Weekly snow news roundup – 11/01/2010
In a week where snow is literally on everybody’s lips – this week’s snow news begins with the story of three people winning a competition to see snow for the very first time. As well as this, we’ve got Alicia Keys, poker and an endurance race – three of the ingredients to the perfect stag night? So, have we whetted your appetite?
Read all about what’s been happening in the skiing and snowboarding world as 2010 kicks off properly.
THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES
Three To “See Snow For the First Time”
Alicia Keys To Play Ischgl End-Of-Season Party
Snow On CairnGorm Passes Five Feet
Squaw Valley Celebrates 50 Years Since Their Olympics
New Book Celebrates The Spiritual Side Of Snow
Poker Week In Les 2 Alpes
Vail Celebrates Ten Years of Blue Sky Basin
Zermatt Mountain Restaurant Endurance Race Returns
Sales Of Vintage Ski Posters In London
Crystal Finest Launch 2010/11 Preview Brochure
Three To “See Snow For the First Time”
The Colorado Tourism Office’s “Snow at First Sight” campaign, which began on October 12 with a global search for three people who have never experienced snow before, has concluded with the selection of three young winners. Hailing from Atlanta, Australia and Hawaii, they are set to begin their Colorado adventure on January 11, 2010 where they will blog on www.SnowAtFirstSight.com about their experiences and post regular updates on social networks including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.
Ruchu Adhikary, 25, from Melbourne, Australia is an avid outdoor sports enthusiast and has tried many extreme sports including skydiving, but this is her first chance to try her hand at snow sports.
“I love to travel and try new things but have never had the opportunity to experience snow before. I can’t wait for this adventure to begin and to see where it takes me.” She said.
Trevor Allison, 21, from Atlanta, GA has dreamed of living in Colorado all his life and now he’s finally getting his opportunity.
“For years I’ve wanted to come to Colorado to experience snowboarding. I’ve skate boarded, wake boarded and now I finally get the chance to hit the slopes. I couldn’t be more stoked.” he said.
Deena Bright, 30, from the Hawaiian island Kailua, Oahu, is a health and exercise nut and has always been interested in Colorado and its outdoor sports and healthful lifestyle.
“I’m so excited to be an ambassador for Colorado and its winter season and look forward to participating in the many adventures that are headed my way.”
During their winter adventure, the finalists will travel across Colorado, enjoying a variety of winter activities and working with local experts to learn how to ski, snowboard, snowmobile, snowshoe and more.
The participants will also dine at some of the state’s notable restaurants, mingle at the hottest apres-ski spots, experience spas and hot springs and enjoying other vacation pursuits that are popular with Colorado visitors.
“This is an excellent opportunity to use the popularity of social media to showcase Colorado’s destinations and wide variety of winter activities. Through the postings of our winners, ski enthusiasts and travellers of all interests will be inspired to visit Colorado.” said Kim McNulty, director of the Colorado Tourism Office.
The winners will be visiting a varieties of towns and cities in Colorado and ski resorts including Breckenridge, Winter Park, Keystone, Snowmass, Steamboat, Beaver Creek, Vail, Copper Mountain, Crested Butte and Durango.
Alicia Keys To Play Ischgl End-Of-Season Party
Alicia Keys is to perform Ischgl’s famous season closing concert at the resort’s open air mountain top arena.
The US star – whose album The Elements of Freedom is riding high in the UK charts – will perform at Idalp at 2,300m on Saturday 1 May on the penultimate day of the 09-10 ski season.
The lunchtime concert is expected to attract a crowd of 20,000 skiers and boarders and wrap up the resort’s five month-long season, which was launched at the end of November by fellow American Katy Perry, who chose Ischgl as the location to introduce her parents to boyfriend Russell Brand – and it is now reported that the couple became engaged at New Year.
Alicia and Katy join a glittering list of stars to have performed at Ischgl’s Top of The Mountain concerts, which have launched and closed every winter since the 94-95 season, with recent acts including Elton John, Kylie Minogue, Lionel Richie, Rihanna, Leona Lewis, Gabriella Cilmi and The Pussycat Dolls.
Grammy award winning singer-songwriter-pianist Alicia has had chart successes with hits such as Doesn’t Mean Anything, No One and If I Ain’t Got You.
