Wintersports Rediscovered
South Africa’s 14th annual Ski and Snowboard Championships have been staged attracting more than 160 competitors. The participant numbers were up be a quarter on 2006 and the number of international entrants has continued to grow.
Continue reading ‘South African Ski and Snowboard Championships Staged’
Starwood Hotels have announced a major renovation plan for the Sheraton Steamboat Springs, located at the foot of the Steamboat ski area and adjacent to the Silver Bullet Gondola. Work on the multi-million dollar makeover will begin at the end of nezt season.
The first phase of construction includes a total renovation of the West Tower which includes 193 hotel rooms. These rooms will be upgraded to the new Sheraton standards, including new bedding and a completely updated decor. In addition, the East Tower, which currently includes 80 hotel rooms, will be converted into 24 two- and three- bedroom luxury vacation ownership villas. Floors six and seven of the East Tower will remain individually owned condominiums. The Morningside Tower, which currently houses 23 multiple bedroom rental villas, will be converted to vacation ownership villas. Continue reading ‘New Luxury Lodging At Steamboat’
Work has begun on new terrain which will open at Whiteface Mountain ski area, part of New York State’s famous and historic Lake Placid Olympic venue, and scheduled to open Winter 2008-9.
Continue reading ‘Work Begins on New Terrain at Whiteface Mountain’
Perisher Blue is ready to set the stage for some of Australia’s biggest and most spectacular skiing and snowboarding events this August. With this season’s favourable snowfalls and more snow forecast for later this week, not only will there be excellent skiing and snowboarding across the four-resort areas, but also an exciting calendar of events attracting skiing and snowboarding superstars from all over the globe.
Italy’s Val Gardena is upgrading another old chairlift this summer and will be able to offer its guests 27 quad chair lifts next winter, 13 of them high speed detatchable lifts.
The latest high speed detachable, Sole, has a capacity of 1,800 people an hour and replaces a fixed grip triple chairlift.
In addition the resort will be upgrading and widening various slopes in it’s ski area and upgrading snowmaking.
The new lift is one of six being installed in the Dolomiti Superski region, which has 90% snowmaking coverage on it 1,200km (750 miles) of slopes.
Other resorts running high numbers of quad chairlifts include Austria’s SkiWelt with 20, Vail with 17 (including 16 high speed) and Whistler with 13.
Big Sky in Montana is increasing access to its most uncrowded slopes with the addition of the new Dakota triple chair lift which will improve access to the Bavarian Forest and the recently opened 212 acres of Dakota Territories adding more capacity to the biggest skiing in America.
Whistler Blackcomb has been making significant progress on construction of the Peak to Peak Gondola since ground-breaking 14 weeks ago. Major excavation of drive terminals, tower sites, form work and concrete pouring has been achieved. The ground work has been laid for major milestones such as the erections of towers two and three this autumn.
Continue reading ‘Whistler’s Mega Gondola Update, 100 Tonne Cables Routed via Panama Canal’