Happy Birthday to Breckenridge....

From a world first to a three millionth visitor, this week’s roundup of all the ski and snow happenings has a strong numerical undertone. As well as the 150th birthday of Breckenridge, the triple (that’s 3 as a number) chairlift at Squaw Valley and the withdrawal of free tickets for Under 5s and Over 75s (both numbers) at La Rosiere/Thuile – there are 10 intriguing news stories this week. 10 is also a number – spooky huh? Like that Jim Carrey movie about the number 23 that I can’t remember the name of. Maybe not, but today is the 2nd September 2009 and that means there are only 163 days until the start of Vancouver 2010. So the tedious numerical link ends but the Olympic countdown continues…

Enlighten yourself with a number of stories in this week’s snow news…

THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES

New Italian Gondola Is World First
Squaw Valley Adds New Triple Chairlift
World’s Largest Indoor Terrain Park Opens
Breckenridge Celebrates 25 years of Snowboarding
End Of Free Tickets for Under 5s and Over 75s For La Rosiere / La Thuile Area Pass
Ski Dubai Celebrates Its Three Millionth Visitor
Kaunertal Announces Season Opening Events For October
Towers Go Up For New Marmot Basin lift
South America’s Biggest Ski Area Goes Hands Free and Upgrades Terrain Park
More Fun at The Remarkables This Season

New Italian Gondola Is World First
A new gondola at Plan de Corones in Italy’s huge Dolomiti Superski is a world first, the resort claims.

The 10 seater “Marchner” cableway will have a capacity of 3,000 skiers-per-hour and the cabins are fitted with what the resort describes as, “elegant heated leather chairs.”

The lift replaces a detachable chairlift which is being removed, but the route has been modified so that, unlike the previous structure, it has an uphill station close to the downhill station of the Belvedere lift.

In the same region, the six seater “Cianross” lift at San Vigilio di Marebbe which was damaged by an avalanche in spring 2007, will return to work at the start of the 2009/2010 season.

Guests will now again be able to use the “Corn“ and “Cianross” slopes, equipped for night skiing, as well as for the bob slope.

Squaw Valley Adds New Triple Chairlift
This summer, Squaw Valley USA’s old double chair, the-High Camp Lift, is being removed to make way for the new High Camp Triple Chairlift.

The change is needed because over recent seasons the Monster Park at Riviera has seen a huge expansion. Providing access to the Ford Belmont Park, the Riviera Superpipe, and the numerous jump lines and jib features of the Central Park and High Camp Rail Yard, the High Camp Chair has become the hub for park riders of all tastes and abilities.

The new High Camp Triple Chairlift improves access to the multiple terrain parks and also to the High Camp area’s vast beginner terrain, restaurants, ice skating rink, Lagoon & Spa, and Olympic Museum.

Squaw Valley’s snowmaking department is also spending summer 2009 continuing a multi year vast overhaul of the resort’s existing snowmaking system. Most notable is the addition of a three mile pipeline to more efficiently transfer water from storage ponds to the snowmaking building and a new 1200 horsepower air compressor that doubles Squaw Valley’s snowmaking capability.

World’s Largest Indoor Terrain Park Opens
The official re-opening of the world’s largest fun park, built at SnowWorld Landgraaf in Holland, took place on August 28th and 29th. Contestants from several European countries were present at the two-day re-opening of the facility.

The re-opening of the funpark, a spectacular annual event, was organised in conjunction with the English organisation For Boarders By Boarders (FBBB).

For slopestyle fans, park users can choose their own route through the park, where they can tackle several obstacles. There are a number of jumps, rails and gaps, which have to be faced by the contestants by making a jump, slide or back flip.

The re-opening began on Friday evening (28 August) with a Solo Jam Session. During this contest every contestant collected their own points, trying to gain as many points as they can by performing their tricks. Prizes were awarded for ‘ Rider of the night,’ ‘Rookie of the night’ and ‘Trick of the night’ in both male and female categories.

On Saturday there was a Team Jam Battle in between 7 and 11pm. Randomly selected team members (two male, two female) meant beginners were teamed with pros. Warming up to 9pm, battle then began with every team getting the chance to make two descents through the funpark. All contestants of each team, however, have to start their descents at the same time. Three teams made it to the finals, where one team will eventually won the prizes.

Contestants paid 20 Euros per day (of 17.5 Euros with a SnowWorld season pass) to enter the competition. The cost included a day ticket to the slopes and the starting fee.

www.snowworld.com

Breckenridge Celebrates 25 years of Snowboarding
This season will be the 150th anniversary of the founding of the town of Breckenridge, Colorado, and will also mark 25 years of snowboarding at Breckenridge Ski Resort.

