J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

Kitzbuhel has opened for its 21-22 season, using snow farming (saving snow from last winter then spreading it back out on the slopes) to create a slope of just under a kilometre long in its Resterkogel sector.

Despite having one of the lowest altitude ski areas of the major resorts in the Alps, prior to the pandemic, Kitzbuhel endeavoured to open for at least 200 days each season from October to May. It's unclear if that's the aim this winter, previously it opened earlier in October in order to achieve it.

On Saturday October 30th the Resterkogel slope number 71 is available only to coaches and athletes who have registered as groups and have already booked their "Lines" for training purposes but on Sunday 31st and November 1st its open to the public, returning to race training from Tuesday.

Although snow farming is increasingly widely used in the Alps and Scandinavia now, Kitzbuhel is usually the only area in the alps that uses it to open in October without having a glacier. It joins about 20 glacier ski areas that are now open in the region.

It has been warm and sunny in the Alps in recent weeks but it is due to turn more wintery from the start of November with snowfall expected in the area from Tuesday.

Florida's first snow themed park, Scowcat Ridge, which debuted last autumn despite the impact of the pandemic, re-opens in October for its second winter season and has new attractions promised.

Snowcat Ridge's main attraction is outdoor tubing hill with dry ski slope surface, some 60 feet (17 metres) high and 400 feet (122 metres) long, but there's an arctic igloo with indoor real snow play and an Alpine themed village.

This season there are two new attractions: the Eskimo Outpost and the Crystal Ribbon, an outdoor ice skating area.

At the all-new Crystal Ribbon attraction, guests will get the opportunity to skate on a ribbon-shaped rink or an oval- shaped area, which will be for beginners.

Eskimo Outpost will feature eight private igloos, which can be used for large birthdays or company events.

The press release has now arrived at J2Ski Towers with a few more stats:

Last weekend (23-24 Oct 2021) saw the first ever National Snow Show at the NEC, Birmingham, with nearly 10,000 visitors and 150 exhibitors attending the two-day exhibition. Organisers have dubbed the event a 'phenomenal success' despite hugely challenging circumstances for the entire industry.

After 16 months of planning the event kicked off with snowsports legends Chemmy Alcott, Billy Morgan, Jamie Nicholls and host Scott Penman meeting visitors and handing out goodies to over 500 visitors who were waiting for the doors to open, before cutting the ribbon and declaring the show open. The event quickly filled, and the visitor numbers were steady throughout the event.

Stephen Morgan, MD at Raccoon Events Active Division, the organiser of the event, commented: "We knew the event would be good but we were blown away by the reaction from both the industry and the visitors. It was a hard 16-month slog to get the show to where it was, in hugely challenging circumstances, no one knowing what the state of the travel industry would be in 21/22 and following on from the toughest year the industry has faced in a very long time. The support of key organisations, the faith our early adopter brands showed and the appetite from the public to attend a snow show meant we were able to deliver a very successful event. We have huge plans for the Show with 2022 already shaping up to be double the size. We have already signed more brands than we had at this year's event and have some incredible speakers booked up– watch this space because 2022 planning is already underway."

The show played host to brands including K2, Ski Exchange, Decathlon, Salomon, AfterJam, OOSC, Dalbello, Marker, Volkl, Planks, Picture Organic and Oneskee to name a few.

Not just an opportunity to shop the latest gear, the show hosted beginners ski and snowboard lessons on the SnowDome dry slope, saw some incredible demonstrations and lessons on the Skate Mini Ramp from Graystone Action Sports, tested people's endurance and strength in the RAF Nordic Biathlon experience, and pitted friend against friend on the Palm Culture Balance Board feature.

