J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

A ski-in, ski-out seven-bedroom, 7 1/2-bath home with a heated driveway, built in 2018, has set a record sale price of $17 million for Breckenridge.

The previous highest price for the resort and the wider summit county area was $10.1 million for a house in the same neighbourhood only two years ago in 2019. The same house had also set the old record two years earlier when it sold for nearly $2m less.

The $17 million house on a nearly 1-acre lot also has an 18-person in-ground custom hot tub and a three-car garage. But its main draw, according to the selling agents, is that it is one of only five ski-in, ski-out properties that back up to the base of Peak 8 at Breckenridge Ski Resort.

Property agents in Breckenridge said these were "historic times" for housing sales in the resort, which is also a historic former gold mining town, with buildings selling for higher prices and at faster speeds than ever before.

The boss of the world's largest ski areas operating company, Colorado-headquartered Vail Resorts, says the company has multiple possibilities for expansion coming out of the pandemic.

The company has cut costs, borrowed money and didn't pay any share-holder dividends since the pandemic broke, but is reported to now be sitting on $1.3 billion as a result.

The Daily News reports that Vail Resorts Vail Resorts Chief Financial Officer Michael Barkin told investors in an online meeting that the company was very pleased with their results for the quarter and for the full 2020-21 ski season," said, hinting, as he had previously, that Europe and Japan were possibly in the company's sights.

"I would say that our results to date really confirm that strategy that we've had, and our approach to (mergers and acquisitions) remains the same, which is – we absolutely are aggressively looking for opportunities in different markets that we think will have value, but we're going to remain disciplined and only do things that we think will really make a difference," company CEO Rob Katz said, adding,
"No doubt, doing something in Japan would have immediate benefit to our connection between Australia, Japan, Canada and the U.S. So that would be a stronger immediate boost. In Europe, I think less so because you don't see those same visitation patterns, but on the other hand, the market in Europe is much bigger so the longer-term opportunity in Europe I think is quite strong, but of course it will take more time to get going."

"With the current state of the balance sheet and the liquidity that we have, and the access to the capital markets, we certainly have stability to pursue those acquisitions," Mr Barkin contributed.

Vail Resorts currently own and/or operate 37 ski resorts, most in the USA including a swathe of the country's leading destination resorts, as well as four leading resorts in Australia and Canada. These include Whistler Blackcomb in Canada which has North America's largest ski area and Perisher, Falls Creek and Hotham in Australia.

Its Epic Pass season pass has transformed the way many skiers buy their ski passes and related services each winter, giving access to all Vail's resorts and partner resorts around the world all season long for a fixed upfront cost.

Other large North American groups have entered the European market before but with limited success. Intrawest, which owned Whistler Blackcomb and about a dozen other areas before its collapse (many of its resorts are now owned by Vail), built Arc 1950 in Les Arcs and part of Flaine as well as running a snowdome in Madrid for a few years on the early 'noughties' before it contracted back to concentrate of the North American market.

Swiss lift manufacturer Bartholet Maschinenbau AG has announced its signed a deal with Téléverbier SA and Télé-Thyon SA to work on three lifts to improve flow around the e4v Valleys from the winter of 2022-23 onward.

First up the fixed chairlift in La Pasay will be upgraded to a detachable 6-seater chairlift with a hood, shortening the travel time from 11 to 5 minutes And increasing capacity on the route to 1,600 skiers per hour.

In addition a second new detachable 6-seater chairlift will be installed connecting la Pisse-Vache with the Col de Chargerat. The new lift will take six minutes to travel about a mile and have a capacity also of 1,600 skiers per hour.

Both lifts will be the latest to be designed by the Porsche Design Studio enabling skiers and boarders guests to travel in maximum comfort.

Finally, above Thyon, in La Matze, a major new lift will replace the two over 50-year-old lifts currently in operation. The new lift will be as combination type, carrying 6-seater detachable chairs and 10-seater gondola cabins on the same line.

The new lift will have a carrying capacity of 2,000 people per hour and enable pedestrian transport between Les Collons 1900 and Thyon 2000 for the first time, while the main function, the transport of skiers and especially beginners, is retained.

