S2. E21 Where's the Best Snow, Ski Carinthia, Best Spring Ski Sunglasses, Global Ski News

In this weeks episode Dom and Rob delve into what's been happening around the world's ski scene, from new lifts in Chamonix to the World Cup Finals in Saalbach.

They also share where is best to ski now as we head into the real meat of the spring skiing season.

Then they feature the best sunglasses for spring skiing as well as a new visor from Valon!

Not to be outdone, they also have a resort spotlight on the fabulous destination of Carinthia before introducing next weeks episode, where they will be talking to the legendary Dan Egan about helisiing in Alaska...what more could you want from a ski podcast!?

Enjoy the ride :)

   
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News

Chamonix opens new Montenvers lift montblancnaturalresort.com
Learn French and ski packages - Morzine-based Alpine French School alpinefrenchschool.com
World Cup Finals take place in Salbaach

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

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GEAR
VALLON RELEASES VINTAGE-STYLE SPORTS SUN ‘VIZOR’ Vallon.com

Best Sunglasses for Spring Skiing
BLOC Twenty-Five X4900
Zeal Incline
Messyweekend MAKALU
Goodr I Do My Own Stunts  Extreme Dumpster Diving
BLOC Beck XMB80
Messyweekend MW SPEED
Sungod

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Spotlight on Heiligenblut, Carinthia

How do you get to Heiligenblut?
London Stanstead to Klagenfurt with Ryanair
2 hour drive through lovely scenery and then up a long valley where right at the end, you get to Heiligenblut.

Whats the town actually like…
It’s not big it’s really a village so it’s pretty quiet there’s some lovely hotels there including the 4* Kärntnerhof which is where I stayed. The standard of the hotel accommodation is really high and the food was excellent too. It’s very much settle into the hotel territory and enjoy relaxing, it’s not party central.

The skiing
It’s definitely for the more adventurous skier
It’s not a huge resort in terms of the mileage with around 50km’s of marked runs The longest is 10 kilometres
Really good snow record and the village is at 1300 metres and it goes up to 2600 metres

The mix of really long runs and the off-piste terrain is the draw, plus the scenery and the fact it’s suc

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

 Dave Riding, Laurie Taylor, Billy Morgan.  They're all 

Springer. Is that a word? Springer Springer condition

Is that what I'm going into? I don't know whether I'm ready for that

I haven't told my wife yet

it encapsulates, encapulates,  no, does that, is that right? Encapsulates.

I mean, try saying that when you've had a beer on the Farineh terrace 

your helmet will be very happy about that 

That's what we should be called, Rob. Grippy When Wet

also be a good name for a band. Adjustable noses.

I'm a little worried about exploring your jokes about German sausages





 So hi, and welcome to the 21st edition of this season's The Whiteout podcast. I'm Don Killinger from In The Snow magazine, and I'm with my co host, as usual, the fabulous Rob Stewart of SkiFrest, the person that's probably, you've probably seen more winter, more snow this winter than any other season air, Rob.

Oh yeah.  Yeah, you're probably right, Tom. Yeah, well, you know, when I'm out at a ski resort talking to people that live there, they just don't get out that much. Nowhere near as much as they should, but yeah, I'm fine. I'm actually, I'm drying out from a camping trip to the Peak District this week. I don't know what else to say. 

It was slightly harsh. More about that at another podcast episode because it was really interesting, but it was also the Peak District in the middle of March in a tent. But I am seeing some more snow next week. What about you, Dom? Yeah, had a little bit of a break here to get some work done but getting ready for a pretty epic adventure to Canada, as you know, of course.

Probably already bored you about this, Rob, but heading off to Whistler and stopping in Seattle and then off to Palisades, California. So camping in the middle of March in North England, Palisades, Tahoe Seattle. California. Yeah, I think I've got the stick. I think so. Yeah. I mean, it's fair question.

Why? Why would you do that? But that it was an outdoor industry event called and social or outdoor social where brands and retailers get together for product training in the field. I think it's a great idea. Very well organized, well attended, especially considering it was the first one of its kind. Yeah, I'd say rather it was in May for me, you know, not only is it just full on still with the ski season, but it's also a bit, bit nippy out there right now.

But I know, you know, for the outdoor industry, it's good timing and, and, you know, they're, they're a hardy bunch. And like me, really, you're supposed to like the cold, Rob. You're supposed to like the cold. We're talking about a ski podcast at the moment.  Well, like you say, you're supposed to like the cold, but obviously we're well wrapped up in decent quality clothing when we go skiing, aren't we?

And we're probably staying by a nice hotel somewhere. A nice little three star hotel in the French Alps. You're not used to being cold in a little tent.  Yeah, definitely. I think it's always good to get outdoors even when the weather isn't perfect, but you know,  hang on. I've, I've, I've been sent to the North of England in the middle of March.

Lovely that the peak district is and all that. But when you're, when you're then going to Whistler and Palisades, hang on and Seattle  home to grunge music,  I'm going to add, I do hope you're making something that as well, making something out of that. I'm obviously doing something wrong here. You're off to blimmin Seattle.

