Tremblant Lifestyle

Ever heard of Dark Snow?

No, it’s not hitting the slopes at night without any floodlights - it’s a cool ski forum in the UK.

Check it here : Ski Forum

Winter is when skiers start to think about booking their skiing holiday. In Europe there are hundreds of destinations to choose from. France, Switzerland and Austria all have very popular ski resorts, but if you are looking for a bargain then try Eastern Europe. Borovets in Bulgaria and the high Tatra mountains in Slovakia are attracting increasing numbers of skiers. A survey by pricerunner.co.uk and travelex.co.uk revealed that not only are the Eastern European resorts much cheaper than the popular destinations in the Alps, but they are also rated quite highly. Bansko in Bulgaria, Jasna in Slovakia, Zelezna Ruda in the Czech Republic and Kranjska Gora in Slovenia all got a mention.If you are unsure which resort to pick, companies such as Forbes create a list of the top ski resorts in the world. The list will contain many Western and European resorts primarily because of the quality of the snow and the village atmosphere. New England has snow, but it won’t feature much on the list. This is because its snow tends to be icy, not powdery like the snow in Europe which is better for skiing. However, skiing holidays are about more than the quality of the snow. Resorts such as Aspen are hugely popular and the slopes are crowded, meaning that you probably spend more time waiting for the chair lift than on the slopes. Another consideration is the après-ski scene. For some people this is the best part of the holiday. There should be plenty of opportunities for dining, drinking and swapping stories in front of a log fire. It is also a good idea to choose somewhere that has activities other than skiing, just in case your legs need a rest from the slopes. Your accommodation is also important and should be comfortable with easy access to the slopes.Ski holidays can be expensive, but there are ways to save money. When you book your holiday you should consider a package deal as these often work out cheaper. A single lift ticket can be very expensive.  Try booking at the last minute and stay in catered accommodation to save on eating out. Book your ski pass and ski hire online and always pay in local currency.Ski resorts that regularly make it into the top 10 lists are: Aspen: Located in the beautiful state of Colorado, Aspen always features on the list of top ski resorts due to its excellent ski runs that are suitable for skiers of all abilities. It is also the place where you have the chance to ski with the rich and famous although the downside of this is that it is not cheap!Cortina: Another top choice is this stylish Italian ski resort which hosted the Olympic Games in 1956. Cortina was one of the world’s first ski resorts. The Cortina Ski World is located in the Alps and is one of the most scenic places in the world, with 120 kilometres of ski trails and 52 lifts.Mont-tremblant:  Canada’s best known ski resort first opened in 1939 and has recently been given a $1 billion facelift. It is a compact ski resort lying in the pretty Laurentian Mountains. The village has a distinctive French feel to it and it has a number of cafes and bistros in cosy log cabins, as well as boutiques and restaurants. The skiing is suitable for mixed groups and there is a good ski school. Another plus for this resort is that it is just one hour from montreal for those who would like to do some sight-seeing along with their skiing.Stowe: Located in Vermont, this is another American resort famed for its picturesque setting. It has the largest vertical drop in the area and is famous for its double-black diamond ‘Four Front’ trails, suitable for experienced skiers. However, it also offers trails suitable for intermediate skiers and beginners. Away from the ski slopes it has over 90 shops and 60 restaurants.Chamonix Mont-Blanc: Situated in the French Alps, it played host to the first Winter Olympic Games in 1924. It lies at the foot of Mont-Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps. It is renowned for its vertical drop of 9,209 feet and for having one of the world’s longest runs, the Vallee Blance, at 13.7 miles.Banff/Lake Louise: This ski resort in Alberta, Canada is located in the Banff National Park. It is one of the most scenic mountain resorts in North America and has very reliable snow conditions. Covering 4,200 acres it offers tree-lined runs, smooth slopes and plunging bowls, providing ideal skiing for everyone from the novice to the expert.Vail: Another ski resort in Colorado, Vail claims to be America’s favourite resort. With 5,300 acres of skiable terrain it has the largest ski area in the USA. Vail also has a lot to offer besides skiing with art galleries, ballooning, dog sledding, museums, ice skating, hockey and snowmobiling.Zermatt:  Switzerland’s top resort is a picturesque village and a car-free area at the foot of the Matterhorn. It has the second biggest lift-served vertical drop in the world. Zermatt has large snowfalls and the longest skiing season in the Alps.Kitzbuhel: The most famous resort in the Austrian Tyrol. Skiing began here in 1892 and the 700-year old village still retains its traditional charm. Kitzbuhel is home to the Hahnenkahm the most dangerous and famous of the downhill ski races and is Austria’s winter entertainment capital. It has excellent skiing and snowboarding, but due to its low altitude snow may be lacking on the lower slopes. Whistler/Blackcomb: This resort in British Columbia provides the best skiing in North America with the biggest vertical drop. It has 8,171 acres of skiable terrain and has been voted North America’s Favourite Ski Resort by OntheSnow.com visitors. The village has cafes, spas, galleries, international stores and over 100 restaurants that feature cuisines from around the world including French, Chinese, Italian, Mexican and more.

