Archive for December, 2011
An Epic adventure…
Superlatives can be overused in the ski industry. We are sometimes guilty of bigging-up things as ‘awesome!’ or ‘fantastic!’ and that means that when you need a really big impact word – well… where do you go?! So with this in mind I headed out to Colorado to check out some of the Vail Resorts family and see if their ‘Epic’ tag rang true…I wasn’t disappointed.
The Vail resorts portfolio includes Vail, Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, Keystone and the Arapahoe Basin in Colorado, as well as Heavenly and Northstar in California. Each resort has its own character so there’s no ‘production line’ feel to things but the Vail Resorts brand does assure the guest of consistently high levels of customer service and excellent on-mountain facilities. Their Rock Resorts hotel brand maintains these standards off the slopes too. Read the rest of this entry »
72 Hours in Courchevel
I’m sitting in our slopeside chalet watching the snow fall with a coffee in hand, looking back on the weekend and wishing I could stay for the rest of the week!
It has been 72 hours of full-on Courchevel 1850 experience. We arrived in the village on Friday afternoon, passing by the many boutiques, bars and restaurants on our way to Le Pilatus restaurant just above the resort’s Altiport (in case you prefer to take your private jet. I left mine at home). After an afternoon of work, we returned to our chalet (complete with sauna and pool table) to get ready for the opening night of the new 5* Hotel K2 (a sister property to the Kilimandjaro). And it certainly didn’t disappoint – both the hotel rooms and chalets were stunning and the facilities excellent (including private pools in the chalets, iPads throughout, fantastic restaurant). Read the rest of this entry »
Snow, snow and even more snow!
I woke up on Sunday morning and it was snowing!! How can someone in their late 20’s (come on allow me some poetic license) get so excited every time it snows? If you know the answer please let me know! So I thought to myself, if it’s snowing here in Edinburgh then it MUST be snowing in our favourite ski resorts across the world – right? RIGHT!
It started to snow across France on Friday, across Switzerland on Saturday and it’s not stopped since. In fact my email inbox is full of like minded people getting really excited about the snowfall. Have a look at this picture that has just been sent to my colleague Eve (one of her friends is in Val d’Isere and like a kid at Christmas, that’s his car!)
Dude, Where’s my car?
Did someone say it’s snowing!?
Following one of the warmest and driest Novembers on record, in both the UK and Europe, it now seems as if winter is truly upon us. As temperatures dropped over the weekend all eyes became focused on the snow reports, hoping and praying that it could only mean one thing…snow is on the way!
After weeks of waiting and speculation on when the snow was going to arrive, Saturday evening witnessed the first substantial fall of the winter across the Alps. As curtains twitched on Sunday morning it came to the delights of many that winter had arrived, and as reports started circulating the UK media and social networking sites on Sunday I’m sure I wasn’t the only person to breathe a sigh of relief!
Not only did it snow on Saturday night, it continued into Sunday, Monday and it’s still snowing today in many European resorts. In Val d’Isere up to 80cm of fresh snow has fallen over the Fornet Glacier, 50cm over Solaise and 30cm over Bellevarde. Meribel, Courchevel, Les Deux Alpes and Val Thorens have also been blanketed by snow, however the clear winner with close to a metre of snow is Serre Chevalier which now has an upper base of 190cm, the best in Europe! Read the rest of this entry »
Whistler: The most skiable terrain in the World
Whistler has the most open terrain IN THE WORLD right now! I know we make a big fuss about Whistler but no wonder – they’ve had over 10 feet of snow fall this season alone!
Today the Peak Chair opens, tomorrow Harmony Express opens – I have one question for myself, what am I doing sitting here at my desk? I should be there…
Of course I’m here so I can book holidays for those who are able to take time off at this time of year (and beyond) – I won’t get to ski until Mid March and only then if we are quiet enough, one of the pitfalls of working in the ski industry, we’re busy when the snow is falling and everyone else is skiing. Read the rest of this entry »
