Skiing Saturday 1 Feb

The Weardale Ski Club Ltd

There has been fresh snowfall today and the webcam shows reasonable coverage though the ground is very wet and not frozen so it may well be wet and heavy snow. There is also a reasonably strong wind forecast so skiing may be limited in both quality and time but we are planning to open up tomorrow (Saturday) from 10am. Please note members only - no day members at weekends.

On a separate note Phil Thompson is looking for someone to team up for a late skiing holiday from Newcastle as his wife doesnt ski and single holidays are not cheap. Anyone interested contact Phil  philandsuethompson@ntlworld.co.uk      

Steve      

Lack of snow report

The Weardale Ski Club Ltd

Hi everyone and a belated Happy New Year to you all. So far it has been a very frustrating season with no skiing so far despite a few brief periods of snowfall. According to Ivan, our weather boffin, we have had 15 days of snow at Swinhope this season but every time it has snowed it has either been accompanied by or followed by strong winds or rain or usually both. Very frustrating but people keep telling me that the great winter of 1947 didn't start until February and it is not uncommon for our best skiing to be February, March and April.

On a better note I can announce that celebrations of our 50th season skiing at Swinhope are proceeding very well. We have organised a formal dinner at Ramside Hall, Durham on Saturday, 29 March 2014. All members and families are welcome to attend and invitations will be sent out soon. Tickets are likely to be @£35 to include reception drink, 3 courses followed by coffee. I am also now able to announce that befitting England's premier ski club, we have managed to attract England's premier skier, Graham Bell, to be guest of honour and guest speaker which hopefully will make for a very entertaining evening.

Other celebrations of our 50th year also include a BBQ and races at Swinhope on the first weekend we have snow in February. We will provide the BBQ and Gluhwein and all you need to do is bring along whatever you want cooking on the BBQ. Again we will send out details as soon as we have snow forecast!!

Finally, if anyone knows how to service wooden skis a member, Mat from Ireshopburn would love to hear from you - notayokell@hotmail.com

Hopefully I will have better news on the skiing front in the next few weeks but in the meantime pencil 29 March in your diary.

Steve

The Chaos offer this weekend

The Weardale Ski Club Ltd

Just a reminder that this weekend Sally + Den from The Chaos, Darlington, are offering Weardale Ski club members some great discounts both on new 2014 stock and up to 60% off on certain items as well as good deals on ski and board servicing, hot waxing etc. As you will have noticed they have also sponsored the club this year (look at the back of your WSC membership card) and are very keen to support the club in any way they can, so why don't you call in and see what they have to offer. They are open both Saturday 7th + Sunday 8th December. See attached flyer for details.

Snow has fallen today in Weardale - not enough for skiing yet but a promising sign. The WSC webcam photo was taken from earlier today but the webcam at Lanehead shows good cover - http://www.durham.gov.uk/pages/weatherstationdetails.aspx?station=13

Steve

More great discounts for WSC members

The Weardale Ski Club Ltd

Further to my last email I have another great discount to offer all members, this time from Hangar18 Off Road Running. This is a local company run by one of our members. As its name suggests they mainly cater for fell runners and other off road runners but some of their kit can be used in mountaineering/Skiing etc. They are offering 20% discount on all online purchases from their site http://www.h18orr.com/ - see attached flyer for discount code. I can particularly recommend the down jacket and gilet which are great and pack down to very small indeed. They are also about to produce H18 ski jacket and pants for both skiing and boarding - more details to follow.

Dont' forget our sponsors, The Chaos,  are putting on special discount weekend for us on the weekend 7/8th December where they are offering 15% discount on all 2014 stock and up to 60% discount on some items. See attached flyer.

Also Snow + Rock, Gateshead have a special evening event on Wed 4th December between 7-9pm - again see attached flyer.

Finally a reminder that the latest Warren Miller film is showing at Durham Gala on Tuesday 3 December at 8pm - hope to see some of you there.

Steve

Correction to last nights email

The Weardale Ski Club Ltd

In my email last night I attached a flyer from Snow + Rock stating that their discount night was on Wednesday 3 December. Fortunately Colin McMurray was on the ball and spotted the deliberate mistake. Snow + Rock have apologised and confirm that the date is Wednesday 4th December. They have sent me a new flyer but I haven't attached it as quite a few emails bounced last night due to the size of the attachments so some of you may be receiving this for the first time. If you need the attachments please email me and I will send them individually to you.

The email below is the same as last night but date corrected.

Steve

We had a good AGM which was well attended by 70-80 members who were treated to a very enjoyable talk on Volcano skiing in Chile by Peter Craggs and Traversing Greenland By Stu Gallagher - thanks to both of them and thanks to all who attended.

