Getting enough snowboarding in in a season is down to a few factors:

1. Getting your mates up for it.
2. Having the necessary funds.
3. Getting time off work.

If 1 is a problem, you can always get some new friends or go on your own. I’m wrestling with my conscience about this one at the moment as all my lot are either doing other things or are injured, annoyingly.

With careful planning and not wasting holiday in the summer, time off work needn’t be a problem. To make things easier I’ve just jacked my job in and am going self-employed. So long as this doesn’t make point 2 more of a problem, I should be laughing.

But to go snowboarding from the UK into Europe a good number of times over the winter period you’ll want to hunt around for some good deals. Here’s how I do it:

Researching ski resorts and nearby airports

You’ll probably be wanting to be getting a flight with a budget airline like easyJet or Ryan Air, both of which fly to a number of areas with nearby ski resorts.

I start by going to J2SKI.com, which lists all the major ski airports in Europe. From there, I cross reference with easyJet and Ryan Air which ski airports they fly to. For example, easyJet fly to Geneva.

From there I’ll check the Geneva page on J2SKI to see what resorts are within easy reach of the airport. The closer the resort, the cheaper the transfer and the sooner you’re strapping into your bindings and hitting the slopes.

Looking for cheap flights

My favourite site for comparing flights and finding deals at the moment is zugu, which is a relatively new site from the people who run Cheapflights.co.uk. zugu is a meta search site with near enough real-time flight data for most of the major airlines flying across Europe. So far for the season I’ve found and booked flights with Airberlin and easyJet for 2 different trips with the zugu site.

One of the top features if being able to be very precise about flight times, which is important to me when trying to maximise time on the slopes and minimise the number of days holiday allowance I need to take off work.

Transfers and accommodation

Again, zugu does a job here with car hire comparison and a hotels section. That said, many European airports have great train connections to ski resorts, especially it seems in Austria. Getting a train through the Alps can give you access to some spectacular scenery and take the effort out.

In addition to using comparison sites, I’ve found some of the best deals on hotels by going direct to the official resort website and following links to local hotels. The Cervinia site has been good to me many times in this respect.

It’s finally Winter Olympics time, so I thought I’d post this picture in honour of the half-pipe kicking off today, courtesy of Constantin at the HighBallBlog.

I’ve had a few random snowboard trips to report on this season.

Firstly, 4 days in Cervinia back in December. A fun trip with 6 of us out for 4 days. The snow was generally good with fresh powder on the last day. Without doubt the coldest trip I’ve been on. Got stuck on the Zermatt side with the main gondola shut, meaning we had to get a 5km series of drag lifts in -26°C temperatures. Ouch.

Next up was 2 days in the Monte Rosa area. We were hoping to do a day heli boarding, but couldn’t go ahead due to high wind. Instead, we took a guide for the day, and followed up the next day with more off piste riding.

Most recently, I found myself in Boston, US on business and had a free Saturday. A 1.5 hour train journey north out of the city was Wachusett Mountain, a relatively small ski hill, certainly the smallest hill I’ve been to. As it was an opportunist days snowboarding I didn’t have my board so had to wrestle with a pretty basic Head rental board. Boy, did I miss my board. None the less had a great day hitting the kickers in the park, and enjoyed the locals/family vibe.

Next up in a couple of weeks 4 days in the Kaprun/Zell Am See area.

I missed all the half-pipe snowboarding at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics last week, including Shaun White’s winning run. If you’ve checked YouTube you’ll struggle to find it anywhere. However mpora came up with the goods. Albeit a camcorder pointed at a tv screen. Still, you can see Shaun White pulling double whatevertheyrecalled mcnuggets with extra chips in low res right above.

You can read more about the film over at the Teton Gravity Research website, or grab of copy of December’s Whitelines magazine in which Dan Milner camps out with the Deeper team in deepest Alaska for a couple of weeks during the expedition. Also catch this interview below with Jones talking about the prospect of hitting the backcountry by foot for previously unattainable lines.

Nothing seems to cause more dispute amongst snowboarders than the dispute over Flow bindings.

Added comfort vs. lack of control
No strap pain vs. extra weight
Cool as you like vs. WTF is that?

I’m currently using straps, but have used Flow’s a fair few times and am pretty sure the route of the problem many people have is that they didn’t have them set up properly. There’s a good thread going at AdTrip, where DeathonaStick is asking for advice on how to setup Flow bindings properly. tom_g gives a detailed response:

The strap thing (whatever the hell its called) needs to be as far forward as you can get it, so that the hiback comes down without catching on the heel of your boot (which it will quite happily tear off if you force it too often)

put the ladders on the forward-most settings, then put the strap on, and push each ratchet down a little bit. Then put your boot under the strap, close the hiback, and push the strap down further, as far as it’ll go.

