Taking to the Slopes, Land Rover-Style

Instead of Land Rover ride and drives, perhaps a better title would have been Land Rover Ski 'n Drives.

Winter sports fans visiting the Steamboat and Stratton ski resorts recently got the chance not only to conquer the slopes on skis, but also in a 2010 Land Rover or Range Rover.

It's all part of the strategic partnership we formed in January with leading ski resort management group, Intrawest. It makes Land Rover the year‑round automotive partner at three of Intrawest's premiere mountain resorts ‑ Steamboat and Winter Park, in Colorado, and Stratton Mountain in Vermont.

Anyone visiting the resorts will see a major Land Rover presence, with our 2010 model line‑up on display, lots of signage and literature around, and features like Land Rover sponsorship of the daily Snow Report on each resort's website.

But we've also been holding Land Rover Experience Days, offering resort guests the chance to experience the thrill of driving off‑road while test‑driving either a new LR4, Range Rover Sport or Range Rover.

For our first program, at Steamboat over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend in January, we built a challenging off‑road course right at the side of the ski slope. It was quite a sight for skiers coming down the mountain to watch Land Rovers going up.

At Stratton Mountain over the Presidents' Day weekend last month, we upped the challenge by utilizing an old trail that runs along the edge of one of the mountains. It was definitely not for the faint of heart.

We'll complete the Experience Days program at the Winter Park resort during the last weekend of this month.

This is a terrific partnership for Land Rover. Our vehicles fit perfectly with the skier demographic ‑ affluent buyers who love an outdoor adventure lifestyle. And the test drives and vehicle displays have already provided our retailers with a considerable number of sales leads.

This is definitely one slippery slope we like being on.

By Nicole Logue, Land Rover North America Events Manager