Ski holidays and winter sun are top of the agenda when looking to book an affordable low-fare winter break in 2008/9. The introduction of Liverpool - Innsbruck and Edinburgh - Geneva earlier this year opened up new markets for independent winter-sports enthusiasts this coming season. Favourite city breaks destinations such as Paris and Krakow can now be explored from Edinburgh, whilst Prague and Venice are now available from Belfast.

New routes this winter from Manchester

easyJet will also launch two new routes from its new base at Manchester this winter, to Sofia (Bulgaria) and Geneva (Switzerland). The Sofia route which will commence on 11 December and the Geneva route on 12 December, will be available from just £33.99 one way and £29.99 one way respectively.

London Luton and Gatwick winter schedule

Seats from London Luton and London Gatwick this winter will be available from 14 July.

To pick up easyJet’s famously low fares, book as far in advance as possible. Seats are on sale now!

This year’s event, run in association with Dainese, is growing further with big developments in the Saas-Fee snowpark. The park’s moved higher up the glacier and there are more kickers than ever. Park shaper Niklas Hoglund is sure to pull off a perfectly shaped Big Air showcase kicker for the competition. The event will be filmed for International Television broadcast then distributed across the globe by Quattro Media. The TV programme and news highlights will also be available once again in IPOD and 3GP phone formats for people to download from the website.

On the day you can expect to see International and National team riders, aspiring pro’s and many people from the freestyle skiing community getting involved to make it a day to remember. You can check out the latest event schedule by clicking here.

Saas-Fee is the perfect location for the comp due to the north facing glacier, which keeps the snow in great condition and the safety standards high. For everything to do in Saas-Fee check out www.saas-fee.ch. For accommodation whilst in Saas-Fee check out www.uniquedom.com, www.ferienart.ch and www.duglacier.ch.

TEAM MANAGER + RIDER INFORMATION

This year’s main discipline is Big Air. There will also be a Rail Jam session for athletes to show their style for the TV crews. All of the event details can be seen by clicking here and timings can be seen by clicking here. To submit an entry please save the PDF or Word Document from the COMPETITION page of the website and email it to admin@saasfeeride.com . You can also print and send it to Ride Freesport, Hotel Dom, 3906 Saas-Fee, Switzerland. The final start list will be made on the 17th July and displayed on the competition page of the website.

Most athletes will have the opportunity to appear in the 24 minute TV programme that will gain over 400 hours of television air time across the globe. Athletes will also have access to the photography taken of themselves featured in the results pages of the website.

The opening of the Heavenly Valley Chair will provide access to some of Hotham’s signature terrain such as Imagine, Milky Way, Black Snake, Brockhoff and Purgatory Spur. The resort’s new snowmaking expansion into Heavenly Valley has played a critical role in topping up the natural snowfall in the area

Mount Hotham and neighbouring Dinner Plain Alpine Village will be hosting the third annual Mountain Fresh Festival from July 18th to 23rd. The six-day winter festival of delicious regional food and cool climate wines from the Alpine Valleys will incorporate a diverse program of individual events held at venues that will strongly feature food and wine from the Alpine Valleys Wine Region. From wine tastings and master classes, to foodie films, pampering sessions and much more, there will be something for everyone at the festival.
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Russia’s former president Vladimir Putin, a keen skier and personally instrumental in winning the 2014 Olympics for the Black Sea resort of Sochi, is reported to have bowed to growing pressure from environmental campaigners regarding the location of some of the venues for the Games.

The ski area borders a national park that’s home to 6,000 types of flora and fauna, including 100 endangered species and billed as one of the world’s last untouched eco-systems. The area is next to a a UNESCO World Heritage site, home to such endangered species as the West Caucasian chamois mountain goat.

The changes to plans for the venues for the Games including moving the proposed site of the bobsleigh run and some ski runs away from the protected areas. A report by Russian news agency ITAR-Tass, quoted Olympics construction boss Viktor Kolodyazhny as saying that following the changes they would try to complete work on time. Putin is reported to have replied “’We will try’—that’s not an answer.”

Construction had not begun on the venues, despite years of announcements of massive funding being available. Prime Minister Putin had recently announced the availability of $12bn in private and public money for development.
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One by-product of the remarkable new Lötschberg Base tunnel which opened last winter in Switzerland. Cutting rail journey times from Zurich to ski resorts in the south of the country by about an hour, is that every second, about 100 litres of naturally geo-thermally warm water (about 20°C) flow out of the tunnel.

To protect the local River Kander, a spawning ground for the endangered Lake Trout, this mountain water must be cooled during the winter months. Only then can the warming of the Kander be kept below an acceptable 0.5°C.

To take best advantage of this natural resource a new tropical greenhouse, a unique, international geothermal project, is under construction at Frutigen, a town linked to the nearby ski area of Adelboden. The facility will take waste heat and water from the Lötschberg tunnel and use it to grow tropical fruit and breed warm-water fish in the Swiss Alps.

