Extreme Sports

Well, the 2010 New South Wales Snow and Skiing season is just around the corner again and everyone is ready for the fun and frivolity to start. In the year of the Vancouver Winter Olympics and the sensational TV coverage it will receive, it is expected that the Australian season will be one of the best ever with tens of thousands of new skiers travelling to the NSW ski fields to learn and participate in the downhill and snowboarding disciplines they have been seeing on the TV. Thredbo and Perisher Valley ski and snowboard operators are gearing up for a bumper season and all the necessary equipment like ski lifts, snow ploughs, snow cannons and the like are all being checked over to help provide a trouble free season. Lots of new hire equipment has been ordered to provide for the expected lift in visitor numbers. Everyone in the industry is expecting a bumper season.

Perisher Valley accommodation providers are already open for bookings and this year you had better book early. The GFC has seen to it that there is not much in new accommodation available and the same story is evident at the Thredbo accommodation booking websites. Traditionally, when El Nino weather conditions prevail and the winter months are drier, the ski resorts have reported excellent snow conditions so everything is lining up to make 2010 a fantastic year with moderate El Nino conditions forecast for 2010.  Read more...

You’ve heard about the skiing at Lake Tahoe or Mammoth, but one of the best ski or snowboard experiences you’ll ever have awaits you at Bear Valley, where the crowds are few, but the thrills are many.

While not on a par with Squaw Valley or Heavenly or other major California ski resorts, the Bear Valley ski area is still a prime candidate for a weekend or even an extended skiing vacation. As we discovered in early February, Bear Valley offers a surprisingly complete ski vacation experience – no frills, to be sure, but still rewarding and well worth the trip deep into the Sierra Nevada range.

If designer clothing stores, zillion-dollar condos, and Hollywood-style glitz are part of your criteria for a ski vacation, this ski area might not be the best choice. If wide-open ski runs, no lift lines and plenty of groomed snow are more important to you, then by all means give Bear Valley a try.

Coming originally from the Pacific Northwest, we could not help but compare Bear Valley to one of our favorite ski areas in Washington state – a place called Mission Ridge in a town named Wenatchee. The population in that part of the state is sparse compared with the big ski areas near Seattle, so Mission Ridge is able to offer wide-open skiing runs most days of the week.

Similarly, Bear Valley is less accessible than the many larger ski areas in the Lake Tahoe area. Bay area and Sacramento residents can drive Interstate 80 to the Tahoe area and find a selection of ski resorts a short distance off the interstate. To reach this ski area, you have to drive two-lane roads through the foothills and mountains for close to 100 miles.  Read more...

Mountain Biking Sun Valley, Idaho: Including the Sawtooth Mountains