Ski & snow news

This is an interesting article from PisteHors.com:

The contracts to run the ski domain of both SEPP (Bellevue lift) and the LHSG company that runs the Prarion lift (Compagnie du Mont Blanc + Cachat family) have been recommended to be cancelled by the government commission at the tribunal of Grenoble, potentially making it legally impossible to open Les Houches for skiing this winter.

The Les Houches ski area has had concessionary issues with its ski domain for many years. The current situation is that the ski area sits between two communes, Chamonix and St Gervais, and two main families (Hottegindres of SEPP and Cachat of LHSG) one of whom (LHSG) has a principal partner/investor based in Chamonix (The Compagnie du Mont Blanc).

Each year disagreements on the division of revenues has resulted in delays in knowing when, if and how the Les Houches ski passes would be available to clients, often until nearly opening day. The director of the Office of Tourism in Les Houches, Didier Josephe, laments this situation, saying that it makes it impossible to do pre-season promotions and advertising aimed at clients. This reduces the potential winter revenues for everyone involved with the ski area.

This year SEPP (Bellevue lift) did not allow LHSG, which runs the Prarion lift, to cross any of its land to reach LHSG pistes, effectively stopping LHSG from operating. The Compagnie du Mont Blanc were aware of this tactic last Spring and have already thrown in the towel, telling clients that Les Houches would not be on the ski pass for this season. Instead they have struck a deal with Verbier in Switzerland to allow Mont Blanc Unlimited season pass holders unlimited ski days at Verbier as compensation. They are also continuing to develop relations with the Courmayeur ski area in Italy.

Now, the contract to run the ski domain of SEPP (Bellvue lift) has been recommended to be cancelled by the government commission at the Grenoble Administrative Court. Normally the conclusion of the commision is followed by judges, therefore we await the contracts of both groups to be officially annulled, and this would lead to the impossibility under French law to have enough time to renegotiate the contracts before the start of the winter season, effectively closing the hill for both lifts.

The Mayor of St Gervais was interviewed on Radio Mt Blanc saying he had asked the Prefecture what sort of help they were going to give to the towns since they have basically taken away their livelihood in this move …

The Dauphiné Libéré has speculated that the Compagnie du Mont Blanc and LHSG have actually welcomed this action because although it will be bad for this winter, it seems to bode well for the future.

In the Dauphiné Libéré, they suggest this will lead to the formation of a Sivu (Syndicat a vocation unique or Union into a single operator). A Sivu is thought by many to be a more practical legal body for the ski domain, allowing the communes to have one authority to deal with running the domains.

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admin Backcountry Skiing and Snowboarding News, General News, Ski & snow news Les Houches

Ryanair launching more winter ski routes

With budget airlines going bust, and warnings about rising costs and financial troubles, Ryanair is bucking the trend and increasing the number of routes it operates by 40%.

My importantly from our point of view, it has also extended its winter schedule until mid April 2009 to include the Easter holidays.

When announcing the new ski routes, Ryanair’s UK Sales and Marketing Manager Bridget Dowling said, “We guarantee the lowest fares and no fuel surcharges to Europe’s best ski resorts. With Ryanair’s low fares, even those feeling the pinch this year can still get away for their week on the piste.”

Some of the ski new routes include Stansted to Basel, Cuneo and Lourdes, Bournemouth to Turin, Bristol to Grenoble, Birmingham to Cuneo and Grenoble, Liverpool to Turin, Edinburgh to Turin and Grenoble, Glasgow (Prest) to Turin and East Midland to Turin.

For full details of this year’s ski routes, log on to www.ryanair.com.

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admin Ski & snow news Flights To The Alps, Ski Flights

Ever fancied owning your own ski resort? Well now you can, for 3 1/2 million pounds (the price of a chalet in some French ski resorts).

The owner and operator of Lysa Gora Ski Resort in Southern Poland is looking for investors/purchasers for the resort. The property is situated on the northern slopes of Bald Mountain in the district of Mordarka, 5 km from the center of city Limanowa and approx. 75 km from the city of Krakow.

Ski resort for sale

The property includes the following:
1. Land area of 195,500 square meters (48.31 acres)
2. One Doppellmayer chairlift (4-person, 2000 person/hour)
3. Two ski lifts Sztokfisz
4. Complete snowmaking installation (with 7 snow cannons)
5. Water reservoir (capacity 10,000 cu. m) with pumping station
6. System of drainage of the slope
7. Parking, capacity 500 vehicles
8. Power transformer station (1320 kW) and complete lighting system of the entire property
9. Shell of a hotel building 2,800 sq. m. with infrastructure
10. A small pension/bar building on top of the mountain (shell closed, interior to be completed)

For more information visit: www.lysagora.eu.

Price option 1: The property excluding the land, the company and assumption of all liabilities:
PLN 8.5 mln (USD 3.75 mln, GBP 2.05 mln)

Price option 2: The property including the land, the company and assumption of all liabilities:
PLN 14.5mln (USD 6.40 mln, GBP 3.49 mln)

Why not give yourself a ski resort for Christmas this year?

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admin Ski & snow news Ski resort for sale

Here’s an odd story. We all know that our Scandenavian friends are quite keen on their saunas. Well in the Finnish resort of Yllas, the world’s first ever sauna gondola will open this winter.

Essentially, the wood clad sauna gondola takes you up to the top station at 718 m, where there is a main sauna. Guests can rent the unique sauna gondola in groups of 4 while the rest of the group relaxes in the main sauna.

The world's first sauna gondola

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admin Ski & snow news Sauna Gondola