The concert stage is constructed in a natural bowl at the top of the Fimba and Silvretta gondola lifts with the stunning backdrop of the Silvretta mountains. Entrance is by valid lift ticket. An adult day pass for 1 May is Euro 75 and a three day pass covering the final weekend is Euro 108.
www.ischgl.com
Snow On CairnGorm Passes Five Feet
“It just gets better and better.” is the comment from staff at CairnGorm ski area above Aviemore in Scotland.
Approximately 1.5 metres or five feet of snow has now fallen on the upper slopes since Christmas and temperatures forecast to remain at or below freezing for the next week at least.
With the local school holidays finishing this weekend (Jan 10th) it is one of the best times in the past decade to visit the slopes with the crowds of Christmas and New Year gone and excellent cover from top to bottom for the whole hill available to explore.
The snow is dry and crunchy on the pisted runs, the M1 and Cas have groomed powder and the top bowls are pisted virtually from fence to fence.
The first funicular up is at 9am but other surface uplift will usually operate from half an hour earlier. Last funicular up is at 3.20pm/down 4.00pm.
You can buy ski tickets (but not ski hire) on-line on cairngorm.com. You can also buy 4 Day Skiing Tickets Vouchers on-line (£96 for adults and £58 for a child).
Vouchers can be used any day this skiing season but only one voucher per day may be used. These on-line purchases need to be presented at the ranger base office on arrival and exchanged for a ticket for the day.
On busy days (weekends) a cash only desk for day ski tickets (no hire and no two-day tickets) operates from the window in the side of the day lodge so visit a cash machine before you come on site for fast ticket purchase.
Within the ticket office itself one queue will be a dedicated ‘ski tickets only for cash or credit cards’ (no hire) queue while the remaining windows will be for tickets and hire or hire only (and voucher/multi-day purchases).
Squaw Valley Celebrates 50 Years Since Their Olympics
Squaw Valley USA by Lake Tahoe in California was already celebrating clocking up more than 13 feet of new snow by the end of last year, now they’re about to launch a week of celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympic Winter Games.
The event, which runs to January 17th, will come complete with fireworks, hockey, ski racing, a retro party and a grand gala.
The week kicked off with an Opening Celebration and fireworks display at the Village at Squaw Valley USA. The Village streets welcomed back 1960s Olympians who returned to the Valley, many for the first time since the 1960 Games.
Local Olympians ran a torch relay from Sugar Pine Point State Park on the West Shore up to Squaw Valley where the resort will reignite the Olympic flame. Following speeches by Uncle E, Jonny Moseley and Squaw Valley CEO Nancy Cushing, the sky erupted into a gorgeous fireworks display visible from the Village and the KT Sundeck.
With the celebration will culminate next Sunday with the 1960 Olympic Legends Gala, where revellers have the opportunity to mingle and dance with 1960 Olympic Legends and Olympians past and present in the Grand Ballroom at the Resort at Squaw Creek.
In attendance will be 1960 Olympic Legends Penny Pitou, the 1960 Hockey Team Coach Jack Riley, Osvaldo Ancinas, Starr Walton, Babette Haueisen, as well as other Olympians past and present. A multi media presentation depicting mountain culture in 1960 kicks off the evening. The Gala will come alive with live music and dancing, and cuisine by Chef Jason Friendly, champagne and a silent auction bring in an element of winter sports nostalgia.
The Olympic Heritage Celebration will welcome a wide variety of events celebrating the 1960 Winter Olympic Games.
Sugar Pine Point State Park is hosting a biathlon and Nordic racing, while Squaw Valley USA is recreating the original men’s and women’s downhill courses, open for guided tours by past Olympians.
The 1960 Squaw Valley Winter Olympics saw many firsts. It was the first time the Olympic Games were held in the Western United States, the first time the Games were nationally televised and the first time computers were used to calculate scores. The 1960 Winter Games were also the first and only time that the Olympic athletes were housed under one roof. In a time before grooming machines, sponsorship contracts and HD Television, the 1960 Olympics revolved around ideals of simplicity, athleticism and international camaraderie.
New Book Celebrates The Spiritual Side Of Snow
A new book which explains how skiing and snowboarding can “renew your soul” has been published by US-based publisher SkyLight Paths. Spiritual Adventures In The Snow by Dr. Marcia McFee and Rev. Karen Foster.
