Ski+board October 2016 by Ski Club of Great Britain

£4.50 WHERE SOLD

OCT 16 Produced by skiers and boarders for skiers and boarders

News: Brexit, new flights and more + First tracks... and last in Aspen + Race to be Austria’s largest ski area + Fashion secrets + Technique + Off-piste tips + Fitness + Goggles + Resorts + Diary dates

Olympic fallout – skiing in North and South Korea

SKIS, BOOTS, BOARDS

Freeride issue publication

For stockists information call: 01572 770900

EDITOR Colin Nicholson colin.nicholson@skiclub.co.uk

Editor’s note

Colin Nicholson Ski+board Editor

Ski+board

October 2016

skiclub.co.uk

ART DIRECTOR Nicole Wiedemann MEDIA SALES Madison Bell madisonbell.com 020 7389 0859 OVERSEAS MEDIA SALES Martina Diez-Routh martina.diez-routh@skiclub.co.uk +44 (0) 7508 382 781 PUBLISHER Ski Club of Great Britain 57-63 Church Street London SW19 5SB skiclub.co.uk | 020 8410 2000 DISTRIBUTION Jellyfish Print Solutions Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Independently audited circulation of 19,722 (January to December 2015) Issue 193 © Ski Club of Great Britain 2016 ISSN 1369-8826 Ski+board is printed by Precision Colour Printing, Stirchley, Telford TF7 4QQ

Cover photo: Korea Tourism Organisation/visitkorea.or.kr

Since June 23, people have been enquiring in hushed tones about how the ski industry is faring ‘post-Brexit’. This annoys me. For a start, we are not post-Brexit. We are not even midBrexit. The process has not even begun yet. Yes, sterling has fallen against the euro and other currencies. But remember that it is still higher now than it was for three of the past eight winters. And British skiers hardly abandoned the Alps in droves in those years. Of course, we’ll have to search harder to get the value for money that past seasons afforded. One way to do this is to rethink when you travel. On page 14, Ski+board sets out the principal school holiday dates in Europe. If you travel outside these weeks then prices often halve. Moreover, with the late Easter, there are more such bargain weeks than there were last season. There’s another place to find a price freeze — in your local ski shop. If you leave it until you are on holiday to buy boots, boards, clothes or other gear, you will end up paying more. But because the prices for UK retailers were set before the referendum, the cost of the kit you will find in British stores this winter is no higher than last season. Ski+board has 28 pages of equipment and accessory reviews between its covers, all assessed impartially, and in some cases tested to the nth degree. If you have spent past seasons hesitating over buying that new pair of boots, those shiny skis, or just a replacement pair of goggles, now may be the time to consult these pages — not least because, as you will find out reading the reviews, it’s amazing how much such products have come along. Looking further ahead, leaving the European Union could have a major impact on the legal cases that Ski+board has covered. The ban on tour operator hosts in France (and parts of Italy), the French ban on Ski Club Leaders, the case of British instructors working in France — all of these are wending their way through local courts in a process that feels very much like marking time before they reach the European Court of Justice. It would be a sad irony if, at the moment they succeeded, the court’s ruling would no longer be valid. But that is a genuine ‘post-Brexit’ story, and will be years away. The next Olympics will be here well before then (though the Rio Olympics have only just ended) and Ski+board has finally succeeded in sending a correspondent not just to the host country, South Korea, but also to the North. Though Ski+board’s correspondent Andreas Hofer was in no doubt that his was not the usual experience of a citizen of the Democratic People’s Republic — his minders made sure of that — what is striking is his observation of the level of comfort that a significant middle class enjoy. People ask of the regime: “How much longer can it last?” But we should remember that, during the Cold War, those on the other side of the Iron Curtain were asking the same question of our society — “come the revolution”. It’s a salutary reminder that we have lived through much more troubled times than the whole Brexit fallout — and we still managed to go skiing.

DEPUTY EDITOR Harriet Johnston harriet.johnston@skiclub.co.uk

All material is strictly copyright and all rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of the publisher. All prices are correct at time of publication. Opinions expressed in Ski+board are not necessarily those of the Ski Club of Great Britain, nor does the publisher accept responsibility for advertising content.

Contents October 2016

6 EXPOSURE Thrilling shots from top action photographers… and how they captured them

12 YOU SAY Price increases, hiccups with the Ehic card and your feedback on the magazine

13 SKI CLUB NEWS Freshtracks holiday prices frozen, inspirational awards and the White House sale

14 NEWS What Brexit means for your ski holiday and new backing for Brits at the next Winter Olympics

FEATURES 19 OFF TO THE OLYMPICS Just 16 months until the Winter Games in South Korea, or would you rather go to North Korea?

28 FIRST AND LAST TRACKS Join ski patrollers for a sweep of the mountain at dusk… and how to beat the crowds at dawn

32 LINKS, LINKS… Austrian resorts are breaking boundaries as a new lift creates one of the Alps’ biggest areas

36 SNOW WEAR SECRETS Go behind the scenes with Ski+board’s fashion team to find out what goes into a photoshoot

THE INSI DE EDGE

What a bombshell! Does North Korea have better pistes?

40 SNOW WEAR Buy one jacket, get two free… how ski clothing is becoming more versatile

Photo: Scott Markewitz/aspensnowmass.com

48 SKI TESTS

Be swept away by a twilight tour with Aspen’s ski patrol

Our plucky team take on the Olympian task of picking the best of the 843 skis on test

60 BOOTS It’s not the arriving, it’s the getting there… freeride boots that make hiking fun

64 TECHNIQUE Get physical and let Mark Jones guide you through the toughest snow conditions

Photo: Albin Niederstrasser/Österreich Werbung

67 OFF-PISTE Hunting for untouched powder? We reveal some of the secrets to finding it

Go large in the giant ski areas Austria is creating

68 FITNESS Put your shoulder to the wheel to get ski fit for winter, plus party like it’s 1989

70 GEAR An eye-popping pick of 16 goggles that adapt to everything — even glasses

74 SNOWBOARDS

Now you see it… the ins and outs of a fashion shoot

Freestyle boards go retro with a return to camber to cater for the latest tricks

Photo: Melody Sky

Photo: Korea Tourism Org/visitkorea.or.kr

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October 2016

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78 RESORTS We list top resorts for snow so that you needn’t fear a slow start to the season

SKIER Will Cardamone LOCATION Aspen, Colorado, US PHOTOGRAPHER Tom Zuccareno Freeride skiers and their photographers are used to climbing to get their shots… but usually not trees. Tom Zuccareno is different though. Known to lie in the middle of the street or hang out of the back of a rental car to get the right angle, he was once denied a table for lunch because he was “too dirty”. In this instance, he found the perfect way to get a bird’s eye view of Will Cardamone skiing powder on Aspen’s Ajax mountain. Last tracks in Aspen — Page 28

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October 2016

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SKIER AND BOARDER Unknown LOCATION Tirol, Austria PHOTOGRAPHER

Fritz Fankhauser Fritz Fankhauser cites Psalms 23 and 104, when he writes of his images: “It is my desire that they should help people in difficult situations or in dark hours of their lives to get new perspectives and hope.” And we can all relate to the feeling of despair when we fear we have taken a wrong turning and the landscape shows no sign of life. Until, that is, we see that first welcome dwelling. Now if only that mountain hut was serving drinks…

SKIER Unknown LOCATION Saalbach, Austria PHOTOGRAPHER Mirja Geh Since last season, visitors to the Austrian resort of SaalbachHinterglemm have had access to the powder stashes of its Tirolean neighbour Fieberbrunn thanks to the new TirolS gondola that now links the two. And rather than spoiling a hidden off-piste gem, local guides say the new connection has opened a series of new faces to ski, as Austrian photographer Mirja Geh can attest. Link, links... — Page 32

SKIER Chemmy Alcott LOCATION Kühtai, Austria PHOTOGRAPHER Ross Woodhall You wouldn’t guess from watching Chemmy Alcott take part in the Ski Club’s annual ski tests that she's retired from competitive skiing. She was one of the team of six men and six women putting this season’s skis through a punishing programme, as they set out to determine which are this winter’s must-have models. In this instance photographer Ross Woodhall captured her giving some air time to freeride skis in the Tirolean resort of Kühtai. Ski tests — Page 46

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October 2016

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SKIER Tobin Seagel LOCATION Whistler, Canada PHOTOGRAPHER Guy Fattal While shooting for the Deep Winter Photo Challenge in Whistler this January, Israeli photographer Guy Fattal waited until night fell on the Blackcomb glacier. He wanted to light up the spine wall behind skier Tobin Seagel with a set of flashes. Tobin skied down and he captured the exact moment. Tired but satisfied they made their long way down to the village with the aid of rather less brilliant lights â&#x20AC;&#x201D; head torches.

That moment when you know you’ve made the perfect choice

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26/08/2016 17:08

YOU SAY

Thank you for saving me from an insurance hiccup with my Ehic card

Are price rises scarily steep… or have we never had it so good?

Reading Ski+board's February/March issue, I learnt that the European Health Insurance Card (Ehic) is valid for just five years, unlike the E111 form it replaced, and that in theory an out-of-date Ehic might invalidate one’s travel insurance. On checking my card, I found it had expired. And I was not alone in our ski party with an out-of-date Ehic. Ringing a helpline sorted it out. May I suggest you bring this to everyone’s attention again? In the meantime, my thanks.

I joined the club in 1965 and have been a member now for over 50 years. My election was confirmed in a letter of November 24, 1965, and the subscription was one guinea plus £1.11s.6d. My girlfriend (now my wife) and I would sometimes dine at the club’s former base in Eaton Square, Belgravia. I have many fond memories of the club and enjoy Ski+board. These days I ski in Wengen each year where I also belong to the Downhill Only Ski Club.

Derrick Brown

Michael Scott Ski prices represent remarkably good value

Ski+board now appears designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator — skiers or snowboarders with very basic skills and knowledge. It has the tone and feel of a Sunday newspaper supplement, not a magazine about snowsports in its own right.

Survey respondent The magazine feels increasingly like it is aimed at a niche of skiers as opposed to being the fun ski travel magazine it was in its heyday. Even my friends and colleagues who love skiing simply wouldn’t be interested in the nitty gritty you go into in so much of the magazine.

Survey respondent

I am appalled at the price of skis today. I tried (unsuccessfully) to make my own first pair and eventually had a cabinetmaker knock me up a pair for £3.10s, not

This year Ski+board again asked a randomly selected group of readers what they thought of last season's magazines.

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The Ski Club asked readers what they thought of last season’s four print issues

skiclub.co.uk/snowtalk

Ski Club of Great Britain, The White House, 57-63 Church Road, Wimbledon Village, London SW19 5SB

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Got something to say? Share it with us at: @TheSkiClub

Roger Lascelles Ski+board writes: Here the inflation calculator struggled a bit — especially with the chocolates. But for £325 you can buy the pair of skis that won the club’s top value award for men’s freeride, with minimal fitting required. You can read the results of the ski tests on page 48.

Feedback from survey doubles

I think you must accept that you’re not going to produce an article that encompasses all interests or tastes.

Snow wear and gear should get the same treatment as boots and skis.

including steel edges, which I bought for thirty bob and a neighbour fitted in return for a box of chocolates.

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To do this, the Ski Club approached 2,000 members — 500 in each of four age bands: those under 30; 31 to 45; 46 to 60; and 61 and over. This year’s response rate rose from 93 to 174. Just like last year, 90 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement that Ski+board was a valuable part of their membership. Readers were then asked to rate (from nought to ten) how interesting they found the sections. The average ratings this year increased to 6.4 for features (from 6.2 last year) and 6.4 for regulars (from 6.1 last year). The cover features were rated most interesting. ‘Meet the man who designs ski resorts’ scored 7.2, ‘Found! The world’s first skiers’ 7.0, ‘Chamonix’s female mountain guides’ 6.9, and ‘Resort hosting is back’ 6.8. Popular regular sections were: News 7.5, Off-piste 7.5, Technique 7.3, Resort insider 7.2, Exposure 7.1, Ski tests 7.0, Fitness 7.0, Boots 6.7, Gear 6.6, Snow wear 6.1, Crossword 3.4, Snowboards 3.1. The crossword has been dropped. Many thanks to those who took part.

Photos: Ross Woodhall

Your comments

Ski+board writes: According to the Bank of England’s inflation calculator your subscription adds up to £45.83 in today’s money, so not far off today’s price. Sadly there is no restaurant in the White House, nor is there likely to be in the club’s new base. But it sounds like you’re too busy skiing anyway. Bravo!

SKI C LU B NEW S

Freshtracks offers price freeze on holidays and opens new chalet

Ski Club puts Wimbledon headquarters up for sale and seeks a new base

The Ski Club has launched its exciting new range of over 190 holidays for this winter, with the bonus that all prices are unchanged by the pound’s fall after the Brexit vote. The club ‘hedges’ its currency options, meaning that it was not directly affected by sterling’s slide. This year’s Freshtracks holiday programme includes skiing a volcano in Oregon and touring in Iceland, and is the most varied the club has offered. Freshtracks will also be the only British ski tour operator heading to North Tohoku in Japan this winter, in what promises to be a unique adventure in an area less travelled by Westerners. However, Freshtracks also has many trips to popular Alpine resorts and perennial favourites such as Val d’Isère in France, and Zermatt in Switzerland. Jonny Cassidy, Freshtracks general manager, says that it is the depth and range of the holidays that brings people back year after year.

The Ski Club’s Council is entertaining offers from parties interested in buying the club’s base — the White House. The building represents nearly all the club’s assets and the Council believes having a more diverse asset base would put the club on a more secure footing. The cost of running the building, which is two or three times larger than the club needs, is ever increasing. The Council is negotiating with a preferred buyer. The club will remain at the White House in Wimbledon this season while new premises are found. Also the club rents out the excess space to other businesses, and these have leases that run until June next year. The search for a new base is centred around South-West London.

He explains: “We want to bring members value for money. The holidays are particularly good for people who want to ski with others of a similar ability, or for anyone looking for something off the beaten track.” The club will also offer holidays at a new chalet it will run in France. Chalet Shiraz, which sleeps up to 14 people, provides a base for exploring the Chamonix ski area, where the club aims to provide a greater range of courses. The club already runs two chalets in the French resort of Flaine. Freshtracks holidays are open to all club members. They match skiers up by ability, the type of experience they are seeking, and destination, and use only the best instructors, mountain guides and Ski Club Leaders. Many trips focus on improving skills, on or off-piste. The brochure can be viewed online at skiclub.co.uk/freshtracks or for a printed copy call 020 8410 2022.

The new Ski Club chalet in Chamonix is offered in its Freshtracks holiday programme

Date is set for the club’s Annual General Meeting The Ski Club’s 109th Annual General Meeting will take place at 7pm on November 17, 2016, at the club’s offices — 57-63 Church Road, Wimbledon Village, London SW19 5SB. Details of the members standing for election to the Council this year will be included in the Annual Report and Accounts, which will be emailed to members in October. If you wish to attend the meeting, please email agm@skiclub.co.uk to give organisers an idea of numbers. Please use the same address if you have a question you would like to be raised.

Award for aspiring Paralympian

Ski Club Leader is killed as test flight crashes

A visually-impaired skier has won the Ski Club’s Evie Pinching Award for upand-coming athletes. Menna Fitzpatrick, 18, from Macclesfield, Cheshire, topped the shortlist of five after a two-week public voting period. She will receive a one-off bursary of £1,000 for the year. Talent-spotted by ParaSnowsports at Chill Factore in Manchester, Menna has qualified for World Cup races and said: “This award will really help me on my way to the Winter Paralympics in 2018.” The award is named after the British winner of the 1936 women’s Downhill

RAF test pilot Alexandre Jay Parr, a Ski Club Leader who also served on the Council, has died in a plane crash. The 40-year-old leaves a widow, Alice, and three children after the accident, near Boscombe Down, in Wiltshire, on July 8. The club’s thoughts are with the family at this difficult time. Alex was a popular Leader, serving in Alpe d’Huez, Méribel and Val d’Isère, all in France, from 2005 to 2007, after which he joined the Council for three years. He led Freshtracks trips to Cortina, in Italy, and Jackson Hole, in America.

and Combined events in the World Championships and forms part of the club’s Inspire programme to recognise and reward those making a positive contribution to snowsports.

Menna Fitzpatrick (in white) skiing with her guide Jennifer Kehoe

Ski+board

October 2016

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N EWS

French railway bosses put much-loved couchette services to sleep

Price freeze pledges start to thaw but retailers are holding firm

Daniel Elkan

Harriet Johnston

France has axed all but two of the sleeper routes from Paris — more than 100 years after they first ran. For skiers, the key lines lost are to Bourg St Maurice and St Gervais. The one route to be kept is to Briançon, which serves Serre Chevalier and Montgenèvre, among other resorts. The government says the sleepers are costly and underused, but rail experts disagree and point to poor marketing of couchette services. They are fighting to have the services reinstated. While British skiers are able to travel overnight direct from London to Bourg St Maurice, the train has seats only.

The pound may have fallen against the euro and dollar following the surprise European Union referendum result, but the snowsports industry is assuring skiers that there are many ways they can benefit from an effective pre-June 23 price-freeze. Although Britons buying snowsports equipment and clothing will pay a ten per cent premium on last season if they buy abroad, those buying at home will see no increase. This is because UK retailers fixed their prices before the referendum. So even though nearly all manufacturers of skis, boots, boards, clothing and accessories are based overseas and incur costs in euros and dollars, sterling prices will be honoured. Dave Whitlow, buyer for Ellis Brigham, said: “Most snowsports clothing and hardware brands have held their pre-Brexit UK prices for this winter. Following sterling’s drop in value against the euro, these brands will be cheaper at home than buying from any European retailer, so buying in resort will be substantially more expensive.” Smaller tour operators that set prices at the start of the season and do not discount them — such as the Ski Club’s Freshtracks holiday programme — have also effectively frozen their holiday costs to pre-Brexit vote levels. They ‘hedge’ their currency levels well in advance, so remain unaffected by fluctuations.

Vail buys Whistler to offer lift pass for 13 resorts Vail Resorts has bought Whistler in a deal said to be worth $1 billion. It means the Canadian resort, which is North America’s largest, will be added to Vail’s 12-resort ‘Epic Pass’ in 2017-18. The season pass currently costs $829 and also covers Breckenridge and Park City. The news comes as rival programme Mountain Collective adds Telluride and Revelstoke to its pass. The 28-day pass also covers Aspen and Jackson Hole, and costs $409, but limits the number of days in one resort. Due to the high cost of lift passes in North America, a season pass can prove best for two-week stays.

Brush up on your dates for a bargain break Tour operators have responded in different ways to the fact that Christmas falls on a Sunday, which is transfer day in Italy, Andorra, Spain and Finland. Crystal, SkiWorld and Le Ski are offering Tuesday-to-Tuesday breaks over the festive season, while Inghams is offering Friday departures. Bargain five-day breaks are likely to be found just before Christmas or after New Year. Knowing when local school holidays fall is also a good indicator of when you will find cheaper (and quieter) weeks. So Ski+board is publishing a table, right, of the main school holiday dates for some of the major skiing nations in Europe.

Some chalet operators have frozen prices

Major tour operators were also able to freeze their prices — but only for so long. Having announced a price freeze shortly after the referendum result, Hotelplan, whose brands include Inghams, Ski Total and Esprit, reverted to ‘dynamic pricing’ shortly after summer ended. Crystal Ski, which recently secured its position as part of major German tour operator Tui, is also offering dynamic pricing, where the cost of a holiday depends on when you book. The policy has the advantage for consumers that if they are willing to book either very early or late they can snap up holidays for a significantly reduced rate. Ski+board reveals the best weeks for bargains below.

Principal school holiday dates by country Week starting Dec 10 Dec 17 Dec 24 Dec 31 Jan 7 Jan 14 Jan 21 Jan 28 Feb 4 Feb 11 Feb 18 Feb 25 Mar 4 Mar 11 Mar 18 Mar 25 Apr 1 Apr 8 Apr 15 Apr 22

France

Germany

Netherlands

Spain

Italy

Belgium

Switzerland

Photo: Esprit

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26/08/2016 10:46

Resorts are storing snow over the summer to open early for the new season

New flights to Chambéry and Austria will cut transfer times

Colin Nicholson

Harriet Johnston

The race is on to become the first non-glacier downhill ski resort in the Northern Hemisphere to open for winter. Last year, Geilo opened on September 25. The Norwegian resort keeps a mound of snow under reflective blankets, losing only 25 per cent during the summer. The resort of Les Saisies also covered a mound of snow in sawdust so it could open a piste for the passing of the Tour de France on July 22. It then stored the snow again for use on cross-country trails — a practice catching on in the Alps. Livigno in Italy stores snow to host a cross country race through the town in August, and to open early in October.

A host of new flights will make reaching the mountains easier this season. Following the news earlier this year that British Airways would be flying from Stansted, the airline has launched a route from the Essex airport to Chambéry in the French Alps. The service will run on Saturdays and Sundays. British Airways will also fly there from City. Skiers in East Anglia are well served, as Flybe will also introduce flights from Norwich to Chambéry this season, as well as from Manchester and Doncaster. Chambéry is less than two hours from areas such as the Three Valleys, Espace Killy and Paradiski, whereas transfer times from Lyon and Geneva are typically about three hours. But the airport, which is also used by many tour operators such as Crystal, has suffered from overcrowding in the past. It is hoped these issues have been resolved, as it has been renovated for this winter. Many of the other new flights are to Austria, which last winter recorded half a million British visitors, most presumed to be skiers. In December, British Airways is launching a service from Heathrow to Innsbruck, giving easy access to many popular Tirolean resorts including Sölden and Obergurgl. Jet2 will introduce Saturday services from East Midlands and Edinburgh to Salzburg, serving areas in Salzburgerland such as Ski Amadé. Monarch has added 338,000 seats

Copies of last remaining ski guide are still on sale Where to Ski & Snowboard, which for nearly a decade was the UK’s only remaining printed guidebook to resorts, has gone online for the coming season. Fans of the printed word can still order copies of the 2016 edition, with its frank and unbiased appraisals, and its ‘resort price index’ assessing the cost of food, drink, lift passes and equipment hire. Ski+board readers can buy the book for £14.99 (inc p&p) at bit.ly/WTSSbook

The new routes will be to airports that are closer to ski areas than existing destinations

to its winter programme, launching a route from Birmingham to Innsbruck on Sundays. It will also fly to Turin from Gatwick and Manchester on Sundays, giving greater access to the Italian Alps. EasyJet has launched a winter-only flight direct to Sweden’s biggest resort, Åre. Previously visitors had to fly to Trondheim in Norway, two hours away. Swiss will also launch a trial service from London City to Sion for February. The tiny airport is less than 30 minutes from the Four Valleys ski area. If popular the service will be extended. Swiss will also start flying from Gatwick to Zurich. Delta will run a new route from Heathrow to Salt Lake City in Utah, serving resorts including Park City.

Insurer withdraws cover for winter sports fans

Vintage poster sells for £1,240

A popular insurer has stopped offering winter sports cover. Southdowns, which appeared high in comparison tables for cheap annual policies covering winter sports, has been writing to customers as policies come up for renewal to say that like-for-like cover cannot be offered. In 2014, Ski+board warned readers using so-called ‘aggregator’ sites in their search for annual cover to check the policy documents carefully. In many cases, skiers didn’t realise that they were covered for only 17 days’ of skiing holidays. There are also restrictions on going off-piste.

