Tamae Watanabe - oldest woman to summit Everest

A Japanese woman stunned the mountaineering world this morning by successfully climbing Mount Everest at the age of 73, setting a new world record for the oldest woman ever to reach the summit. 

Tamae Watanabe, a retired office worker, scaled the 8,848-metre peak of the world’s tallest mountain at 7am Nepali time, accompanied by Japanese mountaineer and photographer Noriyuki Muraguchi and three other team members.   

They made their ascent from the north ridge route from Tibet.  Due to bad weather, they had set off from Katmandu for the mountain twice last month, but had been forced to reschedule their summit plans each time due to bad weather.  Today it was third time lucky!

The most remarkable and ironic aspect of Watanabe’s achievement is that she beat her own age record today for conquering the mountain.  Back in 2002, on May 16, she summited Everest from the southeast ridge route in Nepal, at the age of 63 – a record which stood for a decade until today. 

The oldest person ever to climb Everest is a Nepali national, Min Bahadur Sherchan, aged 76, in 2008.  Just last year, an 82-year-old man died on the mountain while trying to beat his record.

Who knows… perhaps Watanabe will try again a few years from now?  Or perhaps today’s formidable new record will stay unchallenged for decades.

Hang on to your drag lift!

An entire ski lift has been stolen from the Czech resort of Desna.  Thankfully the incident took place last month after the ski season ended as the resort only has four slopes and three lifts (a four-seat chair lift and two drag lifts) at the best of times. 

The whole lift was taken, including the three supporting pylons and a 1km length of wire cable.  It is remarkable that nobody noticed it being dismantled.  As yet, no-one knows if it has been taken for scrap – metal theft is not uncommon in the Czech Republic – or whether it may be rebuilt somewhere else. One thing is for certain though… it is the first time an entire ski lift has been taken!

Ben Ainslie starts the long-anticipated Olympic torch relay at Land's End

The Olympic torch relay started today at Land’s End, with Britain’s top sailor and triple Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie.

Ainslie was the first of 139 torchbearers today, at the start of a 70-day, 8,000-mile relay leading to the Opening Ceremony of the Games on 27 July.  Comparing his leg to winning one of his Olympic golds, he remarked: “It was one of those moments where I was in a bit of shock really.  At least I didn’t trip over”.

On his Facebook page this evening, he wrote: “What a day!!!!  Being the first Olympic Torch bearer was a real honour and it was fantastic to see so many people out in Lands End and Falmouth, you did the country proud.  Now for some sleep….”

A total of 8,000 torchbearers will take part in the torch relay, including a number of British snowsports athletes including Chemmy Alcott, Ed Drake, Katie Summerhayes and Ellie Koyander.  You can read more about them and their dates and locations for the relay in our earlier news report here.  

Now, finally, after months of hype and press coverage, the Olympic countdown really begins. The start of this long-awaited relay today has made the whole event seem much more of a reality. 

As former Olympian Steven Redgrave reported in the Telegraph today: “For the spectators it’s the moment when they can really start to appreciate the enormity and significance of this crazy, chaotic, wonderful festival of sport hurtling towards us.”

Considering your next ski trip to the Alps?  There’s excellent news on the financial front…

European trips are currently offering excellent value as sterling continues to rise against other world currencies. 

Last week, it hit its best exchange rate against the Euro in more than three years, with one pound now buying around €1.20.

Thanks to sterling’s strong performance against the Euro, this favourable rate had an immediate effect on currency sales last week, which showed an increase of 110% compared with this time last year.  

If you are planning a forthcoming trip to Europe– whether for skiing, hiking in the mountains or just a simple city break, it’s worth considering changing your money now to ensure it will stretch further than it has since 2009. 

Even with the favourable exchange rate, we all know how easily costs can build up when planning a holiday abroad, so here are five simple money-saving tips to keep the costs low:

1) Always shop around for the best offers – don’t book or buy the first trip or ski jacket you see!  Compare everything from resort destinations to insurance policies.

2) Don’t change your money at the airport departure lounge.  The rates offered at airports are poor.  Shop around in good time on the high street or online for the best exchange from banks and bureaux de change outlets.