Being a member of WSC not only provides fantastic value for money but also being a member entitles you to many great discounts and below are a few offers that have been presented to us.

Our sponsors. Sally + Den from The Chaos in Darlington already offer members 10% discount on items in the shop and online as well as great deals on ski and board servicing and also hot wax and edging for only £10. They are now organising a special event on the weekend 7/8 December in their shop where they are offering WSC members 15% discount on 2014 stock with other items up to 60% off RRP. Not only that but the Sunday event is exclusive for WSC members and also provides a great opportunity for you to meet Sally and Den (+ Michael their latest addition to staff). Please see the attached flyer which has more details. I will send out discount codes later to members and please remember to take your WSC membership cards with you on the day.

In addition North Face are offering a 30% discount to WSC members this weekend - see attached flyer which you will need to print off and take into the store.

Also coming soon is the great Warren Miller film - Warren Miller Entertainment brings you its highly-anticipated 64th ski and snowboard film: Ticket to Ride. This year's movie takes fans on a journey to some of the world's most exotic destinations, including Switzerland's Jungfrau, Montana's Big Sky country, Iceland's Troll Peninsula and beyond. With goodies for every ticket holder and a prize draw every night, it's the perfect excuse to get together with your skiing buddies and get stoked for the season ahead! For tickets and details of the UK Ticket to Ride tour, visit http://www.warrenmiller.co.uk/ Locally the film is showing at Penrith on 29 November 7:30 (Rheged) and Durham Gale on 3 December 8pm - I already have tickets for Durham so hope to see a few of you on the night.

Finally also on Wednesday 4 December Snow + Rock in Gateshead are having a special evening event for local ski clubs - again please read the attached flyer for more details if you are interested.

Wow - all that before we even get skiing!!

1st day skiing

The Weardale Ski Club Ltd

We had the final formal work party of the year today which was very successful and we got all the essential jobs completed - thanks to all who attended. It was quite a surprise to get there and find a couple of inches of fresh but wet snow and it snowed on + off all day. Only one member had the foresight to bring his skis so Terry gets the honour of first run of the season down F2.

The webcam is now up and running - thanks to Anto + Kevin for sorting that out.

AGM is on monday at 8pm at the Honest Lawyer, Croxdale, Durham. All members welcome and promises to be a very interesting talk and slide show/video afterwards.

Finally time to think about ski servicing. Snow + Rock have a special offer on this weekend (you still have Sunday to go) -Free ski and board waxing all weekend and £75 off if you trade in your old skis and boards for a new "set up". Don't forget either that The Chaos in Darlington, who have sponsored us this year, also have great value offers on ski and board servicing.

Steve

AGM, Work Party and general update

The Weardale Ski Club Ltd

Hi everyone,

A big welcome to all our new members. Membership has fill faster this year than ever before to my knowedge and we closed well before the end of October. I hope you are all looking forward to a bumper season this year and lets hope all the long range forecasts are correct for once! We have had a dusting of snow over the lsat couple of days at Swinhope and certainly the temperatures have dropped significantly. Scotland has had significant falls of snow already.

Our AGM is being held on Monday 11 November at the Honest Lawyer, Croxdale, Durham starting at 8pm. All members are welcome to attend. Hopefully the AGM will not last too long and will be followed by a slide presentation by Peter Craggs and Bruce Robinson on "Skiing volcanoes in Chile" followed by a brief slide show by that perennial adventurer, Stu Gallagher, on his trip to Greenland and a 5 minute presentation by Kevin Moore on Canada.

Work Party - the final (hopefully) work party of the year is being held on Saturday 9 November rather later than usual. The delay is because we have had to replace the gearbox on F1 tow which Mike and Steve finally managed to get done a few days ago with some specialist help. We now need to fit all the hangers and service the lifts as well as a few other jobs before we are finally ready to open for the season. There is a lot of snow fencing needing to be completed/repaired/tidied up as well, so the more people we get the better so please try and attend if possible. We will be meeting at 10am at the carpark. If you can spare a few hours and can handle  hammer then why not join us? If anyone needs a lift from Durham Steve Luard has kindly offered to help out - email him at weardalescnews@gmail.com Steve is also planning to produce the WSC formal newsletter in the next couple of months so if anyone has any interesting articles or reports to put in please email him at that address - it is usually a struggle to get enough material to fill it so any article vaguely related to skiing/boarding or other snow sports would be gratefully received.

Finally, an engineering student from Loughborough University, Matt Goodley, is doing a project on ski and snowboard security and wonders if anyone can spare 30 seconds to complete a survey - I have done it and literally that is all it takes. If you are interested here is the link - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VXZFW6L

See you at the AGM

Steve