Who
Iain Martin, founder and host of UK-based The Ski Podcast. YouTube here. This is Iain’s second appearance on The Storm:
Interview date
September 24, 2026
Why I interviewed him
If, like me, you’re a U.S. American SnoSportSkier, you may find European skiing more than a little baffling. More than 4,000 ski areas spread over dozens of countries with their dozens of languages. Trams and gondolas pop skyward from every other corner in Switzerland or the Pyrenees or Slovenia, as numerous as the strip-mall vape shops and Jesus-Knows-You’re-Watching-Porn billboards defecating all over America’s roads. The trail markings in Europe are all different colors. Why is no one skiing off the groomers? Who stole all the trees? Why is every ski lift either a tram that looks CGI’d to transport Storm Troopers to a fictional Star Wars Cloud City or a T-bar that looks as though it was hammered together by Yohan in between sheep shearings? Why is the food good and the alcohol cheap? Why do lift tickets not cost more than a semester’s tuition at Cornell? And, most baffling of all as we contemplate the growing presence of EuroSki on U.S.-based multimountain passes, why is every ski resort actually 10 or 15 or 100 different ski areas stapled together as the Valley of Grand Domaine de Les Skis?
I wish I could be more helpful in answering these questions. So far, I have not been very helpful. I felt like I could get away with just pointing and laughing as Vail and Alterra added a handful of big-time European ski resorts to their rosters, but the numbers have rapidly spiraled: check out the number of Euro ski areas that have joined Epic, Ikon, and Indy since 2018:
At first I tried to keep up, but I just sort of surrendered after 2025. I did manage write-ups of Epic Pass additions in Austria, and new Ikon partners in Italy and France, but I never got past more than cursory acknowledgements of Indy’s massive haul of Euro partners from Turkey up through the Alps core to Scotland. And I thought, “OK how many gigantic resorts can they have over there it’s gotta stop soon right?” But they just kept coming like kaijū in Pacific Rim. The pass-by-pass totals headed into winter 2026-27 are shocking:
Here’s a country-by-country breakdown that’s a bit easier to read:
And here’s the detailed roster - not all the lifts are filled in because shoot me:
This chart is the European equivalent of American college football rankings. It makes no sense, but it must be fun because so many people do it, right?
I tried to make a map but it sorta sucks so I’m going to keep trying. I did use the map as a visual aide in the podcast, which is also and always available in audio-only. But if you want to watch above or on YouTube, our conversation will make marginally more sense as I scroll around beneath Iain’s narrative.
Transcripts
There are two transcripts. Both are generated by robots. Both are helpful and defective in their own unique ways. I do not proofread either of them.
Transcript 1: Click the “transcript” button at the top of this article. You can only see this transcript on a computer. Because I don’t know why exactly but everything is getting better and dumber all at once it seems. Anyway, this is the transcript that the robots create when I upload the podcast to the internet. The cool thing about it is that you can click on any block of text and the audio will teleport there instantly. The uncool thing about this transcript is that it does not indicate who is talking at any given moment.
Transcript 2: You can read this below. This is the transcript that Zoom creates as we record the podcast. The cool thing about this transcript is that it indicates who is talking at any given moment. The uncool thing about this transcript is that the timestamps do not match the audio. Also, you cannot click on this text to move to the associated point in the audio.
Zoom
Stuart Winchester: My guest today is the founder and host of The Ski Podcast, a UK-based show that just published its 327th episode.
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Stuart Winchester: He’s also a freelance journalist writing for national and specialized press and the owner of a digital marketing consultancy for snow sports. Ian Martin is my guest. He is a good friend of the storm. He has been on the show before and he is here today to help us make sense of Europe. Ian, how you doing today?
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: I am really well, Stuart. It’s really nice to see you, and thank you for inviting me onto the show.
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Stuart Winchester: Before we get started, what do you got lined up for this winter? When do you start skiing?
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: My personal first trip will be out to Les Des Alpes ski resort in France, which I’ll be doing in early December. But I will actually be skiing not next weekend, but the one after in one of our indoor snow slopes.
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Stuart Winchester: Okay.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: in the UK. I’ll be skiing in the snowy center, Manchester, so I’ll get to get my skis on.
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Stuart Winchester: Oh, cool.
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Stuart Winchester: Oh, that’ll be a lot of fun. Yeah, we have the one right over in New Jersey. I was supposed to go a couple of… a couple weeks ago, but I… something came up, and I wasn’t able to make it. Alright, so Ian, let me set this up for the listeners.
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Stuart Winchester: And, and…
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Stuart Winchester: as a baseline for what we’re dealing with here. So, US-based passes, meaning Epic, Icon, and Indy. There’s also one on Mountain Collective, but it overlaps with… there’s two on Mountain Collective that overlap with Icon, so I’.
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Stuart Winchester: So they have added a total of 61 destinations.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: Mm-hmm.
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Stuart Winchester: in 14 European countries.
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Stuart Winchester: 13 of those are on Epic.
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Stuart Winchester: Nine are on icon.
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Stuart Winchester: 39 are on Indy. Uh, so… some of those are unlimited on Epic, some you get 5 days, some you get 7. Icon’s a pretty standard 7 days, or 5 days, even with the base pass. Indy is 2 days at each.
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Stuart Winchester: Uh, 20 of those destinations are in Austria.
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Stuart Winchester: 12 are in Switzerland. Uh, 8 are in France, and they’re all over the place, but those are the countries with the most. So let me… I wanna actually…
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Stuart Winchester: Share on my screen.
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Stuart Winchester: a map that I made that could help us as a little guide, although it’s not a…
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Stuart Winchester: It’s not a great map, but I will…
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Stuart Winchester: Oh, okay. Can you, can you see the map?
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: I… can see the map, yes.
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Stuart Winchester: Okay, yeah, I couldn’t figure out how to make the…
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Stuart Winchester: Uh, let me just explain this at a high level. So, I couldn’t figure out how to make the text smaller, it’s very much a work in progress, but, uh, blue is, uh, the names of the ski areas are by country.
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Stuart Winchester: And the names of the icons are bypassed. So when you zoom down to Austria, it’s Epic, Epic, Indy. Uh, Indy’s red, Icon’s yellow, uh, Epic is blue. This is one where it really helps to watch the video. If not, we’ll explain it, and you don’t have to.
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Stuart Winchester: be watching to understand everything. So, uh, looking at this, Ian, and putting aside my, uh, crappy map design skills, and looking at the full of Europe, from above, from space, as we can do in the future here, uh, where do you even start?
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: Well, firstly, I’ve got to congratulate you on your data. It’s just amazing. When you read out all of the different resorts, and the number of countries, and the number of resorts in each country, I’ve got one of your spreadsheets printed out here, and it’s already changed since then. So, staying up to date the whole time is really quite incredible.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: how you manage… how you manage to do that. Um, it is, uh, amazing. In… in respect of the map, there’s obviously a lot of ski areas on there, and probably this is going to be better for someone as a research tool.
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Stuart Winchester: Yep.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: Now, you mentioned that there are 61 countries in total, 61 ski areas in total that are covered on those different passes.
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Stuart Winchester: Yeah.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: And I was thinking about…
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: what is the best way to kind of go into getting a sense for maybe which ones you should visit? Obviously, it’s going to be different for everybody, depending on what kind of pass they have, and I know some people have more than one pass, but I thought that maybe a useful way to do it might be to think of.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: Let’s say the hero trip.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: Then maybe somewhere you might go.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: for a week, and then somewhere that you might visit if you were… if you were touring, or possibly if you’re over for work, and you happen to be roughly in that area to give people a sense of, you know, where it might be worth doing a little side trip to while they were doing that.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: So if you are happy with that structure, I could work from that. Okay, cool.
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Stuart Winchester: I love it.
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Stuart Winchester: Full speed ahead. Let’s do it.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: Okay, cool. So, I think…
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: We’ve seen more Americans coming over to Europe over the last few years, and that is to do with these. That is to do with the passes. No, it’s a pleasure. I mean, I talk to everybody when I’m on a chairlift or in a gondola, and if I hear someone who’s from the States or maybe from Canada, I’m always interested to know, you know, why they’ve come over, and predominantly it’s because.
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Stuart Winchester: Sorry.
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Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
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Stuart Winchester: Right.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: they’ve got the passes. And, you know, I spent a lot of time in Chamonix last winter, and evidently you get a lot of people in Chamonix. Chamonix is one of the ones on the Icon Pass, I believe, as is Zermatt. Now, Chamonix and Zermatt are two amazing destinations. They really are fantastic. You can see them, actually, on the map that you’ve got in the video now.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: They’re quite close to each other. They’re probably about two and a half hours by car apart. You could fly into Geneva for both of them.
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Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm, okay.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: They are fantastic resorts, fantastic destinations. They’re my two favorites in Europe.
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Stuart Winchester: Okay.
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Stuart Winchester: Okay.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: But they’re not necessarily going to be suitable for everyone. And the reason I say that is Chamonix is incredible. It’s in the middle of a very dramatic valley. You have Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe, at 4,800 meters on one side. You can take the Aguille de Midi.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: Which is the lift that goes up to 3,800 roughly meters. And ski the Valley Blanche from there. Lots of people will have, you know, heard of that very famous off-piste run. It’s incredible just to go up to the Aguirre de Midi.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Stuart Winchester: Right.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: But in terms of the ski areas itself, they’re very disparate. They’re not connected, uh, in the same way as we might come onto the Three Valleys, uh, you know, shortly. So…
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Stuart Winchester: Okay.
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Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: you’ve got to put in a bit of legwork if you’re going to go to Chamonix. The connections between them generally involve getting a bus, and even if you’re staying right in the center of town, you’ve got to get a bus.
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Stuart Winchester: Okay.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: or maybe a train from one end of the valley to ski the five different areas that you have in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc. And I think…
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: And I’m not 100%, I’m not the expert on the icon passes, but…
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Stuart Winchester: Yeah, thank you.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: The Icon Pass only covers the lifts that are in that area. There’s also a couple of areas which are included on your map there, actually, Megeve and Les Contamines. You can get a lift ticket in Chamonix when I stay there that covers all of those.
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Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: And you can ski over there as well.
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Stuart Winchester: Yeah, so Mijeve, I’m sorry to interrupt, but Mijeve has been added to the Icon Pass, but it took me so long to sort out even what that meant when they said Mijeve, and even Icon Pass themselves didn’t seem to know. We’ll get to that mess in a little bit, but Mijeve is on the Icon Pass, uh, you know, along with Shamani, and those are separate buckets of days.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: Uh so.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yep.
