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,...
We always find the regular industry reports led by the Mountain Trade Network interesting. The latest report was released earlier this month, including data that suggests some consistent and some new trends in the industry. The data in this report was based on skiers’ activity from last winter season (2024/25). Skiers are booking earlier The...
Last Friday Iain Martin – host of The Ski Podcast – successfully completed his ’25 in 25 Snow Camp Challenge’. The task was to ski 10 runs at each of the five indoor snow domes in the UK in a single day, and by doing so raise funds for the snowsports charity Snow Camp to...
Since ‘Liberation Day’, when Donald Trump announced a range a tariffs that the USA would apply to various countries around the world, life within the domestic snowsports industry has become more complicated. Notwithstanding the fact that the actual level of tariffs varies from week to week, depending which country the USA is dealing with, the...
Iain’s article on trail running and summer events in the Swiss resort of Crans Montana has been published in Fall Line’s ‘Adventure’ magazine. Iain took part in the ‘Wildstrubel 70 by UTMB’ trail running event. You can find out more about how he got on over the 70km (and through some early snow) in Episode...
Iain Martin, host of The Ski Podcast, is challenging himself to ski all five of the UK’s indoor snow centres in a single day to raise funds for Snow Camp. Iain’s ’25 in 25’ target is to raise enough funds to give 25 inner-city young people the chance to experience snowsports in 2025 on Snow Camp’s beginner programme this...
The 17th edition of the International Report on Snow & Mountain Tourism by Swiss industry expert Laurent Vanat revealed some interesting data. Highlights that stood out were: According to Vanat there are 68 countries that offer outdoor snow ski areas and around 6,000 resorts exist globally. Copies of the report can be purchased online at www.vanat.ch
