From autumn 1948 comes a post-war idea or at least one that they hoped would catch on but clearly did not. Apparently you buy a load of straw and distribute it up and down your snow-less ski slope. The skis slip along the straw almost as well as they do on snow.

Utah’s Deer Valley Resort continued its preparations for the 2011 FIS Freestyle Ski World Championships with a presentation of its draft schedule to the International Ski Federation’s Freestyle Committee. The meetings were a part of the annual FIS Calendar Conference in Cavtat, near Dubrovnik, Croatia. It will mark the second time that Deer Valley has held the major international event.

The snow may be gone, but Catamount ski area has never been more thrilling. That’s because instead of being closed for the summer, they’ve just opened what is said to be the nation’s largest ropes course. Catamount Adventure Park consists of 115 different rope-and-wire challenges high above the ground. Picture Indiana Jones meets the Ewoks’ tree village from ”Return of the Jedi,” and you get an idea what visitors will have in store.

The 27-year-old from Plymouth was the first British male snowboarder to compete at the Winter Olympics and recorded three top ten finishes in the World Cup.

Wakeham said: “At the end of each season for the last few years I have wanted to quit, but people always seem to talk me into staying with promises of funding and sponsorship. But now I am keen to get a job with stability and a regular income.”

Wakeham won the Europa Cup in 2005 with his best World Cup performance being fifth in Leysin in January 2006.

It’s all about the extreme adrenaline rush and passion for hard-core adventure. It requires high levels of physical fitness, a great degree of skills in negotiating glaciers and other high-altitude terrain and definitely does not come cheap. But nothing deters extreme adventure lovers from seeking out the Himalayas for high-altitude trekking and mountaineering.

The latest push to get more Australians crossing the Tasman for a holiday appears to be working, with internet booking site Wotif.com reporting a spike in accommodation bookings and up to 50 per cent growth for some regions.

Alpine skiing star Anja Paerson says she will retire from the sport in 2010. “That’s my goal — to quit next year,” the 27-year-old Swede said in a TV interview on Sunday with Swedish network TV4.

In contrast to the Nordic disciplines, there have been quite a few changes in the coaching ranks of the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup teams before the upcoming Olympic season. Please find below a summary of those that have come to the attention of FIS so far