3) Book airport parking in advance – you can save up to 50%.

4) Rent ski kit/outdoor gear or, better still, beg or borrow scarcely used items from your friends and relatives.   

5) Avoid excess booking charges on some websites (Ryanair, Flybe, etc) when booking  flights online by using a debit card rather than a credit card.

For more ideas on how best to keep costs down, check out our financial advisor, Peter Derrick’s top ten tips here.

The Olympic flame arrived this evening ready to start a 70-day journey around the country.  It was ignited in Greece on 10^th May and presented to Princess Ann, President of the British Olympic Association in the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens. 

The flame was placed in “The Firefly” – a gold-coloured British Airways plane, together with a prestigious Olympic delegation: Lord Sebastian Coe, Chairman of the Games organisers Locog; the Princess Royal; Olympics minister Hugh Roberston; London Mayor Boris Johnson; David Beckham and five young people from the UK.

All aboard The Firefly

The flame was strapped into seats 1A and 1B, in what would normally be business class, on its journey from Greece to the UK.  The pilot, Captain David Thomas, is said to have remarked “It’s slightly unusual to be playing with fire on an aeroplane.”

Classed as dangerous goods, the Olympic flame had to adhere to strict regulations: it was in four lanterns, in specially-made metal cradles which were secured to the seat by a seatbelt and a Velcro strap.  A fire warden was seated in seat 1C, monitoring the flame for the duration of its 1,500-mile flight.  It arrived at Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose in Cornwall this evening. 

"Please fasten your seatbelts!"

Tomorrow morning marks the start of the London 2012 torch relay from Land’s End, led by triple Olympic sailing champion Ben Ainslie.  In 70 days the torch will travel approximately 8,000 miles to 1,018 destinations around the UK and Ireland, climaxing in the Olympic Park in East London on 27 July. 

In the words of IOC President, Jacques Rogge: “As the Olympic torch travels the width and breadth of the United Kingdom on its way to the Olympic Stadium in London, its powerful symbolism and the inspiring stories of many of the torchbearers will touch hearts and fire imaginations around the world.”

Among its 8,000 torchbearers, taken from all walks of life, there are a number of British snowsports athletes including Chemmy Alcott, Ed Drake, Katie Summerhayes and Ellie Koyander.

Katie's in here somewhere!

On 25 June, 16-year old Katie Summerhayes, Britain’s Ski Freestyle Champion, will take the torch through Sheffield.  She told reporters “Everyone at school is so hyped about the Olympics.  Everywhere I turn I see something about Team GB and it’s an amazing feeling just to be a part of it.”  Katie has already had a similar honour bestowed upon her – she was the flag-bearer for Team GB at the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, last January, as we reported from the Austrian city here.        

On 30 June, women’s mogul skier, 20-year-old Ellie Koyander will carry the torch through Burton upon Trent.   She was the youngest member of Team GB at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010, coming 24^th in the discipline of Freestyle Moguls Skiing.

On 18 July, another Vancouver Olympic snowsports athlete and Britain’s number one male ski racer, Ed Drake, will carry the torch through Hastings. 

Chemmy Alcott - supporting her home team

On 24 July, just three days before the Olympic Opening Ceremony, Chemmy Alcott -Britain’s top female ski racer – will be carrying it through theLondon borough of Ealing.  “It is an amazing honour and privilege to be selected to carry the Olympic Torch and to be part of the most important and prestigious sporting event in the world…. I’m really excited to be a part of my home games” remarked Chemmy, who hopes to represent Britain at the next Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014.

To find out when the torch comes near you and who’s carrying it, and also to search maps, check street routes and follow the BBC’s daily live online coverage over the next 70 days leading to the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony on 27 July, check out the live torch relay webpage here.

Monarch Airlines has just announced its first ever scheduled ski programme.  It is launching ten new ski routes for winter 2012/13, including scheduled flights from Leeds Bradford International Airport for the very first time. 

The new routes will complement the airline’s existing services to Milan, Venice and Verona, and will provide easy access to some of Europe’s best ski resorts – via Grenoble airport in France, and Friedrichshafen and Munich airports in Germany. Each of these airports already has excellent links to the resorts.

