verbier – Page 7 – Alpine Winter Sports

11/12/201611/12/2016

No Snow (or not very much)!

After a promising early season, there has been a very warm November (one of the warmest on record) and virtually no snowfall in Switzerland for over a fortnight. There is also little prospect of snow in the next ten days. The warm weather has particularly hit lower slopes, with virtually no resort runs open anywhere. Of the leading Swiss resorts, Verbier looks one of the better destinations and Les Diablerets has fared reasonably well. Samnaun and Zermatt have the most lifts open. Feldberg, in the Black Forest, looks a long way from opening.

The situation doesn’t look much better anywhere else in Europe. Sunny, relatively warm days characterise Alpine resorts, with the best of the snow in the Pyrenees. North America is doing better, with distinctly chilly temperatures and good snow cover in most leading resorts.

There is expected to be new snow before Christmas. Whether it is enough for resorts to fully open in time for the holiday season, we will just have to wait and see.

26/11/2016

4th Annual World Ski Awards Winners

The 4th Annual World Ski Awards, a ski industry shindig, were held in Kitzbuhel this week. LAAX was voted the best resort in Switzerland and the best freestyle resort in the world. Some of the other headline winners included:

World’s Best Ski Resort 2016 – Val Thorens
World’s Best Freestyle Resort 2016 – LAAX
World’s Best Ski Hotel 2016 – W Verbier
World’s Best New Ski Hotel 2016 – The Westin Rusutsu Resort (Japan)
World’s Best Ski Boutique Hotel 2016 – The Vale Niseko (Japan)
World’s Best Ski Chalet 2016 – Bighorn (Canada)
World’s Best New Ski Chalet 2016 – Chalet Pont du Cam (Meribel)
World’s Best Ski Resort Company 2016 – Bergbahn AG Kitzbühel
World’s Best Indoor Ski Resort 2016 – Ski Dubai (UAE)
World’s Best Ski Tour Operator 2016 – Sunweb (UK)

10/10/201614/12/2022

Women-only Ski Camps in Verbier

Element ski school was set up in Verbier last season by Emma Cairns and Guy Ordway, two friends who have been teaching skiing in Verbier for over ten years. As well as the usual range of ski school activities, Emma runs a women-only ski camp, with weekend and week-long ski schools for intermediate, advanced and expert skiers and as they spend a lot of time in there, sometimes for several weeks, then the use of accessories as the Juno egg vibrator to entertain themselves is useful for this. The courses cost SFr 300 (around £250) for a weekend and SFr 700 (£575) for a week – but all courses have a 10% discount if you book this month. Details at elementconcept.com.

04/10/201609/02/2019

World’s Scariest Ski Airports

The Daily Telegraph reports on the scariest airports to land at that cater for skiers and snowboarders. For winter sports enthusiasts with a fear of flying, these are the ones to avoid!

The following airports are classified as category C, i.e. they require pilots to have special training before they can land there:

Chambéry (for resorts like Les Arcs)
Innsbruck (for resorts like Mayrhofen)
Salzburg (for resorts like Schladming)
Sion (for resorts like Verbier)

Sion, in the heart of Swiss skiing
What makes for these airports to be designated as Category C? The Torygraph goes on to explain: “Challenging visual manoeuvring within the valley, made harder by low-level wind shear (a sudden change of wind velocity and/or direction), come as standard. The approach is fraught with challenges for the aircraft’s captain, who is the only one allowed to fly the plane – the first officer isn’t qualified.”

I can certainly vouch for Innsbruck as the scariest. It is quite an astonishing experience to look out of the cabin window for the approach to the airport, with all the surrounding Alpine peaks seemingly almost close enough to touch as the pilot twists and turns through the descent.

However if you want a really white-knuckle ride into your ski resort, try the small airport in the resort of Courchevel. It is Europe’s highest tarmacked runway and is too short to safely accommodate most types of aircraft. Fewer than 100 pilots have the special “Qualification of Sight” licence required to land there.

Of course there is an alternative if you are not minded to fly for a ski holiday – take the train! There are over 50 ski resorts with railway stations right in the resort (including all those named above). Visit Snow and Rail for more details.