Friday 11th September 2009

What our customers say about our service:   

 

" I received my snowboard last night, excellently packaged, fast delivery and even with a free method magazine, nice touch, thoroughly enjoyed looking through that last night.  So overall, thank you! If you would like me to do any online reviews to credit your great work here please let me know where I can find them, and I will be obliged to give you guys a glowing review.  Many thanks, James"

 

Wednesday 09 September 2009

 

The sun has been shining on the New Zealand resorts this week and the snow is in superb shape, with Cardrona reporting the best conditions it's had in ten years.

Mount Hutt  this week (c/o Mark Coulter)

Coronet Peak - Wednesday

The conditions at our featured New Zealand resorts are generally reported to be superb, with packed and groomed snow on the main runs and skier packed and tracked conditions away from the groomed runs.

According to our snow overview, the weather has been predominantly sunny this week on both the North and South Islands, providing excellent visibility to enjoy the excellent riding, though heavy clouds are forecast to move in for Thursday, possibly bringing a light dusting of new snow.

Cardona (170cm) is currently reporting the best snow base they have enjoyed for ten years, and the riding is excellent as a result. A storm cycle last week brought the resort another 85cm of snow over a 10-day period and elevated the resort's snowfall total to 317cm (125 inches), with a month still to go in the season. Cardrona's previous best season was 2004!

Elsewhere, the deepest snow base in New Zealand is reported at Turoa (244cm) on the North Island followed by Whakapapa (216cm) on the same Island, where both of these resorts report an average snow base of more than two metres.

The deepest base on the South Island is reported at Treble Cone (186cm) on Monday, with The Remarkables (180cm) only 6cm behind in second place with an average depth of 180cm.

Monday 09 February 2009

Sun shines for Luttman Johnson Challenge

In a week of mixed weather, the sun shone on Zermatt last Wednesday as the Ski Club hit town with their annual restaurant race, the Luttman Johnson Challenge.

Start of the race

Team Ski Heroes

Team The Puckers

Team Bananas

Team Gringo

Team Ski Club!

When someone asks what the Luttman Johnson Challenge is all about it is sometimes hard to explain, but in a nutshell the day is about having as much fun as possible on the slopes of Zermatt whilst making a fool of yourself in fancy dress! It is a fun day out for resort workers and those on holiday and really is an amzing sight seeing teams dressed as bananas, Mexicans, pole dancers and nuns taking over the mountain!

Thirty six teams took part in the 2009 Luttman Johnson with some choosing to take part in the 'race' which involved visiting 11 mountain restaurants, and the others took part in the 'trail' which involved visiting 7 restaurants

The aim of the race is to visit pre-assigned mountain restaurants between 8.30am and 4pm, going as fast as possible between each restaurant and spending as long as possible in each one.

As the teams gathered outside the Hotel Pollux on the main street of Zermatt, it was clear to see that some teams only had one thing on their mind and that was winning. Other teams took a more relaxed approach as they turned up closer to 10.00am than 8.30am to start the race!

It was a brilliant day, with every team raving about how much fun they had had. Every team had a story to tell about their day including tails of tumbles, sabotaging and how many different types of drinks they had managed over the day!

The highlights of the day included watching The Mexicans complete the whole race on a tandem set of skis, the Puckers playing ice hockey on ech run between each restaurants and one of The Nuns taking the biggest tumble of the day as they ran down the streets of Zermatt to the finish point at the Hotel Pollux.

With teams all taking different routes between the restaurants it was always hard to know who would win. Most teams opted to have Zermatt's famous apres ski spot, the Hennu Stall, as their last restaurant of the day, however, so the atmosphere was something else as the teams had a quick dance on the tables before speeding to the finish.

As the cow bell sounded to mark the end of the Challenge, racers began to relax as they enjoyed a well deserved apres beer. Ski Club reps Huw and Ben plus Carrie from Ski Club HQ then ran off to work out exactly who had come out on top.

Teams had to wait until the prize giving that evening to work out who were the winners, and what a prize giving it was! The evening started with the viewing of the Official Luttman Johnson DVD which was hillarious and then after a few more beers the awards were handed out.

The first awards went to the fastest female team which was the Foxy Ladies, the best fancy dress which went to the Puckers who were dressed as  ice hockey players, and there were awards for the team with the biggest age difference (!) and the best aggregate age (!!) which went to the Ptarmigans and The Zermatt Bombers respectively.

The big awards went to the Ballerinas who won the Resort Workers Trail, the Two Planks who took the prize for the Visitors Trail, the winners of the Resort Workers Race were the Ski Heroes and the Foxy Ladies were the winners of the Visitors race.