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Stuart Winchester: Then, like in Tammany, which is part of Mijav, is also on Indy.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, exactly. Megeve isn’t really part of Chamonix, but it is covered on that very big pass that you can buy. My point being really that Chamonix is fantastic. It’s an amazing town. It has an incredible history.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: It’s where the first Winter Olympic Games are in 1924. You can get really close to, uh, Mont Blanc. You could ski the Vallee Blanche. There are lots and lots of options for, uh, high mountain skiing, but for a more recreational skier.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: it’s perhaps not as good. If we look at Zermatt, another one, yes, yep.
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Stuart Winchester: Okay, so let me pause one moment on Chamonix first. So, I want to point out, the Icon Pass, for whatever reason, does not cover the Algo de Midi, or whatever, I’m sure I pronounced it wrong, the big tram. How important is it to just pony up, buy that tram ride anyway?
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yes, okay.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, I mean, we had… we stayed out there for 2 months last winter, and we had lots of friends come to visit us, and with all of them.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: we recommended that you go up there. It really is something quite special, being so high, so close to.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: Mont Blanc itself, but also just for the type of visitors we had, who weren’t really expert skiers, to get an insight into the high mountain, because you do see skiers who are heading off down the Valley Blanche, and the Valley Blanche is a relatively accessible off-piste run with a guide.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: but other skiers who are doing much more hardcore stuff, or climbers who are up there, who are practicing their mountaineering skills. And if you go up the Aguirre de Midi, you get an insight to all of that. I mean, I met some of your American friends who were over, who were.
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Stuart Winchester: Yeah.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: Really going for it, going down the Cosmic. When I met them, going up with some friends to the Aguirre-Midi, they were on their second ascent of the day. They’d already gone up, done the Valley Blanche, come back up, and then they were on their way down Cosmic to stay in a refuge for the night.
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Stuart Winchester: Yeah.
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Stuart Winchester: Yes.
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Stuart Winchester: Of course, yeah.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: I really would recommend it. And yes, it is expensive.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: it could even be worth just buying that Montblanc Unlimited ticket in advance, because it’s dynamic pricing. It’s one of those things where if you buy it in advance, it’s less expensive than buying it on the day.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm. And Mont Blanc, just for my listeners, is, I believe, the tallest mountain in Europe.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, highest mountain in Western Europe. I think it’s 4,810 meters.
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Stuart Winchester: Yeah, okay.
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Stuart Winchester: All right, so over to Zermatt.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: Zermatt, I worked a season there as well. Absolutely beautiful place. Zermatt Matterhorn, as it’s known. The Matterhorn is the standout attraction. It is just an incredible looking mountain.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: The village itself, in my opinion, very pretty. Lots of traditional chalets, traditional buildings.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: they have controlled development of it. It’s not full of skyscrapers. Without going into the details, there was a proposal to build, you know, one recently that really got it dampened down pretty quickly.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: You can only get there by train. It’s a car-free resort, which adds to the charm as well.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: really, I would say, if… the only negatives are that it’s quite expensive. It is one of the most expensive destinations in Europe.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: There are a lot of, uh, visitors, a bit like Chamonix, who go there not necessarily to ski, but because they want to go and see the Matterhorn, in the same way that you could go up the Agua de Midi in Chamonix. There’s a Gornergrat, uh, cog railway.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: which will take you up, uh, to a fantastic view looking over, uh, the Matterhorn. So, I guess you’re competing a little bit with the non-skiers. The ski area itself is better connected than Chamonix. It goes up high. You’ve also got lifts of skiing up to 3,800 meters.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: at the Klein Matterhorn area.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: typically they have summer skiing there as well. It’s actually closed this summer for a little while because of the weather, but, you know, it’s so high, and because of the glacier, they can offer skiing all year round. So, I really do love Zermatt.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: The only negative would be…
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: it’s expensive, you know, you just gotta face up to that fact if you want to go there, but it has a cachet and a feel to it that I just, uh, love.
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Stuart Winchester: Okay.
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Stuart Winchester: And one thing this map doesn’t show is it does interconnect with Turbinia, which is now on Icon Pass, but separate days. So once you cross, if you use the day of Zermatt, even if it’s the same day, you cross into Turbinia, you’re using another Icon Pass day. It doesn’t really matter for most Americans who are visiting anyway.
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Stuart Winchester: But what do you think about Slovenia? Is it worth it to pop over there?
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, well, interesting you should mention that. So I picked Chamonix and Zermatt as the first two because they are the most well-known.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Stuart Winchester: Yeah.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: But it’s not strictly necessary to go to those two places and base yourself there. And you mentioned that, uh, you know, Cervinia is on… did you… did you say Cervinia is on… sorry, which pass again?
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Stuart Winchester: So, it’s on ICON, and the reason I didn’t have it…
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah. Okay.
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Stuart Winchester: called out. It’s under Valle de Oesta, Italy, so that includes, uh, Pila, it includes, uh…
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yep.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yep.
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Stuart Winchester: Slovenia, it includes Cormier, it includes some other ones, but I made the map fast.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yep.
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Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, Stuart, you are… you are very well, uh, informed. You’re right. I mean, you can see it on the map that we’re looking at below us. You can get from Chamonix to Courmayeur very easily through the Mont Blanc tunnel. It’s actually a 22 kilometer tunnel, and we skied over in Courmayeur while we were there. Lots of.
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Stuart Winchester: Yep.
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Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
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Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
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Stuart Winchester: Okay.
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Stuart Winchester: Oh, wow.
00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:36.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:50.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Chamonix, people who are based in Chamonix do go over there, because, uh, although the ski area is limited, there are more trees over there, you know, on a bad weather day, it’s a really good place to ski, and it’s included on the Mont Blanc Unlimited Pass. And Courmayeur is right at the top.
00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:39.000
Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:44.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:49.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:59.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: of the Aosta Valley. So where that little yellow, uh, icon is, underneath where it says Val de Aosta, is Courmayeur.
00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:53.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:20:57.000 --> 00:20:58.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:00.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:20:59.000 --> 00:21:09.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: But the Cormier… if I understand it correctly, then, all of the Aosta Valley resorts are included on the Icon Pass. So, as you say, Cormier… Cormier…
00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:07.000
Stuart Winchester: Correct.
00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:26.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: It’s quite a shishi kind of resort. You’ll find lots of Milanese and Turinese will go up there for the weekend. There are lots of very smart shops in the little high street there. There’s some very, very good restaurants up there.
00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:43.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: The ski area is not as big, probably, you know, 50km, two, three days for a, you know, a good advanced skier would be sufficient to ski a lot of it. But you can get access up to the Vallee Blanche from the Italian side as well.
00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:30.000
Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:35.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:44.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:59.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: And that lift was upgraded a few years ago. And it’s very, very impressive. It’s much more modern than the Aguirre de Midi. And it has, you know, museums at the mid station and at the top station, which explore the history of mountaineering in the area.
00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:49.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:52.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:05.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: So, I would actually say that if someone’s, you know, looking to stay.
00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:07.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: For a week.
00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:19.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: and they have an Icon Pass, that the Ossa Valley could be a really good choice. If you had a car as well, because you can then explore Courmayeur, and then you mentioned Chavinha.
00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:13.000
Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:18.000
Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:20.000
Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:34.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: So, uh, slightly further down the valley, uh, and then up the hill, you mentioned that Shavinia links with Zermatt, and Shavinia is a really good resort. It’s high, uh, it has.
00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:23.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:29.000
Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:31.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah, thank you.
00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:45.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Quite wide pistes, quite flattering type of skiing. It has Italian cuisine, as all of the Aosta Valley does. Much.
00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:37.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:55.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: more affordable than Zermatt, but you could ski over to Zermatt for the day and ski the Zermatt area, uh, as well.
00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:49.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:22:49.000 --> 00:22:50.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:22:55.000 --> 00:23:02.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: So, Chavinha, you know, is great. There’s also a smaller resort called La Tuile, uh, in the Aosta Valley as well, which…
00:22:59.000 --> 00:23:00.000
Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:09.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: it is worth a day or two. That actually links over to a French resort called La Rozier. I doubt.
00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:21.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: that would be included, and I don’t see it on your list. Uh, and what I do see included a bit further down, we’re moving around the map quite a lot, there is an area called Monterosa.
00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:22.000
Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:28.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: which is on the Aosta Valley as well. Uh, and there’s two areas there called Gressenet.
00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:25.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:41.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: uh, and Alanya, and the skiing in both of those, I believe, is included, uh, within that. And, uh, you know, in Gressenet, uh, and Alanya, there’s some quite advanced skiing there, up in Monterosa.
00:23:39.000 --> 00:23:41.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:53.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: um, some really good, you know, off-piste, uh, challenging skiing, and in fact, you can do heli-skiing out of those areas. Heli-skiing is banned in France, but it’s legal in Italy, so you can ski, and it’.
00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:48.000
Stuart Winchester: Oh, wow.
00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:51.000
Stuart Winchester: Oh.
00:23:53.000 --> 00:24:04.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: legal in Switzerland as well, but you can ski out of Alanya, and heliski up to the mountain called Monterosa, and, uh, you know, access some amazing off-piste from there.
00:23:57.000 --> 00:23:58.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:22.000
Stuart Winchester: That’s incredible. I, you know, for a while, Google Maps took that. I’m looking at the map here and I changed the settings so that the lifts show up. And for a while, Google Maps had taken them off and now they’ve added them back on. And so you can just really get to see the scale of what’s going on in Europe. And I know what Americans are going to want to do.
00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:29.000
Stuart Winchester: when they look at Chamonix. They’re going to want to take the Algomenidae up, and they’re going to try to ski down into Italy. Is.
00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:50.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Uh, I mean, it is possible. Quite literally, if you did that to the Aguirre de Midi, you could ski, you’d have to ski tour up slightly, and then you could ski down. I wouldn’t suggest doing that without a guide. You know, it is feasible to do it, and when last time I went up the, uh, the lift from the Courmayeur side, I saw tracks below.
00:24:31.000 --> 00:24:32.000
Stuart Winchester: Yes.
00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:34.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:39.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:41.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:46.000
Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
00:24:50.000 --> 00:25:04.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: but it’s not a straightforward route. Cormier’s 1,200 meters, you know, you can get snow all the way to the bottom, but yeah, it’s possible, but definitely, you know, take a guide, I would suggest.
00:24:56.000 --> 00:24:57.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:11.000
Stuart Winchester: Right. All right, so let’s continue with the hero trip here. Where next, Ian?
00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:25.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, well, again, if you’re thinking about, you know, some of the great resorts in Europe, I’m actually going to pick St. Anton in Austria next, because that is listed on the spreadsheet I’m looking at as Skjalberg.
00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:16.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:20.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:25.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:27.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:28.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: On the epic, on the epic pass.
