J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

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.

White House officials have confirmed that leisure travel will be allowed to resume to the U.S. from November 8th from a number of countries including those in the EU and UK.

However open fully vaccinated travellers will be allowed in, having a negative test only will not be acceptable. Along with being fully vaccinated arrivals in the US will need to complete contact tracing and have had a negative test result in the previous 72 hours however.

The US ski season began at the weekend with Arapahoe Basin (pictured above on Sunday 18th October) and Wolf Creek opening for their 21-22 seasons.

The announcement that borders would re-open in November had been made last month, but until now there had not been a specific date given. US Borders have been closed to non-essential travel since March 2020. Canada re-opened its international borders to leisure travellers in September.

With 14 inches (35cm) of snowfall reported at Wolf Creek, this other Colorado area now says it will be the first to open, a day ahead of A Basin, later today (Saturday 16th October) running their Nova Lift for the opening weekend.

Colorado's Arapahoe Basin has announced it will open for the 2021-22 season this Sunday, October 17th.

"Black Mountain Express will be running and skiers and riders can cruise High Noon. We just might have a few features in the Banana Terrain Park. These are exciting times. It is so fun to get chairlifts spinning again. I can't wait to see all of your smiling faces on the hill," said resort COO Alan Henceroth.

Arapahoe Basin is one of America and the world's highest ski areas and usually among the first to open in the country each autumn and the last to close in late spring or early summer the following year.

It is possible other ski areas will open before Sunday in order to claim the 'first to open' crown. A major snowstorm has brought far more snow than is usual for this time of year to the Rockies with some resorts in Utah saying they've had several feet of snowfall this week.

The main contenders to open in the next few days include fellow Colorado resorts Keystone which has announced that it is now snowmaking around the clock and Loveland which has had more than a foot (30cm) of snowfall, but with snow falling widely and cold weather for snowmaking there are many more contenders than usual this year.

Currently the US has its borders closed to international leisure travel but that restriction is due to end next month.

A large snow storm hitting Western North America has allowed skiers to make the first powder turns of the 21-22 season in Colorado and Utah.

Up to 14" (35cm) of snowfall has been reported so far, with the snow still falling.

It's unusual, but not unheard of to see such a big early snowfall, although its extent – bringing snow to the Sierras and Cascades on the West Coast is quite rare for early October.

Normally the battle to be the first area to open is fought between resort snowmaking systems, waiting for cold enough temperatures to turn them on. Last winter it was won by Wild Mountain, a Midwestern ski area in Minnesota but usually high-altitude Colorado ski areas Arapahoe Basin, Loveland or Keystone are the front runners. All three report snowmaking systems underway as well as the natural snowfall so it appears one or more will open any day now.

In the meantime skiers have been reported hiking up to make their turns, though some resorts have warned this could be dangerous with season preparation work underway on the mountain.

At Silverton Mountain in Colorado (Pictured yesterday) lucky ski patrol team members got to make first turns in the fresh powder.
"This whopper of a storm knocked out the electrical power to the region which is quite rare for Silverton, so you know it's a big one!" said a resort spokesperson, "The ski patrol of course fired up the chairlift and upon reaching the high alpine were greeted with some sweet powder turns to kick off the 2020-2021 ski season. Fresh powder feels extra special in October! The Silverton Ski Patrol was out "inspecting" this winter storm that dropped plenty of deep powder on the slopes. Fresh powder turns and smiles were in abundance as the ski patrol made the first ski turns of the 2021-22."

International leisure travel to USA is expected to be permitted again from next month after a 20 month closure due to the pandemic.

It's no surprise that the famously raucous après ski scene at some Austrian resorts will not be the case this coming winter, but the country's government has come up with measures to decide exactly what it can be like.

In short, it depends a lot on the impact of COVID in Austria next winter, and the rules could change quickly if things get worse, but it seems skiers that are fully vaccinated – or have evidence that they're recently recovered from a COVID 19 infection - will have the best hope of the least restricted experience.

To begin with Austria's après ski bars are to be treated as night clubs, so are subject to more strict regulations than restaurants and quieter lounge bars.

Then there's already the country's ski-resort-reopening rules of mask wearing and social distancing indoors, with the requirement that people must be able to show they are fully vaccinated, or have taken a recent negative test, or have recently recovered from COVID.

The added factor for apres ski bars and nightclubs is that if the numbers of patients in intensive care units in Austria rises above 300, restrictions will be tightened so that only those fully vaccinated or recently recovered from COVID would be allowed in an apres ski bar – having a negative test result would no longer be enough.

In addition local municipalities will have the powers to shut down apres ski venues completely if infection levels rise.

"There will no longer be après-ski as before the pandemic," Tyrol's governor Günther Platter told news agency Reuters.

It has taken a long time for 8-seat chairlifts to begin to appear in North America. The world's first opened in Norway in the late 1990s but it was two decades before America's first was installed at Big Sky in Montana.

Since then though the giant chairlifts seem to be gaining favour with several more announced in recent months set to open over the next few seasons.

The latest is for Sunday River at Maine which has just announced that as part of its 'Sunday River 2030 plan' the new Jordan 8 chairlift will open the winter after next, winter 2022-23.

"One of the most advanced chairlifts in in the world, and the fastest 8-person chairlift in North America the Doppelmayr D-Line lift features ergonomic heated seats, the first weather-blocking bubbles in the world and will feature a wind-resistant and reconfigured top terminal," a resort statement enthuses.

The Jordan 8 will service terrain on the Oz and Jordan Bowl peaks and access terrain known as the Western Reserve as future terrain development plans take shape on several thousand acres of land beyond Jordan Bowl.

The new lift will run at 6 metres per second taking 4.54 minutes to make the ascent and carrying up to 3,200 skiers and boarders per hour.

The current Jordan Bowl Express, a high-speed quad, will be redesigned and rebuilt on Barker Mountain to replace the Barker Mountain Express for winter 2023-24.

Zermatt has announced a brand new ski equipment test centre will open on its year-round ski slopes this month.

The New Matterhorn Testcenter is located on the resort's Theodul glacier offering skiers and boarders the opportunity to test the latest ski models on one of the planet's only two remaining ski areas attempting to open 365 days a year, weather permitting.

Describing the new centre as "modern, spacious and state-of-the-art" the facility at Trockener Steg, will offer the latest 2022 season models from a wide range of brands for testing.

"The high-quality building offers convenience and a unique ski-in ski-out experience. A clear commitment by Zermatt Bergbahnen to skiing at the highest level; in view of the discontinuation of the ski tests in Sölden and Saas Fee, it offers all skiing enthusiasts the perfect infrastructure," a statement from Zermatt reports.

Zermatt is one of eight glacier ski areas in the Alps open today.