The day was a huge success and after the teams picked up their trophies and watched again the DVD of the day, expertly put together by Mark Wainwright of Sparkys Bar, the teams went on to party at the Ski Club sponsored Show Love Tour organised by Natives in Nellys bar.

The party kicked off and despite a full day racing around the mountain most teams had the energy to dance until the early hours. A perfect end to a perfect day. See you again next year! And you can re-live the whole day on SkiTV.

The Ski Club would like to thank the following people who helped make the Luttman Johnson such a success; Ski Club Reps Huw and Ben, Hotel Pollux, Hotel Tannehof, Zermatt Tourism, Zermatt Bergbahnen, natives.co.uk, Mad Dog Ski, Summit Ski and Snowboard School, Stoked Ski and Snowboard School, Nellys Bar, North Wall Bar, Mark Wainwright, Sparkys Bar, Victor Cortez at Alpine Photoshop and local Zermatt shops, Matterhorn Sport, Slalom Sport, Davis, Anorak, Azzurra Sport, Burgener Sport, FLEXRENT, Julen Sport, Triftbach Sport and Why Not.

Thursday 15 January 2009:

 

The high pressure which has dominated weather in the Alps for the past few weeks, is set to make way for snowier and milder weather in parts of Switzerland, Italy and Austria early next week.

St Moritz-Friday

Zugspitze, Germany-Friday

Zermatt-Friday

We've been waiting a little while for another good dump of fresh stuff, and whilst the consistently cold weather has kept the snow in good shape, powder hounds will be pleased to see what the weather has in store over the next few days.

It looks like Switzerland will receive the lion's share of this weather front, with Verbier expecting a whopping 44cm of fresh snow in the next five days, St Moritz 50cm and Zermatt 38cm!

French resorts will also get a look in, with Les Deux Alpes expecting 20cm of snow on Sunday night which should help to boost the already good conditions, and a further 18cm of snow is forecast for Monday.

In Tignes, conditions are still very good thanks to the cold weather and lovely sunshine this week but a top up of 14cm is forecast for Sunday, which should get heavier on Monday night.

Parts of Austria already had some snow this week, with the Piztal area receiving 15cm of snow and powder conditions can already be found across the whole resort. Whilst the weekend is forecast to be largely sunny, clouds will be gathering again by Tuesday when a further 13cm is expected, and Bad Gastein further East should also see 22cm fall by Tuesday.

In Italy, Selva Gardena received 8cm of fresh snow during the middle of the week, and a heavier band of snow is expected to move over the area on Monday night, bringing with it up to 20cm of fresh snow.

Back in the UK, snow fell across most of the Scottish ski resorts this week and the forecast is for temperatures to fall across Scotland over the weekend and more snow to fall from Friday onwards. Glencoe has 25cm of snow forecast and all of the other resorts are expecting at least 10cm.

So it looks like it might be time to put the sunglasses and sunscreen away for the time being, and get those goggles and fat skis back out by the front door...

Thursday 8 January 2009:

 

Music legends Joe Cocker and Uriah Heep will perform at the Snowpenair concert on Saturday April 4th.

The artists have announced plans to perform live at the SnowpenAir Concert on Kleine Scheidegg above Grindelwald and Wengen in Swiss Jungfrau in April at 2061m.

Rockers Uriah Heep have been going for 40 years, and the band has toured the world for years with a changing line-up and a reputation as a classic live band for early 70s hard rock.

Wengen isn't the only resort to stage an open air concert. Ishgl is famous for its season opening and closing concerts which have attracted some big names like Elton John, and Crans Montana also hosts the Caprices Festival in April.  

 

January 9th 2009:

 

Magic Spikers are a popular accessory this season due to exceptionally cold weather.  With temperatures of -20 and more in places walkers and skiers have found comfort in the Magic spiker which allows easy walking on ice and snow.  Easily sipping over foortwear it can be taken off and put on whenever needed. 

 

Over three million people will be heading abroad over Christmas and the new year despite the recession, according to figures released by the Abta travel association.

Abta said the Christmas break would see more than two million people leaving the UK through Heathrow and other BAA airports alone, for snowy as well as sunny destinations.

About 210,000 people will be travelling to Europe by Eurostar and a similar number would take their car by rail under the sea or travel by ferry.

The good early season snowfalls in Europe have helped to get the ski season started early and Geneva will be the main gateway for UK skiers flying out to the Alps.

However, the Association acknowledges that many bookings for holidays being taken now were made before the economic crisis really bit. Tour Operators are also being quick to point out that the best deals around at the moment are package holidays, which are often all inclusive and based on last year's prices which offered a better exchange rate.

