A shout out today to our friends at The Snow Centre Hemel Hempstead.
London’s closest indoor real snow slope and the largest trainer slope in the country. With a team of highly-qualified ski and snowboard instructors running private and group lessons for all ages, a huge 160-meter main slope, family snow fun with the Ringo slide and an Alpine themed bar and restaurant – there is something for everyone. Visit the snow centre dot com for more.”
DOM - 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 après-ski locations, to breathtaking scenery at Lake Louise, or how to get the best out of a multi-centre itinerary – they highly recommended road-tripping up the spectacular Icefields Parkway between Lake Louise and Jasper for an experience like no other.
Visit ski-i.com/alberta to find out more about booking Canada’s Alberta with tailor-made specialists Ski Independence.
This weeks weather round up is brought to you by SkiWeekends, The flexible ski holiday experts, choose form 10 fantastic catered chalets and over 100 hotels in over 40 resorts. You can stay as long as you like with SkiWeekends.com”
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Welcome to the 17th episode of this seasons white out podcast
DOM: My name is dom Killinger and I’m with my trusty co host Rob Stewart the person that seems to be hitting the ski slopes everyday right now so i am not going to make any grand introductions because frankly, I'm jealous.
ROB: hang on you have just returned from British Columbia, Revelstoke in fact, one of the resorts on my bucket list - well i have been there but i only went heliskiing, ha ha.
DOM: typical Rob, i went there but only heliskied.
ROB: well i am just saying, but anyway, how was it?
DOM: yeah it was great...
Revelstoke is actually split into two Resorts including the the town itself but we stayed at the resort which consists of a hotel and a few restaurants at the bottom of the mountain with a main gondola, serving the ski area, it’s a real skiers mountain with a great mix of terrain from some nice 15 km cruisey greens to some steep deep Powder bowls accessed by nice little hikes in deep Powder.
ROB: ok yes so i stayed in the town itself which makes sense because i didn't see the ski area, loads of great restaurants and a good vibe there.
DOM: exactly so in the main town, is a great mix of restaurants, bars and cocktail bars and a free shuttle bus runs between the two areas.
So where are you this week then Rob?
ROB: I'm currently in Courchevel staying with Ski Weekends - they have great chalet accommodation here that isnt super silly in regards to cost / bling. i also got the coach here with Snow Express because it's half term week and flights were crazy. it was a long journey but you know it was fine, just sit there. Courchevel has been in good shape too, snow is decent, not feeling insanely busy which is nice. it's quite funny, i was at the Foulie Douce in Meribel and i think there's more influencers around than 'normal' people. everyone looks like a model, dressed in i dont know, Gucci probably, with their phones constantly capturing the moment.
DOM: and that was just Dan Fox from Ski Weekends...
ROB: ha ha yes exactly. ummm, always smartly dressed and well turned out is Dan but not sure i can picture him in Gucci.
DOM: let's move onto the news then, what have we got this week...
News:
ROB: Don't panic - Patrick story on ITS
so highly regarded skiing journalist and editor of InTheSnow Patrick Thorne picked up on the fact there was a load of articles appearing in national newspapers that are frankly misleading. it's not helpful looking for skiing resorts that are very small in low lying areas and then hooking that to a myth that all ski resorts right now have little or no snow. i can tell you that here in Courchevel there's a lot of it, i can tell you that last week in Crans-Montana there's a lot of it and the week before in Avoriaz, guess what, there's a lot of it.
DOM
yes we have little or no snow below 1400 metres, unless it's artificial, true. yes we have a changing climate and we aren't sure what will happen in the future but it's likely we'll have more challenges with snowfall, true. what is not true is that because a ski area that you or me haven't heard of in central Italy or in the Jura closes because of lack of snow means that there's no snow in the Alps is crazy, sensionalist and basically wrong.
ROB: right Dom, agree. last week i was quoted in the Mail newspaper which was fine and i was asked, i have no issues with that because i was given the opportunity to provide some balance to an article, fine. then I'm on the BBC radio because suddenly there's a new strand out there suggesting that skiing is now more dangerous - shall we go into that one? Because of a press release that frankly twists some data. again yes there's issues with speed and collisions...and when i drilled into that data there's a couple of recent seasons where collisions have gone up, but overall accidents have not. sorry but that is the case. Yet we see a raft of articles across national newspapers that basically say skiing is too dangerous.