“Activities that are exhilarating and fun are not usually thought of as spiritual. But to the contrary, such ventures may well point us to our most profound spiritual connections. For when we are able to come fully into the present moment, turn off the noise in our minds, feel our true essence as complete union of body-mind-spirit, we enter into a kind of ‘mountain-top experience’ that can only be described as spiritual.” say the authors.
Spiritual Adventures In The Snow endeavours to debunk the myth that your body has nothing to do with your spiritual life. Dr. McFee and Rev. Foster demonstrate how spirituality is fed by play and challenge and, “…how your snow-filled adventures can serve as a set of metaphors for seeing life’s ups and downs as part of a sacred rhythm.”
Dr. Marcia McFee is an avid skier, a national speaker and consultant to churches on spirituality, arts, and worship. Rev. Karen Foster is an avid snowboarder and a teacher of spirituality, retreat leader, and pastor.
The publishers say that the book is ideal for people of all faiths—or none—and all skill levels on the slopes and that it offers poignant insights on how you can find your peak spiritual life in your favorite snow sport.
Each chapter also features a “Conversation with an Adventurer,” highlighting interviews with professionals, such as former Olympians, a backcountry skier, and a spiritual skiing guide, that capture their extraordinary experiences and inspirational stories. Other resources include “A Week of Meditations for Spiritual Adventures in the Snow” and the humorous “How to Talk Cool on the Mountain: A Guide to Slope Slang.”
Spiritual Adventures In The Snow is priced at $16.99 and was retailing for £10.26 in the UK through Amazon at time of writing.
Les 2 Alpes will stage its second annual Poker Week all this week through to 15 January 2010, providing an unusual mix of snow sports and gambling in a resort without a permanent casino.
The event is free-of-charge and open to all, from amateurs up to the French stars of the poker:
Thomas ” Fougan ” Fougeron, Pascal ” PP The Bandit ” Perrault, Charlie Perrault, Tarik Bouregba and Sliman Mamemeche and the gambling guest stars.
Antoine Saout, who last November took third place in the World Championships of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas, will also be there. His biggest single win was 2 million euros. A female poker pro, Lise “Pink Lady” Vigezzi will be there too, enjoying the snow slopes during the day time and the gaming tables at night.
Les 2 Alpes Poker Week takes place in the resort’s Amphibia complex, where a casino atmosphere has been temporarily established, from 6pm every evening this week to Friday.
Vail Celebrates Ten Years of Blue Sky Basin
Ten years ago the long held vision of Vail founders Pete Seibert and Earl Eaton’s became a reality with the Blue Sky Basin expansion. The area includes a vast expanse of wilderness-like ski and ride terrain facing Vail’s legendary Back Bowls. On the heels of a series of powder-bearing storms over the New Year holiday last week, Vail Mountain will celebrated the 10th anniversary of Blue Sky Basin on Wednesday.
Pete Seibert, Jr. and Carl Eaton – sons of the late Pete Seibert, Sr. and Earl Eaton – kicked off the day with an honorary “first chair” ride up the Skyline Express Lift (#37). In addition, a limited edition commemorative lapel pin was given to the first 1,000 skiers and snowboarders up to Belle’s Camp. Guests were treated to complimentary hot chocolate and blue-iced cupcakes at Belle’s Camp while supplies lasted.
“From the rustic lift houses and buildings to the phenomenal gladed skiing and snowboarding and expansive views, Blue Sky Basin is an experience unlike anything else on Vail Mountain,” said Chris Jarnot, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Vail Mountain. “It’s a privilege to be able to pay tribute to Pete Seibert, Earl Eaton and all who were involved in the development and opening of Blue Sky Basin 10 years ago.”
The outer-most area of Vail Mountain offers intermediate and expert skiers and riders a variety of moguls, glades, tree skiing, cliffs and ridges with a distinct backcountry feel. Fresh tracks and secret stashes are abundant on powder days, surrounded by Mount of the Holy Cross, the Sawatch Mountains, Ten-Mile Range and more.
Blue Sky Basin is located to the south of Vail Mountain’s Back Bowls, on the south side of Two Elk Creek, and includes more than 600 acres of developed terrain. The area was a part of Vail’s initial master plan developed by Vail founder Pete Seibert in 1962. Construction on the new area began in October 1998 and after the winter recommenced on July 1, 1999.
