Skipedia

The sad demise of the catered chalet ski holiday

by iain on Sep 25, 2023 • 8 Comments

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...

Ideas

Will ChatGPT make ‘ski experts’ redundant?

by iain on May 11, 2023 • No Comments

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 / Ideas / Tour Operators

‘Parrots in the Snow: the rise and fall of Bladon Lines’ – article in ‘Ski+Board’ magazine

by iain on Mar 8, 2023 • 3 Comments

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 / Resorts

Ski Touring in Morocco: A Photo Essay

by iain on Feb 8, 2019 • No Comments

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...

Resorts / Tour Operators

‘I’m a modern-day Batman’ says anti-ESF campaigner

by iain on Nov 2, 2014 • No Comments

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...

Tour Operators

Why do chalet girls bake a cake every day?

by iain on Aug 13, 2011 • 2 Comments

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,...

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Events / Ideas

5 Things We Learned from The Ski Club of Great Britain’s 2022 Survey

by iain on Sep 27, 2022 • No Comments

Last week I attended another excellent edition of LISTEX (London International Snowsports Trade Exchange) at The Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead. The highlight was hosting the sustainability session. It was evident that this topic needs so much more time as there was an endless supply of questions from the audience at the end. Credit to...

Resorts

Don’t Panic! Energy crisis will not stop your skiing this winter…

by iain on Sep 26, 2022 • No Comments

UPDATE (27 September): —————- Contrary to some alarmist articles (aka ‘clickbait’) you may have recently read, the energy crisis may not affect ski resorts this winter as severely as threatened. The increasing price of energy is forcing both households and businesses alike to take measures to prevent their expenses spiralling out of control during the...

Events / Resorts

Zermatt ‘Speed Opening’ Article in Fall Line Magazine

by iain on Sep 17, 2022 • No Comments

In September 2022, Iain visited Zermatt to speak with the organisers of the new ‘Speed Opening’ downhill races – the first cross-border races ever in the FIS World Cup calendar. His article on the event is now live at Fall Line Skiing Magazine. Iain drove to and from Zermatt in a Tesla. You can find out...

Branding / Ideas

The Ski Podcast offers to become new sponsor of the ‘Emirates Air Line’ gondola in London

by iain on Sep 7, 2022 • No Comments

[September 2022 update] Very disappointing to see that The Ski Podcast was turned down in favour of the possibly-most-boring-name-ever ‘IFS Cloud Cable Car’… —– I was hugely disappointed to see that Transport for London have failed to find a new sponsor for the ‘Emirates Air Line’ gondola in London. Potential new sponsor: The Ski Podcast...

Ideas / Resorts

5 Takeaways from the 2022 International Report on Snow and Mountain Tourism

by iain on Jul 21, 2022 • No Comments

The 14th edition of this annual report was unveiled by creator Laurent Vanat earlier this year at the International Mountain Planet event in Grenoble. The 2019/20 ski season was considered the worst of the millennium, with only 319.5 million skier-days recorded worldwide. However the limits in 2020/21, reduced this even further to 201.2 million skier-days....

Events / Resorts

Les 3 Vallées Summer Party 2022

by iain on Jul 20, 2022 • No Comments

Snowsports professionals from around the UK gathered in London earlier this month to find out more about what’s new for Les 3 Vallées in 2022/23.

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