Shooting the breeze about the ski industry, the great outdoors and general gossip from the Doorstep Skis HQ in Morzine, France.
Saturday, June 30, 2018
A brief history of Morzine
he polar opposite of 1970s tower-block resorts like Tignes and La Plagne, the beautiful, charming ski resort of Morzine began life as far back as 1090. The area was one of only two crossing-points over the river Dranse and as such was of great geographical importance.
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Why Morzine France should be your next Ski destination
Why Morzine France should be your next Ski destination
By melbtravelWhen asked what my favourite ski resorts are around the world, Morzine France is always in my top 5. It is a resort that suits all types of groups from family ski holidays to a bunch of friends flying in for a weekend. It offers a wide range of activities on and off the slopes and also has a large selection of restaurants and pubs to cater for your needs. Not to mention it is part of one the biggest ski areas in the world, Portes de Soleil, with over 650kms of runs and is only around an hour and a half from Geneva airport. Because of this, it is fast becoming incredibly popular with British skiers/snowboarders.
Friday, June 22, 2018
Why the Portes Du Soleil keeps solo skiers coming back!
Why the Portes Du Soleil keeps solo skiers coming back!
The solo ski experts at The Ski Gathering tell us what is attracting first-timers and veteran solos to Morzine, Avoriaz and Les Gets.
The Ski Gathering offer singles ski holidays for individuals and sociable pairs. They have chalets in Morzine, Les Gets and Meribel. To find out more, visit www.theskigathering.com.
Across the board, solo travel has grown enormously in recent years, mirroring a general trend in ‘independent’ and socialising hobbies. Today, people use apps and websites to find flatmates, meet gym buddies, arrange car shares… and plan their solo-travel adventures.
This is particularly noticeable with ski holidays, where solo travellers are increasingly making their mark. Some solos prefer to ski alone, enjoying the total freedom of the mountain. But most see it as a social opportunity to meet other skiers or boarders and avoid paying the empty-bed supplement. For the latter group in particular, the Portes du Soleil has become a focal point in the solo travel revolution. Why is that?
It’s Perfect for Mixed-Ability Groups
It’s Day One of your solo ski holiday and you’re heading out with a group of people you’ve never skied with before. Head for the Les Gets Bowl - the perfect starting point for mixed-ability groups. Here, five lifts serve twelve interconnecting pistes of varying levels of difficulty. Perfect if you all want to try out different slopes but still meet for the lift ride back up or a swift vin chaud.
The speed demons can head straight for the steep Tulipe red run off the Ranfoilly lift; the less flamboyant can find their feet on the more slow-and-steady Reine des Pres.
Beginners won’t be left out
Resorts like Les Gets and Morzine are perfect for beginners. Friendly people, great ski schools, plenty of beginner slopes, and an easy(ish) descent back into resort. While you’re having lessons, the rest of the group probably won’t be too far away, so meeting up for a long social lunch is still on the cards.
Find time for yourself
One of the best things about solo travel is having the total freedom to do what you want, when you want. You can opt out of group activities and blaze your own trail any time you like. For an afternoon in your own company, intermediates and advanced skiers should head over to the back of Mont Chery in Les Gets. It’s so quiet over there, you can virtually have the mountain to yourself. Soak up the silence and get away from it all for the afternoon.
Looking for an adventure
Solo travel is all about creating unforgettable experiences, so set your alarm and have a crack at the Portes du Soleil ‘Loop’. A big day even for serious skiers, this will take you around the perimeter of this, the world’s largest ski area. Probably not one for snowboarders or inexperienced skiers, this is a demanding day’s exercise and you’ll probably need a guide who knows the way without consulting a pistemap. But those who finish the Loop will never forget the experience. Or stop bragging about it.
Have a guide show you the backcountry off-piste
If you’re traveling independently but are not joining a group of solo skiers, a week can be a long time to ski in splendid isolation. One way to break this up is to get lessons or a guide. The Portes du Soleil has vast off-piste skiing opportunities which are essentially off-limits without an experienced guide, so why not kill two birds with one stone? Explore the road less travelled while getting a bit of company for a day.
