Tag: travel

My drive to the ski slopes by EV

As our old diesel car limped us back from the ski slopes in early 2024 (with SIX stops for oil top-ups), its chances of getting through another MOT were slim. But when we decided to swerve the hybrid option and go full hog for an eco EV car, we had one niggling worry: could we drive to the ski slopes by EV – and back – without running out of charge?

Here is what we learnt from our first ski trip by EV:

Pre-departure

  • Our insurance company covered us to drive in Europe – phew.
  • We absolutely made sure we had a breakdown cover that INCLUDED charging our EV.
  • We certainly didn’t do enough homework (more on this below).
  • Our battery offered a maximum of 240 miles, so we knew we would have to stop around six times during our drive to the ski slopes at Wengen: little and often, as all EV car drivers will tell you (ie do not drop to below 20% charge and do not charge above 80%).
  • We decided to Airbnb it on our way to Switzerland to break up our drive, but go full hog on the way back.
  • We were warned that the cold would drain our battery, as would winding up a mountain road by EV. Neither occurred.

our Journey to the ski slopes

First charge stop en route to the ski slopes: Folkestone. A disaster. The chargers were not taking debit or credit cards, the QR code the charger asked us to scan did not exist and when I called the European operators (on the line for 23 minutes and counting. Argh) they could not assist.

Thank goodness for helpful and experienced EV driver Toby, who lent us an RFDI charging card. So nice. This lifted our spirits until we realised the car wasn’t getting out of initialising to charging. (LeShuttle Flexi Plus travellers can use a dedicated charger; we looked on in envy.)

Another group of EV drivers turned up and experienced similar problems. One person had around 10 different charging cards, one of which worked.

Driving south through France, as electric vehicle range anxiety kicked in, we had to revisit our stops. The car’s system weirdly directed us away from the motorway, on a drive of between five and 10 minutes, usually to a Lidl or Aldi. Do this six times and it adds an hour and a half onto your journey.

Overall, the drive through France was a good experience, helped immensely by our 19-year-old son who was a whizz at getting the car charging (I lost count of the amount of apps we had to download).

For our overnight stay on our way to the ski slopes, we chose somewhere with a charger. However, the host was strange about us using it, so we plugged our EV into the mains to give us enough charge to get us to a super charger next morning. That supercharger was in a McDonald’s, where the breakfast was really rather good, AND it wasn’t in throw-away packaging. Well done, Swiss McDonald’s.

Survive the drive: tips on driving to the ski slopes

At the ski resort

We were staying in Wengen, Switzerland, a ‘no-car’ resort, so we parked our EV in Lauterbrunnen and took a relaxing, quick cogwheel-rail journey up the mountain. Lauterbrunnen has an easy-access, multi-storey car park with around 10 excellent EV chargers. We popped down the night before our departure and charged our car overnight – simples.

The drive home

We drove away from Wengen around 8am with a LeShuttle crossing booked for a later than usual 10.30pm (we would normally plan to be at the Channel for 8.30pm). We didn’t quite make it. Five minutes late and the check-in machine told us the next available crossing was 01.15am. Thankfully, I tracked down a member of staff who said ‘just get on the next crossing in 30 minutes’, saving us a two-hour wait. You might not be so lucky in the school holidays.

Cruising in EV ECO mode, not using the heated seats, saved us around 10-20km / charge; keep the heating on, but maybe bring a jumper or blankets.

Our drive back from skiing was pretty seamless, except for a long charger queue at a motorway service station somewhere near Strasbourg, where other drivers were parking in the EV charging points. We had a lucky break and managed to slip into a space just as a vehicle was leaving.