00:25:27.000 --> 00:25:34.000
Stuart Winchester: Right. Yeah. Everything has 10 names there. That’s another, that’s another reason I, we needed you on here. Um.
00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:33.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah. Well…
00:25:33.000 --> 00:25:41.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, Ski… Ski Aalberg is… so, let’s just have a look at where you are. It’s gonna be slightly to the, uh, west.
00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:39.000
Stuart Winchester: There it is. There it is. I found it.
00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:59.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, there you go, Ski Aalberg. So, Ski Aalberg… Aalberg is, like, a region of Austria that sits within Tyrol, one of the, uh, the cantons, and in fact, that is quite good, the level that you’ve got it at right there. You can see, just on the video that I’m looking at, uh, at the moment.
00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:44.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay, there we go.
00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:48.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:25:49.000 --> 00:25:51.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:55.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:13.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: That you’ve got St. Anton is sitting almost underneath where it says Ski Aalberg. It’s pretty easy to get to.
00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:11.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:26:13.000 --> 00:26:25.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: you can get there… you can fly into either Innsbruck, or you can fly into Zurich. For, you know, I typically travel by train, but, you know, from both of those, it’s about an hour and a half or so by train.
00:26:19.000 --> 00:26:20.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:26.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:33.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Uh, roughly, uh, transfer time. A really good train station in St. Anton. And St. Anton…
00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:40.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: is an amazing destination. I was lucky enough to learn to ski there, you know, when I was a kid.
00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:37.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:50.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: And I think what… it ticks a lot of boxes. It does have, uh, maybe contrary to some people’s impressions, amazing food.
00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:51.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:26:50.000 --> 00:27:01.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: There’s, like, a Michelin-star restaurant at the mid-station, just above a resort, which is, you know, well worth checking out. But lots of resorts, lots of restaurants in the town as well.
00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:54.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:26:57.000 --> 00:26:59.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:27:01.000 --> 00:27:03.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Has legendary apres ski.
00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:04.000
Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:12.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: There are two bars located opposite each other, which some listeners may have heard of, called the Crazy Kangaroo.
00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:09.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:12.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:14.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: And the moose avert.
00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:15.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:29.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: And these are, like, legendary at the end of the day. Skiers will go there, they’ll be dancing on the tables, they’ll be, uh, you know, knocking back whatever they can, and then skiing down very, very carefully.
00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:18.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:26.000
Stuart Winchester: Yes.
00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:44.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Uh, to the resort, the remaining, kind of, 500 meters or so. They do actually encourage people to get a bus back, uh, now, uh, if you can, because there is a little bit of a history of… of accidents, but those two, you know, have amazing apres ski.
00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:34.000
Stuart Winchester: Right.
00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:37.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:42.000
Stuart Winchester: Yes.
00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:45.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:27:44.000 --> 00:28:00.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Really good restaurants, but the ski area is fantastic. Ski Aalberg covers all of the resorts in that area. On the level of maps on at the moment, you can see over to the left, there’s an area called St. Christoph. You can link over to St. Christoph.
00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:08.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: you can link over to Steuben, quite easy to ski over there, and then just to the north of the map, as we’re looking at it at the moment, will be Lech.
00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:09.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:17.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: which is also part of Ski Aalberg. You know, you can stay in Lech. I tend to favor St. Anton, there’s a lot more going on. Lech is a bit…
00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:12.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:17.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:33.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: how can I put it? Posher, quite frankly. You know, frequented by the Dutch royal family and, uh, and others. You know, the British royal family historically used to go there as well. You can actually ski on Ski Arburg all the way up to that town called.
00:28:19.000 --> 00:28:21.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay, okay.
00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:31.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:43.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Vaath, or Vaath, which is right at the top of the map. That is a very long day, and the connections to there are quite difficult. But it is a…
00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:35.000
Stuart Winchester: Oh, gosh.
00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:38.000
Stuart Winchester: Right.
00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:44.000
Stuart Winchester: You can ski from there to…
00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:59.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, you could ski between there and St. Anton and back in a single day. You can get a certificate if you follow the whole route and do it. But it is a very large ski area. But St. Anton itself, really brilliant place to base yourself.
00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:46.000
Stuart Winchester: You’re saying, wow.
00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:48.000
Stuart Winchester: Jeez.
00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:52.000
Stuart Winchester: Unbelievable.
00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:53.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:28:58.000 --> 00:29:00.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:06.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: you know, lift connections are really good, the resort is really good, and, you know, that would be one of the reasons I would suggest that.
00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:14.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: And just another kind of equivalent destination for the hero trip. Oh, sorry. Go on. Go on. Yes.
00:29:11.000 --> 00:29:18.000
Stuart Winchester: Let me just pause and ask you one question about Ahlberg. So, you know, again, Americans are…
00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:34.000
Stuart Winchester: And that’s, I don’t want to mean to speak for the whole nation, but they tend to fall into the checklist trap where they’re just trying to get to everything. Would you recommend trying to ski from here to there, or would you recommend settling in, kind of enjoying a day at each, or maybe just.
00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:27.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Hmm.
00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:38.000
Stuart Winchester: Seeing where the day takes you, not worrying about all the lifts.
00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:53.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: I mean, I would only do that for a long way to go. I mean, it’s quite a long way to go to Lech and back for the day. And there is a lot of really good skiing in St. Anton. I actually tend to favor the St. Christoph Steuben.
00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:44.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah.
00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:50.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:29:53.000 --> 00:30:09.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: area, because it doesn’t get skied as much as some of the other areas, and there’s a lot to ski there, so you can have peace to yourself, whereas it might be much busier closer to St. Anton. There’s actually another area you can see with the lifts that you’ve got there going slightly south.
00:29:57.000 --> 00:29:58.000
Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
00:30:09.000 --> 00:30:10.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:30:09.000 --> 00:30:24.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: from St. Anton, that goes to an area called Rendle, which is part of the Ski Arburg area. And, you know, Rendle is another really good ski area that’s often underskied. I mean, you could spend a day skiing over there on its own.
00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:16.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:30.000
Stuart Winchester: Is… is that… is that part of Ski Aalberg? On the Epic Pass? It is? Okay. Okay.
00:30:27.000 --> 00:30:31.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s part of Schiberg as well, yeah.
00:30:31.000 --> 00:30:37.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay, great. All right. Anwar, you were gonna tell us about another, I think, Austrian destination.
00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, I was gonna go the other… the other very obvious, I would say.
00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:39.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:30:39.000 --> 00:30:40.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Um…
00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:44.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Big destination is Verbier.
00:30:44.000 --> 00:30:47.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Which I believe is also on the Epic Pass.
00:30:46.000 --> 00:30:48.000
Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:58.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Uh, so Verbier’s in Switzerland, quite close to Chamonix. You can drive between Chamonix and Verbier in an hour and a quarter. Again, you’d fly into Geneva.
00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:50.000
Stuart Winchester: Ah, yeah, let’s…
00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:53.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay. Oh, there it is.
00:30:53.000 --> 00:30:55.000
Stuart Winchester: Yep.
00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:56.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:30:58.000 --> 00:30:59.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:14.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: really easy to get to from Geneva. You can actually get the train all the way from Geneva Airport direct to the town at the bottom of Verbier, which is called Le Chapelle, and then they have a gondola, which, uh… which you guys call a tram, I think, or, uh…
00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:07.000
Stuart Winchester: Oh, wow.
00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:09.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:31:12.000 --> 00:31:14.000
Stuart Winchester: There.
00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:25.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: it’s a bubble lift, however you want to term it, that goes directly from the valley floor, connects directly out of the railway station and up into Verbier.
00:31:16.000 --> 00:31:17.000
Stuart Winchester: Right.
00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:26.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:28.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: And, you know, Verbier…
00:31:28.000 --> 00:31:43.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Brilliant resort. Such an amazing ski area. It’s actually listed on there as a Catra Valley, the Four Valleys, and that’s because it also includes several other resorts as well, which are called, I think, Lazu… you can just about see them. Lazuma, Nonda.
00:31:29.000 --> 00:31:30.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah, okay.
00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:37.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:31:43.000 --> 00:31:48.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: and Vaesuna, which are just slightly to the north there.
00:31:48.000 --> 00:32:00.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Uh, so they’re all included in that area. It’s a big ski area, but Verbier has a lot going on. Uh, again, you know, good apres ski, really good, uh, restaurants, uh, but.
00:31:51.000 --> 00:31:52.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:31:54.000 --> 00:31:55.000
Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:07.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Particularly for the more advanced skiers, there’s some incredible off-piste there. You know, you can…
00:32:07.000 --> 00:32:12.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: um… go off… off the back from the top of Mon4.
00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:13.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:28.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: with a guide, just again, and there’s a huge area that can open up there. You can also do heli skiing out of Verbier to access some of the other peaks around there, but you can stay in the inbounds area and still ski a lot of really good off-piste.
00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:34.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: It’s high as well, you know, the resort itself is 1600 meters, and I think it goes up to.
00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:45.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: 3… 2… I’m not 100% sure about that, but certainly high. So, you know, you have regular snow. I mean, I skied there in the last week of…
00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:47.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: April last year.
00:32:46.000 --> 00:32:48.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:32:47.000 --> 00:33:02.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: and there was still plenty of snow. Um, it’s, you know, it’s expensive. It’s not quite as expensive as, uh, Zermatt. It doesn’t have the view of the Matterhorn, but it is one of the world’s best ski resorts, for sure.
00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:56.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:33:02.000 --> 00:33:14.000
Stuart Winchester: So that’s on Epic Pass, and it’s, you know, Vail has purchased a couple of ski areas at Kranz, Montana, and Andermatt-Suderun, and it’s also… the Epic Pass is unlimited on DeSantis, which is right.
00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:23.000
Stuart Winchester: contiguous with the Entermeister Druun. If you have the Epic Pass, is it worth trying to do a trip with all of those, or is Verbier enough?
00:33:23.000 --> 00:33:32.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: And Verbier’s definitely enough for a whole week. If you had a car, Cro-Montana isn’t very far away, it would probably only take you…
00:33:27.000 --> 00:33:28.000
Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:45.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: you know, an hour and a bit… I’m gonna say an hour and a quarter, perhaps, to, uh, get there. Cremontana’s a big area in itself. It’s, um… you know, I’ve skied there on many occasions, and I really like it. It’s not… I’ve been there…
00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:36.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:33:38.000 --> 00:33:40.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:47.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: On a family holiday.
