After some early publishing success from 1982 onwards, writing about unemployment for The Sunday Times and in his first book, The A-Z of Unemployment, published in 1984, as well as working on the fanzine for rock band The Stranglers, Patrick, then aged 20, began writing about ski travel in 1984 having visited five ski resorts on school trips and budget holidays.
Over the past 30 years Patrick has written over 10,000 news and feature articles for publications all around the world and contributed to many hundreds of magazines, newspapers, websites, atlases and now social media sites and apps.
He built the world’s largest database of ski areas – more than 6,000 in 80 countries, in the early 1990s which has become the industry standard and has authored a dozen books, contributing to dozens more, the first published in 1984.
Patrick remains one of the few writers in the world who makes a living, year-round, as a ski travel writer.
Patrick’s Ski Writing Career Chronology
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Books
Commissioned to write ‘The Complete Ski Holiday Guide’ by Collins.
College
Studying English and writing at what’s now Manchester Metropolitan University.
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Books
Publication of ‘The Complete Ski Holiday Guide’ by Collins.
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Magazines
First job as Staff Writer’ on ‘The Skier’ magazine (now Skier and Snowboarder) – during ‘year out’ from college. Also contributed to Ski Special and Ski Survey (now Ski and Board) magazines.
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Books
Travelled across Russia (then The Soviet Union), visiting Sochi among other destinations to research, Life, We’re All In It Together book.
Spent summer living on the remote Shetland isle of Foula, writing this book.
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College
Returned to College to complete degree in Spring. Decided to try living in Scottish Highlands.
Commissioned to write, A Teenage Guide To Travel and Berlitz Ski Guide: France and Berlitz Ski Guide: Italy by the Swiss publisher. Away to French and Italian ski resorts most weekends to research.
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Books
Writing the 100,000 word Off The Beaten Track: Austria book for publication in UK and USA, visiting many obscure Austrian ski areas.
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Books
Writing the 100,000 word Off The Beaten Track: Scotland book for publication in UK and USA, visiting many obscure Austrian ski areas.
Magazines
Writing for Ski Survey and Ski Special magazines.
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Research
Established Snow Hunter Ltd and began collecting information on all ski resorts in the world (Previously the largest estimate by French researchers had been 2,000). Eventually located more than 6,000 ski areas in 80 countries. Compiled basic lists on a word processed document, first purchaser of this ‘Yellow Pages of Ski Resorts’ was lift company Doppelmayr.
Magazine
Feature for Ski Survey on what they described as the “unthinkable” idea of taking first son, then 10 weeks old, on a ski trip to Chamonix.
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College
Returned to University to successfully complete a Master’s Degree in Computer-Based information Systems in order to learn how to deliver his ski resort information.
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Books
Contributed ski resort information to The Complete Skier by Karen and Michael Liebreich (1 Nov 1993). This book later became the basis of TheCompleteSkier website which later became IfYouSki.com which Patrick supplied news and ski resort data to for many years.
CD ROM
Established the company Snow Hunter Ltd with wife Sally to market database of ski resorts. One of the first clients is lift company Doppelmayr who purchase print out of data on 2,000 ski areas.
Magazines
Began contributing to the new Fall Line magazine (continues to present day).
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CD ROM
SnowHunter Ltd score a major business success with an 8 years contract with Microsoft to sell information on 1,000 European ski areas focus on their cartographic software, Autoroute Express. This helps to provide a financial basis to develop the company.
Magazines
Began 15 year period of writing for United Airlines’ Hemispheres in flight magazine on snow destinations.
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Books
Began now 20+ years of working for the World Travel Guide when it was a large printed directory.
CD ROM
Begins selling ski resort data to Pearson Publishing for their annual ‘Ski Europe’ CD ROM
Magazines
Major features in FHM and Maxim magazines, then both huge circulation ‘lads mags’ on skiing naked, ski resorts in war zones etc.
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Atlases
Contributed special European and North American maps showing ski resorts by significance for technical business maps for the World Travel Atlas. Fresh and updated maps supplied annually ever since.
Also worked with the pioneering German TeleAtlas business which now sits behind many of the world’s GPS systems.Magazines
Contributed to Steamboat magazine in Colorado, ‘A Brit’s View of Ski Town USA.”
First work translated for international magazine publications in SportStyle magazine Germany with help of long time ski writing colleague, Chris Schrahe.
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Books
First publication of The World Ski and Snowboarding Guide, a guide book to 2,000 ski areas in 60 countries around the world. Among the authors who claim to have been inspired by this book are the American author Jimmy Petterson who has now skied in more than 70 countries worldwide, believed to be more than any other person.
