How to hit the slopes ...without leaving home!
Pining for the pistes? Never fear! Alpine resorts may be off-limits, but from ski simulators to mobile saunas, and those apres-piste revels, here’s our guide to…
AH, THE swish of freshly groomed snow as my perfectly parallel knees flick neatly from side to side. I take in the azure sky and summit of Mont Blanc and the gently spiced fragrance of ‘vin chaud’. Later, I’ll retire to the sauna to ease those aching muscles after a hard day ... er, in my living room. Because this isn’t the French Alps. Instead, I’m on a ski simulator, with a scene courtesy of virtual reality goggles, home-made vin chaud on the hob, and an apres ski playlist on my speakers. It’s not quite the same as the real thing. But if you want to recreate the magic of an alpine getaway during lockdown, CLAIRE COLEMAN shows how…
THE SKIING Get piste fit
I’Ve tried roller skiing (rollerblading meets cross-country skiing) and grass skiing (hurtling out of control down a hill on skis fitted with caterpillar - tracks) and neither gave me the buzz z you get from downhill skiing on snow, so I didn’t t have high hopes for this ski ‘experience’ either.
I’m trying an Aeroski (£199.99, amazon.co.uk) ) which has apparently ‘been created by sports s scientists and engineers to mimic the movements - used in skiing for an at home workout kout likee like no other’.
It’s basically a platform on rollers that t sits on n a curved frame. You put your feet into nto the suspended cradles, hold the poles and slide ide from side to side. the tension can be made firmer rmer by adding more rubber bands.
First, the downside. It comes with a Virtual Reality headset that is meant to work with ith your phone and their app so that you can work rk out in a virtual ski wonderland. But the app doesn’t work for me. At all. When I look online there here are multiple reports saying the same, with the he makdress makers aware of the issue and working to address it.
Instead, I cranked up some music, put ut a ski film on the tV and start skiing. the poles, es, even on their shortest setting are too long — my regud regular ski instructor, Pat, would be horrified at my hand and elbow position. However, I think hink he might quite like the angulation of my legs s— — parfor parallel, because the cradles don’t allow for anye anything else, with my outer leg extended and my inner one bent. After a few minutes my glutes and quads start to burn, and I’m getting warmer.
A built-in progress tracker lets you see your time, speed, distance, cycles, RPM and calories burned.
After a five-minute blast my Apple Watch reckons I’ve burned about 30 calories, so I’m definitely doing something — sadly it’s just not skiing.
I can see how this would build up some of the muscles needed for skiing and I might think about using it to break in new boots before going away, but it’s the difference between running on a treadmill and going for a run in the woods — it’s entirely predictable, and there are no bits of terrain that demand you change technique.
However, a working app that makes it more immersive would definitely improve the experience.
Roam a virtual resort
DESPITE the hitches I faced with the Aeroski app, Virtual Reality (VR) certainly seems to be the quickest way to transport yourself to the slopes — and at a fraction of the price. All you need is a Google Cardboard viewer (from about £5 on Amazon, or go to arvr.google.com/cardboard/get-cardboard/ for instructions to build your own).
this is a basic VR headset that works with Youtube on your mobile phone.
You fold the cardboard together so it forms a box the same width and height as your phone — your phone then sits comfortably at the far, closed end of the box. the open end of the box is curved to fit the contours of your face, cutting off your peripheral vision. You then hold it up to your eyes as you would binoculars (to look hands-free you’d need to attach a headband) and all you can see is the scene on the phone screen.
to summon up a virtual ski scene, simply search ‘VR skiing’ or ‘360 skiing’ on Youtube and you’ll find a selection of videos, some made by the tourist boards of different resorts, some by extreme skiers, and some by people like you and me on holiday.
then you just pop your phone in the viewer and within seconds you can be schussing down slopes from
Lake Louise and telluride to Alpe d’Huez. Although you can’t decide which slopes to explore, they are 360- degree videos, so when you move your head from side to side, you get a different perspective.
Try a family slalom
YOU could try Alpine ski VR (£3.99) a game available on Oculus Rift — a virtual reality headset, left, ( currys. co.uk, £399). Once you put it on, you see and hear a different world.
the view will adapt as the headset senses your movements, so you can look up, down to the side and behind you and you’ll see an entirely different reality in 360 degrees. It’s like being inside a computer game, and one that’s different every time. Using the tilt of your head to turn around the slalom gates, to go faster or slower, or to jump, the game allows you to take part in slalom, freestyle and heliskiing, competing against yourself or family members members.
If that appeals and you have an old Wii Fit Balance Board lying around the house (discontinued but available secondhand for £20 to £30 on eBay and Facebook Marketplace) track down the Family ski & snowboard game ( again discontinued, but still available secondhand) so you can ski, spin and switch your way around 7,000 vertical metres of mountains, with your foot movements monitored by the board, and arm movements by handheld controllers.