http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/news/ en chrisgill@wtss.co.uk Copyright 2012 2012-04-27T10:31:42+00:00 http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/site/wendy-jane-king-1967-2012/ http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/site/wendy-jane-king-1967-2012/#When:10:31:42Z It is with heavy hearts that we record the death, in the early hours of 27 April, of Wendy-Jane King, for some years editor of this site and a key member of the WTSS editorial team. Wendy had been fighting cancer for over a year, and happily was fit enough to enjoy lots of skiing this season, as her enthusiastic blogs on this site testify. A week ago she was posting news here, as usual. But she took a downward turn some days ago and passed away peacefully last night. She was 44. Wendy loved skiing, and loved Where to Ski and Snowboard. Working on it was her dream job. So she lived her dream, and it’s not everyone who can say that. Right up to the end, her appetite for work was fierce, provided that work was on the book or the website that she loved. Or on the apps we are developing, to which she has made an enormous contribution. She worked for us – and specifically for me, as my regular assistant editor – for nine years. Wendy took a degree in English and translated literature, and loved writing, and learning how to improve her writing. She was a keen outdoors person, and did a lot of summer hill-walking and climbing as well as skiing. As well as exploring the UK and Europe, she hiked in Nepal, the USA and Australia. Before long, we are going to have to think about how to replace an exceptionally dedicated and resourceful member of our team. Right now, our thoughts are filled with fond memories of Wendy, and with an angry sadness at the loss of her. Our condolences go in particular to her partner Stewart, who shared so many of her adventures. This comes as we are in the first few days of our annual cycle of work on the new edition of Where to Ski and Snowboard. We will strive to make it the best yet, and dedicate it to Wendy’s memory. Chris Gill 27 April 2012 2012-04-27T10:31:42+00:00 http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/site/new-club-med-in-milky-way-region/ http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/site/new-club-med-in-milky-way-region/#When:09:36:17Z Club Med has announced that it will have another base in the Alps next winter, with a new resort in Italy’s Milky Way region. The Club Med Pragelato will be based at the chalet village built for the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics.  The resort is linked by cable car to Sestriere, part of the 400km Milky Way ski area that also includes Montgenevre in France. The holiday village will have all the usual Club Med attractions, such as children’s club facilities, and be centred around a cluster of 20 traditional chalets. The company has been steadily renewing its image during recent seasons, favouring a more upmarket approach. Several former Club Meds have been closed or refurbished, while new centres have emerged in Valmorel, France and even in China. 2012-04-20T09:36:17+00:00 http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/site/snowbird-reveals-new-lift-plans/ http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/site/snowbird-reveals-new-lift-plans/#When:09:07:55Z Snowbird, Utah, has announced plans for two new fast quads, one in place for next season and the other the following season. The resort’s key improvement for the 2013 season will be the replacement of the old, slow chair in the Little Cloud area. The Little Cloud chair serves the Little Cloud Bowl and Mineral Basin areas, and is long due for replacement – the original lift was installed in the 1980’s. Next in line for an upgrade is the Gad 2 chair, accessing terrain on the west side of the resort. If all goes to plan, the new chair should be in place for 2013/14. In an interesting way to dispose of old lifts, the resort will sell off its two chairs to raise funds for the Wasatch Adaptive Sports group – which offers therapeutic activities, such as skiing, to people with special needs. Resorts 2012-04-20T09:07:55+00:00 http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/site/british-girl-skis-with-lindsey-vonn/ http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/site/british-girl-skis-with-lindsey-vonn/#When:10:52:42Z For one young British girl on holiday in Breckenridge this winter, that trip will be remembered for a long time. Georgia Rawlins (11 years old) from the UK got the chance to ski with her idol, Lindsey Vonn, in Vail recently as part of the resort’s exclusive Ski Girls Rock programme. Rawlins was one of a few lucky girls from around the globe to be given a once-in-a-lifetime chance to meet and ski with Vonn as part of the legendary skier’s homecoming celebration. And Georgia was delighted to enjoy a ‘girls day’ with Lindsey. Georgia and her family had travelled to the US with Crystal Ski, but they were all invited on an all expenses day trip to Vail as part of Vail Resorts’ ‘Operation Elevation’ that aims to surprise and delight guests and exceed expectations at Vail Resorts. Her brothers enjoyed a day of skiing with Vail’s Children’s