First tracks: news from the slopes

California’s latest super-resort

A major new gondola due to be completed by the start of the season will link two Californian resorts to create the third largest ski area in North America. Olympic Valley, host of the 1960 winter games, and nearby Alpine Meadows are already marketed under the combined name Palisades Tahoe. But a new lift will allow skiers to move between their pistes without driving. Together they offer 6,000 acres of skiable terrain, behind only Whistler Blackcomb in Canada and Park City in Utah in size. The resort’s owner, Alterra Mountain Company, hopes to boost its profile with an expansion of the Olympic Valley village including new accommodation and a water park. However, plans for the village were dealt a blow this summer when a court ruled they didn’t meet the standards of the state’s Environmental Quality Act and would have to be amended. Last year Alterra dropped the resort’s former name (Squaw Valley) on the grounds that it was a “racist and sexist slur against indigenous women”.
palisadestahoe.com

Bode in Greenland

The pick of this winter’s money-no-object ski trips could be the chance to make first descents on the west coast of Greenland in the company of the great US ski racer, Bode Miller (pictured). The Olympic gold medallist, known for his hard-charging style, will accompany a group of 12 for a weeklong heli-skiing trip aboard the Nansen Explorer, a converted Arctic research vessel, travelling to the island of Maniitsoq, about 100 miles north of Nuuk. Also guiding the group will be Chris Davenport, a well-known ski mountaineer and former world extreme skiing champion, and Doug Stoup, a pioneer of skiing in Antarctica.
The trip departs April 23, 2023, and costs €60,000 per double cabin, all-inclusive. eyos-expeditions.com

Skiing in Saudi

The Olympic Council of Asia has prompted amazement in the skiing community by awarding the next Asian Winter Games, to take place in 2029, to a non-existent resort in the Saudi Arabian desert. Trojena is a planned outdoor ski area in the mountains about 30 miles inland from the gulf of Aqaba, and part of Neom, the kingdom’s $500bn project to build a futuristic new city. Though the ski resort is due for completion in 2026, so far details are scarce apart from computer-generated images. The region does get some natural snow, but artificial snow will be needed for skiing. Critics have decried the environmental impact of creating the resort, to be centred around a man-made lake. In response to the news, the French Ski Federation issued a statement denouncing the games as an “aberration” that was “totally contrary to what is desirable for the planet”. The International Olympic Committee meanwhile said it hadn’t been consulted on the plans, and that, for its events, existing venues were preferred on sustainability grounds.
ocasia.org

Death of the lift pass

Conscious of the plastic waste created by issuing tens of thousands of lift passes each year, resort operators are looking for alternatives. Les Gets in France and Kitzbühel in Austria will both offer wooden passes this winter. But Vail Resorts, the Colorado-based giant that operates 41 ski areas worldwide, is going one better with plans that could see physical passes consigned to history altogether. This winter it will trial a system that uses guests’ smartphones instead. Visitors buy and activate a pass online, and their phones can then be scanned at lifts using Bluetooth, while still in users’ pockets. As well as reducing waste, the system should remove the need to queue to buy tickets and, assuming the trial is a success, will be rolled out the following year. The obvious drawback — that your phone might run out of battery — will be tackled with on-mountain charging points, the company says, and those who still want conventional passes will be able to buy them.
Vailresorts.com

Ukraine’s record slope

Underlining Ukraine’s determination to continue life as normally as possible, a five-star resort has opened in the west of the country boasting Europe’s largest dry ski slope. The five-star Emily Resort, about 4km from the centre of Lviv, offers a spa, swimming pools, lake with “island beach club”, conference hall and 166 bedrooms. Skitrax, the German manufacturer of the slope’s artificial surface, claims that, though other dry slopes are longer, the total area of 19,000 square metres is more than any other European facility. The centre includes a four-person chairlift, three slopes and a ski-in, ski-out restaurant. Snow canons beside the slope mean that when temperatures drop in winter, the plastic matting can be covered with artificial snow.
emilyresort.com.ua