Weekly Snow News Roundup – 30/11/2009
The Foreign Office wants to tackle drinking in ski resorts
An eventful week in the ski and snowboard world saw South Korea open its 10th ski area in the Gangwon province, Whistler witnessing record snowfall for this period in the ski season, and the Foreign Office launching a campaign to tackle alcohol misuse in ski resorts. Hit the read link for the full stories.
THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES
Two New Ski Resorts In One Week
Scotland’s Ski Season Begins
Conditions Still Great in Western Canada
Play Jass In Engelberg
Second New England Resort Adds Wind Turbine
New Direct Flights to Slovakia’s Ski Slopes
Vaujany Plans A Week In The Stars
British Foreign Office Launch Alcohol Safety Awareness Campaign In Ski Resorts
Jackson Hole Latest To Ask Employees To Wear Helmets
New Micro-Brewery in Crans Montana
Two New Ski Resorts In One Week
Following the opening of Mongolia’s first proper ski resort on Wednesday, South Korea’s latest centre opened on Friday in Gangwon province, the region’s 10th ski area.
Alpensia ski resort will be transformed into PyeongChang’s Winter Olympic Park if the Korean’s, who were second in the bidding to host the 2014 Games, win their bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics.
The new resort has opened with 7 slopes, five for skiing and one a dedicated snowboarding terrain park and one designed for sledging., in total including a snowboard dedicated one and another snow sledding dedicate one. There are more than 5km of runs descending from a top station at 700 meters above sea level.
However the centre is primarily the main national based for Olympic standard facilities for other snow sports including ski jumping, biathlon and Cross country.
Alpensia has three high capacity chair lifts, two six-seaters and a quad, and can accommodate up to 3,000 people at any one time on the slopes. There’s a beginner run, four intermediate trails, and one black run named Fox-trot.
The resort complex also includes an Intercontinental Hotel, several golf courses and an indoor water park.
www.alpensia.com
Torrential rain in the Scottish Highlands has been falling as snow on high ground, and with more precipitation forecast, along with lowering temperatures, the start of the ski season is imminent at all five of the country’s ski centres.
Indeed Cairngorm Mountain above Aviemore already opened some beginner terrain at the top of the ski area, accessed from the funicular railway, this weekend.
Opening day lift tickets were £15 for adults, £10 for children, with no ski rentals available on site. The first lift up will be the 10am funicular and about 600 people are reported to have taken to the slopes
The area opened by running the Ciste tow and Ptarmigan tow. A run to the middle was not possible, but this may change with continued snowfall. The weather was at the extremes Scottish skiers are prepared for, with high 45mph winds and a strong wind chill factor.
Conditions Still Great in Western Canada
Whistler’s November snowfall total passed 5.5m (nearly 18 feet) by the morning of the 29th, with a 1.92m (6.5 feet) base, by far the biggest ever for this early in the season.
The good snow news isn’t just restricted to the 2010 Winter Olympic host however, most of Western Canada’s resorts have great snow cover, and several more resorts opened early at the weekend, or announced they’d be opening earlier than planned in coming weeks including Fernie and Kicking Horse.
Revelstoke, which now has North America’s largest vertical, as well as the only heli and cat ski operations running along-side regular ski lifts from one base, opened upper slopes for a ‘taster weekend’ and will open permanently from next weekend.
Silver Star has also opened, “To the delight of us all, the winter skies have opened up and delivered over 40 cm of the white stuff needed to make the jump from Nordic skiing to alpine. With the alpine base now over 100 cm the Comet Express, Silver Woods Express, and the Silver Queen Chair. “ said a resort spokesperson.
The world’s attention has however been on Alberta over the weekend with Lake Louise Ski Area hosting its annual Winterstart World Cup Races. The men’s races took place November 28 and 29 and the women race this coming December 4 through 6.
The WinterStart Festival takes place over the two weekends and includes the World Cup Alpine Ski Racing followed by a festival within a festival; Christmas in the Rockies, which runs December 5 and 6.