Readers with vintage ski posters in the attic may be sitting on a treasure trove. Several posters that went under the

The valuable St Moritz and Combloux posters

hammer this summer at Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions, in London, sold for thousands of pounds. One, dating back to 1935, advertises the resort of Combloux, home to one of the earliest ski lifts in France. The lithographic print by Paul Ordner sold for £1,240 — over the expected price. The posters came from two private collections and some feature historic events such as the 1948 Winter Olympics held in St Moritz, Switzerland. Experts say that to be valuable, vintage posters must be in excellent condition and not damaged by sunlight.

Photo: Rob Firth

N EWS

Photo: Olympic winter games St Moritz

Photo: Vanessa Fry Photography

N EWS

Ski Club leads industry initiative to support snowsports athletes

Resort gives homeowners a perk to encourage them to start house swapping...

Su Moore

Colin Nicholson and Harriet Johnston

With qualifying underway for the 2018 Winter Olympics, a new fundraising initiative has been launched to help boost the chances of British athletes in Pyeongchang and beyond. Jenny Jones’s bronze medal at Sochi in 2014 was Britain’s first Olympic medal on snow, and British Ski and Snowboard, the governing body for snowsports, has bold ambitions to build on this success. But although the Government funds freestyle skiers and snowboarders via UK Sport, athletes in traditional Alpine disciplines, such as Slalom, Giant Slalom and Downhill, receive no central funding. Also those in the early stages of their careers receive no backing. The initiative will bring more money to elite Alpine athletes, but will also aim to boost participation overall. The new British Snowsports Fund will help talented youngsters meet the high cost of training and attending competitions, as well as giving more young people a

Home swaps are becoming more popular in resorts, as Ski+board reported in February. And the Swiss resort of Crans Montana has revealed why. It gave all homeowners an annual subscription to the HomeExchange website worth £100 to boost occupancy and so help local businesses.

Traditional Alpine competitors do not get the central funding that freestyle athletes receive

chance to get involved in winter sports. The Ski Club of Great Britain is leading the initiative and the fund has so far got the backing of many tour operators including Crystal and Hotelplan (the group behind Inghams, Esprit and Ski Total) and retailer Ellis Brigham. Ski+board will follow developments and reveal how readers can contribute.

... while another reaches out to wife swappers Crans Montana has also teamed up with a dating website to host Snowgether in January to help lonely skiers find love. But another resort hosts a rather different kind of ‘romantic’ holiday. Tour operator SDC runs the Sexy Ski Trip to Obertauern, Austria, every year, and advertises rooms sleeping three, so you can “bring a girlfriend along for the ride”.

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The Olympics to be held in the shadow of the bomb Has the host of the next Games been beaten by its rival to the North in the race to create a world-class ski resort? Ski+board sent two writers to find out

Photo: Korea Tourism Org/visitkorea.or.kr

n Rio the last athletes are packing their bags as the organisers wrap up the Paralympics and the Olympic flame is prepared for its journey to the site of the Winter Games, which start in just 16 months’ time. But while the choice of South America for the Summer Games was hailed as a first, the choice of host country for next winter’s games is even more remarkable… South Korea. Yes, the flame will be lit in Pyeongchang, in a country that has no more than 20 resorts, which boast just a handful of lifts. And Pyeongchang should not be confused with Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, just 300km away. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea manages to upstage its neighbour on an almost weekly basis, producing astonishing headlines about high-ranking officials executed for slouching,

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to a series of ever-more ambitious ballistic missile launches and nuclear tests. Of course, when next winter comes we will set reservations aside, and be right behind Britain’s athletes at the Winter Games. But in the meantime Ski+board sent two writers to take a more quizzical look at the embattled neighbours and their rival aspirations to become ski nations. The logistics of organising such a trip were predictably complex in the case of North Korea — three years of trying, with one trip stymied by the ebola outbreak in Africa of all things — and gloriously easy in the case of South Korea. A British tour operator now offers trips there. But that is where the clichés end, because you may discover that the findings of the two journalists are rather different to what you would expect…

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Captivated by Kim Few Westerners have visited North Korea, and even fewer its new ski resort. Andreas Hofer was surprised by what he saw

hen on February 9, 2018, the 23rd Winter Olympics open in Pyeongchang, South Korea, it can safely be assumed that athletes from North Korea will not be there. This isn’t due to lack of preparation — teams from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have participated in most of the Winter Games since 1964, when they won silver in Innsbruck for speed skating. But it boycotted the Summer Olympics in Seoul and will do so again, so ingrained is the ill-will between the two halves of the country. This is a shame, because since the resort of Masikryong opened in 2013, the poor cousins of the north have embraced alpine skiing with gusto. Not that my decision to visit it was met with equal enthusiasm by those around me. “You go to North Korea?” asked the jolly Beijing taxi driver in disbelief. “You are not afraid to be abducted?” I had read stories about North Korean scuba-divers taking girls from beaches in Japan in the 1970s, but assured him I was not overly worried. However, many of my friends at home also thought I was utterly stupid to go, saying they were sure they had seen the last of me. They even urged my wife to talk me out of it. Like the taxi driver, they regarded the country as something between a detention camp for 25 million citizens and the lair of a Bond villain. I could see their point. The documented detonation of a nuclear device a few days earlier and rumours of preparations for an intercontinental ballistic missile launch began to worry me too. My preparations, however, were rather more prosaic. I stocked up on loo paper, “they don’t have toilet paper”, enough food for ten days, “they all die from malnutrition”, batteries, torches and head lamps, “look at satellite images — at night the country is the black hole of Asia”. I also squeezed in a thick, down sleeping bag that I had used in a tent in Siberia in winter. It was not for the first time I was packing. While it is possible for a tourist to book a package tour to North Korea, it is tricky for a journalist. In 2015, having signed pledges of ‘good’ journalistic behaviour and a promise to refrain from ‘political’ writing, I was cleared to travel — only to learn that the People’s Republic was sealed

‘Having signed pledges to refrain from political writing I was cleared to travel’

off to all visitors due to the Ebola scare. For more than half a year not a single person was allowed in. The $2,800 I had paid for a ten-day journey with six days of skiing — covering accommodation, food, a car with driver and flights from Beijing — was duly refunded. So it was only after getting over the elation of receiving my entry visa in the lobby of a Beijing hotel in January this year that I began to have second thoughts myself. North Korea has been crippled by sanctions since 1993. And in 2013, after the second successful detonation of a nuclear device, even the Chinese started to get cross with their sabre-rattling neighbour, and the latest UN sanctions were passed unanimously. North Korea is now excluded from global payment transactions, travel and trade. Credit cards are useless and foreign mobiles don’t work. So I sent an email to the German embassy notifying it of my visit and a second to my wife to tell her how much I loved her. As I wheeled my bulky luggage through the airport on that January day, I realised there was no turning back — my journey had begun. But the queues at the check-in for Air Koryo, North Korea’s national airline, were hardly what I expected. Ladies in mink and designer sunglasses were posing in front of the business class desk, while their partners busied themselves on smart phones. I, on the other hand, stood in a long line of traders in economy class, my skis and bags seeming paltry alongside the 30-odd boxloads each was taking. I have had my share of Communist experiences — of KGB surveillance, shoddy service and Kafka-esque bureaucracy. Yet after the two-hour flight, I felt a rush of trepidation at the immigration desk in Pyongyang. The politeness of the border guards took me by surprise. In impeccable English, they welcomed me like an old friend. Of course, customs wanted to have a look at my books. Two critiques of dystopian autocracies — Gogol’s Government Inspector and Capek’s Rossum’s Universal Robots — passed muster, but I was glad I had left behind Escape From Camp 14, the hair-raising tale of a North Korean defector. Our joint attempts to operate my tablet, which somehow took us to a porn site, resulted in hearty laughter. I started to relax. I was now ready to meet my regime nannies — the officials responsible for guiding each and every one of my steps through the country. I had been expecting grim, grey-faced party-apparatchiks, but instead I walked into the arrivals lobby to be greeted by the smiling faces of a young man and woman, Ri and Su. Suddenly,

the next ten days looked like they could be a lot of fun. Our first stop was, predictably enough, to two giant statues, smiling benevolently into glaring floodlights. “We bow now,” said Su, after I added my cellophanewrapped bouquet to the heaps of others laid in front of Kim Yong-il, father of the current president, and his own father Kim Il-Sung. “Don’t take half pictures,” she added noticing my camera angle. “We see them as one.” “Isn’t this a bit like God and Jesus?” I hazarded, testing the boundaries, only to get a stern correction. My minders would look after me for the coming ten days, answering all my questions, trying to accommodate my often curious wishes, and gently steering me away from trouble — like taking photos of the traffic policewomen in Pyongyang’s central district, their upper bodies illuminated with red light bulbs and their fur caps trembling with correctness. With their bespoke uniforms and snappy choreography they reminded me of the girls at the Crazy Horse night club in Paris. Su found my fascination funny, even concealing a spontaneous laugh with her cupped hand. What I had expected were a mass of workers walking home stooped and silent in the dark. But the central district was a world away from the apartment blocks of the suburbs, whose dimly lit windows glow with a weak, bluish battery-powered light. Here was a proud skyline of stylish, apparently well-constructed new buildings, lavish sport stadiums and technology complexes, all glass, steel and neon. And the stars were blinking over this city of three million citizens. In Beijing, on a bright day I couldn’t even see the sun, so dense was the air with sulphurous coal fumes. While Su and Ri were sticklers for the party line, I did feel able to quiz them on their day-to-day lives in North Korea. I asked Su: “Do you have a boyfriend?” “Not for the moment,” the 25-year-old answered, blushing. So I went on: “If there were someone you fancied, would you take him to meet your parents?” “This would not be a good idea,” she replied with a sly smile. “It is parents in our country who are matchmakers. Once I am married, I will move in with my in-laws. We always do. And my parents would want to make sure it’s a good family. Socially suitable, I mean.” Social class, I realised, was a big thing — even in one of the world’s last remaining bastions of Communism. The next day, we set off on our 200km drive east to Masikryong. The landscape was hilly, its regular, coneSki+board

shaped hills — overgrown with alder, oak and dense shrubs — looking like Japanese ink drawings. Rocky crags were studded picturesquely with gnarled fir and spruce trees. By the side of the road, farmers raked tiny parcels of cornfields laid out on improbably steep slopes, while children with ruddy cheeks pushed each other in wooden crates over frozen ponds and rivers. It was sunny, but bitterly cold — these were the minus 20°C temperatures that American GIs battled in the Korean war in the 1950s. Workers, farmers, soldiers were trudging along the concrete highway, some pushing bicycles. Most were carrying some sort of firewood or kindling — from stubs of corn, branches, or bundles of twigs. An old man was chipping splinters from a huge tree trunk frozen into the river. An ox cart pulled two women wrapped in shawls and padded denim. They too were carrying firewood. In the outskirts of Pyongyang, beyond the glitzy waterfront of the central district, I had seen the balconies of high-rise blocks blackened by rickety, self-made chimneys. “Would you marry someone you didn’t love that much but who could promise you a good life?” I asked Su. “No, but he would certainly be my parents’ dream candidate,” she laughed. As we approached the ski resort a remarkable sight appeared — a triumphal arch formed by a pair of concrete skis, which we passed under. We continued up the valley and, turning a corner, I saw the ski area

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Ox-drawn carts and tributes to past leaders are common, as shown by Su, Hofer's minder

The resort of Masikryong was built in just ten months

for the first time. Cut into the treeline were pistes of varying steepness, rising above a nine-storey, Swissstyle mountain hotel. On a giant screen, the size of a multi-storey building itself, North Korea’s most ubiquitous girl band, Moranbong, were performing. They had followed me everywhere, whether as part of Air Koryo’s on-board entertainment, on our driver’s dashboard TV, or as performed by cheerleaders at Pyongyang’s metro stations, preparing commuters for yet another happy day at work. Dressed in miniskirts and high heels, they are the sexy face of the army, playing chirpy pop backed by a military orchestra, and dancing in front of a screen showing pirouetting fighter jets and rockets. Skiing in North Korea was something I was prepared for, but not après-ski. The bellboy, resplendent in a uniform of golden braids and peaked cap, took my bulky luggage through the grand lobby to a spacious, tastefully furnished apartment. When I saw the bath robes, marble tub, giant towels and scented soaps and gels, I hid my stupid rolls of Tesco loo paper in the back of the cupboard. Soon they would be followed by my canned food, dried meat and sleeping bag. The next morning, I set out to explore the resort. It had an ice rink, five main chairlifts and a gondola, taking skiers 750 vertical metres up to Taehwa peak (1,360m). Perfectly groomed pistes sloped down all sides of the mountain, some steep, others more gentle. The slopes were full of crowds in colourful skiwear, some of whom, especially the instructors and ski patrol, were speeding down in graceful, swift, carving turns. A PistenBully crept up one of the slopes and skidoos raced up and down, carrying guests to the viewing platform on the summit or to one of many restaurants. Children were snowploughing alongside the magic carpets, their proud parents taking pictures, and snow machines were spewing white fountains of snow like winter fireworks. This was a proper ski resort, intended for families, rather than off-piste tourers like me. So the resort staff on the chairlift above me didn’t think I was in my right mind when they saw me skinning up the mountain by the side of the piste. They laughed and shouted, pointing to the turnstiles by the lifts. Why this

‘When I saw the marble tub, I hid my stupid rolls of Tesco loo paper in the cupboard’

Surprising luxuries in North Korea’s ski resort include marble bathrooms, tasty seafood and Western hire gear

crazy Austrian was walking up the mountain, when there were state-of-the-art Doppelmayr chairlifts to carry skiers in comfort, they could not fathom. But when a fierce wind shut the gondola the next day, I had the last laugh. This time when the instructors passed, they gave me the thumps-up. And for the staff at the top lodge, complete with chandelier and floor-toceiling aquarium, my arrival was a welcome distraction, I being the only guest of the day. They switched on the karaoke machine, and sang a beautiful welcome song, encouraging me to dance with them, while the cooks and kitchen porters waved excitedly every time I circled past them in my ski boots, dancing through the restaurant. My dance partners, in fetching, bespoke uniforms, only drew the line at being photographed. I wasn’t quite the only Westerner in the resort. Baba and Lars were two Swiss ski instructors who had come from Grindelwald to train the staff. Baba explained: “All these people in uniform are in the military. They built the ski complex in only ten months. Most of them are really good skiers now,” he added with obvious pride. Guests arrived in large numbers, by bus or in cars, shrieking, shouting and laughing. They all headed to the ticket office. A seven-day ski pass, including rental of skis, boots and skiwear, cost the equivalent of £350. “Su, how do people pay for this?” I asked. She replied: “With their own money. Scientists and teachers, like my father, earn a good salary. We don’t have to pay tax.” I had brought skis, but this too was unnecessary. The ski gear was new and mostly Western-made. The leader, Kim Jong-un spent part of his upbringing in a Swiss boarding school. It must have had quite an impression. I was not the only one asking questions — for each of my queries, my minders had a dozen. I have rarely met two more inquisitive young people. After a week of wonderful skiing, food and great company, how could I say goodbye, knowing I could never email nor call? “Su,” I asked one evening, “what happens if one falls in love with one of Korea’s stunningly beautiful girls?” “Oh,” she replied with a smile, “you'll have to marry her, of course. And then you both will have to stay.” She toasted me with a glass of Italian soave I had chosen to go with the sushi, steamed octopus, scallops, roasted quail and venison steaks. If that were to be my North Korean kidnapping, I might just get used to it.

Andreas Hofer funded his trip himself and booked with Uri Tours (uritours.com)

Photo: Korea Tourism Org/visitkorea.or.kr

Next stop — Olympia There’s something commuter-like about skiing in South Korea. Yet it’s strangely addictive, as Ben Clatworthy discovered

ow time flies. In just over a year, South Korea will host the Olympics. It’s a country famous for computers, cars and hot dogs (the real ones) — but not winter sports. In fact, few people, even those in the Far East, had heard of South Korea’s skiing credentials before the International Olympic Committee awarded it the 2018 Games, staving off competition from both Munich and Annecy. Winter sports fans let out a collective groan. Four years earlier, the same committee had awarded Sochi the Winter Games, and they became the most expensive Olympics in history with a bill totalling £38 billion. And South Korea, with its mere 17 resorts, and handful of lifts, seemed another baffling decision. Keen to discover this bizarre skiing destination, I landed at dawn in Seoul on a bitterly cold February day. We bundled into our driver’s van, which had a sign reading ‘Foreign Tourists on Board’ displayed in the windscreen. I had arrived in the right Korea, hadn’t I? Seoul is a city that pulsates with life — a mish-mash of markets and skyscrapers that glitter in the sun by day and flash neon signs by night. I spend the day exploring the metropolis, but only scratch the surface. Lunch at the vast Dongdaemun market district — with Ski+board

October 2016

Pyeongchang’s Alpensia resort will host the ski jumping as well as the opening and closing ceremonies

its 30,000 shops — is a highlight. In the main food alley 200 market stalls serve every traditional dish. We opt for one where a few old men are huddled on a bench heated by electric blankets and scoffing plates of food. A woman is crouched over an oversize pestle and mortar grinding mung beans. These accompany delicacies such as stewed pig trotters and snouts, all washed down with copious amounts of rice wine, even at lunchtime. The next morning, we leave the city for Pyeongchang, the region hosting the Games. After negotiating crammed city streets, we are on the motorway driving through mountainous countryside. It’s still bitterly cold, at minus 10°C, yet there’s not a flake of snow to be seen. Our first stop is at Phoenix Park. This is the resort two hours’ east of Seoul that will host the freestyle skiing and snowboarding events. It’s a striking juxtaposition — the vast wilderness interrupted by a purpose-built ski resort. At the base, industrial prefab buildings cluster around the resort’s only gondola and the main ‘ski house’. Here there’s equipment rental, sports shops and a restaurant, which, though it looks like a school canteen, serves wonderful noodles in tasty hot broth, for about £8. Once we’ve had our fill and negotiated the rental shop — “you want one ski, or two?” the technician asks in a series skiclub.co.uk

Korea’s largest resort Yongpyong will host the Alpine events, while Phoenix Park, right, will host the freestyle competitions

of bizarre questions in pidgin English — it’s time to join the mêlée of schoolchildren on the mountain, all wearing bibs to denote which class they are in. Looking up from the bottom, the slopes resemble white ribbons cut into the dense forest that covers the mountainside. There’s a mix of very slow chairlifts, the type found in France a generation ago, and a single gondola, which serves the so-called ‘Mont Blanc’ peak, at just over 1,000m. Once on the slopes, it’s soon apparent that, in spite of the resort’s bold claims of having 22 pistes, you’re looking at more like ten ‘proper’ runs, once slope divisions are excluded. The longest is Panorama, which is an “impressive 2.2km in length” according to the resort. However, size isn’t everything and in terms of terrain, the resort reminds me of Cypress Mountain, near Vancouver, where the freestyle events of the 2010 Games were successfully held. I spend the afternoon zipping around the slopes, which are signposted only in Korean, making it well nigh impossible for me to locate myself on the piste map. Luckily, France this is not, and it’s hard to get lost with most runs funnelling back to the base. That’s not to say I don’t find challenges. Despite my race training, I am unable to grip the snow, because my skis are so blunt. On one hair-raising descent I almost collide with a woman — out of control and holding a selfie stick out in front of her as she goes. While I am struck by the views of the vast and snowless wilderness that stretches as far as I can see, my fellow skiers seem more obsessed with taking pictures of themselves. Later, I meet Lee Jongbin, the resort’s assistant manager. He’s excited by the coming of the Olympics, and says the money will be welcome in upgrading the facilities, adding: “At the moment we have one hotel, which will be completely refurbished by 2018.” A second five-star hotel has since opened, and the

‘“Do you want one ski or two?” the rental shop technician asks in pidgin English’

final renovations ahead of the Games are due to be finished in time for the start of the 2016-17 season. Whistle-stop tour complete, it’s on to my second resort, Yongpyong. This is the country’s largest resort, with 16 lifts and 31 slopes. It will also be the main venue for the Games, with a temporary Olympic stadium, capable of seating 50,000 people, due for construction. Yongpyong caters best for the international market, with several apartment blocks, and the Dragon Valley hotel, the resort’s most upmarket place to stay. We check-in here, but, exhausted from the 12-hour flight, and with the nine-hour time difference catching up on me, I eschew the chance to stay in a traditional Korean ‘ondol’ room, where you sleep on a heated floor with just a thin blanket and yoga-type mat. I opt instead to stay in a spacious Western room with double beds. The next morning, ski suited and booted, after an appointment with a technician who seems more au fait with ski gear, I tackle what will be the main Olympic slopes. The ambience at the resort’s main lodge takes me by surprise. There’s a hustle and bustle more akin to a rush-hour railway station than a holiday destination. At the top of an escalator, a resort worker, decked out in a high-visibility jacket, shouts a long, garbled sentence in Korean, before offering a simple translation in English of “skiing” and points us to a door. Outside things are different. Huge advertising hoardings flank the sides of the pistes, and tinny classical music rings out from battered loudspeakers. The tunes range from wartime concert hall to Last Night of the Proms, and are interspersed with muffled safety announcements. The experience is somewhat surreal, and this time I find myself rather enjoying it. The slopes aren’t as busy here as in Phoenix Park, and while the terrain is far from challenging, it is varied, despite the snow being almost entirely artificial and rock-solid under a soft layer. We spend the morning exploring the small Rainbow sector, whose three pistes will be used for the Slalom and Giant Slalom at the Olympics. It’s the mountain’s one steeper area and is served by a high-speed lift, allowing us to get a few quick laps and some miles under our skis. On the

Photos: Korea Tourism Org/visitkorea.or.kr

chairlift I get chatting to a student from Seoul, who is wearing just a tatty jacket, and tracksuit bottoms. “I hadn’t skied until last year,” he tells me. “I’ve only been to the small places near the city, but my friends said here is best, so I drove up this morning.” He’s not staying overnight because “it’s too expensive” but says the trip was worth the drive. Koreans appear less sporty than European skiers, most returning to the base at lunchtime. But there is one on-mountain lunch option: Dragon Castle, a proper sit-down venue at the resort’s 1,458m summit, serving succulent stir-fried beef tenderloin with rice. Feeling full, and a tad lethargic, we spend the afternoon moseying around the gentle Red and Gold Zones, which have wide easy breezy slopes, served by both fast and slow chairlifts. All of the skiing in the resort is below the treeline, and I look out over rolling hills of dense deciduous forest. By now it’s late afternoon, and normally my thoughts would turn to après-ski. Except skiing here doesn’t end when the sun dips behind the peaks of the Taebaek mountains. Like most things in South Korea, the sport is as much a hobby enjoyed by moonlight (or rather powerful floodlights) as by sunlight. There’s a brief hiatus, while the groomers work their magic, but once complete, it’s all systems go until around midnight. It’s only then, in the small hours, that the après-ski really kicks-off underground at the resort’s emporium of bars and arcades. We settle on bowling (though karaoke is

by far the most popular choice) accompanied by many rounds of beer and rice wine. South Korea may not have the long pistes, glitzy bars or restaurants, but skiing is not about that here. Yes, I’ve skied loftier, ‘greater’ resorts, but skiing Korea’s Olympic runs, I found stations that had a quirkiness I shan’t forget — from the tinny music to the compressor pumps that clean snow off your skis. Seeing how other cultures adapt to any sport is intriguing, and all the more so when a country is preparing to host the Games. And the latest news on that front is good. Though there are worries over the soaring cost of construction, the first test events held last season were a success, with the Alpine athletes seemingly happy with the chosen venues, if a little underwhelmed by the steepness of the Downhill, which was at a resort I didn’t visit. A lot can change in a year, and I’m sure a lot of work has gone on since I visited eight months ago. Of course you’re unlikely to take the 12-hour flight solely to ski in South Korea. But combining it with a trip to Japan’s resorts allows you to ski the best of the Far East and sit back in front of the television next season and say: “Yes, I’ve skied that.”

