The Ski Blog

Girls getting in on the act - extreme girls ski movie teaser trailer on Facebook.

Every autumn a handful of extreme ski movies are released - the Matchstick Productions movies or La Nuit de La Glisse series are two of the bigger names. They all have several things in common; spectacular scenery, awesome camera work, great soundtracks and superb skiers making their way through untracked expanses of virgin snow or popping off enormous cliff jumps with grace and style.

Another thing they have in common is that they very rarely feature female skiers. Ingrid Backstrom is one of a very few girl skiers to make it into the big league and is a regular member of the Matchstick stable of big mountain skiers. Since her first movie in 2004 Ingrid has earned her stripes in the freeski mens club with her fearlessness. To see what we mean, see her in the movie below on the making of Steep (with the legendary Shane McConkey) .

Now a group of enterprising European freeskiing females are doing it for themselves with the release this autumn of As We Are - a girls' film project shot in some of the best backcountry in the Alps.

The driving force behind the film is Sandra Lahnsteiner, an Austrian freeskier and national ski cross champion. The idea came to her after spending a whole winter skiing and making films with just guys. Whilst there are fewer girls in the business there are excellent skiers amongst them and this is what she wanted to show. She got in touch with good friend and freeskier Melissa Presslaber, who loved the idea. Between them they found another four girls from Austria, Germany, Italy and Switzerland to complete the team. They spent last winter skiing each others' home mountains, getting to know each other and making the film.

The film goes from Austria's Gasteinertal, to Lech/Zurs, Hochfugen and Verbier in Switzerland. Due for release this autumn As We Are will be going on tour throughout Europe - you can see a short teaser trailer on the girls' Facebook page and a longer trailer should be released imminently.

If you get the chance to see the film - grab it - it's a rare opportunity to see some of Europe's best female pro-riders in action.

Eurostar tickets for the Alps now on sale!

Let the train take the strain this winter! Tickets for the popular Eurostar service from London to the French Alps have gone on sale today.

The service starts on 19th December through to 16th April and will take you direct from St Pancras or London Ashford to Moutiers, Aime or Bourg St Maurice - meaning that the Three Valleys, Paradiski and Espace Killy resorts are just a short transfer from your arrival station. 

Mary Walsh, Eurostar’s Director of Communications, commented: "As well as our popular French ski destinations, tickets for resorts in Switzerland will be available later in the year thanks to onward connections in Paris. More and more of our passengers are discovering the ease and convenience of onward travel thanks to Europe’s high speed rail network.”

If you've not tried the train before it is certainly an interesting option. Leaving London at 10am on a Saturday you'll be in the heart of the Alps by 7pm. Along the way you can enjoy fantastic scenery and relax. There is also a night train, which means you can leave work on Friday evening and be on the slopes on Saturday morning. Prices start at £149 for a return ticket - for full details and booking take a look at eurostar.com

And don't forget that Easyjet and other low cost airlines are already selling seats for this winter - with very low prices for early bookers. Whilst we may have been basking in a heatwave recently, it's not too early to start planning your next ski trip!

Tour de France 2010

With Switzerland, France, Italy and now England out of the World Cup many of us can at least turn our attention to other great sporting events. (Good luck Holland - 1-0 up against Slovakia at half time as I write!)

This year's Tour de France kicks off in Rotterdam on Saturday 3rd July and over three weeks will cover 3 643 km, including 6 mountain stages and 3 summit finishes.

The first high mountain stage takes place on July 11th and takes in 189km, starting from the Station des Rousses, in the Jura north of Geneva, to the finish line at high altitude Avoriaz. The final sprint will be the tortuous road that winds up to the resort from Morzine.

Monday 12th July is the first of just two rest days for the riders. Tuesday 13th July is another gruelling high mountain stage starting out from Morzine and heading to St Jean de Maurienne.

The Tour reaches the Pyrenees on July 18th where start and end stages include Ax 3 Domaines and Bagneres-de-Luchon. (See full details of the itinerary)

Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky

British hopes can focus on Bradley Wiggins and his new Team Sky - the first British Team to compete in the Tour for 23 years. Wiggins surprised everybody by coming 4th in last year's event, displaced from the podium by a returning Lance Armstrong. 

For this year's Tour he has been single-minded in his training and fitness regime - and has once again reached a target weight of 73kg, the weight that enabled him to perform well in the mountain stages last year. Leading the "Sky Train" to a podium place is not beyond the realms of possibility and in a recent interview Wiggins was quietly confident, saying that he was "in the ballpark" to win it.