I'm in the north of England in a tent.  Smart planning, Rob. Smart planning. That's what it's all about. No, I, I have to say I'm very much looking forward to it. We haven't been away as a family until since New Year because everybody's done their individual trips this year.  With the kids going off on ski trips and all of that.

So yeah, yeah, it's going to be a pretty cool trip. Very excited about it. Especially as a Whistler have had about a meter and a half of snow this week. So hopefully I get the big, deep snow and not the lift lines. Yeah. And then the Groningen scene in Seattle. Well, I might bump into Dave Grohl. I'll say hello from you, Rob. 

Yeah. Thanks, Dom. He'll appreciate that. I'm sure. It's actually, this is a good opportunity to give a shout out to my favorite at Preyski band, the Revolver Lights. Right.  They play endless gigs in places like Meribel and Zermatt. Great guys. I saw them in Courchevel recently. Nice. And we also see them performing at UK industry, industry events as well.

Right. Yeah. Can you, you picture the singer?  Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know the guy, guy with the black hair, the blonde hair. That's right.  So I was sitting in the campsite this week and there's a guy, Sitting opposite me, he was the exact  doppelganger of him. I mean, I'm, I'm talking a total replica. Wow.

I'm like sitting there going, it's the revolver lights guy. So I, I literally had to go up to him and said, have you got a brother in a band? And he went, no, it's really uncanny when you see that sort of thing. And I showed him a photo of the singer, you know, the guy from revolver lights. And he was just like, Oh my God, it's like he saw a ghost.

It was quite funny. Anyway, just thought I'd mention that. Sorry. I'm, I'm a bit off, off topic, but like when we're all skiing and everybody thinks I'm skiing with Brad Pitt when I'm with you yeah, thank goodness. This is an audio show because  all I need to do, Dom is agree with you, right? And everyone will know now believe that I look like Brad. Okay. So let's just keep that in everyone's mind. Come on. We might increase our listeners.  Of course, you don't need to be compared to anyone, Dom.

You just don't. I remember being on a flight once and and all the air hostesses were gathered together giggling and kept pointing at me. And I was thinking, this is a bit weird. I mean, like,  this is odd. And they generally thought I was Michael Keaton.  Michael Keaton? Yes. Batman. Oh yeah, yeah. No, absolutely.

No, I can see that. Yeah. Michael Keaton. It must been, I, I think it was when I was a bit younger. I mean, this is probably about 15 years ago, 14 years ago. And there was a new airline and we were, we were pretty much the only people on the plane, so obviously the focus was on us. But these, these air host, this is, were obsessed with,  and they were, you know, they had a pic, they had a copy of Okay.

Magazine, and they were peeling out these pictures of Michael Keaton and putting them up next to me. It was hilarious. Really. So yeah, that's the only one that's just a quick, quick shout out to all the Netflix producers or maybe the Lionsgate producers that are listening to the show right now. 

Just to say, if you need a Brad Pitt and Michael Keaton for the next.  Big blockbuster movie. Yep. Just come to us. 'cause we'll fill in and we'll do it for half the price, right. Half the, I reckon half the price. We can ski and we can ski so we can That's true. We can do the ski scene and we can be there double.

You know how come, and I can probably do some kind of Southern American accident if they want me to do a kind of Brad Pitt type of thing. I can, I can do that. That's, that's okay. That's I'm fair with that. Oh man, let's get into my Chevy and head down the road,  go down to a, as if, as if the image of you, Rob doesn't quite match the Brad Pitt thing.

The accent, I think possibly kills it.  Really? Yeah. I'm sure that's not his real accent, but I mean, I've definitely heard him in movies where he does that sort of Southern drawl type of thing. Maybe. Well, this does. A bottle of bourbon in his hand. If you want to see what Rob really looks like, then head over to the In The Snow YouTube channel and you'll see how much like Brad Pitt he actually is.

He'll be there in his full glory.  Yeah, you've just shattered millions of women's dreams, Dom, or maybe some men's too. And actually on that point, I'm reminded that next week I'm in tea. And little did I know that it's been two weeks. Ride week there. Oh, wow. And yeah, can we get any accommodation sorted out?

It was very tricky. Fortunately the end we have but it, but it wasn't easy, actually. That is going to be some good week of partying there, I can imagine. Yeah, I, I think it will be. I shall report back. I'm sure, I'm sure the atmosphere is going to be fantastic in Teane next week.  Sounds like a lot of fun.

So, Rob, that is it for this week. We're finished.  Heading on to our news section for this week, Rob, what is in the news this week? What have we got?  Yeah, it's a bit of news around. 

I've seen that Chamonix has opened a new lift on Montenvar. We've been hearing about this for quite a while. If you've skied the Valley Blanche from the Agui de Midi above Chamonix, then it's likely you've taken the gondola. up to Montenver and then the train back down to Chamonix again. I mean, occasionally it's possible to ski all the way back to Chamonix, but even when I first did the Vallée Blanche, just going to say in 1994 we couldn't do that then.

So what we could do though, is ski to the gondola itself. And that hasn't been possible for years due to the retreat of the glacier.  So the resort has built a new lift that starts at the, at the new base of the glacier where it's melted down to meaning no more steps up big long metal steps to get up to that gondola.

