The Southern hemisphere Alpine Continental Cup season will start soon. For the second time, the South American Cup (SAC) will kick off at Cerro Castor (ARG), the southernmost ski area in the world located in the ‘Tierra del Fuego’ (Land of Fire) National Park. The competitions will begin with the ladies’ and men’s slalom races on 8th August, 2008 and continue on 9th August with giant slalom races of both genders. Cerro Castor is quite a new ski resort, which is becoming more and more attractive for training camps for several traditional Alpine nations because of the low altitude of between only 195-1’057 meters above sea level. After the competitions in Cerro Castor, the SAC will continue at the traditional venue of Catedral (ARG) on 18th August with slalom races for both genders. The men will stay then in Catedral and have a giant slalom on 20th August while the ladies are heading as usual to Chapelco for a giant slalom on 23rd August.

At the end of August, the South American Cup will move to Chile, where speed races and a super combined competition will take place in La Parva. The last stage of the SAC will be held in El Colorado (CHI) from 31st August to 2nd September, where one super-G per gender will be organized by the Brazilian Ski Association. Two super-Gs, a giant slalom, a super combined are on the schedule of the final weekend in Chile.

Last year, the SAC rankings were dominated by the Argentinean siblings Cristian Javier and Maria Belen Simari Birkner despite the participation of several foreign athletes – by the beginning of September we will know if they were able to repeat that feat.

South America is enjoying great snow conditions. Tierra del Fuego for example had ski-able snow by mid-late May and the season kick-off already took place on 16th June. Besides the flourishing Alpine market, Cerro Castor along with other resorts in the Valley of Tierra Mayor outside of Ushuaia, Argentina, is also slowly expanding its Nordic ski services and will again be part of the Marchablanca's 21/7km race this coming August.

In addition to the SAC, the Australia/New Zealand Cup (ANC), another one of the five regional series in the FIS Alpine Inter-Continental Cup program, which also includes European Cup, Nor-Am Cup and Far East Cup, is scheduled to start in the middle of August.

“The Alpine Continental Cups play a very important role as a stepping stone into the FIS Alpine World Cup, and especially for the younger athletes, as an opportunity for them to gain valuable high-level competition experience,” says Oskar Fischer, Chairman of the FIS Sub-Committee for Continental Cups and adds: “Particularly, I’m happy that the super combined races for both genders are established and again included in this year’s schedule of both Continental Cups in the southern hemisphere. We are looking forward to great COC series in the southern hemisphere with optimal conditions and wish all athletes good luck!.”