S2. E19 - Skiing News, Where is good to Ski Right Now, Spotlight on Sierra Nevada, Ski Turkey, Gear Guide and lots more

In this weeks episode Dom and Rob share where is best to ski now as well as news from around the world of skiing.  they also tell us about some great new gear finds including a brand new binding for skis plus a 360 degree camera from Insta.  And finally they take us to explore Sierra Nevada and Turkey would you believe!!

Enjoy the ride :)

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WELCOME TO OUR SPONSORS
The team at Ski Independence Visit ski-i.com/alberta to find out more about booking Canada’s Alberta with tailor-made specialists Ski Independence.

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NEWS
New dry ski slope in Kingussie at the Loch Insh outdoor centre that has now opened with the Proslope surface – also seen at 5 other slopes around the UK including Tallington and Snowtrax

La Clusaz has launched its circus festival called Radio Meuh from April 4-7 which includes a number of acts over several nights in the French ski resort. Tickets cost 37 euros and can be purchased online at https://circus.radiomeuh.com/en/ 

Ski racing - the slalom last weekend in Palisades Tahoe, won by Austria’s Manuel Feller. Both Dave Ryding and Billy Major qualified for the second run, unfortunately Billy failed to finish that run and made a mistake close to the top of the course and Dave ended up in 24th place.  This weekend we have the women’s speed races in Kvitfjell, Norway and mens GS and slalom in Aspen, Colorado. The women then head to Are in Sweden, the men to Slovenia before everyone comes together in Saalbach, Austria for the World Cup finals from March 16-24.

Les Arcs had 81% commercial apartment occupancy in January compared to an average of 75% in France overall. More interestingly is the press release then states that the resort at 2,000 metres has 485cm’s of snow compared to 130cm’s at the same time last year.

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This weeks WHERE IS BEST TO SKI RIGHT NOW  is brought to you by  SkiWeekends.com”

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A ​​shout out today to our friends at https://www.thesnowcentre.com/

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GEAR
The Protector Attack binding from Tyrolia, you don't just get that toe release,  it also offers Full Heel Release (FHR) technology, a first in our Attack series.
Tyrolia.com, £320

Sidas ski comfort ski socks skiracing.co.uk
Insta 360 X3 Camera
Bearhug knee supports from getabearhug.com

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RESORT SHOWCASE
Sierra Nevada
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BUCKET IST DESTINATION
Turkey with Luke Rees from awe365.com and Jamie Barrow worlds fastest snowboarder.   https://www.powdermad.com/

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!

And don't forget to check us out on the following channels

inthesnow.com
instagram.com/inthesnow
TikTok@inthesnowmag
youtube.com/inthesnowmag
facebook.com/inthesnow


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

Transcript

 So welcome to the 19th edition of the Whiteout podcast for this season. I'm Dom Killinger, publisher intheSnow mag, and it's the start of March already, although it feels like the restart of winter with the new snow. It's getting cold.  I'm of course joined by my esteemed co host Rob Stewart.

ranter, general complainer of all things wrong about anything to do with skiing. Rob,  what are you moaning about today?  Yeah, good one, Dom. Yeah, sometimes a ranter about all things and, you know, rightly too. Actually I'm not going to rant today because it's snowing. It's March. It's the best time to go skiing, right? 

And even better, I'm off to Austria next week as well. First time there in two years. So I'm really looking forward to that. Lucky you, Rob. That sounds pretty cool. Well, we'll catch up with Ben and Clow next week, who have just been to Austria. So they've been across 24 resorts in four countries in the last two months this winter.

So they've just been out of Austria. So I'm sure you're gonna have a fantastic time out there. Whereabouts are you going to?  I'm actually heading to Carinthia, southern part of Austria. They say the sunny side of Austria. And it's near Klagenfurt. You fly into Klagenfurt. And there's, you know, there's a few ski resorts there.

Bad Kleichenkirchen. I don't think I pronounced that correctly. BKK, home of Franz Klammer. Heelingenblut. Which is like a bit of a hidden gem. Freeride Resort, right underneath. Austria's highest mountain, the Grossglockner, and a little place called Innokrems where they decided to shut down all the ski lifts a couple of years ago and turn it into a ski touring only destination, or ski touring and snowshoeing and that kind of thing.

Nice. A little bit different. Yeah, that'd be a good week. Well, judging by the conditions I've seen with with Ben and Clau traveling around the you could well be in for a good time down there. That sounds like pretty good stuff.  Yeah, actually, I caught up with Ben and Clow in, in Switzerland, Grand Montana a few weeks back.

Nice, nice couple, you know, you know, like 20s young, good looking, intelligent, full of energy, charming  and, and spending two months like gallivanting around the Alps. Yeah. Now you put it that way, Rob, I think we've got this the wrong way around, haven't we?  Yes. Unfortunately, well, yeah, we have, we can't do anything about our age though.

Can we obviously all those other attributes, they can apply. Of course.  Well, thanks very much, Rob. That's very kind of me saying, I'll bet you were like that just back in the day.  Well I was in my twenties back in the day. Yeah, possibly gallivanting. I'm not sure about the rest of it though, to be honest.

Those annoyingly nice people will be joining us next week where we've got a full episode on their amazing trips. And to hear about the glamorous lifestyle of the 24 resorts they visited over a space of seven weeks. What about you, Rob? Have you seen anything glamorous in the last couple of weeks?

Lots of Gucci ski suits in Courchevel. Pink one pieces, you know, that sort of thing. That's a good question.  Actually, you know, a couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in the Pelican bar in Courchevel, 1650. Quite nice place.  And this family walked in, right? The dad and the mom, sort of in their mid fifties.

