Ski Portillo opened on Saturday, June 17th with a solid 30-inch (75cm) base. Portillo has already received nearly six feet of snow, as good start on its way to at least an average of 25 feet of snowfall each season, although last year's snow totalled a record 46 feet.

New this year, the Va et Vient ("Coming and Going") slingshot lift called Las Vizcachas, accesses expert only terrain in the Las Lomas ski area. The new slingshot lift is named after the local Vizcacha rabbit and is 470 meters/1542 feet long with a vertical drop of 220 meters/722 feet.

The Portillo 2006 summer season runs to October 7th. Ski weeks begin at US$1,200 per person, including seven nights accommodation at Hotel Portillo, seven-day lift tickets, and four meals daily. The lowest price option is the Inca Lodge. Rates begin at US$490 per person per week for dorm-style accommodations, lift tickets and meals in the self-service restaurant.
www.skiportillo.com

***
St Anton Builds New "FerrisWheel" Gondola
St Anton in Austria's famous Arlerg region will boast a world first next season when it opens its new Galzigbahn gondola lift.
The new lift, which has three times the uplift capaity of the one it replaces, has a world first design based on a ferris wheel. The 28 gondola cabins are each brought down to ground level by the ferris wheel for passenger entry and are then lifted back on to the main cable.
The lift is housed within a new state of the art building that is another major achivement, this time architctually. The transparent building has been designed by renowned Tyrolean architect Georg Driendl.

www.stantonamarlberg.com

***
Sun Peaks
New Lifts, New Terrain For Sun Peaks
In addition to a fast new quad chairlift on Tod Mountain at Sun Peaks in Canada giving faster access to the resort's deepest and driest powder, glade skiing and advanced/expert terrain on the mountain; Sun Peaks has a host of other new enhancements lined up for the coming winter season.

Four new intermediate (blue) runs will be cut on the lower part of Orient Ridge will provide easier access to the East Village real estate developments including Stone's Throw, Woodhaven, Settler's Crossing (new), ski-in/ski-out lots in Lookout Ridge, and the future East Village Commercial Core development
The new Orient Ridge runs will be designed in the same way as many of the runs on Mt. Morrisey with numerous tree islands left to enhance the beauty of the ski experience and improve snow conditions
The existing Rambler (Green/Novice) run on Sundance Mountain will be widened to expand the resort's novice teaching terrain and improve access to Mt. Morrisey and the East Village
There'll also be improvements and expansion to the Terrain Parks on Sundance Mountain including more features (rails, jumps etc.), an expanded Green/Blue Terrain Park and a new Edge Park Bully grooming machine to increase Terrain Park grooming and feature preparation
The new East Village Surface Lift will link a new the Ski-in/ski-out Umbrella café with indoor and outdoor seating for up to 100 guests to the base of the Mt. Morrisey Express Lift and ease access between Sundance Mountain and Mt. Morrisey
www.SunPeaks.com


***
Two New Quads For Bansko Bansko in Bulgaria will add two new quads for next winter. The first chair connects "Banderishka polyana" place with the base of the "Todorka" piste and will improve easy ski- and snowboard terrain access for beginners. The second new lift ascends from the "Zhelezen" sector and reaches the "Platoto" area.

***
Russian Indoor Ski Centres Under Construction
Russia will become the latest country to introduce indoor year round skiing when it's first snowdome opens on the outskirts of the city's capital, Moscow, in December.
The new 360m slope at Krasnogorsk, just northeast of the city's limits, is being built be developers at a rumoured cost of about $100 million. Its profile is now clearly visible on the city skyline. It will also feature a hockey museum, a hotel and full recreational facilities and is just part of a huge 1.2 million-square-meter residential district under construction on the site, just beyond the Moscow Ring Road.

"The snowdome will help to sell the apartments, of course," said Vladimir Famin, a spokesman for SU-155, told local media. "It increases the prestige of the area." He said the company planned to bring in children from the surrounding schools when the slope was not full.

The dome is the first of three others proposed around Moscow, which has several dozen small conventional ski areas on its outskirts

. A second project is under development in Yekaterinburg at a cost of 44m and Moscow's chief architect, Alexander Kuzmin, is considering a plan to build a giant all-weather ski slope within a slanted office building built above rail tracks between Savyolovsky and Belorussky rail stations on the Moscow suburban rail network. A fourth plan is for the world's largest indoor slope at 1km long, on the southern bank of the Moscow River at Sparrow Hills.

Snow 365