Looking through a recent survey from Le Ski, I was struck by one stat in particular. While it was encouraging to read that the number of UK skiers and snowboarders is predicted to grow by 14% in winter 2023/24, the fact that only 13% stay in catered chalets highlighted how...
AI (Artificial Intelligence) is changing fast. A few years ago, it was just the name of one of Steven Spielberg’s less good movies, but in 2023 AI has moved from the world of ‘futurologists’ into the mainstream. The chances are that even if you haven’t tried ChatGPT (or Google’s ‘Bard’),...
Iain’s article ‘Parrots in the Snow: the rise and fall of Bladon Lines‘ has now been published in ‘Ski+Board’ magazine. It’s also now available as a special episode of The Ski Podcast My first experience of working in the ski industry came 35 years ago when I went to Chatel...
Iain from Skipedia recently went ski touring in Morocco. Flying into Marrakech, and then travelling to Imlil (1740m), Iain then spent three nights at the Refuge des Mouflons (3207m), ski touring to different 4000m peaks. Ski hire was from Braemar Mountain Sports, guiding and logistics were organised by Toubkal Guide. You...
These are difficult days for the ESF in the UK. The current legal cases against Simon Butler and Le Ski have stirred up plenty of negative sentiment within the British market against the ESF. Both cases – which deal with different aspects of the law – are currently at different...
Okay, not strictly anything to do with marketing, but just for fun… So why do chalet girls bake a cake every day? As far as I know chalets have always left out a cake for their guests to tuck into for ‘afternoon tea’. After a long day on the slopes,...
Last month, alpine tourism specialist Laurent Vanat, released his 16th annual International Report on Snow & Mountain Tourism. We look at 8 takeaways from the report. Full access is limited to crowdfunding supporters or copies can be purchased online. Winter 2022/23 was a ‘very average’ season Total skier numbers for the 2022/23 winter season were 372m...
The first day of April often brings sunshine, sometimes brings snow, but always brings a round of ‘April Fools’ gags, albeit of varying quality. Here’s our pick of the best of this year’s ski April Fools: Méribel: Most Effort You’re on the slopes, it’s lunchtime, but the queue for the mountain restaurant is way too...
In the third of my new series of ‘Chairlift Chat’ interviews for snowsports website welove2ski.com, I spoke to Blair Aitken, mountain guide and founder of British Backcountry Courses. You can read this article here. You can listen to the full interview in Episode 202 of The Ski Podcast:
Iain recently interviewed the world-class trail runner Mathieu Blanchard for Ultrarunner Magazine. You can find out in this exclusive interview why he has chosen Les 2 Alpes as his training base, the reasoning behind his focus on ski touring this winter and exactly what went on in his epic battle with Kilian Jornet during the...
According to skiracing.com, ski racers recently met secretly in Kvitfjell, Norway to discuss a plan of action to force FIS to make changes to the existing race calendar. Top of the agenda was an end to the demanding double race weekends and replacing the twice-cancelled ‘Speed Opening’ downhill races that Zermatt and Cervinia may be...
In January 2024, Iain went to Les 2 Alpes in the southern French Alps to take part in Les Lumières de la Muzelle – a trail marathon completely on snow. You can now read his report on the race at UltrarunnerMagazine.co.uk Iain also reported on the race in Episode 198 of The Ski Podcast
