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,...
As part of his ‘Road to UTMB 2021’ journey, Iain’s article about the ‘Eiger Trail 51’ race has been published by Trail Running Magazine. This follows on from Iain’s ‘How to train for the UTMB in the UK‘ article, which was published in the June/July issue of the magazine, and review of the ‘Pilgrim Challenge’...
Iain had planned to write an article about summer skiing in Zermatt for The Telegraph, but presented with highly unusual conditions for July, it became a comment piece about climate change instead: The article is behind the Telegraph firewall (subscription only), but you can read it below: You can see what it was like in...
Are you a ski/snow/mountain company? Do you want to increase your engagement on social media during the spring months? You need photos of ‘déneigement’… We’ve previously noted on Skipedia how people love photos of dogs in snow, almost as much as they love photos of cars buried under the snow. The former is probably just...
As part of his ‘Road to UTMB 2021’ journey, Iain’s article about the ‘Pilgrim Challenge’ two-day ultra marathon has been published by Trail Running Magazine. This is a follow up to his ‘How to train for the UTMB in the UK‘ article, which was published in the June/July issue of the magazine. Many thanks to...
How do you train for the infamous UTMB ultra marathon – 165km with almost 10,000m of climbing – if you live in the UK? Iain answers this question in his recent article for Trail Running Magazine, as he describes his training plans before he takes on this world famous race in August 2021. The article...
This week, the snowsports industry enjoyed one of the regular virtual networking events organised by James Gambrill of the Mountain Trade Network. The format over three days allowed private one-to-one meetings between suppliers and buyers, destinations and journalists and also featured nine forum events, covering topics from sustainability to big data, the future of snowsports...
