The annual Ski and Snowboard Show in London moved from Olympia to Earls Court this year, and it is hard to say whether it was a good move or not. Location-wise it is more convenient, but the recession and unseasonably excellent weather in London seemed to keep the crowds away and I found the whole affair rather muted.
For me it was interesting to see Euroairport take a stand at the exhibition. I ski out of Basel (see here) and do feel it is an excellent gateway to the skiing in Switzerland – you can get a full day on the slopes at nearly every major resort in Switzerland if you are prepared to get up early enough, and you can certainly get two full day’s skiing on a weekend break flying in to Basel from the UK. Interestingly enough, however, Easyjet (for which it is a major destination) do not promote Basel as one of their winter sports airports – maybe that means the shrewd skier or snowboarder can pick up cheaper tickets at busy periods or for late minute breaks.
I didn’t think much of the new gear around. Nothing that rocked my world, anyway. The range of resorts featured was broad with some excellent inforation available on Japanese, North American, French and Italian resorts plus some useful info on some of the lesser known destinations. Austria and Switzerland, however, were noticeable by how little was featured on their resorts. For the Swiss end, the Euroairport stand had some info on the Jungfrau, one stand featured Crans-Montana and there was stand promoting the Brits Snow Festival in Laax, 18th-25th March. Did I miss anything?
There were enough stalls and events going on to make the show worth a visit, but I can’t help but feel that the growth of the Internet is marginalising events like this – tellingly the advice you get after two minutes on many stands is to check out the website for more details.
