Skiing & Business. Coaching & Instruction.

A short video shot last Friday on the Wrekin.

Inspired by my 'Shropshire Skiing' on Friday afternoon I was minded to see how conditions were in Wales for a trip the following day.

I'd already scoped our the Berwyns for possible skiing opportunities but in the end I was swayed by reports of 'powder' on the Breacons and Pen-y-fan.

Arriving in the car park off the A470 at around 11.30 I muck about trying to find a parking spot that I'd be able to exit from should the snow start to come down. Once sorted I kitted up and checked the OS map. The tops were in cloud, a shame as on the drive down the Breacon Beacons looked fantastic in the morning sun.



As luck would have it I bumped into Mike from the Snowheads forum and he kindly offered to walk up again. He'd been to the top for an hour waiting for the weather to clear with no luck. As we headed up the snow started to fall and the wind increase. By the time we hit the 600m level it was howling a blizzard.



With the weather closing in and visibility reducing we decided that hiking to the top wasn't going to be very rewarding, so we kitted up for an easy slide back to the car park. By this time the path had filled in but the tufty grass was poking through in places. Mike lead the way cutting high across the slope, down the valley to get a more direct run to the bridge.

This was very different kind of skiing, requiring patience and softness with the ski's. Push too hard and you break through into the grass and muck causing the ski's to slow rapidly, but choose an good line, avoid the odd rock and don't rush things its all good.



It's a shame the Breacons were not more welcoming as there is definitely potential. Fingers crossed for a Blue Sky powder day next time...

The Snowheads forum thread for all who wish to get involved is here

I finally managed to score some Shropshire skiing for 2011, and my first Welsh skiing the very next day.

Last Friday dawned murky in the village but a glance over to The Wrekin showed lots of white on the top, so a early Friday finish seemed a good idea. By the time I loaded the car it was snowing hard, and it got heavier as I drove over.

In the car park I hooked up with Nicholas, a skier from our local slope who was out for a walk, and we hiked up together with the dogs.



The hill was looking very Wintry above the half way house but the cover was quite soft as had yet to be 'pisted' by the passing walkers. Discretion was the order of the day and I decided to ski the grassy pitch from Heaven's Gate to Hell's Gate. It was probably only 75 meters or so but it was nice to have snow under skis again.



I had a second attempt just below Hell's gate but the cover was thin and the grunching noise off putting !

All in all a pleasant walk up. Fingers crossed for more snow this coming Winter.

Ski Inspired, the people behind the BB ski school are offering catered chalet accommodation in Baqueira this year. Just 40m from the lift with a top class chef we're looking forward to sampling the food and accommodation at some point this year.

http://www.baqueira.co.uk

First batch of compost produced.

3 months in and the new indoor composting machine has produced it's first batch of compost. As you will see from the photo's below the resulting compost is dry, soil like and easy to handle.

It's fair to say that I could have 'harvested' compost before now but I decided to wait until it had reached the 'full' line marked on the inside of the machine. Quite impressive that the composting machine has managed to reduce 2 peoples food waste over 3 months to such a small volume and probably hints at the richness of the finished product.

Removing the finished compost from the machine was easy. The internal 'lid' is removed leaving plenty of room to access the compost with the trowel provided with the machine. In the end I used some plastic container and scooped out the compost directly. In the end the machine produces approximately 4 litres of compost over 3 months. I took the opportunity to clean the lid section with a damp cloth. "Jobs a good un".

I decided to use it to boost my lavender plants and I've sprinkled it around their bases being careful to avoid the leaves. I'll report back on how it goes.

Trifides Grand couloir - La Grave.



Powder on the Glacier - La Grave.





Tree Skiing in Serre Chevalier. March 2011.





Montgenevra Tree Skiing.





Montgenevra. Off Piste run to La Vachette.

Fast decomposition of food to compost.


The new indoor composter continues to work well. Food goes in and the next time I open the lid it's disappeared with only a small increase in the volume of compost to show for it. We've mostly been feeding it with left overs from cooking and out of date food from the Fridge.

Most impressive has been the speed at which the unit has reduced potatoes, 24 hours and there was little to show for them. I chopped them down to prevent them jamming the mixer and that was that. The 'mix' in the unit has stayed dry and I notice that the 'fresh air' light comes on automatically from time to time.

Here are a couple of photo's showing the speed at which the unit is working. They were taken 3 or 4 hours apart after a fridge clear out:





If you are interested in pre ordering a unit drop me an email:

david@mediacopy.co.uk

3 weeks into the test of our new indoor home bio digester \ composting machine the news is good

We've been feeding the machine waste food from the kitchen and fridge and there is almost nothing to report. Food goes in & disappears ! The resulting compost mix is dry and there are no unpleasant smells or leaks.

The 'mix' of food waste has been a selection of salad, old vegetables and out of date pasta and rice. I can't say we've put the maximum amount through the machine but it's easily coped with our needs so far. For instance a 1kg bag of new potatoes that had gone to seed were reduced to almost nothing in the space of a day or two supporting the manufacturers claim that waste is reduced in volume by 90%

Uncooked dry rice takes longer but that's to be expected.

So far it looks as if it will be at least another month or more before we'll need to remove compost from the machine. Photo's to follow later.

All in all 'Boringly' effective !!!

