Take a look at this indoor skiing concept. It’s come to London, at Dukes Meadow. It’s getting a big thumbs up from moist who have tried it. A great place for beginners to practice, too. Check out the promo video:
It’s usually on day three of the ski holiday that your legs really start to complain. After two days of full-on leg burning exercise on the slopes, the leg muscles will be tired, aching and simply a bit done-in.
However, if you push through the aches and pains you’ll find that by day five and six, your legs have become acclimatised to the extra-long days of skiing and as the holiday comes to an end, you really begin to feel the benefit of stronger legs and stamina.
So why not do a little ski-specific training before you head off on your ski holiday? It makes sense, doesn’t it? If you arrive with skiing-ready legs then you’re going to enjoy the ski holiday a great deal more from day one to seven.
Fast feet: Start in a neutral position with you feet shoulder-width apart and your hips and knees a little flexed. Concentrate on keeping your core engaged and as you keep the neutral position begin to move you feet as fast as you can, lifting one and then the other as if running quickly on the spot but still keeping your feet wide apart. Do two sets of 30 seconds, with 60 seconds of rest in between.
Why? This legs-apart position is how you’ll ski and so if your legs are strong in this position you’ll find they become less fatigued.
Side lunge circuit: Place four cones about 5ft apart in a square pattern on the floor. Stand on one of the perimeter lines, facing into the square and with a cone near your left foot. Get yourself into a neutral athletic stance and then perform a sidestep to the right landing your right foot just inside the next cone.
Stay low and compact as you swivel or pivot 90 degrees on your right foot until your back is facing into the square, and then perform a sidestep to land your left foot inside the next cone. Keep going until you have completed a circuit of the cones. Do this five times in a clockwise direction and then five times the other way.
Why? This session calls for a sustained leg contraction and strong core and hip stability, all of which are important for skiing performance.
Front lunges: Start these lunges in a low lunge position. Remember to engage your core muscles and place an equal amount of weight between your front and back feet. Switch feet throughout this exercise but stay as low as possible and holding your body in a good lunge alignment. Do four sets of 10 reps.
Why? Leg, butt and hip strength, as well core stability, are vital for good skiing technique.
* Always warm up and cool down before and after each training session. And do not embark on a new exercise regime if you are in any way in doubt about your physical health – ask a doctor first.
If you could improve on your skiing trip what would you add? How about a festival of music, comedy or food? In 2012 there are a host of skiing festivals and here we pick six of the best to launch the New Year.
Chef’s Cup, Alta Badia, Italy
Kicking off on January 22, the five-day Chef’s Cup adds up to a celebration of haute cuisine in the heart of the Dolomites. Some 400 of the world’s best chefs come together in Alta Badia to discuss culinary trends, showcase local produce and compete on the snow. Visitors can enjoy the culinary results and also ski! See www.chefscup.it
Winter TEVA Mountain Games, America
From February 10 to 12, Vail’s inaugural Winter TEVA Mountain Games comes to America. A host of professional and amateur snowspotrs athletes will come to the resort in pursuit of adventure, music – and competitions. You’ll discover contests in ice climbing, Telemark skiing, snowshoe racing and mountain cyclocross. Plus there will be free music concerts, films and parties. See www.tevamountaingames.com/winter
Momentum Ski Festival, Switzerland
From March 16 to 18, skiing fans can ogle at the amazing ski racers and enjoy some après-ski fun at the City Ski Championships. See www.momentumski.com
Meribel Live, France
A five-day celebration of French and British music take place on the slopes of Meribel from March 19 to 23. See www.meribel.net for news on the 2012 line-up.
Altitude, Mayrhofen, Austria
The hills of Mayrhofen will be alive with the sounds of laughter as a popular comedy festival arrives in the Austrian resort from March 26 to 31. The line-up includes Jimmy Carr, Frankie Boyle, Ed Byrne and Al Murray. See www.altitudefestival.com
Jazz Up, Avoriaz, France
March 31 to April 6 will see the annual Jazz Up festival in the Portes du Soleil ski area. There will be seven headline concerts and 40 “dinner” concerts held in local restaurants and bars.
A sports student from England has “rail ridden” his way into the Guinness Book of World Records. Calum Paton, of Tamworth, Staffordshire, snowboarded along a rail to hit 78 metres. The Record rail ride took place at Sno!Zone – Milton Keynes’ Indoor Slope – where some 60 snowboarders were attempting to beat the previous record of 67.9 metres.
