"Endless Winter Snow"

8.01.2008

Snow 365 - Patrick Thorne
Patrick sends in updated on the world of indoor snow and alternative dry slopes

Over 100 Engineers Working On 2.6km Indoor Ski Slope For Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi’s National newspaper (www.thanational.ae) has reported that a team of 114 German engineers have been laying ground works for what will be by far the biggest indoor snow slope in the world at Jebel Hafeet at 2.6km (1.7 miles) long. That is five times longer than the existing longest indoor slopes in Holland and Germany and six and a half times longer than neighbour Ski Dubai. The full area of the slope will be 337,000 square metres, about ten times the largest indoor slope area at present.

Reports say that sections of the slope, although possibly not all, will be indoors, with movable sections to allow different slope configurations. Parts of the slope will also be supported by stilts and there will be an indoor ski jump

New “All Weather” Snowmaking Machine Tested Ahead of Installation in Alps
The first IDE snowmaking machine has been assembled and tested in Israel prior to shipment to the Alps. The Snowmaker is capable to produce 950 cubic meters of snow per day. Snowmaking took place east of Netanya, Israel, under summer conditions (ambient temperature above 30 C) during the second week of July. Israeli skiers enjoyed skiing on the ski slope at the test site.

The leading ski resorts of Pitztal (Austria) and Zermatt (Switzerland) are inaugurating a new era in snow making, by choosing the IDE All Weather Snowmaker to deliver large amounts of snow at all ambient temperatures, totally chemical free. Both projects are currently under construction, and due to be operational during October 2008.
The Matterhorn ski paradise above Zermatt is one of the largest ski resorts in the Alps and one of the few to remain open throughout the entire summer. There is however, one small problem. "As of late autumn the glacier slope comes to a halt approx. 500 meters before the mountain station, forcing skiers to cover the remaining stretch by foot“ says Christen Bauman, CEO of Zermatt Mountain Resort AG. "This is definitely not an ideal situation“. The IDE system will bridge that snow gap. Daniel Luggen, Zermatt Tourism Director, added, "We definitely saw a decrease in bookings for the usually very popular ski tests that take place between October and December. We have to offer our guests an enjoyable ski experience and this innovative technology could not have come at a better time”.

Snow Centre Planned In China As City Moves 90 Minutes Closer To Beijing
The completion of a high seed rail link between China’s capital Beijing and the city of Tianjin has reportedly led to plans to accelerate the “economic integration of the cities” according to a report from the region’s council entitld "Suggestions on Promoting Development and Opening-up of Tianjin Binhai Development Zone" Along with the 120km express railway which was completed on June 30th and begins regular passenger services today, August 1st, with trains reaching 300kph (190mph) and cutting journey times from two hours to 30 minutes a $7 billion investment by Airbus to have airliners completed in the economic development zone in the area is helping to boost rapid expansion of the area.

Despite fears of a depression in the Chinese housing market there are hopes of a property revival in Tianjin as prices here were much lower than Beijing, but with the new fast rail link are expected to rise as commuting becomes much more viable. In response where housing firms such as the Singyaoo Group has already bought a 734 hectare piece of land in the southwest part of the city.

Singyaoo is planning to build a "new downtown" in Jiahu district consisting of living and recreational facilities such as an enormous indoor ski run, swimming and surfing pool, a pedestrian mall and a seven-star hotel designed by Richard Mayer, a leading US architect. China CITIC Bank will provide a loan of 20 billion yuan for the mammoth construction project.

"We are building a new world here - a world for world-level entertainment and relaxation, " Yan Yu, chairman of Singyaoo Group told China Business Weekly.

First Snowflex Slope in the US to be Constructed in Virginia
More details of the Snowflex slope previously reported by Snow365 have now been published by Briton Engineering Developments who make Snowflex. The slope will be built at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. Liberty University’s 5,800-acre mountain will receive a monumental makeover in the coming months with the construction of the year-round ski slope to be named the Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre.

The idea of building a snow-free ski slope on Liberty Mountain began three years ago when the university investigated several ways it could use its mountain property to meet Liberty’s academic, financial and recruiting goals. In addition to giving students more recreational opportunities near campus, the slope will help establish skiing and snowboarding as LU club sports.

“When the LaHaye family donated the ice rink and student recreation centre at LU, Mrs. Beverly LaHaye stated that her goal was to give prospective students as many reasons as possible to choose LU over secular institutions,” stated Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. “This state of the art ski slope has the same purpose and one hundred percent of the cost of the ski slope project is being funded by a charitable donation to the University”.

These stories and more courtesy of Patrick Thorne and Rachel of
www.snow365.com

Marker

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Snowbird, Utah – Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort President Bob Bonar has named Jared Ishkanian Public Relations Director at the Utah resort.
Ishkanian comes to Snowbird with more than four years of public relations and customer service experience, most recently with Park City, Utah-based Backcountry.com. A Maine native and lifelong skier, Ishkanian relocated to Salt Lake City last October to enjoy “The Greatest Snow on Earth.”
“We’re excited to be bringing Jared onboard as we continue to increase Snowbird’s visibility around the world,” said Bonar. “His communication skills and passion for skiing make him a great fit for this position.”
Ishkanian succeeds Laura Schaffer, who served Snowbird since 2002 as the Assistant Director of Public Relations and Public Relations Director.
“Working with Laura has been one of the highlights of my career,” said Director of Marketing Dave Fields. “We’re thrilled to welcome Jared to our team as we spread the word about Snowbird to the local, national and international media.”

photo Sponge Bob & friends at The Bird "Budda Chutes "

Located 29 miles from Salt Lake City International Airport, Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort is North America’s most accessible year-round resort. For more information about the resort’s ongoing summer activities,
visit www.snowbird.com.

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Tignes -France
The sun shone down for us all weekend...well apart from a little spot of rain on Saturday evening, but that was not enough to dampen our spirits as we celebrated another amazing weekend in Tignes.

There's so much to say it's hard to know where to start, we laughed, we cried and we generally drank a lot of rosé, in fact we drank the Loop Bar out of stock! Once again we were accomodated in beautiful Skiworld accomodation in Le Lac, where we able to rest our weary heads after fun filled days on the mountain and in resort, oh and maybe in the Loop bar too...

The Competition on the hill and in the water

photo:Tignes - summer races
The heated competition of the Greeneye Dual Slalom the day before, Natives had held their own into the semi finals...only to be slighted out of victory by last year's winners - Team Travelplan. Their team did consist of some of the fastest skiers in the competition, including Tris Lamb who was the overall winner of the Respect the Mountain GS Slalom with an amazingly quick time of 30.09 seconds.

But even that wasn't enough to beat a bunch of girls, T4 nannies walked away with this years Greeneye Dual Slalom title. We were all very proud of our Greeneye hoodys, which were given to every competitor and worn with pride throughout the weekend.

Lifts Open this Weekend

North America

Whistler - Blackcomb - B.C.
Access via the Wizard Express ,Blackcomb base
Whistler Blackcomb

Mt. Hood Timberline Lodge - Oregon
Palmer Lift - race lanes upper Palmer- park & pipe lower Palmer
Timberlone Lodge

Europe
Stubai Glacier -Austria
Stubai Glacier

Hintertuxer Glacier -Austria
Hintertux Glacier

Tignes -France
Tignes

Engelberg-CH
Engelberg

Saas- Fee-CH
Saas- fee

Verbier-CH
Verbier

Zermat-CH

Zermatt