Ride Hard, Ride Safe Avalanche Days 2007 Review of inexpensive ski touring gear Chamonix to have ‘Ski Ambassadors’, more lift openings Ski resort operator Transmontagne is wound up Ski Company Goes Green To Combat Climate Change Mont Blanc doubles in size Black Diamond Test Centre

Monday, 22 October, 2007

Ride Hard, Ride Safe

Over than 300,000 British skiers are putting themselves at risk of being killed or injured by an avalanche this winter according to an avalanche safety expert. Henry Schniewind, an off-piste safety instructor based in upmarket ski resort of Val d’Isère has said that about a quarter of the 1.25 million British winter sports enthusiasts will venture outside of open and secured ski runs.

Posted by davidof at 08:36 PM
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Avalanche Days 2007

The ANENA (French National Association for the Study of Snow and Avalanches) is organising its a new set of “avalanche days” this autumn. The road show will visit Toulouse and Pau in the Pyrenees on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11 November, Gap in the Hautes-Alpes on Saturday 24th November and Albertville in the Savoie on Saturday 15th December.

avalanche rescue tignes

Posted by davidof at 09:52 AM
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Friday, 19 October, 2007

Review of inexpensive ski touring gear

I got a call from Ian, PisteHors.com’s Pyrenean correspondent, last week. He wanted to know what were good ski touring pants for next season. Decathlon Bionnassay, 49.90 € in my local store. Stunned silence at the other end of the line. Ian had expected me to suggest some technical Goretex VCR pants retailing for five times the price. Okay, I continued, you could go for the Bionnassay 700 which has a breathable but waterproof membrane. What? The pants I suggested weren’t even waterproof? Had I gone completely barking mad?

ski touring
Primark Fleece & Decathlon’s Bionnassay salopettes and ruck-sack

Posted by davidof at 04:55 PM
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Chamonix to have ‘Ski Ambassadors’, more lift openings

A new programme for winter 2007/08 will be started in Chamonix called ‘ski ambassadors’, designed to help tourists at the ski hills find their way around, give information and ‘animate’ the morning ski queues.

Posted by firechick at 12:04 PM

Thursday, 18 October, 2007

Ski resort operator Transmontagne is wound up

In a move that has surprised many and shocked others Transmontagne group, which runs Ski Dubai as well as a number of French resorts was wound-up by the Lyon Commerical Court on Tuesday. The remains of the group are being sold off piecemeal to a number of interested parties. Transmontagne’s lawyer, Maitre Jean-Marie Chanon decaled the decision “a catatrophy” to waiting journalists.

Top of the ski runs at Chamrousse

Posted by davidof at 10:04 AM
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Monday, 15 October, 2007

Ski Company Goes Green To Combat Climate Change

With the impact of global warming increasingly affecting winters in the Alps a young ski company leads the field by going carbon negative. Chalet 1802 has gone green in order to offset its carbon footprint, offer clients an environmental option when booking their ski holidays and raise awareness about climate change within the ski industry.

Posted by daphcham at 05:50 PM

Saturday, 13 October, 2007

Mont Blanc doubles in size

New detailed GPS readings taken on the 15-16th September have shown that Mont-Blanc measures 4810.9 meters. Mont-Blanc is covered by a thick ice-cap which has thickened by 2.15 meters in just 2 years but more suprisingly the volume of the ice has nearly doubled. At least that is, according to the “Géomètres experts de Haute-Savoie”.

Le Mont Blanc in the summer

Posted by davidof at 11:55 AM
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Saturday, 06 October, 2007

Black Diamond Test Centre

Black Diamond will once again be running their test centre in the Edelweiss hotel at la Grave. La Grave, with its unique unpisted high mountain domain is considered one of the freeride capitals of the world and offers a superb open air test laboratory for Black Diamond gear. All the new 2008 mid-sized freeride skis and fatties (including the Havoc, Verdict, Zealot and the new Megawatts!) will be available with a choice of touring, alpine and telemark bindings. The center will also have the women specific Velvet and Joule skis. The BD range has been creating quite a buzz.

edelweiss hotel la grave
Black Diamond’s Test Center in la Grave