It will also improve access to the glacier in the summer. I'm sure the new lift would also be more efficient because the queues could be very long to get down to the glacier in the summer. So more information on the new lift can be found at Mont Blanc natural resort. It's, it's long awaited and it's a, it's a good investment, I think, for the result.

Yeah, absolutely. We'll put a link to that in the podcast notes. We've also got learning French and ski packages. So Morzine based Alpine school French is giving skiers a chance to learn the local lingo while getting a chance to ski at the same time. So that's very cool. Learn French and ski and snowboard package.

So it's a couple of hours of French tuition each day, two to two to four hours of French tuition each day for five days, and then a six day ski pass for the Porte de Soleil. So that's a very good idea. It also includes lessons self catered apartment, half board accommodation if you want. At one of the families partnered with the Alpine French ski school.

So yeah, really nice idea. All candidates were evaluated before enrolling. So everyone is placed in a group that's suitable for their level, which is really nice. Make sure you just achieve everything you want to achieve, whether it's be learning ski and learning to speak French at the same time. I like this.

It's a great setup. Yeah, it's a great setup. Yeah. Yeah, I've, I've, my daughter's actually joined the summer camp there a couple of times and it's, it's really good. Yeah.  We'll put a link to that in the podcast notes as well. Alpinefrenchskischool. com.  Alpinefrenchschool. com. Yep. Yeah. So what else have we got going on?

Yeah, I'm just, I'm going to mention the World Cup finals taking place in Saalbach, Austria the fifth Alpine World Cup hasn't exactly had the smoothest winter season we could say with races cancelled because of too much or too little snow, but it's looking good for the World Cup finals starting this weekend in the Austrian resort of Saalbach.

This is a bit of a test event for the Alpine Skiing World Championships take place in the resort next winter and the finals. They see both the men and the women reunite together for all of the Alpine disciplines. They've been split into technical and speed events over consecutive weekends,  starting this weekend with the Slalom and the GS events, and then from next Friday the Super G and Downhills.

Yeah, I mean, some of the overall titles are already done, right? They're a done deal, including obviously the incredible Michaela Schifrin, who came back from injury last week in Aura, Sweden. She cruised to victory, securing a record breaking eighth overall slalom title. Wow. Yeah. I mean, I, you know, watching that race was amazing.

You know, she just, Literally smashed it and then Austria's Manuel Feller has also secured his slalom title early on too. So that's all done, but really excited for this weekend. See all three Brits back in action. Of course, Dave Riding, Laurie Taylor, Billy Morgan.  They're all doing really well right now.

Hopefully Charlie Guest can improve her as her results as well after a bit of a disappointing season for her standards. So let's see. Anyway, Eurosport covering all those races as usual over this weekend and next. Very good. Love that. So that's it for the news this week. And of course, the thing that we're all waiting for is what is the weather like?

Where is best to ski right now? Brought to you in association with Ski Weekends. Absolutely. Right. Time to look at the overall mountain weather and snow forecast situation as we head Into the spring skiing season. That's it. Spring skiing as we love it. Basically. Let's look at the situation because the Alps has an altitude split and lots of snow above 16, 1800 meters.

That's obvious from all the YouTube and social media videos that we see is a little natural, little natural snow coverage below that, but there's a lot of ski resorts in the Alps where skiing is very, very good. That's. Absolutely certain. Even the lower altitude towns where their upper runs are in good condition.

And in many places it's possible to still ski all the way down. So thanks to the combination of artificial snow and a bit of snowmaking and that sort of stuff. So yeah, it's there is definitely some good skiing out there. I've seen a lot of friends and colleagues having a great time in a lot of resorts.

So yeah. It's good. Yeah, exactly. I mean, higher altitude resorts like teen obviously have great cover all the way down right now. And in fact, when you look at the snow depths above 2000 meters, there's definitely more than we've seen in a while. I think a few years is very, very good. And a bit more is forecast this weekend, although we have been hearing about.

You know, warmer temperatures now too. I mean, I think it's, it is warming up basically. Yeah. Yeah. Heading into spring. So Italy's had a good run of it too. So at Southern side of the Alps and the Western Alps fared pretty well, the best with the East and the Northern side, not getting as much, but despite that, there's still generally pretty decent snow conditions for mid March in Austria and Switzerland too.

So. It does look like temperatures as we go into next weekend and be honest, starting to look a little bit warmer again, which isn't unusual for this time of year  as we head into Easter. So classic spring conditions, which are, which are lovely. Let's face it. We all love spring conditions. So see what happens there, I suspect by the end of the next week and into April we could end up being a bit of a classic spring season, which I think we'd all love anyway. 

Yeah, definitely. All right, let's look at some specific resorts across the Alps, starting in France. I'm going to start with tea because I'm up there next week. So I thought I might as well check, check teed out. Snow cover is very good. Slightly warmer temperatures and creating, you know, it's creating some spring skiing conditions right now. 

Now this week is likely to bring more sun with a bit of snow forecast here and there.  I don't think significant amounts, but sort of top up snow.  They're more sun until the end of the month, when there is a suggestion that colder temperatures will return,  bringing more snow at the end of this month. And that's not just team that's kind of looks like across the Alps.

