J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

A recent survey of current skier attitudes conducted by The Mountain Trade Network has revealed pent-up demand for ski holidays meaning that once travel opens up, skiers are prepared to book.

The survey was sent to active skiers (defined as having skied at least twice in the last 3 seasons) and more than 400 responded to the questions in full.

Even for the remainder of this winter season (until mid-April in most cases), 50% of skiers say if it's possible to go, then they will. Although the vast majority now believe this won't actually happen.

Looking ahead to the 2021-22 winter, 96% of survey respondents said they intend to book a ski holiday, although around half will hold off and book within three months of travelling – that's a lot more than would normally leave it that late.

Perhaps even more importantly, 80% of skiers said they expect it to be safe to ski in the 2021-22 winter season, which considering some of the negative coverage ski resorts had at the end of the 2019-20 winter, is a sign of confidence from consumers who have seen huge efforts from ski resorts over the past year in creating a Covid safe environment.

One emerging trend appears to be the demand for longer trips, with 20% of skiers saying they will go for 14 nights, rather than one week. Another trend is the rise of the self-drive option, which has gone from 10% pre-Covid to over 30% saying they intend to drive next winter. This could favour the most popular destination for British skiers, France, with 63% saying they plan to holiday in the country, although 19% say Switzerland is their number one choice. A growth of around 10% in market share.

But for skiers that dare to dream (they were asked what their dream destination would be if money was no object), the long haul destinations of Canada, Japan and USA remain top of the list.

Managing Director of The Mountain Trade Network, James Gambrill (above), said: "It's been an incredibly difficult year for the winter sports industry and most operators were hoping this season would go-ahead. It hasn't, but what's encouraging is to see how many skiers are keen to get back on the slopes again once it's possible to do so. We know there will be big changes ahead and après ski won't be the same again for a while, but it's generally accepted that the actual activity of skiing itself, being outdoors, is relatively safe".

(Image top credit Crans Montana)

Swiss media reports that a scientific study into the danger of catching the coronavirus on a gondola ride works out about 100 times less than the danger of catching it in a working day in a two-person office.

The study from the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) looked at the airborne transmission of virus droplets on a variety of lifts at Engelberg ski area ranging from small gondolas to 80 passenger cable-car cabins. They used pressure sensors to measure airflow.

They found that if the gondola was crowded, windows were closed and the journey long the risk increased, but that if windows were open, and the cabin half-empty, they were very low.

Gondola cabins performed three to four times better than cable car cabins in the tests because the cable car cabins only had roof vents compared to sliding windows in the gondola cabins. However even a cable car cabin was many times better for air circulation than a railway carriage or an office.

Among the various comparisons were that a 12-minute ride on a gondola with open windows left people about a thousand times less likely to contract the virus than during a dinner for eight people in a room with closed windows.

Although cable car cabins did not perform so well per-minute of ride as a gondola ascent, the researchers found cable cars ascended much faster which cancelled out the advantage of the gondolas in practical terms.

Currently the Swiss government requires cabin lifts to operate at a maximum of two-thirds their normal operating capacity.

Few people can travel to ski at present of course, and police increasingly seem to be catching and fining people who try to take a ski trip against the current rules, but the snow keeps falling and the past four days have seen huge totals reported in the Alps and in the Western US.

California has topped the global snowfall table with several ski areas including Mammoth reporting up to 3 metres/10 feet of snowfall. China Peak reported the most with 3.2 metres (nearly 11 feet). Donner Ski is pictured top on Friday.

In the Alps ski areas in the Valais and Tirol regions have posted up to 2 metres (nearly 7 feet), although in Europe the snowfall has been accompanied by warm temperatures which brought rain as high as 2,000 metres altitude creating a highly unstable snowpack and very high avalanche danger.

Ski areas on both sides of the Atlantic that weren't closed anyway by the pandemic have been closed to dig out lifts and facilities and for avalanche danger mitigation work. Ski areas in the Western US have also warned against the danger of suffocation if caught in a tree well or similar situation.

California had just lifted pandemic restrictions slightly to allow hotels to re-open in resorts and ski areas reported their pandemic-limited capacity limits have been quickly reached this weekend.

96 foreigners fined up to 2,180 Euros each by police in St Anton for taking illegal ski holidays...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-austria-skiers-idUSKBN29Z0FD?fbclid=IwAR0Roke0wG1wbH3tz1vKBcAycB9OgBqokpBeaM9CsXgQb06c09DQRuhYr-I

...oops sorry DachsteinWest, see you already posted.

The ongoing restrictions on leisure travel has led one of the UK's leading ski holiday companies to cancel all bookings up to 2nd April – shortly before Easter.

Hotelplan, which runs the Inghams, Ski Total and Flexiski holiday companies, said they hope there's still a chance that there might be holidays at the every end of the season, but noted that they were seeing very strong bookings now for next winter.

"Of course, we are disappointed for all those impacted by this news. We hope our customers with a booking in March of this year will choose to join us at a later date, but they can choose to have a refund if they want one," said Hotelplan UK CEO, Joe Ponte, who added, "We absolutely want to help skiers return to the mountains as soon as it is safe to do so, but as the Covid-19 crisis continues to worsen, we are facing the reality that it is sadly looking less and less likely. We understand that many skiers are very keen to get skiing again this winter. With this in mind, while we think there is still a possibility that ski holidays could go ahead this season, we will continue to monitor the everchanging situation closely and keep our customers informed of any updates regarding the remainder of this winter, as soon as we can."