My tips for a drive to the ski slopes by EV:

  • Get an RFID card before you leave.
  • Download the Charge Global app in advance, it was a life saver and had really good up to date info on so many chargers en route (weirdly, it doesn’t seem to have the same accuracy in the UK).
  • Use motorway service stations to charge where possible (but do remember during the day these can be busy). They may be slightly more expensive, but it saves that extra drive.
  • Remember to budget for the coffees and snacks you will be buying your whole family at every EV charging stop.
  • Travelling by EV is not cheaper than using diesel. Charging prices varied between about 60 and 80 pence / kwh.
  • Allow for C6 charges and remember the 20:80 rule (little and often).
  • Take a teenager to get the charging under way while the driver/s you sip a frothy cappuccino.
  • We are glad we factored in an overnight stop on the outward journey, especially as you lose an hour crossing the Channel.
  • If the LeShuttle machine tells you there isn’t an available train for a couple of hours – check with a human being.
  • Travelling by EV does get easier and, yes, range anxiety does pass.

Halsbury backs WhoSki.com to drive the #SkiGreen agenda

The importance of climate change to the younger generation is among the reasons why school ski trip operator Halsbury Ski is now working with WhoSki.com to manage and reduce the carbon footprint of its activities.

When your young clients are among the most enthusiastic supporters of the sustainability movement – and those most vulnerable to the effects of climate change – acting on their concerns makes good business sense. Call it the Greta Thunberg effect.

“Working together is a sustainability gain”

Halsbury’s Managing Director Hugues Raulet says: “Working with WhoSki.com is an instant sustainability gain. Encouraging our clients to purchase and dispose responsibly of the clothing they need for an enjoyable trip to the slopes with Halsbury is an important step on the way to reducing the carbon footprint of our activities.”

WhoSki.com Co-Founder Nicola Davenport explains: “Halsbury approached us with a view to working together. Lockdown delayed active collaboration, but we are so pleased that Halsbury will be recommending WhoSki.com as a source of good-as-new clothing for parents when they sign up their children for a Halsbury ski trip.

“By buying and selling through WhoSki.com, you are helping keep hard-to-recycle wintersports clothing in circulation and out of landfill.”

Halsbury: thinking green

Halsbury has sustainability strongly on its radar. It has installed solar panels and electric vehicle charging points at its offices. Electric bikes are provided for staff who want to use them to get to work.

MD Hugues Raulet is an eco-pioneer whose ventures outside Halsbury have included establishing a B Corp-certified recycling business in Argentina, researching and raising awareness about alternative sustainable fuels. He has ambitions for Halsbury to continually reduce its carbon footprint.

Hugues explains: “Our partnership with WhoSki.com is a proactive way to progress our sustainability journey. This is a positive step towards a greener business. We are doing the things that we can with a vision and an ambition to extend and expand our sustainability agenda.”

Student ski clothing: perfect for re-sale

Halsbury will include information about WhoSki.com to parents and students via the schools packs it provides for clients.

Children’s ski clothing is among the best sellers at the WhoSki.com online marketplace – remember – we donate 10% of our commission on every sale to the teen mental health charity stem4.

What to pack for your family ski holidays

Most of us heading for the slopes this winter / spring will be seasoned skiers / snowboarders, but if you’re a ski holidays first timer, what ski wear essentials should be in your suitcase?

No one wants to (a) over-pack OR (b) be under-prepared. If you’re not a ski parent, however, it can be hard to know what’s a must-have, and what you can cross off the shopping list. Here’s the children’s ski wear I recommend, after two decades of skiing with children (from age 0 upwards):

SKI WEAR MUST-HAVES:

  • warm, waterproof ski jackets and trousers or ski suit. You cannot ‘make do’ with non-specialist equipment here: waterproofing, flexible movement, pockets and padding will make for an all-round better ski experience.
  • mid-layer. This can be a simple fleece, but make sure it has a zip so the wearer can open and close according to weather and exertion.
  • ski goggles. More protective than sunglasses, less easy to lose, warmer for the face on a cold day or when it is snowing.
  • ski gloves. Absolutely essential as it’s miserable to have cold hands, oft expressed by highly vocal wailing. You might also want to throw in a pair of thin glove liners. Mittens are warmer and perfect for little ones. Kids’ gloves tend to get drenched on a daily basis and they are slow to dry, so taking a spare pair is recommended.
  • ski socks. Longer than normal socks with heat-retaining qualities and the right padding in the right places, two pairs of ski socks for a week’s trip will be enough, provided they go on the radiator to dry between wears.
  • snowboots. No child or adult should ever go to the mountains without a chunky pair of cosy, waterproof snowboots. They mean kids can play in the snow without getting frostbite of the toes, and adults can walk to the bar/supermarket/ski school pick-up point without slipping over. Wear them on the journey to cut down on luggage weight
  • slippers/Crocs. Aka footwear you can wear between bootroom and chalet/hotel room. The first sign you will see at the entrance to your accommodation will be: no outdoor footwear. Without slippers (ideally, something robust with a sturdy sole) your socks will quickly be soggy. Yuck.
  • Lip balm and high SPF sunscreen. Take a few small tubes of suncream with you and slip into pockets so you can top up throughout the day. Ditto for lip balms, which are easily lost.