Oh, that will be fun. But yeah, that's a, that's a longer term forecast. I'm looking two weeks plus ahead here, but it's, it's suggesting that it's going to get colder. But what about Switzerland, Dom?  So yeah, in general, it's similar to France with a good snow above 1800 meters not so much below that, but good spring skiing on the upper slopes with some artificial runs to resort level holding up in places such as Grindelwald where one run is open to the village.

If we look at Engelberg on the Northern edge of the Alps, it's similar with good snow up on the mountain, but definitely nothing in town now. They are down to around a thousand meters there. So as you can imagine, so forecast is similar to France, a bit of snow, about 1600 meters over the weekend, and then some more sun and some good spring ski conditions as you would expect.

Yeah.  Yeah. Right now it's a similar situation in Italy. I mean, they had some great snowfall, but temperatures have warmed up. But there is plenty of snow around, not much at resort level. You know, or any, depending on, of course, where, where you are altitude wise.  And again, I think that  1500 meter level is a pretty good sort of marker for where the snow starts.

And we need to remember that above 1800 meters, there's actually a lot of snow in the Alps. I reckon more than in the last few years. Yeah.  Courmayeur and the Oyster Valley is looking good on the mountain. They are forecasting around 25 centimeters of snow on the upper runs over the next few days. Not much below the mid station and the snow line again is around 16 to 1800 meters where, you know, above that it's really good.

Very good. Well, on the note of Italy there, I had a message just come through just now from Judith, who is a listener. Judith is the one that was heading up to Corvara. She must know when we're recording the podcast each week because she sends it through right now and said, if you're recording a podcast right now, we've had the most fantastic week in Italy, loads of snow and .

every condition possible. However, it is like water skiing when you get down to the village with one of those smiley faces. But fabulous. Yeah.  Looking very, very glamorous, beautiful,  beautiful area. Love that. So very jealous. Thank you very much, Judith, for contacting us. And then thinking about Austria. 

Very similar conditions in Austria as well as you'd expect. Actually, although the valley and places like Kitzbühel are green, there's still great snow cover on the slopes, especially from the mid stations upwards. I mean, pretty decent cover there. If you're based in somewhere like St. Christophe and you know yeah, I mean, you've got full snow coverage in the village, just looking at some pictures there and plenty of it.

So. Kitsbull is snowless in the town but there's still good snow up on the slopes there as well. Forecast for the next couple of weeks is pretty spring like with a bit of snow on the upper slopes over the next few days. So very similar again above 1500 meters, rain below, but it won't be significant amounts and that snow up high should make things a little a little tastier up there.

So yeah, nice. That's good on the Alps. It is good. Yeah. You know, yesterday I was speaking to the guys at Scandinavian travel and they reminded me what a great season Norway and Sweden has had perhaps not epic, epic amounts of snow quite a bit and just consistent. And they certainly haven't had any issues with like, you know, rain on lower slopes or slopes without snow.

They continue to have good conditions now. And I think Easter will be very, very good in Norway in particular. I mean, looking at trees all right now in Norway, great snow cover, really good, more snow this weekend with cold, you know, at least around zero degrees temperatures for the next couple of weeks.

So yeah, good stuff in Scandinavia. Right. Dom, come on North America. You're heading there soon. What's the situation like? Ah, yeah. Well, still plenty of winter in Colorado and Breckenridge is getting topped up pretty nicely. I'm heading to Palisades Tahoe next month and right now conditions are looking very, very good.

We've. Powder snow and more falling. The sun will come out over the next week or so, and the temperatures are going to rise. So you can expect some spring, more spring light conditions there. Springer. Is that a word? Springer Springer condition. I think we can make that worse. Springer conditions, Springer conditions.

Yeah. By  the end of the month colder weather again. Crikey. Is that what I'm going into? I don't know whether I'm ready for that. And more snow. April could be good. Crikey. It snows again. I'm just not prepared for that at all. Anyway, I was planning on nice timing. Yeah. Nice timing. We do want a bit of sun though, don't we?

Especially if we've been hanging around in the UK this winter.  It doesn't feel like there's been a lot of that but nice timing, nice timing. Yeah. Before that I'm out in Whistler, which is currently it is spring like, but they had a big dump in the last four or five days where they had over a week and a half this week.

So that's looking good. I'm just hoping that hangs on by the time I get there. So yeah.  Lucky you Dom classic spring skiing mixed with sun and then more snow. I think it's, it's very unlikely people will be traveling to Japan this late in the season. But skiing in Niseko, you know, if you're up that way, they are still getting snow down to lower levels and also down in Hukuba, Hukuba.

It's, it's a bit more spring like down there, but some snow is forecast so decent, even though, you know, for their standards, it hasn't really been an epic season. No, but you know, it's, it's still very good. Yeah, still very, very good. Yeah. Epic in these people's worlds in North America and Japan and Canada.

Very different to our epic. So yeah, they, they have large expectations. They do.  Well, there's a good little snow roundup this week. Thanks to our partners at Ski Weekends. And yeah, let's let's find out what it's actually going to be like. You're out in teen. I'm going to bail in North America and Canada.

So let's see what it's going to be like. We will report back in a couple of weeks time on that onto  what is next gear. We haven't got much gear. Have we robbed? Because obviously it's this time of year when there's nobody's, nobody's creating a new bubble hat at this time of year, are they? Well, they're not.

