Skiing

Skiing · 8 March 2021

Women’s Day

Did Mrs Le Blond found a Ladies Ski Club?

Skiing · 7 January 2021

A piste of history

The first British Ski Championship, Jan 6/7 1921

Skiing · 16 December 2020

Le Carré: ‘far and away the best ski cartoonist in the business’

“I have only ever written by hand. The lapsed graphic artist in me actually enjoys drawing the words.” John le Carré, The Pigeon Tunnel (2016) In…

Skiing · 25 February 2017

PowdAir dreams: from Southend to Sion

A new airline, yet to incorporate let alone take off, wants to establish itself as the British winter sporter’s favourite, with Sion as its hub. PowdAir…

The recent spat between Unilever and Tesco – the so-called marmite war – over a price rise justified (or not) by the weakness of sterling will…

The future of the off-piste resort of La Grave is once again in doubt, as it has been for much of its forty year existence. The…

In the youngest edition of The Oldie – June, out already – Marcus Berkmann reviews the film Eddie The Eagle, which tells a version of the…

As I understand Carnival, darkly, leg-pulls are an essential part of the fun. For centuries servants have been cocking snooks at their masters, demure young ladies…

A new route to the French Alps – via le Petit Prince and the Magic Kingdom. I’m sure it’s not new, but it’s new to me…

Skiing · 1 October 2015

Glacier meltdown? Stick a plaster on it

After what France is describing as the ‘climatic disaster of 2015’ – a hot summer – Prime Minister Manuel Valls and his eco minister Ségolène Royal…

Skiing · 21 April 2015

JT Holmes pulls it off

On Easter Saturday my daughter and I visited the HQ of Alpine BASE jumping, the Airtime café in Lauterbrunnen, to meet the American skier and jumper…

Skiing · 13 March 2015

Race day at Crans Montana

It’s a typical Crans Montana morning: dazzling. The confident forecast is hard and fast racing conditions for the early starters in the Momentum City Ski Championships…

Austria · 6 February 2015

Not so sure about snowsure

“Any chance you can supply a picture?” Cue small earthquake in south west Oxfordshire. The filing system is comprehensively rummaged, turned upside down and shaken. Could…

I have never joined the crush for the Harrods sale but I know what it feels like, because I have just booked the travel arrangements for…

Skiing · 30 October 2014

Skiing by night – a darkmotif

It is a small detail, rarely omitted from the story. The brothers Branger, Tobias and Johann, ski pioneers in Davos c1890, conducted their experiments under cover…

Inspired by the tour operator Le Ski’s ingenious self-promotional database-enhancing infographic prize quiz, I am moved to offer an Alpine/blog related quiz to celebrate the start…

Skiing · 1 October 2014

St Moritz in winter: too good to be true?

Winter sports is a competitive business, and rivalry has been a powerful spur to its development. In the early days of alpinism the arch rivals were…

Daniel was not in bed, technically, when I poked my head round his door at eight, but at least he was in his room. It was…

The dangerous influence of sat-nav smartphone apps on skiers’ behaviour has made its way up the news agenda lately, from a discreet mention in this space…

Skiing · 28 February 2014

By train to Switzerland

The by-train ski holiday has been likened to a jigsaw puzzle, with the difference that the challenge is not complete when you have fitted the pieces…

Skiing · 14 February 2014

Grimentz: good career prospects for traffic wardens

Switzerland’s third largest cable car has opened, bigger than many a ski chalet in the vieux village and only five weeks late. At a cost of…

I had a rare endorsement from my son recently, when he asked if he could borrow my ski helmet. “What’s wrong with yours?” I asked. “Your…

The social media can be a wild ride. One of the twits I follow, @chamonixfirst, an airport shuttle service, recently put out a picture of a…

Skiing · 24 November 2013

Heidi’s getting hitched

The news that Arosa and Lenzerheide, close neighbours in the Grisons canton of south east Switzerland, are to reach out across the summits and link their…

France · 12 November 2013

Chamonix by train: transport update

From Lyon comes an important announcement from Anne Lambusson, regional directrice of the Reseau Ferré de France. ‘After studying many hypotheses’ concerning the reopening of the…