Ski Safari (skisafari.com; 01273 224 067) offers bespoke trips to South Korea and Japan. The 14-night Ski Asia Safari, which includes a visit to Seoul, Yongpyong and Niseko, costs from £2,395 per person based on two sharing. For more on South Korea, visit gokorea.co.uk

FIVE REASONS TO CHEER Planning your winter getaway? What you need is a little Austrian gemütlichkeit (warmth, friendliness, and good cheer). And what better way to find it than heading for the mountains of Austria - where the linked network of resorts has just got even bigger and better after a flurry of new lifts. Thanks to three new gondolas, the Arlberg region’s resorts will become Austria’s largest inter-connected ski area with 305 kilometers of runs and 87 lifts. From the resorts of Kitzbühel and the “Ski Juwel” areas of Alpbachtal and Wildschönau, Skicircus Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang Fieberbrunn, Vorarlberg with the stunning Brandnertal and Bregenzerwald and the iconic Lech or the idyllic Zell am See-Kaprun region, Austria consistently punches above its weight with reliable snow and fantastic value for money.

GERMANY

Discover more at austria.info/ski16

Ski Juwel Back in 2012, these two idyllic ski regions were linked via Auffach with a single gondola. Alpbach, renowned as one of the prettiest villages in Austria with its narrow village streets and classic oniondomed church, was once disconnected from the tranquil Wildschönau area. But they are now all part of the same family. The combined Ski Juwel area now features 109 kilometers of slopes and nine ski schools. Don’t miss the long intermediate cruising run from the top of the gondola down through a picturesque gladed area to Auffach – a vertical descent of more than a thousand metres.

AUSTRIA Photo: Adolf Bereuter / Bregenzerwald Tourismus

SWITZERLAND

Vorarlberg In the far west of Austria, Vorarlberg is a region with one of the best snow records in the Alps. Opening this winter, the new cableway link between Zürs and Stuben/Rauz will make the Arlberg area the largest contiguous skiing area in Austria, with 305km of downhill slopes. Also in Vorarlberg is Bregenzerwald, renowned for its innovative architecture and craftsmanship, and home to several resorts, including Warth-Schröcken, part of the vast Arlberg ski area. Families will enjoy nearby Brandnertal, which features easy cruising blue and red runs, and offers children‘s races and activities.

ITALY

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Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang Fieberbrunn The famous Skicircus offers its devotees a major cross-province link with the Tirolean resort of Fieberbrunn, giving it a total of 270km of pistes. As soon as the 10-seater gondola link opened, the circuit became one of the top-ten biggest ski areas in the world. It also boasts one of the most prolific collections of mountain restaurants in the Alps, with more than 60 eateries and huts to choose from. Although the newly added slopes of Fieberbrunn add some challenging runs, much of the circus is easygoing. The long, gentle run down to the charming resort of Leogang is perfect for picture stops.

Zell am See-Kaprun

Kitzbühel in Tirol The resort hardly needs an introduction thanks to its infamous Streif descent on the Hahnenkamm. But, though it is one of the most challenging runs on the World Cup circuit, depending on your own ability you can earn your bragging rights on the “family Streif” red run or even the beginners’ “mini-Streif”. Beyond that, most of the resort’s extensive slopes, including the neighbouring Kitzbüheler Horn, Kirchberg, Jochberg and Pass Thurn, will make intermediates and family skiers in general more than happy. As for the walled medieval town itself, with its delightful old buildings painted in colourful pastel shades, it’s an absolute gem.

Few major ski areas are perched above a stunning lake, but skiers on the Schmittenhöhe can enjoy superb scenery and then retreat to the idyllic medieval waterfront town of Zell am See. Just an hour’s drive from Salzburg airport, Zell is also the gateway to the Kitzsteinhorn, where the slopes rise to 3000m, providing exhilarating skiing in the summer as well as winter. This season there’s is a new run going three-quarters of the way down towards Viehhofen.

ON PATROL WITH THE MOUNTAINS’ GUARDIAN ANGELS In many resorts you can do ‘first tracks’ to enjoy the morning’s untouched snow. But in Aspen you can do ‘Last Tracks’ — joining the ski patrol’s final sweep of the day. Nick Hutchings tried it out

ike Britt looks every bit the bronzed ski patroller — a cross between Tom Selleck and a piece of flint — and he is as imperturbable as both. He points out a spot to our small, ragtag crew and says: “And down there is where we caught a huge reality TV celebrity taking, er, ‘suggestive’ selfies with her boyfriend.” Mike is leading us on Aspen’s ‘Last Tracks’ programme, offered to those staying at hotels that the Colorado resort owns. It takes its name from the ‘first tracks’ programmes that allow skiers to be the first to ski the mountain. But what Aspen offers is an end-of-day sweep. So what’s the appeal? Well, in addition to having the mountain to yourself for one last delicious descent of the day, you get to watch the patrollers in action, and maybe even help if they come across anyone in trouble. It’s also a chance to see at first hand the mistakes other skiers make and learn the golden rules to ensure you don’t do the same yourself. Anyway, back to Mike’s story of the shameless celeb — to make matters worse, they tried to flee the scene and she lost control of her skis and helmet, with the latter sliding down the mountain like a bowling ball. “We managed to grab their kit before it did any damage, and escorted them off the mountain,” says the unflappable Mike. His colleagues have faced even less co-operative piste-users — bears that have been avalanche bombed out of hibernation and gone on the warpath. On our late afternoon run down the hill, I’m expecting none of the abovementioned dramas. Rather I am looking forward to an illuminating insight into how ski patrollers work as a team to check everyone is safely off the

Patrollers can warn of many scrapes that skiers get into

mountain. And I am also looking to pick up some tips. As a fairly adventurous skier who enjoys a late afternoon sortie off-piste, I want to know how to avoid traps that await skiers and snowboarders who may stray off the beaten track. We meet Mike at the patrol hut on top of the mountain, where he introduces us to the cute avalanche dogs they use to sniff out lost skiers. This is not just a case of avalanches. A particular hazard in North America is tree wells, with some skiers becoming firmly stuck in the deep bowls that surrounds evergreen trees. From the hut, our six-person crew starts its descent down the mountain, watching as Mike radios the other patrollers, and stops at copses that have offered finds in runs gone by. As we stop at a cat track he says: “Here’s where we had to rescue a Saint Patrick’s day reveller who decided the best way to celebrate was to sink a brewery’s-worth of green beer, then ski down the hill. “Not surprisingly, he suffered a horrific leg break and needed us to get him off the mountain.” With half the mountain now behind us and limbs intact, we smugly enjoy these stories, unaware of the drama waiting for us on the next descent. Skiing down the mountain at 5pm, when the light is dim, means it’s hard to judge the terrain beneath your skis or board. But

THEY FACED A BEAR, AVALANCHE BOMBED OUT OF HIBERNATION

Ski+board

October 2016

we are with a butch patroller so we’re determined to show that we belong in his gang, invisible terrain be damned. We hit lips, tree stumps and drops on the way down, to Mike’s alarm, and he shouts in a voice that could crack mountains to stick to the centre of the piste. We pull in tight, but even so we’re not immune. I’m straight-lining when I hit an unexpected cat track that crosses the piste and land back on the piste with a bang, knocking the bravado out of me. Some of us have a harder lesson to learn. At the penultimate slope, the fastest of our crew catches an edge on a blind bump by the side of a chairlift. I hear a sharp exhale of surprise as he cartwheels through the air before exploding on the snow ten metres from where he’d taken off. Thoughts of the broken Saint Patrick’s day skier flash through my mind as we rush to him. He’s on all fours, blood dripping from his head. And, because he’s winded, it’s hard to know the extent of his injuries. Mike packs snow on his nose. Our skier is pale and bloodied but, amazingly, has escaped serious injury, with just a cut. We positively tip-toe down the last slope, stopping at the bottom to thank Mike, before taking our injured comrade off to the local hospital for a check-up, while clutching our souvenir T-shirts. “You’re the craziest Last Tracks group I’ve had,” he tells us. “But you guys forgot the golden rule — stay with your patroller and don’t end up being the one they’re looking for.”

Last Tracks is offered for $25 on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 4pm to guests at The Little Nell and Limelight Hotel. Nick was a guest of Aspen (aspensnowmass. com) and flew with United (united.com), which has returns from Heathrow to Aspen from £589. The Limelight (limelighthotel. com) has rooms from $300 a night b&b.

skiclub.co.uk

Patrol dogs find not just buried skiers but also lost property

Aspen’s quirky offering takes its inspiration from the many ‘first tracks’ programmes in Canada, which are now also catching on in the Alps, say Harriet Johnston and Max Carr Resort

Time

Price

Weblink

Europe Alpe d’Huez

Times vary

alpedhueznet.com

Chamonix

8am on Thursday

€20

bit.ly/firsttrackschamonix

La Bresse Hohneck

Times vary

€18

bit.ly/firsttrackslb

La Plagne

Times vary

Les Arcs

7.45am on Thursday

€10

bit.ly/firsttrackslesarcs

Les Deux Alpes

8am on Wednesday

€13 last year

bit.ly/firsttrackslda

Peyragudes

Times vary

Méribel

8am on Wednesday

€24

bit.ly/firsttracksmeribel

Tignes

8am on Wednesday

€15

bit.ly/firsttrackstignes

Saas Fee

Times vary

Verbier

7.45am on certain days

25CHF

verbier.ch

Zermatt

7.40am on certain days

20CHF

bit.ly/firsttrackszermatt

Alta Badia

7am most days

€20

altabadia.org

Cervinia

Most days

€10

bit.ly/firsttrackscervinia

Serfaus

90 minutes before lifts open on Wednesday

€60

serfaus-fiss-ladis.at

Lake Louise

30 minutes before lifts open on most days

C$99 (lesson)

bit.ly/firsttracksll

Mont Tremblant

7.45am most days

C$16/C$22

bit.ly/firsttracksmt

Revelstoke

7am most days

C$52

bit.ly/firsttracksrevelstoke

Whistler

7am most days

C$22

bit.ly/firsttrackswhistler

Aspen

8am most days

Free

bit.ly/firsttracksaspen

North Star

7.30am certain Saturdays

$80

northstarcalifornia.com

Park City

Monday, Wednesday and Saturday

$79

parkcitymountain.com

Steamboat

8am most days

$39

bit.ly/firsttrackssteamboat

Windham

Weekends until February 21

$15

bit.ly/firsttrackswindham

winter.la-plagne.com

peyragudes.com

saasfee.ch

North America

All details based on information available at the time of going to press and on seasons past. This winter’s programmes may differ markedly

ore than a decade ago, the Canadian resort of Whistler had a lightbulb moment. Staff had long witnessed the unseemly scramble at the bottom of gondolas on the morning after a big snowstorm. So managers asked themselves — why not take the most dedicated skiers up with resort workers, offer them a slap-up breakfast at the top of the mountain while the ski patrol check the slopes, then allow them first dibs in the powder when the pistes are safe to open? The concept caught on fast, with many resorts in North America offering similar packages. Tickets can usually be bought in advance, though on big snow days you may still face a queue, as tickets are limited. However, if successful, you will have plenty of space to enjoy trails full of fresh powder, while the rest of the world is only starting to board the lifts. Now the concept is spreading to Europe too. You may not get the huge breakfast, but it’s more affordable. In the French resorts of Tignes, Méribel and Les Deux Alpes, for instance, prices start at €13, including a coffee and croissant. With most of the European programmes, you get at least a coffee to wake you up in the gondola. The experience may be brief, but it’s a magical experience to enjoy pure powder on untouched slopes as the sun rises above new snow for the first time.

Photo: Peter Podpera/Serfaus

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LINKS, LINKS...

rom the aeroplane, the mass of snow-covered peaks looked like a sea of white horses in the haze of the late afternoon sunshine. We were flying into Salzburg, entry point to several Austrian resorts, and I asked myself why, when so many Alpine resorts are so close, are not more connected? I’m not alone in pondering this. Unlike in France, where resort link-ups have all but stalled, Austria is busy connecting resorts to create huge ski playgrounds, the most notable of which was the merger of Saalbach and Fieberbrunn last season to create Austria’s biggest ski area. And Saalbach was where I was headed. In this charming town, with its fresco-adorned hotels and cobbled streets, you could be forgiven for forgetting you are in a ‘mega-resort’. As the lift took us up the steep valley on a sunny late February morning,

we soon lost sight of pistes in the forest. Saalbach’s ski area has grown organically. For years it has been linked to Hinterglemm, a similar-sized town up the valley, and Leogang, a little village across the mountains. But the powder stashes of Fieberbrunn, up the valley from Leogang, remained inaccessible to Saalbach, until now. To find our way to the gondola that has made this possible we follow the ‘Tirol loop’ on the piste map. I’m often surprised that more ski areas don’t suggest round tours like this. They save skiers repeating runs and show an easy way to explore a resort’s furthest reaches. And so we arrive at the gleaming €20 million TirolS gondola, opened just a few months before. It is the final piece in a 15-year, €390 million project of snowmaking, new lifts and new pistes — you can also ski into Fieberbrunn now, thanks to the new red run under the

Photo: Mirja Geh/Saalbach

Austria has stolen a march on France in a bid to create giant linked ski areas. Colin Nicholson visited Saalbach, currently the country’s biggest arena, to find out more

...LINKS, RECHTS, LINKS The new TirolS gondola has created a 270km network of connected pistes — and a link to Zell-am-See is planned

Photo: Dietmar Sochor/Saalbach

be had off the side of the piste. We race each other on timed slalom runs and test how fast we can go on the cordoned-off speed traps. And utterly absorbed by our lunch stop, the Alte Schmiede restaurant, which has a working indoor water wheel and lavatory museum, we only just make it back to the hotel before the lifts close. The SkiCircus, as the area dubs itself, is currently the biggest linked area in Austria. To back its claim it has co-opted Cristoph Schrahe, the man who revealed to British skiers in Ski+board in 2013 that many ski areas were massively exaggerating the length of their pistes. Some versions of Saalbach’s piste map carry Schrahe’s stamp of approval for its figure of 270km — as well as its cloying clown logo. But, from December, both the SkiCircus and its nearest rival, the SkiWelt, will be eclipsed, as a new link between Lech-Zürs and St Anton means the Arlberg area will outstrip them in size. But before you write the creepy clown off, the SkiCircus is already planning its riposte — in the shape of a tie-up with Zell am See. From December, skiers in Zell will be able to take a 3.3km red piste almost to Viehhofen, near the deserted spot in Vorderglemm where we skied the previous day, then ride the 2kmlong gondola back up to Zell’s Schmittenhohe peak. Frustratingly, the much shorter lift that will allow skiers to go from Saalbach to Zell is due for completion only in 2018. In a spirit of journalistic enquiry I wanted to explore the route ahead of the new lifts and hired a ski guide. But when he arrives the next day, he has

lift. So having reached the famed gondola, we promptly bypass it and ski down the beautifully pisted corduroy underneath. We even do a few sorties to the side. There is lovely powder in Fieberbrunn and the Freeride World Tour, which visits every winter, had only just passed. The village of Fieberbrunn itself is crowded — not with powder hounds, but schoolchildren. We have hit ‘Dutch week’, with skiers from the Netherlands being the resort’s main guests. Germans, Austrians and a host of Nordics also come in greater number than the British. The new lift helps Fieberbrunn by giving it access to more pistes. When we take the heated, high-speed TirolS back up, and ski to rustic Vorderglemm, with its farmyard smells, we find remarkably uncrowded runs. The next day we do another of the five loops, this time to little Leogang. Again, there is plenty of fun to Ski+board

October 2016

The attractive village of Saalbach, with its cobbled streets, is hardly what you would expect at the centre of a ‘mega-resort’

bad news. He asks: “Did you bring your ice skates?” Florian, or ‘Flo’, is not only a guide but a paraglider, and explains that the south-facing slopes he had flown over earlier that morning will be frozen solid in these freezethaw conditions. He offers me a lift by car to the place where the lift will start but I say no way. I’m here to ski. So I reluctantly accept Flo’s fallback plan, a climb that appears on the map to be a central reservation between two parallel pistes. Inside I am gutted. skiclub.co.uk

Even ski touring between pistes feels like you’re in the wilderness as Florian showed Colin, with the aid of a TomTom camera

Much as I love ski touring, I have never seen the point of doing it by the side of a piste. Things look up when we arrive at a deserted farmyard in Hinterglemm. The birds are singing and we don our touring skins to follow the tracks of a man and his dog up the mountain. We can see Hinterglemm beneath us, a concentrated village of fivestorey hotels — and this is one reason why the area feels so naturalistic. Nearly every building appears in the tourist board’s accommodation brochure — a refreshing alternative to the sprawl of underused apartments elsewhere in the Alps. Soon the village is out of sight — as are all the pistes. Just as road maps portray Britain as a spaghetti soup of roads, the piste map is equally misleading. I see no evidence of skiers as we climb what is a walking route in summer. In fact, when I finally do spy a piste from afar, halfway into the thousand-metre climb, I stop to gawp, as if I have never seen one before. Flo is a big fan of the new lift, and not just because he is an engineer by training, waxing lyrical about cable thickness. He argues that the TirolS has made the area more, rather than less, naturalistic. “It’s opened up so many off-piste lines,” he explains. Pointing to the mountains that separate SaalbachHinterglemm from Fieberbrunn, he says: “You should see some of the pictures of freeriders taken here since the lift opened. There are so many new powder fields accessible you would think they were taken in Alaska.” We continue our slow ascent towards the Reiterkogel, where at 1,800m we stop for tea. Naturalistic as Saalbach’s pistes are, when Flo suggests we descend on a red run, I again say no way, I hadn’t done the climb through fields of fresh snow, scattered with crystals glinting at me enticingly, only to go down on hard-pack, regardless of his warning about off-piste conditions. So we set off, gliding through the deep snow. Which is fine, until I want to make my first turn. When I try, my skis hold fast.

The soft cover holds a breakable crust that no matter how much I try to jump clear off, I struggle to beat. As we descend below the treeline, I find myself sailing into as much as around the trees, often swinging myself around their trunks to turn. And when the forest grows too thick, we return to the track we climbed, where I am reduced to doing tight turns in a space no wider than car tracks that is too bumpy to snowplough. By now I am more than ready for pistes, easy turns and speed again, so I spend the afternoon following the Hinterglemmer route, in three hours dashing round a loop which the resort suggests takes four to five hours. It’s enough to confirm what I have already seen. Some environmental campaigners talk of giant ski areas as if they are a maze of motorways. But in many areas based around traditional villages, as is the case in Saalbach, this image is misleading. If anything, there are good reasons to argue that linked ski areas are more environmentally friendly than smaller ones that you need to drive or catch a bus between. This is an important point, because in France several resorts spent the 1970s contemplating links that never materialised due to petty rivalries and local bickering about who pays what. Sadly, now that the will is there, they are prevented by strict environmental laws. The French authorities would do well to look east to Austria. There, they will find a very different experience to the disturbing images that talk of megaski areas may conjure. And it is lovely.

Colin travelled as a guest of Saalbach (saalbach.com) and stayed at the hotel Wechselberger (wechselberger.at; +43 6541 6239), which offers rooms from €78 a night b&b with no single supplement. For more on skiing in Austria and Salzburgerland see austria.info and salzburgerland.com. To ski with Florian call +43 660 735 5200. The ski area has grown organically over the decades, linking several villages clustered around onion-dome churches

Photo: Wolfgang Weinhäupl/Saalbach-Hinterglemm

The new lift has made the skiing more naturalistic rather than less

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All of Ski+board’s equipment reviews take over a year of meticulous planning, and the clothing pages are no exception, as the Snow Wear Team explain

rafting our snow wear section is no mean feat, and the journey to create the pages that follow started a year ago at the Ski Show in London. It’s here that we begin the process of securing a resort in which to snap the pictures. But the fun really starts in February, when we head to Ispo, a huge trade fair held in Munich since 1970. With over 2,600 exhibitors, it is here that the team get their first glimpse of the following season’s snow wear, and decide what clothes they want to feature in print. With nine halls the size of aeroplane hangars to explore, all packed with kit for a variety of outdoor sports from ski wear to surf wear, it’s vital to have a plan of attack — and stick to it. Moreover, most of the major ski brands, such as Salomon, Peak Performance and Helly Hansen, require pre-booked appointments with the British representative at their stall to view the new lines. At first, this feels like red tape, serving only to complicate two very busy days. The procedure exists, however, for very good reason. Tickets to Ispo are available to the general public, and a number of the Far Eastern visitors have one sole aim — to take as many detailed pictures of the new clothing as possible

before rushing home to start work on counterfeits. It’s a problem that’s rife in the industry, and one that the brands have to tackle at every stage of production. Having worked out which new items offer British shoppers genuine quality and value for money — with a bit of va-va-voom — the team return to Ski+board’s Wimbledon headquarters to begin work on the more detailed planning of the photo shoot. Broadly speaking, this involves two tasks, with the fashion editor, Rachel Rosser, ordering the hundreds of garments selected, and Ben Clatworthy, the shoot’s production manager, taking charge of how to get them to the Alps. For Rachel, a key task is how to reveal the variety of trends unveiled in Munich in simple themes that we can cover in the four print issues of the magazine. Of course, everyone wants an answer to the perennial question: “What’s the colour for this season?” Well, gone are the garish neon and high-visibility outfits that have speckled our slopes for so long. This year, when shopping for new kit — or indeed when you’re out on the slopes — you may notice an increase in the number of blue and orange outfits. But more generally, you will notice a move to more toned down and muted colours. With the themes for the issues established, Rachel starts calling in the products. She approaches each of

Some Far Eastern visitors take lots of photos before rushing home to start work on counterfeits

The 400 items selected are matched together into outfits

Picture: Melody Sky

How we do the fashion shoot

The outfits are vacuum-packed to save space on transport

The team have three days to shoot hundreds of outfits

With such a busy schedule only the odd nap is possible

Fully loaded, the Ski Club’s Volvo is Austria-bound

the brands we visited at Ispo individually, detailing which samples we would like to receive. In all, we take delivery of about 400 items — from expensive jackets to humble beanies — with each carefully logged, then stacked in the Ski Club’s library. Just like any shopper, we make our mistakes. Some items, we decide with hindsight, are actually awful, or poorly made, or look cheap, or are simply not what you — our readers — would want to be seen in. The rest, however, are assembled into outfits for the models to wear. It’s a painstaking task, but it gives our fashion pages a different feel to many other magazines, as we will often snap a model wearing up to five brands in one outfit. This, we believe, is far more interesting than snapping catalogue-style shots of models decked out entirely in just one brand head-to-toe. Our focus on getting an impartial view of what’s on offer extends to recruiting Ski+board’s gear editor, Alf Alderson, to review selected items. Working independently of Ben and Rachel, he will try out gloves in the freezer, take showers with a jacket on, or expose them to the elements outside his home in Wales or Les Arcs, where he spends the winter, all the time casting a critical eye over the outfits to ensure the same level of objectivity that our readers can expect of all our pages. Back in Wimbledon, and with the outfits ready, Ben and Rachel get out what for them is the single most important bit of kit — a vacuum cleaner. No, not to tidy up the mess, but to seal everything into vacuum-pack Ski+board

bags. This is a brilliant space-saver, as it means they're left with nine solid blocks of clothing that can be transported in one car. In April, Rachel and Ben travel to Sölden, in the Austrian Tirol. Because its high-altitude pistes are still snow-sure late in the season, they make a good backdrop for the shoot, as do the town's period buildings. There the team commandeer the hotel’s conference room to set up base camp and prepare for the arrival of the photographer, four models and hair and make-up artist, as they will have just three days to shoot hundreds of outfits. The pressure is on. Pro snapper Melody Sky is the lady behind the lens. She is also the artistic director and makes sure that every item of clothing is shot in as many ways as possible in the limited time available. The days are long and feature a constant conveyor belt of outfit and location changes, with the team all the while battling the mountain weather. It rains for the first two days of the shoot, giving lots of cool, moody, and atmospheric shots, but also meaning the team have just one sunny day to snap everything on snow. After that, Ben and Rachel load everything back into the car, and head back to the big smoke… and it’s almost time to start worrying about next year. And to answer that other perennial question: no, they don’t get to keep a single bit of kit. October 2016

skiclub.co.uk

Independently Alf Alderson tests certain items, some in the shower

After a highly successful shoot there’s always time to celebrate

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The inside edge Winter is coming! Get into the mood by letting our experts guide you through all things snow this season

