So hi, and welcome back to the Whiteout, the 24 winter ski season, where we're going to dive into all things snowy and fun.

I'm your host, Don Killinger from In The Snow, and today, as usual, joined by my fabulous co host, what do I say, Rob? Rob Stewart. Fabulous is good. Hi, Don.  Yeah, good. Yeah, it's, it's very exciting to be recording our first podcast of the winter. I will say winter. I'm that's just looking ahead.

Yesterday I was sitting outside having lunch   in the sun, but I know it's all going to change soon and that's what we're 25 degrees at the minute. We hope the temperature drops ready in time for  the NEC at Birmingham this weekend, which is the 14th, 15th of October, and then the following week at Excel, 21st, 22nd is that? Is that right? Yeah. That's right. So the following week at Excel and and a few things going on in between. And  that's always, the mark of the winter, isn't it?

 It's when, when I can sort of smell the ski wax calling me from my, basement, where I am right now. Probably the smell of your boots that weren't stored properly, Rob. Hmm. Well, there is that as well. And no, I'm, I'm, I'm very good at, you know, sorting ski equipment out at the end of the winter, actually, which is a top tip for anybody that has their own equipment.

Just get it done at the end of the winter, try it all out and you're ready to go again. Typical of you Rob to be so organized, not like me where I stuff it under a bed and hope it'll all be safe ready for when I come back to the the next season. 

I'm sure there's plenty of listeners that can understand my way of doing things.  So without further ado, Rob, let's get back into the news because even though we are very early in the season, there does seem to be plenty of news kicking about, doesn't there? 

A quick reminder to listeners, your review really does count.

It's not just vanity for Rob and I, but it actually helps other like minded skiers find this podcast. So please do take two seconds to hit the five stars and tell us how great it is. And of course, if you don't like it, let's keep it a secret between us.

So maybe you want to kick off with the first news item for 2023 24. What have you got for us? Well, I spotted this. It's the heading is a recent studies that indicate the probability of sustaining an injury slipping in winter conditions. Basically, that's higher than when you're skiing. 

And I spotted it because I've had personal experience of this myself. I mean, one of the worst injuries I ever had over the many, many years of skiing is was slipping on the ice. You know, walking around the resort many years ago. I was in hospital for quite a few days. It was a nasty accident and it, taught me a lesson.

We've all seen those people go sliding down the street and straight over onto their backside. You know, it happens and it happened to me and lessons were, wear really good shoes and don't put your hands in your pockets. Cause that's what happened. And I hit my head. So, but there was, there's been a recent report by the Finnish brand Halty that said since the 1970s, the overall risk of being injured in a skiing accident has decreased by between 80 and 90%, mainly due to advances in ski equipment.

But in comparison, the risk of being injured after slipping on the ice and snow has remained the same during the same period. So basically the report is saying there's twice the chance of injury whilst walking around compared to actually skiing now.  I would love to see where these stats came from, wouldn't you?

Yeah, I mean, I, I'm not clear on how the data  has come to that conclusion. So I did sort of dig around and that was a bit unconvinced about the data, but at the same time, I kind of agree with the principle. You know, good on Halty for coming up with a bit of an innovative storyline to try and promote, which is basically one of their outdoor shoes.

Ah, I see, I see what they're trying to do here. Yeah, so, I mean, they, they obviously sell winter shoes, they've got the Torneo Drymax X and they're just pointing out that that particular shoe is pretty good for walking around in ski resorts, most of us don't want to fall over when we're skiing.

And,  then you get off the slopes, you kind of relax and you think, oh, you know. And boom, you know, you slip on the ice and it's happened to me. . 

 A quick shout out to our charity partner Snowcamp, the game changing national youth charity who turn young lives around with the power of snow sports, 

visit snowcamp. org. uk or search Snowcamp online to get in touch and to get involved. .



Very good. What have you got done? So Ingham's have launched this ski train routes. So traveling to the Alps, obviously, I don't know whether you've done it, Rob, by train. Fantastic. It's such a beautiful way to travel down. Last year. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So anyway, Ingham's have launched a number of holidays that are offering the train travel to various resorts across the Alps, not just Borg Sumnery, Slizark but they do offer that too, but also into places like St.

Anton in Austria and a number of Swiss resorts such as Wengen, Murren in Italy all being reached by trains. It's very cool that they're building in train travel. It is a super luxury way of traveling. I don't think about the sort of. Some of the train lines that run in the UK, but when you get down into Europe, it is a lovely luxury way of traveling and it kind of feels very hassle free, so it's definitely worthwhile because the minute you go on that train and you pack all your bags on there and you get sat down, it is, it's just lovely watching that countryside blitz away, isn't it?

