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I had the chance to get not one, but two pair of TOYSHADES lenses for using year-round and during this coming ski season. First of all, price is so cheap, that I was a bit sceptical how they would compare to my Oakleys or Raybans – the brands of choice since I was a young adult.
The TOYSHADES Hillwoods model, extremely light and with a lovely design.
I bought some lenses on the mountain two years ago in Pila, as my Oakleys were all scratched, and I was suffering then of conjunctivitis. The optician that see me at a ski resort, told me that I needed to purchase a new good pair of lenses. These were some cheap lenses bought at the ski school in Pila which were pretty decent, but not comparable to a more renown brand.
Two years ago, after the Mountain Travel Symposium, I’ve bought in San Francisco airport my last pair of Oakleys, which I love, and they are in very good nick. So, when I’ve got these two pairs of shades, I thought that they were not going to compare to my Oakleys. But I was surprised!
Gear Review: Arc’teryx’s base layers for the season.
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Now that the weather is finally changing, for those of you that love being in the outdoors, same in the lowlands or in the mountains, nothing better than being prepared with some good top layers. I do love them, and I have purchased lots of different brands over the years. I like for example Orthovox, Icebreaker, and also Arc’teryx.
I will focus this post on what Arc’teryx has to offer for the season. I love all what I see of this brand for all kind of seasons, even their casual wear. It is not cheap, but it is highly technical, and I do prefer to have less things but better quality- as I realise that I always use the same! So, I invest in fewer pieces of better quality. I like their minimalist lines and their design is top notch.
Vertices Hoody – this is designed for cold weather and has specific snow sport features, such as the balaclava style hood that can easily go over the head and under a helmet or used as a neck warmer.
Detail of the hoody of the Vertices Hoody top- Arc’teryx. Gear Review: Arc’teryx’s base layers for the season.The Vertices Hoody for Women. Gear Review: Arc’teryx’s base layers for the season.
Where to Stay in Méribel: Hotel Le Coucou – opening December 2019
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The Pariente family are delighted to announce the launch of Maisons Pariente, a new luxury collection of boutique five-star hotels in Provence, Saint-Tropez and Méribel. Fashion and property entrepreneur Patrick Pariente and his two daughters, Leslie Kouhana and Kimberley Pariente, are the driving force behind this new venture, which offers guests exclusive escapes to beautiful properties in stunning French destinations.
Where to Stay in Méribel: Hotel Le Coucou – opening December 2019
Maisons Pariente will round off 2019 with the opening of Le Coucou in Méribel in December. Set on the ski slopes, the brand-new hotel will offer 55 guest bedrooms and suites as well as two private chalets, two restaurants and a spa with six treatment rooms and hairdresser, indoor and outdoor pools, hammam and sauna. With two kids’ clubs to suit both toddlers and teens, Le Coucou looks set to be an ideal choice for families looking to hit the slopes. Interior designer Pierre Yovanovitch is working with the Pariente family to bring this exciting new project to life.
Nightly rates at Le Coucou start from 610 Euros on a bed & breakfast basis. To reserve your room at Le Coucou click here.
What’s new in Cortina for the 2019-2020 Winter Season
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Cortina is one of the most renown and grand ski resorts in the world and certainly one of the tops in Italy. Cortina has always been the place where the elite got together to ski and practice winter sports, with amazing landscapes of the Dolomite mountains wherever you look at. As it has recently won the co-joint title to host the 2026 Winter Olympics with Milan, and is also hosting on 2021 the FIS World Ski Championships, Cortina is bustling with activity getting ready.
Last year there was already some enlargement and modification in some of their pistes, where the FIS Ladies’ World Cup are held each year- these were the runs of the Tofana and Col Druscié areas. Snowmaking facilities were improved as well, and a new black piste was created in the Faloria ski area, called Scoiattolo (squirrel in Italian).
Cortina d’Ampezzo, beautiful from all angles. Photo: Cortina 2021.com- What’s new in Cortina for the 2019-2020 Winter Season.
For the 2019-20 ski season there will be a new gondola from Cortina to Col Druscié. The current cable car will be replaced with a smaller- 10-seat gondola. The base station will be replaced. The new Freccia del Cielo will have a middle stop, to substitute the Colfiere-Col Druscié chairlift that is taken away. As the gondola will transport three times as many skiers and boarders from its renewed base station close to the Olympic Ice Stadium, waiting times are going to be reduced substantially. The slopes and roads of the Col Druscié will also be modified due to hosting some of the competitions of 2021.
A new slope will be opening on the 19-20 ski season in the Cinque Torri area, dedicated to Cortina’s most famous climber, Lindo Lacedelli, taking his name. It will be a piste dedicated to race training, where athletes competing in the 2021 World Ski Championships will train.
