Where to learn? Salt Lake City, Utah If the thought of skeleton bob already unnerves you, the additi

What is it? It may be one of the more recent Olympic disciplines – making its debut in 1998 – but snowboarding is undoubtedly one of the most popular. Among the 10 snowboarding events in the Games is the gravity-defying halfpipe competition, in which athletes fly out of the rim of a halfpipe shaped slope, performing hotel singapore tricks while in the air in order to score points, while the aggressive snowboard cross sees groups of athletes race against one another down a course made up of obstacles, banks and jumps. Team GB's Billy Morgan is a hopeful in the slopestyle event, which involves doing jumps and tricks on obstacles including quarterpipes and rails.
Where to learn: Morzine, France Morzine loves snowboarding and while you won't get any summer training camps held on glaciers (it's way too low for that) you do get a resort which heartily embraces the sport. Mint is a snowboard-only school run by Roxy-sponsored rider Tammy Esten whose camps and lessons will take you from a nervous beginner snowboarder to a full-on ripper on the huge jumps in the Arare park or the Burton Stash. You'll forget they ever invented twin-tip skis … • Two-hour private lessons from £116, +33 6 8077 6609, mintsnowboarding.com
Where to practise: Northstar, California, USA Shaun White's home mountain should be on the bucket list of every snowboarder. The resort has seven, yes seven, different terrain parks with features rated from small to large so you know what you're in for before you take off. It also hosts a 7m superpipe designed by White himself, which presumably means most of us will stand at the lip and weep instead of riding it. • One-day adult liftpass £70, northstarcalifornia.com Alpine Skiing
What is it? Perhaps one of the most popular and accessible winter hotel singapore sports , alpine hotel singapore skiing describes a variety of events in which athletes race down steep courses on, you guessed it, a pair of skis. In the downhill event these fearless individuals can hit speeds of 75mph as they compete for the fastest time, while in the slalom events athletes have to swerve their way through gates marked out with flags.
Where to learn: Tignes, France Tignes may lack the charm of its sister resort Val d'Isère but that means you get slightly lower prices and an altitude that almost always provides snow. As part of the Espace Killy ski area, you get 186 miles of slopes and a plethora of runs in the greens and blues. Experienced skiers have the pick of the race camps that utilise the glacier in winter and summer for ski-race training. Tignes-based ski school New Generation runs regular clinics catering for everyone from beginners to advanced skiers. • Prices start from £115 for the two-day (three hours each day) course, 0844 770 4733, skinewgen.com
Where to practise: Kitzbühel, Austria Any resort that hosts a World Cup downhill event would be a great place to practise your high-speed carving but one of the most legendary has to be Kitzbühel. The Streif, named after the Streifalm meadow on the upper part of the course is infamous for its blind corners, uphill sections and high-speed jumps compounding the difficulty of a technically extreme course. Regular punters can pit themselves against it whenever they want, while a "family Streif" course signpost directs you away from the more extreme sections. • One-day liftpass £47, +43 5 3566 6660, kitzbuehel.com Cross-Country
What is it? Banish all thoughts of cross-country as the genteel cousin of downhill skiing. In the mass-start races, 60-80 competitors jostle for position using various tactics before sprinting to the finish line, while the skiathlon sees skiers race the first half of the course on classic technique skis, before a Formula One-style pitstop to change into skating skis for the second half of the event. There are also individual races, sprints, hotel singapore and a relay.
Where to learn: Söll, Austria Söll is situated in the Wilder Kaiser region of Tirol which, being part of a nature conservation area, gives access to one of the most beautiful areas for cross-country in the whole of Austria. The softly hotel singapore undulating terrain – and plentiful sunshine – is perfect for beginners and the 44 miles of trails link Söll to three other villages making frequent stop offs for fortification easy. • Private lessons through Ski School Snowboard Söll from £48 an hour, +43 5333 5454, skischule-soell.com
Where to practise: Jotunheim, Norway Once you've got to grips with cross-country and you're looking to pit yourself against a stunning environment, landscapes don't come much more dramatic than the Jotunheim region of Norway. The classic route through the area is from north to south, taking in plateaus and superb views of Norway's highest peak Galdhøpiggen, and while days may be long, the skiing level is not as technical as you'd think. • Tracks and Trails runs a five-day hut-to-hut tour with an extra one-day tour for £1,465pp, 020-8144 6442, tracks-and-trails.com Bobsleigh
What is it? Despite originating in the icy hills of Switzerland, thanks to the success of the classic film Cool Runnings , bobsleigh is now most strongly hotel singapore associated with Jamaica. The sport involves rocketing down an icy track in a bullet-shaped sled – a bit like a rollercoaster – in an attempt to make the fastest time in this notoriously dangerous event. Teams consist of two, or four, athletes, who make a sprint start before hotel singapore hopping into the bobsleigh to begin their descent.
