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WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT VAL D’ISERE?
The World Skiing Championships are taking place in Val d’Isère, France, from 3 to 15 February 2009. Val d’Isère was chosen for its guaranteed snow, its high-speed lifts and its unique face-to-face slopes, on Solaise and Bellevarde.
Er, well, to be honest that’s not totally accurate. Val d’Isère was selected because it promised the best deal to the organisers and sponsors, the most luxurious hotels, the biggest press centre, the smartest car parks. Val d’Isère had headed the list of candidates for the 2007 edition, but tactical voting by the Scandinavians handed it to Åre in Sweden, which was a bit of luck, because otherwise we’d have forgotten all about it by now, instead of having it to look forward to. Actually, most people had forgotten the last Championships by the following week. All anyone remembers is when it goes wrong, such as in 2001, when the snow in St Anton was so slushy they mixed chemicals into it to help it freeze and melted the lot!
But this winter’s WSC could be the ones to put the event back on the front pages. Or at least on the back pages. Instead of a couple of column inches on page 17. Val d’Isère is very good at this sort of thing, and having the men fighting Bode Miller down the legendary and frightening Face de Bellevarde, while the girls fight centrifugal force to stay on the wicked new Rhône-Alpes piste on Solaise, and everybody pretty much collides in the middle on the nursery slopes, will be very exciting. Most of the Face is visible from the village, so it will be a great show.
Best of all, nearly every bed in town will be taken by the racers, organisers, sponsors, journalists and their mothers, and the slopes will be empty. Only the Face, the OK, the Rhône-Alpes, the little slalom by the nursery slopes and the Rogoney chair are expected to be closed for the duration, with the Madeleine and Marais pistes closed some of the time. That will leave 90% of Val d’Isère’s pistes, 98% of its lifts and the whole of Tignes unaffected for the handful of actual skiers.
Unlike most resorts, Val d’Isère can organise the WSC confident that it won’t get egg on its face. If it’s a snowy winter, like last season, Val d’Isère will have some of the best conditions in the Alps. If it’s a snowless winter, like the one before, Val d’Isère will almost certainly have enough snow. The resort’s altitude, snowy micro-climate, snow cannons and generally north-facing runs practically guarantee good conditions from early December until early May. And if it snows for a fortnight and everything is cancelled, bookings will pour in for the rest of the season!
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