J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

German car manufacturer BMW is working with more than 20 ski areas in the big four Alpine nations and three other countries to provide ski movies of recreational skiers zipping down their slopes.

BMW and Skiline simply require skiers and boarders to ski down the selected slope at each area carrying their electronic lift ticket. Then pass holders type in their pass number online and can see a video of their descent via: www.bmw-xdrive-guide.com

BMW is using the service to promote their xDrive and aaward a series of electronic 'badges' to anyone wishing to participate.

You receive a Destination Badge - for the purchase of a ski pass at one of the destinations participating in the BMW xDrive Cup – these include Lech and Seefeld in Austria, Chamonix and Megeve in France, Davos, Grindelwald and Gstaad in Switzerland as well as Hafjell in Norway, Sierre Nevada in Spain and Garmisch in Germany.

There's also a Performance Badge - for each 5000 (altitude) metres, stored on a ski pass, a Skimovie Badge - for a personal ski movie on the specially-marked Ski Movie slopes and a Speedphoto Badge - for the ski run on a specially-marked SpeedPhoto piste among many others.

Santa has been spotted en-route to the homes of good girls and boys around the world.

In fact it may not have been the real Santa as Whistler Blackcomb held its annual Ski with Santa Day on Saturday and hosted over 100 people who dressed in full Santa Claus or Mrs. Claus suits to ski and ride for free.

With 134cm (4.4 feet) of fresh snowfall in the past week, and 322cm (10.5ft) in December alone; Whistler Blackcomb is now 100% Open for the season with 5,280 vertical feet of descent spread over 8,171 acres, North America's largest ski area.

Superb! thanks guys that's made my Christmas!

Cow fighting is a popular spectator spot in Switzerland, and one of the biggest bouts of the year takes place in Flaschen, at the base of the Torrent lift in the ski resort of Leukerbad (www.torrent.ch) each March.

The Valais Hérens cows fight ("...a part of their natural behaviour," the resort is keen to stress) for victory and hierarchical dominance in the Flaschen snow arena.

Eight Hérens cows will fight for victory. Unlike the conventional fights in Valais, where several cows compete against each other at the same time, in Flaschen the cows only fight in one-on-one duels.

Only young animals can take part, those that are in the "First Lactation Heifers" category. The location and wintry conditions of the Flaschen cow fights make them unique.

To prevent the animals from slipping and incurring injury, machines prepare the snow in the arena beforehand.

This year will mark the eighth time the cow fights in the snow have taken place here. The "queen" will be crowned at the valley station of the Torrent cable car from 1:30pm on 16th March 2013.

Spectators in the Flaschen snow arena enjoy a perfect view of the duelling Hérens. Admission is free, and visitors can also enjoy musical performances and refreshments from the onsite cafeteria.

Skiing visitors to Lapland used to be accosted by the Moomins, reindeer and Santa but over the past few years that's changed with the rise to global fame of the Angry Birds game, originally released on the iPhone by its Finnish creators in December 2009 and subsequently clocking up more than one billion downloads worldwide.

Now while people passing through London airports have to run the gauntlet of Duty free drinks and alcohol sales, in Helsinki it's a retail corridor lined with Angry Birds.

Now the flight of the Angry Birds, which this year has included Formula 1 and Star Wars tie-ins, has led them in to ski resort territory with the creation of Angry Birds themed play areas which have just opened in the Holiday Clubs of Saariselka, Kuusamo (Ruka) and Vuokatti in Finland (www.holidayclubresorts.com/angrybirds).

The Holiday Club chain of large holiday complexes are popular at ski resorts across Scandinavia and typically include apartment type accommodation with tropical leisure pools and/or spa and other activities close to the ski slopes.

The Angry Birds parks have been designed to have something for all ages from toddlers to adults.

"In Angry Birds Activity Parks the rides won't move people but people will move the rides. The starting point is the physical making and the fun of doing it, combined with virtual world and the characters known by the whole world, the Angry Birds," said a statement from Holiday Club.

Packages including accommodation, breakfast and spa for a family of four cost from €148 for four, with access to the new Angry Birds theme park priced at €16 per person for non residents, with a 10% discount for residents, under 4s free.

Each Angry Birds Activity Park will vary in content. The Kuusamon Tropiikki Holiday Village, 15 minutes from Ruka includes area specifically designed for small children and Survival Track provides challenges and the game hall entertainment for teens.

