Weekly Snow News Roundup – 07/12/2009
Cervinia locals celebrating the arrival of the new chairlift
In a week where Crystal Ski launched its new 2010/11 preview brochure, Cervinia showed off a new chairlift and the Ice Hotel celebrated its 20th anniversary – the pick of this week’s news actually comes from the Aspen Times newspaper.
The Aspen Times reported a case of lift pass fraud with a bit of a difference. A woman (Wanda) using her boyfriend’s (Daniel) lift pass claimed to be a pre-op transexual to access the slopes. It didn’t work and she now faces criminal charges. You couldn’t make it up.
And we didn’t make it up, just in case you were wondering. Read this intriguing tale and much more in the rest of our weekly snow news stories.
THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES
Crystal Launch 2010/2011 Season Preview Brochure
Ski Environmentalist Walking To Copenhagen Climate Talks Carrying Skis
World’s Biggest Resorts Open For Winter 09-10
Woman Claims Sex Change To Use Ski Lift
New Chairlift for Cervinia
November Was Snowiest Ever Month For Whistler
New Chairlift and More Snowmaking For Châtel
Dancing Tractors Celebrate 20th Anniversary Of The Ice Hotel
New Heated Six-Seater Chair At Tux
Panorama’s Powder Pig Brings Holiday Savings
New Slovenian Ski Hotel Granted Five Star Status
Crystal Launch 2010/2011 Season Preview Brochure
With fresh snow falling in the Alps, anticipation ids building for the first ski holidays packages of the season to take off from Britain’s airports in the next few weeks. So now is the traditional time for the country’s biggest operator, Crystal, to launch their first brochure for the season after the one just starting, winter 2010/11.
So what’s new? Not a whole lot this far ahead, the main news comes with the main brochure release in the Spring, but the company has confirmed that more of the popular Crystal Ski Plus all-inclusive packages will be on offer including flights, transfers, local lift pass, ski/board hire or ski carriage, self-catering and in-resort service from £389 per person for a five night stay. They’re valid for departures during non-peak times to the top resorts including Les Arcs and La Plagne in the Paradiski and availability is limited so booking a year ahead at a fixed price is a good way to budget.
Igls, close to Innsbruck, is new to Crystal in 10-11. The ski area is suitable for beginners and intermediates. Advanced skiers can also explore eight other ski areas totalling 295km of piste, all within reach by free ski bus. It’s an ideal location for parties with non-skiers who can easily reach the historical city of Innsbruck by tram in 30 minutes and enjoy its charming medieval centre with shops and museums.
Also new for next season is the Ski Host service, available to Crystal’s French club hotel guests in Courchevel, Morzine, Alpe d’Huez and Les Deux Alpes. A resident ski expert will be on-hand offering free five-day ski or board escorting service to beat the queues, find the best runs and provide inside information.
Crystal Ski is also introducing ‘Freeski Gromcamps’ (www.salomongromcamps.co.uk) in selected European resorts. These camps are for all ages and standards of skiers, from first time freestylers to pro riders, expertly taught by the UK’s top riders and coaches including Pat Sharples, a former England freestyle ski team captain.
With Christmas and New Year falling on a Saturday in 2010, using Crystal customer feedback, the company has opted to run the Christmas and New Year schedule with Monday departures on 13, 20 and 27 December for 7 night holidays for French and Swiss resort departures. On Monday 3rd January there’ll be five night holidays with Crystal Ski Plus for £389 per person in the two-star Hameau du Sauget Apartments in La Plagne, France, including return flights from Gatwick, transfers, local lift pass, ski/board hire or ski carriage.
For Austrian resorts departures will be on Tuesdays 14, 21 and 28 December for seven nights and on Tuesday 4 January a four nights self catering holiday for £229 per person in the three-star Rauris Apartments in Rauris, Austria, including return flights from Gatwick or Luton to Salzburg and transfers.
After this, all departures will revert to a Saturday as normal. All other countries have departures on the Sunday, which will remain.
Ski Environmentalist Walking To Copenhagen Climate Talks Carrying Skis
Intrepid explorers, adventurers and rail enthusiasts are currently en-route to the UN Climate conference in Copenhagen using a variety of low carbon ways to reach their final destination.
World Champion extreme free-skier and founder of The Save Our Snow Foundation (www.sosfound.org), American Alison Gannett is walking 200 miles from Big Ben in London to Brusssels railway station with snow skis on her back, in the first stage of her trip to the conference.