Ski School. The Ski Girls Rock programme is a new premium product lesson inspired and designed by Lindsey Vonn herself, and is exclusively run at Vail for girls aged five to 15. A highlight is small groups, of four people maximum. And the instructors are female. The tuition is available on limited dates through the season from $260 per child per day. Girl power at the Ski Girls Rock, with Lindsey Vonn Events, General 2012-04-16T10:52:42+00:00 http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/site/lots-of-new-snow-in-france/ http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/site/lots-of-new-snow-in-france/#When:13:52:53Z Wow, what a difference a week can make. Heavy overnight snowfalls have left French ski areas blanketed in fresh powder, in some cases right down to village level at 1400m or so. Pictures coming in on Wednesday show that the more southerly French resorts have fared best, with 30-70cm new snow reported. Typical examples were Serre Chevalier – which as the images from the tourist office show was a winter wonderland when they woke up this morning – and Montgenèvre. So, there are plenty of fresh tracks for those skiers and boarders lucky enough to be out there this week. Elsewhere, all the major resorts have received between 8-25cm snow. There was even 5cm reported at village level in Megève. The snow has arrived with a significant drop in temperatures and more is forecast for the weekend. Of course, at this time of year snow falling to lower lying levels is generally heavy and wet; but for late season trips, the altitude resorts in the Espace Killy, Three Valleys, Chamonix and Paradiski are doing very well. Some of the slush has refrozen, so there is new snow on a firm base. And it has been a while since we heard about powder – but it’s there … Our weekly Snow Overview is General, Snow 2012-04-11T13:52:53+00:00 http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/site/skiers-rescued-from-swiss-cable-car/ http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/site/skiers-rescued-from-swiss-cable-car/#When:12:14:39Z Up to 75 passengers have been rescued from a cable car near St Moritz, Switzerland, that broke down half way up the mountain. The Diavolezza cable car was full of skiers heading up to the area’s glacier slopes on Monday morning (9 April), in the region’s third area of slopes about 20km outside of the resort. It is not immediately known what caused the lift defect but because of its position, the helicopter rescue took over two hours – lifting two of three skiers to safety at a time. Rescue workers from the Swiss alpine club and Swiss air rescue (Rega) took part. There were no reported injuries to the cable car passengers. The 30-year old Diavolezza gondola rises to almost 3,000 meters and was recently renovated at a cost of 4.5 million Swiss Francs. Resorts 2012-04-09T12:14:39+00:00 http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/site/charity-ski-challenge-event-a-success/ http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/site/charity-ski-challenge-event-a-success/#When:11:34:01Z The first Ski the World endurance challenge has taken place in Courmayeur, Italy, organised by Ski Solutions and the charity Make-a-Wish Foundation. The challenge was to ski the combined vertical height of the highest mountains on each continent, about 43,314 vertical metres. It was a team event, with two or three members skiing laps of a Courmayeur slope, to raise money for the Make-a-Wish Foundation charity – which grants “magical wishes” to children and young people who are fighting life-threatening conditions. It is the largest organisation of its kind in the world. Over the 25 years of their operation they have granted over 7,500 wishes. Taking part were staff from Planetski.eu, Olympian Graham Bell and British adventurer Squash Falconer, among others. The event took place over two and a half days, starting Friday afternoon with an ‘easier’ introduction to what was to be a long day on the Saturday – mainly continuous skiing from lift opening to lift closing. Each member was aiming to raise £1300 and skiing vertical was measured using GPS. Thankfully the weather was bright and sunny throughout, if a little warm. The Ski the World challenge is run by ski operator, Ski Solutions, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. It aims to contribute over £20,000 to the charity through sponsorship. Managing director Craig Burton said, “We wanted to put something back and this seemed a great way to do it as the charity is an excellent one. Above all we wanted it to be a serious ski or snowboarding challenge for people as they pushed their limits and for it to be fun.” Following the success of this year’s event, they hope that the challenge will become an annual fixture on the ski calendar. Links: www.make-a-wish.org.uk Events, General 2012-04-02T11:34:01+00:00 http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/site/winter-holding-firm-in-canada/ http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/site/winter-holding-firm-in-canada/#When:16:30:49Z No, it’s not an April fool. Resorts in Western Canada are experiencing another round of winter weather that started on Friday and has continued over