Welcome to 2008!

Hello and Happy New Year to you all!

I hope you all had a relaxing break and are re-charged and ready to tackle 2008.

I took a well deserved break over Christmas and decided to check out England's only ski slope. England has a ski slope I hear you cry? Yep, in the Lake District.

Not only did the continent receive good snowfall, but so did the UK highlands. The one ski run in the Lake District is situated on Raise, next to the Helvellyn range.

The run is very basic, with a wooden hut housing a generator to power the only ski tow up the side of the mountain, and a small ski hut which was built by Lake District ski club members in 1999. The best part is the slope cannot be reached by car. You need a 1 hour hike up Sticks Pass to reach the slope, so only enthusiastic Lake District Ski Club members can ski.

I took the image below from the northery peak to Raise (Stybarrow Dodd) which shows some snow on the slope...and plenty of skiers (although you might need a magnifying glass)!

More recent pics from today show much more snow cover, so ski club members should be enjoying a good weekend! These can be seen on their Flickr page.

Elsewhere, the snow was plentiful over Christmas and New Year, with Austria again taking the plaudits for fantastic skiing and snowboarding conditions.

The latest snow conditions can be found at Ski Club's Snow Reports page.