A Fantastic Spectacle

Whatever happens the Tour de France is an amazing spectacle and is followed with almost religious fervour. The stage towns on the route consider it an enormous privilege to be accepted as a starting or finishing venue, and pay a considerable price for it.The massive influx of visitors and business that accompanies the Tour circus more than compensates for the months of planning and preparation required.

The atmosphere on the route is electric - with fans coming from all over world to support their riders. Despite controversy over drugs and doping, you can't help but be caught up in the atmosphere when the Tour comes riding through. For the small towns and villages along the way it feels like a holiday and a great reason for celebration no matter who is first across the finish line.

So if you're lucky enough to be in the Alps or Pyrenees when the Tour is rolling through take the time to watch and enjoy it. It is widely acknowledged as the biggest cycling event of the year and the one that really matters!

If you're looking for a place to stay in Morzine or any of the other mountain venues why not try the Summer Solutions room.

Get the taste of your last ski holiday!

Enterprising Meribel ski chalet company, Fish and Pips, have come up with the definitive answer to all those guests who want the recipes for the delicious dishes they had on holiday. They have put all their favourite recipes in a cookbook. The cookbook, A Portion of Fish and Pips, came out late 2009, and inspired them to then enter The Times chalet chef competition, which saw them walk away as winners.

Holly Fisher, one half of the Fish and Pips partnership, has been kind enough to answer a few questions:

What made you decide to publish a cookbook – and when did you first have the idea?

We have been thinking about doing it for a while now, probably 2 years ago or so.
It’s something that I have always wanted to do. The final decision was prompted mainly at the request of so many of our guests and also by one of our staff members who said we’d be mad not to. The more we thought about it, the more we thought that it wasn’t such a bad idea not only would it be a new challenge, but also a great piece of marketing and no one else in the chalet industry had done it before.

We’re really proud of the final product, but never in a million years could we have predicted how much work would be involved and I take my hat off to anyone would publishes a book! I think taking on a new resort will actually be less work than producing a cookbook, but that hasn’t put us off and we’re looking to bring out ‘A Second Helping of Fish&Pips’ next year. It has been worth it though in so many ways and really enjoyed working with our fab little team on it.

Did winning The Times chalet chef competition inspire you this season – and did many guests comment on it?

Actually it was the other way round, the cookbook inspired us to enter The Times chalet chef competition! If it wasn’t for the cookbook then the journalist from The Times would never have prompted us to enter the competition. It’s amazing what a little 120 page book can do.

I hope people have really enjoyed the book, we’ve had good feedback on it so far. They made really good Christmas presents especially for people who have stayed with us or worked with us, we had some guests buying up 10 at a time!

Who is actually responsible for the recipes in the book?

It was an almighty team effort. The recipes are representative of the food we produce in the chalets and are a combination of mine and Philippa’s, the chefs and even some of hosts who often make better cakes than the male chefs! We couldn’t have done without the help of the team.

A Portion of Fish and Pips is available to buy from their website at just £20. So why not get hold of a copy and try out some of those fabulous recipes!

Use a different type of wood to build your chalet

Mental performance coaching for skiers

It is interesting that when reading various ski instructor and sports coaching manuals how much is written about technique and how little is written about mental state. For instance one ski manual I know of has 200 odd pages on technique, ski exercises and drills etc. and just one page on mental preparation. It is great to have a solid understanding of ski and sport technique, but what is really interesting is how little effort is focused on the mental aspect of teaching and coaching skiing or in fact any sport. This is even more interesting when you actually get out on the mountain and start teaching and coaching the public to ski. How many times do you here the classic ski instructor line ‘don’t be scared’? If skiing was just about the 200 odd pages of technique and nothing else why is your friendly ski instructor telling you not to be scared? Or how many times have you heard one of your athletes say ‘I can’t do that’? Or some other limiting decision they are choosing to vocalise, maybe to protect or prevent them from achieving their full potential.

So, now you get out your handy instructors manual and refer to the one page on mental preparation and all is solved?! Or maybe all isn’t solved?

So what is the solution?

One approached is to carry on as normal and hope everything works out fine!