DOM: well it's not 100% safe - sorry about that. oh, let's take two planks of wood and hurtle down a mountain...
DOM: okay sure, but it needs to be 100% safe right?
ROB: No it doesn't
Then BBC ski sunday presenter Ed Leigh, who is a great guy and a fantastic presenter - let's get the good stuff in because here's a thing....he said on ski sunday that, 'last season was the first time there was no snow in the Alps'
sorry Ed, where were you? Because i spent a lot of time in the Alps last season and i can honestly say, i saw quite a lot of snow. even in the worst of it around new year, nobody that i knew that booked a skiing holiday in the Alps didnt actually go skiing because of lack of snow.
DOM: so how can you say there was no snow in the Alps? I mean i know what you're trying to say, that climate it changing and we have some challenges, but no snow in the Alps. come on.
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Mikeys Mountain Miles
ROB: just going to name drop here because last week i skied with rugby world cup and England legend Mike Tindall - should say Gloucester legend too. Super nice guy and he was warming up for a charity event that he's organising in Salbaach Austria the first week of March - check out Mikey's Mountain Miles. mikeysmm.com/ it will be a great event and anyone can take part providing you have a team of 4 and are prepared to donate to two charities that are being supported, Wings for Life and the Matt Hampton Foundation. The rental company Skiset is sponsoring the event too and Mike puts out special discount offers for ski rental on his Instagram channel so follow Mike and check that out because there's some big discounts available at certain times.
DOM: International ski patrollers day
Helly Hansen launched its International Ski Patrollers day once again on February 10th, helping to highlight the work that mountain professionals do to keep us safe on the slopes. It's a fantastic initiative and also showcases the fact that many mountain professionals, not just ski patrollers, weat Helly Hansen kit. The Helly Hanses website actuatlly has a great page all about this so check it out at hellyhansen.com/skipatrol
ROB: Esprit winds up
we've heard news that family ski operator Esprit will cease to trade at the end of this season after 40 years. Esprit is owned by Hotelplan who also own Inghams and we know that Hotelplan is being sold by its parent company Migros, the Swiss supermaret giant. To me this looks like a classic stripping down of areas that don't make a profit but it's sad to see and it's worrying that Esprit can't make it work.
Weather:
DOM: time to look at our snow and weather report Rob. You’re in the Alps, what is looking like there?
ROB: yeah so here in the 3 Valleys, French Alps obviously, I’m going to say that conditions are pretty good all considering the winter we have had which has seen fluctuating temperatures. Anything above 1600 metres is fine and in fact above 1800 metres there’s a lot of snow because we have had precipitation this winter, it has just too often fallen as rain below 1500. What resorts that have skiing below 1500 have done so well is maintain ski pistes so that getting back to resort is still possible. It is spring like here right now but the mid to long term forecast is very interesting - huge drop in temperatures as we go towards the end of the month and into March, with significant snowfall down to low levels.
And i mean it’s looking this weather will hit the whole of the Alps, across the board. So genuinely seems like March is going to be a good one.
Let’s start with Les Gets - over 30 centimetres expected over the next 7 days and more after that and once we hit Feb 22/23 temperatures are really dropping and snow will be well below resort level.
A similar situation in Switzerland where we’ll see resorts in the Valais region such as Verbier, Crans Montana and Saas Fee get colder and see regular snowfall down to resort level over the coming weeks. We are talking about maximum daytime temperatures going from around plus five to minus five and nighttime temps down to minus 15 or colder.
Colder weather and snowfall has returned to the Pyrenees at last. Most should see at least a foot (30cm) by Monday.Spain's @formigal looked pretty good for sure
Over in St Anton and further east in Austria it’s looking even more interesting with already pretty decent conditions there with snow that has generally held up well compared to the western alps. Significant snowfall is forecast - St Anton saying over 73cm’s over the next 7 days so pow time there for sure.
Over in Italy and looking at the Dolomites - lets take Cortina, it’s a slower start there but again temperatures will drop around Fab 22/23 and snow is coming, perhaps not the quantities of the northern Alps but it’s likely there will be days when it snows a lot towards the end of the month.