That's, you know, they look,  they look good. They look smart, intelligent kind of people, lots of energy. Like an older Ben and Charlie, an older man. Yes, exactly.  British. Yes,  exactly. So  the man had this one piece. Henry Duvallard skisuit on, right, from the 1980s. Now, yeah, listeners, right, just search that up on Google and check out the colors and the madness.

It, it really does stand out. I was like, full of admiration. I couldn't help myself a bit later. I went up to him. Oh, good. I compliment. Yeah. I complimented him on his suit. I thought it was a bit of a risk, but he really, really appreciated it actually. And then he told me a story. Yeah. He told me a story about how his dad had passed it down to him. 

And it was like this magnificent piece of clothing. And the funny thing was, he was basically, he basically said to me, he said, it's hard not to look like a beep beep in it. It's a fine line. He said, and I said, you know, I agree. But actually, I must say he pulled it off. Good on him. It's a bit of a statement.

And it's, it's nice that you went up and told him and, and it could have gone either way. Of course he could have punched you in the face.  No, he appreciated it. He appreciated it. What about you, Dom? Have you seen anything? What about me? One piece as well. I mean, you have to say that, you know, I'm sure Usk, the British ski brand.

I mean, they have burst onto the scene in the last few years with those sort of retro style one pieces. So your man in Courchevel, he's pretty much on trend, isn't he? I mean, there's no tweet about those guys having it away and they're very sort of, seem to be all the rage and maybe not so much among our age group, but among the younger the youth of today, Rob, you do tend to find a lot of people wearing those brightly colored suits. 

No, you're right. Actually. Usk maybe was inspired by the Henri Duvillard one piece from the eighties cause yeah, I see where they're coming from with that kit seems to be selling and it's nice seeing people expressing themselves, being able to wear whatever they want on the slopes and seeing absolutely fabulous.

One piece is, I wonder if that still keeps him warm or if all the technical properties of something like that in those days are very different from today.  I mean, it was good stuff, actually, in the day, the Henri de Vallard stuff. It wouldn't be up to today's technical standards, I guess, but it was, in the day, pretty, pretty good stuff.

I mean, just imagine, that's what's so great about skiing, isn't it? You can wear what you like kind of thing. You can express yourself. If you walk down the street well, certainly in my local town of Hereford, if you walk down the local street in Hereford looking like that,  you would, I mean, the looks you would get.

Yeah. The, you'd probably get abused by some people. You'd be laughed at, you know, I, it would just be ridiculous. You'd feel so self conscious. Yeah. You know, you walk down any ski resort street and an Henri Duvalard suit and no one even bats an eyelid. Well, maybe a few people, people love it.  Good on him. I love it. 

Let's hope he's listening to the podcast now and he writes in so he can be on next week's podcast with us. That'll be fun. You never know.  I got, I got a message from somebody this morning saying, I'm going to Selva. Can you please cover Selva in your snow report? So that was great. Hearing from a listener there saying I know your podcast is coming up and I want to hear what the weather's right.

So  that'll be good. Oh yeah. Fantastic. That's really nice to hear from listeners like that. And, and, and fantastic that people contact us asking about snow report. I, I'm just going to say you get a, you're going to have a great time in Selva this week. Snow's a pretty good place as well. Love the food.

Great restaurants, great hotels, lovely place. Yes. So that's for a bit later, Rob. 

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Excellent.  Yes, I'm looking forward to doing that trip one day. Oh yeah, absolutely. 

What have we got? We're going on to the news now. What have we got in the news this week? What's, what's going on? What's going on out there?  Okay. So this, this one involves a quick shout out to Patrick Thorn, editor of course of In the Snow magazine, who every two months.

Releases his world dry slope news, which normally has around eight or nine news items about dry ski slopes from around the world  now. I mean, that is dedication, right? So the job I  got the latest news last week and I thought. I mean, just, yeah, you know, every, every, every two months you release a whole bunch of news about dry ski slopes from around the world.

And he finds things about dry ski slopes that you just didn't, wouldn't, how did he get that? Anyway, he get, he knows everything.  I thought it was mentioned worth mentioning a new story on there about a new dry ski slope in King Goosey the lock inch outdoor center. And like, can you see, I used to work for the.

Can you ski school based in can you see many years ago? And it opened with a pro slope surface. Okay. Yeah. Also seen at five other slopes around the country, including Tallington Tallington lakes and snow tracks. This slope was crowdfunded, crowdfunded  by the freshwater family. They've owned that center for decades and they're very much part of the ski industry too.

So it is great to see new slopes opening. I just thought that was worth mentioning. Yeah, absolutely.  And there's loads of events coming up over the springtime as well in the Alps. So La Clusa, where we were a little bit earlier this year, has launched its circus festival called Radio Mieux.  If I've pronounced that right.

Radio Mieux, which I'll put in the notes of the postcard of the podcast.  April 7th, which includes a number of acts over several nights in the French ski resort. So that sounds very cool. 37 euros for a ticket. You can buy them online, which I'll put the link in the notes here, which is circus. radio.  com. 

It's definitely sounding like something a bit different. Quite a nice tradition to the festival circuit. Seems to be growing and growing in the springtime. Loads of things going on across the Alps. Yeah, sounds like good fun. And the clues are very nice. It's a long time since I've been there. And then when I went there recently with you, Rob, I did look and think, wow, this is a really nice resort.

