239: Skiing on Mt Etna, Catalonia & Borovets in Bulgaria

We discuss ski touring on Mt Etna in Sicily, the mountains of Catalonia and Borovets in Bulgaria.

Host Iain Martin was joined by guests Becs Miles and Mike Richards.

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SHOW NOTES

Becs was last on the show in Episode 209, when she was telling us about Trysil in Norway (0:45)
Mike Richards was last on the show as a guest in Episode 226 discussing Hokkaido in Japan (1:15)
He has also been on the show discussing Bosnia, Madesimo, Turkey, North Macedonia, Georgia, Montenegro and Wales (1:30)
Mike called in from Erciyes in Turkey (2:00)
Katja Gaskell reported from Japan (3:30)
Alex Armand (Tip Top Ski Coaching) is in Les 2 Alpes (5:40)
Jen Tsang (That’s LaPlagne) is in La Plagne (6:00)
Freddy Carrick-Smith took gold in the GS & Zak Carrick-Smith took bronze in the Slalom at the European Youth Olympic Festival (8:30)
In freestyle Sandra Caune won gold in ski Big air and bronze in slopestyle and Emily Rothney won gold in the Snowboard Big Air
The Ski Podcast sponsors Team Carrick Smith (9:20)
Find out more about Iain’s train travel journey to Sicily, using an Interrail from Rail Europe (12:30)
The trip involved taking the unique rail ferry from the southern tip of Italy to Messina (13:00)
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1ysMVLaA6Jc
Iain saw an Italian football match at Empoli on his return journey (16:00)
Mirto Monaco is one of three UAIGM guides on Sicily (17:30)
Ski touring was on Etna Nord out of Piano Provenzala - Etna’s ‘ski resort’ (17:45)
https://youtu.be/7bkj_m-5d6Y
Etna was erupting on the south side of the volcano (19:00)
In 2002, both ski resorts were destroyed by eruptions (25:00)
Iain hiked up to the source of the current eruption to view the lava flow (25:30)
Iain went ski touring in Morrocco in 2019 (27:30)
Becs as ‘glamping’ in Catalonia at Forest Days (28:30)
She did ski touring at the resort of Port del Comte (32:00)
You can try cross country sking in Tuixant (32:30)
Other activities included truffle hunting (33:00)
Becs learned how to search for fire kindling (34:00)
Iain recently drove to Courmayeur and Chamonix in an electric car (35:45)
Mike travelled to Borovets in Bulgaria (38:30)
He stayed at the Hotel Lion (42:15)
Take a look at the piste map for Borovets (44:00)

Feedback
Please send your feedback on the show on social @theskipodcast or by email theskipodcast@gmail.com

Matt Sylvestre: "Just wanted to say hello from Pleasant Mountain in Maine, USA. I am obsessed with skiing, kit and technique and enjoyed Episode 235 with Stuart Winchester from the Storm Skiing Podcast.”

Chris Howie: "Loved Episode 235 of the Ski Podcast today as always. It was super to hear more about the Ikon/Epic passes and how the USA model for skiing is completely different from Europe.”

Jane Gotts: “Really enjoy listening to the podcast”

Anon: “Loving the ski podcast in the car from wet and windy Dublin”

Anon: "Great podcast, Iain. I’ve enjoyed it for ages and attended your talks at The Snow Show. Skiing has generally poor coverage on TV, so podcasts like yours help keep ski enthusiasts like me stoked in between ski trips and seasons. Keep it up!"

The winner of our Vallon goggles competition is Dominic Hales: “Loved listening to Episode 237 about the Dolomites. We just got our photos from a trip in Val Gardena and surely can’t be a more photogenic place.”

There are now 251 episodes of The Ski Podcast to catch up with and 185 of those were listened to in the last week. You can find old episodes in our back catalog at theskipodcast.com where you can find your next podcast to listen to.

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