The Sunday Times reports that local authorities will be encouraged to collect food waste and may charge households for the privilege.

After the new Indoor Composter arrived we were keen to see how well it worked.


The start-up procedure was very simple. The machine arrived with a bag of 'starter' agent containing the bacteria which will break down the food waste. This appeared to be dry compost. The instructions say to add sugar and water to the dry mix and leave for 24 hours before adding any waste.





7 days in and I'm glad to report all is well. The 'compost' in the unit is dry. The small amount of food added so far has been broken down and the unit is seemingly smell free !

The manufacturer suggests that waste food should be broken down to 10% of it's original volume in around 24 hours and so far that seems to be about right. The only thing that appears to be 'hanging around' is some fresh pasta I added which was past it's sell by date in the fridge.

To be fair the manufacturer suggests that it takes a week or so for the bacteria in the machine to mature and multiply to full strength so we've only added a small amount of fresh waste, mostly consisting of coffee grinds and bread.

So, after 1 weeks operation, so far so good

If you are interested in ordering a Home Bio Composter please get in touch. The initial plan is to bring in small batches of units as demand builds.

Good news on the Indoor composting front.

A couple of months ago a manufacturer from the Far East contacted me about their new Indoor Composting machine, and after some deliberation I've invested in a test unit which has just arrived from the Far East.

First impressions are very good. The quality of manufacture appears excellent, and much more in the 'white goods' style than the NatureMill with a steel housing and high quality mouldings for it's plastic and rubber parts. It's larger than the nature mill, similar to a mini fridge, and it arrived with a 3 pin UK plug, ready to go. The unit is designed for 3-4 people, composting up to 1.5kg of food waste per day.

The unit is designed to be fast acting - composting waste in 24 hours using a Bio "fermentative" method of composting, which reduced waste volume by 90 - 95%. According to the designers it uses just 80 W/h and it's operation should be odourless, as evidenced by rubber seals and a catalytic deodorizing feature acting on the air outlet. The output 'compost' is very rich and can be reduced down 1:3 with garden soil to use in the garden.

The retail price of the unit is unclear until we gain an idea of demand. If you are interested let me know. david@mediacopy.co.uk

I spent an excellent week skiing the Serre-Chevalier area in the company of two excellent guides, Alain & John Luke. Superb Tree Skiing, steeps and they kindly organised a trip over to La Grave, which was also superb.

Their web site is:
http://www.montagne-et-ski.com/

Well, our NatureMill is no more. Or at least no more with us.

Our original test unit has been sold on and we've no more plans to persevere with the units. It's a shame as the concept is good and the technology required relativly simple but I can't say it really worked for us.

We're still interested in finding and marketing a domestic indoor composting unit, so if you have one let me know !

email: david@mediacopy.co.uk

A coach and friend of mine recently blogged on "Adaptability or Versatility" in the context of recreational skiing, and pointed out that while racing is obviously 'measured', usually by a stop watch, Recreational skiers and skiing is typically 'judged'.

Ski School instruction is an good example, where as a learner you are set a task by your Ski Instructor. You attempt the task, skiing down to your Instructor who gives you their judgement on your performance. This approach has it's place, but an undesirable result can be a focus on "How do I look?", rather than "How effective was my skiing?", or to put it another way, Style over Effectiveness!

Instead I'd suggest that many recreational skiers would benefit from viewing their skiing like racers do, 'measuring' the outcome of a given run rather than relying on someone else to judge it. For example at it's most basic your desired outcome might be "get down the run safely and having a good time while doing it"*

It doesn't matter what it 'looked like' when you have achieved the outcome you wanted. As you gain more control over your skiing you can aim for more specific outcomes. The next step could be "get down the run safely, have a good time, AND maintain a constant speed." and so on, adding more specific measures as your skill develops. Importantly by using these are 'measured' outcomes you can assess for your self the success (or not) of your skiing, and if you want they give you the means to learn from every run of the day.

One of the key benefits of the Coaching process is that your coach can provide you with the tools to be able to 'assess' YOUR own performance, which in turn means that you can take more control over your ski learning, feel better about your skiing and change it as you need.

*borrowed from the link above.

Trip 2

The following Monday night and Tuesday day saw a fresh fall of snow across Shropshire. We had enough to cover the Dendex at Madeley giving a brief period of floodlit, lift served night skiing which I took full advantage of.

With a Saturday trip back to South Shropshire arranged with some fellow Instructors from the slope, by Friday I was tempted to check out The Wrekin. A walk up a week or so previous had shown some hard packed cover at the top and with the extra snow it could be good for a few turns.

An early finish in the Office, packing the car with Dog, Skis and the usual stuff I arrived at the bottom at around 3pm with the light already fading.

Boot's on, Skins attached I made it as far as the dog leg below the cafe before deciding to bootpack the rest of the way, ski's on my pack. At about half way I came across some Snowboarders who reported enough snow for some turns at the top. Spurred, not least by the fading light I made to the top, grabbed some 'sunset' photo's and popped my ski's on.



The ski down at the dusk went as far as the tree line before the rocks called an end to the slide. I'm guessing it amounted to around 150m of vertical but all the better for being on my 'local' hill. An unsteady walk down a 'short cut' in ski boots followed.

PS. Some video below shot the following year: