Alpine Winter Sports – Page 52 – Everything you need to know about skiing and other Alpine winter sports

13/02/201413/02/2014

Winter Olympics ski injuries

Watching Sochi and all those talented athletes tumbling on snow and ice reminds me of how their dedication must be matched in equal measure by sheer guts. So it was with interest I read an article about the injuries that winter sports athletes get.

The article quotes Lucy Macdonald, physio at Octopus Clinic Physio (which has worked with Team GB’s ski team), who says that the most common injuries for freestyle skiers are:

Nasty pelvic fractures from performing stunts and riding rails
Ligament damage in the knees, as well as damage to the meniscus and cartilage.
Labral tear and cartilage damage in the hips – Apparently most activities only require the hips to move backward and forward, whilst skiing demands that the hips follow lateral outward motions.
Shoulder fractures and tears from landing and stretching injuries.
Traumatic injuries as well as wear and tear of the back.

So be careful next time you’re in the park and you fancy trying out a little slopestyle!

01/02/201414/09/2014

February Snow Conditions and Deals

The winter sports season is approaching its peak period, and the prospects for snow conditions are promising. Temperatures have dropped, new snow is forecast throughout the Alps and conditions are generally good. However the outlook is still for the weather to be warmer than the seasonal average and not particularly sunny, with the northern Alps possibly experiencing the dreaded Föhn, with its potentially dramatic increase in temperatures. Meanwhile the southern Alps has a considerable risk of avalanches, possibly rising to a high risk.

Looking around the resorts, all but a few of the low-lying resorts are fully or near-fully open. Across over 150 open resorts in Switzerland, the average snow depth at the valley stations is 50cm, with many reporting over a metre. The top stations average 105cm and Andermatt has a massive 4 metre base at the top. There seem to be no resorts covered by the Snow’n’Rail scheme that have anything less than good snow conditions.

With it being peak period, the deals and discounts around are not so plentiful. Swiss Railways has some interesting discounts in February for tobogganists, though, with a 30% discount on combined travel ticket, lift pass and toboggan hire at Fräkmüntegg (Pilatus) and Preda/Bergün. Futhermore there is massive 50% discount on the same offer for Klewenalp.

Bergün is probably the best place in the world to toboggan, amidst the dramatic scenery of the Rhaetian Railways UNESCO-recognised section. Klewenalp is probably the best place to toboggan in central Switzerland with a 9 km run from Klewenalp to Stockhütte-Emmetten and a tough 4km airboard and toboggan run near the Chälen chairlift.

There is also a 30% discount on travel and a return lift journey at Engelberg-Brunni, the sunny side of the valley, during February – mainly aimed at people wanting a walk and a meal in the mountains. Both the Klewenalp and Engelberg offers may be sufficiently attractive for some people to use in combination or even instead of Snow’n’Rail – for example for a mixed group of skiers and non-skiers.

Further details on the February Swiss Railway discounts at their web site.

15/01/201407/01/2015

Ski by Train

I have just launched a new web site – really an extension of my existing ski site www.swisswintersports.co.uk – that specifically focuses on Alpine resorts you can get to by train. The site is at www.snowandrail.com, and is based largely on my own experiences. The focus is still mainly Switzerland, just because the rail network is so much more extensive and efficient in Switzerland, but there are a number of Austrian resorts included and even three French resorts.

The scope currently is only resorts with a railway station in the resort – or a cable car link from a railway station to the resort. In time I might extend or repackage the site to include places where there are scheduled bus services from a nearby railway station, or even (as is often the case in France) the need to take a taxi for the last leg.

If any readers of this blog have some experience of resorts that they got to be railway that are not covered in the site, or know of good accommodation near the station, please let me know.

In the meantime, I need to do more research! Where are those skis…

02/01/201404/10/2014

January Offers from Swiss Railways

The Snow’n’Rail scheme from Swiss Railways provides a 20% discount on the combined public transport and lift passes for a whole host of resorts in Switzerland. Additionally there are often even better offers available, and January sees some really brilliant ones.
Ski Airolo
Airolo is a pretty little village, famous as the home resort of Lara Gut, with enough slopes to keep most skiers and snowboarders happy for a day trip. They will be particularly happy with the massive 50% discount offered in January. You can get to Airolo from many locations, including Basel and Zurich, without changing trains – and there are not many resorts you can say that of. Plus it is the largest Italian-speaking resort in Switzerland.

If you do take the train to Airolo you can either take the courtesy bus from the station or walk to the bottom station – head left out of the station.

Other noteworthy deals are the 30% discount for Distentis (here), a favourite for freeriders, Meiringen-Hasliberg (here), convenient for Basel and Berne, Sattel (here), convenient for Zug and Lucerne, and Braunwald (here), a direct train trip from Zurich.