Off-piste

Learn the secrets of finding the best hidden powder with guide Nigel Shepherd

Gear Through a glass less darkly... goggles that adapt to light levels become mainstream

Boards The trick is to go retro, as freestyle boards embrace the return of camber

Resort Insider Want early season snow? Our panel of experts better the odds of you finding it

Snow wear Invest in ski clothing that promises to be durable as well as versatile

Fitness Strengthen vulnerable parts of your body, plus gym like it’s 1989…

Boots Give blisters the boot with freeride models that offer performance and comfort

Technique

Ski tests

Facing crust, slush or mush? Mark Jones reveals how to get tough with tricky terrain

Ski+board

48 Our industry-leading testers give their verdict on this season’s top 32 freeride skis

October 2016

skiclub.co.uk

SNOW WEAR

A jacket for all seasons The snowsports industry is eschewing fast fashion, with a move to more versatile, repairable and eco-friendly garments, says Harriet Johnston From left to right, Ole wears Ortovox Melange fleece (£120) and Trespass Nisa hat (£17). Tony wears Salomon Drifter hoodie (£130) and Barts Lester beanie (£25). Ashley wears a Picture Chloe Puff Jacket (£128) and a dare2b Recognition beanie (£12)

Ski jackets have become multi-purpose this season, as manufacturers realise that shoppers want a top they can wear not just on the slopes, but on colder days back at home too. In the era of garish colours and oversized outfits, this would have been unthinkable. But this season’s earthy colours and flattering shapes won’t look out of place on city streets, let alone on the trip to the airport or in après bars. David Whitlow, a buyer for Ellis Brigham, says: “This is a growing trend in ski wear where brands are producing very wearable clothes that ooze elegant sophistication. These step easily from slope to high street, bringing Alpine couture to your everyday winter life. Some of our bestselling styles are seen as much on the commute or school run as they are cruising red runs in Val d’Isère.” One only has to look at the puffer jacket, which has seen a resurgence in the past few years and can also

serve well for walks in the British countryside. Whitlow adds: “This is where one can speak of sustainability and environmental responsibility from brands who invest in long-lasting quality and ethical sourcing.” Patagonia has online guides on how to fix minor rips or zips that are stuck, as well as offering a repair service for general wear and tear. Picture is also taking an eco-friendly path by making all technical products with a minimum of 50 per cent recycled polyester, reducing waste by using offcuts in liners, and offering a recycling service. The fourth issue of Ski+board will highlight how technological developments have created higher performance garments, particularly important for skiing in warmer weather and touring. But in the next issue, we will look more closely at the colours of the season and in Issue 3 we will focus on how to achieve the classic look.

For advice from a Ski Club expert on how to reproof outer gear, visit bit.ly/reproofoutergear

S NOW W EAR

Will wears O’Neill Jeremy Jones Stuff It Puffer Jacket (£190) and Planks Mountain Supply Beanie (£20)

Ski+board

October 2016

skiclub.co.uk

S NOW W EAR

Will rests outside Jakob’s Weinfassl bar, wearing Planks Yeti Hunter Jacket (£250), pants (£190), Picture Lofter gloves (£60) and Dragon NFX2 helmet (£185)

Ole and Will enjoy a beer at popular Sölden drinking spot Marco’s Treff — the word Lumpenstüberl above the door roughly translates as the naughty boy’s room. Ole wears Peak Performance He Alp jacket (£545) with matching pants (£420) and Neff beanie (£10). Will wears CLWR Base jacket (£140), reviewed opposite, and pants (£130) with Planks Mountain Supply beanie (£20)

S NOW W EAR

ON TRIAL –

CLWR BASE MEN’S JACKET Swedish brand Colour Wear, or CLWR, has come up with a great example of how you can get a good value ski jacket to serve many purposes. The Base is first and foremost a ski jacket, but it’s light enough for more adventurous riders to wear for off-piste exploration or knocking around the terrain park. The cut is also loose enough that you can layer up beneath it when the weather turns cold. It’s not so glaringly ‘ski’ that you couldn’t wear it in town or out in the country when you’re back home. And given its price it’s a bargain too — the more so when you look at all the features it offers. Starting from the top, the Base has a large helmetcompatible hood. In fact, just about the only thing that lets it down as it’s not adjustable, so it can block your peripheral vision if you wear it without a helmet. However, in most cases you won’t need the hood, as the Base has a lovely high collar with a soft microfleece

Ski+board

£140

lining that will keep the snow, wind or British rain off your neck, no problem. There are three zipped pockets on the outside (two near the waist, one on the chest) as well as a decent-sized internal zipped pocket with media port. The sleeves come with internal hand gaiters and Velcro cuff adjusters that will fit over gloves. Other ski-specific features include ventilation zippers under the armpits and a generously-sized powder skirt, while a large elasticated rear hem also helps keep the snow at bay and looks stylish too. It comes with a snug, insulated lining and CLWR’s DewTech outer fabric, which provides a good balance of breathability and waterproofing. You get a lot for your money in the Base and you won’t need to wait for the next season to wear it after you get home. Alf Alderson Great value, lots of practical features Insufficient adjustment in the hood

October 2016

skiclub.co.uk

S NOW W EAR

From left to right, Tony wears Peak Performance Hel Linj jacket (£200) and Planks Rambler beanie (£23). Ashley wears Planks Marsh Mellow mid layer (£120) and Coal The Rosa beanie (£23). Will wears O’Neill Jeremy Jones Stuff It Puffer Jacket (£190) and Planks Mountain Supply beanie (£20). Ole wears Picture Murakami jacket (£145) and Barts hat (£25)

Heading to the slopes through Sölden’s centre, Will wears Picture Nova jacket (£279) and pants (£189). Ole wears Schöffel Montpelier jacket (£440), see review below, and Peak Performance Suflex P pants (£295) with a Barts Sandy beanie (£25)

Ashley wears Armada Smoked Gore-Tex jacket (£300), Sontimer H Bomb goggles (£40) and Picture Arron helmet (£85)

ON TRIAL –

SCHÖFFEL MONTPELIER WOMEN’S JACKET The Montpelier is an example of a ski jacket that will look great whether you’re on the slopes, at the aprèsski hang-out or on city streets in winter. The faux fur hood, slim cut and stylish buttons and zips are a far cry from the anorak style shells that some prefer, but that’s not who this jacket is aimed at. For those preferring to cruise the pistes and look the part in mountainside restaurants and terraces, it does a great job. It’s well insulated, so even though the ‘Venturi’ outer fabric is both waterproof and breathable, you’d probably get too hot if you were heading into powder. Features include an insulated, detachable hood with faux fur trim, which is itself detachable, and six pockets on the body of the jacket. The chest pockets and waist-

£440

height pockets have zips, making them secure. Though there are additional waist-height pockets with popper fastenings on the flaps, these are quite loose, so there’s a risk that the pockets may fill with snow if you wipe out. You also get a zippered lift pass pocket on the left sleeve and internal mesh pockets, plus zipped security pocket, meaning there’s plenty of room to carry your stuff without the need for a daypack. Other ski-specific features include a detachable powder skirt and hand gaiters on the Velcro adjustable sleeve cuffs. It’s an all-round, stylish cross between a ski jacket and a town jacket, which should see you get a lot of use out of it. Alf Alderson Stylish, versatile design

Pocket fastenings may let in snow

S NOW W EAR

BRITISH RETAILERS Snow+Rock: snowandrock.com Cotswold Outdoor: cotswoldoutdoor.com Ellis Brigham: ellis-brigham.com Surfdome: surfdome.com TSA: snowboard-asylum.com The retailers above offer Ski Club members ten per cent off full-priced products, apart from Snow+Rock and Cotswold Outdoor, which offer 15 per cent CONTACTS Armada: freezeproshop.com Anon Optics: anonoptics.com Barts: barts.eu Burton: burton.com Coal: freezeproshop.com CLWR: snowtraxstore.co.uk Dare2be: dare2b.com Dragon: dragonalliance.com Icebreaker: uk.icebreaker.com Mons Royale: monsroyale.com Neff: neffheadwear.com Ortovox: ortovox.com O’Neil: oneill.com; 01899 491006 Patagonia: patagonia.com Peak performance: peakperformance.com/gb/ Picture: ellis-brigham.com Planks: planksclothing.com Poc: pocsports.com Salomon: ellis-brigham.com Schöffel: 01572 770900 Sontimer: absolute-snow.co.uk Trespass: trespass.com Von Zipper: absolute-snow.co.uk

Fashion editor Rachel Rosser Production manager Ben Clatworthy Photography Melody Sky Hair and make-up Jemma Barwick Models Ashley Crook Anthony Wilson Will Siggers Ole Antonsson

Stunning modern architecture and mountain scenery combine to create quite the impact on Sölden’s high slopes. The resort shone on the big screen last autumn as one of the locations in the James Bond film, Spectre, and its popularity continues to grow. With three peaks above 3,000m, two glacier ski areas at Rettenbach and Tiefenbach, a state-of-the-art lift system and 146km of pistes to explore, the skiing is varied and snow-sure. The village has a stylish restaurant scene and lively nightlife to keep everyone entertained. Daily scheduled and charter flights are available to Innsbruck from many airports across the UK. Alternative airports include Zurich, Munich and Friedrichshafen. For more information on Sölden visit: soelden.com/en, to find out about the Austrian Tirol region see visittirol.co.uk Ski+board

October 2016

skiclub.co.uk

Ski Club Freshtracks 2016-17 New Chalet, New Destinations, New Experiences We’ve got some exciting news this season – we’ve added a Chalet Freshtracks in Chamonix to our existing chalets in Flaine! This means we now have the perfect base for our Chamonix holidays that will make these trips extra special for our members. We asked Katy Ellis from our Freshtracks team to tell us all about it… Katy Ellis Sales/Operations Manager

Why has the Ski Club added a chalet in Chamonix to its programme?

What can members expect when they stay in the chalet?

We’ve had such fantastic feedback from the members who’ve stayed in Chalet Freshtracks in Flaine over the last few seasons, it seemed like a natural progression to offer a chalet in one of our most popular resorts. Having a chalet in Chamonix allows us to offer a much better experience for our members who want to ski with us in this amazing area.

The chalet’s in Les Houches – it’s quiet but a great base for getting out to the whole Chamonix area. The chalet itself is really cosy and comfortable, and there’s a lovely sauna and hot tub. As anyone who’s stayed with us in Flaine will know, the food will be delicious and there’ll be plenty of wine! Plus, the Freshtracks minibus and Ski Club Leader will be there to ferry our members to each day’s destination.

Who are the instructors and mountain guides? Although the chalet is new to us, we’re working with the same fantastic mountain guides that we’ve worked with for years – members tell us they come back specifically to ski with them as they’re so knowledgeable and welcoming. Our new All Mountain Development weeks are run by Rachel Kerr – originally from Scotland but now living in Chamonix. She’s an amazing instructor with a great reputation.

What type of holidays does the Ski Club offer in Chamonix? We’ve got a range of holiday types in Chamonix to suit different abilities – ranging from All Mountain Development weeks, aimed at good skiers looking to improve their on and off piste technique, to trips designed for expert off piste skiers looking for a full-on adventure. We even have one trip – the Chamonix Safari – where the chalet staff night off will be spent up in a mountain hut so members can have a taste of what it’s like to go ski touring.

Ross Woodhall

SKI CLUB PROMOTION

REFER A FRIEND! £50 worth of Ellis Brigham vouchers up for grabs when you refer a friend to a Freshtracks holiday! All you have to do is ask your friend (whether they’re a Ski Club member or not) to give us your name and membership number when booking their first ever* Freshtracks trip over the phone, and we’ll send both of you £50 worth of vouchers – and don’t forget that Ski Club members get a 10% discount at Ellis Brigham as well. Plus, there’s no limit to the number of people you can refer – you’ll get the vouchers each time someone books. This offer only runs until the end of October, and we only have a limited number of vouchers available – so tell all of your friends about Freshtracks now and get your season off to a great start. *Offer only applies to people booking a Freshtracks holiday for the first time.

What else is new with Freshtracks this season? Last season we introduced several new destinations, and they proved really popular – so you can expect more of the same this year. We’re offering new holidays to Norway, including trips to Voss and Lillehammer, ski touring in the spectacular surroundings of Iceland with our Icelandic Adventure Tour, new powder-filled holidays to Tohoku and Hakuba in Japan, and a return to Baqueira Beret in Spain and Jasna in Slovakia. Our programme in North America is bigger and better than ever, with some truly epic adventures to savour. New additions include the Oregon Volcano Adventure and the Colorado Adventure to Aspen and Telluride. Our Peak Experience holidays continue to enjoy huge popularity and demand – so we’ve added even more trips to ensure that we’ve got space for everyone. We’ve also made a slight change to Peak Experience, with the holidays now being available to anyone over the age of 55. Our team of holiday experts is waiting to take your call – we really hope you can join us this season and discover what makes a Freshtracks holiday so special. For more information on Freshtracks, or to book a holiday, visit skiclub.co.uk or call 020 8410 2022

Melody Sky

SKI TESTS

Freeride skis lose weight and firm up

SIDECUT This is the width of the tip, waist and tail of the ski, given in that order. A wider ski floats better off-piste, while a narrower ski will grip better on piste

This year you can be more confident than ever of finding a powder ski that can hold its own on hardpack, says Mark Jones Working out which ski is right for you is tricky, which is why it’s best to turn to the experts. We often talk of putting our skis through their paces, but the models on these pages really have been taken to extreme limits by the Ski Club’s strongest ever test team. Our crew of 12 top skiers, including five ex-members of the British Ski Team, travelled to Kühtai in the Austrian Tirol in February to test this season’s skis, giving them the third degree to see how they perform. This isn’t a question of just going for a blast. To ensure accurate comparison, each tester is given a list of turn shapes and tasks they need to perform for each category. We have sorted the skis tested into four categories: freeride, for mainly off-piste and backcountry use; piste performance for near exclusive

use on groomed runs; all-mountain, for occasional forays in fresh snow; and freetour, for those hiking and skiing. We will be covering piste skis in the next issue, all-mountain models in Issue 3, and freetour skis in Issue 4. In this issue we look at freeride skis, where the battle to cut weight is still raging. In years past, a loss of weight meant using a cheaper, less effective material with the understanding that high-end performance would drop. This is no longer true as new technology allows manufacturers to deliver the conjuring act of cutting weight while raising performance. So to experience a bit of freeride magic, follow our guide.

See star ratings and the testers’ video reports at skiclub.co.uk/skitests CAMBER

Traditional camber effective edge

If a cambered ski is laid on a flat surface its centre will be raised. Camber is now often combined with some level of rocker. Reverse camber (full rocker) is where a ski curves up from the centre to tip and tail

Camber with front rocker effective edge

Camber with front and tail rocker effective edge

TAPER This is when the widest point of the ski is brought back from the tip or tail, reducing weight and making the skis easier to handle off-piste. On a tapered ski you may feel like you are using a shorter ski

Reverse camber (full rocker) effective edge

ROCKER E A I B

We rate each ski by the type of skier it would suit. So in the example on the left, the ski would suit upper intermediate to advanced skiers, but it’s not so well suited to beginners or experts. Generally, the skis tested are aimed at those who have skied before.

Rocker, or early rise, is where the ski has a slight rise before it gets to the tip or tail. Off-piste this helps lift and floatation. On piste it aids turn initiation and release

SKI TESTS

Meet the jury

SKI CORES A ski’s performance is affected by the materials used and how they are arranged in the core. Cores are normally wood or synthetic, combined with other layers, such as resin (usually epoxy), fibreglass, basalt, carbon, aramid and metal

RADIUS This is the radius of the theoretical circle that a ski will naturally make in the snow when tilted on its edge. A small radius produces tight turns. The radius varies with ski length: the length tested is given in bold

SYNTHETIC CORES Synthetic or foam cores are traditionally used in lower end skis, being cheaper, lighter and more forgiving than wood. We are now seeing more hightech synthetics in upper end skis to keep weight low and enhance performance

WOOD CORES Wood cores tend to be made from strips of wood, glued side by side in a laminate construction. Their characteristics vary greatly: paulownia is light; beech can deliver power; poplar offers a smooth flex, and there are many others

The Ski Club’s testers are by far the most qualified of all, giving unparalleled insights into a ski's performance. MARK JONES Director of ICE training centre in Val d’Isère and trainer for Basi icesi.org AL MORGAN Ski Club head of Member Services and former ski service manager skiclub.co.uk CHEMMY ALCOTT Four-time Olympian who runs CDC camps with husband Dougie Crawford cdcperform.com DEREK CHANDLER Director of Marmalade ski school in Méribel and trainer for Basi skimarmalade.com DOUGIE CRAWFORD Manager and co-owner of CDC Performance, which runs coaching camps cdcperform.com PETE DAVISON Ex-action model who now owns retailer LD Mountain Centre ldmountaincentre.com STEPH EDE Instructor in Val d’Isère nearing the highest level of qualification stephede@hotmail.co.uk

SIDEWALL A wall of plastic, typically ABS (the stuff Lego is made of), running from the metal base edge of the ski to the topsheet. It drives power to the metal edges, protects the core and can also help absorb vibrations

LYNN MILL Ex-British champion who now owns Target ski training and race coaching targetski.com

CAP This is where the topsheet and other layers roll down over the side of the ski to the metal edge. The benefit of caps over sidewalls is they often make skis lighter, more forgiving and more resistant to damage

Sidewall construction

Cap construction

ROWENA PHILLIPS Highly qualified ski school director at Matterhorn Diamonds in Zermatt matterhorn-diamonds.com AMANDA PIRIE Basi trainer in Val d’Isère running training programmes and race camps targetski.com BELLA SEEL Fully certified in the French, Swiss and UK systems, she runs concierge service ALS alsprivate.com

COMBO Cap and sidewall can be combined in several ways, by having sidewall underfoot with cap at tip and tail, say, or cap rolling down to meet sidewall for the length of the ski. Each affects the ski’s performance

Core Topsheet Reinforcement Edges Sidewall Base

Ski+board

October 2016

skiclub.co.uk

AARON TIPPING Owner and director of Supreme ski school in Courchevel supremeski.com

MEN’S F REERI DE SKIS: INTER M ED IATE TO A DVA NC ED

What’s new in men’s freeride skis?

Photo: Ross Woodhall

It has been a case of evolution rather than revolution in men’s freeride skis, with some models lighter this season than they were last winter, while others have seen tweaks made to their construction to deliver a more rounded performance. These are predominantly wide skis, all matched to some sort of rocker profile, which is a great combination for powder. However many give a surprisingly powerful performance on groomed runs. Given their performance on piste, if you are torn between the choice of buying an all-mountain ski and a freeride ski that will prove fat enough for deep powder days, some of the skis featured in this category could be right for you.

Kästle BMX 105 £575 without bindings

How we run the test…

BUILD

Cap & sidewall combo/ wood core/tip & tail rocker SIDECUT (mm) 134-105-123 RADIUS 21m (181cm) LENGTHS (cm) 173, 181, 189 WEIGHT (per ski) 2,140g for 181cm

If the choice of skis at your local shop looks daunting, consider the range of 843 models available for testing at the annual event run by Snowsport Industries of Great Britain. No wonder the SIGB lines up 1,700 cups of coffee and 240 cans of Red Bull for the five days.. Happily, the selection process of which models will make it into Ski+board starts well before that. Our experts hone down the range by talking to the 20 brands present to pick only the best performers in the four categories we cover — freeride, all-mountain, piste performance and freetour. And it is the test results of these 100 pairs of skis that will feature in the four print issues of Ski+board. In some cases, manufacturers categorise their models differently, perhaps labelling what our experts would consider an all-mountain ski as freeride, to make up for a perceived gap in their range. But

the Ski Club’s experts approach this from a reader’s point of view, assessing what they believe to be the real strengths of the ski. The SIGB provides score cards for the six publications present to fill in. But the Ski Club’s test team produce a more comprehensive card, so its testers can more accurately record what they feel under their feet and relate it to the performance of the ski. It is vital each ski is tried on the same terrain with the same type of turns. Typically three testers try each ski and those skis we think may get awards can have six or more people ski them. In the evening, the testers ensure they are unanimous on each day’s decisions. It’s always pretty clear which skis have come out top. This is why we believe we can lay claim to providing the most in-depth and accurate ski tests available to the UK buyer.

THEY SAY A powerful freeride ski that can manage anything. The mountain is your canvas, here’s your brush. WE SAY Kästle usually makes hard charging skis that love big edge angles. But the BMX moves away from this, feeling light, playful and nicely set up for the backcountry. The nose floats up easily at slow speeds, which makes it highly manoeuvrable. On harder snow it still feels easy to use and can carve out smooth arcs, but it lacks grip and stability at higher speeds.

Nose floats well in powder, but it lacks torsional stiffness on hard snow (Dougie Crawford) In pure off-piste it’s manoeuvrable and responsive (Derek Chandler)

Light, fun and easy to use Lacks grip on hard snow, high price

E A

MEN’S F R EER I DE SKIS: A DVA NC ED TO EX PERT

Atomic Backland FR 102 £325 without bindings

Movement Go Fast £489 without bindings

BUILD

Cap & sidewall combo/carbon & lightweight wood core/tip and tail rocker SIDECUT (mm) 131-102-122 RADIUS 19m (180cm) LENGTHS (cm) 164, 172, 180, 188 WEIGHT (per ski) 1,750g for 180cm

BUILD Cap & sidewall combo/carbon & lightweight wood core/tip and tail rocker SIDECUT (mm) 132-100-120 RADIUS 20m (185cm) LENGTHS (cm) 170, 177, 185 WEIGHT (per ski) 1,850g for 185cm

THEY SAY Offers TOP awesome floatation SKI 2015 and easy handling VA E LU in soft snow. WE SAY Every tester noted how easy this was to use. It’s light, effortless to pivot and has great flotation in deep snow, where it’s nimble and fun working incredibly well at slower speeds. It feels most at home in deep powder and off-piste terrain. On hardpack and groomers it felt less stable, lacking the grip of some other skis on test, but it’s still strong enough for most skiers.

THEY SAY Most all-round of the Go series with a 100mm waist, it performs perfectly off-piste, but has great qualities on piste. WE SAY The new Go Fast feels very light, giving it great agility and ease of use. The minimal swingweight means it's effortless to change direction and make quick adjustments through the arc. A good option for touring and hiking up to big powder faces, but for faster turns on hardpack the lighter build is evident through the lack of torsional stiffness, which gives less grip.

