. It's very special. It is scary and it's, it is, you know, you've got to, you've got to take it seriously. You've got to respect that mountain.

Yeah. Wow, very interesting. I knew nothing about the place. I've heard of it, but I knew nothing about it. I knew, I knew it was I knew it wasn't your ultimate family friendly destination, but I didn't know anything more about it. So that's very interesting. Indeed. Thank you very much for that. Rob.  We've got We've got some exciting stuff coming up in the next few weeks as well.

With a few resorts, we're going to be talking about some more in the Aosta Valley which I know is coming up as well. And we're going to be doing a showcase on Les Deux Alpes in the next few weeks. And Les Cidlots.  Which I'm going to leave that at that and let people guess this this area.

And I've got some cool trips coming up, which I'm going to shout about in the next couple of episodes as well, which could well end up on our bucket list destinations, Rob.  Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So one of the new things that I've just found out by running a podcast, Rob, is I found that we have an email box with our podcast and some people have been emailing into a different mailbox that I hadn't looked at.

And we've got a few questions from listeners. So I'll quickly shout those out to you. I know you're not prepared for this because I've only just found it while we have been talking. So first question here is from Susan in Buckingham. Can you believe I'm allowed to say that because I don't have a surname here.

It says I've got a two year old daughter and my husband. Is it silly to go skiing with a two year old daughter?  What would we say to that, Rob? Oh, gosh. I've got a good question. Yeah. I mean, I've got a view on that. I took my children at that age. 20 months is when we started. But just don't expect too much of them.

Make it fun.  Because if you're seriously keen skiers, what you don't want to do is just knacker this kid and give them a bad experience. Don't let them get cold, make sure they're nice and toasty, pull them around on a sledge, have fun in the snow and then go in and maybe call that a day for the day. It's not going to be your biggest ski holiday that you've ever done.

But I do think that early intro is great. I don't think it's a reason not to go. And obviously one or other of you can go out skiing while the other one looks after the two year old, but just don't expect them to do too much. I just think it's real. I see some people, they drag their kids out. Kids are crying and screaming.

You sort of think they're probably going to hate skiing as soon as they get to sort of six, eight, nine, ten years old. I just think it's make it like anything, like anything you do with a very young child is make sure they have an absolutely great experience the first time they do it.  Yeah, totally agree.

 Okay, so my daughter at two years old, I did put her on little plastic skis and we walked around in the snow.  I Certainly didn't expect her to go skiing though. And it wasn't until she was four that she probably had a sort of skiing lesson. And I would say.  As a ski instructor myself with that hat on you wouldn't really want to sort of have a normal ski lesson, if you like with a child that was under the age of four.

Yeah. I would say at two years old, there's obviously lots of... There's, there's lots of tour operators that would be able to look after your child  in a professional way.

And, and that would involve sort of maybe playing in the snow. You know, that sort of thing. But why, why not? You know, if you're happy traveling with a two year old child, if you're happy to travel with a two year old child, why not go on a skiing holiday? 

 Second question here. I can't believe this is the true name, but he says he's Steve from Stevenage.

There's bound to be Steve's that live in Stevenage. You just see, I don't know why I'm, I don't know why I'm finding that funny. Says that he wants to go on holiday with a group of lads. There's about four of us. Where would you recommend? He doesn't give us any more details. So obviously it does depend on how good at skiing they are.

I mean, if they're great, La Grave, obviously it's perfect. Where would you go with a group of lads? I reckon when he says a group of lads in inverted commas, I've got a feeling they're looking for probably some dancing on tables. Where would you recommend Rob?  Again, it depends on the budget a little bit, doesn't it?

You know, because,  if you want to go sort of low budget, you might look at somewhere like Andorra.  Nice. Nice idea. You know, I, I'd say someone like   Andorra's  and, and Andorra had that sort of, ah, party, party image, didn't it? Pas de la Casa still has a little bit of that but the other resorts, especially places like Soldeo, they, they, they want to move away from that kind of image.

So I wouldn't, I wouldn't maybe recommend Soldeo if you want party, if you want a bit bit of a night, you know, if you want nice accommodation and then a couple of beers afterwards and so there's great for, for a lads holiday, but don't go there to sort of, you know. Party, party, party. Pastor Laso? Yes. Maybe the big parties.

I guess we're still looking at Kel and Anton, those sort of places still. If you've got I'll say ish. If you you've got a bit of money. Yeah. And, and maybe a little bit, a little bit older ish. Gill would be a great place to have.

You know, that sort of  bloke's party time, men's party holiday. Yeah. Yeah. Great skiing as well. Fantastic ski area lift system and Apre Ski you know,  Valter Val has, has a lot of  Yeah. Nice pubs and bars.  Yeah. It serves that, it serves that demographic nicely because the skiing area is.  varied for lots of different levels of skier as well. 

Final one, Rob, I've got one more here. It doesn't give a name. Do I have to book early for half term or can I leave it relatively last minute?  Well, that depends. If you're a, if you are a family and you want a, you, you want a shalley leaving at last minute is just not an option. Not gonna work generally.

. No. You know, if you, if you're happy to take what you can get and pay a lot of money for it, then leave it, leave it till the last minute. That's fine. Yeah. But if you want what you want and you want to get it at a, at a normal price, you've got to book very, very early for that sort of.

Half term week. You got to book a year in advance. I mean, sort of thing. You know, you're not going to get what you want otherwise.  I said, you know, that said, I remember half term holiday 

. And I got on booking. com. I found this fabulous little,  hotel in Chamonix. I can't remember its name off the top of my head, but it was the middle of half term. I only wanted three more nights somewhere to finish off my holiday with my family, two children, and we booked it.

We booked it. We went to Chamonix. It wasn't too busy. We found this fabulous hotel, very friendly. But as you say, if you, if you're very specific about your requirements, where you want to be and what you want, you've got to book early. But if you're very flexible and you're very open minded about where to go, what you're going to be staying in and all that sort of stuff,  I think it can be done. 

Yeah, no, I agree. I agree totally with that. I agree totally with that. Of course, it can be done. And you might find a bargain. Yes, you might be, you know, if you're flexible and don't have specific requirements. Yeah.  So Rob, we'll keep an eye on those questions. I have got more listed here, but I think we're out of time.

It's a good time to wind up and say. What a great week it's been, loads going on 



, the ski season is actually starting. We've been, we've been blabbering on about the ski season is nearly here. And now it is. The ski season is starting. Because for me, the ski season is at the start. At the beginning of December.

First week of December. Yeah, for some people it starts earlier than that, of course. But in my head once we hit December, we're in the ski season. We're in winter and it's, it's, yeah. So we're there. Very good indeed. Well, good stuff, Rob. Good to talk this week, and we look forward to being on the airwaves again in one week's time.

Thank you very much, and good to talk. Thanks, Don. Thank you for educating me about Le Grave, and I'm glad we both have our favorite dining places in Courmayeur. Have a good week, and I will speak to you in a week's time.  Great. Cheers, Rob. Bye. Bye bye.