Weekly snow news roundup – 29/07/2009
Ski fail
There comes a point in your life where you think, “perhaps I’m a little too old for this”. That time when you stop playing with your Transformer toys once your voice starts to break. Or that time when you stop taking your Cabbage Patch Doll to bed (shudder). Or even that time you wake up from a football dream and face the realisation that you’re never going to play for England. An often occurence for some – you have my sympathy. Although you can’t deny his passion for skiing, clearly, one 80 year old didn’t have “that time”…
Check out this week’s snow news headlines.
THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES
Compagnie Des Alpes Reports Record Sales for Winter 2008-9, Sells Verbier Stake
New 2 – 4 – 6 Seat Chairlifts in The Jungfrau
80 Year Old Breaks Leg In Ski Jump
Snow For Kendal Festival
Over 800 Competitors From 20 Countries At New Zealand Winter Games
Over A Foot Of Snow In 24 Hours In Australia
New Eco Friendly Chalets to Open at Courchevel
Salomon Introduce Custom Air Helmets
Record Coffee Sales At New Zealand Ski Area
Mountain Biking On Snow At Kaprun
Compagnie Des Alpes Reports Record Sales for Winter 2008-9, Sells Verbier Stake
The Compagnie Des Alpes (CDA), the world’s largest ski lift operator which runs more than a dozen leading French ski areas, has released its third quarter results which include the last month of the 08-09 ski season – April 2009.
The group reported record business with ski-lift ticket sales up 38% thanks mostly to the occurrence of Easter weekend during the month.
Thanks to the strong April business combined sales for winter 2008-9 were up 3% overall for the company, 2.3% for ski lifts ticket sales alone, from 2007-8, which had itself featured record visitor numbers.
“This steady activity in ski areas despite the general economic climate illustrates the resilience of our business line, which has experienced uninterrupted organic growth for more than ten years.” said a company statement.
In addition the company reported that its wholly owned subsidiary SwissAlp SA, has reached agreement with the municipality of Bagnes to sell the totality of its stake in Téléverbier SA (20.3%) for about 13.8 million Euros.
“Acquiring its stake in 1999, CDA brought its widely recognized expertise to Téléverbier’s development and governance. However, CDA has since determined that the particularities of the company and its environment prevent CDA from fully carrying out its role of industrial operator in the medium term.” said a company statement.
CDA’s Dominique Marcel commented, “The sale of the Group’s stake in Téléverbier is in line with the more active asset-management policy that I announced at the end of 2008. The sale is being carried out under excellent financial conditions, providing a very satisfying return on CDA’s initial investment.”
“The capital gain yielded by the sale, about 1.5 million Euros, will have a positive impact on consolidated net income for the current financial year, helping pay down Group debt and making the Group more flexible both strategically and financially.”
www.compagniedesalpes.com
New 2 – 4 – 6 Seat Chairlifts in The Jungfrau
Switzerland’s Jungfrau ski region, one of the world’s oldest and most beautiful ski areas, has announced that three new chair lifts will go in to service next winter. The largest new lifts, a six seater chairlift, is the Eigenordwand on the Arvengarten to Eigergletscher route above Grindelwald and Wengen and will go in to service from 12th December.
The other two lifts both open a week earlier on 5th December. The new Allmiboden double chairlift at Murren will be joined by the Winteregg quad chairlift which makes the ascent in half the time of the previous lift (in service from 5 December 2009).
80 Year Old Breaks Leg In Ski Jump
An 80 year old man broke his leg on Monday when attempting a two metre ski jump on a black run at Mt Buller ski resort in Australia.
Asked by medics why he had attempted the jump, he is reported to have replied, “Life’s too short.”
The man was flown by air ambulance to Melbourne for treatment after his friend raised the alarm.
Regular festival goers know all too well the need to pack for bad weather but this year it’s time to get ready for snow!
SNO!zone, the company that operates the UK’s three indoor snow centres within the Xscape complexes of Glasgow, Milton Keynes and Castleford has made this year’s Kendal Calling into the country’s “coolest festival” with the delivery of 50 tonnes of real snow which will be used to create the Alpine-themed Off Piste area.
The Castleford-based indoor snow slope will transport the snow across the Pennines to create the real chill out area for this year’s festival. The SNO!zone Off Piste area, which will be open on Saturday and Sunday this coming weekend of August 1st and 2nd, will provide the ideal place for you to cool down between bands.
The SNO!zone crew have planned lots of activities for the weekend including the chance to have a go at tubing with a 30m snow slide being constructed on the hill, a snow beach providing the ideal place to chill out between bands and a snowboard simulator so that visitors can test how long they’d last on a real mountain.
If all that snow whets festival goer’s appetite for some summer skiing or snowboarding the SNO!zone team will have a variety of vouchers available which they’ll be able to redeem at their Castleford based snow slope.
www.snozoneuk.com
Over 800 Competitors From 20 Countries At New Zealand Winter Games
A quality field of top international athletes has already been confirmed for the inaugural 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games, including a host of Olympians, world champions and national champions, with entries still flooding in.
More than 800 competitors from over 20 different countries will descend on the South Island next month to take on New Zealand’s best winter sports athletes at the Games which take place from 21-30 August 2009.