And, and, you know, in, in the autumn and through into the early part of the wind winter, we do get lots and lots of brands launching new products that we for the seat, the ski season we're starting to run out at the moment as we go into the summer. But yeah, I, I did get something from Valon and the, the brand Valon.

They've released this vintage style sports sun visor. Right. Nice. Finally, finally, a real visor for sun protection, say Valor,  you know, sort of cool retro ski goggle company, right? Born out of Verbier. Yeah. But now the seventies retro sun visor, you know, that sort of thing that you might have seen beyond Borg wearing at 1970s. 

Yeah.  It gets a serious upgrade with the, with the UV 365 protection.  Nice. So that's that vintage style visor that Valon also say it encapsulates, encapulates,  no, does that, is that right? Encapsulates. The fun of the seventies. The fun of the seventies. Yeah. And outdoor sports pursuits. Amazing. It must be an amazing visor to encapsulate the fun of the seventies.

Imagine that all in a visor.  Yes. Put it on and suddenly you're like Bjorn Borg bouncing around the tennis court.  Yeah.  But this is a serious visor. Okay. This is what is featuring a cat for UV 365 rated transparent lens. The visor helps shield the eyes from the sun and glare paired with a Valon striped owl, sweat band available in three classic colorways.

Apparently  it is the ultimate performance lifestyle accessory for 2024. Again that is Valon's words for their recent press from their press release launching this product. But I mean, well. I'll agree as spring kicks in, I would say this bit of kit is perfect for a cold beer on the terrace of the Faraday pub.

How much are we talking Rob?  65 euros check it out at valon. com. Very. V A L L O N.  com.  While we're on the subject of spring skiing and and visors, what about a quick run through of sunglasses? We took a very quick look at some of our favorite sunglasses , for skiing this spring.

We saw the block 25 X 4, 900 category for Rob only category four. You can't believe it. So the new 25 sunglasses are the ideal partner for demanding activities engineered to enhance performance and provide total protection. So are you wearing those? Very, very nice. We've done a YouTube video on the best Sunglasses for spring skiing.

So that's the block 25 X 4, 900. What else have we got? The zeal incline. Do you know about those Rob?  Yep Zeal, Zeal Incline. It features Zeal's ProFlex rubber inlays on the temple tips and nose bridge to keep them in place on the steepest descents even. They won't fly off apparently, while the classic design and keyhole bridge of the sunglasses make it a timeless fit for any adventure.

Whether wild or refined and I didn't know and only 125 quid. I mean, they are nice glasses. Yeah. Yeah. And the other ones messy weekend. Makalu really nice. 65 quid. Messy weekend. Really nice. They make nice goggles and they make nice sunglasses. They're named after the fifth highest mountain in the world.

Makalu built to keep up with any sportsman durable. Yeah. Like handcrafted TR 90 frame, whatever that means. Quality anti scratch lens. And 100 percent UVA, UVB protection and they are  65 quid as well. Messy weekend. What else have we got? The Apex IQ2 . 89, 99,  the IQ2. Yeah.  Bio based plastic frame glasses, right? With polarized lenses and heliophobic lens as well. I mean, try saying that when you've had a beer on the Farineh terrace large frame expanded fill of view, complete UV protections, category two, UV 400 helmet compatible.

Yeah. So your helmet will be very happy about that. Rubber nose and temple stay grippy. Even when wet. I mean,  Grippy When Wet. That should be a band name, couldn't it? Grippy When Wet. Love it. That's what we should be called, Rob. Grippy When Wet. I think an app for a ski band called Grippy When Wet would actually be very, very good.

I am registering that domain now.  GrippyWhenWet. com. I mean, how good is that?  Although I think the next term that this FX  use for their glasses could also be a good name for a band. Adjustable noses. 

I mean, that's a great name for a band, isn't it? Hey, we're the adjustable noses.  I like that. Yeah, that's brilliant. Ultra fast lens change, photochromic lenses available.  That is not a good name for a band. No, no. Moving on is good art as well. If you haven't already heard of the brand, good art, good with an R at the end really nice sunglasses as well.

They have two styles. One call I do my own stunts in the other one called the extreme dumpster.  They're around 45 pounds, 55 Euros, Sonny's for runners, riders and shredders is what they say. So check them out@goodart.co. Do uk.  What else? Any other recommendations of sunglasses There are. What else have we got on here?

 There's so many. I just, I know thinking back in the day, you know, when we wore sunglasses on the slopes, there were two choices. You either had a RayBan Yeah. Wayfarer or, or Vanney. Yeah. Or a vanney and, and, and you're either a Vanney man or a, or a RayBan Wayfarer man, you know one of the two.

That's it. And yeah, yeah. So many choices. Now, messy weekend, we talked about the, there's the MW speed, 85 quid. There's sun God, sun God make really cool sunglasses. They're really, really nice. So they, they've got some very cool classes out starting around 70 through 80 quid. So yeah, lots of options there.

Head over to our YouTube channel to check out best sunglasses for spring skiing, and you can see all the sunglasses on our fabulous models, including Brad Pitt.  Yes. Oh God, I forgot that Brad was modeling those sunglasses in Lacluzza. Yeah, Brad Pitt. Check that out. Check that out. Fortunately, not with the Southern American accent.