00:33:47.000 --> 00:33:48.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Whereas…
00:33:48.000 --> 00:34:05.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: I would go to Verbier because I like to ski kind of, uh, steep and off-piste, uh, you know, with a guide. And probably it’s too expensive to take a family to. Cromontana is, uh, you know, a bit more, uh, affordable. I mean, it’s still a very smart, uh, resort.
00:33:53.000 --> 00:33:54.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah.
00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:06.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:13.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: But if you wanted to explore, you could go there. Amount is a bit more of a stretch in terms of distance.
00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:14.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:18.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: You know, if you were on a tour, and you’re an Epic Pass holder, you could take it in.
00:34:18.000 --> 00:34:33.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Now, I’m also a fan of Andermatt. I’ve been there several times, uh, as well. Again, probably go to Zurich for Andermatt. You can get the train from Zurich in about an hour and a half, something like that. And it’s a really interesting story, uh, Andermatt. You know, it used to be…
00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:26.000
Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
00:34:33.000 --> 00:34:43.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Its location is strategically significant in the middle of several valleys. So at once upon a time, it used to be an army base.
00:34:43.000 --> 00:34:55.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: And then, when the army, uh, withdrew, it kind of went into decline for a long time. And it was bought by, uh, the area was brought by a property developer.
00:34:49.000 --> 00:34:50.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:34:55.000 --> 00:35:08.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: And ultimately, he built it up, and more recently, Vale Resorts have taken that over. And so there’s a lot of new accommodations, some incredibly nice restaurants. Again, more Michelin stars there. I’ve got a feeling…
00:35:08.000 --> 00:35:14.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: It might have the highest number of Michelin stars per capita for any.
00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:16.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: town in the world.
00:35:16.000 --> 00:35:26.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Uh, and the skiing itself, you know, again, I’ve been there with a guide, there’s some excellent off-piste skiing, but there’s, you know, a good amount of on-piste skiing as well.
00:35:26.000 --> 00:35:29.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: It’s a really, it’s really appealing area.
00:35:29.000 --> 00:35:35.000
Stuart Winchester: So you mentioned having a guide many times, and I think that’s, you know, in…
00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:33.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Heh.
00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:45.000
Stuart Winchester: in North America, we generally only hire guides when we’re going outside of the resort, and a lot of folks don’t even do it then, if they’re confident in their own avalanche.
00:35:45.000 --> 00:36:00.000
Stuart Winchester: capabilities. In general, everything within resort boundaries in North America is considered to be patrolled and controlled, meaning they’ll do avalanche work, and if it’s open, you can go in it without a guide. There’s a few exceptions where you need transceivers, etc.
00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:13.000
Stuart Winchester: That’s not really the case in Europe, so just from a mentality standpoint, how should skiers approach this when they’re going to some of these hero resorts you’re talking about, as far as.
00:36:14.000 --> 00:36:18.000
Stuart Winchester: Considering a guide in essential versus a luxury.
00:36:18.000 --> 00:36:36.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Okay, I wouldn’t want to mislead you there. I mean, guides are just on my mind, because I like a lot of backcountry skiing, and therefore, I often, you know, go with them. In bounds, you don’t need a guide, absolutely not. You know, you can download the app, or get yourself a peace map, and you can.
00:36:21.000 --> 00:36:23.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:36:26.000 --> 00:36:27.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:58.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: go around the place as much as you want, and, uh, you know, it is fully secured, you’ve got ski patrol, uh, etc, so you don’t need to be concerned about that. It just happens that a lot of the places that I’ve mentioned so far, you know, do have some of those more interesting off-piste options, and I guess it depends a bit on the listener and, you know, what they’re, uh, looking for, but you… you don’t…
00:36:58.000 --> 00:37:06.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: need to have a guide to show you around resorts. I mean, potentially, some of these ski areas are.
00:37:03.000 --> 00:37:04.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:37:06.000 --> 00:37:13.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: significantly larger than they might come across in North America, and therefore.
00:37:11.000 --> 00:37:12.000
Stuart Winchester: Right.
00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:29.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: it could be a good investment to rent someone or to hire someone to show you around. I mean, back in the day, in the 90s, when I was working in the Alps, I worked for British tour operators, and part of my job was showing guests around the mountains and helping them orientate themselves.
00:37:29.000 --> 00:37:38.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: And that actually is pertinent, because the next resort I wanted, or area I wanted to mention, was Le Trois Vallees, Le Three Valleys.
00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:38.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:40.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Which…
00:37:39.000 --> 00:37:41.000
Stuart Winchester: Also on Epic Pass.
00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:45.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: also is on Epic Pass. Now, the three valleys…
00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:53.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: probably has a pretty good awareness amongst the North American market. I mean, it is the world’s largest ski area.
00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:51.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:37:53.000 --> 00:37:54.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:37:53.000 --> 00:38:01.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: There’s 600 kilometers apiece there, and I work four seasons in the three valleys, three in Meribel and one in Courchevel.
00:37:56.000 --> 00:37:57.000
Stuart Winchester: Peace.
00:37:58.000 --> 00:37:59.000
Stuart Winchester: Wow.
00:38:01.000 --> 00:38:03.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: And it is.
00:38:03.000 --> 00:38:14.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: magnificent in terms of scale. There is so much skiing you can do there, and, you know, I worked four winters there. Did I ski every single run, you know, during that time? I doubt it.
00:38:14.000 --> 00:38:24.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Uh, because you tend to go back and forth across a lot of them. Uh, you know, there is so much that it’s gonna take you well more than a week if you wanted to, uh.
00:38:18.000 --> 00:38:19.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:38:24.000 --> 00:38:29.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: ski them all, but you could certainly explore the three valleys.
00:38:29.000 --> 00:38:39.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: You know, I… it’s hard to know exactly which of those destinations to recommend, because it depends on the individuals to…
00:38:39.000 --> 00:38:46.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: put it in context, you have three valleys, literally, over, if we were looking on the map, the left-hand side, you would have Courchevel.
00:38:42.000 --> 00:38:43.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:38:46.000 --> 00:38:47.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:38:46.000 --> 00:38:49.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: The middle, Maribel.
00:38:49.000 --> 00:39:07.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Uh, and the right-hand side, Val Torrens. I think as we look at the map at the moment, it’s the opposite way round. So we can see on the left, you’ve got Val Torrens at the top. That’s the highest ski resort in Europe. It’s 2,300 meters itself, the resort. Not high by, like, Colorado standards or something like that, but high by European standards.
00:38:51.000 --> 00:38:53.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:38:54.000 --> 00:38:55.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:39:04.000 --> 00:39:06.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:39:07.000 --> 00:39:08.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:39:07.000 --> 00:39:19.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: It’s above the tree line, uh, you know, it’s changed a lot in recent years, but there’s a lot of apartment accommodation there, there’s a lot of nice four- and five-star hotels up there, uh, as well, but it doesn’t have.
00:39:13.000 --> 00:39:15.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:39:19.000 --> 00:39:28.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Like, if you were coming to Europe for the first time, it doesn’t have the kind of character, the charisma.
00:39:21.000 --> 00:39:22.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:39:27.000 --> 00:39:28.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:39:28.000 --> 00:39:43.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: that some other resorts, let’s say, like Verbier, or Zermatt, or St. Anton have, because it’s modern, you know, it was built in the 1970s, so it’s a purpose-built, uh, resort. Also, in that valley slightly lower down, you have Leymanduia, more.
00:39:33.000 --> 00:39:35.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:39:43.000 --> 00:39:47.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Prettier, you know, at the bottom, you’ve got a place called San Martin.
00:39:46.000 --> 00:39:48.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:39:47.000 --> 00:39:49.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: The middle valley, Meribel.
00:39:49.000 --> 00:40:04.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: that is lots of pretty chocolate box chalets. Uh, you know, I worked 3 years there. It’s brilliantly connected. Uh, the resort itself is between 1,400 and 1,800 meters, so it’s pretty high.
00:39:52.000 --> 00:39:53.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah.
00:39:58.000 --> 00:39:59.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:07.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: And, you know, it’s a good…
00:40:07.000 --> 00:40:19.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: base, I’d still, if you were thinking about that, I’d still, you know, without wishing to offend any of my friends in Mirabal, and I have very many of them, I’d probably say if you think about a week and you wanted to base yourself somewhere.
00:40:19.000 --> 00:40:21.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Maybe Verbier or Saint Anton.
00:40:21.000 --> 00:40:33.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: would be a better choice for that. They both have, you know, still big ski areas, and just a little bit more accessibility, uh, you know, overall.
00:40:23.000 --> 00:40:25.000
Stuart Winchester: Right.
00:40:26.000 --> 00:40:28.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:40:32.000 --> 00:40:34.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:40:33.000 --> 00:40:39.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Courchevel, again, a resort I love that I worked in for a season.
00:40:39.000 --> 00:40:41.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: There’s several different…
00:40:41.000 --> 00:40:46.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: um, what the French call station, different levels within Courchevel.
00:40:43.000 --> 00:40:44.000
Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:46.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:40:46.000 --> 00:41:01.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Courchevel 1850, most people will have heard of. It’s a top station. It’s at 1850 meters. It is very shishy. Five and six star hotels, 13 Michelin stars.
00:40:49.000 --> 00:40:51.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:40:56.000 --> 00:40:58.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:40:58.000 --> 00:41:00.000
Stuart Winchester: Right.
00:41:01.000 --> 00:41:13.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: you know, across the resort, it… you can’t find… well, I have stayed there in a couple of budget accommodations, but there’s not really budget accommodation. You know, if you want to go and…
00:41:14.000 --> 00:41:31.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: to a resort where you may well end up, you know, sharing a hotel with, I don’t know, Leo DiCaprio, or, you know, you might find a member of the British Royals there, or David Beckham, then that’s the kind of place to go.
00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:32.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:36.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: But you’re going to have to pay to go along with that. And it has fantastic skiing.
00:41:34.000 --> 00:41:35.000
Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
00:41:36.000 --> 00:41:37.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:41:36.000 --> 00:41:38.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: But again.
00:41:38.000 --> 00:41:45.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: if you’re only coming for a shorter period of time, I’d be inclined to mention a couple of the other resorts I mentioned, plus…
00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:54.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: I want to mention Valdezare as well, but I don’t think Valdezare is on any of the collective passes, is it?
00:41:53.000 --> 00:41:58.000
Stuart Winchester: Hmm. Uh, is it part of one of these bigger…
00:41:58.000 --> 00:41:59.000
Stuart Winchester: Domains or.
00:41:58.000 --> 00:42:05.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: No, it is not. I mean, there is a, uh… so it’s not going to come up on your map.
00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:07.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: But Valdisera is a brilliant…
00:42:07.000 --> 00:42:24.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: uh, resort, which does give you traditional skiing, a pretty village, a huge, uh, ski area that links up to Teen, where they have a glacier, so you can kind of guarantee that you’re going to be able to get skiing. Skiing goes up to 3,500 meters there.