On December 5 there will be choirs, Christmas tree decorating, photos with Santa, the Santa Claus Parade of Lights, and many other free activities to get families into the holiday spirit.
New for Christmas in the Rockies, A Mountaintop Christmas Sing-Along will be taking place high atop Sulphur Mountain on December 6. Families can ride the Banff Gondola to the top of the mountain for an interactive morning with award-winning children’s performers and music educators. For every adult gondola ticket purchased, one child rides for free.
This week’s Real Banff Report on WinterStart: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5WX3igW9Jw
Jass, not to be confused with another Swiss favourite Jazz music, is a traditional card game played throughout the country.
This year, the same as every year so long as anyone can remember, the Engelberg Tug o’ War Club will take a rest from heaving each other back and forth on a long rope, and instead stage their Annual Chlausjassen Christmas Holiday all-comers Jass tournament.
“ Young and old get together to play a round of Jass or just to watch and resort guests are welcome to come and ‘try their hand’ too!” said a resort spokesperson.
The contest will take place on 6th December 2009 at the Hotel Europe starting at 8pm. Coffee and gingerbread are included in the sign-up fee.
Engelberg is currently open for snow sports and has been, on and off, since October.
Second New England Resort Adds Wind Turbine
Bolton Valley in Vermont is the second New England ski area to add a wind turbine to supply a chunk of its annual energy.
The resort has extensive snowmaking and offers night skiing to 10pm every night except Sunday so the extra power, currently valued at $33,000 a year, about 15% of the resort’s annual energy bill, will be a major asset for the resort.
“It helps us in terms of our sustainability; it helps us in terms of our cost of power,” said resorts spokesman Larry Williams.
The turbine cost about $750,000 and local experts think it may be the first of many at the region’s ski areas, which they say are a ‘natural’ location for the turbines with power lines already reaching the hilltops above the slopes and objections to visual impact and development less likely. Indeed this is one of the first new turbines in the state for several years and the resort hopes it will be the first of three, with two larger, more powerful turbines planned. Mr Williams said he hopes the resort will ultimately be 100% wind powered.
Jiminy Peak in nearby Massachusetts was the first to install a turbine, the huge 253ft (84m) high Zephyr 1.5MW wind turbine, provides approximately 33% of the electrical demands of the resort annually. During the winter months, when the wind resource is the strongest, it may provide as much as half of their electrical demand. The turbine generates approximately 4,600,000 kWh each year of which, Jiminy Peak uses about half directly, the rest returned to the grid.
New Direct Flights to Slovakia’s Ski Slopes
Slovak airline Danube Wings are launching a new route from London Luton, Manchester and Dublin, direct to the heart of Slovakia’s Tatry Mountains at Poprad-Tatry on 6th December.
The flights will take skiers to within just 15 minutes’ drive of the ski slopes of Slovakia’s High Tatras Mountains and around 50 minutes from the country’s biggest resort of Jasna in the Low Tatras, and cost around 158 euros return.
Jasna is also the site of one of the largest ski construction projects this season, with the opening of the new 13 million euro, eight passenger Grand Brhliska gondola lift. The new lift rises from close to the Grand Hotel Jasna, 320 vertical metres from 1100m to 1420m and has a capacity of 2,400 skiers per hour, double that of the older four passenger lift it replaces. The new Grand Brhliska gondola will also be 328m longer than the old lift and is styled in striking orange and black livery, designed especially for the project by Doppelmayer.
Slovakia has a long heritage of attracting tourists from the neighbouring countries of Austria, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and from its own domestic market but is a relatively unknown destination for British skiers. Hotels are predominantly four star and date back to the Austro-Hungarian era and offer high standard accommodation following recent modernisation, while prices are around a third lower than mainstream Europe.
www.tatrymountains.com / www.danubewings.com
British Foreign Office Launch Alcohol Safety Awareness Campaign In Ski Resorts
A major safety awareness initiative by the Foreign Office to tackle alcohol misuse in ski resorts and emphasise the necessity of full travel insurance cover will come into full swing in December when the first British skiers will be heading for the French, Swiss and Italian ski slopes.
