Ben Clatworthy's Blog

With all eyes in the skiing world focused on the Paralympic Games in Vancouver it seems fit to write a blog on Disabled Skiing. Ben Clatworthy gave it a go last season, with the help of an instructor; this year James Cove the editor of PlanetSKI.eu tries it for himself. It’s harder than it looks… really!

There have been major developments in the last few years, and now it is a common sight to see a disabled skier enjoying the freedom and exhilaration of a day on the slopes.

For Stefan, my bother, skiing has changed his life.  He is a disabled child who never lets his disabilities get in the way.  Before we discovered handiski, he used to be left at home when the family went skiing, but now he is also able to join in with the excitement that the slopes bring to thousands each year.

Last season I swapped my skis and gave sit-skiing a go. It was truly terrifying as you can see here in my video reports.

However, our experiences vary in different ski resorts, and even within one ski area.  Les Trois Vallees, the

Even the young can have a go!

world’s largest ski area, has 3 different lift companies managing the 183 lifts.  In the Vallee des Belleville, Setam and Sevabel manage the lifts of St Martin de Belleville, Les Menuires and Val Thorens.  In the past few years, they have adapted most of the ski lifts to make then accessible for disabled skiers.

In the other two valleys, one company, S3V manages the lifts in Meribel and Courchevel.  But the attitude to disabled skiers is markedly different between the two valleys. In Meribel there are only 9 lifts that can’t be accessed by disabled skiers, whilst in Courchevel there are 25.

Ski resorts were designed for able bodied people so many hotels, chalets and apartments are unusable.

Last week James Cove, who is the Content Editor for PlanetSKI.eu, a website I write for, gave sit-skiing a go for the first time and found it difficult but very rewarding.

“After several attempts I managed one turn and then after a few more I managed to put 2 linked turns together before crashing over.

I had an enormous sense of achievement.  I though was on a basic nursery slope.” Cove wrote in his article for PlanetSKI.

You can read the full report on PlanetSKI here

There is no doubt that skiing for the disabled is becoming increasingly more accepted and wide spread, but some change still needs to happen before all disabled people will be able to take up skiing. Its not easy for the resorts either, often expensive to make changes and sometimes in their eyes not worth the effort.

However this are changing and more and more disabled people are giving the sport a go. The tour operator Crystal is working closely with Disability Snowsport UK  to raise its profile and provide help for people with a disability who wish to give skiing a go.

It’s a fantastic sport and well worth a go!

Ben Clatworthy is the ‘Racing and Sports Correspondent’ for PlanetSKI.eu and writes for other ski publications too, including InTheSnow Magazine.

With the main Olympic games over attention turns to the Paralympic games in the host city. The Vancouver Olympic Centre has become The Vancouver Paralympic Centre and the medals have Braille on them; it’s a brilliant competition shining with equality. We have a video report too.

Having a disabled brother who is skiing crazy and uses a sit-ski himself the Paralympic games highlight how accepting the world can be when it wants. It’s a lovely sight to see disabled athletes competing on the worlds highest sporting stage doing what they love.

Let the games begin...

But here in Britain the Paralympics aren’t exactly drawing the same exposure as the able-bodied games did last month. The BBC are lacking coverage, instead highlighting the two weeks competition in one hour at the end and the newspapers are writing supplements on these games. It’s a sad sight really but there is no doubt that our British represenatives out in Canada will have a brilliant time.

Sean Rose and Ben Clatworthy in October 2009.

We might just bring home another GBR medal; Sean Rose has already won gold in the Disabled Skiing World Cup this year and is on top form. Its a perfect chance for him to shine and boost coverage of Paralympic sports in the UK. I met Sean in October last year at the Metro Ski and Snowboard show and he is a truly inspirational skier – I’ve kept in contact with him since and written several articles this year as I followed his progress.

I wish all of Great Britain’s athletes at the games the very best of luck and really hope I’ll be able to write a blog on a medal sometime in the next fortnight.