Kevin George, Managing Director of Monarch Airlines, commented: “The launch of these routes for winter 2012/13 marks an exciting new era for Monarch as we introduce our first programme of scheduled ski flights and target a new customer base of skiers looking to fly to Grenoble, Friedrichshafen and Munich, as well as via our numerous Italian destinations.”

Monarch is the UK’s longest established airline, founded in 1967. Last year it carried 5.9 million passengers. Its new scheduled ski flights for Winter 2012/13 are as follows:

Monarch Airlines

London Gatwick
Friedrichshafen – 4 x flights per week

London Luton
Munich – 4 x flights per week

Manchester
Friedrichshafen – 2 x flights per week
Grenoble – 3 x flights per week Munich – 4 x flights per week

Birmingham
Grenoble – 3 x flights per week
Munich – 4 x flights per week

Leeds Bradford
Grenoble – 3 x flights per week
Munich – 2 x flights per week

The routes will launch at different stages over the autumn/winter period with Munich flights launching from mid September. The Grenoble and Friedrichshafen routes will launch mid-December and will run until early April 2013, ending with the Easter holidays.  They are already on sale from as little as £36.

Monarch has also recently announced its expansion in the Midlands, following the demise of the East Midlands Airport-based airline bmiBaby, which will cease trading in September. Monarch is adding additional frequencies and routes from Birmingham Airport and is opening a new base at East Midlands Airport from late summer. Indeed, this Friday (18 May), Monarch will put on sale a whole cluster of routes previously flown by bmiBaby.

Images: from Monarch Facebook page and monarch.co.uk.

Engelberg: winter merges into spring (copyright: swiss-image.ch/Christian Perret)

As springtime temperatures start to improve, the Swiss resort of Engelberg is a veritable sporting paradise during the month of May. 

This weekend (18-19 May) is no exception - Engelberg is hosting a Ski and Golf Festival. 

On Saturday, an 18-hole golf tournament takes place at the resort’s Golfplatz, followed by a convivial dinner and drinks in the evening.  Then on Sunday, there will be a giant slalom on Mt Titlis, Central Switzerland’s highest peak. 

Skiing on the Titlis glacier (copyright: swiss-image.ch)

While skiers are still taking full advantage of the superb skiing conditions on the slopes of Mount Titlis, golfers down the valley will be enjoying springlike conditions on the links. 

For most of the 2011/12 ski season, the Swiss resort of Engelberg has claimed Europe’s deepest snow (around 6 metres/20 feet).  It will remain open for skiing on the glacier until 28 May (Whit Monday).

They say that Social Media is the new way of doing business, and that Facebook is one of the most effective marketing tools.  As a consequence, in recent months, many ski resorts have been working hard on their social networking. 

More than a thousand ski resorts now have Facebook pages, and several have now exceeded the 100,000 Facebook ‘friends’ mark. 

The first to achieve a fan base in excess of 100,000, according to SkiReports.com, was California’s Mammoth Mountain, earlier this year.  But now, a report this week by skiinfo.com has found that Mammoth has been overtaken by its neighbour, Heavenly.  Hot on its heels is Vail, and Whistler in Canada.  These four are the only resorts currently with a fan base in excess of 100,000. 

The top ten most popular Facebook resorts have all passed the 50,000 fan mark.  Seven of them are in North America; five of which are Vail Resorts (Heavenly, Beaver Creek, Keystone, Breckenridge and Northstar).

Only two European resort manages to squeeze into the top ten: the French resort of Mégeve at number 5, and Grandvalira in Andorra at number 10.  

Surprisingly, many resorts have made little use of social networking, including some of the big names in European skiing are lagging behind: Zermatt has just 14,000 followers; St Anton has around 12,000; St Moritz just 7,400; and Verbier less than 5,000 at the time of writing. 

Here at FamilySkiNews.com, we have a relatively new Facebook page, which is growing in popularity week by week.  Come and ‘like’ us by clicking here. However, we concentrate our main efforts on our FamilySkiNews.com website, covering all the latest news from the mountains worldwide… especially if it relates to families.