LUB

IN ITA OF GREAT BR

Superb if you’re getting into off-piste. Easy and versatile at slow to moderate speeds (Al Morgan) Accessible, easy, perfect for off-piste (Derek Chandler)

Light, floaty and nimble in powder Twitchy at speed on harder snow

E A

Light and playful in smooth, deep snow but unforgiving in variable crud (Pete Davison) Easy to use, quite fun and playful (Dougie Crawford) Light, easy to use, good touring ski Lacks edge grip at speed on hardpack

TESTER PROFILE

Mark Jones Mark is a testing veteran, having led the Ski Club’s test team for 14 years, starting when carving skis were still in their infancy. It is Mark’s role to select the team, manage the day-to-day testing schedule and collate the results on the score cards. For the rest of the time, he is a director of ICE, a training centre in Val d’Isère, France, which delivers instructor training and gap-year and performance courses. He is also a trainer for Basi. icesi.org

SKI CLUB BENEFITS

Choosing Ski Club Travel Insurance has always meant that you’re getting the specialist cover you need, with policies designed by experts for skiers and snowboarders. And our policies aren’t just for skiing – they’re the perfect accompaniment to all of your travel adventures, on and off the snow.

HIGHLIGHTS: • Off piste skiing and boarding, with or without a guide • All policies include Fogg Medi-card as standard, to get you off the mountain with no up-front costs • Single trip cover up to the age of 85 (75 for multi-trip)

15% OFF for Ski Club Members

• Children FREE up to the age of 18 on all family policies (or under 24 if you have Ski Club Platinum membership) • Up to 45 days’ winter sports cover each year with Ski Club Platinum Membership • Winter sports equipment cover including goggles, helmets, boots & gloves as well as the usual cover for skis, poles and snowboards • Cover for lack of snow, and avalanches

For a quote, visit skiclubinsurance.co.uk or call 0300 303 2610

• Heli skiing, glacier skiing, backcountry skiing and ski touring all covered as standard

MEN’S F REER I DE SKIS: A DVA NC ED TO EX PERT

Line Supernatural 100 £400 without bindings

Salomon QST 99 £400 without bindings

BUILD Elastomer sidewall/Titanal wood

BUILD

Sidewall/carbon, Titanal & wood core with honeycomb tip/tip & tail rocker SIDECUT (mm) 140-99-122 RADIUS 19.6m (188cm) LENGTHS (cm) 167, 174, 181, 188 WEIGHT (per ski) 1,940g for 188cm

Cap & sidewall combo/elliptic wood core/tip rocker SIDECUT (mm) 141-102-131 RADIUS 20m (188cm) LENGTHS (cm) 168, 178, 188 WEIGHT (per ski) 2,050g for 188cm

core/tip & tail rocker SIDECUT (mm) 132-100-121 RADIUS 21.3m (179cm) LENGTHS (cm) 172, 179, 186 WEIGHT (per ski) 2,068g for 179cm

THEY SAY With early rise, early taper and the all-new Shockwall sidewall, you have a smoother and more precise ride. WE SAY This is another strong performer that loves to be driven hard and fast. On the edge it gives good grip and is comfortable in long fast arcs, feeling very stable and delivering a smooth ride. The sidecut feels like it is set up for big arcs so there is less reaction when making short to medium arcs, particularly at slower speeds. Overall, a powerful model for skiers who love speed.

THEY SAY An innovative build puts the right material in the right place to create a ski that can charge both on and off-piste. WE SAY It’s always exciting to try an all-new ski, and this is a big launch for Salomon. The QST immediately feels fun with lots of energy. It grips pistes well, with smooth edge hold through the length of the arc. It also feels well balanced, with a forgiving tail allowing the centre of the ski to hold the line out of the turn. In deeper off-piste it’s easy to use and copes with any turn radius.

THEY SAY Inspired by The Ski and Black Majic, it has the same innovations but in a wider platform to face any conditions. WE SAY This has a very sensitive touch with the snow, perhaps due to its unique build. You really feel changes in conditions and always get a quick response from your input. In deeper snow it feels floaty, pivots easily, and is great fun with a playful character. However, it’s in bigger arcs that it feels in its element, feeling stable, super-smooth yet also being easy to adjust in turns.

Strong on edge, stable at speed, but not much sidecut, or reaction (Dougie Crawford) Really feels at home when going for big, fast arcs (Mark Jones) Good for big, fast arcs in powder Less agile in slower or tighter arcs

E A I

Grippy on piste and in crud, with tip and rocker floating well in deep stuff (Pete Davison) Solid at speed in powder, easy to initiate turns (Mark Jones) Great float in powder, solid edge hold Not most stable at speed on firm snow

E A I

Head Collective 105 £420 without bindings

BUILD

Cap & sidewall combo/ wood core/tip rocker SIDECUT (mm) 146-105-128 RADIUS 17.5m (181cm) LENGTHS (cm) 171, 181, 191 WEIGHT (per ski) Not available

THEY SAY This TOP SKI cuts ruts on groomers 2015 RF as easily as figures of OR M eight in powder. WE SAY This is a very easy ski to use with a super-smooth flex. It has great floatation and stability in deep powder due to its fore-aft support and was one of the most enjoyable skis in the backcountry — a sensitive, high quality ride. On groomers it’s light and nimble while still able to lay down high levels of grip when on the edge. Overall, a fun, playful, ski that works very well in all conditions.

THEY SAY Air Tec TOP SKI Ti and Aeroshape cut 2015 RF weight. Carbon nose OR M adds manoeuvrability. WE SAY This outstanding ski is brilliant on piste, releasing into new turns easily, then giving solid edge hold through the arc. It feels smooth, light and easy while being capable of switching into other turn shapes. Its build gives accurate feedback underfoot, while in powder, its lightness and well judged rocker make it easy to adjust while giving float and stability in longer arcs.

E A I B

Al is head of Member Services for the Ski Club of Great Britain. He has the daunting job of selecting the skis on test and helping manage the test team. His in-depth knowledge of ski equipment is encyclopedic — in his previous role he ran a ski rental service in the Alps and managed one of the busiest ski shops in the UK. He backs this up with being a fantastic all-mountain skier who has never lost his enormous passion for the sport. skiclub.co.uk

Sidewall/carbon, Titanal & lightweight wood core/tip & tail rocker SIDECUT (mm) 132-98-122 RADIUS 18m (180cm) LENGTHS (cm) 172, 180, 188 WEIGHT (per ski) 1,700g for 180cm

Al Morgan

Great touch underfoot. Floaty and fun Could be more powerful at speed

Fischer Ranger 98 Ti £430 without bindings

BUILD

TESTER PROFILE

Drifts and floats well in the deep, giving good stability at speed (Pete Davison) Easy to use, sensitive touch with the snow. Floaty and easy (Mark Jones)

BUILD

LUB

IN ITA OF GREAT BR

Great on piste — it felt like a narrower ski. Stable, playful off-piste (Dougie Crawford) Great value, loves the deep, performs well in variable snow (Mark Jones) Fun in powder — floaty and playful Hard to fault

Scott Sage £420 without bindings

LUB

IN ITA OF GREAT BR

Is this the most versatile freeride ski? So good on piste, yet makes off-piste such fun (Al Morgan) Great on piste, full of life but solid as a rock (Aaron Tipping)

Amazing on and off-piste. Great value Hard to fault

E A

MEN’S F R EER I DE SKIS: A DVA NC ED TO EX PERT

Faction Ten5 £439 without bindings

Armada Invictus 99Ti £440 without bindings

BUILD

A I B

Nordica Enforcer £460 without bindings

BUILD

Sidewall/Titanal wood core/ tip & tail rocker SIDECUT (mm) 131-105-116 RADIUS 22.5m (182cm) LENGTHS (cm) 174, 178, 182, 186, 192 WEIGHT (per ski) 2,000g for 178cm

BUILD

Cap & sidewall combo/carbon, Kevlar & Titanal wood core/tip rocker SIDECUT (mm) 134-99-124 RADIUS 21.5m (187cm) LENGTHS (cm) 171, 179, 187 WEIGHT (per ski) Not available

Sidewall/Titanal wood core/ tip & tail rocker SIDECUT (mm) 133-100-121 RADIUS 18.5m (185cm) LENGTHS (cm) 169, 177, 185, 193 WEIGHT (per ski) Not available

THEY SAY A hard charger in the toughest conditions. Dual radius sidecut and tapered tip and tail make it easy to turn. WE SAY This is a strong, solid ski aimed at confident riders. It totally blasts through powder and crud, feeling completely in control and capable of handling high speeds. On groomed pistes it gives high levels of edge grip and is good fun for laying out some big, fast arcs. It’s a rather heavy ski, and will not suit more timid skiers, but stronger skiers will love it.

THEY SAY A powerful ski for all-mountain chargers who want to rail arcing carves across any terrain thrown at them. WE SAY This suits strong skiers who love a high-speed blast in all conditions, giving a consistently high performance. On hard snow and groomers the edges grip well and its solid flex pattern makes for a stable ride. Off-piste, it feels bulletproof and handles changes in snow with ease. At slower speeds and in shorter turns it feels more hefty and could prove tricky for less proficient skiers.

THEY SAY The Enforcer is built for those who love to ski. It is smooth, powerful, playful. Ski everywhere with confidence. WE SAY This is another freeride ski that surprised us with its piste performance. Its edge grip is good and it really connects in long turns, where it feels smooth and stable, even at very high speeds. In deep, backcountry snow it floated up easily with tip and tail rocker making it easy to steer and make quick adjustments. Some testers felt there could be more rebound, but overall a great ski.

Felt strong and solid through powder. I felt I could trust it (Mark Jones) It's heavy so needs input, but is great for strong skiers and is lots of fun (Derek Chandler) Strong, stable and beefy Not suited to less confident skiers

Needs solid input, but turns superbly on and off the piste (Derek Chandler) A great choice for skiers who love big fast arcs whatever the terrain (Mark Jones)

Rock solid, good edge grip, a blast! Harder work at slower speeds

E A

Grippy and reliable on piste. Floaty and easy in powder (Mark Jones) Great at long turns on piste, easy to ski off-piste, but not so exciting (Dougie Crawford) Grippy, good on piste, floaty in powder Could be more inspiring in quick turns

MEN’S F REER I DE SKIS: A DVA NC ED TO EX PERT

Dynastar Cham 2.0 97 £465 without bindings

K2 Pinnacle 105 £470 without bindings

BUILD

Sidewall/lightweight wood core/tip & tail rocker SIDECUT (mm) 133-97-113 RADIUS 17m (178cm) LENGTHS (cm) 166, 172, 178, 184 Weight (per ski) 1,700g for 178cm

BUILD Cap&sidewall combo/composite, titanal, lightweight wood core/tip&tail rocker SIDECUT (mm) 137-105-121 RADIUS 19m (184cm) LENGTHS (cm) 170, 177, 184, 191 WEIGHT (per ski) 1,875g for 184cm

THEY SAY Newly revised sidecut and rocker profile provide a great combination of easy handling and superb edge grip. WE SAY The Cham is a true allrounder. It’s stable and grippy on piste, feeling versatile in long and short turns, being able to lay out a perfect curve in both. It’s very smooth edge-to-edge and feels reactive and easy to steer through the arc. In deeper snow it is still great fun, feeling easy to use, and full of energy and character. The tip can chatter at speed, but overall, a brilliant all-rounder.

THEY SAY Maintains ability to cruise at speed on hard snow, while nimble and floaty enough to crush all off-trail features. WE SAY With a lovely feel underfoot, this cuts through hard snow with ease. The strong rocker through the nose makes itself felt in deep powder, where it floats up fast and stays on top in short turns, making steering easy. On groomers it grips well but you need to be well balanced and able to stay over the centre of the ski. If you're caught back the tail takes charge, making it hard to redirect.

E A I

Rock solid, but never hard work. Pintail makes finishing turns easy (Pete Davison) Versatile ski — easy to use at low speeds, stable at high speeds (Al Morgan) Brilliant on or off-piste, loads of fun Tip chatters a bit at speed

E A I

BUILD

Sidewall/Titanal wood core/ full rocker SIDECUT (mm) 132-100-118 RADIUS 23.7m (177cm) LENGTHS (cm) 170, 177, 184, 191 WEIGHT (per ski) 2,070g for 177cm

I B

Grippy on piste, floaty, easy off-piste Not the cheapest

BUILD

Sidewall/carbon & Titanal wood core/carbon reinforced tip & tail rocker SIDECUT (mm) 133-98-118 RADIUS 21m (180cm) LENGTHS (cm) 166, 173, 180, 187 WEIGHT (per ski) 2,150g for 173cm

THEY SAY The most versatile of our freeride line — you could spend nearly every day this winter on the Bonafide and not regret it. WE SAY The new, lighter build instantly makes itself felt. It's a ski that's easy to manoeuvre and change direction. Though it’s light and nimble it gives firm edge grip and a smooth ride in harder conditions. While the lighter weight has advantages in deeper snow, it does feel less energised and planted than last year's model, but this is still a strong all-round choice.

Smooth on firm snow, light enough to flick about offpiste (Al Morgan) Easy to pivot with great piste hold, but sluggish going into turns (Derek Chandler)

Light, easy to use, smooth and grippy Doesn't have the energy of other skis

E A

Black Crows Atris £540 without bindings

Rossignol Soul 7 HD £600 including bindings

BUILD

Cap & sidewall combo/ lightweight wood core/tip & tail rocker SIDECUT (mm) 138-108-128 RADIUS 18m (184cm) LENGTHS (cm) 178, 184, 190 WEIGHT (per ski) 2,050g for 184cm

BUILD Cap & sidewall combo/carbon, basalt,

THEY SAY A modern double rockered ski for those who want a wide ski they can use in powder but also to ski hardpack. WE SAY This is definitely more of a hard charging freeride ski. You instantly feel more width under your feet and the strong construction through the ski. It loves speed and is confidenceinducing for blasting through crud and deep powder in big arcs. But it’s still fairly easy to pivot and you never feel locked into one turn shape. At slower speeds it does feel a bit wide and clumsy.

THEY SAY New carbon matrix gives it extra lateral stiffness for a more precise ride while keeping the original's intuitive, easy feel. WE SAY Still very playful in powder, the shovel and wide platform ride up well, giving instant float, while the light build and rockered profile make it easy to use. On piste the new build gives added grip through the main part of the ski, feeling solid and strong through the middle of the arc. But the shovel and tail can struggle to match the grip the centre of the ski provides.

THEY SAY Now more forgiving and better in soft snow due to early taper in tip, 100mm waist and full rocker, with no loss in edge grip. WE SAY This is a fantastic ski that offers fabulous performance on piste with high levels of grip matched to a super-smooth flex. It's also sensitive underfoot, giving constant, detailed feedback. In deeper snow the Mantra instantly feels floaty and playful to use, with its rockered profile making it easy to pivot. Overall, a great ski that performs well both on and off-piste. Great for charging through the crud, amazing edge hold, awesome on steeps (Pete Davison) Loved it! Floaty, easy in powder, grippy on piste (Mark Jones)

Easy to use, sensitive underfoot Must be centred to get the best from it

Völkl Mantra £525 without bindings

Tip is deflected at speed in crusty, lumpy off-piste, but fun in deep, soft snow (Al Morgan) Good rocker helped pick the ski up nicely (Aaron Tipping)

Blizzard Bonafide £480 without bindings

E A I B

More of a big mountain ski, charging well on the edge, but it pivots easily (Pete Davison) A charger rather than an easygoer, it likes speed (Al Morgan) Stable, fast, great in wide open spaces Less agile edge-to-edge at low speed

light wood core/honeycomb tip & tail rocker 136-106-126 17m (180cm) 164, 172, 180, 188 1,900g for 180cm

SIDECUT (mm) RADIUS LENGTHS (cm) WEIGHT (per ski)

E A I B

Playful in powder. Gives you confidence to push it in the backcountry (Mark Jones) Nice in softer snow, playful and fun (Dougie Crawford) Light, floaty and playful in the powder Stiffer flex makes for less smooth ride

SerreChevalier_ski-club-of-GB_ski-board_FP_Oct_SerreChevalier_ski-club-of-GB_ski-board_FP_Oct 22/08/2016 09:30 Page 1

Reach new heights with amazing holiday deals in Serre Chevalier Vallée

Ski and board from

€217pppw

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INCLUDING your lift pass*

Photo accreditation: Agence Zoom

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WOMEN’S F REER I DE SKIS: INTER M ED IATE TO A DVA NC ED

What’s new in women’s freeride skis?

Photo: Ross Woodhall

Gone are the days when buying a pair of women’s skis meant you ended up with a light, flappy model with flower prints on the topsheet. Yes, the skis featured here are often lighter than their men's equivalents, but there has been a marked rise in performance in the women’s freeride models that are coming into the shops this autumn. Many of the models we tested proved to be real powerhouses, able to stand up to the highest level of skier. This combination of high levels of performance and lighter weights has been achieved by using the latest materials and construction methods to give women's freeride skis their easy, pivoting character, but also a new level of high speed capability. So if you're in the market for freeride skis what are you waiting for? Head Great Joy £560 with bindings

Where can I buy a pair of those?

BUILD

Cap & sidewall combo/ carbon wood core/tip rocker SIDECUT (mm) 141-98-124 RADIUS 14.3m (168cm) LENGTHS (cm) 153, 158, 163, 168, 173 WEIGHT (per ski) Not available

Several retailers are present at the SIGB ski tests in Kühtai and many of them offer discounts to Ski Club members. At the time of going to press they include: Craigdon Mountain Sports: 15 per cent off craigdonmountainsports.com Ellis Brigham: 10 per cent off ellis-brigham.com Freeze Pro Shop: 10 per cent off freezeproshop.com Glisshop: 10 per cent off glisshop.co.uk Lockwoods: various discounts lockwoods.com Ski Bartlett: 10 per cent off skibartlett.com Snow+Rock: 15 per cent off snowandrock.com Snow Lab: 10 per cent off, 15 per cent for servicing snowlab.co.uk Surfdome: 10 per cent off surfdome.com

Faction Super Tonic £459 without bindings

E A I B

Cap/lightweight wood core/ tip & tail rocker SIDECUT (mm) 142-107-131 RADIUS 16m (164cm) LENGTHS (cm) 158, 164, 174, 182 WEIGHT (per ski) 1,750g for 174cm

THEY SAY The Great Joy has a lighter weight as the focus of its structure, with graphene used to offer amazing performance. WE SAY This is an exceptionally light ski and you feel it as soon as you make the first turn. It gives it effortless turning abilities and an easy, user-friendly nature. On the edge it grips well, especially in medium turns. But, if speed is ramped up, it hits its limit. In the backcountry, it's a similar story — it was confidence inducing and easy at lower speeds, but less stable at high speeds.

THEY SAY Updated with 107mm waist, generous sidecut and smooth rocker profile to aid carving on piste and powder float. WE SAY Another ski with a light, playful character, this will give any skier confidence to put in some turns in the backcountry. It’s light, easy to pivot, and requires little effort to adjust turn shape. In deeper snow that light weight and wide platform help it rise to the surface fast. But at higher speeds and on harder snow it struggled to find the edge grip and stability required.

Soft tip and very hard tail are good at low to medium speed (Rowena Phillips) Performs well in smooth, gentle off-piste and in soft snow (Amanda Pirie) Excellent for entry-level freeriders Feels less secure at higher speeds

E A I B

Bouncy and playful off-piste. Fun and easy on steeps (Bella Seel) Quick to pivot and initiate turns in deep snow, but felt less secure at high speeds (Lynn Mill) Playful, light and floaty in the powder Less stability and edge hold at speed

WOMEN’S F R EER I DE SKIS: A DVA NC ED TO EX PERT

Atomic Backland FR 102 W £325 without bindings

Salomon QST Lux 92 £350 without bindings

Line Pandora 110 £365 without bindings

BUILD

Cap & sidewall combo/carbon& lightweight wood core/tip & tail rocker SIDECUT (mm) 130-102-121 RADIUS 18m (172cm) LENGTHS (cm) 156, 164, 172 WEIGHT (per ski) 1,600g for 172cm

BUILD

Sidewall/carbon & wood core with honeycomb tip/tip & tail rocker SIDECUT (mm) 128-92-111 RADIUS 15.5m (161cm) LENGTHS (cm) 153, 161, 169, 177 WEIGHT (per ski) 1,450g for 161cm

BUILD Cap & sidewall combo/lightweight

THEY SAY Easy-going powder ski with light wood core and rocker in tip and tail for floatation, it still performs well on hardpack. WE SAY This has a surprising amount of power for a women’s freeride model. On the edge it has plenty of grip and performs well on groomers, especially in big arcs. This continues off-piste, where it powers through chopped up snow and crud. It’s best suited to big turns on open faces, as at lower speeds and in shorter turns it feels more sluggish and it's less easy to make quick adjustments.

THEY SAY Full wood core, sandwich sidewalls and honeycomb tip mean the Lux is super light and floaty. WE SAY This is light but strong in turns on hardpack. You feel the strength of the construction underfoot and this is where the grip gets developed. Though it has good edge hold, the Lux is easy to turn, with a light swingweight and pivoty nature. Off-piste, it felt easy to use, and floated up fairly fast, but a longer ski would have helped — the longest we had to test was 161cm.

THEY SAY With a light, nimble, fun feel, its geometry makes it easier to surf powder while maintaining control on firm snow. WE SAY This is surprisingly grippy on piste with strong edge hold and a stiff enough flex to take high speeds and big edge angles. It'll happily be blasted all day on well-groomed runs, its stability giving the skier plenty of confidence when pushed hard. Off-piste it has a wide enough platform to float well, but lacked the energy and responsiveness of some other skis in this category.

A I

Skis best in big, cruisy turns off-piste. Solid, stable on piste (Steph Ede) A strong ski, heavy and hard work. Lots of power through the turn (Lynn Mill) Powerful. Stable in long, fast turns Harder work at lower speeds

E A I B

Fischer Ranger W 98 £430 without bindings

BUILD

Cap & sidewall combo/ lightweight wood core/tip rocker SIDECUT (mm) 131-101-122 RADIUS 14.7m (174cm) LENGTHS (cm) 156, 165, 174 WEIGHT (per ski) 1,820g for 174cm

BUILD

THEY SAY Tip but no tail rocker helps floatation and turn initiation but adds the stability of a traditional cambered ski. WE SAY Agile and reactive, it feels far quicker edge-to-edge than a lot of others we tested. It’s easy to pivot on or off-piste, allowing for effortless adjustment and change of direction — useful for skiing between trees or in couloirs. But it also has enough width and rocker to give easy float in powder. At speed on harder snow the shovel can flap, but it still has good edge hold.

THEY SAY The widest in our freeride line, it has a carbon tip and light Air Tec Ti core to offer stability at a low weight. WE SAY The Ranger is light, but its strength is quickly apparent on piste, where it works surprisingly well for a freeride ski. It’s stiff enough to give high levels of grip, especially in longer arcs. In deeper snow the rocker and relatively soft nose lift quickly, but here the narrower platform and stiffer flex of the main body of the ski make it less playful than other skis tested.

