Despite having had its earliest opening in its 80 year history with ski lifts, due to huge snowfalls a year ago, Kitzbühel has been battling to shake off an image of being a potential early victim of global warming. The resort – which has one of the lowest major ski areas in the world – had a difficult winter in 2006-7 when the famous Hahnenkamm downhill race, in common with many others in the Alps and North America, had to be cancelled.
Continue reading ‘Kitzbühel claims snowfall bigger now than forty years ago’
Tourists to the Kitzbuhel Alps can buy a new lift pass that covers a ski area that is about half as previously sold. The all new Kitzbüheler Alpen AllStarCard covers 357 lifts, 1,081 kilometres of pistes, 90,820 vertical metres and 256 mountain restaurants between from Tirol to Salzburg.
Ski areas included in the ticket, which is valid for one day or longer, include Kitzbühel, the SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser-Brixental , the Schneewinkel area around St Johann, Hochtal Wildschönau, the Alpbach area, Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang and Zell am See-Kaprun which includes the highest ski area in the region, the Kitzsteinhorn glacier at 3,203m. A six day pass costs € 204,00 for adults or a full season ticket is € 497,00 if purchased before 4th December, € 555,00 afterwards. Children pay half price.
www.kitzalps.com
Teenage singing sensation Gabriella Cilmi is to launch the 08-09 winter sports season at Ischgl – in a concert that will also feature a guest appearance by Leona Lewis. It’s a double coup by the Austrian resort, which has a tradition of opening and closing its winters with gigs by huge stars.
Gabriella, whose debut single Sweet About Me was a worldwide hit after its release last March, will perform in the Tirolean village on Saturday November 29. Gabriella was born in Australia but has swiftly built a huge following in Britain and the rest of Europe after making her UK TV debut last December when she sang Sweet About Me on Later With Jools Holland. Her British bonds are growing. Her song Sanctuary featured in the film St Trinian’s and on its soundtrack and she shares a manager and UK record label (Island) with the Sugababes.
Special guest at the concert will be Britain’s Leona Lewis – her of the striking beauty and soaring voice – whose Spirit became the fastest selling debut album of all time. The lead-off single from the album, Bleeding Love, claimed the Number One spot for seven weeks, and the album sold a million copies in the UK in just five weeks. Leona received four prestigious nominations at the last Brit Awards, the UK equivalent of the Grammy Awards.
Leona first found stardom by winning British talent show The X Factor in 2006. At the 2008 Ischgl season-opening concert, the girls follow in a long line of headline acts that have launched the season, including Rihanna (last year), The Corrs, Lionel Richie, Ronan Keating and The Pussycat Dolls.
Entrance to the concert, which kicks off at 6pm, will be by valid lift-pass. A oneday lift ticket for 29 November will be 55 euros (covering skiing and the concert). A two-day lift ticket will cost 74.50 euros.
Skiing opens at Ischgl, one of Austria’s highest and most snowsure resorts, on November 28. The season runs until the beginning of May 2009.
www.ischgl.com
A special Smart car festival in the Austrian resort of Zell an See attracted 2,000 Smart car owners this past weekend.
One die hard Smart fan managed to drive the 840km (525 miles) from Hanover in Germany on 25 lires (about five gallons) of fuel, an average consumption of around 100mpg.
Clemens Krause made the journey in eleven hours never travelling faster than 95kph (59mph) and not using the fan, air conditioning or radio in order to minimize fuel consumption.
Krause was welcomed in resort by Rainer Edlinger, from the tourism association of Zell am See-Kaprun and is responsible for the field of New Media. He commented,
Even the increasing price of petrol cannot stop people from coming to Zell am See-Kaprun.”
Krause hopes that his trip, officially declared a world record, will be entered into the Guinness Book of Records.
Ski Total is offering the Chalet Christoporus in Obergurgl new this winter. The chalet sleeps up to 40 guests and prices, including flights and catered chalet board start at £499 ($1,200 USD) per person.
Ski Total and Esprit Ski, the family ski specialist, believe they are the only UK tour operators to offer catered chalets in this prestigious resort, which is set high at the end of the picturesque Ötz Valley. The highest village in Austria, the village centre benefits from having no through traffic at all in winter, and the ski area boasts an enviable snow record stretching normally from November right through until May.
Esprit Ski offers Chalets Verwall and Alpenblume, sleeping 31 to 46 respectively in family rooms and suites, with prices starting at £549 per adult with free child places available.
What’s believed to be a world-first solar-powered T Bar lift will help make the new ski lift connection between Westendorf and the rest of the SkiWelt this winter.
As previously reported the new connection involves the conveyor lift, a T Bar lift, a bridge over the main road at Brixen and a new eight passenger gondola, the “SkiWelt – Kitzbüheler Alpen”, to make the ascent up to Westendorf, and a new 4.5km run back down.
The ski tow is powered by a photovolatic system which even in poor weather has enough power to keep the lift running smoothly. The lift hasd been aptly named, “Sonnenlift”
www.skiwelt.at
The Kitzsteinhorn Mellow Parks on the glacier above Kaprun in Austria will be enlarged this winter with a superpipe. The new superpipe will be build near the summit station of the Sonnenkarbahnen, at around 3000m, between piste no. 1 and the Roxy park. This will be the only superpipe in the Salzburg region and one out of three in Austria. The pipe will be 150 metres long and the walls will be five metres high. Ther glacier ski area remains open for most of the year and is currently open for summer skiing and boarding so it seems likely that the superpipe will be a year round facility.