00:42:08.000 --> 00:42:10.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:42:24.000 --> 00:42:25.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:42:24.000 --> 00:42:41.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: And I met Americans there, so Americans certainly know about it. I met a family from, you know, Florida who were in the Folly Deuce, who were enjoying themselves in the VIP area and very kindly, you know, offered us some of their champagne.
00:42:28.000 --> 00:42:29.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:42:41.000 --> 00:42:53.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: uh, at the time. You know, Founders Area is a brilliant resort, not covered on any of those passes. That doesn’t mean that it’s not necessarily going to be, you know, a good option, uh, for you. You know, lift tickets.
00:42:42.000 --> 00:42:43.000
Stuart Winchester: Right.
00:42:53.000 --> 00:43:07.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: are going to be, you know, dirt cheap compared to the States, but maybe still, like, 80 euros a day, or something like that, you know, overall, but a really good ski area. So those are all… I think we’ve covered all of the, kind of, the bigger.
00:42:59.000 --> 00:43:00.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:43:03.000 --> 00:43:04.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:08.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:43:07.000 --> 00:43:18.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: kind of places there, unless you’ve got any other questions in relation to any of them. Oh, no, hold on! We’ve missed one! We’ve missed one! Dolomitiski!
00:43:12.000 --> 00:43:15.000
Stuart Winchester: No. Yeah.
00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:16.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:43:17.000 --> 00:43:19.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:21.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: That’s on Icon, isn’t it?
00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:35.000
Stuart Winchester: Uh, well, Dolomiti Super Ski is on Icon, Skirama Dolomiti is on Epic. They each have, like, 100 ski areas, it seems like, so… yeah, this is how they’re pitched to us. I don’t know how you want to make sense to them on the ground… of them on the ground.
00:43:29.000 --> 00:43:31.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah.
00:43:33.000 --> 00:43:34.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah.
00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:51.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, okay, let’s talk Dolomiti superskis. That’s where the Winter Olympics were last year. Milan Cortina. Cortina is in the Dolomites. And it is a huge superski area, you know, depending how you do the definitions, it’s larger.
00:43:37.000 --> 00:43:39.000
Stuart Winchester: Right.
00:43:39.000 --> 00:43:40.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:43:42.000 --> 00:43:43.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:43:44.000 --> 00:43:45.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:43:48.000 --> 00:43:50.000
Stuart Winchester: Yes.
00:43:51.000 --> 00:43:54.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: than L’Etoile Vallee.
00:43:53.000 --> 00:43:54.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:43:54.000 --> 00:43:56.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Uh, but…
00:43:56.000 --> 00:44:01.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Sometimes that means getting a bus in between. Uh, it is…
00:43:58.000 --> 00:44:00.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:44:01.000 --> 00:44:13.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: It is great. You could fly into Innsbruck, you could fly into Venice, you can combine that with a trip to Venice, or maybe Verona, or Milan. They’re all about equidistance from the Dolomiti Sufski.
00:44:02.000 --> 00:44:04.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:44:13.000 --> 00:44:16.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: It’s visually accurate.
00:44:16.000 --> 00:44:31.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Absolutely stunning. The Dolomites are just an amazing mountain range. I found myself when I was skiing in Val Gardena, which we’ll come to right in the middle of your map at the moment, just being distracted.
00:44:17.000 --> 00:44:18.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:44:21.000 --> 00:44:23.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:44:28.000 --> 00:44:29.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:44:31.000 --> 00:44:43.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: I’m looking at the mountains, because they’re just so gorgeous. I’m skiing down this piste. You know, looking at this mountain, thinking, oh my god, this is just amazing. And then on top of that, you know, you have.
00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:36.000
Stuart Winchester: Right.
00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:41.000
Stuart Winchester: Yah.
00:44:43.000 --> 00:44:58.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Italian cuisine, Italian prices, you know, yeah, Cortina’s the most expensive. Again, quite a lot of, uh, you know, Milanese would go up there for the weekend, but, you know, overall, Selva, again, roughly around the middle of your, uh, map at the moment. Yeah, really…
00:44:57.000 --> 00:44:58.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:44:58.000 --> 00:45:06.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Really good value, you know, considering it’s a really good access point for a fantastic ski area.
00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:01.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:06.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:45:06.000 --> 00:45:09.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: And it has…
00:45:09.000 --> 00:45:16.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: The Superski is not a misnomer. It is a very large ski area.
00:45:12.000 --> 00:45:13.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:45:16.000 --> 00:45:27.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: And there’s some amazing circuits that you can do there. So I would probably recommend, if you were thinking about it, Cortina or Silva Val Gardena would be the two best places to locate yourself.
00:45:24.000 --> 00:45:26.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:45:27.000 --> 00:45:37.000
Stuart Winchester: And do you like Superski over Vail’s Skirama Dolomiti group? And again, I’ve dug in a little bit, but I didn’t include on this map what that…
00:45:37.000 --> 00:45:42.000
Stuart Winchester: contains, and I dropped the pin here on, uh, Campo Carlomagno, but…
00:45:42.000 --> 00:45:46.000
Stuart Winchester: It includes a lot of things in, you know, almost equal.
00:45:44.000 --> 00:45:58.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, I’m gonna have to put my hand up and say I don’t know that area as well. I haven’t actually skied there myself. It is, to my mind, and I can check your stats because I’ve got it in front of me, you’re saying it’s roughly the same skiable area.
00:45:48.000 --> 00:45:49.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:45:58.000 --> 00:46:01.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Right. Was that the vertical drop?
00:45:59.000 --> 00:46:01.000
Stuart Winchester: That’s the stats that…
00:46:01.000 --> 00:46:04.000
Stuart Winchester: or on the Epic Pass website.
00:46:03.000 --> 00:46:04.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah.
00:46:04.000 --> 00:46:06.000
Stuart Winchester: Which I’ve yeah.
00:46:04.000 --> 00:46:13.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: I think the Dolomiti Super Ski is significantly bigger than what’s available at Ski-Rama Dolomiti. Yeah, it’s a possibility. It wouldn’t be my…
00:46:07.000 --> 00:46:08.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:46:09.000 --> 00:46:10.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:46:13.000 --> 00:46:30.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: If I was sending someone to the Dolomites, I would suggest probably that I would go for Selva Val Gardena or Cortina as being the two locations. Cortina being the slightly more expensive Shishi destination and Val Gardena.
00:46:16.000 --> 00:46:18.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:35.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Uh, being the more affordable, but in fact, brilliantly located.
00:46:34.000 --> 00:46:36.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:37.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah.
00:46:36.000 --> 00:46:42.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay, so you wanted to start with the kind of hero trips and then take us into the next level.
00:46:39.000 --> 00:46:40.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Heh.
00:46:43.000 --> 00:46:49.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, well, I mean, I guess it depends, you know, how long you would be thinking about going for.
00:46:49.000 --> 00:46:50.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:46:49.000 --> 00:46:56.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: But I noticed that on the Indy Pass, Innsbruck is covered.
00:46:53.000 --> 00:46:54.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:46:56.000 --> 00:46:57.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:46:56.000 --> 00:47:00.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: And Innsbruck is a really good destination.
00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:14.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: it often gets overlooked, you know, people just kind of pass through Innsbruck, but I’ve based myself, you know, in Innsbruck before. You can actually see that if you stay in Innsbruck, if you don’t go too close in.
00:47:04.000 --> 00:47:06.000
Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
00:47:09.000 --> 00:47:10.000
Stuart Winchester: Oh, really?
00:47:14.000 --> 00:47:15.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:47:14.000 --> 00:47:29.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: there are a lot of ski resorts in a very, uh, close proximity to it. So, it’s a city itself. People live there, you know? It has everything you’d think a city would have, but without it being.
00:47:22.000 --> 00:47:23.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:47:24.000 --> 00:47:25.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah, thank you.
00:47:29.000 --> 00:47:33.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Very big. There is actually a ski area immediately.
00:47:33.000 --> 00:47:44.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: above the, uh, the town itself, called Nordketter, which is pretty small. But what’s great about being based in Innsbruck is you can get to other ski areas within…
00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:37.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:47:44.000 --> 00:47:58.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: half an hour, you can get to, uh, um, a ski area. Uh, I’m just looking at the map there. Oh, yeah, it closed in. Okay, so Kutai is not very far away, about, you know, 30 minutes.
00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:46.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:47:53.000 --> 00:47:54.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:47:56.000 --> 00:47:57.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:47:58.000 --> 00:48:02.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: I’m looking at a map and just getting my head around what’s going on there.
00:48:02.000 --> 00:48:10.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah, the Innsbruck Ski and City Network that’s on India covers 12 ski areas, and I didn’t mark them all on this map, so again, I made this one in.
00:48:02.000 --> 00:48:04.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, I…
00:48:06.000 --> 00:48:08.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah.
00:48:08.000 --> 00:48:25.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: I think that’s a really slightly under the radar type of a destination that you can go to, you can base yourself there, you can enjoy. There’s a lot of culture, there’s a lot of history there.
00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:26.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:36.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: uh, in terms of the, the Habsburg Empire, et cetera, the different museums, uh, that you can go and visit as well. Uh, but it’s a very modern city. They’ve got an amazing, um.
00:48:36.000 --> 00:48:37.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: uh…
00:48:37.000 --> 00:48:52.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: funicular that’s designed by Zaha Hadid, that’s won awards, and you’re within 30 to 40 minutes of a lot of ski areas, so I don’t exactly know what the 12 are, but it’s probably Solden, which you can see there, you know, that’s going to be the.
00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:53.000
Stuart Winchester: Well, Sultans aren’t epic.
00:48:52.000 --> 00:48:55.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Ah, right, okay.
00:48:54.000 --> 00:48:58.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah, so let me see if I can bring up the, uh…
00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:56.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: at…
00:48:59.000 --> 00:49:16.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Kutai, but I still rate it as a destination, and even if you’re going up there and you actually had to buy a ticket for the day, it’s not going to be that much. You’ve got several glaciers nearby, and you can fly into the city itself. I mean, I don’t know if you get…
00:48:59.000 --> 00:49:01.000
Stuart Winchester: Bye.
00:49:01.000 --> 00:49:03.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah.
00:49:08.000 --> 00:49:10.000
Stuart Winchester: Right, right.
00:49:16.000 --> 00:49:19.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: transatlantic flights into Innsbruck.
00:49:18.000 --> 00:49:21.000
Stuart Winchester: I’m not certain. I’d have to check.