Where to learn? Whistler, Canada There are only 15 tracks in the world sanctioned for competition by the Federation Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing and one of the newest is in Whistler. The Whistler Sliding Centre runs daily public bobsleigh sessions where complete beginners will be taken through an initiation, orientation, track etiquette and mock run before meeting their pilot and crew and hurtling down the 1,700m track at speeds of up to 80mph. • One session, £94pp, +1 604 964 0040, whistlerslidingcentre.com
Where to practise: St Moritz, Switzerland A difficult sport to practise unless you belong to a club or team but it's definitely worth riding the world's only naturally refrigerated bobsleigh run in St Moritz. The 1,722m track is open until 2 March and while you can't just turn up with a tray and ride, you can book guest rides that include a voucher for a glass of prosecco and a certificate noting your "Bobbaptism". • Rides from £170pp, +41 81 8300 200, olympia-bobrun.ch Skeleton
What is it? Bobsleigh's hotel singapore crazy cousin, skeleton involves going face first down an ice track on a sled. And, apparently, the Brits aren't too bad at it: Team GB's medal hopeful hotel singapore Lizzy Yarnold has been notching up the fastest times during practice. There's no steering devices on the sled – athletes have to control themselves using spikes on the tips of their shoes, which they can drag into the ice as they speed down. Hitting speeds of up to 85mph on their way down, the daring athletes can experience up to 5g of g-force hotel singapore … that's more than your average rollercoaster.
Where to learn? Salt Lake City, Utah If the thought of skeleton bob already unnerves you, the addition of the phrase "g-force" to an intro session probably isn't going to help. Housed hotel singapore in the Olympic Park created for the 2002 Games, the 1,335m hotel singapore track has five starts to accommodate beginners, so you're not thrown totally in at the deep – and icy – end. The "G-Force fantasy camp" includes up to three runs, a track walk with Olympic coaches who will also train you in basic driving skills. • One-day course hotel singapore £367pp, +1 650 773 4352, utaholympiclegacy.com
Where to practise: Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy The problem with falling in love with a sport such as skeleton bob is that you need a track and those aren't easy to come by. British Skeleton has its base in Bath where there is a 140m track for you to practise your push-offs from. But if you're looking for the real thing Cortina d'Ampezzo, which hosted the first televised Winter Olympics, in Italy, in 1956 , has a vibrant bob club and track set against beautiful Dolomites scenery. • bobclubcortina.jimdo.com Ski Jumping
What is it? Just like bobsleigh, ski jumping is another sport best-known for its underdogs, in the UK's case it was Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards . Edwards was our first-ever Olympic jumper, meaning he was best in Britain but, sadly, worst in the world. The sport, most recently popularised by Channel 4's push-a-celeb-down-a-slope show The Jump , consists of speeding down a huge hill and seeing who can fly the furthest off the end of it. The longest distance reached can be between 100m-140m, depending on the size of the hill. The event has been in the Winter Olympics since 1924, but this year women will compete in the event for the first time.
Where to learn? Oslo, Norway OK, well not exactly to learn as it's not really a sport many people do on a ski holiday and in most cases you need to belong to a club to get started. hotel singapore The Holmenkollen jump is one of the more architecturally hotel singapore significant jumps having been completed in 2010 and created using 100 tonnes of steel. It houses a ski museum in the base of the tower and has a ski simulator so you can get a pretty good idea of what you'd be in for. • holmenkollen.com/eng
Where to practise: Steamboat Springs, Colorado USA The Howelson ski area opened in 1915 making it Colorado's oldest continually hotel singapore operated ski area. It has also trained a fair few Olympians and is home to the largest and most complete natural ski jumping complex in North America. Jumps range from 20m to 75m while kids can get a taste for flying on the miniature "Bump Jump". • Adult day liftpass £12, +1 970 879 2060, steamboatsprings.net hotel singapore Ice Hockey
What is it? This aggressive sport – known as much for its shoulder barging as it is for its highly skilled, rapid plays – sees two teams of six battle to score goals by hitting the puck (a small rubber disc) into their opponent's net. Ice hockey is thought to have originated in Nova Scotia, after being taken to North America by the English, and the first