Whistle-Blackcomb is located in Canada and is about two hours by road from Vancouver.  The ski resort was founded more than 30 years ago.  Within a short time frame it became one of the most visited ski destinations in the world. 

Whistle-Blackcomb has a base elevation of 2,140 feet and is constructed on approximately 8,000 acres of mountain ski terrain.  Most of the ski activities take place in August.  The resort combines two mountains, namely, Whistler and Blackcomb.  The two mountains have an elevation of 2182 and 1609 metres respectively.

The most attractive feature of the ski resort which draws in plenty of snowboarders and skiers is the Horstman Glacier. This combines both the summer weather with winter sports.  The glacier is accessed via the Wizard express located at the foot of the Blackcomb Mountain.  The glacier can also be accessed via the longer route that includes a bus ride as well as three chair lift rides. 

Besides skiing, Whistle-Blackcomb Resort has other activities of interest such as horse riding, swimming, indoor tennis, gondola rides, cinema, theatres, river shafting and jet-boat tours.  There are more than 100 guesthouses and hotels in the resort and visitors will find great accommodation deals particularly during the summer.  The ski area is specifically built for intermediate skiers but there are other areas reserved for different group of skiers.  Visitors who have children need not worry as the resort provides a childcare facility for children of ages 2 to 5 years.

If you’ve decided to go on a skiing holiday this year you can stay in a beautiful resort in France or Switzerland, or perhaps as far away as America or Canada.  You might have booked your ski hire and bought your ski gear but is there something else you are forgetting?  When you go skiing you need to be physically very fit and healthy.  Many skiers begin basic skiing exercises months before they hit the slopes so that they will be physically prepared for their skiing holiday.  This article provides you with a few basic exercises you should do daily, beginning up to three months before you go away.

Quads

Exercise your quads with a leg extension machine at the gym.  Keep your back straight and pressed against the back of the chair.  Aim to do around three sets of 10 to 12 repetitions.

Squat Thrusts

Two footed squat thrusts involve placing your hands flat on the floor with your body in a squatting position.  You then bounce slightly and push your legs out straight.  You should aim to do three sets of 10.

Sit-Ups

Sit-ups are great for strengthening your abdominal muscles.  You should try and hold each sit-up for around three seconds, and complete around three sets of 10 sit-ups each day.

Cardiovascular

As well as strengthening certain muscles it’s important to have good cardiovascular fitness.  The best cardiovascular exercise are jogging, running or cycling.  You can do this at the gym or outside in the fresh air. 

These exercises will help you become fit and healthy before your skiing holiday.

When deciding where to book your skiing holiday, do as much research as you can. The internet, library, and travel agents are a good place to start but the country’s embassy can also provide very useful information. After choosing the destination, pick the most appropriate resort for you and your family. It should be easy to find out which resorts have ski schools, nursery slopes or advanced slopes and whatever else you need.

Most importantly, check when the best time is to go skiing as some European destinations are suffering from less snow and shorter seasons. If you haven’t skied before, have a few lessons before you go, there are quite a few dry ski slopes around. Make sure you are fairly fit before you go, if you spend your days sitting at a desk, your muscles and joints need to get some exercise first or you are likely to at best be very stiff after your first day skiing or at worst injure yourself.

Unless you are going to spend the whole holiday on the piste, make sure you pack clothes for warmer days, evening and days when you aren’t skiing. You will need plenty of spending money as well as ski resorts tend to be expensive. You can save money by buying your season tickets and passes for the slopes before you go. Your tickets should include ski and boot hire. A family pass can save you even more money.

Choose your holiday insurance carefully. Make sure it covers you for skiing and that it covers transfer home should the worst happen.

If you have never planned your own holiday before, you may shudder at the thought of a do-it-yourself (DIY) ski trip.  Moving away from the travel agent organised holiday may seem scary but it is actually quite easy to do.  An independent ski holiday will allow you and your family to travel on your own terms and still have a wonderful time doing so.  A DIY ski holiday can be less expensive, more flexible, and a lot of fun and here are some hints and tips to help you get the job done correctly.

