This weekend's annual Golden Fox Ski World Cup programme saw the best female exponents of slalom and giant slalom take on the Radvanje piste adjacent to Slovenia's second city Maribor, and part of the Pohorje massif. Despite occupying a modest altitude Maribor's yearly skiing jamboree has endured, although spring conditions meant an astonishing 95% of…
Environmental concerns blunt ambitions to link the Tirol’s St. Anton and Kappl
Austria's cableway industry wields a significant amount of power in a country so heavily reliant upon the revenue generated by the purchasing of ski and lift passes. In recent years there has increasingly been an unassailable attitude by those proposing new cable cars, extensions to existing infrastructure, and the upgrading of what is already in…
Slovenia: ambitious plans to upgrade Mount Kanin’s iconic cableway
Facilitating Slovenia's highest skiing the eponymous Mount Kanin cableway, in the country's northwest, continues to enjoy an upturn in fortunes since the near catastrophic collapse of several of its carriages in 2013. Remaining closed for several years amid claim and counterclaim that ultimately failed to establish beyond reasonable doubt the cause of the accident, the…
The Tirol’s Neustift Rebuffs Further Cableway Expansion, But For How Long?
The seemingly inexhaustible desire for further, bigger, longer, and higher cableways in the Austrian Tirol and Salzburgerland provinces is to many a distasteful, unquenchable process that will never be sated. The marginal net gains promised by many projects fail to justify the financial outlay but crucially, the environmental scarring of landscapes to facilitate further pistes,…
Bohinj: Mayor Kramar seeks breakthrough in Bohinj 2864 impasse
The key to the now mothballed proposal to develop Bohinjska Bistrica as a ski resort under the Bohinj 2864 aegis seems to depend on the favour of Stanislav Zore, Archbishop of Ljubljana and the de facto landlord of a tract of land required to bring the controversial and often stymied scheme to fruition.Slovenia's clergy through…
Austrian Tyrol: 2.5% increase in cost of 2015/16 cableway passes
A 2.5% increase in the cost of ski passes that amounts to more than twice the Austrian rate of inflation has been announced for the forthcoming winter season by the representative body of the Tyrolean cableway operators.The progress of implementing additional lift systems throughout the Austrian Alps has been stymied in recent times by those…
Vogel: Bohinj-based ski centre sold to Terra Australis group
Interesting times lie ahead for arguably Slovenia's most famous ski resort, Vogel above Lake Bohinj, following news of a majority acquisition of KD Capital's 51% shareholding of the Ukanc-based cableway and ski centre.Whilst Vogel cannot offer high altitude winter sports that the soon to be rejuvenated Kanin lift above frontier town Bovec will once more…
Bovec: Kanin cableway on schedule for December reopening
Remediation of Bovec's Kanin cableway continues to remain on schedule for its much anticipated reopening this winter, drawing a veil over one of the darker periods to affect Slovenia's tourism sector.The state-backed renovation of the eponymous lift tasked with serving the Slovenian slopes of Mount Kanin will once more facilitate high altitude skiing that cannot…
First snows of the season facilitate early Soelden opening
Ahead of the traditional FIS Ski World Cup curtain-raiser in the Oetztal resort of Soelden, an early fall of snow has enabled the Rettenbach Glacier to be opened to the general public before competition begins in earnest the weekend commencing Saturday 24th October.Public transport to the glacier is free in conjunction with a valid lift…
Bovec/Kanin: press release from the Ministry of Economic Development & Technology
Below is a press release from the Slovenian Ministry of Economic Development and Technology, regarding state and European funding allocated for the remediation and renovation of the hitherto derelict Kanin cableway, formerly tasked with serving the eponymous mountain above the northwestern town of Bovec. Underneath is an English translation of the original document, which can…
Bovec: Kanin cableway’s regeneration declared to be of national importance
Commensurate with the multi-million largesse afforded the municipality of Bovec to remedy its ailing Kanin cableway device, the incumbent Slovenian administration has formally declared the project one of national importance, rubber-stamping the decision by the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology to grant €5.7 million towards the project.Recognising Bovec's unique circumstances has been crucial in…
Ski Circus coalesces Fieberbrunn and Saalbach Hinterglemm
Weeks of searing heat interspersed with atmospheric volatility bordering on the extreme even for alpine climes have enabled construction crews tasked with extending the Ski Circus winter-sports area to meet scheduled targets and remain firmly on course for a December unveiling.Straddling the Salzburgerland and Tyrolean frontier the project links both regions and connects Saalbach Hinterglemm(SH),…
Bovec: contractual agreements herald reconstruction of Kanin’s cableway
The project formally titled the "Rehabilitation of cableway installations in the resort Kanin" has arisen following confirmation of the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Municipality of Bovec and preferred contractor Dr. Duhovnik d.o.o. After a tender process that yielded only one interested party, the inevitability of Dr. Duhovnik acquiring the contract was…
Bovec: Kanin to reopen this winter thanks to €5.7 million state aid package
Slovenia's Ministry of Economic Development and Technology has confirmed the granting of close to €6 million to the frontier resort of Bovec, to assist in the reconstruction of its ailing Kanin ski lift. Serving the eponymous mountain that straddles the Slovene-Italian border, this important part of Bovec's tourism infrastructure has lain dormant since a near-catastrophic…
Bovec: Kanin ski area granted €5.7 million of state assistance
Slovenian frontier resort Bovec is to receive over €5.7 million of state aid from the country's incumbent administration, channeled through its Ministry of Economic Development and Technology and nearly twice the amount originally suggested. Whilst this isn't a financial incentive designed to benefit the whole town, what amounts in effect to project-specific funding will provide…
Bovec: Hotel Kanin sold; municipality formally assumes control of cableway
It was a case of fourth time lucky for Bovec's Kanin Hotel which, after a succession of failed Dutch auctions has finally found a new home amongst the Koper-based Alpe Adria Hotels chain, who number Ljubljana's renowned Hotel Cubo as part of its portfolio.With a unrealistic starting price of nearly €2.5 million the hammer eventually…
Ljubljana’s Brnik Airport posts increased year on year passenger growth
Ljubljana's Brnik Airport handled close to half a million passengers during the first five months of 2015, data for May being particularly impressive that saw a 19.6% year on year increase on corresponding figures for 2014.Aircraft movements have nevertheless fallen but the replacement of larger aircraft on routes previously serviced by smaller planes has inevitably…
Vogel ski resort: a Slovenian success story celebrates anniversary milestone
One of the few cableways in Slovenia regarded as being a financial success, Vogel above Bohinj has just celebrated the 51st birthday of its ski resort designation with a raft of celebrations to commemorate this most evergreen of mountain lifts.Upgraded to the current two-carriage cable-car shortly after the turn of the millennium, Vogel's success has…
Austrian Tirol: Nauders to benefit from improved cableway infrastructure and mountain restaurant
A near €10 million investment in the Tirolean resort of Nauders has this week been announced, the majority of the outlay earmarked for regeneration of a forty year old lift system which will see a remodeled valley station for the in situ Bergkastelbahn as the centrepiece attraction, architecturally designed to theoretically blend in with a…
Alpine Adventures, Soccer, Central Asian Autocracies & Secessionist Politics 