If you are looking for ideas for Christmas presents this year here are some suggestions which are ideal for people who love skiing and snowboarding. There’s everything from new phones with the latest camera technology, inspirational books, or simple unique Christmas themed merchandise
Mountains inspire British artist
British artist Natasha Durlacher’s love of the mountains and the freedom of winter sports has inspired her to produce a range of stylish ski themed gifts, plus uniquely designed tableware, homeware, accessories, clothing, stationery, and art, through the eco-conscience homeware and lifestyle brand Powderhound. The Christmas collection includes Alphabet Ski Mugs, a Christmas Bauble Gift Set, a Candle Gift Set, Snoods and T-Shirts.
Powderhound Christmas Bauble Gift Set, £62 (single bauble £16 with gift box)
Add a bit of Alpine magic to your Christmas Tree with this exquisite fine bone china Christmas bauble featuring the Powderhound classic skier design. Available as a single bauble or in a set of 4 in a luxury gift box.
Powderhound Alphabet Ski Mugs, £17
Powderhound’s Alphabet Ski Mugs are a gorgeous way to personalise a tea or coffee break. Featuring miniature skiers and spelling out your chosen initial on the front and back, these are a great gift idea for any skier or boarder. With the design screen printed onto a fine bone china mug, and presented in a beautiful gift box, this is a gift guaranteed to bring memories of the mountain straight to your kitchen.
Powderhound Candle Gift Set, £84
Powderhound’s beautiful four-piece Christmas candle gift set is the perfect luxury alpine inspired present for the home. The candle gift set includes four luxury Egyptian cotton scented candles made from soy-based wax, in pots made from fine bone china, all encased in a stylish gift box.
Powderhound Snoods, £18
Stay warm while looking incredibly cool in Powderhound’s unisex Snoods, available in dark blue with white skier and snow boarder silhouettes, and a snow-white background with colourful skier and snow boarders. Natasha’s new design this year is the Hound Collection, featuring mountain dogs and various other dog breeds walking together on a red background colour. The snood scarf features dynamic silhouettes of action on the slopes along with a cosy fleece lining, and are ultra-comfy, stretchable and great for keeping you toasty not only on the slopes but while jogging, cycling or walking the dog!
Powderhound Snowball Long Sleeve T-Shirt, (image is on the back) £45
Powderhound long sleeve t-shirts are made from 100% cotton and feature bright, bold and contemporary images, designed and created by British artist Natasha Durlacher. Soft and comfy they are perfect for après ski or as a base layer.
Powderhound’s Christmas Collection is available to buy from: powderhound.london
Capture those magic moments on new OPPO Reno8 smartphones
Skiers and snowboarders love to capture photos and videos of their adventures and experiences on their smartphones.
The recently launched OPPO Reno8 Pro 5G and Reno8 5G employ the latest camera innovation to capture your best moments both on and off the slopes even in the most challenging lighting scenarios.
For those of you who like the geeky stuff, the Reno8 Pro 5G houses the MariSilicon X imaging NPU, enabling unrivalled videography capabilities in its class. MariSilicon X enables 4K Ultra Night Video for ultra-clear, brighter, and more detailed videos at night, as well as 4K Ultra HDR Video to keep details in both highlights and shadows.
Plus, the makers claim the phones have the longest smartphone battery lifespan on the market. You can purchase the OPPO Reno8 Pro for £599 and the OPPO Reno8 5G for £419 at Currys, EE, Vodafone, O2, Carphone Warehouse, Sky, Amazon, Argos, Very, AO and OPPO’s eStore.
More info at: OPPO Reno8 Pro
Give the gift of snow
If you’re looking for a great Christmas gift for skiers and snowboarders, then here’s a chance to give your friends and family the gift of real snow. Gift vouchers from Snozone are redeemable against all skiing, snowboarding, or sledging experiences. Valid for 12 months, vouchers are available to buy in values of £25, £50 or £100. They are delivered directly to your email address and can be used at Snozone Milton Keynes and Snozone Yorkshire in Castleford.
For more details and to make a purchase, CLICK HERE
Keep a watch on your fitness
For sportspeople who like to keep track of everything on their watches, the OPPO Watch Free has professional sport modes and health monitoring functions as well as built in professional courses to help achieve fitness and fat-burning goals in a more efficient manner. There are also specific skiing and snowboarding features.
The OPPO Watch Free also provides all-scenario sleep monitoring and analysis before, during, and after sleep – plus, an exclusive professional snoring risk assessment!
Here are just some of the watch attractions and functions:
- Over 100 exercise modes: Over 100 exercise modes are available to suit all your daily workout needs. In addition, OPPO’s jump rope algorithm is used to accurately count rope jumps.
- Smart recognition of 4 kinds of exercises: OPPO Watch Free can identify when you are running, walking, working out on a rowing machine, or working out on an elliptical trainer, and record your activities.
- Worry-free 50m water resistance: OPPO Watch Free comes with 5 ATM water resistance, so that you can use it when swimming or diving.
- 24h heart rate monitor: OPPO Watch Free can monitor your heart rate during the whole day and warn you of irregular heartbeat.
- Other health related functions: Stand-up reminder can remind you the harm of sedentary activities. Water drinking reminder can remind you to drink water regularly.
- Over 40 stylish watch faces: Over 40 stylish watch faces are available for you to choose from based on your preferences.
- AI Outfit watch face 2.0: Simply take a photo of your outfit with your phone. The AI will automatically generate a stylish watch face that matches the style of your outfit.
- Basic convenience features: Message Notification, Incoming Call Notifications, Call Rejection, Find My Phone, Music Playback Control, etc.