Internet
Began supplying ski resort information and features to pioneering Colorado-based US website iSki.com, later absorbed in to SkiNet.com, one of the country’s largest ski websites and also to Maine-based GoSki.com which at the time had the largest online directory of ski resorts worldwide (supplied by Patrick). Both relationships continued for the next decade.
Magazine
Ski tech feature for Stuff magazine.
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Books
Second edition of The World Ski and Snowboarding Guide published.
Internet
Asked by 1ski.com to start writing regular ski news stories for its website. Although that website is long gone, the service grew in to a year round independent ski news wire service used by dozens of websites, magazines and newspapers around the world and continues to this day with more than 6,000 stories written over the past 16 years. It has been sponsored by the world’s leading lift manufacturer, Doppelmayr, for more than 10 years.
Newspapers
Stephen Wood write feature “Snow hunter and gatherer” on Patrick in The Independent.
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Books
Contribute resort reviews to the German ADAC and DSV guide books.
Cartographic
Supplied details of thousands of European ski areas for Philips Road Atlas Europe (Contract repeated for 10+ years).
Helped supply data to early Sat Nav pioneers.
Internet
Working with the Paris-based site Skiin.fr – another leading pan-European player at the time.
Also working for the BBC’s early commercial website Beeb.com and for the leading global brands at the time Compuserve which morphed in to AOL – supplying news, moderating chatroom chat etc.
Began long-running relationship with ‘The boarder’ website, now SCUK (SnowboardClubUK), on going…
Investors buy rights to Patrick’s ski resort database and launch Snow24.com.
Magazines
Wrote ‘Ski Holidays in Hell’ for FHM magazine, a major feature looking at ski destinations in war znes and natural disaster areas.
Begin regular contributions to ski magazines in Canada (Ski Canada and Ski Press), the Czech Republic (Snow), France (Skieur), Hungary (Simania), The Netherlands (Reizen) and the USA (Ski and Skiing).
Newspapers
The Observer publishers piece on world’s highest lifts.
Following article by Stephen Wood, Patrick subsequently becomes a regular contributor to The Independent and The Independent on Sunday for Simon Calder and Ben Ross continuing to the present day.
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Awards
Feature “Y2Ski” looking at the global snowsports industry for Hemispheres magazine awarded ‘Sports travel feature of the year” by North American Travel Journalists Association.
Internet
Began a partnership with the then newly launched SkiJapan site (now SnowJapan) which remains ongoing.
Magazines
Global ski industry review for Ski Area Management (SAM) magazine in the US, begins 10 year stint at ‘International correspondent’ for the magazine.
Reports
Begins compiling lift ticket pricing each year for children, teens, adults and pensioners for up to 500 ski areas in 50 skiing nations. This data allows for comparison and any other calculations. The resulting World Ski Lift Ticket Price Guide is compiled annually most years (ongoing) and spreadsheets of data made available. Over the years buyers include banks, universities (including Yale University’s library) and major ski resorts such as Aspen, Grandvalira, Perisher, Skistar and Vail purchase the Guide and/or data.
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Magazine
Begins contributing to UK airline magazines including ‘easytjet in flight’
Websites
Begin supplying news to the ski Club Of Great britain’s skiuclub.co.uk website.
Supplying wide ranging content (resort information, features, news etc) to Teletext and AOL.
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Magazine
Began a period contributing to Conde Nast Traveller thanks to Stephen Wood.
Arnie Wilson publishes a piece on Patrick in Ski & Board magazine and Patrick’s “Is There Snow in Space?” feature.
Work for Daily Mail Ski Snowboard magazine.
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Books
Provided information on 500 ski resorts, including several hundred ski resorts in Italy, to an Italian publisher for use in the new Sci Magazine World Ski Resorts guide book.
Contributed facts to: Downhill Slide: Why the Corporate Ski Industry Is Bad for Skiing, Ski Towns, and the Environment by US ski writer Hal Clifford.
Magazines
Wrote “Is There Snow in Space?” feature Ski and Board magazine looking at the possibilities of snow on other planets.
Working for the Good Ski Guide magazine under editorship of Cate Langmuir.
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Environment
Launched SaveOurSnow.com, a unique site which compiles information on the world’s top 250 ski areas. Featured by CNN, China Daily and other publications around the world. The database is also used by the Ski Club of Great Britain (ongoing but not updated) as the key part of their Respect The Mountain campaign, winning them a Green Travel Award.