What a pretty place. Yeah. It is nice. Really nice. Proper town, isn't it? Yeah. It is. Proper French town.  Good skiing area. Good size. Yeah. Yeah.  And a circus festival. I mean, that's just a bit, that's a bit different, isn't it? I like that. Hmm. Yeah, definitely different from all the sort of music festivals and everything else that goes on.

So yeah, that sounds like sounds like a lot of fun.  Yeah. I mean, there's loads of things happening. We haven't actually mentioned ski racing very much over the past few weeks, but, you know, sort of looking towards the end of the season now for the Alpine ski racing circuit. Yeah. I don't know if you saw it last weekend.

I managed to catch the slalom at the Palisades Tahoe. Oh, yeah. And one by Austria's manual fella. Both Dave Riding and Billy Major qualified for the second run. Unfortunately, Billy failed to finish the second run. He made a mistake quite close to the top of the course, and Dave ended up in 24th place, which is disappointing for his standards.

But, you know, still well cut points. Keeps him in eighth place overall in the slalom rankings. And the women's races were cancelled, right, due to heavy snow accumulations in Italy. Note that I'll sell the listener and even,  even this week, more FIS races, F I S races have been canceled due to too much snow.

And you know, this weekend we've got the women's speed races in Crete fell in Norway and the men's GS and slalom in Aspen, Colorado. Then the women had to order in Sweden and the men's of Slovenia before everyone comes together in Salbach in Austria for the world cup finals. That's from March the 16th to 24th.

And then. Bang, end of the season, everyone goes on holiday to the Maldives.  Well, maybe the lucky ones that have done quite well anyway. Quick plug for the Maldives there. But it's been a pretty long and tricky season with the races being cancelled at the start and at the end of season four. Too much snow!

I mean, can you believe it? Right. Believe it.  I mean, it's totally ironic that the media only covers stories about lack of snow, yet the most important events of the winter are cancelled because there's too much of the stuff. So I'm not going to rag. It's crazy, isn't it?  Absolutely unbelievable. Well, I've spotted a new activity in it, and it's very Japanese, although who knows, it might catch on here too, Rob.

So it's Japanese snow rafting.  Ooh.  Yeah. Okay. You get pulled along on a large inflatable raft by a snowmobile and up to three people sit in it. What could possibly go wrong? She's taking breaks in Nezeko of course, famous for its powder conditions. And according to somebody there said the rafting sessions are suitable for all ages.

Can you imagine?  Well, I can imagine.  Yeah, I think I'll stick to the powder, thanks. I mean, all ages, that is very Japanese. I remember in New Zealand we used to race down slopes on rafts. Incredibly dangerous, I saw the most horrific accidents. This does look, I took a look at this news story. It does look a bit safer than that, to be fair.

They're just towing people along gentle slopes.  Wonder if they considered pulling it just by a horse or a dog pulled sled, but doing it with a Skiddo sounds even more terrifying. 

Good on them for trying something different, I suppose. Yeah.  So what else we got? Yeah. Okay. A couple of other things. Les Arc just put out a press release saying they've had 81 percent commercial apartment occupancy in January compared to an average of 75 percent in France overall. I think  this in itself isn't.

I mean, I don't know if it's that interesting in some ways, but it does show a healthy situation in the resort. For sure. Without understanding what that 75 percent average means, it's hard to compare, but you know, anyway, good to know they are busy. That's nice. I think more interestingly in the press release.

There it then states that the resort at 2, 000 meters of altitude has  485 centimeters of snow compared to 130 centimeters at the same time last year.  Unbelievable and all we keep reading in the national press is melting and no snow and can't ski and yet listen to these reports. I mean it is absolutely unbelievable.

Well, yeah. I mean, I believe that because we've seen a lot of snow all over 1800 this season. I know that 70 percent of those are skiing areas above 2000 metres. Maybe understanding what that longer term occupancy rate is going to be good. I guess 81 percent in January sounds very good. I wouldn't expect it to be 100 percent that way.

No absolutely. But yeah, I think most resorts would take that actually. 100 percent in January.  Right, Dom, time to look at our regular snow and weather report.  Yeah, Rob, what are we seeing across Europe? 

   This week's weather roundup is brought to you by Ski Weekends, the flexible ski holiday experts. Choose from 10 fantastic catered chalets and over 100 hotels in over 40 resorts.

You can stay as long as you like at skiweekends. com.  Three months, please. Ski weekends. Yes.  I'll take the entire winter. 

That'd be nice.  Very 

Snow report at last. We love to talk about the snow. It's what we're here for, really, isn't it? All the other banter that goes around it.

We're only here to talk about the snow. Where's best to ski now?  I mean, it's a mixed bag, if I'm being completely honest, right? I'm going to start with that. Italy seems to have had the biggest snowfalls down to the lower levels.  So the Southern Alps in general are looking much better now, places such as Searcy Valley have benefited from that too, but  there's still not much snow at lower levels anywhere.

You know, I'm just going to put that out there because we've got to, you know, have some balance here. But that said, we know the snow above say 1, meters is Really good and plentiful across the Alps, and it is now colder with fairly cold temperatures in the forecast going forward, relatively. So I do think we can be positive and say we'll see very good conditions through March.

Yeah, especially if you're heading to some of those high altitude areas, you know, the sort of Tien, Val d'Azur, Three Valleys, like Zermatt, Switzerland, Arlberg region, that sort of stuff. So yeah, definitely good snow in all of those places, like you say, in those higher up resorts.  Yeah, absolutely.  Okay.

But let's look at some specifics and, and then we can mention some of those lower, lower resorts as well. I suppose. Mausine and Leger, you know, okay. So very little snow actually in town, but the upper runs are being refreshed with new snow and in general, it's in, it's in good shape on the high slopes of Leger and of course Vaurias where there's also plenty of snow.