Oh,  exactly that. So that's it for our roundup of gear this week. Excellent. That good sunglasses for spring skiing. What sunglasses am I using for spring skiing? What have I got here, Rob? I have got, oh yeah, the Apex. What do you think of these?  Now I'm just going to expand my screen because obviously our listeners can't see that.

Wow. Yeah, no, that actually you pull that off. I'm rocking that. I'm rocking that. If I stuck that on, I would no longer look like Brad Pitt. I could tell you that. I just look like I think you look more like Brad Pitt. So this is the Apex You think so? Well, hiding half my face. Yeah, probably right.  I think this is the Apex IQ. I think. Yeah, it's the IQ. Yeah. Yeah. Check out the Apex IQ.

Very cool. And you can see these on YouTube right now. That's a statement statement, sunglasses, those that's for sure. They seem to be everywhere at the moment, the style of sunglasses and  protection. Look at the protection. They're almost a skink. It's almost a goggle. Yeah.  Well, you'll see me rocking these in Whistler, Rob.

So that's what's next. I like the look of them. I mean, they, they're so big that is almost a goggle, but you don't have to wear a goggle. So that's the thing that these days I don't, I sometimes like wearing sunglasses, but you obviously do get the wind in your eyes especially when you ski at 85  miles an hour.

Yeah. Don't do that. I would only do that if, if anybody around and I get a clear lens with it as well. So I put switch. They're very smart. Yeah, they're very smart. We check the YouTube. They are on YouTube, right? They are on YouTube. So there you go. So that's it for our gear roundup this week. And what are we on to next?

Rob our resort focus Dom this week spotlight on Corinthia, Rob, how cool is that? Are you covering Corinthia? Cause you were in Corinthia just last week. I want to tell me all about Highland high lingam bloods. Yeah, I think, yeah, Hailingenblut or Hailingenblut. I think you pronounced it pretty, pretty spot on there.

Yeah, that's right. I was basically, it was my first ski trip there. I mean, I've been a couple of times to the Multal or the Multal Glacier in the summer but that was it. Good place.  Tell me what it was like then. So it's located in the region of Austria called Corinthia and we're running this cause you were there and obviously that's just returned.

You can tell us all about it. So  what can you say?  Yeah, that's right. I went, I first went to Innokrems, which is basically a ski touring only destination, then Bad Klein Kaikem, or BKK as we call it, it's easier. That's a larger ski resort with over a hundred kilometers of piece, lots of hotels and infrastructure there.

Yeah. But yeah, Heiligenblut, I must say out of those three, probably my favorite, although I did enjoy all three of them, but Heiligenblut  is pretty special and unique. Yeah. So how do you get, let alone how you say it, but how do you get to Heiligenblut? Yeah, sure. I mean, the easiest way is with a relatively new flight from London Stansted to Klagenfurt with Ryanair, small city in the southern part of Austria Carinthia,  very close to the border of Slovenia small airport.

We whizzed through passport control and baggage at about 15 minutes flat. I can imagine. And I must say, it's a very, very scenic airport. You know, a bit like Innsbruck in a way, but a wider valley, so sort of less intense than flying into Innsbruck. And very, very pretty. Very, very nice. Okay, and then from there, how do you get up to Highlingenblut? 

So vehicle transfer from there is the best option and I'll get sort of to the how to bit a bit later on. It's about a two hour drive, lovely scenery, really pretty, up a long valley at the end where we're right at the end of that valley, you then get to Highlingham Blut. Okay. So not a bad transfer time then.

What's the town like? Not too bad.  It's really interesting. I mean, that's the first thing I'll say. So there's a large church that sort of dominates the place, this huge steeple. It's very impressive. And the church was built in the 1400s. But way before that, in 914 AD, apparently, according to legend, a Danish prince traveled from  Constantinople, obviously Istanbul and today's money with a small glass filled with not chili sauce but the blood of Christ. 

And that bottle, that bottle is still there today. Wow. So the name Heiligenblut.  Actually means holy blood or saints blood. Of course. Of course. Wow. Some serious history there then. Did you go to the church to see that?  No, I, I was, I was too busy skiing powder. Very disappointed, but I'll come to that in a bit.

Very disappointing. Yeah,  I know. There is, there's more history 'cause my grandfather, right, REF Spit Spitfire Squadron based in Klain foot Mm-hmm. As the second World War ended, he came to this valley just after the Second World War and asked, I asked one of the locals about this, and he confirmed that the British did turn up there in 1946 and they built a ski lift, you know, just a little bit further back down the valley.

Wow. And so I think what brought them here was that the area is also very famous for Austria's highest mountain the Grossglockner, 3, 798 meters, which towers over this place like a sentinel, excuse the obvious term, but it, it really feels like that. Wow. Yeah. That is super cool. And so what is the Chautaun actually like then?

So sorry. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. Yeah. I'm getting carried away. It's not big. I mean, it's really a village. So pretty quiet. If you want lots of shops and a brigade proceed, I would just say, this is not, this place is not for you. Okay. Saying that I found a great little bar called the de Moola. I think it was called in the lower part of town, about two minutes from my hotel is a very small bar. 