If these forecasts are correct and i think they must be because it’s across the board changes then March is going to be probably the best month to ski this winter,
Norway is well…looking Norway ish with temperatures consistently below freezing, good conditions across the board and in Hafjell they have another 20 cm’s forecast over the next 7 days - it just seems to keep on being topped up there. Mrydalen in the west of Norway is forecasting over 50 cm’s in the next 7 days and it just keeps on coming. Big base and more snow.
What about North America Dom? You have just been there what’s that looking like?
DOM: I’d say conditions in BC this winter aren't what you’d normally expect. We did have snowfall when i was there so actually it was pretty good but it’s not going to be a classic winter unless things change quickly…British Columbia is almost 40% lower than average but tbf i never saw any slush, grass, mud, or ice so compare this to so.me places BC still does look good
Same in most of the US resorts too.
But if we take Revelstoke for example in Canada’s British columbia, we can see regular snow top ups and cold temperatures over the next week and beyond bringing fresh snow, so conditions will be good going into March.
It’s a similar situation in Vail Colorado where they have around 20cm’s of snow coming in the next couple of days and then a mix of sunshine and snow showers going forward.
heavy snow is still falling in California, Utah and Colorado heavy snow is still falling in California, Utah and Colorado 4ft in the last week in jackson.
ROB: i can see that over in Japan it’s business as usual, decent conditions in Niseko and more snow forecast for this weekend, before a bit if warming and then cold temperatures again going forward. Similar situation down in Hakuba although it will get quite warm there in the next few days before more snow, almost one metre in the next 7 days. They seem to be having a good season.
DOM: excellent so onto the gear section Rob and as we have been to SLIDE and the SIGB ski test recently, where we get to see all the latest kit for next season, we thought we’d take a look at a pretty cool boot innovation from Rossignol.
Gear:
ROB: yes the Rossignol Vizion ski boot - we came across the new ski boot from Rossignol called Vizion spelt with a z. a really neat concept where a specially designed back panel opens up to make it super easy to get what is a traditional 4 buckle boot on and off. so if you want performance, because they even have a 130 low volume version of this boot, with the ease of getting a boot on and off, like super easy, then this is definitely the answer. they look great, we tried them on and they really do make life easier. keep an eye out on Rossignol.com or check the InTheSnow Magazine youtube channel for our recent review.
DOM: Shell versus insulated - we decided to take a look at the differences between wearing shell jacket and pants versus insulated. what do you tend to go for Rob?
ROB: good question and it obviously depends on what i am doing and where i am. i do like an insulated jacket and pants when things are cold, let's say below minus five, because i do feel the cold, but if i was ski touring then i would still go for the shell option. what about you?
DOM: yeah similar although i like the layering option where you can remove a mid layer when things warm up through the day, you have that flexibility. you don't have that flexibility with an insulated jacket. I dont intend to feel the cold as much i prefer to feel slightly chilly on a lift (assuming i dont get stuck) and then warm up skiing
ROB: true which is why i think the shell has become so popular with skiers and snowboarders that spend a lot of time in the mountains because it doesnt offer that flexibility. saying that, i have been skiing in very cold temperatures of below minus 25/30 and i can tell you what, a shell is no fun in that weather.
DOM: i think being in that weather is no fun! Just stay indoors...ha ha
I suppose it depends on your layers, ive done -42 in insulated but not shell, there needs ot be more plentiful and good decent insulator options for under shell pants not just jackets
ROB: there is that. but you know even at minus ten which isn't unusual, I like to feel warm and cosy and you can only really get that with an insulated jacket. i would avoid down, unless it's incredibly cold but dry. so synthetic insulation such as Primaloft is typical and many brands have their own versions too.
DOM: the trick is breathability right, so making something waterproof isnt that hard, it's making it breathable as well that is the key. that's especially important for ski touring too.
ROB: totally, and yes exactly why that shell option works. i would say always start off feeling cold on a ski tour - if the weather is cold that is, because if you start sweating a lot in cold weather when you're touring you might get into trouble. I did once, it wasnt fun.
Dom: Okay so basically Rob we are saying personal preference - shell for flexibility and ski touring, insulated for general skiing when it's cold or if you just want to stay warm.
ROB: where can we find out more?
DOM: i would say check the gear pages out on InTheSnow.com it’s easy to find on the top menu and also our reviews on the YouTube channel inthesnow magazine.