There is a problem with this approach: To carry on as normal will produce the same results as nothing has changed. Your input as a coach to the coaching equations is the same, so the result will be the same, as the client or athlete in front of you is processing this same information with the same brain which will come to the same conclusion. And around you go in the same circle again, probably leading to a frustrated instructor or coach and maybe a disappointed client. Not really that successful.

Maybe a better approach would be that the instructor or coach has been trained both in ski / sports technique and mental coaching and is able to help the client facilitate real change and achieve their goals.

Keep an eye open for our blogs on ski mental performance coaching on Chalets Direct. If you are interested in building your chalet with a different type of wood and want to move your skiing to another level then maybe now book your place on an  Alpinemojo summer performance ski courses on the Saas-Fee glacier

http://www.alpinemojo.co.uk/  offers performance snow sports coaching with a difference.

Why wait all summer for the mountains? Plan a biking trip now.

Why wait all summer for the mountains? Plan a biking trip now.

If you're wondering what to do for a holiday this summer it might be a good time to remind you of what the mountains have to offer in the summer.
Mountain bike guru Clive Andrews published this piece for us last autumn - some excellent advice on planning a summer alpine break.

Where to get your snow fix over the summer months

In Europe the ski season is pretty much over and done with. Most of the remaining open resorts will be shutting down this weekend, and the last few stragglers next weekend. So that's it for snow skiing, and boarding, in the northern hemisphere. Or is it?

All over the UK there are places where putting on your boots over the summer months is not that weird. The indoor fridges which have grown up in the last few years are the ideal places to get your snow fix and keep your skills sharp over the warm summer months.

These snow zones, centres, and domes offer slope time, coaching, lessons for beginners and beyond, and have lots of fun events going on to entice you through their doors. See below for a quick round up.

The Snow Centre, Hemel Hempstead:

Opened last May, the Snow Centre is celebrating its first birthday next weekend, 8-9th May. To celebrate they are offering some great special offers - lift passes for just £10, or a 45 minute lesson for £15.

Every Friday evening the centre plays host to their Freestyle Academy and stages "Park & Ride" events with a dedicated freestyle park and a rookie park for those wanting to try it out. Freestyle coaches will also be on hand to give tips and advice. You can see the park layouts on their Facebook page.  

The Hemel centre is also taking part in the DSUK 666 Skiathon on 18th May - an event which is running across all the indoor snow centres - where 6 teams of 6 will be aiming to ski 666 runs in just 6 hours to raise money for Disability Snowsport UK .

Hemel offers lots of opportunities to improve your skills whatever your level and discipline and is also a centre for adaptive skiing. Of course you can just go along to enjoy the slope too! For more details take a look at the Snow Centre website. 

SnowDome, Tamworth:

Tamworth's SnowDome was the first indoor ski slope in the UK. Billed as "the ulitmate snow, ice and leisure experience", Tamworth's dome also offers a gym, swimming pool and ice rink.

Snowside events include some cool stuff; such as the Salomon Freeski Grom Camps for junior recreational skiers taking place over the summer. These camps are sponsored by Salomon and Oakley and are run by Pat Sharples, the Freestyle Ski Team Manager for those two companies. The camps cover all aspects of freestyle with coaching, video feedback and prize giveaways.

Other events include snowboard performance courses, park nights,and airbag sessions to practice your aerials. You can also book a full day course in skiing or snowboarding, aimed at the absolute beginner to get you on your feet and sliding down on your chosen equipment by the end of the day.

For all prices, dates and activities see snowdome.co.uk.

Chill Factore, Manchester:

Manchester's "all-year round Alpine village" is where you can ski, board, climb, shop and dine! As well as the slope the centre has a 12m indoor climbing wall to learn or practice climbing skills.

This summer's events include the Fun Summer Race League. Over 4 Saturdays in May, June, July and August, skiers of all ages and levels can try their hand at ski racing in a slalom course - and either do a one off event or enter into the league and try all four races. There are prizes on offer for the winners but it's a chance as well for the recreational skier to experience the thrills of ski racing.

As well as freestyle, airbag and other cool events, the Chill Factore also has the Monday Moguls sessions taking place twice a month from May onwards. Learn how to master moguls and have fun in the bumps with some useful tips and tricks from the experts.

Get more information on Chill Factore!

Sno!Zone, Glasgow, Milton Keynes, Castleford:

There are three Sno!Zones up and down the country offering summer courses, freestyle sessions, bumps sessions and much more.