If you look at what is actually open in the Leger Mausine skiing area, about two thirds of the runs. are open when it comes to the black runs. Not so much happening there, but you know, up in a Voriaz, basically a hundred percent of the area is open with the exception of, you know, the odd black run, which, which is so that's not unusual either.

No, of course.  So I, you know, it's a good situation in regards to the skiing. on piste and with a bit of fresh snow, a bit of off piste as well. In regards to forecast for the northern French Alps region in total, around 50 centimeters of snow is forecast for the next seven days. Wow. And that is down to around a thousand meters.

Okay. Right. That's good. So great news. Longer term forecast is suggesting more to come with continued lower temperatures.  If we look at Tyne, there's even more snow forecast. And then of course, great cover already there. So those, you know, I'm going to predict that Tyne and other resorts in the region. 

We'll have excellent snow conditions throughout the whole of March, and I can update that when I'm there myself from the 18th of March. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. What about Switzerland, Don? Yeah, I mean, pretty similar situation from what I've seen. Montverdier doesn't have a lot of snow in town, but when you look at the mountain, it's a very different picture altogether.

Montgomery.  As you know, fantastic color, really possibly the best in years. So again, anything over 1800 is really good. Similar forecast, 50 centimetres of snow in the forecast over the next week. Other resorts of the valet show a very similar situation. And then on the other side of the country, St Moritz is looking in great shape with Snowfield Valley.

And about another 50 centimetres of snow forecast in the next week there. I mean, 50 centimetres is not to be sniffed at, is it? I mean, it's going on for a couple of feet, that.  And then in about a week's, yeah, in about a week, the nighttime temperatures are falling to around minus 15. So, yeah, it's looking at winter there properly.

So what about Austria? Have you got much on Austria, Rob?  Yeah, I, I had a look at Austria, and they've had some very welcome snow there. I'll start in Carinthia, because I am heading there on Monday. It's the largest, the largest resort, Bad Kleinklein,  is looking in decent shape, with natural snow down to the valley.

Not huge amounts down below, but enough to make it look white. And some powder on top as well.  There's a bit of snow forecast next week, possibly around, possibly around 30 centimetres on the upper slopes. A little bit of freshening up snow type of stuff, I think. Sounds good. If we head right over to the western side of the country and look at St Anton, then things are looking good.

You know, pretty good there to not huge amounts of snow and resort again. Although it is possible to ski right down. But again, on the mountain from like 1500 meters upwards, there's fantastic coverage on and off piece with snow showers forecast over the next week as well to top things up.  So again, that that whole region will see around 30 centimeters of new snow and over the next seven days if the forecast is.

Right. Sounds good. Sounds right. So yeah. What about Italy?  Yep. Dumping in the Aosta Valley. I've seen quite a lot of reports out of there, so it's definitely the place to be right now for snow. Chavinia that already has fantastic snow coverage. A meter 30 over the next week, which is incredible.

Wow. Fantastic. Imagine that. But wait for it. Lagna and Gresony two and a half meters over the next week and snow down to resort level. So.  That is going to be proper epic conditions out there. I mean, how cool is that going to be?  Yeah, I was speaking to people in Chamonix actually, we're heading through the tunnel to ski Courmayeur, you know, it's just sometimes the way it works out, that Italian side is just getting dumped on.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Then over the other side of the Alps, you've got Cortina fantastic conditions with about 80 centimeters more in the forecast for next week. So yeah, over the border there, it's looking fantastic.  Yeah, it is. And of course, just worth mentioning Cortina, very close to Selva as well.

Of course. And having a look at that sort of area, they've got good snow. They've got good snow conditions on Piste and, you know, colder temperatures. And so Italy's had Had the best of it recently. So that's great. And we'll hear that from Ben and Cloud when we speak next week on our special edition podcast, where we catch up with them.

That's the last I heard of him in Italy. And I think he was then into Livigno where he said, Dom, I can't speak. I have to dig out my car. And he said, as fast as he was digging it out of the front, it was filling up at the back. He just couldn't get on top of it. He said it was just absolutely incredible.

So yeah, fantastic. Great condition. Kind of thing you get when, if you're out for a season, you should kind of experience that sort of thing. Digging out your car. Absolutely. Once in a while. How's it looking in North America, Dom? Yep. Pretty good now. Especially out west. I'll start in California because we saw great snow conditions in Palisades, Tahoe over the weekend for the men's world cup.

A little bit mild, but great snow. And wait for it. They're expecting three meters of snow and super cold temperatures over the next seven days. So, I mean, unbelievable.  Can you imagine? That's amazing. Yeah. And it's been snowing in Colorado too. New snow in places like Vail around 30 to 40 centimeters forecast over the next week and a similar picture across the rest of the Colorado state.

So a mix of sun and snow showers topping things up. Temperatures Just below freezing in the day, down to about minus 20 at night. So perfect conditions, really nice. And yeah, the east coast hasn't had it. That's the best winter. But Killington and others about pretty good snow cover now and bit more coming over the next week or so.

Looks a little bit spring like there, but yeah, it's looking all right. Yeah, holding up. What about Canada? Have we got anything on Canada? Yeah getting a bit of a turnaround in BC from what was looking like a bit of a mediocre season in places. Kicking horse powder all the way with great conditions down to the base, about 40 centimetres to come over the next week or so.

