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The 10 best places to enjoy an early ski season

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:47:17 GMT

Whilst the rest of us are delaying the purchase of our winter coat in a week heralded by the Met Office as the “official Indian summer”, eager skiers are already polishing their goggles in preparation for winter and the early ski season.

Think you're an expert? Try these peaks for size

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:00:34 GMT

Not every bank robber would add the complication of a box canyon to a first heist, but Butch Cassidy was always top of his league. So, too, is Telluride, then a gold mining town, now a resort that combines some of Colorado's more dramatic peaks with the edginess of the Wild West. In a state where such household names as Vail and Breckenridge have fine skiing on mountains that look like hills, that's excellent news.

Snow report: The winter sports season begins

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:00:07 GMT

You may not have noticed it yet, but the 2009-10 ski and snowboard season is already under way. Glacier resorts in the Alps began opening last month and have been boosted by huge snowfalls in recent weeks. They've been joined by half a dozen US resorts, including Mammoth on the west coast and Sunday River on the east, which are all promising signs for the ski season to come.

The trains run like clockwork – and the skiing's good, too

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

As jokes go, it was pretty lame, even for my son. "Are we nearly there yet?" he piped up as we pulled out of St Pancras. In a word, no. Ahead of us was a 12-hour journey, involving four trains (and an electric taxi) that would carry us from grimy, early-morning London to the clear evening air of the Swiss Alps.

The little resort with big ideas about going green

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Any skier will tell you that whizzing down a sparkling alpine piste is one of the best feelings in the world.

Ski reps' days off raise concerns

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

At Monday's inquest into the death of skier Stephen Gladman, who fell into a snow hollow while skiing at the French resort of La Plagne in February 2007, it was said that on the day of the accident none of the resort employees of Thomson – the company with which Mr Gladman and his family had travelled – were working. Apparently, they had all taken the day off.

Head west to North America for value this ski season

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

In these harsh economic times, every rational skier would surely choose to ski in France rather than North America. Its resorts are much easier and quicker to get to, its mountains steeper, edgier, sharper, and its ski areas much bigger. But all skiers have their own favourites, fancies and foibles. Even as the head says France, the heart may say North America.

Val Gardena, Italy: an unlikely ski resort trailblazer

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:29:41 GMT

The Netherlands: Take a peak inside

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Alifetime of collecting ski-area statistics has made me into a rather sad snowspotter, all too keen to bore anyone who'll listen about where the highest lifts are, or the most high-speed-detachable-six-seater-chairlifts. But the flipside of this obsession does throw up some more unusual facts. You won't have been able to avoid mention of Ski Dubai in recent years, but did you know that the world's largest indoor snow centre is rather closer to home? In the Netherlands, in fact: a country where one-fifth of the surface area lies below sea level.

Green skiing: Ski with a clean conscience

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

It's one of the dilemmas of the climate-change argument: to ski we need snow, but going on a ski holiday contributes to climate change, making that snow less reliable.

French Alps: Dome, sweet home

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

"It's worth bringing a head torch," I was told, "and a hat to sleep in, especially if you feel the cold." As I approached my shelter for the night – a dome of snow rising like a blancmange on a large white plate – this ominous warning came back to haunt me. Sleeping in an igloo had seemed such a good idea at the time: a way of pushing the boundaries, doing something more challenging than just skiing. But as I inched nervously towards my new home, then crouched on my hands and knees at its tiny entrance, the notion seemed more than a little foolish.

Ski touring: Going up in the world

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Once upon a time, skiing took place in a shimmering world of beauty and calm, without a gondola or bleeping piste basher in sight. These days, of course, the slopes are often crowded with people; the chairlifts equally packed. But if you're a parallel skier with a decent level of fitness, it is still possible to ski the old-fashioned way – and experience that old-fashioned tranquillity. However, it does involve skiing up a mountain.

The 10 greenest ski lifts

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

One of the world's first dedicated ski lifts was a very green machine. It operated in Germany's Black Forest in the early 20th century and was powered by the local water mill. A century later, ski lifts are going back to renewable energy.

New Hampshire: Uncover a piste less travelled

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The resorts are small, the hills are low, it can be chilly – and it's the other side of the Atlantic. Yet for all its perceived drawbacks, New Hampshire is an attractive ski proposition. Maybe not for those who dream of pounding the piste all day, never the same run twice, but if you regard skiing as a way of seeing places you might not otherwise visit, New Hampshire has a certain something.