I B

Easy to rotate even in the length tested (Rowena Phillips) Great for narrow off-piste turns, tree skiing and bumpy terrain (Amanda Pirie) Agile, quick, lively. Good floatation Tip can flap at speed on hardpack

E A I

A I B

Fischer does piste skis well. Excellent at carving on piste, light but sturdy (Lynn Mill) Great on piste, stiff enough to grip well, less playful in powder (Steph Ede) Surprisingly good performer on piste Less playful in deeper powder

Ski+board

October 2016

skiclub.co.uk

Looks powder-focused, but is most fun on piste (Lynn Mill) Great at whippy jump turns and charging steeps. Reliable off-piste, but didn't wow me (Steph Ede) Strong, good edge grip, agile Could be more energised off-piste

Blizzard Samba £440 without bindings BUILD

Sidewall/carbon, Titanal & lightweight wood core/tip & tail rocker SIDECUT (mm) 130-96-120 RADIUS 17m (172cm) LENGTHS (cm) 156, 164, 172 WEIGHT (per ski) 1,620g for 172cm

wood core/tip & tail rocker 142-110-125 14.2m (162cm) 152, 162, 172, 179 1,777g for 162cm

Sidewall/carbon & lightweight wood core/tip & tail rocker SIDECUT (mm) 131-98-116 RADIUS 19m (166cm) LENGTHS (cm) 152, 159, 166, 173 WEIGHT (per ski) 1,500g for 159cm

THEY SAY Light, TOP SKI flipcore ski: the ideal 2015 R set-up for women in FOR M search of versatility. WE SAY This got a great reaction from the team. One of its many attributes is the silky smooth ride, whatever the conditions. It has a solid, quality build that responds to the skier and always gives good edge grip and delivers smooth, round turns. At the end of the turn it always punches out strong acceleration into the new direction. In deeper snow it was fun, reactive and floaty. Great ski! PE

Light and pivoty, good grip on piste Hard to judge off-piste capability

Armada TSTw £420 without bindings

Solid on piste and easy to turn (Steph Ede) Relatively stiff, so skied well on piste — and I particularly liked the graphics (Rowena Phillips)

SIDECUT (mm) RADIUS LENGTHS (cm) WEIGHT (per ski)

E A I B

LUB

IN ITA OF GREAT BR

Powerful, responsive, a true performer that is exciting to ski (Bella Seel) Beefy with solid construction and rebound at the end of the turn (Rowena Phillips) Fantastic all-round abilities Not the cheapest

WOMEN’S F R EER I DE SKIS: A DVA NC ED TO EX PERT

Nordica Santa Ana 93 £440 without bindings

K2 Luv Boat 105 £450 without bindings

BUILD

Sidewall/carbon lightweight wood core/tip & tail rocker SIDECUT (mm) 124-93-112 RADIUS 13.5m (161cm) LENGTHS (cm) 153, 161, 169, 177 WEIGHT (per ski) Not available

BUILD Cap&sidewall combo/composite, Titanal, lightweight wood core/tip&tail rocker SIDECUT (mm) 137-105-121 RADIUS 16m (170cm) LENGTHS (cm) 163, 170, 177 WEIGHT (per ski) 1,750g for 170cm

THEY SAY Technology designed exclusively for women lies behind an incredibly lightweight construction. WE SAY For long fast turns on hard snow this powerful ski is hard to beat, giving high levels of grip and feeling stable through the arc. This continues in chopped up snow and crud, which it powers through with ease. In deep powder it feels most comfortable at higher speeds in big turns. But at lower speeds and in short turns it felt less agile and playful than lighter skis on test.

THEY SAY Rock TOP SKI solid in high speed 2015 R GS turns, but still FOR M nimble in tight spots. WE SAY This is a playful, fun, lively ski with lots of energy. It’s very easy to pivot and makes shifting turn shape effortless. Its light, instant, easy-access character will give almost any skier confidence from the first turn. On hardpack it holds a strong edge and feels solid, while delivering a silky smooth ride. It covers all conditions and turn shapes with ease.

A I B

Ski it hard and it rewards you for effort. Great on hardpack and crud (Amanda Pirie) Fine if charged, but you have to be incredibly active (Bella Seel) Powerful, smooth, solid in long turns Less agile at low speed or in short turns

E A I B

BUILD

Sidewall/lightweight wood core/ tip & tail rocker SIDECUT (mm) 133-97-113 RADIUS 13m (166cm) LENGTHS (cm) 152, 159, 166, 172, 178 WEIGHT (per ski) 1,500g for 166cm

THEY SAY With a new blend of rocker and sidecut, each element of the Cham has been rethought to deliver versatility. WE SAY The Cham is a well judged ski for playing on or offpiste. On hard snow, it delivers great edge hold through the length of the arc and feels solid when tilted at tight angles. Strongest on hard snow, it can pivot and smear the top of a turn and give options to adjust. In deeper snow it has huge float, a responsive flex and reactive sidecut. Smooth, playful, solid.

Dynastar Cham 2.0 W 97 £465 without bindings

LUB

IN ITA OF GREAT BR

Lively but with a secure hold that won’t throw you around. Soft, wide shovel helps off-piste (Lynn Mill) Rotates easily off-piste, solid underfoot (Rowena Phillips) Lively, fun, energetic, covers all bases Hard to fault

Held up in all conditions, surprisingly easy to turn fast (Bella Seel) The ease of use stood out, but it could also support dynamic skiing (Amanda Pirie)

Easy to use but allows dynamic skiing Some testers felt the tail was too stiff

E A

Movement Go On £497 without bindings

Ski test sponsors

BUILD Cap & sidewall combo/lightweight

wood core/tip & tail rocker 132-100-120 19m (177cm) 170, 177 1,650g for 177cm

SIDECUT (mm) RADIUS LENGTHS (cm) WEIGHT (per ski)

With thanks to Scott, Eider, Planks and Salomon who provided gear for our test team.

THEY SAY Thanks to its long rocker tip and 100mm waist it has easy float for women who love deep powder. WE SAY The Go On is a ski with a strong character focused on off-piste performance. In deep snow it's bouncy, playful and can handle speed with ease, feeling especially at home in longer turns in the backcountry. On hardpack and pistes it felt less stable at speed, being less predictable in long fast turns. Designed more like a big mountain ski, it felt more comfortable in deep snow.

E A I B

Great for powder days but there’s less speed on turn initiation on piste (Lynn Mill) Playful off-piste, enjoys speed through powder (Steph Ede) Great in powder, floaty, fun and stable Less stable in long, fast turns on piste

WOMEN’S F R EER I DE SKIS: A DVA NC ED TO EX PERT

Völkl Aura £525 without bindings BUILD

SIDECUT (mm) RADIUS LENGTHS (cm) WEIGHT (per ski)

Sidewall/wood core/ full rocker 132-100-118 19.3m (163cm) 156, 163, 170 1,850g for 163cm

LUB

IN ITA OF GREAT BR

Reliable, stable, great on piste yet wide enough to float offpiste (Lynn Mill) Great for trees or couloirs but strong enough for fast skiing (Amanda Pirie)

Capable in all situations Could be more playful at low speeds

E A

Black Crows Atris Birdie £540 without bindings

Rossignol Soul 7 HD W £600 with bindings

BUILD

Cap and sidewall combo/ lightweight wood core/tip & tail rocker SIDECUT (mm) 135-107-124 RADIUS 17m (169cm) LENGTHS (cm) 169, 178 WEIGHT (per ski) 1,775g for 169cm

BUILD C ap & sidewall combo/carbon, basalt,

THEY SAY The third season for this bi-directional ski that is light and stable but powerful enough to be supportive in deep powder. WE SAY Another ski that will get looks in lift queues, this is fantastic in deep snow: the superwide platform and big rocker makes it float up fast. Once up and running it's easy to pivot and redirect and can get you out of tricky spots. It gives a smooth ride, and the light build helps in the backcountry. On piste the wide platform and light weight make it less stable and grippy.

THEY SAY With a redesigned construction it gives progressive freeride performance and is the pinnacle of freeride versatility. WE SAY This is another lightweight ski that feels easy to use, with the ability to pivot and change turn shape fast. But it also grips hardpack well, delivering smooth, round turns. This carries on into crud and chopped up snow, which it blasts through with ease. It’s in bigger arcs that it feels most stable and comfortable. In shorter turns it feels less lively from edge to edge.

THEY SAY Early TOP SKI taper in the tip and 2015 R full rocker gives FOR M unique performance WE SAY The Aura is a ski that can be trusted under any conditions and at any speed. It’s reliable, stable, grippy on piste, yet wide and playful enough to be great fun in powder. The full rocker means it’s easy to twist and adjust turn shape, making it a fantastic choice for tree skiing, but it can adapt to those making nervous turns in powder, right up to the demands of a strong, athletic freerider. SK

Fun and light off-piste, pivots easily (Bella Seel) Full rocker makes it easy to pivot, but width and camber make it cumbersome on piste (Amanda Pirie)

Superb in deep powder, easy to steer Less stable at speed on hardpack

E A

The course exceeded my expectations on virtually every level. Ski Club Leaders' Course participant

light wood core/honeycomb tip & tail rocker 136-106-126 17m (178cm) 162, 170, 178 1,900g for 178cm

SIDECUT (mm) RADIUS LENGTHS (cm) WEIGHT (per ski)

User-friendly, suits women aiming to improve. Light tip and tail make it easy to turn (Bella Seel) Powered through chopped up off-piste snow (Amanda Pirie)

Pivots easily, but grips hard snow Could be more agile in shorter turns

E A

The Ski Club Leaders’ Course Zermatt 3 – 16 December 2016, £2,899 The Leaders’ Course is a highlight of the Ski Club’s early season. Whether you’re interested in becoming a Leader, or just want a fantastic fortnight in Zermatt developing mountaincraft skills, the Leaders’ Course is for you.

Price includes

Course contents

Return rail transfers to/from Geneva

On-snow leading – groups of all standards

4* half-board accommodation – twin share basis

Performance clinic – three half days skiing/snowboarding technique instruction by BASI instructors

Further training by mountain guides and BASI instructors

Ski Club Leaders’ jacket (by Eider)

Lift pass for duration of course

Not included in the price Flights, personal insurance, equipment, two-day BASP First Aid Course in the UK prior to the Leaders’ Course

Technique – on and off piste Ski profiles – familiarisation with Ski Club profiles Snowcraft – understanding and recognising different and changing snow structures Safety – understanding transceivers and avalanche safety procedures To book a place, or for more information, email Owen Chapman at leaders@skiclub.co.uk or call 020 8410 2011

B O OTS

LINER

TONGUE

Designed to keep your feet warm and comfortable, some are standard, while others can be custom fitted to adopt the shape of your calves and feet

Look at the top of your foot and you will see a maze of blood vessels and tendons. A badly shaped tongue compresses these… and that’s painful

FLEX Boots come in a range of flexes. The flex is the theoretical force in Newtons needed to decrease the angle between cuff and clog by ten degrees, and is given after the name of the boot. High performance boots are stiffer, but often less comfortable. The flex reviewed is given in bold

PRICE Generally, the stiffer the flex, the more expensive the boot, which is why the prices are given as ranges

POWER STRAP The power strap acts as a vital extra buckle around your leg, and is usually closed with Velcro, but some high performance boots use a metal closure. Don’t forget to do it up!

SHELL Most shells are two-piece and combine a cuff, on top, attached by a hinge to a lower part, often called a clog, below. Three-piece models also have an external tongue

WALK MODE This is also known as climb mode and cuff release. The stiff back of ski boots, vital for performance, makes them no fun to walk in. So a walk switch releases the cuff to allow it to move backwards

BUCKLES These are used to fasten the boot. Buckles should wrap the shell evenly around the foot, keeping it snug without creating pressure points

CANT ADJUSTMENT With many boots you can tilt the cuff slightly towards the big toe or little toe side of the clog, making you feel more balanced in the boot

FOOTBED SIZE All sizes are given in Mondopoint. Men’s boots usually come in sizes 24.5 to 30.5, which corresponds roughly to UK sizes 5.5 to 11.5. Women’s boots usually come in sizes 22 to 27.5 or roughly UK sizes 5 to 10.5

This is a trainer-type insole that comes with the boot and sits inside the liner. A customised footbed is recommended to improve stability and give better foot-to-boot contact

LAST BOOTBOARD Hidden in the shell, it sits under the liner and acts as a shock absorber. Harder bootboards gives more control, but a harsher ride. The bootboard also determines how much the heel is raised in the shell

This is the template around which the plastic shell of boots is shaped. It is measured in millimetres across the widest part of the foot, with 100mm being about medium. Generally the narrower the last the higher the performance

BOOTS

Chris Exall (skipress.co.uk) describes himself as being 40 years into an 80-year apprenticeship in skiing: his first boots were made of leather. He is a member of the governing body of the International Federation of Ski Instructors and has written widely on snowsports safety

Janine Winter is the buyer at specialist fitter Profeet (020 7736 0046; profeet.co.uk), having spent 11 seasons fitting boots with the Boot Doctors in Telluride, Colorado, four seasons in New Zealand, and one in Australia

Go take a hike in these boots

Lighter and more comfy than ever before, this season’s freeride models put the fun in trekking to find powder, says Chris Exall The innovation of custom-fit liners and heat-stretched boots used to be exclusive to the professional skier. Now even midrange models can be moulded to fit the shape of your foot and leg. Nowhere is the focus on affordable comfort more important than in boots designed for hiking to reach your powder. While even more critical in freetour boots, which we will cover in Issue 4, comfort is more of an issue for freeride boots than the more groomerorientated piste and all-mountain boots, which we will cover in Issues 2 and 3. Freeride can be anything from ducking under ropes to hiking hundreds

Head Hammer/ Thrasher £250-£375

Dalbello Lupo Ti

FLEX 130, 110, 100, 80 SIZES 24-29.5

FLEX 130, 120 SIZES 24.5–29.5

The Hammer is designed for steeps, air and speed, with the softer 100 and 80 flex options branded as Thrasher. Its stance is fairly upright, so it’s better for those with a freeride posture rather than a racer cutting deep tracks on a day off. That said, the boot is surprisingly powerful from edge to edge, probably as a result of the tall cuff and large pivot hinge. The boot is Head’s first venture into three-piece shells and is made from Head’s Form Fit heat-mouldable plastic. It promises comfort, customisation and performance. The heel pocket and cuff are a little wider than average, favouring stronger, bigger skiers. Some report that it feels a little short for its size. Very much for big speed and big air No cuff release or touring sole option

£450-£525

If you spend half your time off-piste, the Lupo Ti may be for you. It takes Dalbello’s classic three-piece Krypton shell, adding a walk mode and full rubber soles. (For full-on touring go for the Lupo Ti Carbon.) Despite the high flex, the Lupo doesn’t feel obtrusively stiff thanks to its ribbed flex tongue and tall cuff, which gives more leverage and even pressure distribution over the shin. Resistance builds gradually as you press against the Intuition liner. The middle buckle provides superb heel hold. The stance is neutral to upright, so perfect for modern rockered skis. The boot comes with pin binding inserts, though alpine soles are available. Good pressure distribution No women’s option

Ski+board

October 2016

of metres to earn your turns. Given this variety, many brands stick to what they do best. Lange and Rossignol are shaped by their racing heritage, while Dalbello sees the category through a touring lens. Nearly all freeride boots have a more generous last than their piste performance cousins, making the fit more forgiving. Many have a walk/hike mode, where the cuff can be released for hiking and climbing. Some have metal inserts to match the lightweight pin bindings used for touring.

For a video on how to make boots even more comfy, see bit.ly/comfyboots

Full Tilt First Chair £300-£350 FLEX 120, 100 (or 8 and 6 in Full Tilt’s terminology) SIZES 24.5–30.5

When K2 realised top skiers were scouring eBay to buy up stocks of the Flexon Comp, made by the now defunct Raichle, they snapped up the designs to form the basis of the Full Tilt range. The First Chair models cater for narrower feet with a lower instep but the shells are generally tolerant and the EVA liner, when heated, gives a near-custom foam quality fit. Full Tilt targets faster freeride skiers, with a focus on powerful feedback in big arcs from the tall cuff and forward stance. The buckling system means flex is essentially separate from how tightly the shell is closed, which is a real plus. Full Tilt’s Soul Sister is the best female equivalent we could find. A design classic — ultra smooth flex No women’s option or cuff release

skiclub.co.uk

B O OTS

Nordica GPX

£250-£380

FLEX 130, 120, 100 SIZES 22-29.5 FLEX 105, 95, 85 SIZES 21.5-27.5

Feeling a little like a soft race boot, the GPX loves high speeds and steep terrain. Though the shell is a simple, two-piece design, it’s reliable in the backcountry, with the liner giving an allday fit. Ramp and cuff angles are fairly far forward, sending power directly to the edge of the ski. The cork flow liner takes the shape of your foot, holding it firmly around the mid and rear. In its second year and with fresh new colours, the women’s boot comes in a relatively thin 98mm last for narrow forefeet, and gives good heel hold. Combines comfort and performance No cuff release or touring sole option

Tecnica Cochise

Lange XT

£300-£450

Rossignol Alltrack Pro £250-£385

FLEX 130, 120, 100 SIZES 22-29.5 FLEX 110, 90, 80 SIZES 22.5-27.5

FLEX 120, 100, 90, 80 SIZES 24-31.5 110, 100, 80 FLEX SIZES 22-27.5

Lange’s simple, two-piece shells are familiar to racers, but the XT also has a grippy rubber sole for climbing and a walk mode. While locked down, the cuff offers solid downhill performance, but flip the switch and the cuff can hinge back by 20 degrees. With a highly anatomical shell that comes in two widths — 97mm and 100mm, the boot fits more feet more precisely. Best for advanced skiers looking for an allround boot, it comes in a 100mm last for the 90 and 80 flexes. In the 80 and 110 flexes, a 97mm is available. Cuff release and touring sole option Lange still retains a race-like feel

The Alltrack collection uses a unique shell design called the Sensor Grid, which pares away excess plastic to create a lightweight model. It also easily fits a broad range of feet, with the foot held securely by adding a heel pocket. In a warm ski shop it’s likely that the shell will feel softer than its flex rating might suggest. As the temperature falls, this will stiffen, aiding performance. A boot for strong skiers seeking comfort and performance, it comes in a 100mm last, flared cuffs to accommodate calves and a soft liner that feels dreamy. Cuff release and touring sole option It’s easy to end up with too stiff a flex

£275-£425

K2 Pinnacle/ Minaret £270-£430

Atomic Waymaker Carbon £260-£340

FLEX 130, 120, 110, 100 SIZES 22-31 105, 95, 85 FLEX SIZES 22-27.5

FLEX 130, 110 SIZES 24.5–30.5 100, 80 FLEX SIZES 22.5-27.5

FLEX 130, 120, 110, 90 SIZES 24–31 100, 90, 80 FLEX SIZES 23-27.5

The popular Cochise has lost the quirky single cuff-buckle in favour of a four-clip set-up and strap. Despite this, it’s lighter than its predecessor. There’s a walk mode switch, which gives the cuff 26 degrees of movement. The shell is easily modified and there are pre-stretched areas peppered around problem hotspots, making it a good boot for those with harder-to-fit feet. Matching comfort and control, these boots were built for the ripping female skier looking to go anywhere on the mountain and come in a 99mm last. Lighter than its predecessor Doesn’t have full rubber soles

K2 focuses on steeps and deeps, taking advice from the extreme skiers it sponsors, and the Pinnacle is set to be a classic. It’s known for its smooth flexing, due to the large, rivet-free hinge and unique cuff and clog connection. The rear is reinforced with a composite spine cut in two, yet dovetailed together, meaning the more the boot is flexed, the more cuff and clog pull together. An Intuition liner provides warmth and a precision fit, giving good heel hold. The 100 flex comes in a 100mm last, while the 80 offers a 102mm last. Cuff release and touring sole option Heavier than some others in this category

The Waymaker Carbon has the stiff rearfoot frame of Atomic’s Redster boots offset by the soft forefoot area to be found in its popular Hawk series, resulting in good, strong performance, but with a forgiving out-of-the-box fit. Dual cuff buckles and a single closure on the clog make it easy to put on yet secure in use. The use of carbon in the 130 and 120 models cuts weight. With a fresh look for the season, the versatile Waymaker is perfect for harder-to-fit feet, particularly if you have a high instep and wide forefoot. Out-of-the-box fit, with touring sole option Higher flexes do not come in larger sizes

B O OTS

Do your old boots really have another season left in them? we all recognise that an old or poorly fitted pair of ski boots compromise performance, remember that this affects safety too. So first check the condition of your sole. Most modern bindings are designed to work with a relatively

Photo: Melody Sky

As the nights draw in, it’s time to make sure your boots are ready for winter as you take them out of the cupboard, loft or garage — ideally the former as they need protecting from mould, damp and (believe it or not) mice. Though

un-pitted sole. The area under the ball of your foot, which sits on the binding’s anti-friction pad, should be smooth. If it’s worn, it compromises the release function, as does a damaged heel. If this is the case, either replace the sole pads or better still buy a new boot. Second, check for fit. The release function on bindings works on the basis that the ski boot is tightly closed around a skier’s leg. If your liners have been squashed thin, so that your foot moves in the boot even after you have tightened it as far as is possible, your safety and control will be compromised. Finally, some older models are susceptible to what is known as actinic degradation, where the shell becomes brittle as a result of exposure to sunlight. If the white shell is becoming the colour of parchment, it’s preferable to say your goodbyes at home, before the shell disintegrates, rather than have it shatter on you in mid-descent.

...KEEPS YOU SKIING LONGER Olympic Mogul Skier Laura Donaldson with her ski~mojo

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POWERFUL SPRINGS OFFLOAD WEIGHT FROM KNEES

Tel. +44 (0)7786 753267 | info@skimojo.com | www.skimojo.com Ski+board

October 2016

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TECHNIQUE

Give it some welly Wet, heavy snow can feel like cement, so Mark Jones reveals how and when to put oomph into your skis Last winter delivered a real mix of offpiste conditions. There was rain-sodden snow to start, especially at low altitudes, icings of crust mid-season, then semimolten snow… But all had one effect on off-piste skiers, who set off into what looked like untracked powder only to ask themselves: “Sorry, but how do I turn?” Warmer seasons are a phenomenon we must get used to. But persuading your skis to alter direction is not just about technique. The physical side of skiing is a huge part of how to improve. So ask yourself — are you giving maximum effort at the right moments? One of the biggest misunderstandings in skiing is that the marker of a good descent is that it should feel effortless. In reality great skiers are always aware of how much effort they are putting in and are constantly adjusting it to match the type of turn and terrain. Sometimes skiing will be physically intense, at other times it will be low effort — the secret is knowing when to turn the power on. I will start by considering the off-piste conditions that most obviously demand effort, before considering the power you must put into turns on piste, too. WET SNOW If you find yourself trying to link turns in wet, heavy snow, your focus should be on turn shape, trying to steer smooth, rounded arcs. Sharp changes of direction will decelerate you rapidly and make it far harder to maintain balance. You’d have to double your physical effort just to stay upright. If the slush is really saturated and slowing you so much you can’t turn, it may help to get back on your heels to let the skis drive forward. The best advice for wet snow is — get out of it! Not only is it a recipe for knee injuries, but slides can be big and

Release the edges from the old turn

Allow your body to fall into the new direction

Steer the skis in a round arc; keep them evenly weighted

A pole plant helps balance at the start of the turn

powerful. And you may spoil a face that could be fantastic for spring snow. CRUST The layer of frozen snow on top of powder is a phenomenon we all dread. It takes a lot of effort to punch through the crust when starting a turn then moving into the new direction. You need to use vertical movements in your body to get pressure on and off the skis, but try to generate this by flexing and extending your ankles, so your body follows suit. A common error is to make big vertical movements from the hip joint. This is not so effective in generating and releasing pressure, and causes fatigue and inaccuracy. DEEP POWDER Usually in deep powder you can back off physically and focus on making smooth, round turns, be they tight or wide.