The warm and pure mountain water is reported to be an ideal medium for the breeding of the warm-water fish and the large amount of residual energy can be used in the production of tropical fruit as well as for heating local buildings.
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Colorado resorts, in common with leading mountain destinations across North America, provide guarantees of up to $2m to airlines to protect them from possible losses in operating routes to the mountains in winter on marginal financial models. The current climate of rising fuel costs and the economic downturn means that these guarantees are needing to rise by up to a third for airlines to be able to continue to provide services.

The pictures is mixed across the state for 2008-9 with some resorts managing to increase the number of flights and others staying about the same. Aspen is believed to be the only major resort that does not pay subsidies and operates one of the world’s busiest airports for private charter aircraft.

Maintaining air services top the states ski areas was described as, “Essential” by one executive.
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Home of the African continent’s highest bar, and normally the first southern hemisphere ski area to open each winter, Tiffindell’s success over the past 15 years has beern in paet due to snowmaking expertise learned in New England and in part due to the area’s location on the Northern Cape, where snowfalls can be big enough to close access roads and leave the resort snowed-in on occasion.

Currently the ski area has just over a kilometre of runs and a 90m vertical served by several portable surface lifts, along with accommodation for 150 people. Demolition of the existing accommodation will be carried out and new accommodation will cater for 250 guests, whilst the ski runs will be extended eight-fold to about 10km (six miles) and chairlifts will be installed. The resort hopes to capture a greater share of the domestic market of 100 000 South Africans who travel to overseas skiing destinations each year.
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Otten then began buying other areas in New England including Killington and Sunday River’s neighbour Sugarloaf – two of the last ski areas to be sold during the company’s period of decline. After establishing the American Skiing Company Otten extended his resort empire across the US to encompass 10 resorts including Heavenly (sold to Vail) in California and Steamboat (sold to Intrawest) in Colorado. The company took on a small ski hill near Park City, Park West, renamed it The Canyons, and grew it to be one of the largest ski areas in North America.

The Canyons was sold for $123 million to a subsidiary of Toronto-based resort operator Talisker Corporation. The resort had been put up for sale a year ago and initially attracted interest from Vail. In all, American Skiing raised about $600 million by selling its resorts, using the money to pay off debt and compensate preferred shareholders who wanted the company to be closed down.

Talisker own interests in the two other Park City ski areas, Deer Valley and Park City Mountain Resort leading to unconfirmed speculation that the chances of a ski link between the three resorts, creating North America’s largest single ski area, may increase.
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Two direct services each week will stop at Moûtiers, Aime-La-Plagne and Bourg St Maurice serving ski areas including Courchevel, La Plagne, Tignes, Méribel, La Rosiere and Les Arcs. Return fares start from £269 return.

The service has become increasingly popular thanks to the opening of the new station at St Pancras contrasting with widely reported problems for air travellers. The train also appeals to the estimated one percent of travellers who make the environment a priority when booking their holiday.

Whilst airlines are reducing baggage allowances and increasing charges for hold baggage, rail travellers can take an extra item of luggage on board the train at no extra cost.

Studies have also shown that the train can beat the car and air travel in time it takes from central London to the Alps, with the airline equivalent of getting to the airport, getting through immigration, waiting for the plane, flying, waiting for baggage, getting through immigration and transferring to the resort taking longer in some cases. There is also likely to be less stress.
“These services are very popular year on year as our travellers greatly value the seamless travel and their arrival in the stations located high in the French Alps, close to their resorts,” said Simon Montague, Eurostar’s director of communications.

Hundreds of other resorts across Europe are also easy to reach by rail with a few changes of train en route. Many Austrian and Swiss ski centres have rail stations in resort.
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Most of New Zealand’s ski areas are basking in deep powder as heavy snowfall and some extreme weather conditions forced some resorts to close temporarily until the storm passed.

Cardrona was typical reporting 60 cm (two feet) of natural snow falling over the three days to Saturday but with high winds and poor visibility forcing the resort to close for thee day.

Meanwhile The Remarkables has announced that they will celebrate the opening of The Stash® on Saturday, July 26th. This will be the third Stash to open in the world, and the first in the southern hemisphere. Conceived by Jake Burton and Burton team riders it involves using natural terrain features rather than machine-made snow structures for terrain park design.

“The grand opening of The Stash in New Zealand will be a groundbreaking session, giving the public and our Burton team riders a chance to ride this new style of The Stash that uses rock features unique to The Remarkables’ natural terrain,” says Jeff Boliba, Global Resort Director for Burton Snowboards.

Located in the bowls of Serpentine and the Galleries trails, The Stash is created for intermediate and advanced riders. The kilometer-long Stash run provides riders with an organic, big mountain terrain park that follows the natural lines of the mountain. Riders will discover rock-wall rides, log jibs, cliff drops, a stone hut and other one-of-a-kind obstacles hidden away in The Stash run. An all-natural environment, The Stash uses no metal or plastics to create obstacles, only stone, wood, trees, dirt and rocks. Even the signs that direct riders to The Stash are hand-carved out of stone and wood and are designed to be jibbed.

The Stash can also be found in Avoriaz, France and Northstar-at-Tahoe, USA.
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