Author Archives
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New Year offer from Ski Total
Celebrate the New Year Italian style and save £190pp with Ski Total. The company is offering the Chalet Hotel Breithorn in Champoluc in the Aosta Valley for £1,049pp (was £1,239) for this year’s New Year. The Briethorn is a Chalet Hotel, which has been restored and modernised but retains the traditional Alpine character. This price is based on 2 adults sharing and includes return flights from Gatwick to Turin departing 26 December.
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Save more than £600 with Esprit Ski
There are currently savings of more than £600 on Chalet Schatzi in La Rosiere and Chalet Aventine in Les Gets. The reduced prices are based on a family of four (2 adults and 2 children under 12) travelling the 20 December and includes return flights from Southampton to Geneva. Esprit Classic Child Care is also available from £215 for a week.
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BA Club Class upgrades with VIP SKI
A new arrangement with British Airways means VIP SKI customers can get CLUB class upgrades on the Gatwick to Grenoble route at a supplement of £100 per person or £250 per person during high season dates.
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Get a free pair of boots with Supertravel
The Boot Lab has partnered with Supertravel to offer every guest who books a week’s stay from 24 to 31 January or 6 to 13 March 2016 in Chalet Montana, a ski-in ski-out retreat in Courchevel 1850, a professionally fitted new pair of ski boots. Bookings must be made by 1 October.
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Your latest Skier & Snowboarder magazine
Click on the front cover to read this issue
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A living legend – founder of Mammoth Mountain celebrates 100th birthday
When Dave McCoy celebrated his 100th birthday
in August, he only had to look at the many photos of Mammoth Mountain lining the office walls at his Californian home to remind him of everything he has achieved during his full and eventful lifetime.
The photos bear witness to the remarkable story of a living legend without whose drive and determination Mammoth, as it is today, might not exist.
Dave’s achievements include opening Mammoth to skiing in 1941 before getting a permit for a permanent ski location there in 1948, allowing him to bring Alpine skiing to southern Californians.
In later years, he launched his Mammoth Lakes Foundation, helping the town grow around the resort.
Luckily for the millions of people who
have enjoyed skiing and snowboarding there over the last 60+ years, he ignored the advice of locals who warned him the location was ‘too high, too windy, and too steep’.
Dave first saw Mammoth’s potential aged 21, while working as hydrographer. In 1935, he and some friends built his first rope tow out of an old truck frame and engine to haul skiers uphill; later, he even sold his beloved Harley-Davidson to raise funds for equipment.
Today, Mammoth Mountain is a sprawling resort that draws 1.3 million skiers and snowboarders annually, with outdoor adventurers and mountain bikers doubling that figure in summer.
Over the years, Dave declined many offers to work on other resorts for big money. “I was working to make things good at Mammoth Mountain,” he told his local paper, The Press
Enterprise.
“I always looked at how tomorrow would be better. I never worried about money.”
Dave last put on his Salomon skis 10 years ago, but his unbridled enthusiasm for new projects continues. This year, after eight years of research, he
licensed his latest venture, a new vehicle that runs on solar power.
There’s no doubt that Dave’s adventurous spirit combined with his vision has had spectacular results, but for him it’s fun, not business, that lies at the heart of his achievements – and his long life.
“Everyone has a different life, but longevity happens because you do something fun,” Dave said.
“I just wish I had a hundred more years. There are a hundred more things I want to do.”
Happy birthday Dave! -
Could ski store rise from the ashes after fire?
THREE months after fire destroyed the stock at a Kent ski shop there are still boards up over the windows, but Tony Bedwell, the owner of Clydach Marine, which has specialised in wintersports and sailing for the last 40 years, is determined the store will re-open.
Fire officers believe the blaze was caused by an electrical fault in a flat above the store in the village of Dunton Green near Sevenoaks. It spread to the rest of the property and caused extensive damage.
Tony, aged 81, told the local media: “The shop is badly damaged. All the stock is gone but none of the structure of the building is damaged. The fire didn’t affect that.