Following th monster rail ride 16-year-old Calum said: “I couldn’t believe it when I went past the mark. We had been trying for four or five hours and I was one of the last to go at about 11.45pm.
“I got past the 40 metre mark and you kind of know it’s going well, then it is just about keeping it together.”
Calum took home a framed certificate from the Guinness Book of World Records and £1,000 in prize money. He plans to spend the cash on a snowboarding holiday.
Calum gave a bit of insight into the technique of a rail rider. He said: “To rail ride you need to have really good balance and you have to practice at it a lot. But I’d never attempted it on this scale, so to get the record was pretty special.”
Grenoble is a favourite place to fly to for ski resorts in France. Now Scottish skiers and snowboarders have greater access to this ski destination airport thanks to the announcement of a new flight route.
EasyJet has launched their new winter route from Edinburgh Airport to a French ski destination. The cheap flights company already has routes to two other ski destinations, Lyon and Geneva.
The new Grenoble service will operate on Saturdays and Sundays until April 15.
Hugh Aitken, EasyJet’s commercial manager for Scotland, said the route was “a great addition to our winter portfolio and strengthens our position as Scotland’s major ski airline”. He added: “Current sales figures demonstrate that there is a real appetite amongst Scots to head off for a winter ski break.”
Thanks to Field’s of View on Flickr for the header image.
Ski and snowboard wear goes through fads – and this season is no different. The trendy look on the slopes this season is all things bright and beautiful. We’re guessing that dreary days of winter have brought with them a desire for the funky reds, pinks, purples, oranges, greens, blues and even fluorescent colours.
It’s not necessary to have matching ski clothing, such as jackets and pants, but with lots of blocks of colours one style leader is to combine a few bold colours on the jacket with one of these colours picked out for the pants.
You’ll also see jackets in one colour but with a contrasting pocket colour or big, bold stripes.
Fur and metallic detailing are also big on the pistes across Europe and America. How do you fancy fur edge hoods and collars and even the odd fur-edged cuff?Metal-look belts, helmets and features offer ultra cool looks, too.
Even with bright coloured ski and snowboard clothing, some folks still want to stand out from the crowds just a little more. You’ll see designs with herringbone, fluorescent colours and more than a few big pop-pom hats.
Because layering is key for any outdoor activity, the ski clothing ranges also include funkily deigned baselayers. Just because many of these layers stay on the underneath it doesn’t mean they come in boring blacks and whites. You’ll find bright greens, reds, purples, oranges and stunning design prints, such as modern camo, for baselayers. Maybe you’ll get to show these off in the après-ski bar!
Go on, dare to be bold on the slopes in bright colours!
If you’re looking to update your snowboard, or it’s your first snowboard purchase, there are several features to look out for. Snowboard designers have been busy coming up with ways to make carving and off-piste riding a whole lot easier, and in many cases, more aggressive.
These days there are snowboards to meet all riding aspirations and in particular many boards now come with new traction and camber technology. Various snowboard brands have their own versions so it will require a little explaining.
Camber is the way that a board is shaped from nose to tail. It also takes into account the weight of a person standing on the board. Basically, more camber at each end offers better float when heading off-piste. You need to take into account the flex of a board, too, because the more flexible it is the greater the degree of lift at the nose and tail. While flex and camber might be ace off-piste, a stiffer board will probably suit on-paste riders much better.
Traction comes from “side cuts” on the boards. Rather than a standard-looking side cut that just bends in at the waist and back out at the nose and tail, new side cuts either have an indentation creating a kink or an outward bend creating a bump in the side cut. Some have waves all the way along the sidecut edge to offer more points of contact with the snow when turning on the board. Visually you can notice these waves looking right at the board or by putting it on its edge and looking down the sidecut.
Licensed by Lib tech for use by snowboard manufacturers, such as Roxy and Rossignol, is Magne traction. The most basic description is “edges with wavy lines”. More specifically, this design has serrated edges, rather like a bread knife that offers more grip and control when on the snow. So instead of just one line of an edge for cutting into the snow when carving, the Magne traction offers several points of contact for increased likelihood of contact when turning.