Same down in Fernie and even more forecast actually. Heading, anyone heading to that region is going to get plenty of powder, I think, over the next couple of weeks. I'm really hoping the Whistler gets. dumped on because that's where I'm heading at the end of March. I've only got four weeks and I know they've had a bit of a struggle of a season so let's hope that they they get treated.

I know they've had a little bit over the last few days so I'm really hoping that gets a bit of a turnaround.  I was also looking at Japan, actually, and then I found out that  James Gambrel, who we both know very well from Ski Club Great Britain, is actually there at the moment. So we, I managed to catch up with James and he has given us his own report about what the snow was like in Japan this week.

Let's hear that now.  Yeah, so plenty of snow down there. Not jealous at all. James Garble, who is he anyway? I mean, who's that guy? James Garble, who is this guy? We don't like him anymore, do we? Exactly. No longer a friend. Was a really nice bloke.  That just changed. 

So I think. Yeah, the worldwide situation for snow is actually looking very good now as we head into March. I think very little time spent in pubs during the day or even play Monopoly. Sorry,  reference to our last podcast there.  Well, it does seem to be a pattern forming for sure because this is happening across multiple seasons now where you get that decent start to December. 

Slightly tricky weather throughout January and a little bit over the place and then February and then March, April, suddenly you're getting great snow conditions. And I know I can remember having the same conversation last year. It was absolutely amazing. Yeah. Yeah, right. I think I agree. A pattern does seem to be forming.

The thing is. Wasn't, you know, in January when it did rain, that the temperature was right on that cusp, a few degrees lower, it would have been snow. Oh, can you imagine, you know, not much in it. I suppose the question is in the next few years, what that temperature, you know, will that temperature continue to rise?

Yeah. Data suggests that it will. So we need to manage that and potentially prepare for a warm spell midwinter every season. Is that, is that what we're looking at? Yeah. Yeah, maybe. Well, definitely over the last few years that, that later season has been the time to go and have a good time in the powder.

And, you know, so yeah, let's just see how it pans out. In the end of the day, the weather's the weather. I said to somebody the other day, the weather's the weather, it's going to do what it's going to do. So you just gotta,  you just gotta, you know, choose your destination and choose your timing and do what you can.

In the end of the day, you know, if you do go somewhere, I know it is disappointing if you get, you know, trickier weather or whatever. The mountains are fantastic places to be whatever the weather and you know, you can make a great holiday, but whatever happens, obviously we all want the skiing, but you can make a great holiday in the mountains, whatever happens. 

Yeah, I agree. I've skied, also skied through every month this winter so far.  including through the trickiest times in January. And I still had great skiing. I'm, I'm being honest. I still had great on peace skiing and okay. There was the odd day where the weather wasn't brilliant,  but you know, in general  it was absolutely fine.

So yeah.  Rob gear sections, the weather this week. Thank you. Ski weekends for sponsoring our weather section this week. And I was gonna say yeah, but I meant this week and after that we are heading over to Gear Corner to find out what's going on on the gear. Rob. So, mm-Hmm. I will kick this off because I got my hands on the ROIA protector attack, binding, I dunno whether you know this binding, but Tyro, massive manufacturer of bindings and I know many people don't even.

think about their bindings because they just buy a pair of skis and it gets slapped on with a pair of bindings and they just, you know, they're more excited about the graphics of the skis and whether they're the right skis for them which is understandable. But the very cool thing about the protector attack binding, and I will put a link in the notes is that it doesn't just release at the toe as we're all used to actually has.

A full degree of movement in the heel release as well. So you get the toe and heel release. I can't remember the percentage, but there is a, I'm sure there's a percentage heel release or an angle of however many degrees of heel release. But the whole point is, is obviously that when you do. Have a tumble that you've got that extra release for your heel and helps with any knee injuries or Achilles injuries, injuries, and really helps towards that.

So, yeah, I think that's a very, very cool. I've actually managed to get my hands on a set and I've got those on my skis. So it's not the sort of thing that every day you're sitting there going, Oh, I've got my protector attack bindings on. I'm so pleased with those, but one day if you take a tumble, they could be the things you're looking at and thinking.

You rescued my Achilles, or you rescued my knee here. So yeah, pretty cool. It's a serious bit of kit, isn't it? I mean, 320 pounds. Yeah. For a binding, so it's a serious bit of kit. It is.  I do remember, and I'm pretty sure, you know, I, I, I haven't done the, I haven't looked at this. I'm just going straight off the top of my head.

But I seem to remember that I think it was Tyronia many, many years ago, had a similar binding that also used to twist at the heel. And so they've got a big history of, Of this kind of technology and obviously they've updated that technology and they've released a sort of free ride binding. Yeah. That does that, which looks really interesting.

And I'm not sure why they stopped doing the hill release back in the day. Maybe the time release just got better. I don't know, but I think certainly worked. I mean, there's, you know, it's certainly, it's certainly worked back then. So yeah, really interesting. Very cool. Well, sound them up then. So what else?

Okay. Seed us. All right. The seed us. Ski comfort socks.  So these are anatomical ski socks.  But they're also providing warmth, a bit of extra warmth, protection as well, comfort during your skiing day. Made from recycled fiber and merino wool too, so it's a blend. And these socks, they sort of, they're designed to whisk.

moisture away from your feet to ensure optimal breathability. And that is really key when you're skiing, because if you have a thick sock and it's not breathing properly, what happens? Your feet actually get sweaty, even though it's cold outside. Then you go on a ski lift, like a chairlift and your feet freeze and you've got problems.

