The third annual Respect the Mountain spring cleaning is taking place

In its third year, the Ski Club of Great Britain’s ‘Big Spring Clean’, a Respect the Mountain initiative, returns to the Scottish ski resorts of Cairngorm Mountain and Nevis Range on June 20th.

This year’s event is taking place a month later than usual because of the deep snow bases at the resorts, the event is a chance for mountain users to do their bit by picking up litter left by a season’s worth of visitors.

Continue reading ‘Scottish resort looking for volunteers to help spring clean’

Schladming, Austria is getting a new 8-seater chair in time for the 2010-11 season

The 2013 World Alpine Ski Championships venue Schladming in Austria, is installing a second eight-seater chair after it was widely acclaimed by its users.

After the success of the Marchenweise eight-seater chair, lift operator Planai-Hochwurzen-Bahnen GmbH has announced the new Mitterhaus chairlift will replace two 30 year old drag lifts and will be marketed with the promotional phrase, “a treat for the feet.”

The new Mitterhaus lift will run from the resort to Ernstal and will have green comfort padding on seating and branding to match Schladming’s logo.

The new lift will also have a weather protection hood and the high comfort loading system which dramatically slows chairs at the base and top station to only 0.5 metres per second or 1.1 miles per hour allowing passengers plenty of time to calmly sit down.

The new chairlift will be 1.126km long, and the ascent will take four minutes and its 57 chairs will have an hourly capacity of 3,200 skiers when it opens up in time for the 2010-11 season.

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Afri-Ski is trying to lure football fans to head off skiing during the World Cup

With soccer fans gearing up for next month’s World Cup in South Africa, two ski areas are hoping to ride the promotional wave by promoting skiing and attracting a few extra tourists.

Afriski and Tiffindell ski resorts are making a big promotional push to football fans by enticing them to combine their journey with a ski vacations.

Southern Africa’s two ski areas are due to open a few days before the World Cup finals kick off in South Africa. The ski slopes are some hours from the football grounds, but a snow and football holiday is a realistic possibility.

Continue reading ‘South Africa puts the push on skiing during World Cup’

An artist sketch of Meadowlands Xanadu snow complex

One of the longest and most expensive sagas in world ski area development appears to be back on track following the intervention of a US billionaire.

Local reports say that billionaire Steve Ross has been promoting the Meadowlands Xanadu mall project, now re-branded ‘Meadowlands’ at a convention in Las Vegas. Ross is expected to announce he has secured the $500 million (€400m) plus required to finally complete the development and that the grand opening could now take place in 2011.

The giant Xanadu mall in New Jersey, USA, will be home to North America’s first indoor snow centre. The complex was largely completed a year ago with snow produced on the indoor slope last summer, but has been effectively mothballed for the past nine months due to financial problems.

Continue reading ‘Billionaire to back Meadowlands Xanadu’

Red Mountain's 110 year old day lodge will be revitalized for 2010 ski season

Red Mountain resort in British Columbia has announced plans to move forward with plans to revitalize and improve the facilities of the resorts 110 year old day lodge at the base of the mountain.

Continue reading ‘Red Mountain to breathe new life into Western Canada’s oldest ski lodge’

Walter Ingham, the company's founder, when it all began.

Amid a changing landscape of winter tour offerings and growing competition from all avenues, the wave of consolidation of leading British ski tour  operators which began a few years ago didn’t show any sign of letting go.

The latest changes involved Inghams, the UK’s second largest tour operator buying out Enigma Travel group, operators of two mid size brands, Esprit Holidays and Ski Total. Continue reading ‘Wave of consolidation continues with British ski tour operators’

The introduction of a new snowmaking system will increase capacity at Mt. Hotham

With global warming taking on unprecedented turns everywhere,  Australia’s Hotham ski area has invested $1.7 M to increase snowmaking capacity by 50 per cent for the upcoming season.

The resort has installed 22 new TechnoAlpin fan snowguns hthroughout the Heavenly Valley snowmaking system. Two of these M-18 guns are mounted on arms providing further reach and hang time (for the snowflakes to fall to the ground) and even less intrusion onto the ski slope.

So long as temperatures are low enough, the snowmaking allows the resort to produce a solid and consistent snow base for a longer period and particularly at the start and end of ski season 2010.

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