It's fantastic. Oh yeah, it's so relaxing. So well worth checking out the likes of SkiLine or Ingham's checking out some of their deals. I see prices starting at 629 for seven nights self catering in Val d'Isere, including train fares. I mean, that is pretty damn good. Good deal, that. Super good deal.

That is something else. I actually thought there was a tie bar. I thought there was a one missing out on that, but that is so good. No, no, that's correct. Yeah, SkiLine are offering that 629 in December. Seven night self catering. I think it's based on four people staying in an apartment. But, you know, still.

And, but it's, it's including a return, return train ticket. Hit me with this very next tenuous news story, Rob. You must be proud of this story. No, I love this story. Actually, I don't, I don't love this story. I just had to get that in the word love. Yeah. Winter, the winter destinations you're most likely to get engaged.

I mean, it's not one of our typical ski stories, is it? But let's it is a bit of a daft story, but I can't help myself. A press release arrived in my inbox from Skypark Secure, an airport parking website. And I mean, fair enough for thinking of a story to promote car parking. But it's still daft. But anyway, they looked at the winter destinations where people are most likely to get engaged and Salzburg came out tops, which I thought is fair enough.

I mean, Salzburg, it's a lovely city. I get it. But also in the top 10 was Vienna. Basel and Prague, all lovely places, and you know, you could tie that into a ski trip because this did have a kind of ski winter angle to it, but there were a few anonymous as well. Where was it? Solihull? I mean, I quite like Solihull actually, smart part of Birmingham.

Definitely a place where you could hang out for an engagement plan, but no, Gdansk.

Gdansk. I mean, I'm sure there's nothing against Gdansk. I mean, I've never been there. So fair enough. I mean, it could be really, I'm sure it's really nice. If listeners have been there, Nuremberg and Cardiff. I mean nothing against the places, but I'm sure they all, I mean, Cardiff has its nice spots as well.

It's not far from me. I just. Think you might choose somewhere like Zermatt or Kve over those places. I'm just saying, oh dude, who did the well done Sky Park? Who, who came up with this? Who came? Some, well Sky Parks on this for a reason. I see Sky Park Secure Car Parks came up with this to promote their.

Airport parking at

skyparksecure. com. We've totally fallen for the trap and, and promoted their story. Well, there you go.

Absolutely. And then obviously the ski show we've already mentioned, but I thought it's worthwhile mentioning that in the snow running the arse, the experts Stan.

So if you're coming down to the ski show, you want a bit of impartial advice. You don't just want somebody from the three valleys telling you that the three valleys is the best place to ski in, although it is a fabulous place to ski in. Then pop on down to CSS at the N E c I think we're on stand D 55, but you'll know where we are 'cause we're the one with masses of magazines giving away for free.

Come and get impartial advice even. You might even find Rob on our stand, who's extremely knowledgeable. I hope so, But at the same time at the show, there are also celebrity lineups. The likes of Ed Lee, Eve Muirhead, Eddie Eagle Edwards. Can you believe it? Some very cool people. You've got Warren from the Warren Smith Ski Academy doing some coaching.

You've got Crystal Holidays with their beginner snow dome. So some very cool stuff going on at the show. We've got a free ticket giveaway at the moment. I wonder if that's going to be extended or not, but definitely worth coming down, look up national snow week or national snow shows online and see the NEC, the 14th.

And 15th of October. So an exciting weekend ahead. Very much looking forward to seeing our colleagues and our skier buddies coming down and seeing us and grabbing a copy of the free magazine, just to put a plug in there, Rob. Very good. Yeah. Looking forward to it. Should be good for that.  That's it. What else have we got? Apparently ARX 1950 turns 20 this year.

 You've been there? No. Haven't you? Okay. Right. I'm doing this. I'm going to do this story then. I'll tell you why. I was there two years ago. So we're talking about Arc  Le Village. Very cool. It's it's a cool little ski resort and obviously it's, it's roped into the whole Lizark area. But back in 2003, they created this sort of ski in, ski out luxury, spas in every residence bit of a vibe, a little bit of stuff going on.

. One thing that really took me super cool restaurants. They're really, really, every dinner out was almost like a best ever dinner. A couple of nice was the brainchild of a local French guy. No. It wasn't. It was the brainchild of a Canadian mastermind being Intruest, the people that built Whistler.

So you've got this. No, those guys. Yeah, exactly. They're very smart. Yeah. Intruest coming in, the super big company, and they've said, we're going to create a very cool little village in the center of this mountainous area, and we're going to make it look like an old French resort. And I tell you, They really have done the job.

