REGULARS
GEAR
ROSS WOODHALL
SHUTTERSTOCK
041
039 PISTE OF MIND HOW TO TRAVEL LIGHT
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Travelling light is something we always aspire o and yet we always seem to end up taking too much, however hard we try. Here are some expert tips on how to do it properly.
With Christmas just around the corner and the weak pound meaning you get better value buying in Britain
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than Europe there’s never been a better time to check out what’s new this season for the slopes.
patrick@inthesnow.com Like many skiers, I’ve spent most of the past few months checking snow conditions several times a day, ahead of the start of the main ski season right about now. It’s always a nervous time, and the last two autumns of 2014 and 2015 were particularly so when the weather was warm
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slopes still brown and green.
and dry and December dawned each year with the ski So, this autumn it has seemed almost too good to be true
TEAM
as one wave of heavy snowfall after another has crossed Europe. I’ve almost been in a state of disbelief as the numbers have come in, of events like two-foot snowfalls in 24 hours in early November, leading to an ever-growing list of resorts opening early.
PUBLISHER
DOMINIC KILLINGER dom@inthesnow.com STEVEN MCKENNA
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EDITOR
PATRICK THORNE patrick@inthesnow.com
DEBBIE GABRIEL debbie@inthesnow.com SALES MANAGER
GIANCARLO GAMBARDELLA
Scotland’s Glenshee ski area, close to the UK’s highest mountain road
NICK JONES MARION ADAMS CONTRIBUTORS
OPERATIONS DIRECTOR
RESORT INSIDER GLENSHEE SNOWSPORTS CENTRE
SUB EDITORS
giancarlo@inthesnow.com
and the Queen’s summertime home of Balmoral has something for all
PICTURE EDITOR
ability levels, and it’s great craic to boot, as a local tells us.
ROSS WOODHALL
SAM THORNE GABBY LE BRETON EMMANUELLE CHÂTEL ANDY TAYLOR GIANCARLO GAMBARDELLA EQUIPMENT EDITOR
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Thankfully, these days we have social media so the evidence is instantly available and you don’t have to fear creative snow number accountancy by over-zealous marketing people in resort. Instead, hundreds of ski areas have been broadcasting live film of heavy snowfall on their slopes on Facebook. I can’t think of a better way to spend a dark autumn evening. Well, other than being there for the real
SALLY BARTLETT ANNA BARTLETT
of the publishers in writing.
COLUMNISTS
INTHESNOW LTD
The great thing is, it’s not just the Alps either: the snow has
THE SNOW STUDIO
been falling on Europe’s outlying snow resorts too, even
JON WEST PHIL SMITH JACK STEELE JENNY BLETCHER DESIGN BY
ROCKET BASE rocketbase.co.uk
thing, of course!
KINGS LANE, BUCKS HP16 0QY
+44 (0)1494 862 423 DOM@INTHESNOW.COM INTHESNOW.COM
in Portugal and southern Spain, as well as the Pyrenees, Dolomites, Scandinavia and closer to home in Scotland – the first area was open there by mid-November. Across the Atlantic things have been a bit more hit-and-miss after a snowy October, but conditions now appear to be picking up there too. Of course, when the big snowfalls start, as they did four to six weeks ago, you fear it has come too soon. I held off writing our main story, detailing the early snowfall, until the last minute I could prior to production and printing, in case there was a sudden warming of the weather; but (and I still fear tempting fate), as I write this and we go to press, it is still dumping down and the forecast for next week is more snow, snow, snow. Yippee! So, fingers crossed it continues and that this season – our tenth for InTheSnow, so a big anniversary winter for us – will be the snowiest of the century so far.
003 // DEC16