Canada: Go for an alternative gold in Vancouver

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

This season, it's all about Whistler. The world's best snow sports athletes are set to descend on the Canadian resort next February for the Winter Games. Although its officially billed as the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games, most of the pre-competition attention has been lavished on Whistler, two hours to its north, which will host the downhill, slalom and cross-country skiing contests. Meanwhile, little old Cypress Mountain, only 30 minutes from Vancouver, has been largely overlooked. Strange, since this will host the freestyle ski and snowboard competitions, which are widely regarded as the games' coolest events.

Snowboarding: A Rude awakening

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

How do you know if the snowboard you're riding is right for you? Ashamed though I am to admit it, they all look pretty much the same to me. OK, so some are a tad wider than others – and I know the rule about how the tip should come up to your chin when you stand the thing upright – but that's as far as my technical knowledge goes. It's all a bit embarrassing really, especially as I've been snowboarding for the best part of a decade.

Essential kit: Gear up for the winter

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Salomon Impact helmet

Ski season 2009-10: First snow in the Alps

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The first snow of "winter" 2009-10 has fallen, the first resorts are open already, even the first British ski tours of the season have already departed. The skiinfo.co.uk website reports that up to a metre of snow has fallen in the Austrian Alps this week, bringing hopes of a repeat of last season's autumnal snow deluge that set up Europe for skier number growth despite the economic downturn. It's also powder heaven on the slopes at resorts such as Sölden (00 43 525 451 00; soelden.com).

The skier who was afraid of the dark

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Dark, said the little boy, is exciting. These wise words are from the seminal work on the subject: the story of Plop, The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark, by Jill Tomlinson. For those of you with a void in your nursery education, it's a book in which an assortment of learned teachers – scouts, cats, old ladies – convince a young owl of the joys of nocturnal activity. And the words ring true: as I stare out of the window and into the gloaming, I am, indeed, excited. Pulling on a second set of thermals, however, I ponder that there are two very important characteristics of the dark that Plop is not entirely honest about. Dark, in the mountains at least, is cold. And dark is dangerous.

Swish Swiss charm: Even buttoned-up British families should enjoy the skiing in Arosa

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Our week in the small Swiss town of Arosa, we all agreed, as we chugged back down the valley towards Chur in the cheerfully painted mountain train almost certainly once boarded by Heidi on her way to visit her grandfather, featured one experience that was dispiriting, one that was alarming, and a whole host that were utterly wonderful.

A lift for skiers: Austria's ski resorts lure the British back to their patch of the Alps

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Apart from the skiers who found tour operators queuing up to offer them cut-price holidays, there can't be many people who look back fondly on last winter, especially among those in the ski business. But Oskar Hinteregger, the outgoing head of the Austrian National Tourist Office in London, could well do so. True, the number of British skiers who went to Austria fell sharply in the 2008/9 season; but the numbers heading elsewhere declined even more, in percentage terms.

High hopes for a winter of bargains

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The outlook for skiing in 2009/10 is uncertain, for skiers and the ski business alike. Never, in recent memory, has a season marked by snow conditions as good as those last winter failed to deliver a feelgood effect to the next. That, in itself, is a cause of anxiety; so is the potential erosion of other familiar elements of the UK ski market.

Time to head north: Swap high altitude for high latitude and you could be in for a treat

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Come summertime, when people want to feel the sun on their backs, they turn to the south, through instinct – like migrating birds – or just habit. Come winter, when they want to feel soft snow beneath their skis, they turn... to the south.

White gold: Ski with the stars in Telluride

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Many of the ski resorts in the North American West were originally mining settlements; and most of them play on their history for marketing purposes. Breckenridge in Colorado, for example, has barely a handful of surviving 19th-century buildings, but it still invites skiers to experience its old-mining-town ambience. Deeds are more effective than words, and Park City in Utah really is atmospheric, its ski slopes being littered – rather poetically – with lift-winding towers, spoil hoppers and other relics of the mining era. But Telluride, in the San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado, is different. It is the real thing. It is still an old mining town, even though there are no miners left.

High jinks: California's Squaw Valley is the ideal location for freeriders looking to perfect their skills

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:00:01 GMT

The Tram Face at Squaw Valley looms up steeply behind the ski resort's small village. Fingers of red granite and gnarled pines dot the sheer wall. Above the summit, skiers lose their stomachs as the cable car swings up over the first tower.