So, you know, breathability in socks is really, really important. So you can check these out on ski racing. co. uk.  And they're 25 pounds at retail. So, you know, if you're gonna buy, buy a pair of socks, try 'em out. And they, they sound, they sound very good. They sound great. Socks. I, I, I'm very into my ski socks and I haven't tried these, but I, I'll give 'em a go for sure.

Yeah, I, I too, very important. Ski socks are underrated. People just go out and buy a cheap, nasty pair of socks that, oh.  It's the worst thing you can do. You just really need a decent pair of ski socks. And if you buy, I'm not going to say it. If you buy a really decent pair of socks, you don't need to be changing them every day.

And you know, they are  worth their weight in gold for sure.  So I do a quick, can I do a quick tip here? Yeah. Just come in because I remember like a couple of weeks ago, I was skiing with my teenage daughter and every time she put her ski boots on. She'd tuck thick. She wouldn't pull out the. Like the base layer out of the boot or she'd tuck something into it.

And then I didn't notice. And then suddenly she'd be complaining about rubbing on her. You know shins and the thing is with a good ski sock is that you just want that ski sock to have contact with the boot. You don't want anything else getting in the ski socks way. You don't want a base layer. You don't want your ski trousers, anything in there, put it all out and just have the ski sock in there.

It's a good ski sock. You won't have problems with your shins. Good advice. Rob, make sure your daughter listens to this podcast.  She still won't, she still won't make any difference. It wouldn't make any difference.  The other thing I've got my hands on, which is super exciting. I'm not going to say what happened to it, but an Insta360 camera.

Very cool. Look up the Insta360 X3. So this is a let me think. How big is it smaller than a mobile phone? It's a camera. It films constantly films in 360 degrees.  And very, very slick when you, it actually blurs out the selfie stick. So the selfie stick disappears altogether.  I'd say it's best use is in selfie action.

It's probably not for filming. If you're going to film other people, you might as well just film on anything because anything could fail. But the great thing about this is when you get back, you can select the view that you want. So I can show either me skiing or me on a chairlift or.  I can show the viewer of where I was going, or I could use both of those clips.

So it's actually very, very slick indeed. And you don't see the selfie stick at all. So it actually looks like a mini drone hovering in front of you. It's priciest, 460 quid, loads of accessories, especially ski accessories, things that you can mount on your pole, on your chest, on your head. You can basically mount it anyway.

I think that's even got a wrist mount. Very, very slick. It's a great bit of kit. I think it's a fun bit of kit and it produces some great footage. The very cool thing you can do is when I went dog sledding, I filmed the dog sledding, some of it. And when I got back, instead of sitting there trying to edit, edit it myself to create something, I literally just pressed, it's got like an AI version of editing.

So just basically show me. a compilation of the best clips and it created its own mini movie and 360 degree and it was, it was very, very slick. So yeah, check that out at store. insta360. com. If you're into your your selfie sticks and your cameras and all that sort of stuff, great fun bit of kit for sure.

Nice. Okay. This, this one, I think I need this. It's called a bear hug. Yeah. It's a bamboo knee support. It's, so it provides both compression and it also promotes blood flow to the joints, ligaments as well, and all surrounding muscles, so. Oh, nice. Yeah. You get a bear hug. You get a bear hug. Get a bear hug.

Sport on the slopes helps you recover.  Apparently from aches and pains. Nice. At pray. So stick it on, stick on the bear hug around your knee and, and it helps you. Yeah. Helps you recover. So it looks like a nice piece of kit. Very fun thing as well. Yeah. You can get it at get, get a bear hug. com. Good name.

Get a bit. Or even decathlon. co. uk, they stock it as well. So that's 44. 99. So it's a proper knee compression yeah, it's a proper knee brace, basically, like a, you know, not, not a brace, but a knee, yeah, knee support, yeah.  Yeah. And knee support. It's a, it's a bamboo knee support, so it's not, it's not a medical piece of kit, you know, it's not something that a doctor or a physio is going to issue you sort of stuff.

But yeah, it looks good. I. That's good. Very good.  Very good. Well, that's a nice little gear round up for this week. 

A shout out today to our friends at the Snow Centre in 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 metre main slope, family snow fun with a Ringo slide, and an alpine themed bar and restaurant.

There is something for everyone. Visit the snowcenter. com for more information. Ah, great place, Rob. We love the snow center, nice and near to me, so very handy whenever we fancy a little snow fix.  It's a great place, isn't it? Just a nice atmosphere in there as well. That's the good thing about it. Love it. 

What have we got next going into our resort spotlight, Rob? What have we got in store this week for our resort spotlight? I know you mentioned Spain and it's not a place that I know for skiing.

I know about it for when I go to the beach, but what are we talking about this week?  Yeah. So most people know the Pyrenees, obviously Andorra as well, but there's also ski resorts. On the Spanish side of the Pyrenees, such as Bakira, which is probably the best, most well known ski resort. Yeah, it's well known. 

There's also some small ski areas close to Madrid, probably not really enough for sort of international visitors, but then if you head further South, right, in fact, all the way South to Grenada.  There's a single stand alone ski resort there called Sierra Nevada.  I like the sound of that. I've heard of it.

I have heard of Sierra Nevada. I've seen some great photos come out of there. It's not a place I know, but I guess a lot of British skiers may or may not have been there. If you're talking about spring skiing, it's quite a long way south, isn't it? So, warm? Yeah, it can be. I mean, it, it's also very high though.

It goes up to well over 3, 000 metres. Okay. The season does normally last until the end of April, actually. Okay. I mean, maybe not from mid station downwards.  You know, there's plenty from mid station upwards. I'm looking at conditions right now as we head into March. They've got decent cover. I'd say it looks like around two thirds of the skier skiing areas fully open at the moment.

