Archive for the 'Our Company' Category
August 5th, 2009 by mat
So now that the ski boots are stored until my birthday in September I have been busy adapting to fatherhood and tinkering with our web portals. Ineedsnow has seen a few tweaks, mainly cosmetic and addressing a few usability issues. A number of these changes are still in progress but should be completed soon, whilst www.skiingaustria.co.uk, our portal dedicated to Austria is undergoing a whole redevelopment including a complete new design and various functionality changes. Hopefully all changes will be online by the time my boots click into their bindings at the end of September.
May 19th, 2009 by mat
- freestyle josh
OK, so after being badgered into hosting more pictures of my new son Josh, here is one from the weekend. I tried to get him in his helmet for about 30 minutes and all I got was tears, it seems he didn’t like the Donald Duck sticker on it. Anyway back to more normal pursuits in the coming days with a couple of trips to the local glaciers.
May 4th, 2009 by mat
Josh Benjamin Brown - 3rd May 2009, Innsbruck, Austria - skier
As a child in maybe 1977 I remember the life changing experience of clipping into plate bindings and pointing skis down the dry slope at Rossendale dry ski slope – I can say without bravado that things have never quite been the same since – the smell of Toko wax still sends me wild with excitement just at it did 30 years ago. A couple of years after my time on Rossendale and down in Gloucester I bought a pair of ski poles so I could practice the racing tuck position in my bedroom. Near death experiences followed with the sub-zero temperatures and rock strewn pistes across the Scottish highlands. Then came Ellmau – February sunshine, skiing through farm yards and exposure to a ski culture that left me mesmerised and has captivated me ever since.
Some 20 years ago all that mattered to me was the next swell and the hope that our Cornish beach party had finished in time to get straight enough to paddle my surf board into glassy dawn waves. Some more years out of the mountains followed in Australia and New Zealand, which were also dominated by water sports, mainly canoeing and diving. Then followed a year in Whistler-Blackcomb and Vancouver – the over-riding emotion from British Columbia, Canada was never again; never can I go so long again without snow underfoot. 9 Innsbruck winters later and I have stayed true to this commitment. Work has absolutely dominated the last couple of years, sadly at times very much at the expense of other quality of life pursuits. And now the biggest, best, most life changing experience of them all – Josh Benjamin Brown, born 3rd May 2009, Innsbruck, Austria. He is healthy, wonderful and he is a skier. Until the time he can say no to its dad, he is a skier, Josh Benjamin Brown was born to ski; I just live in hope that I never hear the word snowboard coming from my new hero:)
March 27th, 2009 by mat
After completing a review on ineedsnow.com, Bob Steel of Bespoke Finance has been drawn as the winner of the excellent Fischer skis prize. Austria makes skiers and it makes skis – Fischer are some of the very best on the market. If Mrs Steel is reading this then please stop here.
Bob intends to offer the skis to his wife but did not confirm whether this was to be in the form of a present or a passed on prize. Maybe Bob can confirm?
…..and the Tirol goodies are heading to the north of England to M. Irving, as they were drawn 3rd.
December 8th, 2008 by mat
Mutters, the ski holiday resort located above Innsbruck scored a coup today by hosting an FIS men’s slalom ski race. Only a couple of years ago the ski area of Mutters was the reserve of ski tourers since the old lift system had been decommissioned. Around 2 years ago there was substantial new investment in lifts and restaurant facilities. Since last winter the Mutters ski area has been connected to the newly revamped Gotzens ski area and plans are afoot to link these 2 areas to the impressive higher and bigger ski holiday resort of Axamer Lizum. Today saw another event that marks the re-emergence of Mutters as one of the leading ski holiday resorts around Innsbruck.
FIS action in Mutters, Innsbruck - image © ineedsnow.com
December 7th, 2008 by mat
So the final part of the ineedsnow snow and resort search is now online. Using live weather data the ineedsnow snow search allows the user to search after resorts with forecast snow in resorts that are located close to a regional airport.
ineedsnow snow and resort search
Our press release is going out on Tuesday announcing this new development – you can see it first right here:
With growing numbers of skiers / boarders, a changing climate and more independent travellers, the new and unique www.ineedsnow.com snow search allows users to match the best and latest snow conditions to their preferred airport or location.
“Please find us a resort that is snow-sure near Salzburg, we have already booked flights.”
It was from endless enquiries like the above, that the ineedsnow snow & resort search was conceived.
2 steps to snow:
Need snow next week, next month, next year?
Snow next week- resorts with forecast snow
For the ‘Powder Hound’ with a week off work and in need of powder. The search is powered by live weather data to allow a user to find all resorts near an airport that have snow forecast in the following week, sorted in descending order of distance.
Snow next month – good existing snow
Designed for the ‘mid season booker’ who are flying into a regional alpine airport and want resorts with good snow depths. The snow search allows the user to find the resorts with the best snow depth in the region around the airport.
Snow next year – high resorts / high lifts
For the ‘early bird’ booker who wants to book in advance and need either a high resort or high altitude lifts to ensure good snow.
