Parents can rest assured this season that their children will be safe on the ski lifts of St Anton following the introduction of a child-safe 6-man chair lift. Legislation which restricts children under 1.25m to riding a ski lift with a 1:1 adult to child ratio has long posed a problem for large families and ski schools. The creator of this new lift, Doppelmayr, has solved this dilemma in St Anton with the new Tanzböden chairlift, which replaces the identically named T-Bar on Galzig.

Building on the success of last year’s event, this relative newcomer to the Alpine festival scene is set to become a regular event, and has announced the dates for this year’s festival.

Between 23^rd – 27^th March 2014 the slopes and bars of Söll will host a massive line up of music stars from across Europe, as well as some so-called Tyrolean Games on the slopes which include a Mountain Rally, Retro Race and Ski Safari.

St Anton has kick started the season with a musical collaboration from the USA. Today will be the start of the first of the two celebrations with 3 days of ski testing in ‘Country meets snow’ style!

Cowboy hats and plaid shirts will merge with with skis and helmets for the celebrations while country bands such as the Wicked Wildcats play and people can dance the ‘Iron-dance’ line dance for the opening weekend.

The early snowfall we’ve seen over the past couple of weeks has got some experts saying this is the best start to a season the Alps has seen in years...if not ever.

It’s not even December yet but 10,000 people were reported to have gone skiing in Val Thorens last weekend, while excitement is building across Europe for the start of the season due to the excellent snowfall we’ve already seen. Meribel is celebrating by giving away 100 free lift passes for their opening day on 7^th December, while Andorra is also optimistic for an excellent start to the season.

The World Ski Awards took place in Kitzbuhel this week, and the hosts came away with the prize for best Austrian ski resort, something they were extremely proud of. The World Ski Awards, which is the sister organisation of World Travel Awards, currently celebrating its 20th anniversary and often described as "the Oscars of the travel industry", are gaining respect since their launch last year and are surely destined to become ‘the’ prize all resorts, tour operators and properties aspire to win.

Further to our article earlier in the week, it has been announced by Sepp Blatter, President of FIFA, that the World Cup in 2022 hosted by Qatar will most likely be played in November or December 2022, rather than January of February, a full 9 months after the Winter Olympics will be held and a clash between the two competitions will therefore be avoided.

It has emerged that the potential date clash between the 2022 Qatar World Cup and the XXIV Winter Olympics could spell disaster for winter sports.

When you’re thinking about when might be best to come out to St Anton this season, 5^th or 6th April could be a great shout this year.  If you’re up for new experiences, you’re in for a treat as the little-known Snow Volleyball Tour will be making a guest appearance in resort for a couple of days! This is not just any volleyball competition; international beach volleyball stars will be appearing at the event and will be competing for the ‘King of the Snow 2014’ title at 2,030 metres above sea level, next to the top station of the Rendlbahn ski lift.

The 2013/14 season brings with it the exciting news that Lech is to be linked with neighbouring Warth-Schrocken, adding an extra 68km of runs to this already enormous ski area. The new slopes will be also covered by the vast Arlberg lift pass and will mean the ski area will become even more difficult to confine to one piste map!