The Ski-Direct Team

Julie Bowden

Julie has worked in the travel industry in the UK for 20 years and before that spent many years travelling the world, living and working in several countries including Japan and Denmark.

As the manager of Ski-Direct, she says she is immensely proud of the continued expansion of the company and the number of repeat customers.

She has been a keen skier for 25 years and has skied in most main ski resorts around the world. She is also an experienced hiker having trekked in the Himalayas, the Karakorums and the Alps and has climbed Mount Fuji (twice!). Always ready for a challenge, she's never been known to shy away from the most complicated itinerary so if you want to combine skiing in Japan with the beaches of Hawaii, she's your girl!

These days the demands of a family have curtailed the more adventurous exploits so her hobbies these days include Leroc Jive dancing, running a local amateur dramatic group and hosting Murder Mystery dinner parties.

Helen Furlong (nee Williams)

Helen has worked for over 25 years is the travel industry, 18 of which were spent working overseas for British tour operators such as Airtours, Crystal and Neilson. She has lived and worked in many European Ski and summer destinations as well as Australia, North America, Egypt and Barbados! One of her most demanding roles was operating school ski trips to California, New England and Canada - including one February Half term in Quebec, at minus 30, with 25 schools and 1800 children.

Helen is a keen skier, her husband snowboards and her 6-year-old daughter has been skiing for 4 seasons. Helen feels that these factors and her experience working in resorts enable her to meet the specific needs of Ski-Direct clients - whatever they are looking for.

Sarah Lane

Sarah has worked in travel for over 30 years and specifically in the ski industry the past 10 years. This has led to extensive knowledge and practical experience of most European and North American resorts. Sarah says she loves finding the idea trip for my customers and enjoys working closely with those new to the sport.

Her hobbies include water and snow skiing, cycling, horse riding and spending time with her husband, daughter and Siberian husky - Kaya. Kaya recently took on the boys at a championship show and won best puppy in breed! Now she's qualified for Crufts next year! She has her pet passport and will be taking her 1st skiing holiday next Christmas where we will learn do some Skijoring!!

David Sammons

David has worked in the travel industry since 1986 and has spent the past 8 years with a specialist ski agent. He has knowledge of all the major resorts but David's first love is for Austria. Having spent many holidays there both in winter and summer, usually driving from the UK, he has visited all of the main ski resorts and some lesser known ones.

Most of his skiing is done with daughter Chloe age 12 on the slopes above the Tirolian village of Alpbach whilst his wife Carolyn enjoys sitting in the sun reading with the odd glass of Gluvein to keep the cold out. All of the family look upon Alpbach as their second home.

During a trip to Lapland to take daughter Chloe, then age 5, to see Santa, David began to take a keen interest in this expanding destination. So much so that in 2009 he will be taking part in a 6 day Dog Sledding Trek in the far north of Lapland to raise money for The Stroke Association. This is just part of a much bigger charity project he is promoting to raise £1,500,000 to help fund children and adults alike to take part in Charity Challenges, including Ski Trips and other Adventure trips and activities. The concept behind the charity challenge is you're offered a fantastic experience for free in exchange for raising a minimum figure of sponsorship money.