If you’re interested in finding out more about skiing for the disabled why not check out these videos I made last season on Disabled skiing. It’s an inspirational sport! Click here to watch the videos.

If you are interested in using any of these videos please contact Ben Clatworthy through his website. Thank you.

It’s no doubt that the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics will go down in history for having a fair few problems, controversies and of course successes. It tends to be the same with most major sporting events, but Vancouver hasn’t half had it’s fair share.

Times were hard from the start of the season with unseasonably warm temperatures for Cypress Mountain leading to a distinct lack of snow (and again today the Helicopters a flying in new snow), and the treat of the resort of Whilster being auctioned off by Intrawest. Hundreds of tickets have been canceled too as spectator areas on Cypress are turned to mud.

The tragic death of 21 year old Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili just one day before the start of the games highlighted the dangers of the Whilster Sliding Center track with training postponed for the 2nd time in the run up to the games.

Bad weather and heavy snow put hold on both the male and female Downhill competitions and also messed up the entire Alpine Schedule; again a common occurrence at many FIS Alpine Ski Races.

But let’s not forget the successes; most notably so far for Great Britain, Amy Williams who won gold on Friday evening in the Skeleton event. Amy had led the field from the start of the competition. Didier Defago won the delayed Men’s Downhill and just yesterday Bode Miller won Gold in the Super Combined event meaning he takes home one of every kind of Medal from the games.

Britain’s Ed Drake has done very well too, he finished 29th in the Super Combined yesterday, 32nd in the Super-G and Chemmy Alcott finished a very creditable 13th in the Women’s Downhill last week.

It’s hard to summarize an Olympic Games in such a short blog, but I hope this have given you a taster of whats going on over the pond. I am helping to cover the games extensively for PlanetSKI.eu, where I act as their Racing and Sports Correspondent so do keep an eye there for all the latest from Vancouver.

See our special Olympic Section on PlanetSKI; as well as the latest news it is has some in-depth features and a few stories that you wont see elsewhere.

You can find all my Olympic Games Articles on Benclatworthy.com too.

In parts of the Alps resorts are opening their lifts early following heavy snowfall, whilst in some resorts openings are being delayed due to a lack of the white stuff.

It’s quite a common a scenario and no real change to many previous seasons. Last year broke the mould in many ways with bumper amounts of snow across the whole Alps.

I would be lying if I said that I didn’t quite enjoy all the speculation and discussion that I hear and read each November and early December. It’s all quite interesting and funny – everyone has their own take on the picture and everyone thinks they know whats going to happen. I don’t have a crystal ball, or any special powers but I would guess that as has happened in years gone by the snow will come; it’s just a matter of when.

Val Thorens today, fresh snow at 11am. c/o Snowbrainer

In Switzerland the resort of Verbier, which is very popular with British tourists opened on November 7, whilst the French resort of Val Thorens opened one week later on November 14, a week early. Tignes is also open in France and Zermatt in Switzerland has the most snow in the world with 4 meters.

I’m not here to write a snow report but there its easy to feel quite optimistic going on those few resorts. It’s not that simple everywhere though, Bansko in Bulgaria remains closed despite hoping to open earlier this month and now has it’s fingers crossed that the snow will arrive.

In the French Alps temperatures remain quite warm and lots of the early season snow that fell over the past weeks is, if not already, starting to melt. It’s a nail biting situation for any seasonal worker and especially tour operators.

Ischgl's famous opening season concert c/o PlanetSKI.eu

The Austrian resort of Ischgl, which is world famous for its beginning and end of season concerts, opens for skiing this Friday and then hosts international singer Katy Perry on Saturday for this years concert. Kylie Minogue, The Scissor Sisters, Pink, Elton John, Lionel Richie, The Sugababes and Bon Jovi have all performed live concerts there in years gone by.