But a great bar, lots of fun, you know, don't need it. You need about six people to create an atmosphere in that place. Of course. Not a lot else around, but there's some lovely hotels there, including the four star Kartenhof, which is where I stayed. Nice. Just that standard of hotel accommodation is really, really high.

The food was excellent. It's, it's very much sort of settle into the hotel territory and enjoy relaxing. It's not party central. That's for sure. Yeah. The ski lift is, is located close to the church, right in the center of town. And it's a two stage gondola that takes you right up into the mountain.

Nice. Sounds cozy. Sort of place you could really get away from it all sort of like, you know, really chill out and zone out a bit.  Yeah, exactly. And because it's right at the end of this long valley, there's, there's not that much accommodation either. Okay. It's pretty quiet. You know, there's, there's plenty of accommodation and really nice accommodation, but it's not like.

There's, you know, it's limited,  so you don't get lots of day visitors there. The other thing is that the valley and the village has this sort of cinematic feel about it. I mean, this is sort of, I don't believe the weather was a bit like that when we were there. It's kind of dark and foreboding and atmospheric place that you can imagine, you know, a Netflix series about, Some kind of ancient force that's unleashed from the ground haunting people's dreams and causes some people to go mad, you know, it's that sort of place.

It's just like we're in the middle of this crazy sort of Netflix  series about You know dark forces. I mean, it's, it's just amazing.  You're starting to unsettle a bit here, Rob. No, no, no. It's what I loved about it. It's very atmospheric, sort of almost medieval. Yeah. Gotta love a bit of that, right? On your ski holiday, surely.

That's always what I'm looking for. I'll be disappointed when I get to Seattle if there's no medieval. So okay. So we're getting a bit of a feel for the place. It doesn't sound like Maribor, no, no folly deuces, nothing no bling, none of that sort of stuff. Probably about as far removed from the likes of Teen and Val Theron as you could possibly get. 

Yeah, absolutely. And look, there's a place for that as well, obviously. Big place for that. But there's also a place for this too, I think. Yeah. So, onto the skiing. So, we haven't even got to that yet. What's the skiing like?  Yeah, this is where things get get really interesting. It's definitely for the more adventurous skier, I would say, in general.

That doesn't mean the terrain is super tough, though. Intermediates will find some really, really nice long red runs that aren't particularly challenging. Just nice. It's not a huge resort in terms of mileage, about 50 kilometers of marked pistes. The longest run, though, is 10 kilometers. It was pretty long.

What it does have is lots of free ride terrain all over the place. I mean, six different zones of free ride terrain, and lots of that can be found within the sort of lift accessed area as well. Okay. It's  got a really good snow record. The village is at 1300 meters, which is pretty high for Austria. 

And it goes up to 2, 600 meters as well.  A big vertical, really an impressive mountain. And one of the hidden gems, you know, you just.  Can't exist anymore because we've found them all. Right. But here is one. I mean, obviously there'll be listeners that say, Oh, you know, I've been there. I know that place, but I don't think that many.

I really don't know.  And what about beginners? Not for them really.  I mean, there's two separate ski areas and let's say there's a main area and then there's a, an area called the flight which is reached. for the middle station of the main gondola via a very unique lift, which I'd describe as a cross between a cable car and a gondola.

Okay. So the gondolas each take around five, six people, I think, and they are strung together in one long row. They leave at the same time and go through a tunnel straight away on a cable, which takes around five minutes and pops out the other side. I mean, it's a really odd one, but it works. But on the other side of that gondola, there is a nice learner's slope and a long blue run from the top of that chairlift.

But I wouldn't say,  you know, it's the number one ski resort for beginners. For me, it's the mix of really long runs and the off piste terrain, that's the draw, plus the scenery and the fact that it's such a cool sort of mounted destination with, you know, Yeah, really comfortable accommodation thrown in as well.

Sounds very interesting. What about food and drink? Typical Austrian stuff?  Yeah, totally. Very traditional. But I must say, great quality. And actually things have sort of changed a bit as well. You know, there's a good choice. It's not all schnitzel. I don't quite like that. But you know, it's not all about that.

In a few highlights. Highlights, you know, goulash is great. You know, it's not like the Hungarian soup, although they, they do that here as well, but the, the Austrian goulash larger chunks of meat and a sort of thick sauce. And then of course the Kaiser Spatzli, which is a kind of noodle dish covered in butter and cheese with fried onions.

I mean, you get burgers and really good burgers, you know, I had quite a bit of local fish which is fantastic. Like a lake, lake fish that they get out of the lakes in Carinthia. I had some risotto and of course bratwurst, you know, the famous German sausage.  Tom, Tom, do you know the jokes? Do you know the jokes about dirt?

You do know the jokes about German sausages, right? I'm a little worried about exploring your jokes about German sausages, Rob. Ah, no, that's good because they are the worst. Ah, so bad. It does sound like the food is good. And not only, not only the meat and cheese, not only the meat and cheese that we normally get then.

So what about prices? What's it like price wise? Yep. Great value, actually. I mean a meal on the mountain, you know, for 10 to 15 euro and you can definitely get cheaper than that as well. Like, you know, goulash soup with bread about five to six euros for that. Okay. They like beer you know, in Austria, it's mainly lager, but I did find a few dunkles which is a dark beer.

