New Ski Club of Great Britain chat forum

So ... another winter in which Scotland falls off the planet? Step forward the Aviemore-based globe-embracing snowHeads-admiring WTF Ski Club ... ! ...

https://www.facebook.com/groups/325182624251298/

Shimmy Alcott wrote:

is that a closed ski group?

No, it's an open group

In contrast, here is a closed group, which is probably more interesting ...

https://www.facebook.com/groups/skiclubleaders/

If only it was open - there must be lots of fascinating stuff in there!

The Ski Club Safety Officer ... a powerful ski equipment brand ... and a related story

Let me preface this little piece by pointing out that “other (longer-established, perhaps more proven) ski touring/freeride brands are available”

The other day this SCGB blog turned up in a search. It was written on 22 August by Chris Taine, the Club’s Digital Content and Social Media Executive ...

What’s new for Salomon in 2013-14
http://skiclubgb.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/salomon-freeski-videoblog-guardian-quest-freeski-2013-14/

The blog features Nigel Shepherd, ‘Ski Club Safety Officer’, who is one of Britain’s most experienced mountain guides (qualified as a Full Guide 34 years ago). He’s worked for many years with the Ski Club on its rep/leader training courses. He’s also billed here as the Club’s ‘Alpine Safety Adviser’ ...
http://www.bmg.org.uk/index.php/eng/Members/Guides-R-Z/Nigel-Shepherd

The two linked videos in the blog are ...

http://youtube.com/v/d7IdGfcyzhY&feature=player_embedded

http://youtube.com/v/7APwXyMI0Ec&feature=player_embedded

So, the question here is “what’s the deal?” These are clearly promotional videos - Nigel Shepherd makes it obvious with the uniform he’s wearing and what he’s saying that he’s representing one brand only – and clearly that’s his role with Salomon ... part of his professional CV description linked above ...

Quote:

Consultant, sponsorship and product development with Salomon GB

What’s his job definition as the Ski Club Safety Officer? Is he allowed to test or recommend any other brands of ski touring boot/binding/ski, in the best safety interests of skiers? That’s something Nigel is very welcome to comment on. Out of courtesy I’m emailing him to point out this thread and to offer him the right of response. Respect.

Any skier – alpine or touring/freeride – is going to want to know the range of hardware available and what’s recommended by professionals who buy their kit, along with experienced amateur tourers. What products have proven themselves over time - particularly in terms of bindings systems? There have been failures.

As for the Ski Club ... is it seeking to promote one brand only? [Over to Chris Taine, who I'm also emailing]
SCGB members pay over £60/year for – among other things – impartial news and advice about ski equipment. Ski touring and freeride kit is nearly always used in locations which are remote (sometimes very remote) from emergency fixing or skier rescue. Product dependability and performance are obviously of paramount importance. [I hasten to add that I’m a lift-served skier and don’t skin up, so don’t claim to have any practical experience of ski touring products, and don’t have any views about any specific products in this field]

Now for a bit of context/background, which I do know, and which is simply a scandal: Salomon entered the field of touring/freeride hardware quite recently – 2010, in fact. It’s not a huge area of sales, though an increasing number of skiers are escaping the madding crowds to ‘earn their turns’. Salomon began their product line with high expectations of potential users – the brand has, after all, been manufacturing ski bindings since 1955 (the company began by making ski edges in 1947).

So, in the spring of 2010, a number of ski touring experts were invited to try the first range of products – in particular Salomon Quest boots. Salomon had chosen to go with an ingenious and unique boot/binding combination developed by Dynafit many years ago, and refined over time [‘Tourtech/Tech’]. It’s an ultra-lightweight system, using a metal interface built into the boot sole itself which locks into the bindings, meaning the binding can be much more compact than a conventional binding.

It’s important to point out that the Quest boots were not prototypes or pre-production test samples. They were, it seemed obvious, samples from stock that would go on sale imminently. What happened next – in particular to one skier who calls himself ‘Thin Cover’ in online forums – is self-explanatory from the following blog (and comments below) on WildSnow. It's a remarkable product investigation, the like of which I've never seen elsewhere], coupled with a 41-page discussion that took place on the TetonGravity forum. Thin Cover almost ended up with his leg amputated ...

http://www.wildsnow.com/2888/salomon-quest-tech-fittings-failure/

http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php/191256-Salomon-Quest-Tech-inserts-failure-thread

It’s easy to skip to page 41 of that thread to see the outcome for Thin Cover, who clearly obtained a compensation settlement from Salomon and is making some recovery.

So ... with that bit of background of three years ago ... I’d ask ... is the Ski Club of Great Britain correct in its strategy here? The Club was founded in 1903 and originally operated in strict independence from commercial interests. It continued that tradition in equipment reporting until, certainly, the early 1990s. I’ll declare an interest, since I was the Club's equipment editor for over ten years from 1983 and was actually accused of being too pro-Salomon by some. The Salomon rear-entry boot (which had six years engineering/design development at the outset, and then years of further refinement to be years ahead of its time) was one of the ski products of the century and loomed large in equipment reporting of that era.

So, how on earth did the Salomon Quest situation arise? How did that piece of metal get passed for manufacture? It seems the full story has yet to emerge.

That's very interesting, shame it's buried in this thread where no-one who should see it will see it...

FWIW the Quests have been less than fantastic in my experience, couple of pairs we sold simply didn't hold up to frequent usage. The walk/ski clip on the back is a metal buckle that clips down onto a plastic ridge. It seemed that after a while the plastic ridge wears down and the buckle has nothing to clip into, leaving the boot flailing around in walk mode.