Best skiing in 14 years at resort

A Highlands winter sports centre said it has had its best Christmas holiday season in 14 years.

CairnGorm Mountain said over a four-day period following Christmas Day it has had more than 8,000 skiers and snowboarders using its runs. The resort in the Cairngorms near Aviemore said blizzard conditions forecast for Thursday were expected to give way to bright sunshine on Friday.

Further snowfalls were expected over the weekend.

In 2007, Scottish ski resorts said they were suffering one of their worst seasons in years. A lack of snow and the presence of high winds were blamed for keeping skiers and snowboarders off the slopes. Bosses of the Glencoe Mountain Resort, meanwhile, have been working with government agency Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) in drawing up plans for the future.

Scotland's oldest ski centre was taken over by a consortium of winter sports enthusiasts earlier this year. Headed by businessman Andy Meldrum, the group plan to develop the site as an all-year venue through the creation of mountain bike trails.

An adventure playground and a revamp of the cafe have also been proposed.

Riddle as ski body had no shoes

Ski Brit Myles Robinson had no shoes on when his body was found, it emerged last night.

Sources in the Swiss resort of Wengen revealed he was wearing just one sock at the foot of an icy ravine.

Initial tests show the 6ft 5ins former public schoolboy, from Wandsworth, South London, was four times over the drink-drive limit.

But Newcastle University graduate Myles's relatives don't think he fell and suspect foul play.

They are demanding more answers from Swiss police.

2 other Devil's Head ski lifts need repairs, inspector says

After a ski lift malfunction injured 14 skiers and snowboarders at Devil's Head Ski Resort in Merrimac, a state inspector found two more ski lifts at the facility that require replacement of devices that would prevent a similar accident.

The inspector recommended replacing anti-rollback devices on two other ski lifts so the ski chairs won't begin moving backward.

On Dec. 17 one of the ski lifts began moving backward, prompting many people to jump off. When a state inspector arrived the next day she saw three chairs had come off the wire rope near the loading area and another chair had come off at the first tower. She also noticed the anti-rollback device was rusted and corroded.

Skier Nigel Jackson’s body found after Christmas Day avalanche

A British skier who went missing on Christmas Day has been found dead in the French Alps after being caught in an avalanche.

The body of Nigel Jackson, 43, who had been staying in an hotel in the resort of Chamonix Mont Blanc, was found under snow on Boxing Day. Mr Jackson, who was originally from Liverpool but had moved to London, went skiing in Le Tour ski area on Christmas Day with three friends, despite bad weather.

The party, which included Mr Jackson’s girlfriend, were staying at Les Aiglons hotel. They had decided to ski one last run, though Mr Jackson, a keen skier, separated from the group and agreed to meet them at the bottom. When he failed to arrive, his worried friends contacted the mountain police and a search involving a helicopter began. Police believe that he skied between two marked pistes and was caught in a small avalanche.

One friend said: “We are in shock. It was a freak accident. The avalanche was not even big.” Mr Jackson’s parents have flown to France to meet police and to arrange for his body to be returned to Britain.

A police spokesman said: “We found the body of a British man at 3pm on Saturday at Le Tour. We think he had been skiing between two pistes and was caught in an avalanche. The weather was very bad on Christmas Day. “A ski patrol searched for him and then we searched with a helicopter but we couldn’t see anything. He was not wearing an avalanche transceiver.”

The avalanche risk in Chamonix, which is near the French borders with Switzerland and Italy, has been classed as “considerable” over the Christmas period. Mr Jackson’s death is the second fatality in a week in the area. A French skier from Limoges was caught in an avalanche with two other people who managed to remain on the surface of the slide. The skier who was killed was also not equipped with an avalanche transceiver and was buried.

Meanwhile, the parents of a British man who went missing in a Swiss ski resort last week are continuing to hunt for their son. Myles Robinson, 23, from London, has not been seen since the early hours of Tuesday as he returned from a bar in the Swiss ski village of Wengen, southeast of Berne. His family and friends are conducting their own door-to-door inquiries in the search for the former Charterhouse public school pupil.

Swiss police have called in specialist search teams using heat-seeking devices and helicopters to find Mr Robinson, who was last seen escorting a family friend back to her hotel. He had spent the evening playing pool and drinking beer with Amy O’Brien and other friends in a bar. He walked Ms O’Brien to her door, only 300 metres from his own apartment, but has not been seen since.

More than 70 friends and villagers joined Mr Robinson’s family to knock on doors in Wengen. Cara, 25, his sister, said: “We are asking villagers if we can come into their houses and look around their properties. There might be some clue. The police, who have been so good, said they can’t search houses without applying for search warrants.”