Events that stand out include Trickology at Castleford - designed for freestyle novice boarders and early intermediates. Snowboarders who would like to take their first steps towards learning a few tricks, or those that already know a few, but would like to improve and fine tune techniques, can get coaching on landing that jump or riding that rail.

At Milton Keynes, the Maverix Snow Camp is a snowboard clinic devoted to progression in various park skills. Whilst in Scotland upcoming events include regular airbag events, and the Beginner Blowout, a weekend loaded with introductory lessons to skiing and snowboarding to get you hooked. 

Find out what's on at all the Sno!Zones.

The message is that you don't have to wait till next winter to get on the snow. The indoor centres give you a chance to learn and practice on real snow, and can provide some great coaching and instruction too, whether you want to start from scratch, perfect some moves or try something completely new! 

Volcanic ash cloud puts UK skiers back on the buses

The closure of UK airspace last Thursday left thousands of British skiers and snowboarders wondering how they were getting home, and presented a major headache to holiday companies. Ski Beat, one of the UK's oldest independent ski operators, has given us the whole story of how they managed to get their guests back on British soil.

Vicki from Ski Beat told us that the company learnt on Friday morning (16th April), that all their flights for the next day were grounded. Very quickly a plan had to be agreed and put into action. There were 287 Ski Beat guests in France - the company also managed to help out around 20 independent travellers.

They immediately contacted coach companies around the south east of England. A Kent company was particularly helpful, responding very quickly and booking the ferry - by that stage Eurostar had already sold out. The switchboard at P&O Ferries was obviously very busy - the number of calls they received has been estimated at around 40 000 on Friday alone! 

The company needed to get guests back to Manchester, Gatwick and Stansted airports. Coaches for Stansted and Manchester (from 2 different companies) arranged with the French coaches to rendezvous at a supermarket car park near Calais port so that guests could be transferred. The coaches for Gatwick, organised by Ski Beat's team in France, were to go direct from France to Gatwick.

By the time guests returned from skiing on Friday the plan was in place and Ski Beat resort managers made sure everyone knew about it. Coaches left resorts between 4.00am and 7.00am the next morning, amid resounding cheers from people on board in some places!

Ski Beat reps were on board to make sure the operation ran smoothly. The coaches reached their destinations on Saturday evening/Sunday morning. The company also managed to get a group of 40 out to Val d'Isere and are in the process of arranging their return.

Thank you to Ski Beat for the detailed information - and take a look at their website for full details of their chalet programme in France. 

Ski Beat were not the only company to be effected. The majority of UK ski companies suddenly had to find multiple coaches and space on the ferries to get their guests home over the weekend. We hope that all passengers have now got back safely.

It was not so long ago that all ski holidays - or a large proportion of them - were by bus.

Dramatic footage of the volcano from The Telegraph.

The End of an Era - The British Children's Championships 2010 Meribel

I made my first visit to Meribel to watch the British Land Championships this year. My younger siblings Sam and Honor Clissold were taking part for the fourth time and I was curious to see what all the fuss was about. Mingling with the crowds on the edge of the piste and at the finish, I could see that much is at stake.

Younger racers are either fighting for or looking to retain their places on the GB squad and those in their final year, like Sam who will be a junior next year, are looking for a place on the youth development squad with rumours of a place at the Youth Olympic Games being up for grabs. Despite what is at stake Sam and Honi are both in a good frame of mind, exuding a nervous excitement as they focus on their ski prep, handing each finished ski to the rest of the family allowing us to inspect the razor sharp edges and silky smooth base, before they disappear off to bed surprisingly early, ready for the races the next day.

The intensity of skiing at this level is something that makes my mind boggle. As a competitive sportsman and a reasonable skier myself, I am no stranger to the difficulties of competitive sport, but skiing seems to take many of its aspects, such as competition, focus, skill and luck and to increase them by a factor of ten. It is incredible to see the concentration of the competitors, especially considering their age, as they inspect the course, prepare for the descent, zone in and, of course, complete the race itself. Not only do they appear older than their years in the completion of the event, but their sportsmanship is also incredible, with the athletes all congratulating each other if they do well and being supportive of people that have a bad run, knowing full well that it could have been them.

