INDEX travel The dynamics of
Boardercross make for a great spectator sport
version of waterskiing. You start with the basic technique on short practice slopes, but then you can move out on to intermediate trails where your trusty steed can break into a gallop. As you increase your turning angles you quickly get the same sense as waterskiing – employing the same techniques of speed, acceleration and sliding. The Swiss are now specialists in the discipline and among the best known races take place in St Moritz each January. You don’t have to leave the UK to give it a go. Newtonmore
Riding Centre (www. newtonmoreridingcentre. com) in the Scottish
Highlands is the first place in the UK to offer it. A working holiday – some yard work required – in two-star B&B costs £120 per person. Ski joring is £35 for an hour.
Boardercross
One of the newest snow sports, which grabbed the headlines during the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, is the spectacular boardercross. At the elite level four or five riders tear down a course with
banked turns and big air jumps all looking to cross the line first. The dynamics means there are often collisions, making it a great spectator sport! Now increasingly holiday skiers can get a taste of the adrenaline rush boardercross offers, with many resorts building dedicated courses. Among the most recent is in Les Gets – a friendly French resort within the vast Portes du Soleil area.
The Les Gets boardercross run – which is 523m long and has six banked turns – was constructed in 2011 with advice from Olympic silver medallist
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The INDEX magazine December 2011
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