The resort was one of the first to embrace snowboarding, and to host one of the initial major snowboard competitions in the industry, The World Snowboarding Championships, or “The World’s,” in 1986.

Today, snowboarding has made its mark on the ski industry worldwide and is a major component of the ‘Breckenridge experience.’ The resort continues its support of the snowboarding community and industry by hosting major events such as the Winter Dew Tour, and fostering the careers of up-and-comers through the Breckenridge FreeRide Team and open qualifying events.

The resort has four terrain parks and three pipes, including the top-ranked Freeway Terrain Park/Pipe and a park progression system for beginners and intermediates.

The Winter Dew Tour returns to Breckenridge for its second year on December 17 – 20. The tour consists of three major, multi-sport events spanning across the US, with a cumulative points system, and a $1.5 million competitive purse.

Each event features men and women’s snowboard (superpipe and slopestyle), and men’s freeskiing (superpipe and slopestyle). At season’s end, the overall point’s leaders in the six disciplines are crowned champions and awarded the prestigious Dew Cup.

End Of Free Tickets for Under 5s and Over 75s For La Rosiere / La Thuile Area Pass
The Espace San Bernardo ski area which links the skiing of La Rosiere in France and La Thuile in Italy’s Aosta Valley is the latest to start charging young children (under 5) and older (over 75) pensioners to ski.

The new charges apply only to the joint area, with young and old skiers who wish to ski only in the local resort areas (La Rosiere or La Thuile) still receiving free tickets.

Previously the area offered free skiing for children aged under five and older people aged over 75. From next season however children aged up to five will be asked to pay 11 Euros per day, and skiers and boarders aged over 75 will be asked to pay 12.20 Euros per day.

In recent years there has been a trend for lift companies to increase the age, or remove altogether, the free ticket offer for older skiers (usually aged at least 70) is offered, but it is more unusual for young children to be charged.

It is not known how many very young or elderly skiers and boarders would actually want to ski from La Rosiere over to La Thuile or vice versa.

Initial indications also suggest that the large The Milky Way ski area that covers 400km (250 miles) of runs across the French – Italian border is introducing a flat rate for lift tickets, regardless of age, with no child discount available.

Ski Dubai Celebrates Its Three Millionth Visitor
Getting a family ready for a visit to Ski Dubai takes up a little bit of time in the morning, but Mr. Adil Al Kindi is now certainly glad of the precious extra minutes it took to prepare his youngsters for one of their regular trips to the popular snow sports centre. If he had travelled from his Abu Dhabi home any earlier, he would have missed out on scooping a fantastic array of prizes for being Ski Dubai’s three millionth visitor; prizes that include an all expenses paid holiday to the ski resort of Seefeld in Austria.

Opportune timing was everything and Adil and his family arrived at Ski Dubai at exactly the right moment. The unexpected fanfare that accompanied the purchase of his benchmark entry ticket certainly caught him by surprise, with poppers and streamers being released by the centre’s staff as he was informed that he was lucky customer number three million.

“The General Manager of Ski Dubai came over, shook my hand and told me that I was the three millionth visitor to Ski Dubai. He said that I had won some fantastic prizes. I couldn’t believe it – I am very happy,” said the 39 year-old finance worker who has lived in Abu Dhabi all his life. The gifts Adil received for being the individual who marked the important milestone included skiing lessons, a six-month membership for Ski Dubai, a pair of Atomic skis and an Emirates Holidays ski package for two to Austria.

Adil admits that at the moment he doesn’t ski, but says that this is something that will now change. “My kids usually do all the skiing and I just like to look at the snow,” he revealed. “I am happy to come to Ski Dubai just to watch my kids having fun, but now I have won some lessons, I think I will start to learn,” he added.

Mr. Mike Mahoney, General Manager at Ski Dubai, was clearly delighted to have been able to welcome his three millionth visitor. “Even before Ski Dubai opened in December 2005, it had already captured people’s imagination,” he said. “The centre has established itself as one of the most popular leisure destinations for the city and its reputation extends right across the world, meaning that it has become a must-see attraction for residents and tourists alike,” he added.

“We have seasoned regular visitors as well as new customers keen to sample the unique experience of indoor winter sports activities. We are not surprised that we have reached the figure of three million visitors and are extremely happy to have been able to include Adil and his family in celebrating this milestone figure,” he continued.

Kaunertal Announces Season Opening Events For October
Austria’s Kaunertal glacier will officially open for the 2009-10 snow sports season on October 16th, with an opening festival weekend running through to the 18th. It’s one of the earliest opening dates for a northern hemisphere resort.