In an email to United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) staff she wrote, “’I am doing this to help raise awareness on the importance of saving our snow, both for the fun sports we love such as skiing, but more importantly that half the world depends on snow and ice melt for drinking and irrigation water.”
She is walking with Roz Savage, a British ocean rower and environmental campaigner. From Brussels, both walkers will join the Climate Express train which is taking more than 400 climate change negotiators, campaigners and high-profile personalities to Copenhagen.
Meanwhile, last week, a small team of environmental experts, NGOs and journalists left Kyoto, Japan on an epic 9,000 kilometre-long journey from Kyoto to Copenhagen, most of it by train.
The group boarded the Trans-Siberian Express in Vladivostok, Russia on Saturday and will document the impacts of climate change, raise awareness of low-carbon transport solutions, and gather signatures for the UN led Seal the Deal! Climate Petition.
Led by the International Union of Railways in partnership with UNEP, WWF and Russian Railways, the journey through Russia will cover Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Novgorod, ending up in Moscow. A member of UNEP’s Moscow office, Ludmila Khorosheva, will join the train in Novosibirsk on Thursday.
World’s Biggest Resorts Open For Winter 09-10
Many of the world’s leading ski resorts have opened for the 2009-10 ski season this weekend following heavy snowfall in the Alps, Dolomites, Pyrenees and lower temperatures in Eastern North America allowing for snowmaking.
In the French Alps, Courchevel and Meribel joined Val Thorens opening in the Three Valleys and in Austria the Arlberg opened a week later than planned after a spell of warm weather ended with falls of several feet of snow.
In the Pyrenees most of the leading resorts in Andorra, France and Spain all opened on Friday or Saturday after several feet on new snow fell. Baqueira Beret and Formigal, Spain’s two largest resorts were among those opening.
In New England resorts opening thanks to improved conditions include Sugarloaf in Maine, and further north in Quebec, Mont Ste Anne has opened after several postponed dates.
Over on the West, Fernie and Revelstoke in British Columbia have also opened.
Woman Claims Sex Change To Use Ski Lift
The Aspen Times newspaper has reported that a woman was caught trying to use a season pass owned by her boyfriend to gain lift access at Keystone resort. When challenged about her gender when trying to use a pass owned by a man called Daniel, the woman, named as Wanda, is reported to have informed the lift operator that she was in the process of undergoing a sex change.
When the local Summit County Sheriff’s Office became involved they reported that “the female stated her parents knew of her sex change, and she stated they disowned her when she told them.”
The woman was arrested and has been charged with theft of more than $500 and criminal impersonation.
Italy’s Cervinia ski resort, which is connected by piste and lifts to Zermatt in Switzerland, has made a major investment of 11.5 million Euros in a state-of-the-art new chairlift.
The new Pancheron six-seat lift, which has all the latest safety features, departs from the top of Cretaz (close to the arrival station of the chairlift of the same name), and has an hourly uplift capacity of 3,000 people/hour.
The lift rises 512 vertical metres from 2,438m above-sea-level to 2,950m above-sea-level providing access to an expanded Cretaz sector and creates a new, even faster and more convenient, way to access the higher pistes of the ski area from the resort centre. In addition the ski area accessed by the new “Pancheron” chairlift allows off-piste skiers to access multiple lines throgh the powder snow in areas like Val Furggen.
The new lift gives great access to the Pancheron piste, regarded as one of the resort’s most spectacular with multiple changes in terrain as it descends in Cervinia, and makes a 1000m vertical descent possible.
As well as improving uplift on the mountain the new lift, which has been largely funded by the area’s local government which is the major shareholder in the ski resort, is expected to lead to a decrease in vehicle traffic in resort by making uplift more efficient.
November Was Snowiest Ever Month For Whistler
November 2009 will go down in history as the snowiest month on record at Whistler Blackcomb, dating back to when the collection of weather data began 30 years ago.
November 2009 has seen a total accumulation of 560cm (220 inches) of snowfall, nearly four times that of November’s average snowfall of 148cm (58 inches). This is an increase of more than 19 per cent over the previous record of 469cm (185 inches) set in January 2006, and a 22 per cent increase over January 1992’s record of 459cm (181 inches).
“To begin the season with a record breaker the likes of 5.5 metres of snowfall has certainly heightened the level of excitement in the resort, especially in this year, as we prepare to be a host venue for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympics Winter Games in February.” says Stuart Rempel, senior vice president of marketing & sales at Whistler Blackcomb.