Skiing · 6 November 2013

Where to ski at half term

Heard on Radio 4: outraged parents complaining to earnest consumer journalists – You and Yours, perhaps? – about the scandal of tour operators charging extra during…

In days of plenty, an annual treat was the receipt of a Christmas card from Jackson Hole which took the form of a season’s lift pass…

Skiing · 14 October 2013

Mr Smith’s Olympics

The Atlantic magazine of May 1936 published the journal of American ski racer Robert Livermore who travelled to the Alps for the Winter Olympics at Garmisch,…

Skiing · 13 October 2013

Peter Lunn and the psychology of ski racing

“The longer one has skied the less one enjoys it.” This may seem a surprising assertion from a man who began skiing at the age of…

Of course Bond skis. Half Swiss by birth, he is a citizen of the world, the go-to can-do man. Which is your favourite Bond skiing sequence?…

France · 1 October 2013

Ski hosting – no end to hostilities

Nov 7 update: Le Ski’s appeal deferred until May 2014 for further investigation, so the ban stands for the coming season. I’m up to here with…

Progeny pressure is a terrifying thing, because it never lets up. Daddy daddy daddy …. please please please …. why why why Why, in this instance,…

Skiing · 11 September 2013

How long is a piste of string

“When it comes to size, lots of us might be guilty of a little exaggeration now and again,” declares the latest press release from the Where…

On the strength of a Buy recommendation in the FT I am reading Laetitia Rutherford’s so far marvellous memoir, Our Hearts Hang From The Lemon Trees.…

Any minute now, the Tour de France cyclists will be toiling over the Col de la Croix-Fry and passing the world’s most stereotypically delightful Alpine chalet-hotel,…

So … just a short stage today for our cyclist heroes: a mere 168km to Alpe d’Huez finishing with 30km of ascent in two bits, totalling…

@rosiesimpson writes rather a brilliant blog in the form – for the moment at least – of a wine guide to the Tour de France. I…

Skiing · 24 April 2013

Skiing’s Literary Locations

Davos is the reading-man’s ski resort. How many times have I packed and started its set text The Magic Mountain, and nodded off on the train?…

Skiing · 21 April 2013

I love Grimentz, but ….

I would like to make it clear from the start that I love Grimentz, the prettiest ski village in Switzerland. Like many others, I fell for…

France · 6 April 2013

Les Grands Montets is fifty today

The Grands Montets is 50 years old today, and will be hosting a big party all day – bigger than usual, that is – with raffle…

Last week a French court ruling against ski tour operator Le Ski (to be appealed) brought about the suspension of ski hosting by British tour operators…

Austria · 31 January 2013

London City Airport. The ski goggles have landed.

I had an email from City Airport this morning, announcing the arrival of some new ski goggles. It seemed an imaginative way to advertise an airport…

Pete Barnes was a Kandahar ski club regular whom I met at Murren over many years for the Inferno race in January. He was the fastest…

I’ve been enjoying a preliminary dip in to Mark Frary’s biography of Erna Low, Aiming High. Miss Low, as I was brought up respectfully to refer…

France · 12 January 2013

Bellecote, North Face. Never on Monday

News from La Plagne of a serious accident on the North Face of Bellecote is a reminder that as the weather changes, so does the primary…

The row between French ski schools and British tour operators about ski hosting/guiding/leading/instructing has gone on so long , it’s beginning to seem like the Hundred…

Skiing · 19 December 2012

100 years of Swiss winter sports

“Revelers gathered in the Bernese Oberland town of Mürren Sunday to mark what many view as the birth of modern Swiss winter sports – 100 years…

Pip’s going skiing for Christmas. Oh no …. It is easy to feel you are operating in a vacuum, and usually that feeling is accurate. Occasionally…

Skiing · 1 December 2012

Lord Knebworth

Reading one’s own words is a strange experience, especially when someone else has written them. I got used to it when a resort guide book of…

Oxfordshire · 6 November 2012

White Horse Hill

I live beneath White Horse Hill, one of many in the middle of southern England. Most mornings I look out of the window and think how…

Surprise number 1, on entering Earl’s Court: it was so quiet, the old skiing fart didn’t even need to turn off his hearing aid. Nor was…

It is the time of year when active travellers turn their thoughts from cycling to skiing. Those in the northern hemisphere do anyway. So it’s off…