Register to our newsletter for a chance to win one of the two INDY Passes we are giving away for the 2019/20 ski season
The-Ski-Guru has teamed up with Indy Pass to get you a chance to win one of the two season passes that allow you to ski on 44 independent resorts in North America. The Indy Pass allows you to ski or ride two days per resort, that is 88 days in the season! Plus these independent resorts are great. If you are starting out, you will have a much down-to-earth mountain experience, with all the facilities these mountains have to offer and skiing in unspoilt locations.
Eaglecrest_IndyPass. Register to our newsletter for a chance to win one of the two INDY Passes we are giving away for the 2019/20 ski season.
The Indy Pass offers a third day at a discount at participating resorts, and discount for kids lift tickets as well. Lessons and rental discounts are also offered and vary per by resort.
So if you are tempted to start skiing, or to get more skilled, why don’t you register? Somebody has to win these two Indy season passes! You can register by 15th November, 2019, and winners will be announced by 22nd November, 2019.
Training in the off-season for the ski-season – Nordic Walking.
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We are all excited that winter is coming. Weather seems a bit warm for October in the UK, but it will soon change. With some snowstorms already in the Alps and in America, I can’t wait for the ski season to start!
But how should we get ready for it? Lots of people do cardio exercises. I am not that kind of person. I like being outdoors, but don’t go running as my knees and ankles are not too good. But I can walk. And I’ve learnt that Nordic walking is a great sport, that uses all your muscles in your body and allows you to go in a good pace doing long distances.
I tend to do (when weather is not as bad as last week, or I don’t have ski industry events to attend), a long walk of 2 ½ hours or up to 3 hours. I have found a nice road with trees, go all the way through Blackheath and the bottom of Greenwich into the Maritime Museum where I stop for a tea and a snack and a quick wee, and then I go up the hill all the way back home.
Nordic walking in Lost Lake, I was happy I did not have a ‘bear’ encounter! Training in the off-season for the ski-seasonWhistler. Photo: Ester Servat.
If you can walk you can Nordic Walk. I suggest you getting good walking poles. The brand I love, and I also used over the years a lot for skiing is Leki. Leki is the German brand of inventor Klaus Lenhart. The brand has different models of poles for alpine skiing, ski touring/snowshoeing, trekking, Nordic walking, freeskiing, cross country and trail running. Even all are similar, they all have their differences too, so if you can afford to do so, buy yourself a pair of Nordic walking poles. I’ve started using my hiking poles for Nordic poling but was soon after having problems with my carpal tunnel syndrome in my wrists, that was making my hands go numb!
A fast-melting glacier in the Mont Blanc raised an alarm in the area of Val Ferret of Courmayeur.
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The Planpincieux glacier on the Grande Jorasses peak of the Mont Blanc massif, which marks the border between Italy, France and Switzerland is fast-melting and could provoke a collapse of 8.8 million cubic feet mass of the 512 square mile glacier.
A helicopter rides on top of the glacier. Photo: Antonio Calanni AP – The Guardian. A fast-melting glacier in the Mont Blanc raised an alarm in the area of Val Ferret of Courmayeur.
The glacier overlooks the Val Ferret and Planpincieux, 7 km up from Courmayeur. Experts from Fondazione Montagna Sicura (Safe Mountain Foundation), a charity in charge of monitoring the glaciers of Aosta Valley, said that this glacier has been moving since they have been monitoring it closely starting in 2013, but the size of a recent fracture and the increase of the speed at which the ice is melting raised the alarm.
This area is popular with hikers, so Courmayeur’s Major Miserocchi closed as a safety measure, mountain refuges and part of a road upon which the ice could directly fall. Contrary to first reported, only one home had to be evacuated. The rest of the 10 homes in the hamlet beneath the glacier are empty summer holiday homes.
A group of 160 or so pupils marched on Friday to protest against climate change with banners and slogans from “Ban plastic, save our planet” to “You broke our glacier”.
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If you are a fanatic mountain lover and a skier or boarder, you know that you are thinking about the mountains all the time. If you could, you would be there as much as possible, maybe try to work for the season, and if you are very lucky, stay year-round.
This idea might be great if you have no family and you don’t need to ground yourself down because of your kids. I have a friend when living in Argentina that was doing the ski seasons in Las Leñas with his kids, and another friend in common kept on saying that those kids were not going to learn anything – I would say they will learn the ‘school of life’. But it is not an easy option.
Le Genepi in Les Gets. How to buy a home in the mountains.
So, if you are lucky enough of being able to have the money, receive an inheritance, put money aside every month for some (or many) years, or get money for a deposit and look into getting a mortgage, maybe investing in a home in the mountains could be an option for you.