You can now either take the boot out and click them all down one more, if you want them tight, or leave them as they are if you like them a bit loose (i leave them as they are, generally)

theres a bit of a knack to getting into flows quickly, it takes maybe a day or so of riding to get it down pat. This (i reckon) is the main reason that people who try their mate’s flow for a couple of runs don’t rate them highly, the first time you use them you’ll get your boot stuck in your binding and it’ll piss you right off You need to give them a chance…

Put your front foot under the strap, then lean on your toe edge (back foot in front of you) and bang down onto the toe edge to get your front foot in firmly. pull the front binding shut.

Then reach down, hold the back hiback down, put your back foot under the strap. stand upright, put yourself on the toe edge and and ram your back foot in as far as it’ll go, then pull up the hiback.

you can do all this on the flat section after a chairlift without stopping - again, it’ll take a day or so for the movements to bed themselves into your subconscious, but once its there you’ll do it as easily as tieing shoelaces.

Getting your back foot out is the reverse. Whilst you’re stopping, get on a toe edge and ram your back foot as far in as it’ll go, then reach down and undo the highback. If it gets caught, stand up again and ram your foot further - don’t try to force it. If you really, really get stuck. stand up, swear a bit, pull the whole strap off, and set them up again.

One thing to remember, if you’re trying this in your lounge, both your boot and and binding will be dry, so it’ll be a bit harder to get them in. On a real slope they’ll be wet, and they’ll slide in easier. Give it a go in the back garden with your binding nice and wet, and you’ll see its much easier.

If you’ve got bad hips like me, flows will save you a lot of pain. You still have to bend down, but its only the equivalent to the movement of scratching your ankle with one hand. Straps make you bend down properly, with both hands, and thats the bit that grinds away on my bollocksed up hip cartiledge.

One more point: once you’re in, you’ll find that your heel will lift a 1cm or so. Don’t worry about this, as soon as you start riding your foot will shift back in the binding (remember you jammed it forwards as far as you could) and the heel lift will go.

and one final, final point - you’ll take loads of shit for riding flows, people will continually ask you whether you can’t do up straps, and they’ll get uber-defensive if you have a go at straps. theres nothing you can do or say that will get through these people’s heads, if you have to ride with them you’ll have to suck it up

Full thread no longer live at AdTrip.

http://adrenalintrip.extreme.com/forum/viewtopic/1/179679?siteid=3&23

Last season I had the best snowboarding I think I’ve ever had, with a guide taking us off several cliff drops in the Monte Rosa area in Italy. We started small - a couple of metres or so - but built up throughout the day. Here’s a video of a few of us sizing up to one of the drops, I think this was about 5 metres give or take. I’m the last one to go in this video.

There’s some better footage to be had elsewhere on youtube, with people throwing themselves off cliffs on snowboards and skis.

Mount Baker cliff drop session…

Showing how easy it can be, but still looking cool…

Whistler drop, nicely done

This is just huge. You couldn’t say the skier really stomped it, but as for the snowboarder… insane.

This could have been so good…

Lastly, a section from a Standard Films movie. Some sweet footage, if a little slowmo heavy…

These had served me well for 4 seasons, so was keen to see what Salomon had to offer that would better suit my needs today.

I’d been reading about the Relay bindings system for a couple of years, which has sounded interesting. Here’s the low down from the Salomon Snowboards website

Soft ankle harness = Feels Good. Tensor system = Responsive SmartSole = Feels Good
1) Soft ankle harness.(comfort) Better boot wrap, 3D strap around you whole foot equals better fit and better comfort - allows med/lateral flex, natural foot movement. 2) Smart Sole (suspension) - absense of hard plastic under your heel, full eva plus a polymer structure between you and the board for maximum shock absorption and more direct board feel. 3) Tensor system (response) - transmits highback pressure directly to the front of the binding, lifting the toe edge and getting greater leverage to the board’s heel edge. With the absence of a hard heelcup, heel chatter does not turn into highback bite.

The tensor system in particular sounds like a great innovation.

Looking through this seasons range, the Relay Pro’s looked like the pick of the bunch. They’re pitched as more of a freestyle binding from what I’ve read about them. I’d also spotted the Relay Thruster’s from last season’s range, which offered up a stiffer highback, pitching them a touch more towards freeriding. Speaking to a guy on the Salomon Snowboards stand at the Metro Ski Show confirmed that the Thruster’s were a solid binding that were discontinued due to general trend of consumers favouring freestyle kit.

Independently, I’d had a couple of sessions trying boots on. I knew I wanted something stiffer than the Dialogue’s, and was prepared to put in the hours trying as many boots as possible to find the right combination of fit and feel. Before settling on the F22’s (which were the frontrunner from the start), I tried the following:

• Salomon Synapse - super-comfortable boots, looked great, but too soft
• Burton Ozone - comfortable, reasonable flex/stiffness but didn’t fit too well
• 32 TM Two - comfortable stiff flexing boot, but too much room to move my feet

Ending up with the F22’s - part of the Fusion series which specialises in reducing the overall foot print of the boot. With the smaller foot print, I could also aford to drop a size in the bindings, saving a little weight in the overall set up.

I admit they’re not the prettiest snowboard boots I’ve ever seen, but can’t say I’m too bothered.

Looking forward to giving the new set-up its first run out of the season, 6 weeks time in Cervinia.

Have you bought some new gear this season? Or used any of the above gear? Let me know in the comments below.

Update: 2011 K2 Slayblade profile.

K2 Slayblade

Buy online at the following places:
K2 Slayblade 156 for $549.99 at Altrec, Proboardshop
K2 Slayblade 158 for $549.99 at Proboardshop
K2 Slayblade 163 Wide for $549.99 at Altrec

The marketing spiel initially alludes to a more all mountain freestyle board than the Zep’:

New for 2009/10, the Slayblade is the next step in all terrain freestyle high performance.

..before making it clear to all exactly what the Slayblade’s hreitage is

Two years in the making, the Slayblade is the ultimate tip-of-the-hat to the legendary Zeppelin that defined All Terrain versatility for the last 13 years.

On closer inspection, its pretty clear that the 2009 Zep and 2010 Slayblade share a lot of similar technical spec’s - ICG 20 Base, Hybritaper tip, Setback twin hyper progressive shape and a WH4 core.

The Slayblade also has twin carbon torsion forks adding stiffness and pop, while I believe the Zeppelin had tripple forks. This could be one of subtle differences as far as I can tell, though pitches the board squarely between the Zeppelin’s stiffness and the K2 Believer’s all mountain freestyle playfulness.

So what else is new?

Original Penguin™ styling meets Hybrilight construction for an ultra lightweight, yet refined, board/graphic package. Integrated Harshmellow dampens the vibrations and cushions landings allowing you to constantly push your speed and open up the bag of tricks. Add Flatline Technology for the perfect balance of power and playfulness and you have the most technologically advance, highest performing ATLAS arsenal ever assembled to slay the mountain.

Flatline Technology is new to the K2 snowboard range for the 2009/2010 season. If I understand it correctly, Flatline boards sit between conventional camber and reverse cambered Rocker snowboards, with a totally flat base. The main benefit is supposed to be better float in powder. Does make me wonder why snowboards progressed away from flat bases to camber in the first place if Flatline is genuinely an innovation. It would be interesting to test the effects of this. If anyone has ridden a Flatline board, then I’d love to hear your review in the comments below.

The report itself is well worth a peruse if you’re interested in the UK ski travel industry (i.e. UK skiers/snowboarders travelling outside of the UK), but here are some highlights:

• The total ski market was down 13% on the previous season
• Tour operator sales dropped 15%
• Italy and Austria fared well. North America lost visitors - perhaps little surprise given the epic snow in Europe and relative costs.
• The weak pound, high fuel costs and economic uncertainty driving people away from ski holidays
• Fewer new skiers and young families
• More fixed budgets
• Crystal suggest chalet holiday companies may put prices up
• Whereas for “bigger holiday companies” such as Crystal its “back to tour operating basics” and “[passing] on outstanding value to British skiers”

Hmmm… interesting. Last season Crystal did have one or two amazing last minute deals. £150 for a week in Cervinia, half-board, flights and transfers if I remember correctly was one such deal. I remember giving some serious consideration to picking one of their packages over the New Year week, before settling on an independent holiday in Montgenevre with a large group of friends.

This season, I looked again at the New Year packages available but was disappointed, though not surprised to see they were prohibitively expensive.

An article caught my eye last week reporting on a statement from Peter Long, Chief executive of TUI Travel, Crystal’s parent company.

TUI Travel said the decline in its UK market was in line with expectations and that capacity reductions meant it had 12 per cent fewer holidays left to sell.

It has seen booking volumes improve in recent weeks, but customer numbers for winter 2009/10 are still down 21 per cent on a year earlier in the UK. This has been offset by an 11 per cent rise in average selling prices.

Ouch. Makes me wonder how the outstanding value promised in the 2009 Report will manifest itself.

I’m sure there will be some good deals to be had at the last minute, but popular weeks will be very expensive. I think I’ll be sticking to independent trips this season, which all things even are certainly my preference.

Speaking of which, much has been made of BA’s change of policy on ski baggage. You’re now unable to include ski luggage AND regular checked baggage without paying a suplement. This still leaves them offering a much better service than the budget airlines. I for one can usually get away with just hand luggage and my snowboard bag checked. Just be resourceful with your packing, wear your ski jacket onto the plane - and your boots if need be - and stuff your pockets with t-shirts, socks, hats, whatever it takes.