The upper mountain is, is in good shape actually with, and you can still ski down to the resort village right now. Okay. So what's the ski area like then? I mean, is that  presumably not, is it a massive, big ski area? I mean, what sort of ski area? You know, it's, it's, it's  fairly sizable. I mean, everything is pretty much above the tree line and there's some really wide open slopes up there.

There's a really, really good learner skiing area just above the mid station of Boreguil, Boreguil. I don't know if that's how you pronounce it, but Boreguil which is also the main hub of the ski resort reached. By a couple of a couple of gondolas from the village there's actually six separate ski sectors on the mountain, and there's 112 round 112 kilometers of slopes in total.

So respectable. I think right now with what's open, there's about 75 kilometers available at the moment. It, it does have, as far as I know, it's got the highest vertical drop in Spain, and they do hold a number of international skiing and snowboarding competitions there, regular World Cup events. In 2017, they hosted the Freestyle World Championships and back in 1996, they also staged the Alpine Skiing World Championships there as well.

Okay, so pretty respectable ski area. They're not huge, but nice. And I guess, you know, if you like exploring different runs every day they're not going to get bored for a few days at least.  Exactly. And yeah, you won't get bored. Terrain is pretty varied. There's a nice mix of blues, reds the odd black.

When there's fresh powder, there's some Great off piste skiing opportunities as well, just in the bowls around the main ski area. You don't have to go far, too far afield. During the week non holiday weeks, you know, it doesn't get that busy. I mean, I went there a few years ago in February half term week.

I was actually fine. This winter they've opened four new lifts, brand new. New chairlifts replacing some old ones and a replacement gondola for one of the main ones that goes out of the resort. So big investments in what is already a pretty deep, decent lift infrastructure actually. Nice nice resort. 

Yeah, it's very purpose built but it looks quite nice. I mean, it's, it's a nice spread of buildings. Including hotels and chalets. It feels a little bit like an American ski resort in some ways to me. Oh, wow. You know, the sort of base area where everything goes from. Lots of cafes, bars and restaurants in that area.

When we, I went there as a family, we found it really convenient, actually easy to manage. Not much walking around to the ski lifts. Yeah. There's a bit of skiing, ski out accommodation as well. Good atmosphere during apres, you know, not manic, just nice. Spanish, few beers and tapas dishes and not really expensive at all.

I mean, you know, prices are higher than say down in the town of Granada, but we'll get to that in a minute,  but still very reasonable. I think I remember paying a few euros literally for a beer and tapas at the bottom of the slopes.  Okay. That sounds like a bit of me.  And yeah, I mean, that sounds great. 

So accommodation, nice accommodation, hotels, that sort of stuff. Yep. Yep. There's a number of hotels quite a few large four stars that aren't necessarily cheap, but they are good value, you know, decent quality. I did a quick online search today for the hotel that I stayed in when I was there, the four star Melia and for five nights in March for two adults, including breakfast and dinner.

And dinner was good, you know, lots of. Lots of, lots of courses and all that sort of stuff is coming in at around a thousand pounds, which for, you know, that's the two P that's, that's, that was for the two people which for half board in a four star hotel, right in town, isn't bad at all. Right. It's really good.

That doesn't include anything else. It's just a hotel. I could get a nice one bedroom department for half of that price for five nights and, and others that look decent enough for even less than that. Yeah. Well, that sounds really good. So is there much else to do there? I mean, is it sort of a place where there's other stuff? 

Haha, yeah, great question. A lot, really. The first thing is how close it is to the city of Granada. Okay. It's only, it's about a 40 minute drive between the two. Okay. And it's worth staying there for, for a night or two, especially if you want to combine a visit to the Alhambra. The 11th century palace built by Muslim rules rulers of Spain  nearly a thousand years ago.

It's, it's now a UNESCO world heritage site. You know, it's a bit quieter in the winter months as well. So that's definitely worth seeing. Yeah. It's Granada is a fun city. It's worth checking out the flamenco evenings or, you know, just the one euro beer and tapas bars that I found. That was a few years ago, but you know it's great for food, not particularly expensive, especially if you're prepared to sort of seek those things out. 

And then back up in Sierra Nevada itself, there's, you know, some of the usual non skiing activities. There's a toboggan ride, you know, one of those fixed toboggan rides and also toboggan slopes. We actually took a cat machine up to the top of the mountain. We didn't have to drive that. We were driven up there.

You get driven up at the sunset where you can then see the sun setting and the coast of North Africa as well.  Yeah.  But actually I think the best thing of all maybe is especially during the spring is the chance to combine a trip with visiting Malaga on the coast, you know, a couple of hours drive, really cool city and there's a beach and I mean, it's, it's not really realistic to ski in that they say, Oh, you can do ski and beach in a day.

I mean, it's, that's a. That's a bit of a tall order, that.  But, you know, if you do a night or two in Malaga and combine it, you know,  Torremolinos is down the road as well. Torremolinos. Yeah, yeah. Not too far away.  You know, Malaga's the airport to fly in and out of anyway, so it makes sense to combine the two.

Sounds great. That's really, I like the sound of this.  A nice way to mix skiing and the city. So yeah, I like, I like it. What about booking a holiday there? What the tour operators, the tour operators go there, I guess.  Yep. They used to be several, unfortunately, you know, I think since COVID maybe some of them haven't gone back, but ski solutions offer the four star Melia and also the five star.

