Cable Water Skiing On Snow ?

It's at this time of year the news of new hotels, lifts, pistes and everything else in ski resorts for next winter starts to appear.

Usually it's an old drag lift becoming a new chairlift, more snow making or a new luxury hotel but every now and then something new comes along.

Step forward duty-free paradise Livigno, in a fairly remote spot in the Italian Alps, but worth the effort if you want very affordable après skiing alongside a large ski area.

New for winter 2012-13 there is a 'Cable Snow Park' – a previously unknown concept that seems to be a development on the increasingly popular 'snow kiting' where skiers or boarders are strapped to a kite and dragged around a fairly horizontal snow field by the power of the wind.

In the case of Livigno's new cable snow park it's a machanised device with a cable dragging you around rather than mother nature.

Accessed from lift number 20 in the Fontana sector the new track is designed to entice wakeboarders and kitesurfers on to the snow as well as snowboarders and freestyle skiers.

The track will offer a variety of difficulty levels from beginners to advanced, and feature terrain park favourites including rails, box, a wall ride, rainbow rail and jumps.