Discover hidden treasures
If you’re skiing with other solos, you will probably soon forget that you ever travelled out on your own: we often say that solo travel holidays are for groups of friends who haven’t met yet. A great way to cement this kind of dynamic is to discover new things together, and the Portes du Soleil has plenty of hidden treasures for you to seek out. One example is ‘Les Lindarets’, better known as The Goat Village. Named after the many goats which fill the village in summer, this magical location could scarcely be more picturesque and is the perfect spot for a lunchtime stop-off. It’s a skier’s heaven.
Those looking for an equivalent hell might head for the Swiss Wall. Only to be attempted by the most experienced mogul skiers, this near-vertical drop marks the entry point into Switzerland. Ski or snowboard down it, or watch in admiration from the chairlift to meet up at the bottom. You’ll need a head for heights either way.
So, if your group can’t make it this year, or your friends just won’t even try skiing this winter, there’s really no excuse for staying home.
Monday, June 18, 2018
7 Excuses to Visit Les Portes du Soleil
STORY BY Megan Hughes 31st October 2017
A hugely popular ski area, Les Portes du Soleil is one of the top destinations in the Alps. Here at InTheSnow.com we are giving you a rundown of 7 reasons why you NEED to visit Les Portes due Soleil this year.
You could spend a whole season there and never get bored, so whether you’re thinking of heading off for a week’s holiday or working a winter season, Les Portes du Soleil will provide you more than enough pistes to play with.
1. Size Matters
With over 650km of marked piste and 196 lifts, Les Portes du Soleil is one of the largest ski areas in the world. It boasts over 300 runs, 2/3 of which are either red or blue, meaning that skiers of every level will be able to enjoy themselves with an abundance of runs to ensure good variety throughout your visit. Due to the immense size of the ski area, there are good pre-marked trails and circuits that are often popular with holidaymakers due to the ease that comes with their being well signed. If you prefer to make your own routes however, this is simple too thanks to a free app that creates and plans routes based on your ability level and preferences.You could spend a whole season there and never get bored, so whether you’re thinking of heading off for a week’s holiday or working a winter season, Les Portes du Soleil will provide you more than enough pistes to play with.
2. Superb Snow Parks....READ ON
Friday, June 15, 2018
Gender Labels on Skis Are Meaningless
Gender Labels on Skis Are Meaningless
For a lot of gear, having male or female body parts matter. But not when it comes to skis.
The skis Smith is looking for exist. In fact, she skis on them. But they aren't women's skis, or at least they are not skis expressly marketed to women. By industry standards, Smith skis on men's skis.
"I'm not an extreme case--there are a lot of women charging out there--but no, I can't find that in a women's ski," she says. "Just because someone is a woman or a man doesn't mean they ski a certain way."
"The message is there are skis and then there are women's skis. We often focus on the effect this type of marketing has on women, but it's a lot easier for women to go out and buy men's skis and feel good about it, whereas most men would have a hard time going and buying a women's ski, even if a lighter, shorter ski is a better fit for them." --Dr. Heather McLaughlinWalk into any ski shop and you'll find plenty of products designed differently for men and women, like packs made to fit around a woman's chest instead of over and men's long underwear with that extra special pocket. For a lot of gear, having male or female body parts matter. But not when it comes to skis, which are constructed to work with height, weight, and ability.
The basic physics of skiing tells us lightweight skis are better for intermediate skiers because they require less energy and strength to control. This is true for both men and women. Yet it's typically skis marketed to women that are lighter and shorter, compared to the heavier, longer models made for men. The corresponding message is that women, by default, are intermediate, shorter skiers. Sure, some women will appreciate and benefit from light, short skis, but so will some men--and that's OK, too.
The American man averages a height of 5-foot-7, about 6 inches taller than the average woman and 30 pounds heavier. But these are generalizations that don't apply to all people all the time, nor do they take into account the terrain a certain skier rides or their level of experience.
"Just as much as you're telling women that you should buy these skis, you're perpetuating the idea to men that 'I'm a man and I should have these super durable, long, metal skis,'" says Dr. Heather McLaughlin, a professor of sociology who researches gender in sport. "The message is there are skis and then there are women's skis. We often focus on the effect this type of marketing has on women, but it's a lot easier for women to go out and buy men's skis and feel good about it, whereas most men would have a hard time going and buying a women's ski, even if a lighter, shorter ski is a better fit for them."
