Wintersports Rediscovered
Air transportation access to the Kelowna International Airport (YLW), in British Columbia is set to improve considerably with the extension of runway by 1,500 feet.
Area businesses operating the Okanagan valley ski resorts of Big White and Silver Star were quite pleased with the news.
Continue reading ‘Expansion of Kelowna airport targets intercontinental fliers’
New Zealanders are among the first in the Southern Hemisphere to receive snow after an early season storm has swept across the country.
A stormy, southerly blast has swept over New Zealand dumping the first snow of the season on ski areas around the country in the past weeks.
Continue reading ‘Kiwi’s get snow two months before start of season’
Global warming seems to have taken another victim. Summer skiing on the ‘Glacier 3000’ between Gstaad and Diablerets appears to have ended for good after the area recently confirmed it will not reopen for downhill skiing during the 2007 summer season.
The ski area was bought by Gstaad based investors last year and they cancelled the 2006 summer skiing season shortly afterwards.
Continue reading ‘Swiss glacier les Diablerets falls victim to global warming’
Andorra may have had one of its most challenging winters in history, missing out on the best of heavy snowfalls that boosted the Alps up to and often beyond seasonal average depths after a slow start; but expansion still continues apace.
In Vall Nord an extension of the beginners’ area in Arinsal has further improved facilities with, a second “Esquirol” conveyor belt installed and the “Escola” slope widened.
Longtime Canadian alpine ski team leader Thomas Grandi announced his retirement Sunday in Whistler, B.C.
The 34-year-old is the only Canadian man to win a World Cup giant slalom race and competed at four Olympics, dating back to 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway.
Winter sports retailers in Finland are reporting a drop in sales of up to 25% as a result of the warm 2006-07 winter weather. Across most of the country temperatures remained too warm for snow sports into the new year followed by adverse cold that let to people staying away from wintersports all together. One retailer broke the news down to say that there was no ‘real winter’. The whacky weather kept people at bay from retail stores.
Continue reading ‘“No Real Winter” Send Sales Spiralling in Finland’
Shona Rubens won the fog-delayed women’s super-G Sunday at the Canadian ski championships while Jeffrey Frisch was the surprise winner in a tight men’s race.
Rubens, from Canmore, Alta., posted a time of one minute, 16.12 seconds amid a rolling fog in Whistler, B.C., that caused several delays.