Nutcracker Ski Club

There’s been alot happening across the Australian Ski Resorts over Summer and with ski season three weeks away we are very close the benefiting from those improvements.

Perisher Blue @ Hotham have topped the list with a AUD$16.25 Million investment into the installation of 99 snowmaking guns with associated pipelines that will generate an extra 712,000 cubic meters of snow. Perisher have also invested into new grooming equipment, improvements on it’s fencing and drains which will vastly improve the surface quality for skiers and boarders. 

Also at Hotham, Charlotte Pass has installed a new conveyor belt and invested in it’s terrain park to attract the younger skiers and boarders to the sport. The ski rental services have been upgraded.

Of Course at Buller the resort has worked hard over Summer to get the six man chairlift ready. Real Estate development has also occurred with new lodge accommodation being built.

“The Australian resorts continue to investigate, test and then implement the world’s best in alpine technology,” said Andrew Ramsey, Executive Director of the Australian Ski Areas Association. “It is essential we stay up to date to strengthen winter alpine tourism which contributes AUD $1.3 billion net to the national economy. These works will ensure Australia’s resorts stay well ahead of other southern hemisphere snow destinations.”

Thanks to First Tracks for the article.

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Falls Creek have had 15cms of snow since Sunday, with reports of depths being 25cms in places.

So someone up there decided to get the ski’s out and make us all jealous that we can’t be up there to enjoy the early snow

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 Tennis World No. 3, and Australian Open Men’s Champion, Novak Djokovic stopped by at Ski Dubai to catch a few runs as a lead up to the 2008 Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships over the weekend.

With five runs that vary in difficulty, height and steepness, Djokovic was able to test his skills at the indoor resort.

“I took up skiing before I learnt to play tennis at the age of four,” explained Djokovic. “Skiing is a great sport, it’s a lot of fun and it’s my biggest passion.

“It is something I have done all my life, but of course it isn’t recommended for tennis players to ski because of the possibility of injury. I have never been scared on the slopes and have always been careful.”

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My darling friend in San Francisco, Chet, is quite an avid snow boarder and also takes on managing a club or two during the season.

He recently alerted me to a post on his blog with some pictures of one of the lodges he manages in a town called Truckee, which is near the California/ Nevada border North of Lake Tahoe. The lodge houses 10-12 people, so it’s fairly similar to our capacity.

I thought you might like to have a look.

This is from Chet’s blog, Cross Country Drive.

“Last week I went to see my new ski house(s) for the first time.

Yup, there are two ski houses. One north of Lake Tahoe in Truckee and another in the town of South Lake Tahoe, about an hour away. I’ll be managing the north house primarily.

The ski house I’m managing is a Geodesic Dome structure. Its really strange inside, I predict I’ll be banging my head on the ceiling a lot.

I carpooled with the interim South cabin manager for another event she was managing: a ’spelunking’ expedition, we went caving through old gold mines in Angel Creek. This was really cool. The South Lake structure is more ‘vanilla’.“

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