00:49:19.000 --> 00:49:20.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: That would be.
00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:21.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah. Okay.
00:49:22.000 --> 00:49:30.000
Stuart Winchester: So, let’s see, if we go to Austria, and okay, this is the list, the ones in yellow.
00:49:27.000 --> 00:49:29.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, just…
00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:44.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Ah, right, okay, so Stubai is included. Rakutai is included, that’s only half an hour away, that’s about 60 kilometers apiece. I’ve done a family holiday there, you know, really good. Nordketter that I mentioned is the one just above Innsbruck itself.
00:49:33.000 --> 00:49:34.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:49:43.000 --> 00:49:44.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:49:44.000 --> 00:49:59.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Uh, yeah, you know, there’s plenty of skiing there. They’ve got, um, you know, connections that you can take to all of these different ski resorts, uh, on a daily basis. I really like that as a kind of underrated, different cultural experience that you could, uh, that you could go for.
00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:56.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:49:59.000 --> 00:50:06.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah, you only get 2 days between all 12 on Indy, but there are a bunch of other Indy.
00:50:06.000 --> 00:50:24.000
Stuart Winchester: mountains around there. I don’t even know how to pronounce these things, but they’re all on the map, and I have the charts, which I’ll include in the article that accompanies us on stormskiing.com. But if you have an Indy Pass and you’re in the area, anything else you see here that you’re like, oh, that’s pretty cool. So again, the Indy are the red pins.
00:50:13.000 --> 00:50:14.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Right.
00:50:24.000 --> 00:50:25.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yep.
00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:36.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: I’m looking at your list there, you know, Obertower, and Karnatal, and Glacier, Pitstala. Yeah, you know, there’s some really good skiing that’s going to cover quite a lot. Shevelt.
00:50:26.000 --> 00:50:28.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah, thank you.
00:50:36.000 --> 00:50:37.000
Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
00:50:36.000 --> 00:50:53.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: It’s a bit further away, but that’s a big ski area as well. You know, slightly lower, but, uh, you know, really nice connections. And what I didn’t realize, and I mentioned this in relation to St. Anton earlier, is that, you know, historically, people have thought of Austria as having, kind of.
00:50:53.000 --> 00:51:05.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: I don’t know, quite sort of, like, let’s say, lumpy cuisine. The Italians get all their credit, but the food in Austria, you know, is really good. It’s completely different from.
00:50:57.000 --> 00:50:59.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:51:03.000 --> 00:51:04.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:14.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: what people’s preconceptions, uh, might be. It’s definitely worth going there and experiencing it, just for the gastronomy side of things as well.
00:51:14.000 --> 00:51:16.000
Stuart Winchester: And how much is it?
00:51:16.000 --> 00:51:23.000
Stuart Winchester: worth focusing on those big names, the, you know, Arlbergs and the Verbiers, and… and the, uh…
00:51:23.000 --> 00:51:26.000
Stuart Winchester: You know, Zermatti, is it?
00:51:27.000 --> 00:51:38.000
Stuart Winchester: if you want to go to, like… so, for example, if we were to do this show in the flip, right, and I were to take you through where to go in America on passes.
00:51:39.000 --> 00:51:47.000
Stuart Winchester: I would give you the big ones, but there’s a lot of little ones where you could have a really good ski day. It might not be the complete…
00:51:47.000 --> 00:51:52.000
Stuart Winchester: you know, American ski experience, but you’d have a lot of fun. So…
00:51:52.000 --> 00:52:08.000
Stuart Winchester: How would you describe the smaller, all these little ones we’ve never heard of that, that Indy are signing up as, you know, just a place to stop and ski for a day? Is it worth just maybe doing that and hopping around on, on a road trip?
00:52:08.000 --> 00:52:11.000
Stuart Winchester: And if so, are there any of these that stand out for you?
00:52:11.000 --> 00:52:15.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, okay, that’s a really good question, and, you know, I…
00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:30.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: you’re… I know you’re a fan of independent ski resorts, and, uh, you know, I recently, uh, interviewed Eric Mogensen, who you’ve interviewed before, and he’s obviously incredibly passionate about independent ski resorts, and I think it’s important, because one of the points he made to me is.
00:52:16.000 --> 00:52:18.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:52:21.000 --> 00:52:23.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:52:23.000 --> 00:52:24.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah, so. Yeah.
00:52:27.000 --> 00:52:28.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:40.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: if we don’t visit these places, you know, they’re gonna go out of business, aren’t they? So we need to go to them as well, we can’t just focus on them. And there are some really good ones on that list. Um…
00:52:32.000 --> 00:52:33.000
Stuart Winchester: Thank you.
00:52:33.000 --> 00:52:35.000
Stuart Winchester: Ja.
00:52:39.000 --> 00:52:40.000
Stuart Winchester: Mhm.
00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:43.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Let’s see, lacontamine.
00:52:42.000 --> 00:52:44.000
Stuart Winchester: Mhm.
00:52:43.000 --> 00:52:51.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: That’s near to Chamonix. It’s a pretty small resort. It’s at the end of the valley.
00:52:44.000 --> 00:52:45.000
Stuart Winchester: Mhm.
00:52:49.000 --> 00:52:50.000
Stuart Winchester: Mhm.
00:52:51.000 --> 00:53:06.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: So it doesn’t… you know, a lot of people… you can… you can kind of see exactly on that map there, the road just stops at Le Contamine, right? So you’ve got to make a bit of an effort to go up there. But I skied there… I’ve skied there only two days ever.
00:52:56.000 --> 00:52:57.000
Stuart Winchester: Mhm.
00:52:57.000 --> 00:52:58.000
Stuart Winchester: Ja.
00:52:58.000 --> 00:53:00.000
Stuart Winchester: Hi.
00:53:01.000 --> 00:53:02.000
Stuart Winchester: Mhm.
00:53:06.000 --> 00:53:07.000
Stuart Winchester: Mhm.
00:53:06.000 --> 00:53:08.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: But it’s brilliant.
00:53:07.000 --> 00:53:08.000
Stuart Winchester: Ja.
00:53:08.000 --> 00:53:10.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: It’s brilliant, because…
00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:23.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: it’s a big ski area, it’s a big bowl at the end of the valley. You know, I know lots of resorts claim they have, like, a microclimate, but it does have this microclimate. It collects all the snow that comes along that, uh, valley.
00:53:12.000 --> 00:53:13.000
Stuart Winchester: Mhm.
00:53:18.000 --> 00:53:19.000
Stuart Winchester: Mhm.
00:53:23.000 --> 00:53:28.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: It’s quiet, and you can see from the lifts there.
00:53:28.000 --> 00:53:38.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: You know, that’s a decent ski area. It doesn’t actually… it’s slightly misleading, that map, because it doesn’t link in with the Megeve ski area.
00:53:38.000 --> 00:53:39.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:53:38.000 --> 00:53:59.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Lake Contamine, but that’s good, because it means the people from Meshev can’t get over there. So, it’s, uh, I mean, you could, you could do it by a bootwhacking a bit, but, uh, you know, Lake Contamine, really good one. If you were doing a tour and you wanted to visit a more independent place, then that would be a really good one. Another one.
00:53:41.000 --> 00:53:42.000
Stuart Winchester: Ich.
00:53:43.000 --> 00:53:44.000
Stuart Winchester: Right.
00:53:44.000 --> 00:53:46.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:53:56.000 --> 00:53:57.000
Stuart Winchester: Ja.
00:53:57.000 --> 00:53:59.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:53:59.000 --> 00:54:07.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: is Pila in the Aosta Valley, so it’s going to be slightly to the right on your map, uh, there. I can see it there in purple.
00:54:07.000 --> 00:54:08.000
Stuart Winchester: Mhm.
00:54:07.000 --> 00:54:09.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Now it’s over on the left there.
00:54:08.000 --> 00:54:10.000
Stuart Winchester: Alles.
00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:12.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, so Pila…
00:54:12.000 --> 00:54:20.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Again, I don’t… I know that we discussed the Eostre Vale being included on the Icon Pass, and Pila is in…
00:54:18.000 --> 00:54:19.000
Stuart Winchester: Mhm.
00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:24.000
Stuart Winchester: It’s on both Indy and Icon, it’s just weird exception, yeah.
00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:22.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: There you’ll still…
00:54:22.000 --> 00:54:25.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: It is. Okay. So…
00:54:24.000 --> 00:54:26.000
Stuart Winchester: Just Pila, just Pila.
00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:27.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, okay, well, Pilar…
00:54:27.000 --> 00:54:44.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: uh, is a small resort, uh, although a decent, uh, ski area. You know, off the top of my head, I would guess it probably has, you know, like a 60 kilometers or something like that. But it sits above a town called Aosta. The valley is called Aosta. And if you’re doing a tour, staying in Aosta is actually great.
00:54:29.000 --> 00:54:31.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:42.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:54:44.000 --> 00:54:45.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:54:44.000 --> 00:55:02.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: there’s a strong, uh, Roman, uh, connection with that town. And in fact, you can see there, it says Teatro Romano on that, uh, when you went in closer. You know, there’s an old Roman amphitheater that you can have a little wander around. There’s arches, uh, in the town there that you can have a look at.
00:54:48.000 --> 00:54:49.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmm.
00:54:52.000 --> 00:54:53.000
Stuart Winchester: Oh, wow.
00:54:58.000 --> 00:55:00.000
Stuart Winchester: Oh, jeez.
00:55:02.000 --> 00:55:03.000
Stuart Winchester: Look at that.
00:55:02.000 --> 00:55:04.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: And, you know, you get…
00:55:04.000 --> 00:55:20.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: a sense of that history if you’re staying down in Aosta, and then there’s a… you can see the lift that connects up from Aosta into the Pila ski area. So, that, if you wanted to visit a more of an independent, uh, resort, is a really interesting way.
00:55:11.000 --> 00:55:12.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:55:17.000 --> 00:55:19.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:26.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: of doing it that perhaps, you know, people wouldn’t necessarily think of.
00:55:22.000 --> 00:55:23.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:55:26.000 --> 00:55:31.000
Stuart Winchester: So these… it’s weird when you zoom out, right? And…
00:55:29.000 --> 00:55:32.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah.
00:55:31.000 --> 00:55:38.000
Stuart Winchester: you know, I have them in different colors for countries, and you can’t really see the names of them right now, but really, it’s all kind of Alps, right?
00:55:38.000 --> 00:55:53.000
Stuart Winchester: But there’s also some places outside the Alps that have joined these passes. One that I find really interesting, just because I really like this part of the world, is these areas up in Scandinavia. I mean, if you just want something different.
00:55:38.000 --> 00:55:40.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yes?