Visitors were given the opportunity to chat face-to-face to travel experts with a host of holidays booked through a host of resorts and destinations including Crystal Ski Holidays, Andorra Travel Services, France Montagne, Ski Andorra, OTP Swiss Holidays, Snowsport Scotland, LAAX, Aosta Valley Tourist Board, Blue Sky Ski Holidays, Peak Ski Adventures.
The industry was invited to come together in an Après Drinks reception sponsored by Ski Club Great Britain, Maison Sport, Ski Exchange and RedChurch Brewery at the close of day one. Snow Show branded beers from Redchurch flowed as brands, organisations and individuals networked and planned for the coming seasons.
Stephen continued: "We have received a lot of feedback from the event and we are taking it all on board, we are planning to have more brands, more space, more have-a-go experiences and more destinations with the latest kit available to buy with a healthy mix of consumer focused content and trade opportunities. If you are interested in getting on board for 2022 we would love to have you and together we can give our industry the boost it needs."

The premier of the film focussed on the build up to Franz Klammer's famous victory at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck has premiered in his home state of Carinthia, Austria.

Snow was brought down from the Mölltal Glacier to the Cineplexx in Villach where the premiere of "Klammer - Chasing the Line" was staged to help build the atmosphere.

Along with Klammer himself a wide range of sports stars, Olympic heroes and other celebrities were on the red carpet for the event. Among them were tennis great Boris Becker as well as ski racers Stefan Eberharter, Matthias Mayer, Leo Stock and Fritz Strobl as well as the Swiss racer Bernhard Russi who Klammer pipped to win the 1976 Olympic Downhill title portrayed in the film.

It is not yet clear if the film will have a cinema release outside of the German-speaking part of Europe. The film is currently reported to be in German with English subtitles.

Les 2 Alpes has joined Tignes in opening for winter 21-22. The French glacier resort had been hosting team training before it began a for night of operations to the general skiing and boarding public. It will close again after the first weekend in November before re-opening for its winter season a few weeks later. Tignes, which opened last week, is aiming to stay open through to next May.

It joins about 20 ski areas are now open elsewhere in Europe with the most in Austria (7), Italy and Switzerland (4 each) as well as five spread across Finland, Norway and Sweden in Scandinavia.

It's a slightly tense time as it was at this point a year ago that autumn lockdowns were announced closing the two French centres shortly after they had opened for the 20-21 season, eventually extended through the winter, as well as those in Austria and Italy, although those in Switzerland and Scandinavia stayed open. This autumn things do look much more positive though, so far, with winter operating plans announced by governments in most leading ski nations.

Ironically last autumn saw heavy snowfall on glaciers which is yet to really materialise this season so far, but there is what looks like hopefully a decent dump in the forecast for the next seven days.

Most of the already open resorts are glacier areas but some have used snow farming – recycling last season's snow – including Levi and Ruka in Finland. But they've now had plenty of fresh natural snow on top.

Kitzbuhel will use snow farming to open for the season this coming weekend, which it hopes will last at least 200 days to next May. Other resorts due to open this weekend include Andermatt, Arosa, Crans Montana and Laax in Switzerland and Passo Tonale in Italy.

Palisades Tahoe have now announced they'll open for the season this Friday too, the earliest opening since 2004 and only the third time in 72 years they've opened in October.

An incredible snowstorm which some are reporting as the biggest ever single October snowfall has hit the North American west coast with the Lake Tahoe region reporting the biggest accumulations.

Mt Rose reported 38-42" (95-105cm) of new snow in around 24 hours and referencing the fact that the snow fell as rain over much of California said,

"Our high base elevation has been absolutely crucial in maximizing snowfall. It's feeling a lot like January up here at 8260'!"

However most ski areas did report similar (if not quite so much) snow. Palisades Tahoe (formerly Squaw Valley) said it had had at least three feet (90cm) at the top of the mountain and posted the image top.

Mammoth mountain, which had already had some smaller October snowfalls, had announced it was moving its opening date forward by two weeks to this Friday in anticipation of the storm's arrival. It's not yet clear if any other areas will open early thanks to the snow.

Until very recently ski areas in the state had been battling huge forest fires.

International leisure travel to the US for fully vaccinated skiers and boarders from regions including the EU and UK will resume in just under a fortnight's time after a 20 month pandemic closure.

Heavenly pictured below.

Yeah really good atmosphere, crowds took me by surprise - there's been lots of talk of "pent up demand" but this was hard evidence at last. Strong focus on retail but hopefully more travel companies next year. Whole thing felt like shows of the 80s and 90s before they started to lose ground to the interweb.