And now, with the record broken, there is still an entire season of skiing and riding to look forward to. With a season that offers 192 days of skiing and riding, Whistler Blackcomb is already over half way towards the resort’s average annual snowfall of just over 10 metres (33 feet).
New Chairlift and More Snowmaking For Châtel
Châtel in the giant French-Swiss Portes dui Soleil ski region has replaced its Linga 2 chairlift ready for the new season, which began in the resort this weekend.
The old Linga 2 chairlift which takes skiers up to Col du Linga at 2050m has been replaced by a new six-searer detachable chairlift, ascending from 1550m, at a departure point next to the Leiche ski lift, and it’s name will be Echo Alpin lift.
The 1580m long lift with a vertical rise 525m can carry 2400 people per hour initially, but this capacity is due to be increased to 2700 people per hour after a trial period.
The new chair is one of the fastest lifts of the Portes du Soleil area as it can carry skiers at a speed of 5.5 metres per second taking them to the top in just five minutes.
Châtel is also increasing the area it can cover with machine made snow thanks to the addition of a new reservoir. For winter 2009-2010 the resort has 180 snow guns and the Combes and Linga 2 runs now have snowmaking.
Finally the resort has launched a new ‘any 4 hours’ hands-free Liberty ski pass.
Dancing Tractors Celebrate 20th Anniversary Of The Ice Hotel
The famous Ice Hotel, the world’s first hotel made entirely of ice, celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2010.
Artists from around the world started visiting Jukkasjärvi in Swedish Lapland in 1996 to help build the Ice Hotel, and around 500 artists have visited since. A further 39 artists, aged between 30-70 are currently on site to create art suites in the Ice Hotel this year. This winter’s hotel will feature 62 rooms and will cover an area of 5,500 square meters.
The birthday celebrations will kick-start with a New Year’s Eve party to ring in the Jubilee year.
During the evening, an unusual ‘tractor ballet’ involving three ‘dancing’ tractors will be performed on the Ice Hotel stage on the Torne River. Throughout the whole season, the local Sami theatre group will give performances on the stage whilst a Jubilee menu will be served at the Ice Hotel Restaurant.
New Heated Six-Seater Chair At Tux
The Eggalm ski area in Tux, in Austria’s Ziller Valley, has a new luxury six-seat chairlift with weather protection domes and seat heating.
Hintertux is at the deep end of the Ziller Valley. With a summit at almost 3,500m above sea level, is one of the few remaining ski areas that endeavours to open year round, thanks to operating one of the largest of the Tyrol’s five glacier ski areas.
Panorama’s Powder Pig Brings Holiday Savings
Panorama Mountain Village in British Columbia, Canada, is putting the onus on saving its guest’s money this winter. The resort opens for the season this Friday, December 11th.
“For the folks here at Panorama, it’s essential that snow sports remain accessible to all”, said Marke Dickson, Marketing Manager. “We know that skiers and riders are looking for value, now more than ever, so we’ve worked hard to bundle popular activities with daily necessities; this means savings for our guests.”
Dickson further explained that his idea of a memorable winter vacation isn’t dinners of packet pasta and nights in front of the television. “Our drive is to inject full-time enjoyment into every stay and the best way to do this is to show our guest the best of the village; at a price that is right.”
Panorama’s focus on value will be immediately apparent when skiers and riders visit the resort’s new website (skipanorama.com) and look for a cartoon piggy bank on skis.
The Panorama Powder Pig offers vacationers free nights when they book a two-night (or longer) stay direct. There’s also a free breakfast for two each day, a free family activity, and additional discounts on lift tickets.
New Slovenian Ski Hotel Granted Five Star Status
Slovenia’s eco-friendly Bohinj Park Hotel has been awarded five stars according to the official hotel classification scheme, making it the highest quality hotel in northwest Slovenia.
The hotel, which opened for business in the summer of 2009, is situated in the Julian Alps region on the edge of the Triglav National Park. Built mainly from natural materials including timber and stone, the hotel has a range of special energy saving solutions, including being heated and cooled by water from its own well.
Facilities at the hotel include an exclusive wellness centre, a cinema, bowling alley and the Bohinj Water Park, a family-friendly complex including various pools and waterslides. The hotel offers an excellent range of accommodation, including family rooms and rooms adapted for disabled guests.
The ski slopes of Kobla and Vogel are nearby.
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