There are many notable ski resorts in North America. According to a recent poll, the top 10 ski resorts in the world are: Aspen, Colorado; Cortina, Italy; Mont-tremblant, Ontario; Stowe, Vermont; Chamonix Mont-Blanc, France; Banff, Canada; Vail, Colorado; Zermatt, Switzerland; Kitzbuhel, Austria; and Whistler, British Columbia.
Such a wide array of top-notch ski destinations is difficult to compete with. Reaching a position on the top-10 list is a feat in itself. Skiers from around the globe gave their input on these highly sought-after destinations. Six of the 10 are located in North America.
Aspen, Colorado has always been well-known as a favorite ski spot for the rich and famous. As new resorts open world-wide, Aspen remains one of the most visited resorts in the United States. It offers a variety of runs ranging in difficulty from beginner to expert. Hundreds of acres of terrain offer something for everyone.
Mont-Tremblant, quebec opened in 1939 and was the second resort to open in North America. It was the first resort to open in Canada. Mont-Tremblant is only an hour away from montreal, making it a great daytime or weekend getaway for anyone looking to escape the nine-to-five. One of the most charming aspects of a Mon-Tremblant ski holiday is the fact that the streets in the village have a pedestrian-only layout. Visitors can park their vehicle for the entire duration of their stay if they wish.
One of the most picturesque resorts in the United States is Stowe ski resort in Vermont. Stowe ranks number seven on the top-10 list. It boasts the longest vertical drop in the area. Conveniently located in Vermont, Stowe offers two ski areas; Mount Mansfield and Spruce Peak. Spruce Peak backs up to Smugglers’ Notch’s terrain and features a unique lift-link to both resorts.
Banff, or Lake Louise, in Alberta Canada ranks number five on the top-10 list. The mountains around Lake Louise are some of the most scenic mountains in the world. The three different ski areas, Mystic Ridge, Sunshine Village and Lake Louise are roughly 31 miles apart. The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise was also recently voted a must-stay resort in a popular men’s magazine.
Another great Colorado based resort is Vail. Vail offers about 5,300 acres of terrain ranging from beginner to expert. It is also home to the fastest high-speed detachable quads on one mountain. Skiing, along with museums, art galleries, dog sledding, hockey and other attractions make Vail an excellent family ski location. There is always something for everyone to do
Whistler Blackcomb, another North American resort, is ranked number one on the top-10 list. According to the poll, Whistler Blackcomb provides the best skiing in North America. It also provides the biggest vertical drop of any slope in North America. This revelation comes as no surprise to skiers who have enjoyed Whistler’s beauty and slopes for years. Crystal Lodge and Summit Lodge and Spa were voted must-stay resorts in the Lake Louise area.
The top-10 report states that Whistler has everything it takes to make a legendary resort. The resort offers over 100 restaurants to suit all tastes, cafe’s, international stores and rentals. Over the last 10 years, Whistler has been nominated for “World’s Greatest Ski Resort” and has held the title for “Best North American Ski Resort” by North Americans. It has been deemed the favorite international destination by Japanese skiers.
This was not a conclusive list of North American ski resorts. It was simply an overview of a few of the newest, oldest and best in North America as revealed by a recent poll in a popular men’s magazine.

Independently owned and run ski chalets are not new. They have been around for many years. Over the last 5 years, however, there has been an increase in relatively inexperienced people selling up in the UK , and moving to the mountains to run catered ski chalet businesses.

When independent catered ski chalet operators first appeared on the scene, the owners and hosts tended to be passionate skiers who, after living for many years in a resort, had finally found a way to upgrade their situations from “ski bums” to “legitimate business owners”. They worked hard to develop their businesses built around their love of the mountains, their knowledge of the local area and of course their skiing ability.