SKI WEAR NICE-TO-HAVES:

  • handwarmers. Keeping one of these in your pocket for those super-cold ski days can make a big difference, although there will be years when you don’t need them at all. Good news though: they don’t go off, so save them for next season if unused.
  • sunglasses. I would never go skiing without a pair in my pocket, but my kids have been known to stick with goggles whatever the weather. One less thing to lose, too.
  • thermal underwear. I always made sure my young kids wore thermals – and sometimes that was all they needed under their ski suits – but for teens, not essential.
  • helmet. Essential to wear, but easy to rent. You only really need to own one if you’re a habitual skier. For children, make sure there’s a clip at the back to prevent goggles from pinging off. As with cycling and motorcycling, never buy a secondhand helmet: you don’t know what it’s been through, plus build technology has improved year on year so modern styles are safer than ever.
  • ski boots. As above: wait to buy them until your child’s feet have stopped growing/you move to the Alps/you’ve got the ski bug.
  • multi-packs of a favourite sweet snack. Slipping a packet of Haribos or a chocolate bar into a child’s ski jacket pocket provides a welcome energy boost for little ones between runs.

Got children’s ski wear that no longer fits? Pass it on via our preloved ski clothing marketplace. Looking for ski clothes for your family? Browse our peer-to-peer marketplace for high quality secondhand ski gear.

Have you signed the Ski Train petition yet?

More than 10k people have signed the petition to Save the Ski Train – which Eurostar has cancelled for winter season 2020/21. And there’s still time to add your name to the list.

The Ski Train, which has been running between London and the Alps since 1997, is hugely popular with UK-based skiers. For the last two years, tickets for travel during for the peak February half term week have sold out within five hours of going on sale.

‘Take the train to the slopes’ website Snowcarbon – whose founder Daniel Elkan took part in our #SkiGreen webinar recently – has long championed Eurostar for its convenience and eco credentials.

24k travellers opt for Ski Train over flying, driving

Some 24,000 travellers a year choose to take Eurostar’s Friday overnight and Saturday daytime services. For ski season 2020/21, the Ski Train was likely to have been the option of choice for even more skiers wanting to avoid airports and busy roads.

That’s why it seems a bonkers time to cancel the Ski Train – and why Snowcarbon launched its Save the Ski Train petition.

So why has Eurostar decided to bin the train to the Alps for the coming season? There has been speculation in the French press that the operating company was hoping to convince the Government to offer subsidies as it has done for other coronavirus-affected businesses / sectors.

Eurostar itself says that it is focusing on high-demand routes between major cities, and would find it challenging to maintain correct hygiene measures on longer distance routes.

Cancelling the Ski Train has led to an avalanche of complaints from ski resorts and operators, already facing a likely drop in visitors for the coming season.

#SkiGreen to cut your carbon footprint

The way you choose to travel to and within your ski resort is by far the biggest contributor to your trip’s environmental footprint at some 57%, according to the Mountain Riders sustainability charity.

Swapping plane for train saves an estimated 80% in CO2 emissions, Snowcarbon says, as well as being more relaxing and often quicker than flying.

A large part of the reason we set up WhoSki.com was to help reduce the eco footprint of wintersports – so the Save the Ski Train campaign is one we 100% support. If you do one thing today: sign the petition.