It could be lovely. Austrian wine is actually really good and they don't grow that much locally there, but you know, any of the Austrian wine we have was excellent. Wow, wow.  So how can we get there next season? Where, and where do we stay? What's the, you know, what's the direction there?  Yeah, so tour operator FlexiSki is opening the resort up next season.

So it's best to visit their website flexiski. com  and  maybe give them a call. And, and just have a chat to them because they, they know the area. Like, like I said, you can fly directly into Klagenfurt, but Ljubljana in Slovenia is also a good option. It's really close. Actually. Salzburg can also work as well.

And that combination means that short breaks are doable. You know, you can fly in one place and out the other place if the, if the flights don't work out, it's, it's, it's really easy to do that in FlexiSki. Can help with the transfers and all that sort of stuff. They also operate in a couple of hotels, including the one that I stayed in, which is a good value for money for star really good. 

Sounds interesting. Maybe one for next season.  Yeah. I mean, keep checking cause there's going to be various trips and off piste courses plan there too. And I really think this place could become one of the new free ride spots. You know, think FIBA brun, maybe Alanya. That kind of secret spot that those places have become well known. 

Yeah. Yeah.  Very good. How interesting. It's nice to bring to the table a place that maybe is not on all of our radar there. So Corinthia it is.  I like it. I like the sound of it. Yeah.  Yeah, moving on to this week's bucket list destination. Where do we all want to be, Rob? What's the bucket list destination this week?

It's the whole, it's a whole state of the USA, isn't it?  That's right, Dom. Yeah, as we start to come into the season  well, it's possible to go there without skiing in the dark, right? We're going to take a look at Alaska. I know it has always been a bucket list destination for me.

I want to get there before I feel, you know, too old to jump out of a helicopter. Never too old, Rob. And if you're too old, I'll push you out. It does feel like a pretty wild place to go, doesn't it? It's quite a tough place to ski though. Not for your average Joe, as the Americans might say.  Yeah, maybe I'm guessing that it's not all 50 degree spines and first ascents, but fortunately I got to catch up with the one and only Dan Egan USA Hall of Fame, extreme skier and Roran Miller movie star, because Dan has just returned from a trip to  with some of his clients.

Awesome. I love hearing from Dan. So let's have a listen to that now, Rob. 

He is just such a great, he's, I mean, he is a great talker. If ever you've heard him at the ski shows or anything, he just, he's very, very captivating, isn't he? He's an incredible guy. He really is.  Yeah. He's very passionate as well. You know, just thinking about all of the things that Dan has done  in the ski world, in his life check out his, his books 30 years in a white haze, You know, for example, his life story.

I mean, it's pretty incredible. And to have the passion that he has  is, it rubs off. It rubs off. It's the passion and it's the stories. It's the depth of the stories and it's the,  you know, he really has got some just great anecdotal stories that you really suck you in. I remember I was, I was really busy at the ski show.

I walked past where he was talking and I heard him talking and my mouth sort of dropped open and  I sort of stood there for, I was hoping to stand there for about a minute because I was in a hurry and I ended up standing there and sort of 15 minutes later my mouth was sort of pretty much wide open drying out listening to him thinking,  Wow, this is this is super engaging.

And there's not that many people can then do that. And yeah, yeah, great guy. Great story.  Great stories, you know, amazing career. And, and when you think of the stuff he's done, he's also, you know, has that combination of not only all the things he's done, but he's also very, very good at talking about them as well.

It's stopping him from talking is the tricky part. Yeah, that's true, but I'm, I'm looking forward to skiing with Dan possibly, hopefully this season he will be in Val d'Isere in April and next season we're planning a few adventures. In fact, we're planning some adventures this summer. I don't know if I should even mention that, but we, we want to go, we want to go to South Africa to ski the Drakensberg mountains in July.

Wow. I haven't told my wife yet. Okay. We won't tell her. We won't. We won't tell her.  And then next winter, we're looking at going to Turkey to  jump out of helicopters. Nice. Mm. Nice. Sounds like you've got some good plans, you and Dan.  Yeah. You only hang out with people called Dan, apart from me, don't you?  Yes.

Only people with three letters in their, in their name. Yeah. Well, I keep, I've now started calling my wife, Jack.  Jack.  So very good. Thanks for this week, Rob. A fantastic and interesting week of Corinthia and Alaska there with Dan Egan and listeners. Don't forget to leave us a review. It's how other people find our fabulous podcast.

And until next week when I will be, Oh, it's not long now before I fly out. I I'm getting quite excited from, I'm getting quite excited. You'll be out in teen. I'm heading out to Seattle and then Worcester and Vancouver and then straight out to Palisades after that. While you're hanging out in teen, I don't know who's got the best deal here.

Check out the comments check out the description as well because we've got some plenty of web links in there and check out the YouTube channel where all the ski test videos are now going live. And if you want to see that sunglasses feature, you can see that too. And Rob, it's from Batman to Brad Pitt,  have a good few days.

See you later. Adios.  Cheers.  You didn't get many sign offs that are from Batman to Brad Pitt.