Burtons boards use a similar design with two extra contact points along the sidecut. Salomon call their sidecut the “Equalizer”. Meanwhile, Bataleon, has also brought out boards using their Triple Base Technology (TBT). Here’s how TBT is described: “A TBT snowboard is flat between the bindings with angled side bases that are lifted with gradually increasing angles. The uplift starts from flat in the binding area to a maximum increase at the widest point of the board. With the new updated TBT there is a slight extra uplift happening after the effective edge end to create an even looser feeling without sacrificing control.” The sidecuts of many Bataleon boards also offer extra traction but without over-doing the cut into the snow.
It’s worth taking several boards for a test-ride if you can – perhaps hire a board for a day – before buying because each board is different and will suit a range of rising styles.
* Tell us what you think of the new technology.
With thanks to Nassfeld from Flickr for the header image.
Skiers and snowboarders across Europe are celebrating news of snow, wonderful snow, falling in many resorts. The usual doom and gloom merchants had been suggesting that the snow might never arrive in the Alps but now it’s falling in bucket loads. We’re as delighted as anyone.
But what if you fancy something a little different? How about booking a second trip this season? Your first trip to your favourite European resort and then another skiing holiday to somewhere that you haven’t tried before.
Go indoors: We’re not just talking about your local ski dome. We mean, head to an indoor ski “resort”. Ski Dubai is the Middle East’s first indoor ski resort with five ski runs across some 240,000 square feet, and covered with snow all year round. The slopes are as high as a 25-story building and there are pistes to suit all skiing abilities.
Go high and cold: If all else is failing across the skiing world, you can bet there’ll be snow a Hemsedal Ski Resort, which is home to Norway’s highest groomed ski slope at 4,760ft. The downside might be the freezing temperatures and very short days of light but there is also the chance to try night skiing.
Go European in the US: America’s southern Rocky Mountains offers the cosy, European-style village of Taos Ski Valley. The resort founded by a Swiss-German immigrant in the mid 1950s and the mountain still boasts an authentic Bavarian lodge and an acclaimed ski school. The high-altitude slopes are renowned for their challenging runs and light, dry powder.
Of course we’d all love there to be snow on tap whenever we wanted to go skiing or snowboarding. But the fact is we need to wait for winter. And sometimes we need to wait until the deepest mid-winter. That’s why dry ski slopes and indoor snow slopes are so popular, especially in Britain. Now the UK’s longest dry ski slopes is set for a £500,000 revamp.
The Midlothian Snowsports Centre at Hillend, near Edinburgh, will be upgraded to include new, safer ski matting at its existing nursery slope, snowtubing runs and two new lifts.
Sportscotland, the national agency for sport, has provided the funding.
It was only recently that the popular Scottish dry ski slope, which is also known as Hillend ski slope, was threatened with closure after Midlothian Council said it could no longer afford to fund it. But then Sportscotland and the Scottish government stepped in with £1m of funding to secure the centre’s future.
The fight to save the centre was the focus of an internet campaign supported by a 27,000 people. It just goes to show how many people like their skiing!
Derek Milligan, Midlothian Council’s leader, is reported as saying: “We know there is huge enthusiasm out there for the centre and these improvements will offer something for everyone, whether it’s snowtubing, learning to ski on the new, safer nursery slopes or choosing a different slope from the top of the chair lift.
“We hope these exciting plans for this national facility will have a positive impact on snowsports for people across the country by helping to maximise the full potential of the site.”
With thanks to .Martin on Flickr for the header image.
After 17 nights on ice, sub-zero temperatures, whiteouts and 24-hour daylight, 16-year-old Amelia Hempleman-Adams made the record books when she became the youngest person to ski to the South Pole last week. Alongside her dad David, the schoolgirl skied 97 miles in total and described the adventure as an “extraordinary experience”.
She is reported as saying: “The biggest challenges were the freezing cold, dried food, pulling frozen poo in a sledge and Dad’s snoring. The best bit has been experiencing what dad does on expeditions.”
Last month, we reported on Amelia’s preparations for the trip. Dad David had already taken his place in the record books on numerous previous expeditions, including the first to reach the South Pole solo and unsupported in 1996.
Amelia and her dad started their trip from The Farthest Point South, where Ernest Shackleton had to turn back on January 9, 1909. David said: “Amelia has done amazingly well. I’m very proud of her. It’s one thing going off on an expedition on your own but another thing when you are looking after your own teenager daughter. Obviously, I wanted to make sure she returned to the UK with all her fingers and toes.”