I've been to that place. It's really, really nice. Great food. They package that up with flights and a transfer. So I guess that's, there's, there's a package there. Yeah. I spoke to, I actually spoke to Ski Weekends earlier as well, and they've traditionally operated in the resort and they can take bookings for Sierra Nevada.

And they're looking to put that back on their program properly again for next season. As well. Interesting. So you could do short breaks as well. Whiskey weekends, which is, is. You know, easy to do. You can book independently, you know, I, you know, when I went every half term week, I found flights with Tui, you can put them separately.

They weren't expensive, really cheap, actually. And we were the only skiers on the flight. Like everyone else was going to Torremolinos literally. And then I just rented a car and drove to Granada.  And then, and then onto Sierra Nevada after that, before heading back to Malaga. So we stayed a couple of nights in Granada, four nights in Sierra Nevada.

One night in, in in Malaga. So what's that total drive then? From Malaga up to the resort?  To the re No, I think you can do the re Oh gosh. I need to check. I think you could do the resort in three hours from Malaga. Okay.  Yeah. Or maybe just over three hours. That's reasonable.  To the, to the actual resort, Granada is a couple of hours.

Yeah,  yeah. That sounds good. Sort of drive. Yeah.  Sounds like a pretty decent experience. I like the sound of that. It's a nice mix of skiing and culture and potentially even getting down for a few days in the sun. So I quite like the sound of that. Especially if you went,  you know, if you went at this time of the year, if you went Easter, I mean, if they still had half a cent of snow, you'd probably start getting 20 degree temperature down at the beach.

If you went back down to Malaga, it'd be alright, wouldn't it? Oh yeah.  Well, I mean, I did a weather search for Malaga today, the first week of March, right? It's 19 degrees and sunny down there. Love it. I mean, it's not tropical, but, you know, it was a similar temperature during the Feb half term week when we were there as well.

Wow. So not, not sitting on the beach and then going for a swim kind of weather. No. But,  you know. Oh yeah, but. Pleasant. Well, it'll feel even warmer coming from the ski resort as well, so you're  gonna see like a 15 odd or 20 degree change from where you've just been, so I think that'd be pretty cool.  And you know, in February, late February or early March, when it's still cold in the UK, to get that kind of nice Nice, pleasant 1920 degrees in the middle of the day.

It's very, very nice. And and of course, when you mentioned Easter, you know, the chances are it's going to be even warmer  during Easter. So yeah, you can definitely do some skiing and some beach time. For sure.  I definitely like that contrast. You like the sound of that Rob? I'll tell you another thing I like the sound of is our bucket list trip for this week as we leave behind in our taillights the Malaga, Granada and Sierra Nevada and we head to none other than  sunny Turkey. 

A popular summer destination for our bucket list destination.  Absolutely.  Yeah. It's not obviously the nor, it's not the obvious skiing destination, is it?  They've got a lot of mountainous terrain there. Yeah. Get a lot of snow in the winter. Yeah. I haven't been, I haven't skied there myself, although I've, I've skied on the border, Georgia Turkey border, which was amazing. 

Yeah. So thing is.  Our friends, right?  Snowboard journalist Luke Rees from all365. com and Jamie Barrow, record breaking speed snowboarder. They are there right now, actually, catskiing and splitboarding on a trip that I, I nearly went on.  What a bit of luck, Rob, because featuring  Turkey this week on our bucket list destination, neither of us have been there.

Thank goodness we found somebody who was there. I mean, isn't that just luck?  Yes.  That's very, very convenient that they happened to be there this week. Fantastic. Well, Rob, so you managed to catch up with them. Let's have a listen to what what they've got to say, because I'm pretty keen to find out because I too have another friend who's out in Turkey this week as well.

We could have hooked the two up.  Let's hear what Luke and Jamie had to say about Turkey. Let's get a listen.  Well, that sounds pretty damn cool. I mean, maybe not for everyone, but definitely a bucket list stuff for skiers and snowboarders looking for a bit of adventure. And Turkey's well known as a summer destination, so why not winter too?

I mean, why haven't we done this? Yeah. Well, absolutely. Next season, Dom. Let's go. Yeah. You know, I like the idea of that sort of remote experience that they're having there. Yeah. Combined with visiting Istanbul as well. Very cool. Yeah, very cool. Well, sounds good to me. We need to get started looking at these more unusual places.

I think something a bit off the beaten track, you know indeed. Absolutely.  Very good. So  that's it for this week. Then next week, we're going to hook up with Ben and Clow and do our special episode on them gallivanting around the Alps for weeks now on their 24th resort in two months to see how they're getting on.

They've had a good time, haven't they? Do you think we won't like them after this conversation as well? Do you think they'll be more unpopular as more adding to our list of unpopular people? Yeah, they can go in the same bucket as James Gamble. They're somewhere where we want to be, so we don't like them. 

Well, it's a good chance to thank our listeners for listening. Every one of you in one of those 71 countries that we're listening to, Rob, I'm sure that's not everywhere. So, but please, please do one thing. Just leave us a review. It really helps like minded skiers find us. So it's the only way that these clever algorithms decide which podcast to push to the top.

We get well over a thousand downloads a week, which is great. And we thank you for your loyalty and for telling your mates how hilarious Rob and I are, Rob, what do you think?  Yeah, stick to the truth, Dom. Come on, stick to the truth. I mean, thousand downloads over a thousand dollars a week. Yes. 

Not only in our world, as my daughter says, dad, you're the only one who laughs at your dad, your jokes. And I'll leave you with that thought,  Rob, have a good weekend Corinthia. And we look forward to catching up with Ben and Clau this week in the meantime, safe travels.  Cheers, Dom. Adios. Adios.