Priorities beyond the ‘white stuff’
Need a family resort, après ski resort, advanced skiing, ski-in, ski-out resort? The ineedsnow search also finds these resorts near regional alpine airports, with resorts listed in descending order of distance from the airport or by user rating.
© ineedsnow.com means we have filmed, photographed and yes have been to all the European destinations that we feature! We have offices in Innsbruck, Austria and the UK and write all our own content, host all our own images and video. But what do we know? No better than visitors who write and rate their own experiences on our site. We offer equal prominence to user ratings and comments. The ratings also go to power aspects of the resort search.
more information – www.ineedsnow.com
more company information – http://www.ineedsnow.com/more/about-us/about-us.html
November 11th, 2008 by mat
Following the successful if somewhat premature winter opening party in Innsbruck on the 28th August, ineedsnow has been fortunate to team up with Liverpool University ski club in an adaptation of a popular theme – review for beer. Review for beer 1.0 was an unmitigated success although there were reports of compromised wellbeing the following day. Review for beer 2.0 will see members of the Liverpool ski club rewarded with a bottle of beer for each published resort review on ineedsnow on their forthcoming visit to Mayrhofen (Dec 08). Ineedsnow will aim to throw a party for the club during their stay with their hard earned booty (local restrictions permitting). Expect viewing figures for Trisha to plummet for the duration of the review promotion 
October 24th, 2008 by mat
The ineedsnow snow and resort search is now online. The search has run for many weeks on our test server and seems stable, any issues that you find then please let us know. Basically the search has been developed to facilitate online what we have often been asked by customers, namely ‘where has got high altitude skiing near Geneva?’ ‘We want an après ski resort near Salzburg, we have already booked flights.’ We hope it becomes a useful tool in the planning of ski and snowboard holidays.
The ineedsnow snow and resort search is a 2 step process. First select the feature of a ski holiday that you want and then select an arrival point. The search can be used to find either snow or resort criteria. For those looking to book a ski or snowboard holiday some time before departure then select high altitude skiing or high altitude resort and your arrival point. Some weeks before a planned departure then the current snow depth option is probably the best indicator of snow conditions. For those looking for certain resort or skiing requirements then the further search options are designed to cover most requirements.
October 12th, 2008 by mat
So the season got off with a sensational start last weekend at the Stubai Glacier, you can see the latest pictures and a short video here – Stubai Glacier, 5th October 2008. The new site features are ready to go online tomorrow and ineedsnow is set to go live with a press release. We are holding back on a couple of features to keep people interested throughout the winter but the much tested and long agonised over ineedsnow snow and resort search should be availble for you Monday 13th Oct. Have a play around with it and please let us know what you think. Thanks to anyone who added their input.
September 28th, 2008 by mat
October means the start of the ski season as well as the ‘hard launch’ of ineedsnow, with the arrival of the search that will occupy that really obviously vacuous left section of the header. That dark blue area has produced everything between polite inquisition to bewilderment – all is set to be revealed. The trial version has lived for some time on the test servers and our hope is the roof doesn’t fall in when it goes online. Thanks to all those who took time to look at the site and offer feedback during the soft snow launch of the site – very helpful.
Note – For feedback submitted after 20:00, I have a bulging folder of nonsense that will never enter the public domain. And advice to those Austrian colleagues / contacts / acquaintances venturing wisdom: drink with more restraint and spend less time admiring farm machinery
September 22nd, 2008 by mat
To be honest I never really had a go at snowboarding but my philosophy is that if I have been trying to master skiing for 30 years then it is not ideal to throw all that away and start a new challenge whilst other challenges are still unresolved. Snowsports are what keep me going though. The Stubia Glacier opens any time now and the Tirol Regio card is valid from 1st October, that means at least 8 months skiing over here in Innsbruck, side and business trips aside. Last year the ’side trips’ took me skiing to Japan, Andorra, Itlay, France and Switzerland. Summer is spent dreaming of snow and quite literally I often roll around in shaded sand, dosing and coming to proclaiming dreams of powder skiing. I once did the opposite in winter dreaming of surfing but the move to the mountains many years ago has rekindled the overwhelming passion I have for snow. It is at this time of the year that the local shops open, starting to service skis and on cold mornings the waft of hot ski wax tells me I would not want to swap lives with too many people.
August 28th, 2008 by mat
On the basis that the only way to get an Austrian interested in anything other than apples in the summer is to get them thinking of alcohol, we deemed it fit to put together a review for beer party. The party will be open to all (including passers-by) and the location is the garden of Unterer Feldweg 9, Goetzens, 6091. The fun will commence at 15:00, Saturday 28th Aug (Flo – 15:00, Friday 27th Aug). The theme will be ski resort reviews and for each completed resort review there will be a cold beer on offer. As usual, guests will be expected to exhibit their customary restraint and maturity; the hosts are sure to uphold these values.
Bis dann und zeas aus Innsbruck
matt
August 20th, 2008 by mat
Well back in 2001 my soon to be wife (married in 2007) presented a rather tough choice. Munich or Innsbruck? I wrote to the Austrian tourist board, got a ski piste map of Innsbruck and circled all the suitable areas, put it in an envelope and sent it over to Munich. We settled for Gotzens, one of the villages circled on the map and white on the winter side of the twin season map.