It's all ski in, ski out. And you come out of your hotel or your apartment, you can walk to absolutely everything, whether it be your ski hire, your ski lessons, the lift, whatever you want, it's all there, but surrounded by real chalet style stone walls, slate roofs, it's literally fairy tale ski resort stuff.

So, I really did rate it, I have to say. We had a really good time there. As I say, the food was great and it was a very sort of magical little resort to be in. And when I say little, it is small, but there is, I mean, loads of restaurants. I can't remember how many. There must have been 15, 20 odd restaurants, a few cool apres bars.

We were there for St. Patrick's Day. Oh, yeah. We were there for St. Patrick's Day. I was going to say, every night of the week normally. Exactly, yeah. We were there for St. Patrick's Day and that was super good fun. So yeah, 20.

Hang on, hang on, hang on. Sorry, sorry to butt in. But the new story here is not that it's turning 20 years old. The new story here is actually Dom Loves Arc 1950. I did. I really enjoyed myself there. The new story is, it's 20 years old. And they're going to have a year long party. Think Christmas magic, New Year's extravaganzas, live concerts, DJs, fireworks, the whole shebang going on to celebrate being 20 years old.

So go and dance on the snow, epic birthday treat, art 1950, le village. Well, Art 19, you've got to go there, Rob, you'd love it. Well, obviously, I clearly I clearly do need to go there. Get there with your family. Now that you've sold it to me. Yeah. Sold it to me. There you go, you have. Right. What's next? Yeah, nice, nice story here.

Six gears smashing the world record. It's, it's a really, really amazing story. It's sort of warm your heart kind of story in a way. When, when people do things that are really challenging like this and a group of eight skiers from all corners of the UK, they got together at , Chill Factory in Manchester to break a world record.

Not just any record. They skied the furthest using seated equipment, all in the spirit of raising money, of course, for the Snowsport UK, DSUK. So yeah, they had their eyes set on a goal skiing 44 kilometers. Within eight hours that actually, you know what, what they did, they completely smashed it out of the park in just over six hours.

They covered up whole 60, over 60 kilometers, totaling 399 runs, breaking the record by almost 20 kilometers. That's pretty cool in a dome. It's not easy clocking up big mileage in the domes, is it? It's not easy. And I'm sure, you know, it was, it was a physical and mental challenge to do that. The record breakers were skiers, including Will McPherson, Amber Meiklejani, Alex McPherson, Ollie Jones, Duncan White, and Scott Jason Hillier.

And their aim was to raise DSUK and they've already hit a fantastic 72 percent of their goal. So they're still trying to get a bit more cash there. But yeah, it's that was a nice story, I think. Nice story. Just awaiting final approval from Guinness World Records. That must be super exciting. Imagine getting that through.

I mean, imagine being a record holder. Are you a record holder in anything, Rob? Not, not according to the Guinness world of records, I'm not. I'm sure I've broken many records of various things in my time, but nothing that the Guinness, nothing that Guinness would be vaguely interested in at all. And, you know, they are very strict.

And so our next story was entitled Autumn Snow. Obviously not much going on in the snow front just yet. However, we do run a  regularly updated blog on In The Snow. I'm going to give that another plug if you don't mind. If you type into Google, where is good to ski now, you'll often come across In The Snow's site and it'll give you.

The most up to date so if it's between podcasts just type in where is good to ski now check out in the snow we give you up to date so as soon as that snow starts falling I know there was some some snow earlier on a few weeks ago but obviously things have warmed up a little bit since then but let's keep an eye out hopefully by the time the next podcast comes around we've got something to say on the snow front what's next?

Should we,  continue with news? So Rob, the next story caught my eye. Tell us about this. The world's first, are you ready for this? On demand gondola. Now I like the sound of that. It actually told me you could go anywhere and I don't think you could get into that gondola and say, Hey, take me to Innsbruck or anything like that.

But tell us about the on demand gondola. Yeah, it does sound interesting. And I think it's genuinely kind of sounds like it's the first one of its kind. And it's in, it's in Lux in Switzerland. Pretty much a game changer, named the Flem Express.

We'll, we'll move on from that one, but it's, you know, the Flem Express. It's certainly, certainly one that you won't forget. But gondola cabins that don't run empty just only, they only leave the station when there's someone on board. So it's all about saving energy. I guess money as well, but you know, but really importantly, energy and up to apparently up to 50 percent of the energy is then saved when when this sort of on demand service is there.

And obviously that's. That's going towards the commitment that they have to sustainability which is a great idea, isn't it? I mean, it is a great idea. You know, the gondolas don't need to run if there's nobody in them. Absolutely right. That is,  exactly the sort of initiatives that we need to see more of.

