More than 430 ski resorts in the Alps, North America, Pyrenees, eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand, South America, Japan and Scotland were evaluated. The festive award ceremony took place at the book´s launch at the National Liberal Club in London on 7th September 2009.
Even before the first Snowflakes fall on the valley of Saalbach Hinterglemm, the first award is snown in: Britain´s only renowned annual guidebook to Winter sport resorts „Where to Ski and Snowboard“ (WTSS) awarded the Skicircus with „the Best European Resort Development 2009“.
Best European Resort Development
The modernisation of even three lifts puts the Skicircus ahead of the most modern and innovative ski areas in the Alps: The T-bar lift Turmlift in the centre of Saalbach is replaced by a six seater chairlift with child safety bars and instead of the four seater lift at the Hasenauerköpfl in Hinterglemm, there will be a eight seater lift to bring skiers and snowboarders swiftly and comfortably to the top of the mountain. Both chairlifts will be equipped with heated seats and bubble covers. In Leogang the Almlift T-bar will be replaced with a four seater chairlift. In total the Skicircus Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang invested € 18 Mio. in lift modernisation and piste improvements this year.
Chris Gill, Co-Editor of „Where to Ski and Snowboard“: „Three new fast chairlifts for 2009/10 mean that over 80% of the ski area´s lifts will be high-speed. This is a higher percentage than any other major resort in the world an puts the Skicircus Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang comfortably at the top of the WTSS fast lift league table.”
Investments in the Skicircus
Since the year 2000 the Skicircus Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang invested more than € 190 Mio. in the fields of lifts, snow making, pistes and piste machines. That equals approximately the construction sum of 760 detached houses. € 55 Mio of this total investment sum is allotted to snow making systems and water storage reservoirs. With 472 snow making facilities an area of about 253 hectares, respectively 90 % of all descents can be covered with snow. In the Skicircus Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang more than 430 employees look after the perfect shape of the 200 kilometre of pistes and guarantee pure skiing indulgence on the highest level.
More Information about the Skicircus Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang: www.skicircus.at
