13 ways to make your next ski holiday much more interesting
Is downhill skiing getting too predictable? Jazz it up with these 13 quirky possibilities.
1. On the ropes
A mass-start downhill race? OK. Teams of two? Ah, nice twist. You’ll be roped together – whaaa?! The Scaramanga Roped Race has taken place in Mürren, Switzerland, first thing every New Year’s Day since 1925. It was, of course, devised by a Briton, whose family name inspired the character in ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’. muerren.swiss
2. Inside story
Snowboarding or skiing in a fridge in a desert is weird enough. But Ski Dubai also has the world’s first indoor black run, and every so often they clear the slopes and let a bunch of penguins out to waddle around in the snow. skidubai.com
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3. You Tube
Skiing too much of a faff? Well head to the craziest tubing park in the world in Leysin, Switzerland. It has 360-degree roundabout turns, a huge kicker with an airbag to land on, and a snowy version of a Hot Wheels track with a loop-the-loop! tobogganing.ch
4. Shrining Path
Head into the trees on Aspen Mountain and you’ll find dozens of shrines. At first, they were to singers such as Elvis, Jerry Garcia and Bob Marley. But there have also been shrines to Guinness, Yankee Stadium and Donald Trump. aspensnowmass.com
5. The In Crowd
Mass-start Chinese downhill races have been largely health’n’safetied off the slopes. But, on April 1, foolhardy skiers and snowboarders can take on the Red Bull Homerun in Are, Sweden. Anything goes, first to the bottom wins. skistar.com/are
6. Plagne Truth
Each Easter, French resort La Plagne plonks all sorts of free attractions, such as a nail bar, dinosaurs, and carousel, atop five peaks. It’s called Subli’c?mes (sublissime = “beyond sublime”; c?mes = “summits”). la-plagne.com
7. Honed Horns
Hor?schlitt?renn? is an annual race on outsized toboggans in Adelboden, Switzerland. One bearded bloke in traditional dress steers with the “horns” at the front; while another hangs off the back like a gnome in a sidecar. adelboden.ch
8. Mono Mania
Monoskis have been ironically revived recently. And the unofficial Monoski World Championships in Val d’Isère in April are open even to those who’ve never tried the feet-together, bum-wiggling, arm-waving sport before. valdinet.com
9. I bless the snow down in Africa
The AfriSki resort, at more than 3,000m in the Drakensberg-Maluti mountains, in Lesotho, is open between June and August. Hurry, boy, it’s waiting there for you – albeit only four lifts and five pistes of it. afriski.net
10. Water palaver
As the end-of-season sun hits the snow, resorts end up with pools of slush. The result? Pond skimming. At Vail, Colorado, you have to jump a kicker first, knocking you off balance, so chances of reaching the other shore without swimming are low. vail.com
11. Cycling on ice
Cycling is ridiculously popular in the Age of the Middle-Aged Men In Lycra. And three afternoons a week in Val Thorens, France, there is guided fat-tyre downhill mountain biking on the Tête Ronde piste – a 700m vertical drop. valthorens.com
12. Horse play
Skijoring is when cross-country skiers harness themselves to their dogs. At the Leadville Ski Joring Competition in Colorado (March 3-4), however, competitors are towed through the town by galloping mustangs. leadvilleskijoring.us
13. Snow versus the volcano
Don’t get in a lava but, yes it’s really possible to climb up and ski down Mount Etna, which is an active volcano. The 3,329m Sicilian peak offers good powder on smooth off-piste slopes. It’s just a question of whether that powder is fluffy snow or volcanic ash. etnasci.it