Indoor Snow
Always interested in indoor snow centres and artificial surface slopes on which Patrick first put on skis in 1988 before his first trip to the Alps), Patrick accepted a suggestion by fellow indoor snow fan, Rachel Gunnells, based in the US, to establish Snow365.com as a central website for information on indoor snow centres worldwide. This began to publish a monthly news digest from the sector which continues to this day having published more than 1,000 news stories over more than 100 months. The digital report, ‘The World Indoor Snow Centres Guide’ was also compiled and continues to be updated, so that it now contains more than 250 pages/60,000 words detailing all indoor snow centres built/planned.
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Magazine
Began writing features and column for Snow magazine under editorship of Rupert Mellor.
Websites
Supply data on 2000+ ski resorts to J2Ski.com
Begins writing exclusive news stories for Mountain News website OnTheSnow.com
Working on TUI’s SkiDeals.com site.
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Magazine
Feature on ‘Skiing with a Bond Girl’ for Ski & Board.
Websites
PackYourSkis.com launched, Patrick supplies information and pictures.
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Magazines
Commissioned to write 5,000 word feature on St Moritz for new luxury US ski magazine ‘Snow’ First visit to the resort, spends time in the original ski lodge where the first Victorian travellers passed the first ever winter on ‘a winter sports holiday’ effectively starting the ski travel business in 1864-65. Continues to write for every issue of Snow for its subsequent five year run.
Websites
Accepts offer to become Group Editor for the Oslo based pan-European snow reporting and news agency Skiinfo. Builds UK operation and initiates numerous projects across the group, which has 50 staff in 15 countries. Begins weekly snow report service and starts to issue snowfall certificates to resorts that post the most snow in the previous week, a concept welcomed by most resorts. Position continued to 2013 when company taken over by OnTheSnow.com, a US-based subsidiary of Vail Resorts.
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Magazines
Asked to supply news for newly launched InTheSnow magazine.
Reports
Compiled a succession of reports on the environmental efforts of ski resorts in their countries for the Andorran, Austrian and Canadian National Tourism Organisations.
Websites
Virgin Media launch FastTrackSki.co.uk, Patrick writes around 150,000 words of unique resort content and begins to contribute unique news content.
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App
Contributed resort info to one of the first iPhone apps, SkiFinder.
Magazines
Becomes editor of InTheSnow magazine, a new tabloid sized ski publication which quickly establishes itself as the UK’s leading ski publication as old subscription-based ski magazines begin to fade. InTheSnow’s publisher builds a strong internet and later mobile-device presence for the publication.
The twice-annual glossy business magazine Wintersports Technology International launches, Patrick writes several features for each issue and is given a column at the back of the magazine. Ongoing.
Websites
Begin writing unique news for j2ski.com
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Social Media
Begin Facebook representation for Skiinfo.co.uk and FastTrackSki.
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Websites
Writes unique content on around 100 ski areas for the new PowderBeds.com website, with each review containing 2-3,000 words of detailed information this remains Patrick’s largest single writing project with more than a quarter of a million words.
Begin weekly snow reports for J2ski.com (monthly through summer).
Newspapers
Begin regular ‘Snow Report’ column for Independent on Sunday.
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Apps
Burton and Nokia order information on 2,000 ski areas for use on a new App for their latest Windows phones.
Newspapers
Writes the entire 12 page season launch ski section for The Independent on Sunday, largest newspaper project to date.
Writes for The Times on the future of snow.
Reports
Compile the first directory of artificial ski slopes worldwide and the companies that supply the slope materials under Snow365.com Have located more than 250 facilities operating in 30+ countries with oldest slopes dating back nearly a century.
Social Media
Begin Tweeting on Twitter For SnowForecast .
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Blogs
Begin blogging for Liftopia.
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Reports
Compile a report for the International Ski Federation (FIS) on lift ticket pricing for children, looking at best practice and ideas to make skiing more affordable for children worldwide. The report looks at lift ticket pricing and age structures for children at 700 ski areas in 50 countries.
Books
Publication of Powder: The World’s 50 Greatest Ski Runs – a glossy hardback book to five star reviews. Published worldwide with Spanish, German and Swedish version published by companies including National Geographic.
Internet
New online resort guide launched.
New version of Snow365.com launched.
Magazine
New annual publication Love The Mountains launched.
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Books
Extreme, French translation of Powder: The World’s 50 Greatest Ski Runs – published by Geo.
Internet
New online resort guide launched.
New version of SaveOurSnow.com launched.