Meribel is undoubtedly the biggest event in the British Children’s race calendar. In January, the peak of British Skiing’s financial crisis, it was questionable whether the British Children’s Championships would take place at all this year. The combination of Snowsport GB and the British Ski and Snowsport Federation going into administration cast a dark stormy cloud over the near future of the sport. Thanks to a the tremendous efforts of Colin Moynihan and others like him, the British Ski and Snowboarding (BSS) – Organisation was set up in the nick of time with new directors so there was an atmosphere of optimism among the racers, their parents and their coaches with talk of a new phoenix that will soar from the flames of the old system, taking off in a direction that really cultivates British talent and takes British Skiing to a new level.

The Championships comprises three disciplines: Super-G, Giant Slalom and Slalom. There is a minimum entry requirement of less than 400 BASS points for GS and slalom that can be achieved through a couple of solid runs in qualifying races. There is, however, no qualifying level for Super-G as many of the younger or new racers will not have had the chance to previously compete in this longer and perilously faster discipline. Instead there is an obligatory training day except that this year it was announced that, due to a bad weather forecast, the training day might be the actual race.

As the racers plummeted down the course at speeds of over 50 miles per hour, pushing themselves to the very limits of their ability, they did not know whether the run would count towards their overall result. In the end it turned out that the weather conditions were acceptable, so the real Championship race would be held the next day. Honi and Sam had a gold and silver between them so it was an unwelcome piece of news but they took it stoically. Some parents however did not feeling that the communication between the organisers and the competitors could be improved. As with many things in the system, there appears to be a need for more transparency.

The racers did experience some treacherous weather over the next few days, with a mixture of fog, heat, rain and snow coming their way. I was impressed by the organiser’s determination to keep, as far as possible, to schedule but it was the racer’s willingness to throw themselves out of the start gate in all conditions that seriously impressed me.

For Sam and Honi the races were a great success. Honi ended up taking home two firsts and a second, making her overall female children 1 winner and Sam achieved one first, one second and one third, making him the overall male children 2 winner. To win the Overall title a skier needs to perform consistently through the disciplines, a tough ask when there is a thin line between skiing to your maximum and pushing it too far. There are always a number of strong contenders and though Sam and Honi were both ecstatic with their results, they each took the time to give heartfelt commiserations to their fellow racers, who had mishaps that put them out of the running, especially the Australian Rebecca Brown for Honi and fellow GB racer Max Baggio for Sam.

Overall the event more than lived up to my expectations. The shoots of new beginnings are arriving as the season ends on a high, both personally for my family, but also on the wider scales of British skiing. The new direction to be taken by the Youth development squad as explained by Lord Moynihan and by the clubs looks set to bring Britain into the light as a nation that can compete in skiing on an international level. The proof of this possibility is partly in the movement towards better organisation, but is mostly found in the skiers themselves. There is real talent in skiers such as Robert Poth, Violet Miller, Max Baggio and Sam and Honor Clissold all we need to do is harness it. If we can do that then it is only a matter of time before results such as Sam Clissold’s tenth place in Slalom in Slovenia become common place. Let’s hope that The British races in Meribel this year shut the door on some of the attitudes that have dogged British skiing and opened it to fresh new approaches that will give young British racers the backing they deserve.

 

Chalets Direct become first sponsors of top young GB ski racers Sam and Honor Clissold

Chalets Direct are pleased to announce the sponsorship of British junior ski racers Sam and Honor Clissold, the brother and sister duo who triumphed in the 2010 British Championships in Meribel last week.

Sam and Honor were both overall champions and individual winners of their respective age groups in the British Children’s Championship, an annual event which is also used as a selection tool for the GB ski team.

They are a unique brother and sister combination who whilst having the good fortune to begin skiing at young ages, have worked and trained hard to achieve the level required for a national team.

They were both selected for the children’s GB squad after the 2009 British Championships and joined the training programme provided by Snowsports GB.

Sam, who will soon be turning 15, has not only been competing internationally, but has acquired lots of race experience by racing with the top French boys in his age group. He was also selected by the French to race in La Scara, considered in the ski world as a real “Children’s World Championships” and used as qualification for the selection process for the French team.

Despite breaking her hand a little more than a month ago whilst training for Topolino, a major event in the children’s international race calendar, 12 year old Honor has finished the season on a high with two golds and a silver at the British Championships. Sam achieved a ‘Bode Miller style’ gold, silver and bronze. For both of them their points totals put them way ahead of their UK competitors.

Chalets Direct is proud to be associated with these two young racers and we wish them all the best in their future racing careers.

Sam and Honor in action, and on the podium at the British Children's Championships in Meribel last week.