APRÈS ESSENTIALS

We all have our perfect version of après-ski. We might be up for dancing on tables and spraying the champagne or perhaps a more laid-back afternoon, lazing around on a sundeck and listening to music with friends while melting s’mores on an open fire. Whatever your preference, when the lifts quietly come to a halt, après is an essential part of any ski holiday. Après is always better with a fire, and Solo Stove’s fire pit cooking system, featuring cast iron cooktops, is perfect for grilling burgers, brats or veggies post-ski, and the Bonfire fire pit is super portable with the included carry case. For a lighter-weight setup, there’s Solo Stove’s smaller Ranger fire pit. Solo Stove even make a fire-pitcompatible pizza oven, Pi Fire, and supply restaurant-quality Pi Ingredients, making having an après pizza party easier than ever. And for those après ski tunes, the small yet mighty SONOS Roam is the perfect sound system for the snow. Weatherproof and portable, this smart speaker will allow you to enjoy brilliant sound, and you can even access your favourite streaming with voice control.

Seeking Asgard

Holmlands have released their latest ski film Seeking Asgard: Ski Life Stories from Iceland, a feature-length documentary focusing on Icelandic ski culture from a very human angle you can find on Youtube. Taking a personal look at Icelandic skiing through the eyes of its people; the crew circumnavigated the Nordic Island nation last spring; interviewing various personalities within the country’s skiing community on mountain tops, shorelines, sailboats and in the backcountry speaking. Interviewees include retired ski racing coach Guðmundur Jakobsson who discusses the journey he shared with his son, in training him for the Winter Olympic Games and Sævar Guðjónsson, who doubles as a government- appointed reindeer hunter and ski guide in the EastFjords of Iceland and is passionate about fighting the battle against climate change. Each character represents a different location on the Island, and acts as a vehicle to showcase the vast beauty – and mostly untapped – ski terrain in one Europe’s lesser-explored skiing regions.

Ski Town Twinned

The Welsh seaside town of Llandudno, which has a dry slope, has been twinned with the Swiss ski resort of Champéry, part of the vast Portes du Soleil ski region which links the slopes of ski areas like Avoriaz, Morzine, Chatel and Les Gets. Champéry “becomes Welsh for a week” each winter, having hosted the Welsh Alpine Championships, attracting around 500 racers from 20 countries, for the last 15 years. The event is known locally as “Ya-Ski-Da”.

Vonn Skis Hahnenkamm

Retired American ski racer Lindsey Vonn (38) has become the first woman to ever ski the Streif, the racecourse created above Kitzbühel each January to host the famous Hahnenkamm races. She’s also the first to ever dare to ski it at night. “The Streif is the pinnacle of all downhills, the most difficult course in the world. To kick out of the starting gate here and fulfil my dream is incredible," said Vonn.

New Chamonix Valley Gondola

This winter a new gondola will open at the Balme Ski Area in the Chamonix Valley, replacing the old lift up from the village of Le Tour. The next-generation Doppelmayr 10-seater panoramic gondola has a capacity to transport 2,200 people/hour, which is more than double the maximum uplift of the former lift. It’s faster than the old lifts, too, with the 376m ascent completed in 5.26 minutes, a speed of 6m/second.

Green Power Cuts Costs

While most ski resorts are reporting a dramatic increase in energy costs with the worry that this will feed through to higher lift pass prices, Scandinavia’s largest resort operator, SkiStar, is reporting the opposite – lower energy costs this season, so far.

The company is putting the decreased costs down to efforts on the environment already underway before energy prices surged. Speaking in a presentation on the company’s first quarter results, company CEO Stefan Sjöstrand said, “Energy costs were lower in the first quarter, which is pleasing. This shows that our work on energy consumption is having an impact, although the bulk of energy for the year is yet to be used. Making our operations more energy efficient is also an important part of our sustainability work.”

Recycle Your Boots

“Wondering what to do with your old ski boots? Rather than send them to landfill, take them into your local Ellis Brigham shop and drop them into the recycling bin provided. They will then go off to the Nordica/Tecnica project to be transformed into pellets, which can be used in the manufacture of new ski boots or for aluminium or for stuffing material, amongst other things,” said a spokesperson for the chain.

Shiffrin Best Female Racer

As we go to press, Mikaela Shiffrin has overtaken compatriot and retired ski racer Lyndsey Vonn to post the most alpine ski race victories for a female athlete in World Cup history, and she is within one win of equalling the all-time record of 86 wins held by Swede Ingemar Stenmark for more than 30 years. Shiffrin’s boyfriend, Norwegian racer Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, described her achievement as “mind blowing” and added, “she's just enjoying skiing.”

Virtual Slalom Poles

A Swiss tech start-up called Ostloong has integrated an augmented reality display into a pair of ski goggles to provide live info to skiers and boarders on the slopes. Options include tracking friends and family in your group or creating virtual slalom poles to ski around. Thanks to a GPS sensor, the Sirius goggles, available to order now, can also provide directional arrows or even virtual slalom poles on the piste.

From 5–19 February, the world’s skiing elite will converge on the world’s biggest ski area, Les 3 Vallées, for the bi-annual FIS Alpine World Ski Championships that’s heading to Courchevel and Méribel.

It will be only the fourth time that France has staged the Championships, after Chamonix in 1937 and 1962 and Val d ’Isère in 2009, and for the first time in the event’s history, competitors will be racing down the slopes at two different locations. The women’s competitions and men’s parallel slalom heats will take place on the Roc de Fer slope in Méribel, while the men’s speed events will take place on the new L’Éclipse downhill slope in Courchevel.

Attending The Championships

Les 3 Vallées are keen to stress that it’s business as usual for ski holidays during the Championships, which take place during the busy February half-term period. 99% of the huge region will remain open with just four runs closed, the two race courses and Choucas and Éterlou in Méribel and Grange in Courchevel. All lifts will be open to everyone as usual, and all the links between the valleys will be open.

Four ski-in fan zones will be set up along the L’Éclipse slope. A chance to enjoy the event with your skis on, watching the races live and on the giant screens installed for the occasion.

Who To Watch

Although skiing greats and Beijing Olympic gold medallists Switzerland’s Beat Feuz and Austria’s Matthias Mayer announced their retirements ahead of the Championships, there are lots of famous names and up-and-coming starts to watch out for.

The top star has to be America’s Mikaela Shiffrin, who at the time of writing has equalled her compatriot Lindsey Vonn to be the most successful woman racer of all time with 82 victories and is on her way to overtake the all-time number one with 86 wins. In the downhill, Italy’s Sofia Goggia is a force of nature. On the men’s tour the big name and current world number one, Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt, is set to impress while Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, Henrik Kristoffersen and young gun Lucas Braathen are always exciting to watch.

Team GB had not confirmed who would be racing at the time of writing, but Britain’s men’s team may include slalom skiers Dave Ryding, Laurie Taylor and Billy Major, who recently made history in Madonna di Campiglio with all three making the second run together in a World Cup Slalom top 30 for the first time ever. The other British male racer is Charlie Raposo and the UK’s women racers are Charlie Guest and Alex Tilley. French fans will be cheering for Courchevel local boy Alexis Pinturault among others.