Skiers who haven't already booked may be tempted head out of the 'eurozone' to Eastern Europe where they may find their pound stretches further. Or could take advantage of the last minute deals currently being offered by tour operators. Look in our member's discounts section to see which companies offer the best discounts for Ski Club members, and check our online guide to saving money on the slopes.

Monday 22nd December:

 

The heaviest Arctic blast in nearly three decades has coated the normally sunny city.

The city is usually associated with desert heat, where visitors have to retreat to the air-conditioned casinos. However visitors to Las Vegas are now being greeted by the worst snowstorms in the Nevada city in 30 years.

The US National Weather Service has said that the city faces its biggest snowstorms since 7.8 inches of snow was registered in 1979. Schools have been closed, flights grounded, and major roads have been closed as the iconic Strip was buried under five inches of snow with more forecast.

"This is the most snow we've had in Las Vegas in almost 30 years," said Chris Stachelski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. He added that the freak weather represents "a significant historical event".

The snowstorms appear to be part of a freezing weather pattern sweeping across the United States.

For more info and photos on this story go to www.timesonline.co.uk

Tuesday 16th December 2008:

Extremely heavy snowfall forced Val d’Isère, Saas Fee and Alagna to temporarily close on Monday, whilst Tignes only managed to open 2 lifts due to the extreme weather.

Val d'Isère-Monday (c/o John at YSE)

Zermatt-Monday

The weekend skiing in France was fantastic with largely sunny skies on Saturday and Sunday combined fresh powder off-piste. However Monday wa a completely different story in the Espace Killy. A metre of snow had fallen since Sunday morning and was still coming down hard on Monday. Tignes only managed to open two lifts on Monday morning, including one drag lift on the beginner slopes and the Tichot chair from Val Claret.

It was a similar story in the northern Italian Alps, close to the French and Swiss borders, where it has been snowing extremely heavily. Alagna has received 100cm of snow since Sunday morning and all the lifts were shut on Monday due to huge amounts of fresh snow.

Zermatt and Saas Fee both got lots of snow on Monday, and Saas Fee had to temporarily close as a result of the high winds and heavy snow, but conditions should be fantastic when they re-open.

Elsewhere in the Alps, the sun has been getting through and resorts in the Southern Dolomites enjoyed a bright weekend.

The main event of the Whistler's 2008/09 winter season, the opening of the heavily promoted Peak 2 Peak Gondola happened Tuesday The $52m lift will set new world records for height above the ground at its highest point (435m/ 1,427 feet) and the longest unsupported span for a lift of this kind at 3.024km/1.88miles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The launch of this mountain marvel set to become a new Canadian tourism icon will forever revolutionize the way visitors experience this all-season resort.” said a resort spokeswoman.
Plenty of activities and celebrations are planned for opening day, beginning with an official ceremony and performances atop of both Whistler and Blackcomb mountains.
Following a traditional ribbon cutting at 11 a.m., the PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola will depart both terminals with its first guests on board. Those guests will include ‘Ride of Their Life' winners, 22 well-deserving Whistler citizens who were nominated by the community for their passion for life in Whistler.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Gondola will then run throughout the afternoon, open to all guests - skiers, snowboarders and sightseers. After a historic day on the mountain, the celebration continues into the evening, with a ‘Grand Apres' in Skiers Plaza, live performances, film, DJs and family-friendly entertainment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday 9th December 2008:

Check out the latest snow on our snow reports page http://www.sandownactivesports.com/shop.php/snow-reports/i_9.html .

Lecht ski area-Thursday

Ladbrokes spokesman Nick Weinberg said, "We're frozen with fear at the prospect of a white Christmas. Interest in the traditional festive wager has gone into overdrive this year."

The predictions have moved Ladbrokes to cut the chance of a white Christmas in London to 11-4 and 3-1 following another run of money. The bookmaker was originally offering 7-1 for snow on December 25 in the capital. But plummeting temperatures means that a white Christmas could cost bookies up to £1m.

HEAVY WEATHER NOT AS BAD AS PREDICTED

Forecasters predicted that up to 10 to 20cm (4 to 8in) of snow would fall in some areas on Wednesday night, and power companies were on stand-by in case of cable problems. However, Scotland escaped the worst blizzard predictions, with snow falling mainly on the hills of northern England and eastern parts of Scotland

 

The Scottish ski areas were expecting a heavy dump of snow, allowing Cairngorm and the Nevis Range to open this weekend, but in the end they received a light dusting. The Lecht however is still planning to open for limited snowsports on Friday, with a couple of the main lifts in operation.