A friend said: “He was perfectly capable of walking home. He wasn’t really drunk. She presumed he was going to walk back to his family’s apartment which is just a few minutes’ walk away.” Mr Robinson’s mother Sarah, 59, is a former president of the British Alpine Racing Ski Club.

Girl who fell from ski lift is out of hospital

A 4-year old who fell from an Alta Ski Resort chairlift is now out of the hospital.

Unified fire says the girl, who fell saturday night, is now in good condition. Witnesses saw the girl fall 30 to 35 five feet from the Sunnyside lift and called for help.

Ski patrol found the girl not breathing, but were able to revive her. She was flown to primary children's hospital.

Early season snow spells holiday weekend relief for Tahoe ski resorts

Heavy snowfall is coming early this year, and area ski resorts couldn't be happier on the eve of some big holiday weekends.

“There's never enough snow — we always want more,” said Kirstin Cattell, Northstar-at-Tahoe's communications manager. “But I think last year proved that skiers and snowboarders who want to come out will come out.” A year ago, the Lake Tahoe Basin didn't see its first significant snowstorm until around Christmas, and not much fell the entire season after that.

This year, two major snowstorms hit the Tahoe/Truckee area the past two weekends, leaving many downhill resorts with as much as 60 to 75 inches at upper levels. All but Diamond Peak, Homewood and Tahoe Donner Downhill — which open this week — are open for the season. Savannah Cowley, spokeswoman at Squaw Valley USA, said the resort is optimistic about the early snow and already have more bookings than last year.

“As a lot of the locals know, the past four winters have been pretty late, and we have always been scrambling to get the resorts open,” she said.

From December 6-13 this year, Cowley said Squaw accumulated 78 inches of snow. While this year's early-season snow is appreciated, Cattell said the month of February — the ski season's typical highest snowfall month — will decide if this year will be a prosperous.

According to the National Weather Service in Reno, after a likely chance of a rain/snow mix Wednesday, high temperatures should hover around 40 degrees into next weekend, with little or no snow in the forecast.

Skiing Starts Thursday at Boise’s Bogus Basin

Thursday at 10 a.m. the first skiers and snowboarders will be screaming down the runs at beloved local ski resort Bogus Basin, and Boise snowboarders, skiers, snow retailers, resort employees and pretty much everybody else is smiling. The annual transformation to ski-town is here.

Tuesday’s storm dropped enough snow on the mountain to add up to nearly 30 inches at the base and 32 at the summit, and the resort announced a Thursday opening.

WHISTLER BLACKCOMB SMASHES 30-YEAR RECORD FOR SNOWIEST MONTH EVER WITH OVER 5.5 METRES (18 FEET) OF SNOWFALL

As the calendar flips over to December, it's now official that November 2009 will go down in history as the snowiest month on record at Whistler Blackcomb, dating back to when the collection of weather data began 30 years ago.

November 2009 has seen a total accumulation of 560cm (18 feet) of snowfall, nearly four times that of November's average snowfall of 148cm (58 inches). This is an increase of more than 19 per cent over the previous record of 469cm (185 inches) set in January 2006, and a 22 per cent increase over January 1992's record of 459cm (181 inches).

And now, with the record broken, there is still an entire season of skiing and riding to look forward to. With a season that offers 192 days of skiing and riding, Whistler Blackcomb is already over half way towards the resort's average annual snowfall of just over 10 metres (33 feet).

Mongolians take to the slopes at first ski resort

Mongolians used to harsh winters now have a new outlet for winter fun at the country's first ski resort, located on a sacred mountain just outside of the capital Ulan Bator.

For the locals, Sky Resort is a welcome distraction from at a time of year when temperatures fall well below freezing, but it rarely snows in the arid capital. The resort relies on Italian-made snow guns to cover the trails with artificial snow.

"It is a great way to have fun with our children, and they are picking it up really fast," said 40-year-old visitor Tsedsuren Luvsandorj.

Bumps and bruises lie ahead for many Mongolians who are new to the slopes. But if they like the sport, they'll find plenty of other ski mountains to try in neighboring China, which has also taken up skiing with a vengeance since it debuted in the 1990s. The Sky Resort, on the sacred Bogd Khan Uul Mountain just fifteen minutes drive from Ulan Bator, is mostly aimed at beginners and intermediates. But it has nine runs, two chairlifts, and even a dedicated racing slope.

Still, the new fad doesn't come cheap. At $24 for lift tickets and ski rental, a day of skiing equals nearly a week's salary for the average Mongolian.