Posts Tagged ‘snowboarding’
Top Tip – Free Cookies in Beaver Creek
The friendly folk in Beaver Creek want to make your ski holiday as enjoyable as possible. They know that a way to the heart is through the stomach, and this particularly true with children!
So, after a day on the slopes in Beaver Creek make sure you head to the Centennial Chairlift (Chair #6) at 3pm where you’ll find resort staff handing out hot, chocolate chip cookies. But don’t worry they are for adults too!
Beaver Creek Cookie Chef. Photo: MountainYahoo
Whistler Blackcomb beats average annual snowfall
Whistler Blackcomb has seen 186cm (73 inches) of fresh snow in the past 7 days, which takes the season’s total to 1,033cm (407 inches), beating their annual snowfall with three months remaining in the ski season.
“Each day over the past week I’ve been overhearing friends and guests’ claiming ‘this was the best day ever,’ as they describe their day at Whistler Blackcomb; claims that are immediately trumped the next day with the new ‘best day ever’ claim,” says Doug MacFarlane, Whistler Blackcomb Mountain Operations Manager. “And they’re right. Whistler Blackcomb has seen an incredible storm cycle resulting in 186 cm (73 inches) of snow this past week. Couple this with our operations crews efforts; grooming 1,000 fresh acres each night and patrol working hard to open alpine lifts as early as possible after each dump of snow, it’s an incredible time to ski and ride at Whistler Blackcomb.”
There are some amazing late season deals available to Whistler, starting from only £849pp for 7 nights at the Tantalus Resort Lodge, with the resort open until mid-May with skiing available on Blackcomb Mountain. Call the reservations team on 0131 243 8097 for more details.
To view other fantastic Whistler offers – click here
Where to find the best corduroy
We all love untouched powder and without doubt it’s the best ski and board experiencebut the second best has to be carving big GS turns down a perfectly groomed untouched corduroy slope. The experience is like skiing on silk with a fantastic smooth feeling under your planks. Here’s a quick guide on some of the resorts that pride themselves on their groomers and their grooming;
For many years Beaver Creek has boasted about its immaculately smooth trails and it certainly isn’t an empty boast. Try “Harrier” at the top of Centennial express which is a wide tree lined blue perfect for digging two big tram lines in the slope. Watch out though as the run at the bottom turns into a blackand can often have a few moguls – could turn a bit hairy!
Perfect corduroy aka "groomers" in Beaver Creek
Snowbombing 2011, Mayrhofen
Now that Easyjet have released their Easter flights for next year, I am starting to get pretty excited about my trip to the Snowbombing festival in Mayrhofen, Austria next April.
When it comes to my winter trips abroad, I have to admit that I am a sucker for ski/snowboarding in Austria. You will find that most skiers/snowboarders will agree that it is not only the huge ski areas, amazing snow conditions or great après ski that makes a memorable skiing/boarding trip, but it is the people that you are with, and the people you meet that makes it a fab one. Having snowboarded in most of the countries in the European Alps, and a few North American ones too; I have to admit, that the genuine welcome and general friendliness from the Austrian’s, for me, just can’t be beaten!
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Snowbombing, it’s a week long music festival similar to the festivals you get in the UK, but plonked into a lovely traditional Austrian town with some of the best skiing/boarding in the Alps. The festival is generally at the beginning of April so the weather is usually pretty good, with regular spring snowfalls to keep your days interesting. The locals absolutely love it! For local businesses it is a great end of season boost when over 2000 fun lovin’ Brits descend on the town- and they think we are great! They tell me that us Brits are respectful and are always generally polite during our stay. Honest, that’s what they tell me!
Ski Safety Tips
Kel from Mpora – Europe’s largest action sports video site – has put together some top tips for safety on the slopes.
After a while of thinking about how to write this article, I remembered that every sport has its risks and no one should ever be put off of trying anything new by what someone else says. This is not intended to scare someone into protecting themselves while they’re on a ski holiday or to scare them away from skiing altogether but to make sure that you have the maximum amount of fun while you are doing it. The safer you are, the more you push yourself and the more fun it becomes.
Check out the latest ski videos – all professional ski riders are always well equipped. Therefore parents really should protect their children from tip to toe to make them feel safe in the knowledge that after a fall, they’ll bounce right back up with only a plaster being needed to cover a minor scrape and the reason kids blast down a ski slope at breakneck speed is because they have no fear. Read the rest of this entry »
High and Wide – a week in Val Thorens
Après ski announcements don’t come much more euphoric than ‘you are on top of the world!’ and this is certainly how we felt during our sun-drenched week in Val Thorens this season (13th-20th March).
I was pleasantly surprised by the vast array terrain and facilities Val Thorens holds. Val Thorens is a purpose built resort sitting at 2300-2400 metres altitude. As our transfer bus dropped us off I realised immediately that Val Thorens was a layout of large concrete buildings of different shapes and sizes depending on their age. The aesthetics are unlikely to entice those looking for a ‘chocolate box’ Savoyard village but, whatever the resort lacks in appearance it makes up with functionality and when, being honest, do you really go to a ski resort to study architecture? Or to ski?
Simply put, Val Thorens is placed at the head of the Belleville valley. The stunning teeth of L’Aiguille de Peclet which look down on the resort village, act as a reminder of the vertical ascent still available at this altitude. Furthermore, the surrounding slopes are as wide as they are high with sweeping pistes rolling across the bowl within which Val Thorens sits.