I wonder how easily they could change other gondolas to run the same, or if that's just not possible. I have no idea not being sort of an engineer or anything or knowing, knowing about how that's constructed, I mean, potentially retrospectively fitting this kind of technology. I can't see why not on existing, existing gondolas.

Or just spend the 75 million like like the Flemish press have in Lux. Just do that. I mean, why not? Well, there is that. And I'm sure the cable car company that builds these things would love those words coming out of you, Dom. You know, they, they, but perhaps, perhaps they have got a good future.

Whoever thought of this idea, it's definitely something that other ski resorts must be looking at. Right. This is going to save money. And of course, if they can then say, you know, we're being much more sustainable about our power then it's just good for, for them. And it's good for everybody.

Right. So. Thank you. I read a bit more about this, Rob, if you don't mind me interrupting. So they've got this, you know, I don't know whether you've ever driven an electric car, but as you take your foot off the accelerator and it automatically slows down, it regenerates the battery and they, they've put the same tech into this.

So they've got this e motion vehicle drive system. It's so it means autonomous travel. And on the way down, the kinetic energy is converted into electric. ready for its journey back up again. So that's quite cool. I mean, I, I, I, it's very cool. I would just add that in the Jungfrau region of Switzerland the railways that have, have actually been doing that for I believe, and I might be wrong about this, but I think they've been doing that for almost a hundred years.

Transferring kinetic energy into electricity as those trains go down the hill, they re power the battery so that they can go back up again. And it's a clever system. Elon Musk this, he is not innovative at all.

Well, you know, Elon Musk doesn't have the the advantage of everything being able to go up or down a hill. He has to power his vehicles on flat. surfaces as well without the aid of gravity and therefore the challenges i suppose are slightly different but no it's so that's that's opening that's opening on the on the 16th of december yeah the phlegm express  so my last story today is the Bobsleigh Pilot Experience in Lapland. Have you heard about this? Yeah. No. Very cool. Pilot your own Bobsleigh once in a lifetime opportunity.

January 12th to the February the 9th and you get a choice. Whether you want to go super fast and absolutely crazy, ie sit behind a professional and just hold on for dear life and leave your pants behind, or you can do a much slower version, but very cool.

I mean, when you watch that bobsleigh in the Olympics, I mean, it's super fast. It's super fun. You can imagine the adrenaline. I think it's a great thing for a plan to bring in there. And I mean, that's, that's something that really adds to your ski holiday, doesn't it? Well, I mean, I'd love to get into a bobsleigh.

I think I'd just rather sit behind the professional pilot myself and have that proper experience of traveling down that bobsleigh like you, you know, I, I guess there are some, there's some skill involved in actually steering those things around the corners and therefore, you know, you're not going to get that the first time up, are you?

But yeah. What a great thing to be able to do. Yeah, I mean that 500 experience, that is a full day experience. If you want to do the full monties, you do the track walk, you do two super fast descents, one in a two person bobsleigh, first as a passenger, and then taking the reins of the pilot and all under the professional guidance of a fully trained, certified pilot.

 Oh yeah. And there we go. Nice, nice thing.

Okay. That rounds up our, rounds up our news for the start, the very first news session of the White Owl Podcast 2023 24. How exciting Rob. Very exciting. I am excited already just talking about skiing. So what have we got next? Resort Spotlight? Resort Spotlight. Yes, I think you're going to talk a little bit about this Dom Vaujonnais in the French Alps, one of those sort of, one of those sort of hidden gems, isn't it, Vaujonnais?

It is a hidden gem, I was there two seasons ago, it's one of those sort of unspoilt, sort of charming villages, it's set right in the hillside,  looking straight across the mountain over to Alpe d'Huez there. Which is the fifth largest ski area in France, which is pretty damn cool. I think the reason, you know, the reason people have spotted this is super cool little village.

It is small, just the choice of a few restaurants and nice apartments. It does have a cool sports center there with sort of a pool and water slides and gym and ice rink. Even got laser biathlon. I didn't get to have a go on that, but that sounded very cool. It's not a place you go for your apres, but probably typically suited to Families that want to save a bit of cash because it's not as expensive to be there.

So you're looking at about 250 kilometers apiece. Jewel in its crown being the Pic Blanc Glacier. Did you see the way I said that? So obviously that's super cool being up at 3, 300 meters. It's got a  long descent, black run 16 kilometers. I think it's the longest black run in the world.