The name Blue Sky Basin honors the original settlers of the Vail Valley – the Ute Indians. Prior to the 1870s the Utes were the only real inhabitants of the Eagle River basin; what is now the Vail Valley. Other tribes referred to the Utes as the “Blue Sky People.” Both the Ute name and Colorado’s brilliant blue skies inspired the name Blue Sky Basin.
Zermatt Mountain Restaurant Endurance Race Returns
The Luttman-Johnson Challenge restaurant race, organised by the Ski Club of Great Britain, returns to the Swiss resort of Zermatt this February.
This unique all-day race, which involves racing between mountain restaurants whilst trying to spend as long as possible in each one, is now in its 35th year. The race attracts around 50 teams of skiers and snowboarders, most sporting fancy dress outfits, and takes place on Wednesday 3rd February.
The race can add a real fun element to a ski holiday, and with prize categories for both visitors and season workers, anyone who can ski or snowboard can take part and be in with a winning chance.
Post event, the Ski Club will host a prize-giving party at the T-Bar in Zermatt town centre. For the second year running, the Natives Show Love Tour hits Nelly’s Bar in Zermatt on the same night to allow competitors to party into the early hours.
The Luttman-Johnson Challenge costs CHF 30 for teams of two Ski Club members or CHF 35 for teams of two non Ski Club members. Teams can register with the Ski Club reps Alastair and Edward at the Hotel Pollux bar from 18.30-19.30 each evening the week prior to the race. For more information on the Luttman-Johnson Challenge and other resort events visit skiclub.co.uk.
Sales Of Vintage Ski Posters In London
A Ski Sale Auction will be staged in Christie’s, South Kensington, London on 19 January in aid of the British Ski and Snowboard Team who are heading off to the Winter Olympics in Whistler. Money raised at the auction will make a tremendous difference to the ski team’s individual athletes who will receive a much needed direct financial contribution towards their training and competition costs. Leading figures from British sport including Damon Hill, Colin Jackson, Steve Redgrave and Clive Woodward will all be present.
Christie’s South Kensington annual Ski Sale starts includes approximately 300 lots of international ski and winter sports posters, the majority of which date from the turn of the twentieth century to the 1950s.
A host of well known resorts around the world including Gstaad, Zermatt, St Moritz, Chamonix and Klosters. The sale also embraces the international sporting spirit as a selection of Olympic posters are introduced to the mix paying homage to the ultimate winter sporting experience whilst the Olympic torch traverses the globe to reach its final destination in Vancouver, Canada for the February 2010 Winter Olympics.
Artists including Ludwig Hohlwein, Alois Carigiet, Witold Gordon and Hugo Laubi offer an evocative take on this esteemed event, harking back almost one hundred years to the games of the early twentieth century.
Crystal Finest Launch 2010/11 Preview Brochure
The Crystal Finest preview brochure for winter 2010/11 has been launched, presenting a collection of bespoke chalets and first class hotels in the world’s most sought after ski destinations in Europe, North and South America and Japan.
Each property has been picked for the great skiing they afford, their fine dining, superb spa facilities and exemplary service. They include new boutique hotels, many have been awarded Michelin stars and Gault Millau points and several are members of the small luxury and leading hotels of the world group.
To get there, Crystal Finest offer the most direct routes at convenient times and new routes have been added for even more convenience.
New in the preview brochure are the four star Hilton Whistler Resort located in Whistler Village. The luxurious, award-winning hotel offers direct access to skiing and a host of facilities.
The four star Hotel Silberhorn situated in central Wengen with easy access to skiing is also new. It has a spa area with saunas, whirlpool, steam rooms and more.
Other new four stars include the Sunstar in the centre of Grindelwald; the Hotel Chalet Mounier in the older part of Les Deux Alpes with a ‘Cinq Mondes’ accredited spa and gourmet cuisine and Les Cimes Blanches with traditional Savoyard style apartments located at the foot of the slopes in La Rosière with spacious and comfortable rooms.
If you book a Crystal Finest ski holiday at the Chalet Hotel St Louis in Courchevel 1850, France, before 31 May 2010, and get two-for-one lift pass saving £187 and can also qualify for a free all-day childcare worth £220 at the same hotel for the duration of your ski holiday. The offer is valid for nursery and children’s clubs for children between the ages of 6 months to 11 years.
All chalets have a selection of Molton Brown toiletries, fluffy bathrobes, TVs, DVD players, DVD library, hairdryers, iPod docking station, Wi-Fi access, board games and newspapers.
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