the weekend. And it has been dumping significant quantities. By last Friday morning the resorts were enjoying lots of fresh powder; another 15cm was reported on Sunday morning (1 April). The picture above shows delighted skiers arriving at Lake Louise – scenes that look more like January than early April (but little has changed all winter!) Up to 30cm snow has already been reported across Banff’s mountains and in Fernie – which has accumulated 70cm or so in the past week. The snow pack remains deep at over 4m on the upper mountain and there is excellent skiing and riding going on out there at the moment. It is simply a splendid end to the season for western Canada. The snow showers have continued into the new week, with 3cm-6cm in 24 hours in Banff’s three resorts. Whistler has already passed its annual average snowfall and there is still a good few weeks to go, with the resort enjoying a longer season than other Canadian areas. Sunshine Village too is on course for a late finish; even then the snow cover on the mountains is likely to last well into the summer. Marmot Basin is another resort that expects to be offering snow sports until 6 May, with super spring conditions at present. And Monday’s forecast showed that it was all followed by a sunny day, whilst maintaining relatively low temperatures. The same can’t be said for the east, where warmer conditions and a lack of snowfall has prevailed – notably in the past few weeks. Resorts, as in eastern America, have suffered as a result of the early spring. Many US resorts in that part of the world were forced to shut early for the season, affected by similar conditions to the Alps right now but without such deep snow cover to keep them strong throughout. 2012-03-30T16:30:49+00:00 http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/site/another-death-in-the-french-alps/ http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/site/another-death-in-the-french-alps/#When:14:16:52Z A British ski tourer has died after a fall in Chamonix on Friday 30 March. The man, reported to be 56 years old and a resident of the resort, fell on ice and plunged 100ft to his death off the Crochues-Berard traverse on the Aiguilles Rouges. The traverse is a popular ski touring route in the area and other tourers alerted the rescue services – but the skier was pronounced dead at the scene. A mountain rescue spokesman said, “He was ski touring on hard, icy snow. He slipped and fell a considerable distance – 30 metres. We were called but there was nothing we could do to save him unfortunately.” The news comes just days after two British deaths in another French resort, Val d’Isère. This week a school teacher fell whilst making a turn on an off-piste route; his slip caused him to plummet over 600ft. Again, the man died at the scene. And a couple of weeks ago, a British ski rep died after colliding at high speed with a snow cannon whilst on his day off from work. He was skiing on piste at the time. With the exceptionally warm and dry March weather taking a long hold across much of the Alps, conditions have been variable and challenging both on and off-piste. Chamonix has been enjoying some of the deepest cover in the French Alps. The teacher who died in Tuesday’s accident in Val d’Isère was tackling some particularly steep terrain on the Face du Charvet when he lost control and fell. 2012-03-30T14:16:52+00:00 http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/site/meribel-to-get-folie-douce/ http://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/site/meribel-to-get-folie-douce/#When:11:23:15Z Méribel is to get a branch of the famous Folie Douce restaurant/bar next winter – the lively après-ski venue that is the closest thing to Austrian-style partying, with dancing on the tables and music. The French resort’s Choucas restaurant under the Saulire 1 gondola is to be fully renovated over the summer. It will triple in size and have a big new terrace added, then reopen as the Folie Douce restaurant and club – hopefully in December 2012. Of course, not everyone will be pleased to see this tranquil spot reinvent itself as a music venue too, but it will introduce a bigger dining option handy for the piste. The best-known and original of La Folie Douce restaurants is in Val d’Isère, but its success meant another branch opening in Val Thorens a few season’s back. The restaurants offer modern food and smart designs, while the terraces are home to the live music or DJ sessions that kick off every afternoon. The one in Val d’Isère has the advantage of a green run to La Daille beside it (although don’t be deceived by the grading: it’s not the easiest of descents when busy). The location on Méribel’s slopes for this new venue seems ideal in terms of a sunny position and being easily accessible from the piste, but the some people have expressed concern that the nearest slope is a relatively testing red run (Cerf). Combine that with beer-fuelled skiers and it might involve similar problems to Ischgl’s home red runs. If you’re a fan of the Choucas and against the development, or a fan of the Folie Douce and can’t wait to try the new venue, do report back to WTSS – we’d love to hear your comments. Resorts 2012-03-28T11:23:15+00:00