There are definitely flight bargains to be had. You just need to do your research and understand the baggage policies in each case.

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on package holidays vs independent. Which do you prefer and which offer best value?

Photo credit: the_amanda

The Indian Park blog jogged my memory that the latest offering from the Absinthe boys was filled in none other than Breuil-Cervinia, amongst other spots.

The trailer looks pretty sweet.

I’ve not watched a new snowboard movie since “That’s It, That’s All” (which if you haven’t seen, you must), but hoping to check this one out.

In the meantime, you can see if you can bag yourself free tickets on Whitelines.com (A= Metro), Allinlondon (A= Vancouver), Natives, Goneboarding (A= Zillertal), Powderroom (just log in and enter) or the mighty Ultimate Ski.com.

In fact if you end up having to pay for tickets, have a word with yourself.

All the usual stuff is there… massive kicker/demo sessions, talks, stalls and stands, this seasons new gear, etc. etc.

I’ll be going along on the look out for new boots and bindings. Maybe even the elusive new jacket that I’ve been promising myself for about 3 years.

Following that I have my eye on an adventure race in October (10k, 25k MTB, 1.5 kayak), and hoping to do both the Mudman duathlon and HellRunner (running only) events in Novemeber.

I did the Spring Mudman in March this year and HellRunner last year, both very hilly courses and with 6 days of one another. That’s going to be tough so I need to step up the training now.

Heading out shortly to up the ante on my mountain biking skills and endurance, heading over to Leith Hill for the first time. It’s come recommended and sounds great from the reviews.

Also catching up on some duathlon reading thanks to a handy Google Duathlon RSS feed.

A few interesting posts popped up recently…

Clark off-road duathlon 3
A first time duathlete, with limited bike experience, but sounds like a good (elite?) runnner. Reminds me of my first duathlon… I was different - I thought I was good on a bike but hadn’t trained properly. You get some top athletes at these events so without proper training you’ll get left behind. That was my experience not that of this blogger, SEABISKWIT.

The “Joy” Of Climbing A Hill On A Bike
Not a duathlon post, just mountain bike related but well worth a read none the less. Very quotable article, I liked this bit: “Suffering is at the heart of every hardcore cyclist’s connection to the sport—not just the acceptance of suffering, but the whole-body embrace as if you’ve just found your lost child—and nowhere will you suffer more than on the hills. They are the ultimate proving ground of the cyclist, road or mountain, and we can’t help but be drawn to them.”

Also check out the photos on the Mountain Biking in the Most Beautiful Places on Earth post about riding in Italy’s Dolomite Mountains.

Now, time to hit the road.

A cracking cover, slightly reworked from the original. Early days Maiden signer Paul Dianno wrote the lyrics about “a friend” who loved a bit of LSD.

Unchain the colours before my eyes,
Yesterday’s sorrows, tomorrow’s white lies.
Scan the horizon, the clouds take me higher,
I shall return from out of fire.

Tears for rememberance, and tears for joy,
Tears for somebody and this lonely boy.
Out in the madness, the all seeing eye,
Flickers above us, to light up the sky.

Unchain the colours before my eyes,
Yesterday’s sorrows, tomorrow’s white lies.
Scan the horizon, the clouds take me higher,
I shall return from out of fire.

Found via Metal Rock’s on Twitter.

Will get back to posting a proper update sometime soon. There are snowboarding trips from the end of season to cover and some recent wakeboarding - highly recommended for snowboarders looking for some summer fun.

I’m not familiar with her work - as to be honest, I know very little about the acting world and don’t watch many movies - but it’s always sad to hear about people dying, especially where skiing or snowboarding is involved.

One thing that has surprised me though is that no news report I’ve seen has mentioned whether Natasha Richardson was wearing a ski helmet at the time of her crash at Mount Tremblant.

Update: she wasn’t

There are many who argue that ski helmets aren’t for everyone:

“I’m sticking to the piste, so I don’t need to wear a helmet”

“I don’t fall over anymore, so I don’t wear a helmet”

“Helmets just ain’t cool, so I’m not wearing one”

“They don’t fit with my goggles”

All lame excuses as far as I’m concerned. Helmets save the lives of skiers and snowboarders.

I’ve been nursing a broken rib for the last 2 months after I caught a massive edge in whiteout and an avalanche tranceiver acting is the filling in a piste-torso sandwich. I don’t catch edges! But I did that day.

My point is you never know when you’re going to find yourself wanting for safety equipment.

Excuse the rant here - but lets all enjoy ourselves, push our limits, but without being reckless and respect the mountain.