Direct flights from Norwich airport to Geneva will start this winter aimed at skiing enthusiasts. The weekly service by budget operator Flybe will begin on Saturday, December 19, serving flight-only customers and winter package holidays to 12 major ski resorts in the Swiss city through tour operator Inghams.

Sir Steve Redgrave is to lead a team of brave individuals in a charity sky diving fundraiser with the Red Devils in aid of Disability Snowsport UK. The skydive team will include former Olympic skier Alain Baxter, the charity’s CEO Fiona Young, Crystal’s MD Mathew Prior and British Association of Snowsport Instructors (BASI) Chairman Andrew Lockerbie.

Tignes is the second French resort to open for summer skiing after Les 2 Alpes a week ago. To celebrate the resort staged a bikini ski event in which a small number of enthusiasts took to the snow slopes clad only in swimwear and ski boots. Ski gloves, eye protection and sun cream were also allowed in this ‘competition.’ The lifts opened at 7.15am on Saturday, June 20, heralding the start of the summer ski season which is staged on 20km of piste on the Grande Motte glacier between 3,000 and 3,500m above sea level.

Lenzerheide in Switzerland will unveil one of the biggest and best wellness centres in the Alps this winter. Along with the biggest hotel hammam in the Alps located at Hotel Schweizerhof, the H2Lai wellness pool will guarantee further exhilaration after exciting hours on the snow. Roughly 20 million Swiss Francs have been invested in construction work that has taken two years.

The International Ski Federation has launched a campaign to help get more children around the world in to snow sports. Their ‘Bring Children to the Snow’ – SnowKidz – is aimed at children aged 4–14, and their parents. The campaign uses some ‘approachable super heroes’ figures who take care of children and youngsters anywhere in the snow, all around the world.

The cold southerlies making their way up the North Island will bring smiles to the faces of the hundreds of ski bunnies about to hit Turoa’s slopes for the start of its season. Ruapehu Alpine Lifts marketing manager Mike Smith said snowmaking facilities were working overtime for the 4,000 people expected.