Ben Clatworthy's Blog

Snow, wind, rain, cloud and surprisingly even a little bit of sun! Christmas and New Year in the Alps are notoriously 2 of the busiest weeks of the season, and two of the most important for businesses, so how did everything do?

I would be lying if I said the ski season started with a bang this year. It did in the Austrian resort of Ischgl as I blogged back in November. Many resorts were left with a problem on their hands when the opening date came and went, but the snow didn’t come. Things weren’t all that bad though.

The snow did come, and in places where the totals were lacking absolutely freezing conditions allowed for vast quantities of snow making across the Alps. Snow cannons were firing out snow 24 hours a day in many resorts, topping up any bare patches. Temperatures of -25 degrees C were common across France, Switzerland and Austria. In higher resorts the wind chill was bitter. The Pitztal glacier in Austria recorded -38 in late December.

However, it’s not the best year to be blasting snow all the time. The big ‘R’ word seemed to have impacted

Snow Cannons top up the pistes in Austria

booking figures for the festive period. For those of you in doubt that ‘R’ word I refer to is the rescission. There were of course other factors too, reports of snow-shortage didn’t help, the poor exchange rate and of course the fact that it seems every holiday company has some sort of offer on holidays not in the peak season. Hiring a whole catered chalet for a week in January for £300 would have been unheard of a few years back – this year they are throwing holidays away… quite literally.

In the 3 Valleys, France bookings were down over Christmas. The 3 Valleys include the resorts of Courchevel, Meribel, Les Menuires, Val Thornes and St Martin de Belleville. A contact in Les Menuires told me that the resort was just 70% full over Christmas this year; it would normally be full to the brim with people being turned away. Things were better over New Year, the resort was full as expected. The figures are worked out from Agency figures, lift pass sales and hotel bookings. The data is normally available by Wednesday as more and more chalets do Sunday to Sunday bookings.

Things really are on the up now, just today I read a snow report and it seems that the constant snowfall across much of Europe over the New Year has improved snow conditions dramatically.  The picture out in the Alps now is great with loads of snow and great deals to be had. Book a cheap flight from EasyJet (who currently have their biggest ever sale on) and get out to the slopes for some late January fun!

Ben Clatworthy stayed at ‘Ski St Martin‘ in St Martin de Belleville which is a village in the 3 Valleys, France.

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.

As the UK starts to recover from the recent snowy weather Ben Clatworthy takes at look at the British reaction to snow.

Snow, neige, nevar, sneeuw, or however you say it is very much a factor of winter weather. In fact, each year 1.27 million Britons up-sticks and head to the mountains all in a quest to find snow.

In the past week the UK has been brought to a standstill as people battle with freezing temperatures, heavy snow and treacherous ice. More than 8,000 schools were closed across the country, including the whole of Clifton College, as a result of the extreme weather. The closures meant that around 230,000 pupils were given the day off school and the perfect opportunity to head out and play in the snow.

The snow really went to the heads of newspaper and television companies as pages and pages, or hours and hours of coverage were given to the snow. On Wednesday night the BBC were left with hours of blank schedule after the League Cup semi-final between Manchester United and Manchester City was called off. How did they fill it? Well half an hour was given to a ‘BBC News Special: The Big Freeze’ – anyone would have thought we were in for an ice age. Many would say they were trying just that bit too hard.

If you watched the BBC at all that day, I would totally forgive you if you were left, stranded indoors, scared, shaking and fearing for your life; they made out snow was the most dangerous, horrible, life-threatening thing that the UK had ever seen.

Supermarkets went without deliveries, thousands of pints of milk were reported to have gone to waste as milkmen and lorries were unable to provide houses and shops and there is no doubt about it that people went panic buying. On Saturday Waitrose was completely out of normal milk with dwindling supplies of bread and vegetables.

Fun for some

Snowy road in Bristol

Oblivious to the state of emergency scores of children happily played on every green-space with snowmen dotted across the Downs in Bristol and in front gardens everywhere. It’s been a very fun time for children and grown-ups alike who were unable to make it to work. 14% of the UK workforce was reported to have stayed at home on Wednesday 7 January costing the economy £0.5 billion per day.

But questions are being provoked as people ask whether schools were right or wrong to close and if they should have made more effort to stay open. An unnamed primary school teacher in Bristol told me over the weekend, “Bristol Local Authority wouldn’t execute a ‘blanket closure’ of schools and instead just gave schools a single-lined telephone number to call and give details of closure.”

With more snow expected in the coming days these unanswered questions could lead to further disruption.

Ben used information from the BBC, The Evening Standard, The Guardian and the Ski Club of Great Britain to compile this article

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.

I’ve waited until mid-(ish) October before talking about it, but the urge has well and truly taken over – this entry is all about…skiing.

Most of you will all most certainly think I am 2 months early with the ski related chat and that I should really wait until December. To be honest you are probably right, but in the ski world things are really getting underway now.

Most people who go skiing seldom think about it (apart from booking accommodation) until a couple of weeks before they are due to head to the slopes. This isn’t the case for me; not only have I been writing about it during the summer for PlanetSKI.eu which is ski news website edited by James Cove, the BBC’s Winter Sports Correspondent. That is hard enough, snow thoughts on a weekly, if not daily thought, but also being a ski racer during the summer I have to plan my season, buy new kit (this year a ski suit) and also get new skis for the winter season. Picking up skis when there is no snow and not being able to ski is quite an anti-climax (but always very exciting anyway).

October is Ski Show month too. I’ll be totally honest with you now – I’ve never been to a ski show before, but this year it’s all change. I’ve been invited by James Cove to go to the Press Day the Metro Ski and Snowboard Show in Olympia, London, next Wednesday (21 October) which I am sure will be great fun and a chance to meet lots of familiar faces and no doubt get me dreaming of the snow.

I also tend to do most of my writing during the winter too. Once again this season I will be contributing to PlanetSKI.eu, but this year as their ‘Racing and Sports Correspondent’. PlanetSKI, (as I mentioned above) is a mountain based Ski Website run by James Cove. I will also be writing for InTheSnow magazine as their “Race Correspondent”. InTheSnow is the UK’s most read ski magazine and is avalible nationwide in Snow+Rock stores, Ellis Brigham and the 3 main London airports. It is also available to download online.

The Kandahar Ski Club team

But still, its only October?! So why can’t I write all this in a couple of weeks? Well, I’m off to Saas Fee, Switzerland race training on the glacier with my ski team, the Kandahar Ski Club. Its a strange time to ski, but a very important time and brilliant ‘pre-season’ training.

Once again this year I will be writing a daily blog entry (following the success of last years) from the resort. Instead of writing it on its own site as I did lat year, this time it will be covered by PlanetSKI. I’ll post the link here when I know more.

So it may only be the October 11, but the snow is coming – temperatures are falling across the Alps and the though of fresh snow an exciting one. At least the glacier snow is certain – Just 2 weeks and I’ll be in Saas Fee – exciting!