But yeah, I've got plenty of, yeah. Plenty of other runs available. So obviously if you're not into your big black runs, that's okay. You can do, you know, you can do the reds and the blues as well. And another big plus for this little lesser known resort, not a, it's not an unknown resort, but a lesser known resort is the fact that it's blessed with a lot of sunshine, Rob.

So they are fully southerly facing and they say it gets 300 sunny days a year. So, pretty nice. I've been there once and it was many, many years ago and I just have this memory of it that it was very pretty. I, I was based in Alpe d'Huez at the time and it was pretty early days of Vosgenay as a resort.

You know, it was a new, a new resort at the time. And, and we skied down there and it was very quiet, but also very, very, very pretty. Very, very nice scenery. Yeah, it is. It's a pretty looking resort. Everything's very chocolate boxy there. I got there quite late season, but we did have a good dump of snow when we arrived.

And it meant that we got some good skiing in for two or three days, which was really, really nice. Very short transfer from Grenoble airport, which is very handy. Great lift connection. So the great thing about it is, is that, and I'm not being paid to say this. I'm telling you because I went there and I think it's worthwhile telling our listeners.

And that is the fact that if you want a little lower cost. And if you want less queues, so obviously you're not going to get the big queues that you might get down in some of the bigger resorts. I'm not saying they do always get big queues, but certainly in those busier times, you would tend to find you could likely get up on the hill while people are still queuing down in Alpe d'Huez.

You're not blessed with big app price. You're not going to be dancing on tables and you haven't got dozens of restaurants to choose from. There are a few, but you're not talking about staying there a fortnight and eating out in a different place every night. But it's pretty. Good skiing on the doorstep, good connection, lower priced, easy transfer, nice and sunny, and you can get up into the main ski domain, which is, you know, one of the biggest in France.

So pretty cool, actually. Okay. Bunch of people go there. Ski France got me on to this one. Okay. Chatting to the guys there and they got me on to that. And Pete Retreats as well, actually. In fact, it was Pete Retreats I went with and it was Ski France that put it onto my radar this year. Yeah. So definitely a place worth looking up if you're looking for something a bit different.

It's just not your everyday and And obviously you, if you wanna ski down into day, then you can do and go down and have lunch down there. And that's cool. You can go down. Experience easy. Slightly busier. Yeah. Easy to do that. Yeah. Easy to do that. Very easy. It's an easy connection, isn't it? It's not like a big long-haul connection.

No, no, no, no. Not at all. I mean, we, we just went down for lunchtime pizza. Yeah. Which came out slightly on fire and when we sent it back, they cut the bits that were on fire off and brought back the same pizza. Okay, , what, what had they put on the pizza that, that it, that created a fire in the first place?

Was it like a fire, like a pizza or something? The topping, the toppings were all fine. It was just around the edge. It was smoking, it was almost on fire, and we just looked at the guy and said, Yeah, we're not going to tweet that, and he said, okay, no problem, really sorry, really sorry, so he went out and it just came back and it was just the circle in the middle and all the crusts had been cut off.

Oh, it wasn't like, you didn't order a tofu pizza and then instead of tofu they'd put firelighters on it and stuff, I always think that tofu and firelighters look quite similar to each other. No, probably not. Okay. These things have to happen, don't they, to make you remember about a ski resort? And that was just one thing.

This was in Al Jazeera, this wasn't in Vosgne. But yes, so there you go. It's interesting that we've got two,  resorts.

You obviously like quite a lot, Dom that I've never been to. So I'm feeling slightly inadequate right now. Oh, I'm sure that won't last Rob. No, it won't. Right. So we're onto our gear section now. We always search out lots of interesting new bits of gear to talk about, Dom.

We always love a bit of gear, don't we? 

So, yeah, kick off. No, actually, I'm going to kick off with the with a new,  Avalanche survival system, actually. It's really interesting. It's called the Safeback XB. X, SBX, Avalanche Survival System a game changer, apparently, for Avalanche Rescue. And they say the Safe Back SBX, Avalanche Survival System, is a groundbreaking innovation in avalanche safety, extending the survival timeline of buried victims under the snow.

So it's designed to combat You know, those kind of grim stats that we sometimes see of avalanche fatalities due to suffocation. It's obviously quite a rare thing, talking about off piste skiers and skitourers here. And the, the, you know, put themselves into that sort of terrain where avalanches can happen.

Just add most of. Around 90 percent of those Avalanche victims are full victim to the fact that they've started their own Avalanche off piste. That's the stats that we know. But, you know a bit of kit like this is another thing, another tool in the box, that can really help save lives. Is it mega money?

It's   545, you know, what is 545 at the end of the day if it's a system that's going to work? Yeah. You know, as, as we know victims brought under say 500 kilograms per cubic meter of snow.