00:55:42.000 --> 00:55:43.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yep.
00:55:53.000 --> 00:55:58.000
Stuart Winchester: Right? And your expectation is not mind-blowing skiing, but just…
00:55:58.000 --> 00:56:09.000
Stuart Winchester: to see it for the novelty. What do you think about flying in to Norway, renting a car, and just kind of popping around all these places up here, Norway, Finland, and Sweden?
00:56:09.000 --> 00:56:26.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, well, again, firstly, I haven’t skied there myself, but on the Ski Podcast, we have covered most of these destinations, because there is, from the UK market, an increasing interest in going over to Scandinavia, and I think partly that is because there’s a sense that.
00:56:12.000 --> 00:56:13.000
Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
00:56:16.000 --> 00:56:18.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:56:23.000 --> 00:56:24.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:56:26.000 --> 00:56:31.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: They have better snow reliability.
00:56:30.000 --> 00:56:31.000
Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
00:56:31.000 --> 00:56:47.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: because they’re further north, they’re less subject to any climate change issues. I think the difference is that you’re going to get skiing in Scandinavia is you don’t get as big a vertical drop. The mountains are not as high as they are in the Alps, so.
00:56:36.000 --> 00:56:37.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:56:42.000 --> 00:56:43.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:56:47.000 --> 00:56:56.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: you know, typically, you know, the… I mean, sometimes you can ski down. I have lots of friends who’ve been ski touring, who can… will do it from sea level.
00:56:56.000 --> 00:56:57.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:56:56.000 --> 00:57:12.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: and ski tour up, but you’re talking about much shorter vertical drops, so it might be 3, 4, 500 meters, uh, as opposed to some of the, you know, the big vertical drops that you can get, like in Zermatt, you can ski from 3,800 down to 1,400, so that’s a.
00:57:12.000 --> 00:57:14.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: A massive, massive run!
00:57:14.000 --> 00:57:24.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: to do in one go, which is next to impossible. You would possibly set that against Scandinavia being pretty expensive as well.
00:57:24.000 --> 00:57:25.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:57:24.000 --> 00:57:39.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Uh, that might be how we view it from Britain, you know, converting. I don’t know how it would relate in the US dollar, but, you know, from the UK, Scandinavia, Sweden, and Norway would be equivalent to…
00:57:31.000 --> 00:57:33.000
Stuart Winchester: It’s the same.
00:57:39.000 --> 00:57:43.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: you know, the Zermatt Switzerland kind of prices.
00:57:42.000 --> 00:57:43.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:57:43.000 --> 00:57:46.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: If you get a package.
00:57:46.000 --> 00:57:57.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: it can save you money, and the lift ticket isn’t necessarily more expensive. It’s more about, if you want to buy a pint, buy yourself a beer at the end of the day, then be prepared, because it’s going to be quite expensive.
00:57:57.000 --> 00:58:01.000
Stuart Winchester: Gosh, is it like Iceland? I was driving around Iceland, and I’m.
00:58:01.000 --> 00:58:06.000
Stuart Winchester: I just want to grab a beer to have at my Airbnb afterwards, we had a baby at the time.
00:58:03.000 --> 00:58:04.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Mm-hmm.
00:58:06.000 --> 00:58:10.000
Stuart Winchester: And I go into, like, 4 grocery stores, and they all have…
00:58:09.000 --> 00:58:11.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Okay.
00:58:10.000 --> 00:58:26.000
Stuart Winchester: Beer, that’s like 0. 01%. I’m like, where you can get a beer in this country? Like, oh, you have to go to a, a state owned store. These stores are open from like 11 to 5, like four days a week. So it took me a long time to find a beer. And when I did, it was like.
00:58:26.000 --> 00:58:33.000
Stuart Winchester: $50 for a, uh, for a 12-pack of cans. I was like, oh my god.
00:58:30.000 --> 00:58:32.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Okay.
00:58:32.000 --> 00:58:50.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Okay. Well, I don’t think it’s quite that difficult to get a drink in Sweden and Norway, but it is an option. And you mentioned some of the, you know, other destinations. Let’s take the Pyrenees. So, the Pyrenees is that range of mountains that runs between Spain and France.
00:58:37.000 --> 00:58:38.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
00:58:44.000 --> 00:58:46.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah.
00:58:50.000 --> 00:58:51.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:58:50.000 --> 00:58:58.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: And you’ve got a couple of areas highlighted there. So taking the one on the left to start off with, which is Bakira Beret.
00:58:57.000 --> 00:58:59.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
00:58:58.000 --> 00:59:14.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: And that is the largest ski resort in Spain. You know, you would get a lot of people from Barcelona going up there. It’s gone quite upmarket in recent years. The Spanish royal family have often skied there, has a really good snow record.
00:59:14.000 --> 00:59:23.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: You might think that’s surprising, because it’s quite a long way south. But that is… remind me what pass that one is included on? It’s on the Indy Pass.
00:59:17.000 --> 00:59:18.000
Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
00:59:21.000 --> 00:59:24.000
Stuart Winchester: This is on Andy. Yep.
00:59:23.000 --> 00:59:29.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, okay. You know, and it’s… it’s a good ski area, and if you’re doing a tour.
00:59:29.000 --> 00:59:34.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: and you wanted to try something different from the Alps, and get a bit of Spanish culture.
00:59:34.000 --> 00:59:37.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: That would be really interesting.
00:59:36.000 --> 00:59:37.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.
00:59:37.000 --> 00:59:38.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: At…
00:59:37.000 --> 00:59:42.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah, and Spain tends to be less expensive, although I heard that may be changing a bit.
00:59:41.000 --> 00:59:47.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yes. No, no, no. I would definitely agree with that. It’s definitely less expensive overall. I mean, Bakira Beret.
00:59:42.000 --> 00:59:43.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:59:44.000 --> 00:59:45.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah, so… yeah.
00:59:47.000 --> 01:00:02.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: These days, you’ll find a few champagne bars there. It’s not going to be as cheap as some of, you know, the rest of the Iberian Peninsula, but it still would represent much better value for money than, you know, a lot of the bigger resorts in Europe.
00:59:50.000 --> 00:59:52.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah, that’s right.
00:59:55.000 --> 00:59:57.000
Stuart Winchester: Right.
01:00:02.000 --> 01:00:03.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
01:00:03.000 --> 01:00:09.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: And then Andorra, Gran Valera, covers several different resorts.
01:00:08.000 --> 01:00:09.000
Stuart Winchester: Right.
01:00:09.000 --> 01:00:16.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: It’s a decent ski area, and not quite as good a snow record, but…
01:00:16.000 --> 01:00:28.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: I haven’t been there, uh, myself. I skied lots of the French Pyrenees, but not the Andorran, uh, Pyrenees. But, we have friends, uh, you know, who go there every year, and they absolutely, uh, love it.
01:00:17.000 --> 01:00:18.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
01:00:26.000 --> 01:00:28.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah.
01:00:29.000 --> 01:00:42.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: if I was… it sits on the Icon Pass, you know, if I had an Icon Pass and I was thinking about where I was going to go, I probably wouldn’t make that, you know, my priority, given that some of the other, you know, great options that you’ve got with Icon.
01:00:30.000 --> 01:00:31.000
Stuart Winchester: Yep.
01:00:32.000 --> 01:00:34.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:00:39.000 --> 01:00:40.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
01:00:42.000 --> 01:00:46.000
Stuart Winchester: Right, right. All right. Yeah.
01:00:44.000 --> 01:00:52.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: You could go to Dolomiti or you could go to Val de Oster. I think I probably prioritize that over going to Andorra.
01:00:46.000 --> 01:00:47.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah, that’s. Yeah.
01:00:52.000 --> 01:00:54.000
Stuart Winchester: So the cool thing about…
01:00:54.000 --> 01:01:12.000
Stuart Winchester: Europe. I mean, I’m bucketing this by pass, just because that’s how we have been trained as American consumers to think about skiing, because if you don’t have a pass, it’s very hard to just hop around and ski. And you could do that 20 years ago here, but you really can’t do it anymore, because the walk-up prices are.
01:00:57.000 --> 01:00:59.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yep.
01:01:12.000 --> 01:01:29.000
Stuart Winchester: $300 and upwards at the bigger resorts on the peak days and the peak of winter. And even on low days, they’re going to be over $200, which is just not worth it for any day of skiing that doesn’t involve a helicopter. So, you know, I’m bucketing these bypasses. You probably don’t.
01:01:29.000 --> 01:01:32.000
Stuart Winchester: Need a pass to go to Europe, so…
01:01:32.000 --> 01:01:43.000
Stuart Winchester: If you don’t have a pass, and you’re not locked into these, and you called out a couple that weren’t here, are there any big holes anywhere where you think…
01:01:43.000 --> 01:01:51.000
Stuart Winchester: a skier really shouldn’t overlook this region as a consideration just because it’s not on their pass? Or… region or ski area?
01:01:51.000 --> 01:02:05.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, okay. I mean, that’s a really interesting question. I guess the most obvious one is what I mentioned before, which is Val d’Azur. You know, Val d’Azur is definitely one of the best, the world’s best ski resorts, ski areas, and it’s not included on there at all.
01:01:56.000 --> 01:01:58.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
01:01:58.000 --> 01:01:59.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
01:02:01.000 --> 01:02:03.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
01:02:05.000 --> 01:02:07.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Um, and in that…
01:02:07.000 --> 01:02:11.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Valley, which is called the Tarantes.
01:02:10.000 --> 01:02:11.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
01:02:11.000 --> 01:02:24.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: we mentioned the Three Valleys, which is one of the first areas that you would go past, uh, on the way. But a bit further, uh, along that valley, you can also ski in, uh, Les Arc.
01:02:13.000 --> 01:02:14.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.
01:02:24.000 --> 01:02:25.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
01:02:25.000 --> 01:02:29.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: uh, you know, La Plan, those two together are called Paradisky.
01:02:28.000 --> 01:02:30.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
01:02:29.000 --> 01:02:38.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: You know, they are… it’s a big ski area, again, some really good skiing there. If it was going to be your only ever trip.
01:02:35.000 --> 01:02:36.000
Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
01:02:37.000 --> 01:02:38.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
01:02:38.000 --> 01:02:39.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: To Europe?
01:02:39.000 --> 01:02:55.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: I probably would recommend, you know, going to Val d’Isere or, uh, or Les Trois Vallees instead, but, you know, I’m a big fan of Les Arc. It’s more apartments, they do have hotels there as well, but they’ve got it right in the middle, uh, there, which is great.
01:02:48.000 --> 01:02:49.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah.
