New Ski Area for Syria?
The land was captured from Syria in 1967 and two years later the first skiers were ascending the slopes by donkey. Now, 650 feet from the Syrian border, the area is reported to boast armed personnel and to have mine fields in the vicinity.
Mount Hermon has suffered from warm temperatures in recent seasons. When the snow cover is good—which has been for blocks of a week to 10 days at a time—the slopes can get very crowded. Management has yet to launch a last-chance-to-ski close-down and believes that the land, which has more than 17,000 Israeli settlers, will never be handed back.
Dubai’s Snow Village Takes Shape
Another elaborate indoor snowdome project is underway, this time in one of the world’s hottest places, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The proposed desert snow village will, if built, be the largest in the world at 3,000 feet wide by 5,000 feet long and 1,000 feet high. It will be covered completely by an air structure system that incorporates a fabric to filter out UV rays from the sun. Temperatures in the desert landscape outside vary from 83 degrees up to 122 degrees Fahrenheit making this potentially the world’s most surreal skiing and boarding destination. Inside the dome there will be a constant temperature of 41 degrees to freezing. The ambitious development will include hotels, motels restaurants, cafés and, of course, a ski hill complete with gondola.
Benetton Spends on Sarajevo
The continuing resurrection of the once world-famous Bosnian ski industry has picked up pace with the announcement that Benetton, the clothing store chain, is to spend half a million Bosnian Marks (approx $285,000) on the redevelopment of one of Sarajevo’s 1984 Olympic sites.
Fifteen years ago, the facilities at Mount Bjelasnica, which averages 10 feet of natural snowfall annually over a long winter of 217 days, were all new for the Games. One of four mountains used to stage the Olympics, Bjelasnica was the site of the men’s downhill course, which was 9,823 feet long departing from a newly-constructed restaurant at the mountain’s 4,176-foot peak. Most of the facilities were destroyed during the 1992 to 1995 war.
Benetton’s money will go toward the construction of a new restaurant and ski-service facility at the mountain, located 19 miles from the city of Sarajevo. Where possible, local materials and labor will be employed.
Sarajevo’s rebirth as an international ski destination began to take shape last season when Harlequin Leisure opened a ski tourism operation that proved very successful. Although conditions on and off the slopes in the area can be unpredictable, as Bosnia’s infrastructure continues to regenerate and erratic weather conditions plague the Dinaric Alps, the only constant operational problem is caused by erratic power supplies.
World’s Longest Rail Tunnel in Switzerland
One of the greatest feats of engineering the Alps has ever seen has come to fruition with the opening of the Vereina rail tunnel, the world’s longest rail tunnel with a 40-inch-wide track that is 12 miles long.
The tunnel links Klosters in the northern Alps to the famous Engadin in the south, home of St Moritz, and will dramatically reduce rail travel times from the north. The tunnel cost 800 million Swiss Francs (about $810 million).
The opening of the tunnel on November 20, was celebrated with a specially-commissioned performance by 220 Alphornists of ‘Allegra Vereeina!’ written by René Ganz. An Alphorn in Klosters blew a note through the tunnel and it was relayed by other Alphornists set at intervals throughout the tunnel to St. Moritz at the other end.
Go Ahead for Manchester’s Indoor Ski Center
The Department of the Environment has given the go-ahead for plans to build Britain’s fourth indoor ski and snowboarding center in Manchester. The center has received planning permission from the local authorities.
The $137 million SnoWorld North West should ultimately create over 3,000 jobs in a complex that will include two slopes, more than 50 shops, restaurants, a multiplex cinema and, according to some reports, a bowling alley and roller hockey center.
Billed as the “biggest leisure center in Britain,” SnoWorld is being built in Salford by Leisure Villages, a company based in London. Construction began at the end of 1999 with completion due in 2001. SnoWorld will be located on a 17-acre site and will be 197 feet high. The proposed slope will be 1,804 feet in length, making it the longest in the world. There are also plans for freestyle and cross-country skiing facilities.
There are already two operating indoor snow slopes in the U.K. These include one of the world’s oldest, a small facility in Telford that opened in 1992, and a larger dome in Tamworth, which is reportedly up for sale.
Ground Breaking on Aviemore
Work has finally begun on a new funicular railway at the Cairngorm ski area in Scotland, better known as Aviemore to thousands of British skiers. The project, first proposed in 1993, has been dogged by delays, caused primarily by environmental objections to the venture. Cairngorm is an area of huge environmental significance to Britain and Europe, with rare indigenous species surviving in the region. There have even been proposals to reintroduce wolves in the area. However, the funicular plan was finally agreed to by the European Union earlier last year.
The need to upgrade ski lifts on Cairngorm has long been beyond a joke for many visitors and locals alike. Some of the current uplift machinery is on a par with that of Cold War-era ski area developments in Eastern Europe, including a historic sideways-facing double chair with a pole in the middle.
The project’s backers claim the new mountain railway will inject $16 million per year in to the local economy and create 60 full time jobs.
The funicular is expected to cost nearly 24.3 million to construct over an 18-month period and be ready to open in time for winter 2001. Work has started on water, sewage, electrical and communications installations with the major construction due to start in spring 2000.
Australian Snowboarders Found
After months of searching for four snowboarders lost in a storm on August 7, 1999 at Lake Albina, a Navy helicopter discovered the bodies in the thawing snow on November 17. Authorities believe the young men, who were caught in a storm, dug a snow cave for shelter that subsequently collapsed on the victims burying them. Since their disappearance, there was some sort of search conducted every week by local police and government agencies.