"For those customers concerned about their booking for this April, they can feel confident that we will continue to look to do the right thing by them—and we have already delayed taking final balance payments until 4 weeks prior to departure. They are also able to move their holiday to next winter with zero amendment fee if they wish," Mr Ponte said, adding, "With many people taking reassurance from the measures set out in our 'In Safe Hands' promise, we're continuing to see strong booking numbers for next winter across our 2021/22 winter programme. The combined Hotelplan UK brands are already over 45% sold for next winter, well ahead of the same period last year, so people should think about their plans for the next winter now to avoid disappointment."

dachstein west skier wrote:Anyone out there thinking of an Easter trip if restrictions are eased as great snow out there at the moment or have you written off the season?

Will be interesting to see how things play out. Overall signs not good and I'm increasingly looking towards maybe Hintertux in June or July! Latest 're-opening to tourism' date for Austria (and maybe Italy and Germany?) is Feb 15 but not sure hopes are very high that will happen (and in any case will we be able to leave country we live in to travel there? quarantine restrictions etc etc). Austrian media reports that the 'open' ski resorts (everything closed except lifts) are like "ghost towns" at present. Just putting up a story from Inghams that they are cancelling all holidays to April 2nd. Only thing interesting there is they haven't actually, yet, cancelled whole season - April 2nd seems to leave Easter as an outside possibility, so there remains a very small hope, but may be kidding ourselves... PS. Getting increasing "Book now for 21-22 before everything goes" PR releases from tour ops in to J2Ski Towers. No doubt desperate sales hopes but if (big if) things are fairly normal next winter there is a logical argument that pent up demand combined with postponed bookings from past two seasons will book everything up early.

It has not been an "epic" start to winter 20-21 in the Western USA, ski resorts in California and Colorado are both well-down on their snowfall averages to date. Breckenridge just hit the 100 inches of snowfall this season mark more than a month later than it did last season and Mammoth has had only 11 inches (27cm) of snowfall so far this month. As a result many resorts have only limited terrain open …although with far fewer people allowed on the slopes anyway due to pandemic operating conditions, that's perhaps not being noticed as much as it might be.

But the shortage of snow in California is coming to an end. Storms have brought some fresh snowfall to start this week and now a huge blizzard is forecast to bring up to 10 feet (three metres) of snowfall by the weekend to the Tahoe region.

A blizzard warning is in effect through to Friday and there's a little irony in that because skiers are being advised not to travel just as California's regional pandemic "Stay Home" order has been lifted allowing people to stay in ski resorts in the region again.

Southern California and ski areas closest to LA are also seeing plenty of snowfall. Big Bear Mountain reported a 17-20" (45-50cm) storm total earlier this week and there's much more on the way.

Mammoth Mountain continues to operate for skiing and riding and lodging and short-term rentals are now available with restrictions. They reported they'd had 42 inches (over a metre) of snowfall by Wednesday lunchtime.

The area where the resort is located is now in the Californian state mandated Purple Tier with a "widespread" risk level under California's Blueprint for a Safer Economy framework.

"We anticipate limited mountain operations the next two days, please check back for detailed operational updates tomorrow morning. Lodge access is also limited at this time and there will likely be wait times to access lodges throughout the week – plan to spend the majority of your time outdoors. Anyone traveling to the area this week should expect heavy snowfall, dangerous road conditions and the potential for road closures," a resort spokesperson said, adding, "While we are stoked to see Mother Nature's return to Mammoth, it is important to remember the following; Closures and weather holds are in place for everyone's safety. Do not jeopardize your safety, the safety of our employees, and the safety of our guests by cutting closures – at a minimum, you will lose your pass. Snow immersion suffocation (SIS) danger is very real, always ski and ride with a buddy and keep your partner in sight. Use extra caution where deep, loose snow exists, especially near trees. If you are going to fall, attempt to do so feet first."

OK I have come up with the new standard disclaimer, below, to put on the end of any future pieces I write about ski areas possibly re-opening etc. Any corrections I should make? anything missing I should add? Please keep in mind we cover ski nations worldwide and stories are read by skiers all over the world so we try to take that in to account.

Disclaimer

This news story relates to the open or closed status of a ski resort and/or a country or region's decisions on whether it will be possible for you to actually ski there if it does report a resort is open or opening. That depends very much on where you live. You should note.

• Ski resorts can open or close at any time depending on government rules in the country where the resort is located (and the weather). Rules differ from country to country around the world.
• Rules on whether you are allowed to travel from the country or part of country from which you live to wherever the ski resort is can vary at any time. Whilst the country you live in may say you can leave, the country you're heading to may not let you in, or vice versa.
• The country where you live and the country where the ski resort is in may also have tiered regional restrictions that vary depending on which part of the country you live in or which part of the country the ski resort in.
• For British people without dual passports and who are resident in the UK, the delayed implication of Brexit rules and the almost simultaneous discovery of a new more virulent strain of the virus have caused additional travel restrictions and complications at present.
• Travel is currently often more difficult due to limited rail and air services operating.
• Travel insurance is not likely to be valid if you travel in the pandemic. The UK has also voluntarily left the EHIC health insurance scheme (apparently not actually required under Brexit but did it anyway).
• Trying to ignore the issues above and travel to go skiing anyway could result in prosecution and a possible jail sentence in some countries.