Resort focus:
this week we are looking at the Dents du Midi ski region which is basically the Swiss side of the portes du soleil.
did you know that the Dents du Midi mountain is the largest single mountain in terms of volume in Switzerland? It's absolutely massive, a true monster of a mountain with its sharp teeth thrusting upwards into the air. one of the truly most spectacular mountains in the Alps.
yes can always spot it on a clear day coming into Geneva from the East.
and actually what so many don't realise is that you can stay on the Swiss side of the Portes du Soleil and there's some good value accommodation over there.
yes true i think you'd be surprised what you can get on the Swiss side and if you would rather spend Euro's for lunch then drop over into the French side anyway.
let's look at the resorts, because there's quite a few.
Champery is probably the most well known and it's tucked away at the end of the valley lower down. you can ski back there when snow is good but there's a great cable car link too. then you have les Crosets higher up, very convenient for skiing, it's quite small and compact with a choice of hotels. Champossin is another one with good value accommodation for Switzerland a great option if you want to do Switzerland at a lower cost point.
then there's Morgins, close to the border with the French town of Chatel on the other side. they are the main ones, you can stay in the other villages through the Illiez Valley but a car would be useful if you do.
yes i think this is a great option for the PdS area. i mean stay in Switzerland, ski over to France, who would have thought it!
there's a great website where you can check it all out
www.regiondentsdumidi.ch/
And Skiline have a really good deal in the Chalet Mountain Lodge, in Les Crosets, Switzerland it’s a 4★ Chalet Hotel - Sleeps up to 50 guests - Ski In/Ski Out - Hot Tub - Sauna - Steam Room
You can get 7-nights from £1,095pp and Short breaks are available
Check it out at
www.skiline.co.uk/ski-holidays/switzerland/les-crosets/chalet-mountain-lodge
Bucket list:
Sun Peaks
ROB: This week Dom our bucket list destination is Sun Peaks, because, drum rolll...you have just been there, so it's clearly a tick for you but i want to know why me or anyone else should consider going.
DOM: yep i have just been there and i really enjoyed it, i would say a genuine bucket list destination for me...what do you want to know Rob?
ROB: what's the size of the ski area?
I have to say I was shocked to learn that it's the second biggest ski area in Canada second only to Whistler with almost 4300 acre skiing and 139 trails it's a lot
ROB: who is the ski area best suited for?
One thing I would say is you don't get that big mountain feel of dramatic peaks and incredible views
it is nice and you do get great views just doesn't have that massive feeling that you get in some places for example its more dramatic in Revelstoke and the views across some of the Alps resorts I would say can be more impressive however the ski area really is great and varied and obviously large and it is very quiet
on the busiest day which was a Saturday when everybody comes up from the nearby town Kamloops the maximum queue I saw was of about 15 to 20 people
it took about three minutes to clear and it was only that number of people because people wanted to get first tracks in a fresh dump from overnight.
I regularly skied for multiple minutes without seeing anybody so it's a fantastic feeling and doesn't get tracked out quickly
So if I was asked directly who is the area best suited for I would probably say for families beginner / intermediates because there is a lot of lovely rolling green and red runs (blue in their terminology) there is some sleeper stuff diamond blacks but I would say that area is dominated by great cruising blues and reds. Which will satisfy the large portion of british skiers.
ROB: what about the resort, any nice vibes, apres? guess it's not quite like Whistler
It's definitely not a whistler, but I mean that only in a very good way
the whole resort ski in ski out so you ski straight through the middle of the village a bit like you would in arcs 1950
And in terms of apres obviously North America doesn't really do après like we do in Austria or France, however this place had a very large proportion of bars drinking holes and restaurants I was really impressed.
I found the food options to be great the resort felt very friendly with a good cultural mix of people from New Zealand and Australia and South Africa in abundance which was really nice
I had multiple very nice chats on chairlifts which is just something I don't think you get in the likes of Whistler or many European resorts
It felt Very personal, very friendly very much a hidden gem
ROB: any top tips for the best ski run or off-piste? Maybe a day of heli skiing in the area?
5 mile is perfect for improver beginners to do a long big run from the top of the mountain to the bottom so that was really nice that's easily accessed from the first chairlift out of Tiller Town which is called the sunburst Express you literally go to the top turn left pick up the Crystal chair and then you can join 5 mile right from the very highest point in the top of the world very worthwhile great run for beginner intermediate
the crystal bowl accessed the same way is really nice for more advamced skiers and there are a bunch of diamond black runs there which are great fun when the snow is in.