If your turns are sharp, the pressure under your skis increases dramatically and it’s a battle linking turns. Maintaining a good speed also has a big effect on the physicality required. If you misjudge this, the effort required can change drastically. If you go too slow, you need a huge amount of effort to initiate a turn and complete the arc. If you go too fast, it’s hard to maintain smooth, round turns and stay in control of your direction and acceleration. Essentially there has to be just enough speed so the tips of the skis rise up to the surface and are easier to pivot. Travel below that speed and you will be fighting all that resistance from the snow. SPRING SNOW Spring snow should require minimal effort, with the skis switching direction easily. Speed is controlled by finishing off the turn and using skidding on steep

TEC HNIQU E

Steer your feet into a round arc

Finish the turn so that you maintain a constant speed

Stay balanced over the middle of your feet

Photo: Chris Haworth/vanessafry.com

slopes to control momentum. Indeed, the big mistake in such snow is to be too physical. A lot of pressure will cause the skis to grab the snow, making them hard to redirect. Be gentle and smooth. SHORT TURNS ON PISTE Most skiers use short turns as a means of getting down steep, narrow terrain, but if you put in low levels of effort for this it’s hard to control your speed and your skis are likely to run away from you. If you want your skis to grip the snow, you have to use a lot of effort and should feel exhausted by the end of the run. When you make strong, grippy short turns on piste your legs have to work separately from your upper body. This means there will be torque — twisting forces — through your hips and lower torso, and this requires strength. You should feel your core is engaged, while your glutes, quads and hamstrings are

working hard. Use a good pole plant to stabilise your upper body and to make it easier to link the turns. LONG, CARVED TURNS ON PISTE This type of turn also requires strength, but it feels different. It’s about resisting the pressure through your body as you follow through the arc, rather than trying to create fast, athletic movements. In long, carved turns, the build-up of pressure through your body is created by the edges of the skis biting into the snow and holding a line. This gets more intense as the edge angle increases, meaning you have to manage the balance of resisting that pressure, while controlling it in preparation for the new turn. When moving into long turns, try to incline your whole body, rather than just your legs, as is the case with shorter turns. This can set you up so your entire body is in line to deal with the Ski+board

October 2016

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force coming up from your skis. As you switch the pressure on to the top ski to start the new turn, try to be smooth and progressive. Any quick release at this stage will fire you off balance and make it difficult to be accurate. All this will stand you in good stead for the topic I will look at in the next issue — ice.

Read more of Mark Jones’s ski tips at skiclub.co.uk/asktheexpert Mark Jones is a director and trainer at ICE (icesi.org), a centre in Val d’Isère, France, that trains and certifies instructors, and offers courses and off-piste coaching. He is also a trainer for Basi and has represented Great Britain at the annual Interski convention.

SKI CLUB BENEFITS

Ski with the Club One of the great things about being part of a club is getting together with others and doing what you love best. And in the case of the Ski Club that means being in the mountains and having a great time on the snow with fellow members.

SKI CLUB LEADERS Get more from the mountain If you’re tired of looking at your piste map, join a Ski Club Leader group and get straight to the best slopes the mountain has to offer. Our volunteer Leaders can take you to the best snow, and help you meet people of similar ability to ski with. Leaders also host a social hour each evening, where you can relax with other members and recount your stories of a hard day’s skiing. Pick the days and times which suit you best, as each weekly programme includes a variety of options for skiers of different abilities.

The Leader programme exceeded our expectations - we ended up skiing with Chris all week and joined the club in resort. Tony Harris

Ski Club Leaders are in 18 resorts in Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Andorra, USA and Canada.

Find out more at skiclub.co.uk/leaders

INSTRUCTOR-LED GUIDING

Melody Sky

The best way to get around French resorts this season Last season, more than 1,000 members used our new Instructor-led Guiding service in France, and we received some fantastic feedback. So this season it’s back! Instructor-led Guiding is running in 11 major French resorts – with full-day and half-day sessions each week to suit different skiing abilities. We’ve teamed up with ski school Evolution 2 and other top skischools, whose instructors will take you to the best snow and show you around the resort. Ski Club members can also get 10% off privately booked lessons with Evolution 2.

The instructors will be operating in resorts from December to April. Advance online bookings: £30 full day / £15 half day* Direct bookings with instructor in resort: €45 full day / €25 half day *Online bookings can be made up to 3pm on the Friday of the previous week.

Find out more at skiclub.co.uk/instructors

Had a great time and found some lovely snow. No need to look at the piste map for 1.5 days. Awesome value. Daniel Smith

Melody Sky

OFF-PISTE

Secrets of a powder hunter There are always hidden pockets of untracked snow. Nigel Shepherd helps you find them

Photo: Simon Starkl/Valais/swiss-image.ch

This is the time of year when off-piste adventurers are hatching plans for the winter and inevitably draw on the snow conditions of winters past. Many people assume that 2015-16 was a ‘bad’ season for both off-piste and avalanches, the latter due to a few high-profile cases. To take avalanches first, last season showed fewer ski-related avalanche deaths than average. French research body Anena said there were 17 in France compared with 35 in 2014-15, while the Swiss Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research recorded 20 compared with 33 in 2014-15. Interestingly, the majority were in January and February. This reflects the vagaries of weather systems, which resulted in dramatically different conditions not just by country, with the Southern Alps and Balkans struggling especially, but even by region. An example was the Valais canton of Switzerland, where Zermatt seemed starved of decent snow early on, yet 25km away, Verbier languished in piles of the stuff. Andermatt, normally so reliable early in winter, also struggled. Ironically seasonal averages proved constant. The bucketloads of snow in spring buried the early season doldrums by the time lifts closed for summer. But if you ski only one week a year, such variations can make or break a winter. I don’t have a crystal ball but, remarkable as it may seem, from midJanuary to mid-March, I had only four or

Nigel Shepherd is safety adviser to the Ski Club. He qualified as a full guide in 1979 and was president of British Mountain Guides from 1993 to 1996. He has climbed, skied, taken photographs and guided all over the world and has contributed to several books.

five days in Europe when I wasn’t skiing soft, untracked snow. True I was based in the Alps, so didn’t have to worry about high last-minute air fares or fully booked hotels. But even if you aren’t flexible on dates there is a lot you can do to improve your chances of finding decent snow. There are popular resorts noted for their good snow record and variety of terrain, and you’d be unlucky not to have a decent holiday there. But overcrowding in these honeypots means there’s less chance of finding untracked powder. One option is to stay in a satellite village, say Nendaz or Bruson to access Verbier. Sometimes you need to go further. Liddes-Drance is a three-lift wonder resort half an hour’s drive from Verbier, especially good if you tour. And above Orsières, 25 minutes by train and cable car from Verbier, is quaint Champex, where one chairlift takes you high up to slopes that in good conditions are as memorable as any of the big name runs. Sainte Foy in France’s Tarentaise valley started as a popular alternative to crowded runs in Tignes-Val d’Isère with just a couple of drag lifts and a Ski+board

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chair, but is now a destination in its own right. From Zermatt, Lauchernalp in the Lötschental has become a popular day trip away from the throng, as it’s an hour away by car. If you don’t have a car, sbb.ch gives details on the trains and postbuses available in Switzerland. Every year brings news of the next ‘secret’ and ‘most amazing’ ski area in the Alps, known only to a few guides and instructors. But while some of these areas catch on, unless the infrastructure is in place, including trendy bars, their popularity will be short lived. Finding such gems is one of the greatest pleasures, so why not build a few such adventures into planning your next trip? Of course, I won’t divulge the whereabouts of my best-kept secrets. But, on the basis that many readers will have booked a trip by the time the next issue of Ski+board comes out, I will offer a few handy pointers on finding the best snow whatever resort you are in.

Read up-to-date weather forecasts and historic snow reports at skiclub.co.uk/snowreports

FITNESS

Don’t suffer the cold shoulder Now is the time to strengthen vulnerable parts of your body, says Craig McLean When it comes to getting ski fit, building strength is vital. But you don’t need to pump iron at the gym to do these exercises. All you need is some 99p therabands, available online, and dumbbells. Start with the more stretchy bands and lighter weights. Areas to focus on include legs, which I will look at in the next issue, plus the back and core, which in Issue 3 I will explain how to strengthen. Issue 4

1 SHOULDER ABDUCTION

will focus on hands, wrists and forearms. In this issue I look at shoulders, which are surprisingly vulnerable to falls, especially if you carry a lot of weight. They are also important for pole plants, which were vital last season when snow was heavy, but this can put strain on joints. So here’s how to build them up.

Craig McLean is a chiropractor and fitness expert. He has worked in the ski industry for over 15 years, helping Olympians Chemmy Alcott and Graham Bell recover without surgery. He consults for the Warren Smith Ski Academy.

Read Craig’s past tips in back issues available at skiclub.co.uk/skiandboard

A Using either a theraband, weight or even a tin from your kitchen, start with your arm by your side.

B Slowly lift your arm as high as is comfortable, keeping it in the same plane as your body. You’re doing it wrong if… You lean to one side to compensate for a weak shoulder; keep your torso straight.

2 SHOULDER PRESS

B A

A Start with your arm and elbow snug against your chest and shoulder. The weight should be at shoulder height. B Straighten your elbow, lifting the weight or theraband as high as you can — ideally until your arm is straight. You’re doing it wrong if… You’re leaning to make it easier. Keep your arm in the same plane as your torso.

In 1989 the Ski Club encouraged members to get fit for the slopes with the Ski Legs booklet. Craig McLean looks at how it compares with today’s fitness routines.

As the picture of the leotard and legwarmers on the cover shows, Ski Legs is a great snapshot of life in the 1980s — I love the ski fitness programme costing £21 for six hourlong sessions and the Ski Club advert with no mention of the internet. If you wanted snow reports you got them by ringing a phone number!

The biggest change in the exercises is in the stretching section. At the time it was thought that dynamic stretching on ‘cold’ muscles increased the chance of pulling a muscle — so all the stretches are static. We now know this is false and that it’s more effective for muscle flexibility to do active, dynamic movements

F ITN ESS

3 INTERNAL ROTATION

A Start with your elbow at a right angle, against your side, but with your hand as far as possible from the body. B Keeping your elbow tight in position, bring your hand towards your core until your forearm touches your abdomen. You’re doing it wrong if… Your elbow moves away from your body. Keep your elbow touching your waist.

4 EXTERNAL ROTATION

A This is the opposite of the one above, and is also good for weak or injured shoulders, as it builds your rotator cuffs. B This time the finishing position is when your hand is as far away from your torso as possible. You’re doing it wrong if… You find your elbow is no longer tight up against your abdomen.

5 BENCH PULL A Leaning over a chair, with your knee on the seat and your back nearly horizontal, hold the weight with one arm. B Lift the weight straight up, bending your elbow until it goes no further. Hold the chair with the other hand for stability.

You’re doing it wrong if… You feel unbalanced and you find your arm is straying out sideways. B

while stretching. That is why you may still see older skiers doing big, long stretches before skiing, rather than the smaller warm-ups that today’s footballers, say, do before they go on pitch. But otherwise, the exercises are a decent attempt at waking your skiing body. There are only three I would advise

against. I would avoid the ‘sit up’ section. It is a bit full-on and we now use more support when exercising the core to place less strain on the lower back. The hamstring stretch and basic curl shown also both put too much strain on the lower back. There are far better ways to stretch the hamstring Ski+board

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and they involve starting in a sitting position or actively swinging your leg. To improve the core, I advise the plank routine, where you hold a pose akin to a press-up stance, but rest on your forearms.

GEAR

Have you clicked yet? Changing lenses used to be a faff. Just four years ago, brands were producing models that required a screwdriver to do this. This season you’ll see more skiers casually pop out lenses and insert new ones when the light goes flat. Easy-change mechanisms come in two main types — clip and magnet. Do try these in store yourself. A slick move demonstrated on YouTube or by a salesperson may prove frustratingly fiddly — especially with cold, numb fingers. And the more you struggle, the more likely you are to get finger marks on the lens. In this respect, magnets are the easiest option, and are sturdy too. Generally the venting on this season’s goggles is good, stopping them steaming up in all but the most crowded cable cars. Similarly the anti-fog coating on new lenses is good, but does diminish

Read many others goggle reviews as they come on sale at skiclub.co.uk/news

£190

£160

£130

Anon M3

Scott LCG

Uvex Downhill 2000 VLM

If you’re looking for an easy-change, magnet-based lens system with an overthe-glasses fit, the M3 ticks all the boxes. It has 18 magnets at nine connection points on the frame which let you change lens without taking the goggles off. Simply pull off one lens and snap the other into place. Brilliant. The magnets have a pull force of 1.25kg each so it would take a pretty serious wipe out for the lens to come off, and the M3 comes with a spare lens. Other features including venting around the perimeter of the lens, along with anti-fog treatment, a low-profile frame with 40 per cent thinner face foam for an excellent field of view, and lenses which thin out towards the edges for improved peripheral vision. Oh, and they also look great… Superb lens changing system Pricey

with handling. Try to hold them with the lens cloth or bag as you change them. An alternative is photochromic lenses — I wouldn’t be without them. If you are still not convinced of the need to switch, at least make sure your existing lenses are category two to three. Category four suits bright light only and category one solely white-out days. Most of the goggles covered here are helmet-compatible, so shouldn’t slip or leave an icy gap on your forehead, but take your helmet when shopping. Spectacle-wearers have reason to be bright-eyed too. ‘OTG’ goggles that can be worn over glasses have come a long way. Anon’s M3 are good for this, and more are reviewed on the third page.

For an easy-change, clip-based system, these are the goggles to try. You slide a catch on the right to remove the lens, and slide and click it back down to install the replacement. This can all be done without touching the lens surface. The main lens is light sensitive, so you won’t need to change it too often anyway, but the LCG does come with a spare lens that you can comfortably carry inside a jacket pocket. It has a unique frame that allows you to adjust the fit with two small screws at the base. Add to this super-soft, three-layer face foam and you are guaranteed a comfortable fit. Features such as anti-fog treatment, venting and great looks come as standard, making them one of the best goggles of this season. Versatile, innovative Not the cheapest

Alf Alderson is an award-winning adventure travel writer who divides his time between the Alps and Pembrokeshire. He is co-author of the Rough Guide to the Rocky Mountains and other ski guides. He is an experienced gear tester for the ski press.

For those wanting to dispense with lens changes altogether by going for goggles with a photochromic lens, try the Uvex Downhill 2000. Their low profile design goes against the trend towards large frame goggles, but I found them much lighter with superb peripheral vision. The mirrored double lens features Uvex’s Variomatic technology, by which the lens reacts smoothly and quickly to varying light, while offering complete protection against ultraviolet rays. A large mesh-covered vent extends threequarters of the way around the goggles. They were some of the most comfortable goggles we tried, even though there’s just a single foam layer with Velour backing against the face. All round a cool, understated efficiency rather than shouty eyewear. Good value photochromic lenses Understated looks may not appeal to all

Photo: Melody Sky

Sporting the right lens whatever the weather just got easier, says Alf Alderson

G EA R

£120

£55

£250

Bern Eastwood

Sinner Toxic

Nike Command Transitions

The Eastwood is breaking boundaries in a number of ways. The main feature is that they have the first ever soft foam goggle frame, which is very comfortable as it moulds to your face. Not only that, but the frame and the ‘Plusfoam’ two-layer face foam (remarkably soft and warm) are 100 per cent recyclable — another industry first. The top and bottom foam vents also prevent fogging. In terms of practicality, they also work well, with excellent peripheral vision and the option to change the lens through Bern’s ‘POP’ system. It does exactly what it says — you pop the lens out of the frame and pop a replacement in. They come with a spare lens. The frame means they should work with pretty much any helmet. Personally they won me over on looks alone.

One of the lightest pairs on trial, the Toxic offer excellent peripheral vision along with a comfortable fit — not bad for one of the cheapest models reviewed here. They feature Sinner’s ‘Sintec’ contrast-enhancing polarised double lens, which reduces glare. You can get a range of lens categories and colours, including the photochromic ‘Trans+’ lens. This costs £41, while a regular double orange or yellow lens costs £16. The Toxic’s single-layer hypoallergenic foam feels great against your face and the goggles also come with a cheerful array of frame and strap options. The shape may not suit everyone but, given the price, the Toxic is a great option for those prone to scratching, breaking or losing goggles — and how many of us aren’t?

Eco-friendly and super-comfy Some users found lens pops out too easily

Excellent value, great fit Not everyone will go for the design

The Command comes a photochromic Transition lens, with vision further improved by the colour-optimisation of the lens to give better contrast and increased depth perception. I found the quality of the vision pretty faultless, whatever the light. You can change the lens easily too, should it become scratched. Peripheral vision is also good, with the anti-fogging helped by a water-repellent mesh over the vents. The stylish ‘softrigger’ frames are designed to disperse pressure points, so that along with the soft, triple-layer foam you get a comfortable fit. Overall, Command goggles appear low key, given they’re one of the more expensive models on trial — best for skiers who like quality without coming across too brash. Top quality lens, very comfy Super-pricey

£185

£195

£100

Oakley Airbrake

Dragon X1s Verse Transitions

Julbo Airflux

The chunky Airbrake comes with outriggers for a balanced fit — with or without a helmet — but you’ll notice that one of the outriggers moves out further than the other. This is to allow access to Oakley’s ‘Switchlock’ lens change system, by which you flick a single switch to change lens. Though it’s a relatively easy and durable system, you can’t really do it with gloved hands and the outrigger can get in the way, making it hard to avoid touching the lens surface. Where the Airbrake excels is in the optics and sturdiness. Although this was one of the thickest of the frames we tested, peripheral vision isn’t compromised, and the Airbrake has a bombproof feel. A sturdy option if you tend to give your goggles a lot of stick.

The X1s is the smaller version of the X1 — hence the ‘s’ — to suit medium to small faces, and uses Dragon’s frameless technology to create an expansive view. So even on these smaller-sized goggles there’s a wide field of vision. However, the main selling point is the Transitions lens. Transitions is the market leader in photochromic lenses and in flat light this stays yellow to help you pick out contours and bumps, while in sunny conditions it darkens to offer complete UV protection. The lenses are scratch-resistant, but can be replaced if you damage them. The inner frame of the X1s features triple-layer face foam and an easily adjustable strap. You also get a storage box and a bag that can be used for cleaning the lens.

The defining feature of the Airflux is Julbo’s ‘Super Flow System’, created for skiers hiking into the back country. It allows you to flip the lens forward, creating a gap between frame and lens to ensure better air flow and reduced fogging, as you work up a steam on long climbs. Heading downhill you can snap the lens back into place and away you go. In practice, you’ll probably have to take the goggles off to ensure a secure fit for the lens, but I used this system for most of last season, wearing a pair of Julbo Aeroflow goggles, and it works. It’s equally effective in steamy cable cars. The minimalist frame provides an admirably wide field of vision, and they are as comfortable as any reviewed here. It comes with the option of a category two, three or four lens.

Solid construction Pricey, bulky, not the easiest lens change

Good for smaller faces, great lens quality Pricey, but you are getting a Transitions lens

Ski+board

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Innovative lens system is great for ski tourers You may have to remove goggles to swap lens

G EA R

£45-£84

£100

£85

Bollé Modulator Y6 OTG

Salomon XT-One

Panda Funnel

The Modulator Y6 is designed for those looking for a larger pair of photochromic goggles, particularly to be worn over glasses, at an excellent price. Despite offering an over-the-glasses fit and working well with a helmet, the Modulator didn’t look or feel bulky; indeed, I thought the design was pretty sharp. That said the field of vision wasn’t the widest, but it wouldn’t prevent me from using the Y6 on a daily basis. The double lenses are scratch resistant and have ‘Flow-Tech’ engineered venting, which should prevent fogging, and the double-layer face foam provides a warm and comfortable fit. A great value option if you wear glasses while skiing, but their stylish, understated looks may also appeal to non-spectacle wearers, too.

One of the first things you notice with the XT-One is the excellent field of vision, along with the clarity of the lens. In fact I’m typing this wearing a pair. The goggles have been designed to offer a combination of anatomical fit, wide field of vision and visual acuity. This is partly achieved by the minimalist frame design, making it effective and stylish. The XT-One is based on an earlier Salomon model with noticeable, though small, improvements. These include an extension of the lateral field of vision, articulated frame, and foam at key areas of the face for a more comfortable fit, which could prove particularly popular with glasses wearers. Our test model came with an attractive blue category two lens. Though this can be changed, it’s not the easiest of tasks.

Panda is a new(ish) British firm making a small range of decently priced goggles with interchangeable lenses. They come with a mirrored chrome grey polarised lens offering good UV protection, as well as a maize yellow low light lens. Changing lenses is fiddly, and it’s quite easy to end up with fingerprints all over it. Handily the goggles come with a microfibre bag that doubles as a lens cloth. The frameless style means not only do you get a good field of vision, but snow can’t build up, which minimises the risk of fogging. For spectacle wearers, the big draw is the OTG fit. Pretty much everyone we showed them to loved them, so you may start seeing a few more ‘Panda’ faces around the slopes this season.