They've just got 15 minutes before they start to suffocate and what the XPS does it XBX system does it changes this with it's, it's got a fan based air pump stowed in a com a compatible backpack. So it's an air pump and a backpack and what it does, it, it takes the fresh air out of the snow.

And it supplies the buried skier or snowboarder with breathable oxygen for over 90 minutes. So... If that works, it is game changing. . It's genuinely game changing if, if, if you can actually continue to breathe because most of the problem, you know, of course, an avalanche could be, we don't want to go into it too much, but you know, you could be, you have other problems.

Just going to wind you out. Yeah. But, you know, you know, if you've, if you're one person and there's three people buried and you've got to find them, good luck finding that third person within the 15 minutes.

 But yeah, so something like this, there has been systems in the past.

Where people, there's the Avalon system that's been around for a long time where you've got some air stored and you can actually breathe through that. But I, I think this, this does look like it, the technology has come up a level here with this system, but you can check it out. It's I believe it's a Norwegian brand.

So yeah, this looks really good.   Ultra heat boost gloves.

So these are people get super cold hands. Nice. So they have premium loft insulation good strong leather palms. So you get a nice soft super cool gloves with all the right technology built in great insulation, nice warm hands, super cold temperatures. 

A lot of people suffer, don't they?  So yeah, nice. I mean, game changer in its own right. They are exclusively available at Ellis Brigham, 300

quid. They're just a fancy accessory for those people who really do suffer. I think it's a real, a real game changer for them. Yeah, they say don't just survive the winter, thrive in it with ultra heat booze gloves. Well, I mean, there's, you know, I think a glove that does that very, very simply and very easy, easily can be, can be fantastic in those kind of reasonably rare times when it does get really cold , and, and the gloves that you,  might have aren't,  good enough.

 So yeah, brilliant. A little bit similar to the the new thermic SET ultra warm performance ski socks in a way, which is apparently according to them, the pinnacle of winter sports comfort and it's a, it's a.

A new sock crafted with cutting edge technology. , a smart elastic technology is what the SCT stands for . This innovative design seamlessly integrates a thin 2mm heating line around the toes. Oh wow.

Providing a warming action without compromising the sock's fit. Nice. Yeah. So That and the gloves. They sound really interesting. That and the gloves. You're gonna warm hands, warm feet. Exactly. And these socks are exclusively available at skibartlett. com. Ah. They are 290. But, you know, obviously if, if they are going to keep your feet very, very toasty warm.

Call me old fashioned, Rob. Call me old fashioned, but I would generally change my socks during the week. They've got to have a solution for that. I mean, I think I'm not sure how it works, but I'm, I'm imagining that actually, you know, the system and the sock might, I'm not sure if it's integrated or not, but clearly you don't want to wear the same ski sock.

All week on your skiing holiday, especially there are times there's got to be times when that sock is on heat and your feet are warm. Yeah, I'll have to look into that. Interesting. I'll have to look into that as well, but check it out at skibartlet. com and again they are the Thermic S. E. T. Ultra Warm Performance Ski Socks.

Yeah. Okay. And so my next one is the Degree 7.

Is that how you say that? Degree 7? Degree 7? The D Rack Ski Jacket. A blend of sophistication and functionality. 289 quid,  good price.  So it's for the real... Fashion conscious adventurer super sleek, looks very smart, could be worn on the street as well.

But good high performance they are synonymous with quality, this brand Degree 7, so it's a great price for a good quality jacket waterproof membrane, bi stretch fabric it's got that whole stay dry good movement, 100 percent recycled polyester insulation, so you've got super nice warmth and coziness throughout And what else?

 It's nice to see that brand around, you know, it's been around for a long time. It was very, very cool in the, in the eighties, it kind of went away for a while. It started by Patrick Valençon and he was an extreme skier who unfortunately passed away many years ago, not in a skiing accident, but in a completely crazy freak.

bungee jumping accident. Yeah, not, not nice, but but a cool guy, very, very cool guy. And, and he was the founder, I believe of degree seven and it's just a cool brand. Really nice, really nice stuff. Always has been. Yeah. Very slick. And that seems a really good price. Doesn't it? 289 quid for this jacket.

For a good technical jacket. Yeah. And available at Cotswoldoutdoor. com and snowandrock. com. So yeah, not just outerwear, but something that you can wear on the slopes and look very stylish. And and around town as well. So it's a good thing to get for the winter as well. And our final item, Rob, for this week is...

What have you got? I think we've found a helmet from Sweet Protection here, the Trooper 2VI MIPS ski helmet. I mean, I do like a Sweet Protection helmet in general, I must say. Yeah, me too. I'm a big fan, big fan of the Sweet Protection. Yeah. And what they say about this, it's a MIPS ski helmet. It's 279. 95.

Yep. It's for the sort of hard charging skier. It's engineered with, what they say, cutting edge features to ensure unparalleled safety. In every descent, but you know, that, I mean, it's a high end helmet, isn't it? 280 pounds high end helmet MIPS. It's got a reinforced shell. It's got a shock absorbing liner.

It's got a carbon reinforcements. And so it's very durable, very impact resistant. And obviously the multi, the MIPS, the multidirectional impact protection system built in. We know that reduces impact to the brain in the event of you know, a crash or a hit to the head. And. It's, ideal really for sort of off piste skiing, especially, you know, trees and, and rocks and that sort of thing.

It's a proper full on free ride helmet. Very good. So, so yeah, that looks great. From Sweet Protection. It's the Sweet Protection Trooper. Is it the 2VI or the 2VI do you think? Oh, I see what you're saying. Sorry.

Yes. I don't know whether that's called the 2VI or the 2VI, but whatever. If you're searching Google, suite protection for a 2VI MIPS ski helmet. I'd say if you're Roman, it's the 2VI. If you're not, it's the 2VI. We're all for that huge congregation of Roman listeners that we have. And it's available at www.

skibartlett. com. Excellent. Okay, so Rob moving swiftly on bucket list ski trip. So this is the ski trip that people might have on their bucket list. They may or may never achieve it, but a destination that they're thinking, do you know what? I would absolutely bloody love that. That would be amazing. What have you got for us?

We're going to start with, and I know it seems like a strange time of year to start with this one but I'll explain why. We're going to start with New Zealand, skiing in New Zealand. So actually we start with the whole country, not, not a destination.

Obviously it's just about the end of the New Zealand ski season now. They're coming right to the end of it. There's still a little bit of skiing here and there, but it's Basically petering out, but I think if you're going to plan a ski trip to New Zealand, you're probably going to start doing it now, right?

So that's why we're talking about that. I've skied there quite a lot. I haven't been there much over the recent years. So. I'm sure things have changed a bit, but at least I can give an overall impression, I think, to the readers of what it's really like to go skiing in New Zealand. Yeah, absolutely. It's a true bucket list destination, isn't it?

 It's worth pointing out that it's a very, very different experience to most of the big ski resorts in the Alps.

I mean, to start with, generally the accommodation in New Zealand is off the mountain. You need to take a vehicle to get to the skiing area. The skiing areas are basically pretty small if we're, especially if we're comparing them to the, to most ski resorts in the Alps. They're very small. There's no sort of large and connect interconnected ski resort areas like the three valleys, for example.

It just doesn't exist. It's not even close to that. That doesn't mean there's not a lot. There's no fun to be had. I mean, there's a lot of fun to be had in skiing in New Zealand. There's two, there's two islands, you know, North and South. Or otherwise known as Ika Maui. And as they're known in Mai, I probably didn't pronounce that quite correctly, but I'll give it a shot.

In the North island, the main areas is basically just two main areas in the north island, and they're concentrated on one very, very large volcano. And it can go off, actually it's called Mount Brew pe who. And which is also the island's highest mountain. There's two separate skiing areas on opposite sides of the volcano, Turoa and Whakapapa.

That's how you pronounce that. Sort of. Yeah, the season here, it starts in June like everywhere in New Zealand. And it goes on until late October. And these these areas actually, they're the country's largest skiing areas on the North Island. They can get a lot of snow as well, but they're... the mountains very exposed.

It's just basically one big mountain that comes out the middle of the country. So they do get a lot of weather as well. And I've been up there a few times where it's just been like proper crazy weather, but I've also been there in the spring, basically around now. And it's been absolutely incredible. I mean, amazing spring skiing with incredible views across to Mount Taranaki, another volcano, and also onto the Pacific ocean on a very clear day.

So it's pretty special place. But that's basically it for the North Island. They head down to the South. I mean, there's a lot to explore down there. There's five larger commercial ski areas. It's Mountain Heart, close to Christchurch, Coronet Peak and the Remarkables near Queenstown. And then you've got Kadrona and Treble Cone, which are closer to Wanaka.

Queenstown and Wanaka skiing areas are pretty close. So it's. It's easy enough to explore all of them, providing you've got a vehicle, and for, for some perspective, you know, the largest of those areas is Kadrona, I believe, and that's got nine ski lifts and 40 kilometers of slopes. And that's the largest skiing area there.