I actually really enjoyed the Morrissee side of the mountain which is across the road which you can ski to no problem it does flatten out a tiny bit I couldn't understand why there were so few people over there when visibility was down because it snowed a lot while I was there if you go across to the Morrissee side it feels more densely populated with trees which keeps the visibility very clear and the runs are absolutely fantastic well gladed amazing fantastic runs like still smoking I don't know out of the woods and plenty more besides.
To get over to that Morrissee side you simply go up the Sundance express turn right and follow your nose down rambler and look out for the left turn that takes you over to the Morotti side I really rated it over there but again it's more of a intermediate skiers area nice fast rolling blues
I guess if I had to complain about anything because there was slightly less now we couldn't access the Diamond and it just didn't look in good enough condition don't get me wrong there Resort was good and have a good snow but not in comparison with what they normally have I would say while I was there is no for three solid days and probably a foot dropped in total
I've done a really nice YouTube video well I think it's really nice anyway which gives a lot of detail about this to check out the In Snow magazine YouTube channel
ROB: and what about town, best restuarant and bar?
As I said earlier lots of restaurants and bars I was really impressed for breakfast if you wanna big cooked breakfast going to Cahilty it's really nice you can get great oatmeal or bacon and egg whatever you want but there are also some really nice coffee shop so if you just fancy a nice coffee and a smoothie and a pastry in the morning places like Altitude and bolacco were really really nice
Mountain high was great for very good quality pizzas more of a takeout/perch on a table type place really good quality pizzas and had a really nice vibe about it
Bottoms and masses at the bottom of the main area we're really good for lunch and frappe drinks lots of lunch options and everything I had was really nice they do lack a bit of on mountain dining but that's not unusual for North American and canadian resorts
Food for North American skiers is nothing short of fuel so they just stop eight and carry on skiing where is I think in Europe we ski so that we can eat!!
I would also recommend steakhouse at Sun Peaks Lodge and oya sushi japanes was really tasty not just sushi
and capones for italian and mantles for buffest also both really good... So trust me if you go to Sun Peaks you're not gonna come back hungry or thirsty for that matter
ROB: how can we get there and where can we stay?
So no surprises the ski Independence was the tour operator that I used I flew with BA from London to Vancouver and I chose to drive there in about 3 1/2 to 4 hours which suited me because I wanted a car in order to go onto Revelstoke afterwards
You can choose to get a transfer flight from Vancouver to Kamloops and then get a bus back to Resort in about 30 to 40 minutes but I didn't wanna faffing about transferring flight
I stayed at the Sun Peaks Lodge it was nothing flash but it was warm very comfy runs nicely finished great showers and very nice staff with a good boot room room an underground parking
Right in the middle of the village so you step out of the door and Ski straight onto the first left all accommodation there is skiing ski out but not all accommodation there is in the middle of the village some's father out of the town this is typically condo accommodation you can ski from that a condo accommodation straight down to the left and straight to the village but obviously to go out to dinner in the evening I'm guessing that's a bit of a walk probably about 10 to 15 minutes I really rated or accommodation it was simple the perfect for me I would be the most people I think it's just not swanky
If you wanted to upscale from this you would go to the Sun Peaks ground which did look nice but I didn't see the rooms I'm guessing it's more expensive I'm guessing a little more swanky if that's what you want
ROB: and anything other than skiing
We went husky dog sledding which was absolutely brilliant I would highly recommend it I was very fussy about wanting to know about the dogs and how well they were looked after because I know there is some publicity about this recently and I wanted to be certain before I undertook the activity the owners spent a lot of time with me talking about the dogs and how they are cared for her a lovely husband and wife team and I really rated it experience was great very friendly people and you really did feel like you were going out into the world a mess with the dogs you Gotta spend a lot of time with the dogs feeding them patting them et cetera the other thing we did was ask throwing sounds like a crazy event but honestly this was an absolute sprain and suitable for all ages from nine opulence you throw a real axe and from alliance they do have a plastic axe it was absolutely loads of fun you got a real help and guidance from the guy running the place who had all the pattern was extremely funny it was a very very enjoyable our auto shop in a few beers and throwing an axolotl world it was very good fun indeed.