309: La Clusaz, Candide Thovex’s Skis & Verbier’s Ski Patrol

We visit La Clusaz and find out about local freeride skier Candide Thovex’s new range of skis. We also go to Verbier to learn what it was like to become the first woman to work on their ski patrol.

We have snow reports from Flaine in France, Via Lattea in Italy and St Anton in Austria, news on the class action lawsuit going on in the States and there’s a Team GB update as well.

Host Iain Martin was joined by Victoria Jamieson, the first woman to join the Verbier ski patrol, and Tony McWilliam, the founder of Faction Skis and designer of Candide Thovex’s new line of skis.
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Tirol in Austria sponsors The Ski Podcast, which means this winter we’re are finding out more about some of the great destinations in Tirol, and how you can connect with the Austrian way of life: ‘Lebensgefühl’ – that you’ll find there.
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SHOW NOTES

Tony McWilliam is the founder of Faction Skis (2:00)
Listen to Iain’s interview with Tony about his story
Simon Burgess reports from Flaine (5:00)
James and Sinead from Sauze Online are in the Via Lattea (7:00)
Andy Butterworth from Kaluma Travel is in St Anton (8:30)
A class action lawsuit has been filed against Vail Resorts and Alterra (11:00)
Read the excellent analysis by Stuart Winchester from the Storm Skiing Podcast (11:15)
Kirsty Muir, Charlotte Bankes & Zoe Atkin won Crystal Globes in Ski Slopestyle, Snowboard Cross and Ski Halfpipe (12:00)
Jim Duncombe lives in La Clusaz and was co-founder of The Ski Podcast (12:30)
The new black run is named after home town hero Candide Thovex (16:20)

Check out Candide on YouTube… (16:30)
Candide has said that La Balme taught him everything and shaped his skiing (16:45)
Philippine Bories works for the La Clusaz tourist office (18:00)
Listen to Iain’s previous interview with Tony (22:30)
Tony first met Candide when he was 16 and signed him to Faction Skis later (23:30)
Faction supplied him with 27 sets of skis for his epic ‘Ski The World’  video (25:00)

Tony worked with Candide on his own range of skis (27:00)
The design of the top sheets are very minimalist (29:00)
Only 100 of the limited edition La Clusaz 101 were made (29:30)
The construction of the skis (30:00)

Tony now runs Forward Outdoor (32:30)
Angelika Kaufmann spoke about her job blasting avalanches in Lech in Episode 270 (33:00)
Victoria was the first woman to join the Verbier ski patrol in 2008 (34:00)
The exams or qualifications required (37:00)
Why blasting avalanches is so important (38:30)

Feedback
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andrewdickson: “Great interview with Tim Wall(Episode 299). I love the Ski Lodge and all the bands that have played there over the years. We will be back for our 21st visit next year.”

James Rice: “Just downloaded Episode 308(about Chamonix). Really looking forward to it.”

Sean Burton: “I just wanted to reiterate how much I enjoy the podcast.I discovered it after my first ski trip in January 2024 and have been listening avidly ever since.”

There are now 309 episodes of The Ski Podcast to catch up with. If you’d like to get some insight on a particular destination or the latest kit, just go to theskipodcast.com, have a search around the tags and categories and you’re bound to find something you’ll find something of interest.

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