Among the stars confirmed so far are five-time Olympic medalist and current Olympic slalom champion Anja Paerson from Sweden, 2006 Olympic cross-country sprint gold medal winner Chandra Crawford from Canada, Japan’s former skier-X World Champion Hiroomi Takizawa plus Australian halfpipe snowboarders Nathan Johnstone – the current world number two – and Holly Crawford who finished runner-up in this year’s World Championships in Korea.
“The strength and depth of competitors heading to New Zealand highlights the importance of the Games for athletes ahead of next year’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver,” said Winter Games NZ CEO, Arthur Klap. “For some it’s about sharpening their competitive edge during the northern hemisphere summer, whereas others will be going all out to gain World Cup points and qualify for their national squads.”
Other world class athletes competing at Winter Games NZ include three of Germany’s top four snowboard-X riders, Canada’s top-ranked female skiers in slalom, giant slalom and Super G, and four-time Winter Olympian Patrik Jaerbyn from the Swedish Ski Team which also includes current national champions Andre Myhrer and Kajsa Kling. China is sending a large snowboard halfpipe contingent that includes current women’s world number one, Jiayu Liu.
The inaugural 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games will take place at Coronet Peak, The Remarkables, Cardrona Alpine Resort, Snow Farm, Naseby and Dunedin from 21-30 August 2009. It will feature disciplines of alpine skiing, free skiing, x-country skiing, snowboarding, curling, ice skating and adaptive snow sports as well as the demonstration sports of winter triathlon and natural luge.
Over A Foot Of Snow In 24 Hours In Australia
Perisher ski resort received 32cm (13 inches) of fresh snow in 24 hours last Wednesday/Thursday July 22nd/23rd. The new snow turned the resort’s snow slopes in to a powdery paradise. To-date an accumulated 191cm (6.3 feet) of snow has settled across the resort, comprising 71cm (2.3 feet) in June and 120cm (four feet) since the beginning of July, allowing Perisher to offer excellent riding conditions across its four resort areas.
New Eco Friendly Chalets to Open at Courchevel
Two new eco-friendly chalets will open at Le Praz in Courchevel this December.
The Immobilière Courchevel agency will unveil the two new chalets in the hamlet of Freney near Le Praz.
Details of exactly how the two new chalets, which each have a surface area of some 130 sq.m, will be especially eco friendly have not yet been released, but the company has said, they will offer, “ high energy efficiency.”
www.immobiliere-courchevel.fr
Salomon Introduce Custom Air Helmets
Salomon have come up with a solution for all those who’s heads don’t fit the shape of their ski helmets.
The new Custom Air Helmet features an ingenious adaptable pressure system which enables you to fit your helmet to your exact head shape, all at the touch of a button.
Simply pump up the air pockets to get super comfy protection.
The technology was developed with a specialist sports trauma physician Dr Meter Company.
The CustomAir System is available on Impact CA, Divine Origins CA, Icon Origins CA and Ranger Bluetooth CA helmets.
www.salomonsports.com
Record Coffee Sales At New Zealand Ski Area
Coffee sales reached record numbers at Coronet Peak in New Zealand during the country’s recent school holidays as skiers and riders bought 25,814 hot beverages between them.
Although they expected high numbers, Jenny Graham, Food and Beverage Manager at Coronet Peak said 25,000 was “just amazing”.
“It’s a pretty awesome feat to produce that many coffees and hot chocolates – that’s way more than ever before and we have received really positive feedback from customers about the quality,” she said.
Ms Graham praised staff for keeping up with the demand without any problems.
“It was a huge ask to keep up,” she said. “All our staff came to us as fully-trained baristas, and were then put through intensive training by our coffee supplier Douwe Egberts. Two baristas can operate one machine at a time, allowing us to serve customers very quickly.”
Coronet Peak has a new Head Chef this year, Peter Becker of Waiheke Island, and Ms Graham said this season was the first time he had ever seen snow.
“He’s absolutely loving it. We’re all having a great season. It’s the second season in our new kitchen and building so we really know how to drive it now. Extremely popular this year is the new Mexican cantina on the deck – it’s very affordable and we’ve tripled its capacity since opening as a result of its popularity.”
Mountain Biking On Snow At Kaprun
Kaprun in Austria will stage the ‘Snowclimb’ mountain bike race on the eternal ice of its Kitzsteinhorn glacier as part of a three-day event from Thursday 6th to Saturday 8th August.
The centre is one of four glacier areas currently open for skiing and boarding in Austria, with over 2.3m (7.5 feet) of snow on its slopes.
The event kicks off with the ‘XC Battle’ which starts at 8.30pm in the centre of Kaprun and includes bike races and other action with steps, stairs, trees and water,
The following evening, Friday August 7th at 8.30pm, it’s mountain bike freestyle night.
Then on Saturday 8th the Kitzsteinhorn Snowclimb start at 9am with a race up to the eternal ice of the Kitzsteinhorn glacier.
The main event is followed by a Mini XC-Battle starting at 4pm – billed as a little “XC battle” for kids and very young newcomers.
There’ll also be an additional Promi-Race starting at 6pm and parties on both the Friday and Saturday evenings.
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