- Ample battery life: The OPPO Watch Free is equipped with a 230 mAh battery which can last up to 14 days.
The OPPO Watch Free can be purchased for £89 and is available from Amazon and Argos
More info at: OPPO Watch Free
Rechargeable Hand Warmer offers all-day warmth
Lifesystems new Rechargeable Hand Warmer will help keep you cosy and comfortable when the temperature drops. Simply press a button and it will start delivering heat in just 10 seconds. Ideal for long-days on the slopes, it can keep your hands warm for 6-12 hours, depending on which of the four heat settings you choose. It can be recharged using mains or USB power-sources. The Rechargeable Hand Warmer also doubles as a handy power bank which can be used to top up mobile phones or GPS gadgets. They are available through the website below for £19.99.
Introducing the new Suunto 9 Peak Pro
The new fully carbon compensated Suunto 9 Peak Pro GPS multisport watch combines rugged durability with elegance. It’s extremely tough, yet one of the thinnest (10,8 mm) and lightest GPS sport watches in its class. Combined with Suunto app and a huge array of partner services, the Suunto 9 Peak Pro gives users a plethora of route-finding options, turn-by-turn guidance and advanced training tools.
Also new to Suunto app, which is now compatible with iPad and Android tablets, users can pre-structure their workouts and follow the plan during a session. And a new avalanche map layer that indicates areas of avalanche danger makes it easier to plan safe alpine trips. And on returning from an adventure, users can share their trip with friends and family as a 3D animation.
There are versions four models built with stainless steel (£429) and two models built with titanium (£549).
BOOK STORE
If Gondolas Could Talk
Self-confessed ski bum John Hemming-Clark, who has skied every year for the past 40 years, has more than his fair share of ski stories. Along with contributions from others, he has put them into If Gondolas Could Talk a book that includes 101 of the very best.
John said: “Nearly everyone I meet who has ever been skiing has at least one great story from their time on or off the slopes. Some have several. I thought it was time that these tales reached a wider audience.
“They are a diverse collection, mostly humorous, that feature Alpine ski resorts, lifts, instructors, chalet hosts, hotels, restaurants, bars. lift attendants, cross-channel ferries, overnight stops, motorways, péages, dry slopes and other skiers.
“John’s own contributions are based on his inability to ski, learn a foreign language or behave at anything approaching a competent, let alone professional, level whether by design or accident, in and around the Alps. It appears from the offerings that he has received for this new book that he is not alone.
If Gondolas Could Talk can be purchased for £10.99 through: johnhemmingclark.com/skistories
Ski A to Z
Ski A to Z is an illustrated introduction to skiing which aims to demystify the sport with information, advice, illustrations and helpful tips; an ideal way to refresh knowledge of all aspects of skiing. The book is intended to answer the questions new skiers may while demonstrating the fun to be had on the slopes.
Author and illustrator, Kimberley Kay, (pictured) said: “Ski A to Z is a great resource for all to get back up to speed, or for those skiing for the first time the book gives access to the information to support them as they venture into the sport, and opens the door to experiencing the wonder of skiing.”
Ski A to Z has been published by Meyer & Meyer and is available through book stores and online retailers as a hardback (£10.47) or an ebook. Or go to the Meyer & Meyer website.
You can also visit website inspirebykim.com for ski art prints and greeting cards.
Skiing Around the World
Ski journalist Jimmy Petterson has visited more than 650 ski resorts in 75 countries. The best stories from his travels can now be read in his seminal two-volume set of books, Skiing Around the World, Volumes I and II.
In these two books, Jimmy takes skiers and snowboarders on an odyssey around the globe, including more than 1,800 colour photos depicting the skiing and snowboarding possibilities virtually everywhere on the planet.
The two books have already won five awards, two from the North American Snowsports Journalists Association, two from the Far West Ski Association, and one from the International Ski History Association.
The books can be purchased individually or as a set. The price per book is €80 plus €10 for postage and packing and are available by CLICKING HERE
Around The World in 50 Slopes
Travel writer Patrick Thorne’s new book Around The World in 50 Slopes takes readers on a journey between ski runs located in 30 countries across six continents.
Patrick,(pictured) whose last book Powder, The World’s 50 Greatest Ski Runs, topped Amazon’s ski-books best-seller list for over six years, has taken a different approach in choosing his 50 runs for his new book.
There are slopes connected to James Bond, Franz Klammer, St Patrick, The Beatles, Santa Claus, Jesus Christ, Emperor Hadrian, Kim Jong-un, Count Dracula and even the Greek God Zeus. One run follows the line below the flight of a witch and another a route once popular with smugglers.
Some of the runs are important in the history of snow sports, marking key points in the evolution of many of the world’s great ski areas, including Mammoth Mountain, St Moritz and the Colorado run where (arguably) the first snowboarding competition took place.
Some of the more serious subjects raised include the development of ski areas to reverse rural depopulation, the battle by indigenous tribes to keep control of their ancestral lands (Several opting to run their own ski areas), the connections between different religions and ski resorts, how former mining communities reinvented themselves thanks to ‘white gold’, the fight for gay rights, a ski area recovered from the Taliban, how some ski areas developed thanks to the growth of rail networks and even ski areas that developed thanks to mountain warfare training.
But then many of the runs are just simple fun with themes like cheese, love and Christmas.
Each of the 50 slopes includes a fact box and a map with the run’s location.
Around The World in 50 Slopes, a 246-page hardback book, is published by Wildfire Books and costs £16.99 (Kindle edition £8.99). You can order direct from Patrick by emailing: patrick@patrickthorne.com
Alternatively, the book is available from all good bookshops or through Amazon by CLICKING HERE
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