So, you know adult day passes at Kedrona treble cone cost 160 New Zealand dollars, which is almost 80 pounds. So it's not cheap, but you can then you can save online. You can buy multi day passes. It gets the price down. So then becomes cheaper if, if you plan it in advance, basically.

You've also got a lot of club fields in New Zealand, which is a bit special and unusual. They're, they tend, they tend to be smaller but they're certainly no less fun. There, there's loads of them, actually. Craigiburn Valley Broken River, Temple Basin, Mount Olympus, Fox Peak, Mount Cheesman, Rainbow, Hamner Springs.

Ohio, I think I've pronounced that right. Snowfields, Mount Dobson. I mean, Lift Pass is around, normally around half the price of those commercial areas. And you know, you can go there as non members as well. It's, it's worth exploring. Every, every one of them has a website. So it's worth exploring those club field websites and just checking those out.

If you're going to do a tour of New Zealand, it's worth getting to at least two or three of them to experience the sort of atmosphere, the feeling, what the terrain's like in those places. And then, you know, on the other side of the scale to that, you've got the heliskiing operations in the South Island, such as Harris Mountains Heliskiing, based out of Wanaka in Queenstown.

So, if you really want to go for it when you're in New Zealand, take advantage of that heliskiing. This thing is there, there's so much terrain. There's very few ski resorts, really, considering the mountains there, that huge range of mountains. across all the way down the spine of the South Island. Yeah.

It's just so much. And of course, with the helicopter, you've got access to quite a lot of that.. A three day run there starts at New Zealand dollars. 1, 295 per person, around 630 for a three run day, and which I think is, if you compare that to some other heli skiing operations around the world, it's pretty competitive actually.

Yeah. Yeah. And and, and for, you know, for a big experience for a day. If you're really into skiing and off piste skiing, then yeah, okay, you know, you can kind of see that it's not cheap, but it's, it's, it's an amazing experience. Yep. There's not really any tour operators, British tour operators, running specific skiing packages to New Zealand.

So it is a bit of a DIY job. You can check out the National Tourist website, newzealand. com. It's got a good section. On skiing there, 

. It is possible to fly directly into Queenstown itself. One of the most spectacular airports in the world.

And I did a quick search for next July sort of mid season peak season, if you like, in New Zealand and return flights from London to Queenstown cost from around 1600 pounds. With just a stop in Singapore and Auckland for Christchurch. It's pretty good actually, and that's with Air New Zealand. And you could get it down to 1, 300 with four stops through a combination of different airlines.

But, you know, 1, 600 looks like a solid deal to me with Air New Zealand. So, yeah, I, if you've got the chance, if you've got a bit of time and you feel like something different and you don't mind getting in an airplane to cross the the other side of the world, I love it. Just, just go for it.

Sounds good. What a good trip. Would you do it, Rob? Would you do it now? I would. Would you? Right. Yeah, I haven't been back to New Zealand in over 10 years and yeah, I'd love to go back and ski in New Zealand again. I, I had some of the best times of my life in, in, in New Zealand and skiing and New Zealand back in the day, Dom

No, it's just, it's an amazing place. And, and, and yeah, you can't compare the ski resorts to the ski resorts in the Alps. It's very different, but it's just so much fun. The atmosphere is always good. It's very social and, and the terrain and those ski resorts, it's great. They might be small, but there's really good terrain.

Good lift systems. They're very organized, highly organized, you know, a little bit like in America where everything's super slick in  those commercial resorts are, you know, the commercials, the club fields can be a little bit more relaxed. Shall we say very good. What a good story.

That's a nice one, Robert. So, I'd say that's a wrap for this week. We have covered some pretty cool news stories. We've covered New Zealand. We've covered Virginia. Two very different destinations there. That's for sure. Certainly a long way apart. And we will have a special edition podcast coming up on British Columbia Ski Resorts.

That was super interesting, where we interviewed Amber Tornow, who was based in Squamish, just outside Whistler. That's our special edition podcast coming out in one week's time. And of course, Rob, I will be seeing you this weekend and next weekend. At the ski show NEC this weekend, 14th, 15th of October and the following week at XL 21st, 22nd, what more can we get excited about?

It'll be good to see you, Rob. It would be good to see you too. The next time we record a podcast, I mean, hopefully we're still as friendly as we are now after we're going to be spending so much time together over the next 10 days or so. But we'll have a lot to talk about, won't we? We will have a lot to talk about.

Plenty to talk about. So listeners, don't forget to leave a review for us, as long as it's a good one. It helps other fellow skiers find us. So look out for the Whiteout. Leave a review, five star review, saying how amazing Rob and Dom are. And we will see you next time, Rob. Until the weekend, adios. See you.

Bye bye. Bye.