I always wanted to live in the mountains. When I was young and I lived in Colorado, I was really happy waking up there every day. That was the case in Crested Butte, even more than in Aspen. And working for the seasons in Las Leñas and Bariloche also had its appeal.
But having your spot where to stay in the mountains, and not necessarily having to be working there, is the best of both worlds.
Dining room render of the Génepy. Les Gets. How to buy a home in the mountains.
So how you can do this.
I obviously started looking online, at new developments that can be bought from the builder, some of them ski in/out and then looking at different websites, of the likes of Rightmove of Idealista (for Italian properties).
There are a couple of UK realtors that are dedicated to selling properties in the Alps. Such is the case of Alpine Property Intelligence, which has a very good website featuring different apartments and chalets in the Alps- specifically in France, Switzerland and Austria. Not only they offer a range of apartments for-sale, but also for rent.
Not for profit organisation UCPA launches new ski touring week in Norway
Not for profit organisation, UCPA, has launched a new ski touring trip away from its home in France, based in the north of Norway around Tromsø and the Lyngen Alps.
It’s an expansion of the program that already offers one of the largest choices of ski touring and splitboarding holidays for all levels of skiers and snowboarders across the French Alps.
The 7 night fully guided trip is suitable for skiers with previous off-piste and touring experience only, with 6 days of non-lift accessed skiing through backcountry terrain in remote locations. Potential summits include Store Jaegervasstinden, Russelvjellet, Giilavari, Daltinden, Svarthamartinden, and Gråtinden plus many more.
It’s a chance for skiers to experience a trip that could normally incur huge costs, but at the all-inclusive price that UCPA is well-known for.
The accommodation will be in comfortable guest house style lodges and rooms typically shared between 2 and 4 persons, all meals are included, with the exception of the first and last night dinner in Tromsø.
UCPA Norway ski touring- Northern Lights. Not for profit organisation UCPA launches new ski touring week in Norway
Managing Director of Action Outdoors, the UK arm of UCPA, said: “This trip really is one of a kind. The scenery alone in this corner of the world is like no other. The mountains are Alpine in character and contain several glaciers, providing it with exciting terrain despite the highest peak being just 1,833m above sea level – the latitude certainly makes up for the altitude. There may be the chance to witness some of the northern lights too. Although the costs exceed a normal UCPA week in the Alps, we really feel that it provides amazing value considering the potential costs normally involved with fully guided, organised and all-inclusive trips to Norway”.
So, you want to take your family skiing, but you do not know where to start?
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The summer holidays are finished, kids starting school again, and you got the holiday blues. The best thing to do to combat this feeling is getting ready for your next holiday.
I don’t know if you are like me, but I always need to have a holiday to look forward to. How about if you want to initiate your family into skiing but have never done so? And what happens if yourself are not that experienced at it? You might have gone when young with your school but did not think any more of it.
And maybe the mountains caught your attention, but you did not have the money when young and the world was a big place to discover and were not thinking in this kind of holiday.
The boys waiting for their ski race- Photo: Patrick Hinchy. So, you want to take your family skiing, but you do not know where to start?
Now you are tied down with kids, and holidays are completely different. But you’ve heard of friends going skiing already, and of how much fun they had, and how good it is for your kids to start the sport when they are young, as they are not afraid about falling.
You could maybe master a couple of blue or red slopes, but you are not an expert, or, you have never skied.
The problem with skiing, is that it seems daunting: with the travelling, lodging, transfers to the mountains if not lodged ski in – ski out; the equipment, the weight of it all, the clothing you need, the ski or snowboard school for getting all started….you are tired of it before you even begin organising yourself!
But do not despair – I know that all seems awful before starting, but if you like to master tasks and break them into little bits and bops to tackle one at a time, you can definitely be organising the first of an annual holiday that you’ll cherish for ever. Or, if you could not be bothered with the fuss, but still want to introduce your family to a holiday in the snow, then you can always contact a tour operator or travel concierge!
Kids Waiting for the Funicular in Courmayeur Mont Blanc- Soft Pastels by Martina Diez-Routh. In the shop for sale here.
The big picture
Just imagine the rewards, paradisaic landscapes in pristine snow and blue skies, or snow tip-tapping in your face, the silence you can feel when it is snowing, cuddling up under a fluffy blanket by the fire with a nice cup of hot chocolate or wine, the interminable strings of stories of hilarious things that happen to you when you are in the mountain which are great to share with friends. All these things make these kinds of holidays really worth it. For me, it is the holidays I like the best, I think all year of them, I crave my time in the mountains like crazy when I am in the lowlands.
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