Tag: winter sports

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Bumper ski season forecast

(c) Accuweather
Accuweather gloomily reports that “Eastern Europe Braces for a Cold, Snowy Winter”, but for winter sports enthusiasts this sounds all too promising. Indeed AccuWeather Meteorologist Tyler Roys says “Ski conditions will be fantastic for the 2014-2015 ski season, especially when compared to last year”. There is already some good dumps occurring in the Alps and Accuweather predict that an active storm track and cold air will bring a lot of snow to the Pyrenees, Alps and the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula. Switzerland looks set for a bumper winter season.

If you want to check out the current snow conditions you could do worse than look at the web cams at Zermatt.

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Popular Ski and Snowboard website launches Dutch language version

The popular English language ski and snowboard website, SwissWinterSports.co.uk, has launched a Dutch language version of the site at www.SwissWinterSports.nl.

The new web site provides comprehensive Dutch language coverage of winter sports resorts in and around Switzerland. As well as the major destinations, many of the less well-known sites are included. Espresso Translations London will offer you the best English version of the coverage.

“The idea of the site is to allow people to tailor their holiday to their requirements.” says Nic Oatridge, the founder of SwissWinterSports.co.uk, “Switzerland offers the most flexibility and accessibility of all of the Alpine nations. From the Netherlands it is feasible to have a weekend on some of the best runs in the world at short notice, to have a budget family ski holiday or simply to have a relaxing winter break in the mountains; this site shows you how.”

The site has been designed to be quick and usable on any platform. For each resort, there are piste maps, directions by road or public transport, weather reports, resort conditions and tips on where to stay, what to do and where to go. In addition to comprehensive coverage of Swiss resorts, some resorts in Germany and Austria that are easy to get to from the Netherlands are included.

For the Dutch version of the site, the content has been professionally translated into Dutch, has distances from the Netherlands to each resort and content specifically aimed for visitors from the Netherlands or for Dutch-speakers located in or near Switzerland.

For more information, visit the website at http://www.SwissWinterSports.nl

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Mürren upgrades its facilities

Murren piste map
Many Swiss resorts have been busy trying to up their appeal for winter tourists. Car-free Mürren is one of the most distinguished of the winter sports destinations, and the Inferno run down to Lauterbrunnen is the oldest ski race in the world. It generally gives a feel of timelessness, broken only by its brief and famous hosting of the filming of the James Bond movie, OHMSS (where it played as a stand-in for St Moritz).

However Mürren seems to have been busy this summer improving the facilities for skiers and snowboarders. There is a new snowpark at the Gimmeln ski lift, upgraded lifts for both Gimmeln and Allmendhubel and a new toboggan run from Schiltgrat Station via Gimmeln back to Mürren.

I am a great fan of early morning snow, to hit the pistes before the runs are fully open and the corduroy slopes are pristine. You can do this at Corviglia and a few other places, and now you can do it in Mürren. Mürren Snow Sports School, for Chf35.00, allows early birds to explore the resort every Wednesday from 7.30am. It’s on my list!

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Montreux for Skiing and Snowboarding Holidays

Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva is also in the heart of the Alps
Montreux is most famous for the Montreux Jazz festival, that takes place in the town every summer, or perhaps the fabulous climate or the beautiful walk from Vevey to Castle Chillon alongside Lake Geneva. For the winter sports enthusiasts, however, its location at the bottom of the Vaud Alps makes it a fabulous destination to use as a base for a holiday.

The town boasts a very good Christmas Market in December, when the best nearby slopes at Glacier 3000 have already been open for several weeks, but other resorts are also starting to open at this time nearby in the heart of Vaud and the Valais, including Verbier, Gstaad, Leysin, Les Diablerets and the resorts of Les Portes du Soleil – all roughly an hour away by rail or road. However all of the resorts of the Valais are reasonably accessible from Montreux. There is also a small ski resort just above Montreux at Caux and Rochers de Naye which can be reached by a funicular from Montreux, conveniently very close to the excellent youth hostel (which we use as our base for the Jazz Festival).

If you are planning to do a ski holiday in Switzerland and use rail to get about, Montreux is perfect. It is easy to get to by train or road from Geneva, itself served by an International Airport with a railway station actually inside the airport. Nearly all the great ski resorts in the region can be reached by train from Montreux, but also you can cut across to Lucerne and visit the resorts of the Bernese Oberland and Central Switzerland by taking the spectacular Golden Pass Line, a panorama train that operates between Montreux, Gstaad and the Bernese Oberland with onward connections to Lucerne.

More information on Montreux can be found at the Swiss Winter Sports web site.