Good option for glasses wearers; great value Not the widest field of vision

Good price; can be worn with glasses Changing lens is a bit fiddly

£150

£75

£110

Poc Lobes

Cébé Feel’in

Giro Balance

The Lobes are cool-looking goggles — the model we tested had a black, category four lens (others are available) and matching matt black frame, and have been designed to give a super-wide field of view, achieved by the big frame and outside placement of the lens. As ever with Poc, quality and attention to detail are evident. The Zeiss Ripel lenses feature an optical grade polycarbonate outer lens combined with a cellulose propionate inner lens that is lightweight and has greater transparency and gloss than other plastics. They come with a soft, warm, triple-layer foam and in use have a comfortable, secure fit, and the spherical shape and design looks great. However the lens can’t be changed. Great looks, great quality Not cheap; lens can’t be changed

Great looks, great comfort Lens changing is not the easiest

Cébé has been producing affordable goggles for some time, but the Feel’in claims some technological prowess too. It comes with an outer polycarbonate lens and inner acetate lens, which Cébé claims are a great anti-fogging option. And it’s true. There are also a range of lenses for different conditions, although they’re not interchangeable. I found that the three-layer face foam wasn’t as thick as most of the goggles reviewed, but that wasn’t a problem for me. For skiers who prefer the outer frame to sit close to their face, they’re fine. The fleece layer keeps the goggles feeling warm and soft against the skin. The field of vision is good, and they stay in place effectively. Given the price, the Feel’in are well worth checking out. Good value Some skiers may prefer thicker face foam

The Balance is a neat, full-frame goggle offering excellent peripheral vision thanks to Giro’s EXV (or ‘Expansion View’) technology, which aims to provide the widest possible field of view, particularly with thicker frame lenses. In this Giro seems to have been pretty successful. Although the medium-sized model I reviewed felt slightly small for my face, I still had good peripheral vision through the Balance’s Zeiss lens, which also offers great clarity. The Balance also features effective all-round venting, along with soft triplelayer face foam, making it a good option for small to medium faces. It’s also reasonably priced and fits well with Giro helmets, the newest of which we’ll be reviewing in Issue 2. Excellent field of vision; great for smaller faces Sizing may be tricky if not buying in-store

G EA R

Go on, make a spectacle of yourself on the slopes At first I was reluctant to try prescription goggles. Like many people, I am a part-time myope, wearing contact lenses most of the day and only reduced to my natural, mole-like state in the morning. But then it occurred to me that it would only take a stye or other eye irritation for my skiing to be cancelled, unless I was prepared to ski in regular specs. I have minus 20 vision in both eyes — a level far too high for most makers of prescription goggles. But one specialist, SportViz, was willing to give it a try on a one-off basis — its maximum is usually minus eight dioptres. When the package arrived at the office I was at first too embarrassed to open it. I feared the bottle-bottom plastic lenses stuck to the inside of regular ski goggles would look absurd. Plastic is safer and cheaper than high-density glass, but years of being 'speccy-four-eyes' at school have traumatised me. When I plucked up the courage to tear open the parcel I found the bottle-bottoms were nicely hidden behind the rather smart goggles' mirrored lens. So I tried them out on the slopes of Saalbach on a sunny February day. There was some internal reflection, but not so much as to be distracting. They did steam up a bit, though again not so much as to really hinder my vision (they come with a pot of anti-fog wax). I got used to them pretty fast, though I advise readers to try any new goggles — not just prescription ones

— on easy slopes first and pack the old pair just in case. Some mirrored goggles can be tricky in flat light. The goggles even had the advantage that I could read the piste map by lifting them up, whereas wearing contact lenses I have to hold the map ever further away, like many skiers my age. Going into the cosy Seidl Alm for coffee was another matter. Inside this traditional Austrian 'Stube' my goggles were steaming more than the cappuccinos. I have no idea how much the bill was, and stabbed my Pin code into the reader blindly. That aside, the new wave of prescription goggles is a real boon for short-sighted skiers, especially those who don't wear contact lenses. Also the ones I tried are cheap at £45 plus £25, £55 and £75 for simple, bifocal and varifocal inserts respectively. Ordering online is easy — you simply input your prescription at sportviz.com — and you can use the inserts in diving masks and for other sports. Colin Nicholson

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£10 off for Skiclub members

01502 471960 info@mountainbeds.com www.mountainbeds.com

SNO W B OA R D S

LENGTH

Construction

EFFECTIVE EDGE

Topsheet Core Edges Sidewall

Reinforcement Base

Board lengths are measured in centimetres from tip to tail. Longer boards suit powder; shorter ones are best for freestyle

The distance between the two contact points on either side of the snowboard

BASE Extruded bases are cheap, easy to repair, and ideal for beginners. Sintered bases need more care and cost more, but are faster when waxed

CAMBER A board with a camber profile rises up between the rider’s feet and has contact points at each end — at the nose and tail ends of the effective edge

WIDTH A ’W‘ following a length means the board comes in wide, and so is suitable for riders with larger feet — UK size 11 and over

ROCKER A board with a rocker profile has its main contact point between the rider’s feet, while the ends of the effective edge are lifted

FLEX This is graded from one to five, with one being soft — making a board easy to turn — and five being stiff, for high-speed piste performance

FLAT PROFILE A board with a flat profile is flat under the feet, with the board rising only at the tip and tail

Camber effective edge

Rocker effective edge

COMBO A board with a combo profile combines elements of both rocker and camber boards

Flat profile effective edge

Camber and rocker combo* *Camber and rocker combo profiles vary

SNOWBOARDS

SHAPE Directional boards have a setback stance, twin boards have a centred stance and an identical nose and tail, while directional twin boards combine elements of both

Tristan Kennedy is editor of action sports and adventure website mpora.com and former deputy editor of Whitelines snowboarding magazine. He tested these boards exclusively for Ski+board at the Snowboard Spring Break event in Kaunertal, in Austria.

Are board makers off their rocker? New carving tricks have sparked a return to camber profiles for freestyle models, writes Tristan Kennedy Equipment reviews tend to focus on all that is new in a season. Yet freestyle snowboarders perusing the best models this autumn may feel like they’ve been hit with a blast from the past. Many new boards feature a camber profile — last popular pre-2006, when Lib Tech released its Skate Banana with its revolutionary rocker design. This rush back to the classic profile isn’t retro fetishism. As more riders do carving tricks, there’s been a rise in demand for models that hold an edge. That’s not to say rocker models, which tend to be less good at this, have disappeared. A special edition of the

Burton Easy Livin’ £430

K2 Party Platter

FLEX PROFILE Camber SHAPE True twin LENGTHS (cm) 152, 155, 158

FLEX PROFILE Rocker SHAPE Directional twin LENGTHS (cm) 143, 150

£350

Skate Banana has been released to celebrate its ten-year anniversary and such rocker boards suit those starting out in the snowpark. With newcomers in mind, in the next issue we’ll cover piste boards, which are essentially entry-level models for those yet to choose between parklife and off-piste. In Issue 3, we’ll look at all-mountain boards, which lean to offpiste action. And for those who think only of powder, in Issue 4 we’ll cover big mountain boards and split boards.

For advice on choosing boards and snowboard boots visit skiclub.co.uk/kit

Ride Machete

£350

FLEX PROFILE Combo SHAPE Directional LENGTHS (cm) 149, 152, 155, 158, 161, 154W, 159W, 161W, 163W

PISTES POWDER JUMPS RAILS

When it was launched in 2010, the Easy Livin’ came in both camber and rocker configurations. But Burton has since canned the rocker model, in line with industry trends, leaving this more stable, solid camber board. It features Burton’s ‘squeezebox’ core, which is milled thinner in sections to help riders ollie more easily. That, plus its sintered base, make it great to take into the park or halfpipe. It’s the model of choice for Burton pro Danny Davis, widely recognised as one of the world’s best halfpipe riders, but the Easy Livin’ performs well on piste too. Great for freestyle Not as good as stiffer boards in powder

PISTES POWDER JUMPS RAILS

According to K2, its new model for this season represents “a new vision for freestyle”. It takes its inspiration from the K2 Cool Bean — a short, wide board that proved hugely popular last season. The wider waist meant it floated as well as longer boards in powder, but still boasted all the manoeuvrability of a short board. The Party Platter shares that concept but with a freestyle twist. Its lifted tail allows you to ride switch, making it a Cool Bean you can play with in the park. While it’s great on jumps, the surfy feel makes carving on the piste a total dream. Brilliant fun for playing around the piste The wide waist makes it tougher on rails

Ski+board

October 2016

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The Ride Machete is something of a classic. Introduced in 2010, it has been one of the brand’s bestsellers ever since. The mid-stiff flex means it is comfortable tackling the park, but it also stays steady at speed on piste. With the exception of riders doing Mach 10, snowboarders will appreciate how hard it is to catch an edge. Ride makes a wide variety of sizes, so there’s a length to suit every rider. No wonder this board has proved popular over the years — so much so that Ride’s reps have been saying ahead of this season: “Don’t worry, we didn’t change much.” Versatile, with forgiving feel, big choice of lengths Not the most stable at high speeds

SNO W B OA R D S

Salomon Huck Knife £ 330 FLEX PROFILE Camber SHAPE True twin LENGTHS (cm) 148, 152, 155, 158, 155W, 158W

Ride Saturday

Women’s boards

£320

FLEX PROFILE Camber SHAPE True twin LENGTHS (cm) 143, 147,

PISTES POWDER JUMPS RAILS

151, 154

PISTES POWDER JUMPS RAILS

This may be a new model from Salomon this season, but it’s based on a tried and tested formula. The firm has taken the popular Villain model, a favourite of Québécois urban snowboarding superstar Louif Paradis, and souped it up. The Huck Knife is slightly stiffer than the Villain, making it more responsive and helping it hold an edge when carving on hard pack. But it also means you can pop higher and tackle bigger jumps. Its blunt shape should handle whatever is thrown at it. The sintered base is fast too, making this a mean all-round freestyle machine.

The Saturday is a new board in Ride’s stable this year, aimed at intermediate-to-advanced female riders who want to practise tricks in the park before taking them on to bigger jumps on the mountain. It’s stiffer than most other women’s freestyle boards, which means it’s more difficult to ollie, but its ‘Slimewall’ urethane sidewalls help absorb vibration, making it feel stable at high speeds. Like many of this season’s freestyle boards it boasts a camber profile. Ride has also given it a fast, sintered base, making it a great tool for cruising icy pistes as well as the park. Fast, stable at speed Less flexible and less forgiving

Performs well all over the mountain Not as good as some in powder

Lib Tech Skate Banana £400

Burton Socialite

FLEX PROFILE SHAPE LENGTHS (cm)

FLEX PROFILE Flat SHAPE True twin LENGTHS (cm) 138, 142,

FLEX PROFILE Camber SHAPE True twin LENGTHS (cm) 142, 146,

149

Rocker True twin

152, 154, 156, 159

PISTES POWDER JUMPS RAILS

Lib Tech is celebrating ten years since the launch of its Skate Banana Model by releasing the OG Skate Banana Retro. The fact this board passes muster when pitted against today’s top freestyle planks is testament to the forward-thinking design. Its ‘BTX’ profile was the thing that really launched rocker boards and revolutionised the industry. Innovations such as the wavy ‘Magne-Traction’ edges, which grip like a bread knife, mean this version is one of the most fun freestyle models on the market. And keeping the original 2006 graphic is another nice touch. Fun, forgiving and great for learning tricks Not the most stable at high speeds

£310

147, 151

PISTES POWDER JUMPS RAILS

The Socialite sits in the middle of Burton’s freestyle range. The company describes it as being “looser” than the Lip-Stick, but with “more oomph” than the Déjà-vu. What this means in laywoman’s terms is that it’s happy on almost any terrain. Its extra thin ‘Filet-O-Flex’ design makes it easy to ollie, so it’s good fun in the snowpark. It’s a joy on piste too, due to its flat profile, which makes holding edges easy. With a regular narrow waist, it’s not as good as others in powder, but if you’re looking for a freestyle-focused all-rounder, you could do a lot worse. Great on rails, jumps and pistes Not as good for powder days

Nitro Mercy

£360

PISTES POWDER JUMPS RAILS

Norwegian superstar Silje Norendal is one of the biggest names in women’s snowboarding right now. She’s just 22 years old, but her trophy cabinet is already stocked with three X Games golds — a tally that she will surely add to in years to come. This is the first board Silje has been involved in designing since signing to Nitro, but it seems the team may have nailed it first time. With a float that’s perfect for powder and a classic camber profile, this performs equally well on jumps, rails and pistes. Don’t believe us? Just watch Silje’s next competition run… A great freestyle all-rounder Perhaps a little stiff for beginners in the park

F_210w_297h_SKI+BOARD.pdf

15/09/2014

10:59

DOES YOUR EQUIPMENT PERFORM AS WELL AS IT SHOULD...?

CMY

Recent innovations in technology means ski equipment is better than it’s ever been before. Ski boots are much more customizable, as plastic shells can now be heat moulded and shaped to the lumps and bumps in your feet. Have you improved since you bought your current boots? Are they still comfortable making you reluctant to upgrade them? A pair of custom fitted boots will be more comfortable than you can possibly imagine and give better performance than your old ski boots ever could. Have your skis seen better days? Or are you still using rental equipment? Skis have now become much more versatile and user friendly helping you to ski in all snow conditions. If you choose the correct ski shape and ability level, you will see huge changes in your progression and enjoyment. Come and visit us today to ensure you have the correct advice from experienced equipment specialists before you invest in your next pair of boots and skis. Bringing you the largest specialist range of skis & boots in the UK and advice and expertise since 1965. We’ll always be here to help and advise you on the correct equipment for wherever your passions and dreams take you. Custom boot fitting specialists. Ski Industries Of Great Britain official ski testers. “WINNER OF THE WORLD SNOW AWARDS - BEST UK SPECIALIST RETAILER”

RESORT INSIDER

Photo: Fulpmes in Stubai, Andre Schönherr

Make sure the snow turns up before you do WRITERS Harriet Johnston, Chris Madoc-Jones, Colin Nicholson, Chris Taine, Arnie Wilson

HOW OUR GUIDE WORKS CHALLENGE Our infographic shows how resorts grade pistes according to difficulty, showing what percentage are black, red, blue or green (however, note that Austrian, Swiss and some Italian areas don’t have green runs). PISTES We list the combined length of

all the resort’s pistes, as claimed by the tourist office. We include linked areas that are also covered by the lift pass. LIFT PASS Lift pass prices are for a six-

day adult pass during high season.

When seasons get off to slow or late starts, as the last two winters have done, skiers often wonder where to travel to be sure of snow. One solution is to book yourself into a high-altitude resorts — and you can’t get more snow-sure than visiting a resort with a glacier offering year-round skiing. However if you are going in season, advances in snowmaking have proved the great equaliser. So, although many of Austria’s big-name resorts are lower than those in France and Switzerland, the country has invested more in snowmaking — as have the Italian province of Südtirol and the principality of Andorra. And the lure of glaciers and high-altitude skiing should not lead you to forget about the importance of overall charm and accessibility of a resort.

To read guides to more than a thousand resorts see skiclub.co.uk/skiresorts

Andermatt Little for beginners

Big mountain options… strictly not for beginners Why there? For confident skiers and snowboarders who love big-mountain slopes with the creature comforts of an attractive — and rapidly expanding — Swiss village, Andermatt is a charming location. Not only that but it is benefiting from a huge investment

in lifts. However, until the link with neighbouring Sedrun is complete (which will be 2018 at the earliest) it is not for beginners. Even intermediates may baulk at the expanse of steep off-piste terrain — but stronger skiers will be in their element. There’s some easier skiing at Nätschen, across the valley, and the Oberalp Pass, which will form part of the linked Andermatt-Sedrun area. But for now access is by mountain railway. Can’t ski, won’t ski Village life is pretty extensive, with an increasing number of restaurants, bars and hotels, some of which have pools open to the public. Take the Gemsstock cable car to enjoy superb scenery from the roof-top viewing gallery. And the Glacier Express rail journey to the Oberalp Pass at 2,045m in altitude is spectacular, with a choice of accessible restaurants. AW

Snow Lifts Queue-free Food Charisma Ski schools Low budget Off-piste Lift pass

Lifts

£219

20 120km

Pistes

Piste height: 1,445m-2,965m

22%

46%

32%

Photo: Andermatt/swiss-image.ch

Plenty of off-piste fun

R ESORT I N SI DER

Kaunertal You won’t spend time battling crowds

Photo: Kaunertaler Gletscherbahnen

Quiet most evenings

Quiet, laid-back vibe with dreamy snow conditions Why there? Kaunertal straddles the border between Austria and Italy, and though its tagline is ‘Tirol’s youngest glacier’, the reference is not to the age of the ice, but its appeal to families and youthful skiers. It’s a quiet, laid-back valley, so there are hardly ever any lift queues, or crowds on the slopes. Despite throwing a few parties throughout the season, the resort may leave hard-core après-ski aficionados wanting.

68%

Can’t ski, won’t ski Sledging is on offer during the day and also every Thursday evening on the floodlit 4.5km-long trail at Fendels. CT

20% 12%

Why there? Val Thorens is the highest of the resorts in the Three Valleys and the only one with a glacier that you can ski. But if you don’t want to stay in a purposebuilt resort, Orelle, in the so-called fourth valley, is just a 15-minute gondolaride away. It is a small, charming village that preserves its unique rural character 38% and traditions while giving access to more than 600km of slopes.

Photo: Philippe Royer/Savoie Mont Blanc

Pistes

38km

Piste height: 2,150m-3,200m

Can’t ski, won’t ski Surrounded by forest, the village has a traditional feel. Its luxurious spa-hotels offer weird and wonderful treatments, and you can go on horse-drawn sleigh rides. CN

10%

Ski schools

Lifts

£133

Why there? Just 25 minutes’ drive from Innsbruck airport is the charming village of Neustift, and above that is skiing on the 3,300m-high Stubai glacier. Many of the 75km of runs, which are pleasantly varied for glacial terrain, have been made more accessible this autumn by the opening of a new €58million gondola. Admittedly, the new gondola is still a 20-minute drive from the village, and you usually have to ‘download’ to the base station, but you can often ski one of the 29km of itineraries to the bottom of the gondola.

Back door to Three Valleys

Queue-free Food Charisma

Lift pass

Short transfer and a glacier

Some may miss the après atmosphere

Snow Lifts

Queue-free Food

Stubai

Access to a huge ski area without the price tag

13%

Low budget Off-piste

Charisma Ski schools

Orelle

39%

Snow Lifts

Can’t ski, won’t ski There is snowshoeing and a spa, with ice-climbing for the sporty. HJ Low budget Off-piste

Snow Lifts

Lift pass

Lifts

Pistes

£233

169

600km

Queue-free Food Charisma Ski schools

Piste height: 2,300m-3,230m

Ski+board

October 2016

skiclub.co.uk

Village is less than half an hour from Innsbruck airport No skiin, ski-out accommodation

33%

55% 12%

Low budget Off-piste Lift pass

Lifts

£181

47 75km

Pistes

Piste height: 935m-3,210m

R ESORT I N SI DER

Val d’Isère Steep runs back to resort mean many opt to take the lifts down

High altitude, world-class snowmaking and a new lift Why there? Val d’Isère is a perennial favourite with British skiers — and for good reason. The picturesque town has an old-world charm, but shares the huge Espace Killy area with Tignes. One of the resort’s main bugbears — the hair-raising ‘blue’ run from the Almost all the runs are above 2,000m, top of Solaise — can now be avoided but if natural snow cover is patchy, more easily by taking the new ten-seater it has a powerful snowmaking system. gondola down the mountain, without having to resort to the ancient cable car Can’t ski, won’t ski Winter walking and and a chairlift. A network of tunnels 42% snowshoe trails zig-zag their way and magic carpets at the top of the through the valley and 17% the charming stoneSolaise replaces a mass of chairlifts, making the connection to the clad town is known Pisaillas glacier easier. But it’s still a for its good, if pricey, resort that favours advanced skiers. restaurants. CMJ

Photo: Office du Tourisme Val d'Isère

Huge and high ski area

Snow Lifts Queue-free Food Charisma Ski schools Low budget Off-piste Lift pass

Lifts

£226

88 300km

Pistes

Piste height: 1,550m-3,455m

15% 26%

Limited local ski area

56% 14%

30%

Engelberg

Access to Ischgl without the party crowds

New lift gives easy access to a freeride bonanza

Why there? Just past the party capital of Ischgl lies quaint Galtür, a much cheaper and quieter option. The free ski bus and combined lift pass gives early-tobedders the best of both worlds, though the buses do get quite busy. Dubbed an Alpine idyll by Ernest Hemingway, three quarters of the resort’s high slopes are equipped with snowmaking. A new tenseat gondola at Galtür’s western end has vastly improved access this season. Can’t ski, won’t ski The area has over 100km of cross-country and winter walking trails, and the sports centre has a pool. CMJ

Why there? Engelberg is one of Bit of a trek from town to Switzerland’s most popular glaciers for the base of freeriders, but getting from the pleasant the lifts town, with its monastery and secluded chalets, to the 3,030m peak used to be a tediously long process. The eightperson Titlis Xpress, introduced last season, halves the time it takes to get 57% to the top, and gives access to some 33% of the best off-piste. There are a few treelined runs below and in the small Brunni area on the other side of town, though this is not linked. Can’t ski, won’t ski There is a 12th century Benedictine monastery on the outskirts of town, while higher up the mountains there are snow-sure cross-country trails. The larger hotels have spa facilities and there is a good variety of restaurants. CN

Snow

Low budget

Snow

Low budget

Lifts Queue-free

Off-piste

Lifts Queue-free

Off-piste

Food Charisma Ski schools

Lift pass

Lifts

Pistes

£196 9 43km Piste height: 1,635-2,295m

New lift brings snowsure runs closer

Food Charisma Ski schools

10%

Lift pass

Lifts

£225

23 82km

Pistes

Piste height: 1,050m-3,030m

Photo: Josef Mallaun/Österreich Werbung

Great snow and pretty village

Galtür

SKI CLUB ONLINE

Have you clicked yet?

You’ll find a wealth of detail at skiclub.co.uk, from resort reports to features, and gear reviews to weather forecasts The resort that never sleeps Take a virtual visit with Chris Madoc-Jones to some of Europe’s top pre-season resorts at skiclub.co.uk/news, including Fonna, where you can see how shifting 400,000 cubic metres of snow each winter creates such good skiing high above the Norwegian fjords.s

Which skis are the star acts? At skiclub.co.uk/skitests you can also find star ratings for all the skis in the magazine for on and off-piste use, performance and ease of handling.

Resorts by the thousand Read more than 1,000 resort guides and in-depth reviews at skiclub.co.uk/skiresorts

At a screen near you… Discover the best resort guides and kit reviews at the Club’s Youtube channel youtube.com/thesnowcast Seven resorts in seven days Fresh from the editing suite, comes the second series of ‘7 in 7’, with TV presenter Kev Harris and video editor Tom Ewbank travelling to the Austrian Tirol for an intriguing week-long adventure in seven resorts. From paragliding over the Kitzbüheler Alpen to climbing the dizzying peaks of Fieberbrunn, each action-packed episode reveals the flavour of each ski area.

The Inside Edge series

So you want to ski off-piste…

What goes into making a pair of skis or a snowboard? We follow the team at progressive brand Amplid over 12-months as they create new products, in a sustainable way.

The Ski Club’s Freshtracks programme is incredibly popular — with wannabe and experienced off-piste skiers in particular. Watch plucky Ski Club member David Wilson making his screen debut on the Freshtracks Learn to Ski Off Piste Course in Les Deux Alpes.

In your next issue… Inside a snow making factory Praying to the weather gods for a good season? We introduce you to a team of demigods producing artificial snow

New lift openings Faster chairlifts, chondolas and linked resorts — all the new lift developments in your favourite resorts

The top piste skis Our industry-leading test team have selected the best new piste-performance skis for tearing down the groomers

A fitness leg-up Tone up those quads and glutes with our regime of easy exercises to get you in shape for winter

You can read back issue of Ski+board online at skiclub.co.uk/skiandboard

Dates for your diary OCTOBER 6

Ski Club Reps and Leaders Reunion The White House, Wimbledon, London

A chance for Ski Club Leaders and former Reps to catch up and talk about their plans for the coming season. OCTOBER 13

International Freeski Film Festival Clapham Grand, London; £12

Top winter sports athletes introduce this season’s most exciting ski films. OCTOBER 27-30

Ski & Snowboard Show London Battersea Evolution, London; £15-£20

CHALET FOR SALE Morgins, Portes du Soleil

3 bedrooms, bathroom, shower room cheminée, separate garage authorised for non-Swiss CHF 595,000 aldwinckle@waitrose.com +44 (0)207 624 8223

The show returns with stands galore, featuring retailers, resorts and tour operators. The Ski Club can be found at stand 213. Ski Club members should check for discounted entry at skiclub.co.uk/discounts NOVEMBER 17

Ski Club of Great Britain AGM The White House, Wimbledon, London

Members can have their say at the 109th annual general meeting of the Ski Club of Great Britain. 7pm.

For more details see skiclub.co.uk/events

CHAMONIX

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I T ’ L L TA K E Y O U L O N G E R T O PA C K , THAN TO GET THERE

From take-off to skis on: quicker, easier and more luxurious than ever before. No queueing, no waiting, no connecting. Less time travelling, giving you more time on the slopes. Air Partner. Start packing.

JetCard For even more convenience and flexibility, our JetCard buys you 25 hours (or more) of flying time in your choice of six private jet categories, with guaranteed availability, new generation jets and fixed pricing.

Discover more about our JetCard and which resorts we fly to. Call +44 1293 844 886 or visit airpartner.com

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26/08/2016 14:37

TAKE TO THE SLOPES

15% DISCOUNT

FOR SKI CLUB GB MEMBERS

STORES NATIONWIDE | COTSWOLDOUTDOOR.COM

*Not to be used in conjunction with any other offer or discount. Selected lines are exempt. Only valid on production of Ski Club GB membership identification in store or use of discount code online. Offer expires 31.12.16.

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30/08/2016 17:11