J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by admin

We think this might be the best little video yet in the #ProjectPY2018 series being turned out by Team GB.

Having fun, Mission 20...

GB Park and Pipe's Katie Ormerod, Billy Morgan and Matt McCormick on a one-take shred through the epic Winter Park Resort funpark

Loving your work guys and girls! :thumbup:

Ranchero_1979 wrote:Certainly lucky that one on the group was switched on whilst others just froze. Calling 112 obviously works but everyone should have the local mountain rescue and pisteurs number in their phone. Plenty of apps available that will give them your long lat at same time.

I go the impression "the group" was just "Dennis" and his buddy; the others looked as if they had either just cleared the slope or were traversing lower down and came up to offer assistance (good to come, but no useful kit in evidence).

Good point about having the local mountain rescue number in your phone... rock up to get lift pass, grab piste map, put number in phone!

It's from last season, but given the currently high avalanche risk - and the likelihood of weak layers remaining buried in the snowpack until the end of this winter - everyone should take time to watch this.

If you like to leave the piste, then get the gear and learn to use it. Get a coffee and watch why...



The first comment on Youtube is hard to disagree with :-

StraitD2 wrote:As far as I'm concerned(no, i'm not an expert, but i've done the training), this is about as good as it is going to get. Not going at the same time and having one off to the side was the first right thing they did, so they both didn't get buried. Started at the last known sighting of his body before getting buried, then doing zigzag pattern while staying calm. HAVING and USING the transmitter and receivers was the second thing that was done right, and of course digging him out. Aka having shovels on them.

Dennis is a lucky guy; his lips were "turning purple" even though his buddy got to him quickly.

It looks as if he would have been dug out quicker if the group who came up to help had been equipped; presumably they weren't wearing transceivers either so one can assume the outcome might have been different if one of them had been under the snow.

If you have a GoPro but not a transceiver, you should probably have a word with yourself about your priorities...

Iceman wrote:Tried my hardest to break it and failed :(

Well, don't try tooo hard... but at least we can now market it as "Iceman proof"...

LOTA wrote:blue cruisers and easy reds to progress on.

There are nursery slopes above Champoluc (take the gondola up AND down) but they're probably too tame for someone looking to progress; they might be a good first day warm-up option though.

What worked well for my sons is the long blue above Frachey. Look at the map; you can hop on the free ski bus from Champoluc - then take the funicular at Frachey. The chair to go further up from there (by the excellent little restaurant with the funny name that I can't immediately remember) is much longer than it looks on the piste map, as is the blue that it serves. So your early intermediate can get in a nice warm bus, up an easy-to-ride funicular, and then loop one very long chair (6 man, I think, but one that slows down top and bottom) and a long, generally wide, blue.

At the end of the day they can take the Red back to Champoluc if the snow's good (the steepish first section is massively wide and should be OK for an early intermediate, but don't push them this way if confidence is a problem). The chair out of the bottom of this valley is also an older 2-man, non-slowing-down one but not too scary...

For anyone interested in wildlife... we saw clear Lynx tracks under this chair most mornings but failed to spot the cat...

For early skiers, they can also stay on the bus round to Antagnod - basically a red and a couple of blues winding through the woods with great views and a nice cafe. Antagnod's also a joker option if the weather closes in; we had a fantastic powder day between the pistes there on a day when Champoluc was locked down for wind and avalanche risk.

I like Champoluc; it's maybe not as well-connected as a French mega-resort but is probably more fun for that. There's plenty of easy off-piste to play in the immediate valley, and more serious stuff across in Gressoney.

March should be a good time to go; we've been in January and at Easter and the mountain was very quiet for both (other than Easter Monday).

Could be a good choice for the group, but just a couple of small points to consider :-
- There are small gaps in the piste/lift connections which may leave you scratching your head; notably the Black returning from Alagna that ends in a car park above Stafal with a 400m yomp down to the cable car.
- You'll see plenty of reminders, but DO pay attention to the warning signs on the lifts that connect the valleys; they do close due to high winds. The pisteurs do try and give warning, and put signs up telling you to return to your "home" valley so if you see those, don't hang around. A fiver says at least one person in your hotel will end their skiing the wrong side of the ridge and end up with a €200 taxi ride... 8)

We've changed the way you select your ski resorts, for your Snow Mail, to add more options and (hopefully) make it simpler.

When you visit your Profile, you'll now see a new Ski Area Selector like this :-


[This is an inactive picture - visit your Profile to change your resorts!]

NOTE - if you see the old version, just logout, close the browser tab you were using to view J2Ski and then re-open and log back in. The new version should be fully rolled out within 24 hours but your session may re-connect to the old version for a little while.

All the ski areas for which we currently have forecasts should now be available from the drop-down, and resorts are now grouped by country.

So you can now choose to get Snow Forecasts from any of 2088 ski areas in 41 countries... 8)

Please have a quick play and, if it breaks, report any apparent bugs here...

Please use this Topic to request Ski Areas to be added to our Snow Reports, or to the list of resorts available by e-mail (see your Profile area).

Before making a request, please do double-check that the ski area is not already on our list; we now cover a vast list and it's easy to miss one!

Our Snow Mail Resort Selector looks like this :-


[This is an inactive picture - visit your Profile to change your resorts!]

Almost all ski areas for which we currently have forecasts are available from the drop-down, and resorts are grouped by country.

You can choose to get Snow Forecasts for any 4 out of more than 2,000 ski areas in over 40 countries... 8)

We'll use this Topic to notify you when new Ski Resorts are added to our coverage.

This thread is now redundant, as we've upgraded our Snow Mail Resort Selector so it looks like this :-



All the ski areas for which we currently have forecasts should now be available from the drop-down, and resorts are now grouped by country.

So you can now choose to get Snow Forecasts from any of 2088 ski areas in 41 countries... 8)

To request new ski areas (after checking that we don't already cover them), please go here - New Ski Resorts 2016.