Here are the Top Twenty ‘Facebook Fan’ Resorts, published by skiinfo.com this week:

1 Heavenly, USA (122.291 likes) facebook.com/heavenlymountain
2 Mammoth Mountain, USA (117,247 likes) facebook.com/MammothMTN
3 Vail, USA (112,855) facebook.com/vailmtn
4 Whistler, Canada (105,601) facebook.com/whistlerblackcomb
5 Megeve, France (80,712) facebook.com/megeve
6 Breckenbridge, USA (79,896) facebook.com/Breckenridge
7 Valle Nevado, Chile (78,385) facebook.com/Valle-Nevado-Ski-Resort
8 Jackson Hole, USA (75,632) facebook.com/jacksonhole
9 Keystone, USA (65,019) facebook.com/keystone
10 Grandvalira, Andorra (57,997) facebook.com/Grandvalira 
11 Northstar at Tahoe, USA (54,692) facebook.com/northstar
12 Saalbach Hinterglemm, Austria (52,195) facebook.com/saalbachhinterglemm
13 Vallnord, Andorra (49,480) facebook.com/vallnord
14 Mountain High, USA (46,392) facebook.com/mthigh
15 Squaw Valley, USA (44,562) facebook.com/squawvalley
16 Beaver Creek, USA (43,375) facebook.com/beavercreek
17 Are, Sweden (37,519) facebook.com/skistarare
18 Bukovel, Ukraine (37,509) facebook.com/bukovel
19 Sun Valley, USA (36,815) facebook.com/sunvalley
20 Ischgl, Austria (36,813) facebook.com/paznaun.ischgl
(Click here to see skiinfo.co.uk’s full Top 30 list.)

No 1 Facebook resort: What a view... no wonder it's called 'Heavenly'!

Sking with mates in Val Thorens

If you’re planning a family ski trip next season to the 3 Valleys in France, don’t forget to bring your mates along too! 

The 3 Valleys has just announced a new lift pass for the 2012-2013 season called the Tribu Pass.   

It has also just announced a price rise of more than 6% for a six-day adult pass - from just over €244 last season to €260 next winter.  Ouch!  The 3 Valleys lift pass was already one of Europe’s most expensive!

To make this a less bitter pill to swallow, the new Tribu Pass has just been launched geared at friends skiing together.  Previously, discounted rates have only been available for much larger groups for families including children.  Now, the Tribu allows three friends to buy a six-day lift pass for the full 3 Valleys or one of its sectors at a discount, as long as they buy their passes together.  

It will cost €735 for three people, with more friends able to join the group purchase for €245 each – in other words, the same price as last season.  There are further discounts for various sectors and periods (including the weeks up to Christmas), available now on the 3 Valleys website.

The 3 Valleys Family Pass is still available for at least 4 people (2 parents and at least 2 kids under 18 years), and gives a reduction of 20% on the six to 21-day ski pass.  When purchasing one, make sure you have your passports for proof of age and relationships.  With this pass, the third child (and any other family members under 18) benefits from the five to 12yr-old child rate (25% less than the adult rate).  

The 3 Valleys is the world’s largest ski area, incorporating the following resorts in three parallel valleys:  Courchevel, La Tania, Les Menuires, Méribel, Brides-les-Bains, Saint Martin de Belleville, Orelle and Val Thorens.  

It is relatively snow-sure for early- and late-season skiing, with a whopping 85% of the ski area situated above 1800m.

Portsmouth Grammar School... victorious!

Congratulations to all the children from 13 schools across the southern region who took part in the SASA Interschool Challenge at the Southampton Alpine Centre this weekend.

This year’s competition was won in the Junior category by Otterbourne Primary School, with Portsmouth Grammar School as runners-up, and West Hill Park in third place.  In the Senior event, the winners were Portsmouth Grammar School, followed by Thornden School, then Swanmore College.

The SASA Interschool Challenge is an annual slalom racing event held each May, and is open to skiers of all abilities, with individual and school team prizes in both Primary and Secondary School categories.  See our previous report for more details or the SASA website for full results.