Given that many of these original “ski chalet pioneers” had cut their teeth working in restaurants and hotels in ski resorts, cuisine was also high on the agenda. Before long, the independent catered chalet holiday became synonymous as a way of staying with hosts who knew the mountains like the back of their hands, could show you the best places to ski, and would serve up top class cuisine after a day on the slopes.

Over recent years a dirge of reality TV programs in the UK have focused on alpine businesses and made them look like attractive business propositions. Under closer inspection, it isn’t difficult to see why such a business could look so attractive to an outsider.

Anyone can buy a large house and run a B&B somewhere in France. The trouble is it may be hard to quantify how many people visit the area, what the future trends for visiting the area might be, and even how long a season might last. In a ski resort, to some extent you can take away a lot of this uncertainty. The ski seasons are quite well defined, and the ski industry is still a rapidly growing market.

Couple this with many equity-rich property owners in the UK and it becomes obvious why there has been such a rush to jump on the bandwagon and move to the mountains.

All of this means that there are now a number of ski chalet owners that hide behind professional looking websites with no experience of running such a business. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Many, if not most of these new businesses thrive on hard work and enthusiasm and attract repeat customers year on year. But be warned. Just because a couple of accountants were good at their professions in the UK, and just because they spent a million euros on a chalet, doesn’t necessarily mean that they are the sort of people who know how to make a holiday work, or indeed the sort of people whose home you would want to stay in for a week.

A week’s catered chalet skiing holiday is not cheap, especially for a large family, and with so many apparently good, professional chalet businesses around, it can be difficult to know if you are choosing the right one. Two very important things to look for are recommendations/word of mouth and independent chalet reviews.

Firstly, recommendations and word of mouth are both invaluable! If a friend who you trust recommends somewhere to you, then book it. Try and find out where other people have been on holiday, and whether or not they enjoyed it.

Secondly, try a website such as All Mountain Ski Holidays which has a ski chalet review section and see what others think of a place. Sites like All Mountain Holidays have made it relatively easy for new chalet businesses to get up and running. However, the same medium should also be used to build the reputation of good quality chalets which deserve it.

If you stay somewhere, and you love it, let others know about it and encourage others to do the same for you!

1770. At the time of writing that’s 137 years ago – when the first hotel was opened in Chamonix. Before this date Chamonix was a wild and rugged farming town where people caught their own animals and grew their own oats.

Chalets at this time were used to farm dairy herds over the summer months. Their milk was preserved by making it into cheeses and butter and stored down in the valley for use over the harsh winters. During the snow season the chalets were locked, and any valuables were locked safely in a small hut called a Mazot.

This was at the time when the term WAGGGS was not remotely related to being a footballer’s wife and stood for Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. In 1932 Helen Storrow of WAGGGS opened ‘Our Chalet’ in Adelboden, and it is still used today by young people to enjoy mountain pastimes.

Swiss scout Ida Von Herrenschwand, AKA ‘Falk’ became the World Centre’s first ‘Guider in charge’. Her picture is here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Falk.jpg

You can listen to the Our Chalet song here http://ourchalet.wagggsworld.org/en/resources/documents/1323

Webster’s Dictionary defines a chalet as “A wooden dwelling with a sloping roof and widely overhanging eaves, common in Switzerland and other Alpine regions”. But what about the informal meeting of new peoples aspect of the chalet?

Quite who invented the chalet holiday is unknown, it was probably several enthusiastic people who recognised a formula that worked. For entrepreneur Erma Low, it all began when she was a homesick graduate who could not afford to visit her family in Austria as often as she liked. So in 1932 she took a gamble and placed a small advertisement in the London Times to invite guests on a ski holiday. For £15 they travelled to and from resort, enjoyed food and board in the only Inn, and took ski hire and tuition, and a lesson in German. The holiday was hard work, there were no lifts, no safety bindings, just strong leather boots and determination, but it was such a hit that Erna continued to take skiers on holiday, ensuring she used the best hotels and guides, and personally accompanied each group until the 1950s. During this time Erna also joined the war effort as a lecturer and travelled around the UK, which caused her to diversify her holiday market business. She began arranging house parties in large houses and boarding schools where people could relax in an informal atmosphere and get to know one another.

