20 weird and wonderful ski resort facts
- Germany was home to the world’s first ski tow. The first ski tow was built in 1908 in Germany’s black forest. It was created from a tractor motor.
- New Zealand’s active volcanos include Mount Ruapehu, which offers three different ski areas and an abundance of backcountry opportunities. People have been injured by flying rocks in past eruptions.
- France’s Les Trois Vallées is the largest ski resort in the world. It boasts more than 600km of trails and 183 ski lifts that can transport 260,000 skiers per hour.
- Les Houches is home to the Mont Blanc Tramway, which travels between St Gervais, the Les Houches ski area and the Bioassonay glacier. It has been running since 1914.
- Bad Gastein is not only a ski resort, but it has massive pockets of Radeon gas, where you can travel 2km on a train down a mine shaft into caves and inhale the healing properties of the gases.
- Solden ski resort in Austria is known as the 007 resort, as the James Bond film, Spectre was filmed there in 2015.
- Obertauern is a purpose-built resort in Austria and is famous for its amazing nightlife. This began when the Beatles made part of their film HELP! there in 1965.
- Sierra Nevada is a very uniquely located ski resort. It is very easy to ski in the morning and spend the afternoon at the beautiful Spanish beach which is less than 2 hours from the ski field. You can also see Africa from the mountain.
- La Plagne has over 2.5 million skier visits per year, making it the world’s most popular ski resort
- There are over 2,100 established ski areas in the world.
- 48% of them are located within Europe.
- 75% of the world’s top 50 ski areas are located in the Alps.
- Japan has over 550 ski areas.
- Whistler is North America’s most popular ski resort.
- Breckenridge is the USA’s most visited ski resort.
- Hawaii has a ski resort…and it snows there.
- There are approximately 400 million skier visits worldwide every year.
- There are over 27,000 ski lifts in the world.
- The oldest documented evidence of skiing is found in the region of Norway and Sweden from primitive carvings dating back to 5000 B.C.
- The first recorded downhill skiing race was held in Sweden, in 1879.
