A Chamonix Chalet

As regular readers will know I have been working in the Chamonix valley for the summer and autumn. Although not ideal for beginners this really is a fantastic place for skiers and moutaineers (and snowboarders, rock climbers, mountain bikers etc.) looking for the steep and the big. This valley really is on a different scale to any other European ski resorts I have visited, and I've been to a lot of them over the years.

For anyone interested in visiting the valley this winter, the Ice-Break Chalet just up the road from me deserves a mention. My friend and occasional climbing partner Martin is running the business with his fiance Abi his winter. Unlike a conventional chalet they are offering holidays for anything from a week to a whole season (5 months) with all the traditional home comforts of an up-market chalet - half board with wine, sauna, DVD and internet, log fire and so on, plus ski workshop and free transport to the slopes and around the valley. It sounds to me like an incredibly luxurious way of spending a ski season - I remember sleeping in a hole under the basement stairs of a chalet in Meribel for a season, while friends crammed into a shoebox in Val D'Isere which barely had room for a set of bunkbeds and a cooker. When you factor in the amount spent on food and drink in a typical season in the Alps, living in comfort in a catered chalet might not be all that expensive.

The other big bonus of this setup is always having somebody to hit the slopes with who knows their way around the valley. Martin is a BASI qualified snowboard instructor and is training to be a UIAGM mountain guide with ENSA (the French national school for skiing and alpinism) so he is a good guy to be on the hill with.

Anyway, if you're interested check them out at http://www.ice-break.co.uk. They also have a blog of life in the valley on the site which is worth a look for snow updates and photos.

As we are into November, watch out for some more ski oriented posts from now on. My season starts in 10 days when I head over to Tignes for skiing on the glacier, so the countdown is on.

The Smell of Winter

It began to snow here last night, and it is still going strong. It is nice to see the first snow of the season falling as early as October, but more exciting is the fact that it is falling all over Europe. The Alps, the Pyrenees and even Engalnd are all getting their share.

Stepping outside this morning I was hit by the smells of winter in the air. Woodsmoke, cold clear air, and the smell of the snow itself, all combined to make it clear that winter is on the way. Autumn is a time for anticipation of the coming winter, and it feels like it is going to be a good one.

I'll sign off with a couple of photos taken whilst working this afternoon, just to show how the snow looked then.

How to extend your winter season

Many people I speak to seem to think that the ski season lasts from Christmas until February. There is a mad rush to fit everybody's holiday into a few short weeks. Even seasoned skiers often seem to think the season is basically late December until mid March. In fact it is quite easy to make a winter season last six months or more in Europe. This year I am planning to do five months (mid-November to mid-April) but it will be running out of money and work that ends the winter, rather than running out of snow. Similarly, most ski resorts shut in April when the customers dry up, not when the snow melts.

To start the long winter, plan some warm up weeks in a high resort with a glacier. I'm heading to Tignes in November for four weeks race training, but there are other options. No resorts will be fully open, but some will have quite a few runs. In late November and early December, watch out for resorts opening early, especially if there is good snowfall. Last year several Austrian resorts opened a few weeks earlier than planned to take advantage of good conditions - the publicity was probably worth more to them than the actual tickets they sold.

Opening dates proper are spread throughout the first half of December (with one or two exceptions) so from then until April it's easy. Take your pick of resorts or travel between them.

Into April, and resorts start to close as they run out of customers. Most of the bigger resorts will be open until late April at least. Some, such as Val D'Isere or Chamonix are open until early May. After that it is time to get out the skins and start hiking, as the only way up is under you own steam. May is the height of the ski touring season - spring snow, longer days, safer conditions and no crowds mean ideal conditions for gettting away into the back country. Most years ski touring will be possible well into June.

After that, well if you want to keep skiing it's back to the glaciers for summer skiing. Or up to the Arctic Circle to ski under the midnight sun. Or down to NZ, Oz or South America.

Hopefully this might give some of you some ideas, either to extend your ski season, or to slip in an extra holiday or long weekend. Of course there is a whole world out there - there are lots more places to ski in Europe than those I've mentioned, let alone North America and Asia.

By the way the photos are from Tignes last November and Chamonix in May.

Three Tier ISIA

This post is all about forthcoming changes in ski instructor qualifications, so if you are not an instructor or planning to become one it might all sound a bit complicated. Hopefully it will be of some use to those choosing an instructor or ski school as well.