Booking Travel
Depending on your budget, you may want to consider your destination carefully.  Switzerland and France are typically two of the more expensive ski destinations but Italy, Spain, and Eastern Europe along with some locations in the United States are much cheaper destinations.  Picking your time to travel can help bring the costs down with the beginning or the end of the season being the least expensive.

Booking Accommodation
Booking your accommodation is quite easy, especially over the Internet as this will allow you to read independent reviews of possible resorts.  You can quickly and easily shop around for the best accommodation deals including fully equipped hotels and self-catering chalets.

Lift Passes
One of the biggest savings that you can make is around your lift passes.  Make sure that you buy you lift passes before when you book your holiday. Whilst you can buy your ski passes when you arrive at your holiday destination, you will find that there is an extra premium over and above the on-line price.

Normally, the thought of skiing in Europe conjures up images of Alpine slopes in Italy, Switzerland, and Austria; or the Pyrenees in France.  However, if you want to avoid either the high cost or large crowds of the most popular ski resorts in these areas, there are several other equally desirable options. 

If you are after one particular mountain, look next door to the larger resorts for places that link in to the same slopes.  The amenities may be fewer, but you will enjoy the same skiing and general location.

- Compare deals from tour operators, especially last-minute offers.

- Find out where the locals go to ski.  The bonus: the après-ski destinations are probably better and not filled with the non-skiing entourages of the more chic resorts.

- Take geography lessons: the Alps extend into Slovenia, Liechtenstein, and Germany; the Pyrenees into Andorra, greatly extending your options for destinations with all the characteristics you desire in your price range.

- Go east: Romania, Hungary, Latvia, the Czech Republic, and Georgia all have ski resorts of varying comfort levels.

- Go north: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and even Iceland boast ski resorts.

- Go Balkan: there are also mountains in Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Greece.

- Even Cyprus and Israel have ski resorts if you want to go completely off the radar.

In some of these places, you might not be able to pretend you are in the Alps, but you will certainly experience a unique ski holiday.

Gourette (winter sports resort in the French Pyrenees)

Picture courtesy of girolame

If you’re looking to start the ski season now then one of the best countries to go to is Austria, their ski season starts much earlier than any other in Europe and they have a huge choice of resorts to choose from. Currently they have seen a huge amount of snowfall already in Austria which means many resorts are getting off to a great start so it’s a great idea to book now before the winter crowds start heading there and book up the Ski chalets in Austria.

The resorts in Austria are once again becoming more popular as more and more people discover the virtues of skiing here as Austria is where the Alpine style of downhill skiing was first invented just over a century ago so it must have something going here. Many of the resorts here are traditional unlike other countries, most are not purpose built so you still get a traditional ski feel and experience when visiting, but with modern aides.

The most well known ski area in Austria is the Arlberg Ski Circus which incorporates St. Anton, St. Christoph, Lech and Zurs and provides some outstanding skiing as well as the renowned après-ski of St. Anton. With Skiing in Austria not only do you get great slopes but you will also find outstanding scenery to enjoy in the process for example, the Europa Ski Region combines the pretty village of Kaprun and the attractive lakeside town of Zell am See, it offers snow sure skiing with glacier skiing up on the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier.

Austria is also top for après ski, a must for many people now who like to relax comfortably after a day on the slopes, many of the pretty resort villages have great choice of places to eat and drink not far from the holiday rentals, so you don’t have far to go to get warmed up.

