News

It has been announced by the British Ski & Snowboard Team that after concentrating their funds on their “Park and Pipe” programme they will be spreading future investments over more sports.

For the last couple of Olympics Team GB have concentrated their efforts on the park sports which have seen them securing three Olympic medals.

Quote:

“Our aim is to be one of the top five snowsports nations by 2030, and we need to be competitive across a range of disciplines if we are going to get there. Over the course of the next four years we’re going to see more investment across more sports, while ensuring our park and pipe programme remains right up there with the best in the world,” said Vicky Gosling, CEO of British Ski & Snowboard.

UK Sport have increased the funding for British Ski & Snowboard by 31% to £6.75 million. This was decided due to the successes of recent Olympics.

Could this be the end of yearly ski servicing?

Skiers that have their own pair of skis know all too well the yearly “tax” of ownership, the ski servicing. Depending on where you go and what you need to be done this can add up over the years with a standard service around £50 or nearer £70 in the resort.

So you might like to know this could be coming to an end!

A Salt Lake City based ski company have developed a new liquid ski wax that only needs to be applied once, ever!
No more having to go to your ski specialist to get your skis waxed every year – or more often if you spend lots of time in the snow.
This new technique – is a 1 time forever treatment – is called Phantom and it forms a chemical bond with the bottom of your ski and soaks into ski base, all the way to the wood core or graphite core in some cases.
The makers say Phantom will last the whole life of the ski saving a considerable amount for the ski owner as well as being green – we all know waxing isn’t exactly good for the planet.

The University of Utah helped create the product and introduced it into the market in late 2017 for testing by a select few professionals, this season however some Aspen ski companies are now starting to use it on their rental skis.
Phantom will be available to buy by many online retailers in time but at the moment we have only found one, EVO.com.

Testing by the professionals who have been putting the product through its paces are all talking it up, very positive indeed!

A big advantage with Phantom over a standard wax is that it will last all day every day and not just a few runs in the morning – we have all been there haven’t we? Staying up all night waxing the planks for it only the wax to stay on them for a few runs.

Looking for a BUT?

There is a little one, Phantom costs $99 which isn’t a small amount of money but less than a couple of services! So, in fact quite cheap.

We’re not sure how ski service rental companies will feel about this, although you will still have to get your skis edged so it’s not the end of the world.

Sometimes the British skier lucks in, “What are you kidding!” i hear you say. No really we do sometimes get somethings our way, take now for example. At the moment the currency exchange rate between the British pound and the Euro is 9% up compared to this time last year.

£500 gets you £37 more!

This means if you change £500 you will get an extra £37 or €48. Obviously if you going skiing in a non-Euro country like Switzerland then this exchange rate does not apply. In fact the British pound compared with the Swiss Franc is worse off compared to last year (£80 worse off when converting £500) so it does make sense to ski in a Euro country like France at the moment.

Val Thorens being not only Frances highest ski resort but also Europe’s is a resort high on the skiers ‘places to ski’ this season. Not only due to the exchange rate but Val Thorens has also just had a large dump of snow, more than many other resorts, making it a perfect time to ski.

To help reduce costs even further staying in a self catering apartment can save a family of four hundreds of pounds. Here is a link to show you the savings you can have on self catering apartments in Val Thorens.

Black Diamond have released a new avalanche air bag which doesn’t use gas but batteries instead. This really sounds like a brilliant idea.
We all know how important it is to practice using new equipment, especially emergency equipment to ensure you are familiar with what you need to do when you REALLY need it.

In case you are not aware of avalanche air bags, they are essentially a large rucksack which has a packed away inflatable bag. If you are unlucky enough to be caught in an avalanche and you have time to do so you can pull a toggle and WOOSH!! the bag inflates faster than Matthias Mayer out of the starting gates. The idea is whilst you are being thrown all over the place by the avalanche the large amount of air attached to your back keeps you near the top which makes it easier to be rescued.

These bags all use a gas canisters with compressed air (we think air anyway, a gas of some kind) which empties when you use it. You can only use them once and they can be quite expensive to replace and in some resorts hard to find a replacement.

Using batteries instead of the expensive gas canisters it allows you to inflate the air bag and deflate it as many times as you like.

An interesting development with this bag is that because it is using a fan to inflate it, after 3 minutes of inflating and keeping the bag inflated (I think we have used the inflate word enough now) the fan is turned in reverse and sucks out all the air from the bag. This might sounds like a silly thing to do but there is a reason for this. The idea is if you are buried, by deflating the bag you all of sudden have room (200 litres) to move some of your body around. When the snow sets after the avalanche it is like concrete and you can hardly move at all so having this room should help considerably. Not only will it provide more room but there will be more air to breath.

Our only concern with this is we are not sure that 3 minutes is long enough, but I guess they have done the sums.

Each bag can deploy the air bag 3 times per charge so there isn’t any problem pulling the cord if you are concerned with the slope you are on. There is also a self-tester when you switch it on so you know all is well before you leave the apartment.

As you would expect there is a cost to this bag but it isn’t any more expensive than an ABS type bag, they will range from $1000 – $1200 with 11L, 28L and 40L sizes.

As with the probe, transceiver and other avalanche equipment you should practise as much as possible and this new bag could help save lives. Around 15 minutes buried in an avalanche and your life expectancy reduces considerably.

If you are thinking of buying an air bag check this one out, video below with the guy from JetForce who can explain the benefits much better than me! We don’t think it is available quite yet in the UK or Europe but it won’t be long.

The Airbag in Development: