PlanetSKI

Last weekend a team from Iglu Ski took part in the 10th Superheroes Triathlon to raise money for the ski company’s chosen charity, Disability Snowsport UK. NEW Last weekend a team from Iglu Ski took part in the 10th Superheroes Triathlon to raise money for its their chosen charity, Disability Snowsport UK. In total, the team raised in excess of £700. This means 15 disabled adults or children can learn to ski at an indoor slope in the UK, bringing life-changing confidence, freedom and fun.

29% more people are using the ski lifts in the summer than five years ago. As resorts focus on summer business with expanded activities it also seems people are heading high to avoid the extreme heat. NEW From the beginning of the season to the end of July, first-time visitors across Switzerland were 7% higher than last year. Compared to the average of the last five years, this represents an increase of 29%. Cooler temperatures are making excursions to higher altitudes attractive.

A group of hikers with small children, including infants in pushchairs, became stranded on steep ground above the Otztal Valley in the Tirol. They have been sharply criticised and ordered to pay for their rescue. NEW 36 people from three families needed to be rescued according to Tirol.orf.at They came from the UK, Austria, Belgium and the USA. They took a chairlift to 2,350m and then got into difficulty as they left the marked paths on a hike.

A chairlift, the ski area and ski shack were damaged at Maverick Mountain in Montana but it could have been worse. NEW Despite the destruction at the ski area, firefighters have been able to protect the lodge, Elkhorn Hot Springs, and other structures in the area. Firefighters, bulldozer crews, and hotshot crews have saved homes across the road from the ski hill. Fire planes also strategically dropped fire retardant along ridges to protect homes in the area.

The final open summer ski area, Passo Stelvio in Italy, has closed as the heatwaves take their toll. For the first time in recent years there are no glacier skiing options on offer as climate change makes its relentless impact. NEW It was inevitable. Passo Stelvio suspended its skiing operations from Saturday 15th August.

Two teenagers died while ski touring in the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland. A tour leader was acquitted. NEW The accident happened in Meiringen in 2023. Archie Harvey from the UK and Emily Franciose from the USA were part of a boarding school’s ski touring group. The students came from the Ecole d’Humanité school in Hasliberg in the canton of Bern. There was a mountain guide in charge and a school tour leader.

Two mountain huts have been closed on Mont Blanc and alpinists advised to come down the mountain due to the high danger of rockfall on popular climbing routes. NEW Some ignored the instructions and then realised it was too dangerous and requested evacuation off the mountain. This is usually free, but they were left to make their own way down or pay for their own evacuation. The formal closure came into effect on August 11th with dozens of alpinists already high on the route.

The road to the resort in Chile has been closed for more than a month after huge amounts of snow. A handful of people are able to use it but not everyone, and it is having severe economic consequences. In the past month more than 7m of snow has fallen. That’s around the same amount that falls across an entire season. It has caused travel problems with roads closed as they were threatened by avalanches in the relentless snowfall.

The 44-year-old former British No 1 Ski racer and Ski Sunday presenter jumped  off a 5m platform into Lake Annecy, in the French Alps. She landed badly and ended up in hospital. NEW She is a seven-time British champion and raced in all five ski disciplines – downhill, super G, giant slalom, slalom and combined. She remains the only British female alpine skier to win a run in a World Cup race.

The eclipse looked stunning from many places in Europe, not least the Alps. NEW We start in Switzerland at the Jungfraujoch Top of Europe Station.