In addition, the "Les Collons" ski lift will be replaced by a new ski lift. In parallel to the new construction of the new combination lift the redevelopment of the surrounding leisure activities is being planned with, among other things, a brand-new winter toboggan run is planned.

Loveland ski area in Colorado, one of the world's highest altitude ski centres, has been given the go ahead to expand its terrain.

Two new trails will be created in the existing Loveland Valley area, and two existing runs, Zig Zag and Boomerang, popular with novice skiers and boarders, will be regraded to make them easier and wider.

The plans, now approved by the regional Arapaho National Forest Service, also allow for the creation of around 500 new parking spaces in a new carparking lot off Interstate 70.

Work is expected to start on the upgrades this summer.

Loveland is usually one of the first northern-hemisphere non-glacier ski areas to open each autumn, usually in late October or early November.

It is also famous for its 'Marry Me & Ski for Free' annual mass on mountain wedding ceremony/renewal of vows each Valentine's Day in which participating couples receive a free lift pass.

All good info as always, thanks Swingbeep. Presumably the greater part of the €89 million will therefore be going on the three stations and the transport hub? A lot of parking space needed at the base if they do hope people will use it for holidays. I think you're right there'd need to be a cost incentive and/or they'd need to show an advantage of using it to driving (I read there's often slow queues up at weekends so if skiers avoided that??)

The ski season in the Andes is yet to get underway with most of Argentina and Chile's ski areas having not previously committed to opening dates now saying it will be July until they open.

There appears to be a combination of factors at play – pandemic restrictions which in some areas are resulting in local lockdowns preventing ski areas opening, then some resorts are possibly delaying opening in low season due to the limited opportunity to break even with international borders still closed. Then the third reason is there hasn't been a huge amount of snowfall so far.

That third reason is the one given for a week's delay in opening given by Corralco resort in Chile which had been due to open on the 19th.

Valle Nevado say they can't open due to a local lockdown and Portillo just say they'll be opening on July 18th, they hope, about four weeks later than a normal season.

More Argentinian ski areas have given planned opening dates over the past week within the first few days of July, the weekend after next.

If South American ski areas do open next month it will be an improvement on last year when only a handful of ski areas managed to open at all, and most just for three or four weeks from mid-August to the end of winter.

Chile has a far higher rate of vaccination than Argentina and is one of the top 10 countries in the world for the percentage of its population vaccinated but infection rates are still rising, as they are in Argentina and many other countries, and it is enforcing local lockdowns including ski area closure where cases are particularly high.

Tignes has become the fifth French ski area to re-open its lifts and some ski slopes following the easing of French lockdown measures at the end of last month.

It joins its neighbour, Val d'Isere, along with les 2 Alpes to offer summer glacier skiing. Avoriaz and la Clusaz both re-opened a few slopes in the past month, but in their cases it was each just for a few symbolic days, just because they could.

Tignes reports the snow lying six feet (180cm) deep on the Grand Motte glacier and report a dozen runs open, with 20km of slopes accessible, representing about 85% of their potential summer terrain. Half the open runs are graded red, with one black slope and five blues – but no very easy greens. Half-a-dozen lifts are running.

Temperatures on the glacier are 5-7 degrees with the sun shining and light winds. That's much cooler than the 20C down in resort and 30C in cities below, but still means the snowpack will inevitably be slowly thawing.

Tignes was the only French ski area to have fully open for the season last autumn when the French second-wave pandemic restrictions began, which involved ski lifts being closed, although ski resorts themselves could open and offer other activities.

Tignes will probably be the last glacier area in the Alps to open for summer skiing in 2021. Besides the three French areas there are currently half-a-dozen open in total in Austria, Italy and Switzerland plus a couple up in Norway.

France is on the orange list for travel from the UK meaning test-fees and self-isolation on return to the UK among other restrictions. There are also ever-changing rules for Brits arriving in France but these appear to be easing where people can show they have been fully vaccinated and have a recent negative test.

Wow that's one impressive looking lift! Can't think of one with a 5,000 people per hour uplift before? I may be forgetting somewhere though... Price tag must be one of the highest ever too, can only think of the one on the Italian side of Mont Blanc coming in at over €100m and that had revolving cabins, multiple stations and some pretty extreme-environment construction requirements up at the top.