For those in the know, South West London has always been the heart of the UK ski industry. Obviously none of the big resorts are located here; in fact you’d be hard pushed to spot a single snowflake over winter. However a large majority of UK ski tour operators, ski specialist agents (of which Interactive Resorts are the largest) and organisations such as Natives and the Ski Club of Great Britain are based within a few miles of one another. Needless to say the social scene is thriving, with hundreds of ex seasonaires concentrated in such a radius. Opportunities to gather and reminisce about seasons past, debate the merits of one resort over another and just enjoy being part of what we think is a very cool niche industry are many and varied.

With this in mind, we’re all in for a big treat in October as the upcoming European ski season kicks off with a huge variety of events and parties geared around getting us all in the mood for the upcoming winter.

Today is the start of the Metro Ski and Snowboard Show at Olympia, the biggest consumer winter sports show in the world according to the completely unbiased organisers. Joking aside, the Ski Show is the premier ski industry event in the UK and is visited every year by thousands, industry insiders and first timers alike. The week of the show is peppered with other industry events, like the Ski Club party in Putney and the almost legendary Natives Party this weekend. Natives is now recognised as the website at the centre of the season workers network in the UK after its launch over 10 years ago.

The final happening of the month is not so long standing but is fast becoming the event that people will travel the furthest to see. The London Freeze at Battersea Power Station turns the spectacular derelict building on the South Bank of the Thames into a giant snow sports and music festival for a whole weekend. The giant kicker is built from real snow and the freestyle snowboard competition forms part of the FIS Snowboard World Cup. Music acts like Eagles of Death Metal, Orbital and Calvin Harris also appear on the stages over the weekend. If you can only make it to one event this October, make it the London Freeze.

For anyone snow obsessed enough, if you can’t live out in the Alps then SW London comes a very close second!