If only I was going, it’s always a super event and enjoyed by everyone! It really is a ‘Wish I was There’ moment every year… I just need to find a valid reason to go!

No doubt the snow will come, in 2006 it didn’t come to many parts of the Alps until mid-december, but in 2008 it came in October.

The British media love to give the snow situation as much hype as possible. In 2006 a chalet manager in the resort of St Martin de Belleville in the world famous 3 Valleys invited one British ski journalist to stay in his chalet for a week, free of charge. But why? To make him go home and write a positive story about the snow that, in fact wasn’t as bad as the media had reported. You can’t blame them, every journalist wants a good story and people love reading about snow… I’ve already admitted that.

It’s important to remember that snow in November doesn’t necessarily mean snow in December, and with that in mind no snow in November doesn’t mean no snow in December. It really is swings and roundabouts this skiing lark!

This is not a snow report. Views expressed are those of Ben Clatworthy. If you are looking for a professional snow report then Ben recommends PlanetSKI.eu, who publish a detailed report regularly.

by Ben Clatworthy, PlanetSKI.eu Racing and Sports Correspondent

More and more people seem to be heading indoors to ski and snowboard in the UK. Why and what’s it like?

Long gone are the days when the only option to get in some pre-holiday practice was the local dry slope on a bit of rather odd white plastic.

Across the UK there is a growing number of ’snow-domes’. They are, in all essence, giant fridges filled with real snow.

There are now five of these slopes in England and one in Scotland.

I’ve come to ‘The Snow Centre’ in Hemel Hempstead, which is the newest one in England. The ex-British ski racer, Alain Baxter, opened the centre in May this year and what followed has been pretty successfull.

Baxter opens the slope

PlanetSKI was there for the cutting of the ribbon, or rather the skiing through it, by Baxter.

It’s a Thursday afternoon at the end of the summer holidays, +22c outside, but in here it’s -2c.

The air smells fresh and the slope is filled with skiers criss-crossing one another as they fly down the slopes.

It was an exciting sight and I felt as if I was in a real ski resort. Well, almost.

I popped into my skis and headed for the poma lift. There may be no chairlift or gondola but the whole lift operation was very impressive.

A couple of minutes later I arrived at the top of the slope, skidded round and looked down towards the bottom – admittedly it wasn’t a black run, but still considering I was skiing, for real, in England I could hardly complain.

There was even a piste basher at the bottom of the slope.

“There’s been a huge increase in recreational use of indoor slopes across the UK. Since The Snow Centre launched in May this year, bookings have been fantastic,” says Pete Gillespie who is the director of Snowsports at the Snow Centre. “This increase in participation is largely due to the superb facilities, snow conditions and teaching now on offer in the UK.”

It’s easy to forget but these slopes are also a brilliant resource to train for racing or to become an instructor.

The Hemel Hempstead piste basher

The Hemel Hempstead piste basherThe Snow Centre is already home to the UK branch of the Kandahar Ski Club Junior Training, the ski team that I race for, and they train 8 – 18 year olds most weeks on the real snow giving them the absolute best possible UK based training on a regular basis.

The Snow Centre is also the only BASI Centre of Excellence in the South of the country, it’s a good location and a much cheaper place to train as a ski instructor than out in The Alps.

I had a wonderful afternoon on the snow with some friends and the excitement of skiing on real snow in England didn’t really wear off, but I’ll be totally honest; it wasn’t quite The Alps.

Despite the images of the mountains on the wall, having only one piste did get slightly monotonous, but I really can’t complain – it’s an impressive facility with a massive potential, be it for someone learning to ski or an Olympic hopefull.

The Snow Centre offers it all.

Don’t foreget to check out the video and story of a fund raising event for Britain’s No 1 male ski racer, Ed Drake, at The Snow Centre last week.

Recreational skiing starts from £22 for one hour at weekends and ski and snowboarding taster classes start from £24.

For more information on prices, instruction, school holiday activities and special offers visit www.thesnowcentre.com