“I want to get the shop up and running again. We have to take a break while it’s being repaired so I will probably spend some of my time taking part in my hobby, motocross riding.” -
Everybody needs good neighbours…
FRANK BALDWIN found a load of nut cases when he visited the quirky ski area of Corvatsch in the Engadine Valley
When you think of St Moritz, it conjures up images of swanky hotels where the rich and famous stay while enjoying the skiing or the excitement surrounding the famous Cresta run, ice polo world cup, ‘white turf’ horse racing and other activities which take place during the winter on the town’s frozen lake.
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You’ll look sweet, upon the seat of a gondola made for two…
After courting each other for several years, two Austrian ski areas have settled into married life after tying the knot with a new €13.5m gondola. ROB FREEMAN raises a glass of turnip schnapps to celebrate
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‘Do you expect me to talk?’ ‘No Mr Bond, I expect you to ski…’
James Bond may be able to save the world with a twinkle in his eye and a few gadgets provided by ‘Q’, but even he would have had trouble overcoming the hurdles we encountered trying to get photographs and information about his exploits on skis and snowboards. -
La Grave concern
The off-piste ski area of La Grave in the French Hautes-Alpes has a unique atmosphere that attracts skiers from all over the world. But, as British ski instructor CHARLOTTE SWIFT explains, a question mark hangs over the future of this French mecca. March 2014
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I want to break free…
Editor FRANK BALDWIN test drives the new Subaru XV down to the French Alps.
DURING a British university championships in Tignes a few years back a couple of students embarrassed themselves when, after a night time snow storm, they spent all morning digging out their car – only to find it was the wrong car.
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UK snow ski club closes due to lack of volunteers
THE ONLY snow ski club in Teesdale has closed after more than 50 years in existence due to a lack of volunteers.
The Harwood Ski Federation operated had a clubhouse and ski tow above Langdon Beck. After a heavy snowfall the 500m piste often used to attract between 50-80 people and après ski was enjoyed in the Langdon Beck Hotel.
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Uncertain future for Sheffield ski village
TWO years after a series of fires devastated Sheffield Ski Village, the future for what is now a derelict site remains unresolved.
Sheffield Sharks Ski Club members are among those moving to reopen the slopes.
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New ski carpet on Kidsgrove slope
MK Enterprises is supplying its Playgrass Ski Carpet slope surface to the newly extended ski area at the volunteer-run Kidsgrove Ski Centre in England, which is celebrating 40 years of operations this year.
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Another medal for Olympic and Paralympic stars
OLYMPIC bronze medallist Jenny Jones (inset picture), Paralympic gold medallist Kelly Gallagher and her guide Charlotte Evans (on left of picture) and multi Olympic medallist Jade Etherington (pictured right) and her guide Caroline Powell have all been awarded the Ski Club of Great Britain’s Pery Medal in recognition of their outstanding performances and services to skiing.
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Boot camp on snow at Chill Factore
INDOOR real snow centre, Chill Factore near Manchester has launched a Bootcamp In The Snow for those looking for a new way to keep fit.
Chill Factore has teamed up with local health and fitness company Novak Health & Performance to provide weekly fitness session that works in a similar way to interval training, constantly moving the body at different speeds in order to be more effective.
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Tamworth celebrates 20 years in operation
TAMWORTH Snowdome, one of the longest surviving UK ski centres, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.
Famous visitors to the snowdome have included Boyzone, comedian Eddie Izzard, Ant and Dec, Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin, Jamiroquai and the Prodigy. Plus several television shows have filmed at Tamworth.
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Snowbility students smash world record
A NEW world record for skiing the greatest distance in 12 hours on an indoor ski slope has been set by a team made up of Snowbility’s students, instructors, and Paralympian, Anna Turney at The Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.
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More people using dry slope and indoor snow centres
A SNOWSPORT England research project called ‘SlopeTracker’, which uses data from artificial and indoor snow slopes in England, has reported robust growth in domestic snowsports participation between 2011 and 2014.
