Winter Sports

Main image (Background Landscape) : 

The best snowboarding game yet made carves through the imitators and arrives in icy glory today. While massive, gravity-defying tricks are key, the new SSX also gives you the option of playing mountain ranges so treacherous that Sherpa Tenzing Norgay would brown his snowpants in awe of them. Flee from avalanches and survive insane drops, all at breakneck speed (you’ll pass out in the thin air if you dally too long). Dark, deadly and spectacular fun.

SSX is out now on PS3 and Xbox 360

Main image (Background Landscape) : 

It may have taken its time to arrive this season, but winter is finally here. With record-breaking snow depths across Europe and a growing number of operators willing to cater for the long weekend, there has never been a better time for a sneaky off-peak trip with the boys. Over to Hannah Engelkamp of MadDogSki.com, then, with a few well-selected options…

A long weekend is the perfect time to try something a little unusual, such as ski touring in Scotland.

Main image (Background Landscape) : 

Thursday February 23,
Lake Placid, USA
British Eurosport 2 2.40pm

Footballers and tennis players may complain about an increasing number of matches being crammed into the schedules, but the calendars of both sports pale in comparison to the gruelling skeleton and bobsleigh season.

Just weeks after the end of the eight-round World Cup, the athletes are off to Lake Placid for the single-event World Championships, where they will compete for their countries.

Main image (Background Landscape) : 

Thursday February 2, Whistler, Canada,
British Eurosport 2 11PM

With the national economy faltering, riots in the streets and failure on a number of sporting fronts, it’s heartening to know that we Brits are among the best in the world at sliding face first down a frozen mountain.

The penultimate round of the face-sliding World Cup (or skeleton, to give it its proper name) is taking place in Canada next week, with Brit Shelley Rudman second in the rankings behind German Marion Thees.

Three resorts that will win your heart, even if you don't manage to win hers while you're there... 

Main image (Background Landscape) : 

With three weeks to go before Valentine’s Day, you still have time to arrange a romantic winter getaway for two…

Main image (Background Landscape) : 

If the London Olympics is the star pupil of the sporting year (we hope, anyway), then the Winter X Games is the kid at the back of the bus with the long hair and trainers, flicking V-signs.

The most spectacular winter sports event of them all begins January 26 in Aspen, Colorado, for the 16th time – and while big names such as 11-time gold-medallist Shaun White (pictured) will be there, it’s the massive tricks that really get people excited.

Main image (Background Landscape) : 

Friday December 2, Igls, Austria, British Eurosport 11am

Britain’s Winter Olympic medallists, Shelley Rudman and Amy Williams, are back on the skeleton track this weekend for the opening round of the FIBT Bobsleigh and Skeleton World Cup in Igls (which must have misplaced a vowel, somewhere). 

Hannah Engelkamp of MadDogSki.com picks three alternative ski and shopping destinations, just for a bit of variety