01:02:51.000 --> 01:02:52.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
01:02:55.000 --> 01:03:13.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: you can’t, uh, quite… yeah, you can see La Planne in the bottom left of that map. So those two areas link together. So there’s a massive amount of skiing if you want to, uh, if you want to do it, and it’s high, and it’s typically, you know, north-facing, so it’s… snow is, uh, is really good around there.
01:02:59.000 --> 01:03:00.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
01:03:13.000 --> 01:03:16.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: But if you’re coming from the States.
01:03:16.000 --> 01:03:22.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: you know, I would go to Val d’Isere or L’Etoile Vallee if I was going to that area instead.
01:03:22.000 --> 01:03:33.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah, this is so good, Ian, and I mean, we could do this all day. In the interest of respecting your time, because we’re already a half hour over what I made this call for, anything else you want to call out.
01:03:34.000 --> 01:03:46.000
Stuart Winchester: in Europe, European skiing, that if someone’s coming from North America and making the investments, that they should see, or do, or think about, or be aware of, or go to?
01:03:46.000 --> 01:03:57.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, I mean, I guess the only other thoughts are… because we’ve covered, you know, a lot of them. There’s two that… or three that aren’t on your map at the moment. I was very…
01:03:52.000 --> 01:03:54.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
01:03:56.000 --> 01:03:57.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
01:03:57.000 --> 01:04:13.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: I don’t know, amused, interested to see that the two Scottish resorts, Glencoe and Glenshee, are included on the Indy Pass. Now, I’m definitely not going to recommend that someone comes all the way from the States to go and ski there.
01:04:02.000 --> 01:04:03.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah, okay.
01:04:04.000 --> 01:04:06.000
Stuart Winchester: Yes.
01:04:06.000 --> 01:04:08.000
Stuart Winchester: Yes.
01:04:13.000 --> 01:04:31.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: purely for that. But if you’re on a business trip, let’s say, and that business trip happened to take you to Glasgow or Edinburgh, and it happened to be snowy at that time, I think you would find it really interesting going to probably, you know, Glencoe over Glenshee.
01:04:15.000 --> 01:04:16.000
Stuart Winchester: Right.
01:04:16.000 --> 01:04:17.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
01:04:21.000 --> 01:04:22.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
01:04:30.000 --> 01:04:32.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
01:04:31.000 --> 01:04:48.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Firstly, it’s absolutely beautiful, the area. I mean, Glencoe itself is an incredible valley to drive along. And the ski area is, you know, they don’t claim it’s a three valley. It’s pretty limited.
01:04:33.000 --> 01:04:35.000
Stuart Winchester: Yes.
01:04:48.000 --> 01:05:04.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: It’s Scottish skiing, and you just have to have a bit of luck, and if you have a bit of luck, you can have incredible skiing. And, you know, my, um, my family, my mum, you know, came from Scotland and learned to ski around that area, and I’ve been up there a few times, and at the moment.
01:04:54.000 --> 01:04:56.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
01:05:00.000 --> 01:05:01.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
01:05:04.000 --> 01:05:13.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: I have a gap in my diary in January, and it says Scotland in there. But what… because…
01:05:08.000 --> 01:05:09.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
01:05:13.000 --> 01:05:22.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: the snow can come and go very quickly. I’ll have to just decide, you know, a few days beforehand if that’s going to work. If it looks alright.
01:05:15.000 --> 01:05:17.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
01:05:19.000 --> 01:05:20.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
01:05:22.000 --> 01:05:23.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: I’m going.
01:05:23.000 --> 01:05:24.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
01:05:23.000 --> 01:05:32.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: But, you know, even from Brighton, you know, south coast of England, I mean, we’re in the same country, but it’s still quite a long way away. So those are two…
01:05:30.000 --> 01:05:32.000
Stuart Winchester: Would you still do train?
01:05:32.000 --> 01:05:47.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, I would do train. You can get the, uh, Caledonian Sleeper overnight train from London to Edinburgh, and in fact, it goes all the way through to very close to Glencoe, so that would work, uh, that would work really well. So, fingers crossed.
01:05:32.000 --> 01:05:34.000
Stuart Winchester: Sure. Okay. Okay.
01:05:35.000 --> 01:05:36.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
01:05:43.000 --> 01:05:44.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
01:05:47.000 --> 01:05:56.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: you know, for… for that one. And the other ones I wanted to mention that are definitely off the beaten track are in Turkey, which are also on the Indy Pass, I would guess.
01:05:47.000 --> 01:05:48.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
01:05:53.000 --> 01:05:55.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
01:05:55.000 --> 01:05:58.000
Stuart Winchester: Yes, all three of these are in Indy.
01:05:56.000 --> 01:05:57.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah. Okay.
01:05:58.000 --> 01:06:02.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, and, you know, again.
01:06:02.000 --> 01:06:03.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: If…
01:06:03.000 --> 01:06:20.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: you wanted to build in, or you were going to a business meeting, let’s say in Istanbul, or something like that, I think it would be super interesting. I haven’t skied in these areas, but they’re definitely on my list, you know, to ski in. We have covered them on the Ski Podcast, uh, before.
01:06:09.000 --> 01:06:10.000
Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.
01:06:12.000 --> 01:06:13.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
01:06:19.000 --> 01:06:20.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
01:06:20.000 --> 01:06:22.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: And…
01:06:22.000 --> 01:06:34.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: there’s a real interest in skiing in Turkey, and not… not specifically from the UK, but across Europe, you know, they’re drawing in… these areas, you might think of them as being…
01:06:34.000 --> 01:06:51.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: your typical cliched assumption would be, oh, they’re a bit old, they’ve probably got really old lifts, etc. They’re investing a lot of money in these areas. They’re getting a lot of that increasing middle class coming from the Stans, who are just over to the east of there.
01:06:40.000 --> 01:06:41.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
01:06:42.000 --> 01:06:43.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
01:06:47.000 --> 01:06:49.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
01:06:50.000 --> 01:06:51.000
Stuart Winchester: Right.
01:06:51.000 --> 01:07:02.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Kazakhstans and, uh, all the rest of them. Yeah, Georgia, uh, you know, there we go, that shows it pretty well. Uh, you know, they’re getting a lot of people coming over from there to ski.
01:06:52.000 --> 01:06:54.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.
01:06:54.000 --> 01:06:55.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay.
01:07:01.000 --> 01:07:02.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
01:07:02.000 --> 01:07:04.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Uh, and…
01:07:04.000 --> 01:07:16.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: I think it looks really interesting. Turkey’s a really fast-moving country at the moment. I’d love to go to Istanbul. You know, it’s definitely on my list of places to try out. So, I wouldn’t come to Europe.
01:07:16.000 --> 01:07:31.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: from the States, just to ski in Turkey, but if, by chance, you’re an IndyPass holder, and you happen to be going nearby, I mean, even if you’re going to Georgia or something like that, you know, it’s probably not going to affect a high proportion of your listeners, but there’ll be someone out there, yeah, go on.
01:07:22.000 --> 01:07:24.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.
01:07:29.000 --> 01:07:30.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
01:07:31.000 --> 01:07:35.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Go and have a look at them. It’s probably worth buying the IndiePass just for that.
01:07:35.000 --> 01:07:41.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah, I’ve been watching some of the nations, like, I just wrote about the ski areas in China.
01:07:41.000 --> 01:07:57.000
Stuart Winchester: And like everything else in China, they’re brand new because they didn’t build ski resorts till, you know, 20 years ago. So so, you know, whereas in Japan, every ski resort has four abandoned chairlifts and, you know, in America, every resort has a 60 year old double chair.
01:07:41.000 --> 01:07:43.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Right.
01:07:44.000 --> 01:07:45.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah. Okay.
01:07:46.000 --> 01:07:48.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Mmhm.
01:07:58.000 --> 01:08:13.000
Stuart Winchester: These new resorts are being built brand new with brand new technology. And I think as we see more regions rise to the middle class, as you’re saying, I think we’ll start to see more of these places in these mountain regions that maybe we’re not thinking about right now.
01:08:13.000 --> 01:08:20.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Yeah, for sure. I mean, it’s super interesting, the development of skiing. You know, in Europe.
01:08:16.000 --> 01:08:18.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah.
01:08:20.000 --> 01:08:21.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.
01:08:21.000 --> 01:08:36.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: like in the States, I think, you know, the overall audience has matured, you know, to a certain degree. We don’t have as many younger people coming through, and although people are skiing until a later age.
01:08:28.000 --> 01:08:29.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
01:08:36.000 --> 01:08:37.000
Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.
01:08:37.000 --> 01:08:45.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: you know, it’s a mature audience, whereas the growth is coming in Asia, and that is, you know, super interesting.
01:08:39.000 --> 01:08:41.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah.
01:08:45.000 --> 01:08:47.000
Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.
01:08:47.000 --> 01:09:02.000
Stuart Winchester: All right, Ian, that was awesome. That’s an awesome orientation to European skiing. I hope it was helpful to the listeners. I am happy to flip it around and do one for your listeners in North America, if that’s ever something you’re interested in.
01:09:02.000 --> 01:09:16.000
Stuart Winchester: Uh, because if you are gonna come over and ski here, you definitely need a pass, or else you’re in for some shock, or unless you got a billion dollars in your bank account, then good for you. Uh, but thanks so much, Ian, I really appreciate it, and I hope you have an awesome winter.
01:09:16.000 --> 01:09:22.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Cool! That’s great, Stuart. Same to you, and, you know, I really enjoy listening to the storm, so keep it going.
01:09:22.000 --> 01:09:24.000
Stuart Winchester: Thanks so much, Ian. Talk to you soon.
01:09:24.000 --> 01:09:25.000
Iain - The Ski Podcast: Alright, ciao.
01:09:29.000 --> 01:09:45.000
Stuart Winchester: Okay, that was Ian Martin of the Ski Podcast. All right, that is going to be our show for today. I will get to some listener reaction on tomorrow’s show, which will feature Brian Bench, the founder of Snow Schoolers.
01:09:45.000 --> 01:10:01.000
Stuart Winchester: Disrupting the lesson world. Uh, for more content, you will want to subscribe to the Storm Skiing Newsletter at stormskiing.com. The best way to support the storm is to upgrade to a paid subscription. Uh, but you can start with the free and the emails and, and podcasts will come right to your inbox.
01:10:01.000 --> 01:10:15.000
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01:10:15.000 --> 01:10:21.000
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01:10:21.000 --> 01:10:35.000
Stuart Winchester: my wife tells me there’s a TikTok now, she’s running a lot of our social game these days, at Storm Ski Journal on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Till next time, stay well, stay safe, I am Stuart Winchester, and I’ll talk to you again very soon.