Once the war was over she combined this with skiing to formulate the winning combination of the Chalet Holiday. You can view some photos of this amazing lady and her holiday makers here http://www.ernalow.co.uk/about-us-photos.aspx

Chalet holidays in the early years were a far cry from the luxury we can experience today. Hot water was in short supply, the bathrooms would be shared by all of the guests, and there was no cook; the guests were expected to muck in. It was a real gamble who might share the chalet for a week, one might be pleasantly surprised by meeting new friends, or grimaced by the thought of spending another day with unpleasant guests. With an eye for opportunity developers built the high rise apartments in the 1960s making a ski holiday more affordable. Could it have been here that the chalet holiday changed forever? Losing its competitive edge on price, the chalet holiday was marketed on its other new benefits. Your own cook, who served you breakfast and dinner and even made you a cake to come home to after a day’s adventure on the mountain, private bathrooms, and, of course, more hot water. The privacy and affordability of a ski apartment was far outweighed by the luxury of fine cuisine and free wine. This concept has been developed further into the super luxurious chalet holidays where sauna, massage, canapés, and chauffeurs, and even a helicopter transfer, are all part of the package.

Thankfully though, the ski industry has remained available to everyone, and youth hostel style hotels are invaded each year by thousands of school children who can learn for the first time the magic of the mountains, just as the WAGGGS did all those years ago.

Book your next luxurious adventure on UpMyMountain.com

CHALETS USA OPENS CHALETS IN NEW COLORADO RESORTS

Catered ski chalets, offering traditional European style chalet accommodation with breakfast, tea & dinner included are still a rare commodity within the US ski industry. Chalets USA is one of only a handful of companies who offer this service. They started small in Winter Park, Colorado, USA but are now expanding to give the Brits the catered ski chalet experience so many of them love, in other top Colorado resorts.

Chalets USA was started back in 2004 by British couple Helen Gienke & Rob Brown, Brits who left their corporate careers to follow their dream of living in the mountains. They originally set up the first independent luxury ski chalet in Winter Park Resort, the closest resort to Denver International Airport and the resort recently bought by Intrawest, who also run Whistler, Copper Mountain and tremblant. Several million dollars have already been spent on improving the mountain at Winter Park Resort, including new lifts, new areas of terrain and new intermediate and advanced ski runs.

Having established 3 catered chalets and several self-catered options, Chalets USA have now decided to expand into other Colorado resorts. Now added to their portfolio is Wildfire Lodge, based in Beaver Creek, but only a short 15 minute bus ride from world-renowned Vail ski resort, the largest in Colorado. Wildfire Lodge has 5 bedroom ensuite bedrooms and outdoor hot tub and is just a short stroll from the brand new gondola in Beaver Creek Resort.

Breckenridge is extremely popular with UK skiers and so brand new Eagle Lodge has been opened in Breckenridge just a few hundred yards from the Peak 7 ski lift. Eagle Lodge has 6 ensuite bedrooms and sleeps up to 12. It has spectacular views, patio with outdoor hot tub, spacious open plan living room with log fireplace, plus a rec room with fireplace, flat panel TV, sound system & wet bar. Catering includes American style breakfast, afternoon tea with freshly baked cakes or cookies and a 3 course dinner 6 nights per week.

Last but by no means least Chalets USA has 6 new chalets in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, which can be booked on a catered or self-catered basis. Steamboat is a western style resort, where you can still see remants of its origins as a true cowboy town. Steamboat invented the term “champagne powder” and true to name has fantastic snow conditions on a regular basis. The Steamboat chalets are really the creme de la creme of Colorado chalet accommodation. The chalets offer luxury accommodation and top end appliances throughout. The catered service for these chalets comprises the traditional breakfast, tea and dinner, but also includes lunch, either soup in the chalet, or packed lunch to take to the slopes. To make your holiday even more hassle free, the Steamboat chalet offer an on call taxi service to take you around town and to the slopes and they give you mobile phones to call with for the duration of your stay. Steamboat is also home to our only ski in ski out chalet, a rare commodity in the US - Thunderhead chalet.

For more info on these new chalets or other luxury ski accommodation in Colorado, please visit www.chalets-usa.co.uk

By checking out these videos, these guys can’t be right in the head if they’re skiing down avalanches, trying to ski over trees, and even skiing down subway escalators.

Broken Bones
Winter + Skiing off cliff = Pain

Escalator Skiing
Who said you need snow to ski…All you need is a subway ticket.

How to become a paraplegic while Para-skiing
Insane person ski gliding at Mount Eiger in Switzerland !

Ski Tree Huggers
The Norwegians have created a new skiing sport…check it out.

James Bond Wannabe
Crazy skier does summersaults while skiing off insane cliff !