The International Ski Instructor Association (ISIA) has been setting minimum standards for ski instructor qualifications for some time now. These standards are pretty high, and to be awarded a qualification with the ISIA Stamp is an achievement that usually takes several years. This stamp represents the top or next to top level in the various national sytems, e.g. BASI Ski Teacher, CSIA 3, PSIA 3 or NZSIA 2. For a more detailed explanation of ski instructor qualification levels see this post.

Up to now, the ISIA has never recognised any other qualifications, either higher or lower. This has made it dificult to compare qualifications from different countries, and have them recognised properly when working around the world. Many European countries have a top qualification that is significantly more demanding than the ISIA stamp, which they consider to be a middle level. Each system also has one or more entry level qualifications which are generally similar in standard to one another but which have no international recognition.

Earlier this year, the ISIA proposed a new three tier ISIA stamp system. This will retain the current ISIA stamp as the middle level. The new levels will be as follows:

Entry Level - for "non professional ski teachers" and entitled to hold the national association stamp. This is likely to be similar to BASI Level 2 Instructor, CSIA 2, PSIA 2 or NZSIA 1.

The 2nd Level - "the first step for Professional Ski Teachers" Recognised by the ISIA as meeting the Minimum Standards, entitled to the ISIA Stamp. This should be similar to current ISIA stamp qualifications.

The Top Level - Fully qualified Ski Teacher. At this level the curriculum must include a speed test and a mountain safety module. Entitled to the ISIA Card. This is likely to be at the level of the top European qualifications such as the BASI ISTD, French Diplome National, Italian Maestro etc.

Hopefully when these levels are established internationally it will put an end to any uncertainty about how various qualifications relate to each other, and make it easier for qualified instructors to work around the world. It might also make it easier for customers to choose an instructor.

Using Your Mobile Abroad

A common peice of advice for anybody travelling abroad for any length of time (e.g. doing a ski season) is to buy a local phone or SIM card. If you can get your phone unlocked, and for many phones you can do it free on various websites, then a new SIM card is the cheapest way but buying a new phone does let you check your messages on your existing number more easily.

The rationale is the high prices most phone operators charge for roaming calls and texts, and the assumption that calls with an operator from the country you are in will be vastly cheaper. However, this is not always the case as I recently discovered in France. Several friends told me that only one of the French networks provides decent reception in the Chamonix valley, so there seemed no point in shopping around for the best deal. I bought a basic thirty Euro SIM card, expecting to get nearly that much credit and in fact getting only five Euros included. I wasn't too happy about that, since every SIM card I have bought before in any country has nearly its full value included as credit, but I thought of how much money I would save by stopping using my UK phone. Until I found the (not well advertised) tarrifs and discovered that making calls in France cost 55 Eurocents a minute - significantly more than using my UK phone in a foreign country. Roaming charges have been capped by EU law for the last year or so, but it seems there is no limit to what a company can charge its customers while at home.

Anyway the moral is: research things before you rush in and buy, and compare the prices properly. There are several options for using a mobile abroad - buying a local SIM, buying a roaming SIM that works cheaply in many countries, or finding a phone operator in your home country that does good roaming tarrifs.

Get The Iron Out

It's only two months until ski areas start opening around Europe, and the Northern Hemisphere. If you want to make it feel a little bit closer and you have a bit of free time, why not get out your skis and give them some TLC. Not only will it make you feel better while you are missing the snow, it will make them faster as well. If you serviced the skis well at the end of the season, there is no need to sharpen the edges, and no need to scrape the wax off either. Just iron in a new layer of wax, leave them somewhere warm for a couple of hours, then put them away again. Use a mid-range wax for this, not an expensive high-fluoro wax which is not long lasting enough. The idea is that each time you apply wax it will impregnate itself deeper into the base, lasting longer and making the base faster.

I'm Back

Well after not managing to post for nearly six weeks it's about time I wrote something again. Not that I've really got a lot to tell. It's been a lot of work and not much play, saving up for the autumn training courses. My French is improving though, and I'm in a pretty nice place so no complaints. Winter is definitely approaching however, so more ski related posts will be appearing soon. In the meantime, thought I'd give a mention to a couple of my favourite skiing blogs.

Firstly, the friendly people at the Nutcracker Ski Club in Mt Buller, Australia have a nice site with good photos and lots of info and their season is in full swing whilst up north we are just counting down the days until the snow comes back.

Secondly, Homeboy's Ski Blog is written by a couple of Finns and covers all sorts of skiing topics as well as mountain biking over the summer months. Unlike me they generally manage a post every couple of days or so.

Both these are well worth a visit, so take a look and I'll be back in a couple of days with some more skiing stuff to get in the autumn (i.e. nearly winter) mood.