WHERE TO SKI? Winners and Losers 1995-2013

The excellent Where to Ski and Snowboard 2013 is now available - it's easily the best guide to resorts, their rude comments about Les Arcs' architecture notwithstanding.

As its name suggests, it's an annual publication, which first appeared in 1995.  A look at that first book tells us which resorts have maintained and/or strengthened their position, and which are on the wane, at least in the British market.

One change, of course, has been in the title of the book - the original guide did not include the word "Snowboard", although there was a chapter devoted to the growth of "Le Surf", as the French used to call it.

"It is estimated that by the year 2000, 

one in three people riding the lifts 

will be a snowboarder"

Not sure if the snowboarder ratio ever got to quite that level; certainly in Les Arcs last year, the number wasn't getting much above 10%.

Back to the resorts.  Then - and now - the bulk of the guide is devoted to chapters on the main destination.  There were more chapters in 1995 than in the latest edition, with the net effect being there are more resorts who have "lost" their individual chapters than there are winners/newcomers.

In France, the winners - each now proudly boasting their own chapter - are Samoens, La Tania and Les Gets.  The losers are La Clusaz, Les Contamines, Valloire, Isola 2000 and Valmorel.

In Austria, the main winner this year is Soelden.  It was in the original guide, but then lost its place, and has now been rightly restored as "Austria's best kept secret", with its 130km of pistes, near-2000m vertical descent and, er, varied nightlife.

Hochsoelden

WTSS 2013 also gives good coverage to the Vorarlberg region.

A number of Austrian resorts are no longer covered in detail - the most notable perhaps being Zell am See, Zell am Ziller and St Johann in Tirol.  Each were mainstays of the ski brochures during the 1980s and 1990s.

Other Austrian resorts no longer covered include BKK, Fieberbrunn, Galtur, Innsbruck and Niederau.

In Italy, Bormio is out, with Passo Tonale and the Trentino region on the rise, each boasting a chapter for 2013.

Finally, Switzerland.  Arosa, Flims, Lenzerheide and Les Diablerets no longer justify a chapter.  The rising star is clearly the Val d'Anniviers, with four pages now devoted to Zinal, Grimentz et al.

THE BUSINESS OF SKIING: How to Expand....

There's a conference this weekend all about the future of the ski industry - covered in Le Dauphine.

Here are some of the key points - with a few extra links where I've been able to find them.

1.  The space available for skiing can't be extended, limited by the existence of the national parks and the growing environmental lobby.

2. The days of mega-expansion are gone.  These days it's more about renewing the lifts, rationalising the existing ski areas, investing in artificial snow, and making sure the resorts can show they've been taking steps to reduce their impact on the environment.

3.  In a mature market, it's now about share of wallet - ie winning market share from other resorts.

4.  In the Southern Alps, the big recent debate has been all about expanding upwards, to the 3000m barrier.  It looks like Orcieres has given up on the Pic de Rochebrune, but Risoul is still dreaming of setting up a freeride area close to 3000m.

5.  There are more concrete plans now to do just this at Montgenevre, which is now making active plans for the Chaberton project - including four new chairlifts and 35km of pistes.  This has prompted controversy about the environmental impact.  For the resort, which doesn't have a particularly impressive vertical descent, this is all about competing against the rival Italian resorts to which it's linked by the Milky Way area.

6.   Similar situation over at La Rosiere, which is also looking to expand to close to 3000m in the Mont Valaisan area, again in a bit to make sure it compares well with its Italian neighbour over the border in La Thuile.

La Rosiere, looking back towards Villaroger and Arc 2000

7.   Size matters:  In the Mont-Blanc area, l’espace Évasion boasts 440 km of pistes.  However, they lack the link in the chain which would enable skiers to travel between Les Contamines and St Gervais.  Contamines has been suffering due to its isolation and a new lift to make the link betwen the two is planned for 2013.

8.  Things are moving also on the Savoie/Haute Savoie border.  In the Espace Diamant (see report on Crest Voland here), Les Saisies is planning to expand its area into the combe de Ballasta.  Its neighbour Praz-sur-Arly is looking at a new link with Megeve and the Espace Evasion.  With nearly 650km of pistes, the two areas would be hot on the heels of the Portes du Soleil.

9.  There's not one of these projects which hasn't caused controversy.  At Collet d'Alevard, works on the Clapier chairlift have stopped.  Similarly at Ste-Foy-Tarentaise plans to put 3 new charlifts into a new area at the combe du Clou have been put on ice.

10. Coming back to the issue of linking ski stations - the expectations are that they will increase revenues by anywhere between 10-35%.  The Les 2 Alpes - Alpe d'Huez link may or may not happen (for the moment, the resorts are only at the stage of spending €20,000 to study the idea).  If it doesn't, it may join other big schemes which were planned at one point, but which are now pretty dormant - for example La Clusaz - Grand Bornand and Valfrejus - Valloire.