Other feature include the addictive (like the game) Blue Bird Sutu Ball Interactive Game Wall and the Yellow Bird´s Parkour Challenge, suitable for over 8 year old children, teens and adults.

The Survival Track contains several activities including climbing wall, balance beam, surfing in the waves, balancing track and fly track, with the aim to, "really experience the feel of the Angry Birds game."

"It demands little bit of craziness," says Holiday Village.

The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) have estimated that nearly four million travellers will be heading abroad for Christmas with the coming weekend of 22/23rd December the busiest of the winter.

The travel trade organisation says that although the continuing economic downturn is a factor, Brits are continuing to travel and the ski market is reported to be generally 'up' thanks to good early season conditions and people booking to be sure of a White Christmas – which is looking increasingly unlikely in the UK as the big day draws closer.

The big four Alpine ski nations as well as Lapland are proving popular for Christmas, although unsurprisingly with the number of people going skiing less than a million through the entire season, the majority of the 4 million travellers are looking for winter sun with Dubai, Egypt and the Caribbean all popular.

"Christmas and New Year is traditionally the busiest time of year for the travel industry with millions of people heading off overseas for some winter sunshine or guaranteed snow.

According to ABTA, 200,000 people will cross the English Channel this Christmas as the gateway to Europe, with a further 210,000 people travelling by Eurostar through the tunnel.

EasyJet has said it will be flying over 90,000 passengers, up by 10% on the same date last year across 1190 scheduled flights on its busiest day of the period on Friday 21 December 2012 and 4898 flights carrying over 730,000 passengers in the week before Christmas.

Edinburgh airport is expecting an 8% rise in passengers on Christmas weekend to 104,000 people.

A major snow storm has transformed conditions in the North East Corner of North America which, despite opening limited terrain 1-2 months ago in most cases, had been struggling with little natural snowfall and temperatures sometimes too warm for snow making.

Quebec in Eastern Canada and Maine in the North East corner of the US have fared especially well.

"We've had 52 cm of new snow in the last 48 hours and as a result our open skiable terrain has tripled," said Lisa Marie Lacasse, Communications Manager for Mont Sainte Anne and Stoneham ski resorts in Quebec, "Skiers and snowboarders around Québec City had to react very quickly and get to the mountain ASAP to enjoy the first tracks of fresh snow. The weather report anticipates up to 40 additional centimetres for the weekend, which could mean Mont-Sainte-Anne will be 100% open for the Holidays. Santa could not have done better!"

50 trails are open at Mont-Sainte-Anne representing 75% of the mountain, with open terrain including the Expert area, including glades.

The snowfall has been heavy south of the border too with Sugarloaf ski area reporting 75cm of snow there, again transforming conditions dramatically, while Sunday Rover has had more than 30cm.

Snowsport England has been awarded a much needed £1.5 million as part of Sport England's just announced £493 million, four-year investment, "to keep the inspiration of London 2012 alive."

" This is a fantastic result for Snowsports and is a significant increase on the funding obtained for the 2009-13 funding round (985K). This funding is ring fenced to be used in two areas – 'Participation' (1.3 million) and 'Talent' (200k)," said Tim Fawke,Chief Executive Officer of Snowsport England.

"We will be working with clubs and facilities to support them and the great work they do and to deliver programmes through Hub Sites and GO SKI GO BOARD Sites to increase regular participation – working together to grow Snowsports. The sites we will be working with will be announced in the New Year."

The £200k talent investment will allow Snowsport England to help promising young athletes specifically in Freeski and Snowboard Slopestyle.

"The investment will help create the pathway which will deliver more English athletes to British Teams and ensure we continue with our success in these disciplines and to ensure there is a clear pathway for future world class athletes," said Mr Fawke, who believes that although the investment is targeted towards Freeski and Freestyle Snowboard, there will be a benefit to athletes across all disciplines through local delivery centres when launched in 2013.

"It is great to hear that Sport England are supportive of the plans we submitted and have confidence in our ability to deliver. It has been a long process and the development team has put a huge amount of effort into the submission. I would to thank them and all the clubs and facilities we have worked with over the current funding cycle and look forward to continue working to drive grass roots participation," concluded Mr Fawke.