Author:
Name & Surname: Simakov G. A.
Company: Apatit JSC (Kirovsk, Russia)
Work Position: Deputy General Director, Apatit JSC—General Director, Bigwood Alpine Skiing Resort
Contacts: e-mail: GSimakov@phosagro.ru

PhosAgro group of companies launched a large project in the sphere of tourism, alpine skiing and recreation. The project is aimed at the build-up of a ski mountaineering resort, with the best quality service and equipment, at the town of Kirovsk. The alpine skiing cluster will favor sports popularization and sports infrastructure development in the towns of Kirovsk and Apatity, with the active backup thanks to PhosAgro. The project is implemented on a basis of the acting alpine skiing resort Bigwood. The resort business will promote the relevant infrastructure, and will inspire small and medium business, including tourism and hotel businesses, and favor to job creation. Currently, the alpine skiing resort infrastructure includes 12 mountain tracks over 23 km long (seven tracks are artificially illuminated), meeting all the requirements of either amateurs or jockstraps in skiing. In 2014 it is scheduled to commission a round-robin ski lift 1.6 km long, with a capacity of 2400 men/h, and three more mountain tracks. Improvement of the ski mountaineering infrastructure will make it possible to use the alpine skiing resort as the training base for Russia’s sportsmen in ski mountaineering and snowboarding, and also as the family recreation and touring site.