Rail Europe announced this past week that there would be no Snow Train service to the French Alps during the coming ski season. According to an official statement on Rail Europe’s website, the overnight sleeper service is another casualty of the recession:
We’re really sad to announce that the Snow Train won’t be running during the coming ski season. Unfortunately, the current economic climate and poor exchange rates along with an increase in our operating costs, has meant that the service would not be financially viable.
The skiing public were as divided about the Snow Train experience as the general public are, so undoubtedly some fans will mourn the loss of the service.
Rail Europe pointed out that there are other rail options for traveling to the Alps including an overnight Eurostar service. However, unlike the relative comfort offered by the couchettes on the Snow Train, on the Eurostar you travel sitting upright.
There are also weekly Eurostar services during the day but the real lure of the Snow Train was that by traveling overnight you gained an extra day on the slopes.
Of course, you can gain that extra day by either driving of flying to the Alps on a schedule that suits you.
If you drive, count on at least 8 hours driving to France. Flights to French alpine airports take less than 2 hours but transfers from the airport to resort can be time consuming. Do your research and pick the local airport for your chosen resort and you could save yourself a lot of time.
But while progress has been delayed at the provincial level since spring of 2008, the project has been moving ahead on other fronts - notably in the form of physical and economic-impact studies requested by the District of Squamish, and the master development plan required by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts.
Work has already begun on expansions to Washington State’s White Pass ski resort which will give skiers two new quad chairlifts servicing eleven new trails.
Scheduled to be completed for winter 2010-2011, the expansion will open up the Hogback Basin area and add a new mid-mountain lodge between the new lifts.
According to White Pass, the Hogback Basin is currently used by backcountry skiers, but it is not the only such area on the ski hill. The resort also says the new trails are being created in naturally open vegetative terrain, meaning a minimum of tree removal and general environmental impact will be necessary to expand the ski area.
Expansions like the one taking place in White Pass are rare this year with many ski resorts feeling the impact of tough economic times.
Tignes put an original twist of bikini fun as France’s second resort opened for summer skiing after Les 2 Alpes a week ago.
To celebrate the resort staged a bikini ski event in which a small number of enthusiasts took to the snow slopes clad only in swimwear and ski boots. Ski gloves, eye protection and sun cream were also allowed in this ‘competition.’
A friendly competition during the first summer weekend at Tignes
The lifts opened at on Saturday, June 20, heralding the start of the summer ski season which is staged on 20km of piste on the Grande Motte glacier between 3,000 and 3,500m above sea level.
The ski area will be open for the next 10 weeks through to 30th August from 7 am until 1 pm.
The Perce-Neige underground funicular lifts skiers to the glacier in only seven minutes where a dozen ski lifts are operational. A one day ski ticket costs 31 Euros for an adult, 25 Euros for a child. www.tignes.net
Most of South America’s 30 or so ski areas opened this past week after a receiving a healthy snowfall measuring over 5 feet in some places.
Argentina’s Las Leñas ski area in particular reported having over seven feet of snow, while Chile’s Portillo resort reported just under five feet. Las Leñas is one of the largest ski resorts in the Andes, located in Central Argentina near the Chilean border. Portillo is a popular destination for ski racers looking to train during the Northern Hemisphere’s summer season.
The next time you get flagged onto the side of a ski run, you might be in for a big surprise? You could lose your ski ticket and get a fine for excessive speeding downhill.
SkiRebel.com has learned that Apple is pursuing the development of technologies aimed at giving ski resorts the ability to monitor skiers on their slopes in real-time. The technologies appear to be safety-oriented, and could be applied to all recreational winter sports, amateur or professional.
One particular patent is for the development of smart lift tickets which could be tracked by ski resorts through the use of GPS technology. Resorts would be able to see where particular skiers are, monitor how fast they are moving, and issue automated tickets for speed limits broken on particular runs.
Resorts could also easily be able to automatically deactivate lift tickets for severe or multiple violations, eliminating the need for ski patrollers to chase down those skiers.
It is not known yet whether the smart tickets would tell skiers how fast they are going or notify them when they approach or break speed limits.
Slowing skiers down won’t be the only way these new technologies intend on improving safety on the slopes.
Another device patented by Apple looks to monitor a skier’s heart rate so as to automatically notify a resort in the event of cardiac arrest or some other medical emergencies.
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