Big Arnie Spruiking Californian Winter Resorts

Whilst we will not see California’s Governor Arnold (Arnie) Schwarzenegger starring in the just-released “Winter in California”, a 30-second commercial that launches this winter’s Californian Snow Campaign, downunder we can see him on the campaign’s new website www.visitcaliforniasnow.com.

The innovative campaign includes action-packed testimonials from California’s top-ranked professional snowboarders and skiers along with Arnie skiing Californian powder.

What they say has been reinforced by a group of well-known Australian ski writers who recently visited Mammoth Mountain, Heavenly (California’s largest resort and arguably the most picturesque) and Squaw Valley in the High Sierra Mountains.

Heavenly Mountain Resort turns 50 this winter reaching a significant milestone celebrated by an aptly named Californian counterpart Mammoth Mountain in 2003.

Whilst Big Arnie’s involvement will raise the profile of California’s powder-covered peaks including ‘the big three’ plus Northstar-at-Tahoe, Alpine Meadows Ski Resort and

Kirkwood Mountain Resort, in America and some parts of Europe, well-informed Aussie powderhounds will be more excited about an announcement by Qantas yesterday.

Its added an additional 2,000 seats, in December and January (two key winter months) to Los Angeles. After arriving in LA skiers and boarders take a short flight to Reno, the most convenient gateway to’the big three’ winter playgrounds Mammoth Mountain, Heavenly and Squaw Valley.

Mammoth Mountain opens next week, Thursday Nov 10, after another period of development that has transformed a monstrous peak and an acceptable ski town into a world-class alpine resort with a well coordinated network of ski lifts.

A lot of corporate jets land at the nearby airport these days and there’s been more celebrity sightings than anyone can remember.
The buzz around town is that Mammoth might become the Planet Hollywood Ski Area.

Heavenly, a former laid-back picture-postcard alpine village, that has 15 ski lifts in California (including a new high-speed gondola) and 15 of its ski lifts in the state of Nevada, plans to open the following week.

Over $200 million (American dollars) has been invested in improvements on the mountain at Heavenly and the village alongside Lake Tahoe.

Northstar-at-Tahoe has also undergone a transformation with numerous on and off mountain improvements at the resort including additional new lifts and construction of the New Village at Northstar.

For more details contact Ski Max Qantas Tel 02 9267 1655 1300 136 997 or visit www.skimax.com.au