Waving goodbye - Courtesy of @jdkrobb - Instagram
What a season it has been! As the snow starts receding (but not without a few late season snow dumps!) and ski resorts start closing down for summer we're looking back at a few notable highlights from the winter months. If you think we’ve missed any let us know!
A New World Record!
Photo courtesy of 9NEWS/KUSA
A slightly unusual highlight to kick things off… a new world record was set at the beginning of April by Jay De Baggis in Colorado who took to the slopes of Arapahoe Basin and clocked an incredible 64mph… whilst strapped into a straightjacket! The stunt was carried out to raise awareness and raise money for the Summit County Mentors programme, a local charity. I don’t know about you but the idea of hurtling down a run at that speed, without poles or my arms free to balance me (or help out in a crash!), is rather terrifying. Clearly Jay wasn’t remotely perturbed and enters the record books as a result.
You can watch his record breaking run here.
The Loop Is Closed
Photo courtesy of http://www.flexenbahn.ski
After an investment of EUR 45 million the much anticipated cableway link between Zürs and Stuben/Rauz opened! This has made skiing the Arlberg easier and more fun as well as being environmentally beneficial by reducing the number of bus trips by a massive 120 a day.
The result of this new cableway link is that all the resorts in the Arlberg are now accessible on skis – this includes St. Anton and St. Christoph, Stuben, Zürs, Lech, Oberlech as well as Schröcken and Warth which combined make up the largest continuous ski area in Austria.
Oh, and the views from the panoramic windows fitted to the cable cars are breathtaking! Take a look at their promo video here to find out more.
A Cold End to The Season
Perhaps we’re calling the end of this season too soon? It’s been unusually cold across Europe and the USA with some exceptional snow falls which have prolonged the season. At the time of writing resorts in France, Switzerland, Italy, Canada and the USA are all operating a higher than usual number of runs. However it’s not all been a snowy dream… sadly Scotland has had (another) very poor season with almost no skiing.
For the latest snow reports take a look at the Telegraphs Snow Forecasts.
A Successful Fundraising Event
Closer to home we were humbled to be involved with the charity ‘Supporting Wounded Veterans’ and have been busy raising funds over the preceding months. Our total on February 1st was a fantastic £18,520 which was sent across to this incredible charity. We were amazed by how generous so many individuals, chalet operators, hotels, ski school partners, friends, families & local businesses have been with donations. Once again a massive ‘Thank You!’. You can read more about the event here.
New Chalet Openings
As a luxury travel company we are always very excited by the opening of new chalets and hotels that aim to set the luxury bar higher and 2016/17 was a season where we weren’t left disappointed! Two of the most notable new developments where Severin*s – The Alpine Retreat and Chalet Tschoder. Both are simply stunning properties and an incredible addition to our Austrian Chalet & Hotel portfolio. If you would like to experience some serious luxury on your next Austrian skiing holiday we suggest you move quickly and book now. Understandably for accommodation of this calibre, availability quickly becomes limited.
Virtuoso Membership
We were very excited to become members of Virtuoso at the beginning of the year! Virtuoso is an invitation-only luxury travel network made up of the best leisure travel agencies in North and Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. Less than one percent of travel agents in America are admitted to join Virtuoso, therefore we are hugely privileged to have been asked. We are also the only UK ski company to become a member of Virtuoso, which doubles our feelings of pride! For our clients this means complimentary room upgrades, airport transfers, special dining experiences and custom itineraries, offered by the world’s best providers of upscale travel. We are very proud to have been invited to join Virtuoso and to be able to offer these additional advantages to our clients when organising ski holidays of a lifetime.
It’s been an incredible skiing season – we’ve really enjoyed ourselves and hope our many clients have as well! Now thought it’s time to start looking forward… it won’t be long until the Winter 2017/18 season is upon us (although we’d like some sun in the meantime!). If you’re feeling organised and would like to start planning your next winter trip then get in touch with the team on +44 1993 899420 or click here.
