Serfaus
Austrian resort Serfaus has a big opening party planned from next weekend and this season will launch a new, "breakfast skiing" option from 15 December 2010
"We are all familiar with the phenomenon – first thing in the morning you push aside the curtain in your hotel room, excitedly that the snow god has deposited his white freight generously in the night. And indeed he has, hiding the entire Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis resort under a huge heap of icing sugar. You can't wait to plunge into the fleecy stuff, to surf down the mountain with skis or snowboard, to be at one with the elements. Only the mountain, the powder snow and me. You eat your breakfast hastily and soon you're at the valley station, waiting impatiently for the cable car to start at 9am." said a resort spokesperson.
The resort's new daily offer is to offer "First Tracks" 90 minutes before the regular lift opening time. It's a scheme common in North America but less frequently offered in Europe.
The price of 50 Euros per person (excluding lift pass) includes a tour escorted by the managers of the cable car operators or the ski school heads themselves plus an exclusive breakfast buffet on the mountain, which is served around 9am at the Sonnenburg family restaurant in Fiss or in the Ski Lounge in Serfaus. Reservations for the new programme have to be made by 4.30pm the day before at the cable car cash desk and you can only participate with a valid ski pass.