The event will include snowboard and freeski contests, concerts and parties as well as the “Testival” which includes brand new material for the 09/10 season.

The full programme is now online at www.kaunertal-opening.at

Towers Go Up For New Marmot Basin lift
Jasper’s Marmot Basin ski resort is completing the next phase of one of Canada’s most significant ski lift development projects for the winter of 2009/2010 – the installation of 26 towers which will support The Canadian Rockies Express, the longest new high-speed quad chairlift in the Alberta Canadian Rocky Mountains.

Crews were busy hooking up the first of the towers to a dual rotor KMAX helicopter last week, and then watched as the helicopter slowly lifted the 35 foot tall tower off the ground and began its flight up the mountainside. All 26 towers (the two heaviest weighing in at 5,800 lbs. each) are now in place.

“Standing the towers is a very exciting and major step in the construction of our new lift. This signals an end to all the preparation, ground work, and foundation construction that we thought would never end and has given the crews a renewed sense of determination and energy. Seeing the towers up gives us a real visual perspective of where we are and what has been accomplished thus far. Our project is right on schedule as the Leitner Poma crew now moves out of the mud and into the air for the next phase and another step closer to completion. We are very pleased to see that the project is right on schedule and we are all looking forward to the coming winter season.” Bob Bell, Vice President Maintenance and Operations

Built by Leitner-Poma, The Canadian Rockies Express, scheduled to be operational November, 2009 replaces the much-loved Tranquilizer Chair and the Kiefer T-Bar, a decision that the resort owners and staff feel is the right direction for Marmot Basin.

“It’s an incredibly exciting project which is going to take Marmot into the 21st Century,” said Dave Gibson, President of Marmot Basin. “I am thrilled to be able to work with the very proactive shareholders who purchased Marmot Basin five years ago. This new $8 million dollar expenditure, in addition to the $8 million the shareholders have spent on operational and capital expenditures over the last five years, will certainly enhance the overall experience for our skiers and boarders.”

The new lift has a slope length of approximately 2,300 meters and a vertical rise of 596 meters. The bottom terminal will be at the base of the lower mountain adjacent to the existing Eagle Express quad chair terminal. The lift will whisk 2,400 passengers per hour from the lower base area and unload them adjacent to the top of the Paradise chair. With an 800 horse power, top-drive engine and a design speed of 5.08 meters per second (1,000 ft/min), skiers and riders can sit back and enjoy the 7.5 minute ride plus the magnificent scenery of the surrounding mountains that make up Jasper National Park.

South America’s Biggest Ski Area Goes Hands Free and Upgrades Terrain Park
Skiers and boarders visiting South America’s largest ski area this winter, Catedral near Bariloche in Argentina, have enjoyed a number of improvements for winter 2009, particularly hands-free lift ticketing and online booking.

On the slopes, the resort’s terrain park has had an overhaul with new jumps, big air and numerous obstacles installed.

The Terrain Park now offers a sector for beginners, with a small jump and two rails. A second sector for intermediates has a larger jump and rail and the advanced park has a 4 metre table top, an 8 metre long S rail and many other features including more rail and jumps.

Special events including the Rip Curl Winter Search, the Only Girls and the Gorilla Day are being staged in the park through this winter.

More Fun at The Remarkables This Season
Visitors to The Remarkables ski area near Queenstown in New Zealand this season have benefitted not only from great snow conditions, but also from a number of resort improvements on and off the slopes.

Riders and skiers this winter have found the ground level of the base building fully renovated with bigger and better children’s facilities and a more efficient, easier to access Guest Services department.

Ross Lawrence, Ski Area Manager for The Remarkables said guests have enjoyed improved flow throughout the base building.

“We’ve worked with the space to reorganise some of the departments to create more room for the kids and better flow for all guests from entry into Guest Services then onto the snow.

“We’re a family focused mountain so we’ve invested in our children’s facilities so more families can enjoy this alpine environment. Our Skiwiland Early Learning Centre can now look after children from as young as three months. The children’s facilities will complement our dedicated beginners’ area and Snowsports School and all children aged 10 and under receive a free day lift pass.” he added.

Two new snow groomers have been added to the existing fleet and have added to the quality of groomed terrain for riders and skiers. One of the new machines has specialized equipment to help build and maintain the park system

“We have fantastic terrain parks at The Remarkables creating a real progression from novice through to advanced levels. This groomer has helped us keep those parks ship shape!”

Image courtesy of Jessica N. Diamond