Surfboards have never been sorted by gender (their shapes span different lengths, widths, and weights to suit varying waves and styles) and bike manufacturers like Specialized are no longer offering gender-specific geometries. Rather, they use the same frame for men and women and focus on adjusting the fit based on a rider's height and weight.
When the first skis designed for and marketed specifically to women arrived on the market in the mid-1980s, manufacturers quickly learned they would sell. They still do. Women make up 41 percent of skiers, according to a Snowsports Industries America 2016 participant study. Ski manufacturers should continue to talk to women. However, instead of labeling which skis they think fit women, companies can talk to them through marketing that showcases female athletes skiing on their product.
Reno-based Moment Skis' top-selling women's ski is called the Sierra, and it sells at 45 percent the rate of their top men's ski, the Deathwish. Both are made with the same materials, but the women's version is shorter, which means the core has to be thinner, says Luke Jacobson, CEO and head ski designer. It is also narrower underfoot to match its length.
"A lot of our women's skis are versions of our men's skis," says Jacobson. "On some shorter skis, you don't need as much material, or when the person is not as heavy, we'll go to a lighter weave. Making shorter skis is a lot harder than making a longer ski because you have to figure out the sidecut and the flex in a much shorter distance."
Essentially, Jacobson is describing the variations in designing and building skis of different lengths--not for different genders. He feels the need to label them as such because of the buyer's expectation.
"If we just make skis, women will be like, 'Where are your women's skis?'" he says. "When we categorize it, we're buying into social norms. Right or wrong, we definitely are."
The label says nothing about the product; it's about the message.Salomon's alpine commercial manager Chris McKearin agrees--retailers want a women's graphic to sell to women and a men's graphic to sell to men. "The moment we get rid of the women's ski, we risk the perception that we're not paying attention to women and encouraging them to get out there," he says. "I've sold a men's or unisex ski to a woman. But doing the opposite is quite challenging. That's probably for the same reason men overestimate their ability, while women underestimate theirs."
He's right that women are less confident in their skiing ability. According to data collected by SIA, just 13 percent of skiers who rated themselves "experts" were women. "Women, most likely, are not disproportionally less adept at skiing than men, but this sandbagging on self-reported ability levels calls for a different marketing message," the study says.
And that's exactly what the industry is doing when they put a women's label on a ski--creating a marketing message. What they aren't doing is creating a ski that performs specifically for men or women. The label says nothing about the product; it's about the message.
Jen Gurecki, who founded the all-women ski brand Coalition Snow in 2013, says she has never looked at the female anatomy when designing skis. Bucking the notion that women have a lower center of gravity, Coalition considers length, waist width, and core materials in their development process and construction, just like any other ski. What sets Coalition's skis apart are is that they a company made of and for women.
“We are a women's brand because we, as women, are designing for the things we want and we actively only engage other women in the design process,” says Gurecki. “We're not including men in our design process, in our marketing, or in our brand. It's not part of what we do.”
Men and women are different--that's true on and off the mountain. We think differently, we act differently, we communicate differently. But when a storm settles in the mountains, the skis on our feet are planks of wood that don't care what gender we are.The brand also has a strong feminine aesthetic. "Pretty not passive," says Gurecki. "We don't have grim reapers, but I don't need another fucking butterfly ski. Women's equipment has always been a watered-down version of men's. We wanted more and better choices."
For Gurecki, a Coalition ski is given a women's label not because of the way it is constructed but by how her company decides to present it to the market. So often, if a ski isn't labeled expressly for women, it's assumed to be for men. Take off the top sheet (or don't) and the ski is a tool that works for anyone, regardless of gender.
Men and women are different--that's true on and off the mountain. We think differently, we act differently, we communicate differently. But when a storm settles in the mountains, the skis on our feet are planks of wood that don't care what gender we are. Whether a 5-foot-2 man is looking for a green carbon ski or a 6-foot-2 woman prefers a red metal ski, or somewhere in between, we should buy skis because they suit our height, weight, experience, and style of skiing. A gender label will not tell you anything about how the ski will perform. Let's just call them skis, offer extended sizes in a variety of top sheets, and cut the gender label all together.
This story originally published in the December issue of POWDER (46.4).
https://www.powder.com/stories/opinion/gender-labels-skis-meaningless/?sm_id=organic_tw_social_PWDR_171222_sf177226610#sf177226610
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