For skiers or snowboarders looking to bring a unique element to their holiday, the Ski Club of Great Britain is again hosting their annual resort race, the Luttman-Johnson Challenge in Zermatt on Wednesday 4th February 2009, which is open to anyone who is game.
The Luttman-Johnson Challenge is a fun mountain restaurant race where teams of two aim to visit a number of pre-determined restaurants around the mountains, riding as fast as possible between them, so as to spend the maximum amount of time in each one. The race is open to both skiers and boarders with categories for resort workers and visitors.
This year the Ski Club is teaming up with Natives.co.uk and combining the Luttman-Johnson with the Show Love Tour in Zermatt. Those coming off the slopes from the race and the prize-giving at the Hotel Pollux can head to the Show Love Tour party at Nelly’s Bar where there are free drinks and free entry into a raffle with top prizes.
Race entries are taken in the week leading up to the event with Ski Club reps during their daily social hour and entries on the day are also accepted.
www.skiclub.co.uk/eventcalendar
As well as the widely publicised Westendorf Connection gondola that opened in the SkiWelt this year, a second new gondolas opened, at Hopfgarten, greatly improving up lift in that sector of the giant ski pass area.
The new “Salvenbahn 2” eight-passenger cabin gondola lift replaces an old chairlift and dramatically increases the speed and comfort of ascent on the route.
The 1775m long lift carried 47 gondolas giving a carrying capacity of 2000 skiers and boarders per hour for it 5.67 minute ascent from the valley station at 1178m to the mountain station at 1829m.
Construction work is due to get underway soon on more new ski-in, ski-out homes in Les Arcs. Built by the French lakes and mountains property specialist MGM, the scheme will comprise the third and final phase of the company’s development Les Alpages de Chantel, 300 metres from the centre of Arcs 1800 where more than 50 properties already have been bought by UK buyers.
Named L’Iseran, the latest traditionally-styled chalet clad externally in timber and stone will contain 40 spacious apartments ranging in size from studio flats to five-bedroom apartments. Most will have panoramic views of the mountains.
Available for outright purchase, the apartments will have fitted kitchens and bathrooms, pine internal finishes and tiled and parquet floors. Each home comes with cellar storage, a ski locker and underground parking. Regulation standards for acoustic and thermal insulation will be exceeded.
A very unusual feature for a development with ski properties available for outright purchase is the inclusion of an indoor swimming pool for use by owners.
Les Arcs today forms part of the Paradiski skiing area with 420 km of pistes. Arc 1600 has a seven-minute funicular railway link to Bourg St Maurice, the destination of Eurostar trains from St Pancras during the ski season.
Currently nearing completion in Bourg St Maurice are two earlier developments by MGM – Le Coeur d’Or, a three-star residence de tourisme, and Le Grand Coeur which comprises 63 contemporary apartments within four traditionally-styled chalets. Most of them have large balconies or terraces with views of the mountains which surround the town.
Off-plan prices of properties at L’Iseran, due for completion in December 2010, range from €100,000 for a studio of 17 sq m to €1,050,000 for a five-bedroom, four-bathroom property with a floor area of 155 sq m. Prices for two bedroom apartments start at €235,000 euros.
www. mgm-constructeur.com