Kitzsteinhorn - Kaprun

Picture courtesy of bortescristian

Not everyone can afford the luxury of the Après Ski culture that you find at some of the top European and American ski resorts, their prices can be very hefty for the most simple and essential things such as a hearty meal however there are some resorts who focus more on the skiing and offer a great skiing holiday at a great price.
Bansko, Bulgaria
The number 1 ski resort in Bulgaria, Bansko is one of the most modern ski resorts in the country thanks to recent multimillion euro investment to modernise the area and add a new ski area by Yulen, the company which has the licence to run the skiing area of the resort. You can find great ski deals for the area, which is becoming more popular with Brits. Bansko also offers excellent tuition with many beginners learning the ropes here, you will also find that there is no posh expensive restaurants here instead food and drinks take a back burner to the skiing ideal for those who wish to go on a skiing holiday and enjoy most of your time doing just that.
Soldeu, Andorra
The busy Pyrenean village of Soldeu is set in the heart of Andorra deep in the Pyrenees Mountains, in 2002 the resort joined forces with its neighbour, Pas de la Casa, to create the Grandvalira mega-area, offering now an impressive 120 miles of pistes, spread out across a series of high and undulating hills. Although you will find five-star hotels and a vast four-storey spa, you do get far better value for money plus the resort is far less snobby than its other European rivals. As with Bansko, Soldeu is also a great place for learner skiers, the ski school is run by an Englishman and you will find a good flattish plateau halfway up the slopes offering snowsure nursery areas to practise on.

Off piste skiing also known as ski touring, backcountry skiing or ski mountaineering is a little different from what you may normally do on your skiing holiday. Off piste skiing is skiing in a rural region over unkempt slopes or pistes either within the ski resort’s boundaries or in the backcountry among trees and undergrowth and on freshly laid snow also known as powder snow. These areas are generally not monitored, patrolled or maintained and usually there is no access via ski lifts so a lot of the time you have to make your own way there. You can get guided tours at some resorts that can involve single or multi-day trips through the snow and camping or using mountain huts if available.

The types of off piste skiing, ski touring, backcountry skiing or ski mountaineering can vary from country to country and resort to resort, some resorts offer off piste skiing a few metres away from or between controlled trails and slopes where as some resorts offer ski touring or ski mountaineering which is not near marked slopes at all, or cannot be accessed by ski-lifts. All types of off piste skiing requires a good level of ability and knowledge of the area and some survival techniques if you get into trouble, you will also need a good level of fitness as because many places will have to be reached on foot and you can encounter dangers such as avalanches, exhaustion, and changing mountain weather, as well as cliffs, rock fall and tree wells.

If you are a competent skier and wish to try off piste skiing you need to check whether your resort will permit it so it’s worth when looking for ski deals to check before booking.

North Americas largest ski resort, Whistler is home to this year’s Vancouver Winter Olympics, the resort which has seen many major improvements recently including the impressive Peak to Peak gondola linking Blackcomb and Whistler Mountains which opened last season.

Whistler is also one of North Americas top ski resorts repeatedly in the top groups from around the world, it has a linked network of 39 lifts making it the closest North America has to a mega resort. It also has a varied terrain to suit all sorts of skiers from novices to Olympic level skiers a run for groups of mixed ability is the Burnt Slew trail from the top of Harmony Express chair all the way down to the village.

Whistler is an ideal ski resort for anyone who wishes to experience the most from their skiing holiday as it offers the closest thing to Alpine skiing in North America as well as there being no language barrier as well as a Canadian high level of service. You can also experience the European style après-ski culture missing from most North American resorts with its wide variety of bars and clubs not to mention top notch restaurants.

If you’re looking for good ski deals then Whistler will suit you, there are many bargains to be found as well as during your stay you won’t be overspending as the food and refreshments in the resort as you do get value for money.

Whistler Village

Picture courtesy of Joe Shlabotnik

When we think of skiing, naturally the Alps come to mind and it is here that you will certainly find some of the best skiing in the world. But, there is more to be had and your ski holiday specialist will be able to offer ski deals in more than 100 resorts in 20 countries throughout the world, not just in our traditional winter either, so if you are really keen you can ski somewhere all year round!

You ski holidays provider is the place to look as they update on a daily basis; ski deals are available and they will come up with a stream of offers to the best ski locations. Last minute chalet deals can crop up for a number of reasons and these can offer truly fantastic value for money, remember chalet ski holidays are all inclusive and you will eat fab meals and be awash with good wine to make merry with like minded people. Registering with a ski holiday provider is the best way to secure one of the great last minute deals, they will be able to contact you by text, mobile or e-mail so you can snap up a skiing bargain