At Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre on Saturday, it looked like the Winter Olympics in August. Snowboarders flipped off of ramps in the middle of Lynchburg overlooking Liberty University. They were snowboarding on a synthetic surface called Snowflex.

New research has revealed that global warming could lead to a dramatic reduction in Australia’s alpine environments and ski fields over the next 50 years. Records reveal that snow cover at the highest snow course — Spencer’s Creek in the Snowy Mountains — has already declined by more than 30 per cent in the last 50 years.

So there I was, lying in a bed big enough for giants, with crisp cotton sheets. Having done a few hours’ hiking followed by the best massage in the world, I was thinking in an American accent: ‘Yup, this is, “Not exactly roughing it”.’ For that is the Beaver Creek motto.

Baffled Swiss cops are trying to work out why dozens of cows are plunging off Alpine cliffs to their deaths. Twenty-eight cows and three bulls have died near the mountain village of Soustal in just three days.

Snowboarding superstar Shaun White stamped his class on this weeks World Cup halfpipe event at Cardrona and hinted at more to come as he looks ahead to next year’s Winter Olympics.

The fall weather forecast looks pretty average, from a distance. Winter, maybe not so average. An El Nino year is forming, and the warm Pacific air will almost certainly warm Western Canada in the winter. If it’s strong enough — that is, if the Pacific Ocean forms a ”hot tub” over a big enough area — it will warm Central Canada’s winter too.

“It’s going to be a fantastic week. There is so much planned this year and that has been reflected in the high number of bookings we have received for the various visitor packages on offer,” says Gay Ski Week organiser Mike Sanford. For the seventh year running, Mike will welcome hundreds of gay tourists ready to tackle Queenstown’s slopes and experience all the city has to offer.

In his own words, Dirk Nannes, is on a pretty “freaky” journey. A former world-class skier, who has represented the Netherlands in cricket, Nannes has made his international debut for his native Australia at the age of 33.