This campaign is a security and safety awareness campaign. The theme is to ski safely in relation to the abuse of alcohol, which can lead to accidents during or after skiing.
The safety awareness programme has been initiated by the Foreign Office for areas in which many ski resorts are located. It has been supported by French police and rescue services, tourist offices and airports in the regions of Savoie, Haute Savoie, Isère, Rhône as well as Geneva airport and several major Swiss ski resorts. In Italy, which joined the project later, resorts in the province of Turin will be involved for the forthcoming season.
British tour operators including the number 1 UK ski specialist Crystal Ski, Thomson Ski, First Choice Ski as well as student specialists Off the Piste and Ski Alpine have agreed to collaborate. It is a poster campaign which supports a diverse range of exciting and innovative education projects that aim to reduce alcohol misuse and make a tangible change in ski resorts. Projects range from posters in restaurants, bars, airports and other public spaces, as well as leaflets and display material in British tour operator owned chalets, club hotels and bars.
This campaign was initiated after several accidents in ski resorts which were directly related to alcohol abuse by young people. The aim of this campaign is to avoid accidents and deaths in ski resorts as alcohol can affect you more quickly at high altitudes and seriously limits your awareness of danger and cold.
“We are committed to supporting educational projects which make a positive difference to people lives and ensure that they have good, safe fun on their holidays” said Mathew Prior, MD of TUI Ski.
Vaujany Plans A Week In The Stars
The small French resort of Vaujany which shares its ski area with giant Alpe d’Huez is organising a ‘Head in The Stars’ special celebratory week from February 6th to 13,th 2010.
So far events lined up include the opportunity to enjoy an introduction to astronomy with a professional astronomer in the starry clear night sky of the French Alps.
A star ice dancer will also be demonstrating their skills on the resort’s ice rink and there’ll be the chance to meet ice skating stars too.
There will also be artists on the resort’s street demonstrating skills including speed painting, sand painting and glitter gluing.
Experts like Mickaël Raivard will be creating portraits in less than five minutes using glue and glitter and there’ll be a live evening demonstration event of this art form.
www.vaujany.com
Jackson Hole Latest To Ask Employees To Wear Helmets
Jackson Hole has joined Intrawest and Vail resorts in asking employees to wear helmets this winter. However in Jackson Hole’s case it is only certain employees on the slopes for whom helmet wearing would be obligatory.
The new rules have been introduced at the Wyoming resort, which opened for the season on Saturday, after management discussed the matter with the US government’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The decision also follows the death of ski patroller Kathryn Miller who was not wearing a helmet when she died in March in a fall while on duty in the backcountry near the resort.
Jackson Hole’s new rules requires only staff working in the back country, in the resort’s terrain parks or half pipes to wear helmets.
“Our employees are by far our most valuable asset,” said resort President Jerry Blann, “and therefore we are committed to creating and maintaining a safe work environment for them. We recognize that helmets can play a part in keeping our employees safer, and as such we are taking this initial step.”
In a show of support for helmet wearing, Jackson Hole announced a group of resort management will also be voluntarily wearing helmets on the slopes this season.
New Micro-Brewery in Crans Montana
A new micro-brewery has opened ahead of the ski season at Crans Montana.
“ La Marmotte” is reported to have no plans to export its popular beer outside the Swiss resort and experts the 40,000 litres produced each winter will be consumed in the twin villages.
The “Frothy Marmotte” beer comesd in three bottled varieties, each made with 100% natural ingredients and the health warning:
“The abuse of alcohol in the alps is dangerous. Enjoy in moderation”.
Most of the resort’s bars and restaurants are stocking the beer making the consumption target look promising.
www.brasserie-la-marmotte.ch
Leave your response!