J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

On Sunday 25th May in its 4th successive news release on Austrian additions to its Epic Pass issued over five days, Vail Resorts announced a sixth addition: Sölden As with the others the pass now includes five consecutive days there.

Vail Resorts has added five leading Austrian ski areas to its global season pass, the Epic Pass.

The company announced that Saalbach-Hinterglemm and the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier in Salzburgerland were joining the pass as well as Mayrhofen and Hintertux in the Tirol's Ziller Valley. Epic Pass holders will be entitled to five consecutive days skiing in each of the two provinces. A fifth area, Silvretta Montafon, located in the province of Vorarlberg, was announced on Friday.They join the Arlberg region around Lech and St Anton which has been on the pass for some years, holders are entitled to three consecutive days skiing there.

"The Epic Pass opens the door to a global ski community – filling us with pride and excitement," said Isabella Dschulnigg-Geissler, CEO of Saalbach Cablecar Company. "It is a strong signal of our ski areas' international appeal and a major milestone for all of us. Together with Zell am See-Kaprun, we are thrilled to take this forward-thinking step."

The Epic Pass is currently priced at $1,051 US for adults but is set to increase in price on Monday 26th, Vail Resorts say the current price is the lowest it will be this year. There are lots of ticket variants available and discounted tickets for children.

The full pass normally gives unlimited to each of Vail's 37 North American ski areas which it owns or operates as well as Canada's Whistler Blackcomb, three ski areas in Australia and Swiss centres Andermatt and Crans Montana which it also now owns or operates. It also gives limited access, typically 3-6 consecutive days each, at dozens of leading ski areas around the world, including in Japan and South America.

The success of the Epic Pass, particularly, so far, in North America, has spawned a number of competitors including the Alterra group's Ikon Pass. It seems many leading European ski areas are now increasingly choosing to join one or the other, with a few opting for competitors including the Indy Pass and Europe's home-grown Magic Pass. Some participate in several.

With just under three weeks to go until the likely start of Australia's 2025 ski season over the King's Birthday Long Weekend, which includes a holiday Monday on June 9th (unless anywhere opens early), the country's ski areas have seen a temperature dip down to snowmaking-possible lows as well as a few centimetres of snowfall this weekend.

Perisher saw temperatures dip to minus-1 overnight and set its snowguns firing.

Madeleine McVie, Perisher's Marketing Coordinator (pictured above), couldn't have been happier to get up early and share the news as she heads into her first winter working at the resort.

"We woke up to a fresh dusting of snow here at Perisher, we've fired up the guns, temperatures are dropping – winter is well and truly on its way and we're looking forward to it!"

It was even colder at Hotham which saw its first snow as the temperature dropped to almost as low as -5C on Sunday morning.

"It feels like winter is in the air," said Alex Pankiw, Hotham Marketing Coordinator, who added, "It's really exciting and we can't wait for the snow season to kick into gear."

Falls Creek, which has new snowmaking systems this winter also saw temperatures down to -5C and a little snowfall.

"There's no better sight to wake up to than a fresh dusting across our slopes and it's just the beginning," says Betony Pitcher, Falls Creek Ski Lifts' Marketing Manager. "The countdown to Opening Weekend on 7 June is officially on!"

One of the biggest ski area investments of the next few seasons has been announced by Austria's Ischgl and its Swiss neighbour Samnaun who'll together be spending 50 million euros on three new 8-seater D-Line chairlifts with weather protection hood and seat heating for their shared Silvretta Arena ski area.

Silvrettaseilbahn AG will build the replacement lifts HÖLLBODEN C1 and SASSGALUN C3 in summer 2025 ready for the upcoming 25-26 season and the HÖLLKAR C2 in summer 2026 for winter 26/27.

For the first time in the Silvretta Arena, all three chairlifts will be equipped with Doppelmayr's entry and exit monitoring system (AURO: Autonomous Ropeway Operation) which enables remote monitoring of the lift by operators that don't have to be on site.

The existing lifts have transported a total of over 83 million skiers over the years enthusiastic winter sports enthusiasts. The new Höllkar and Sassgalun cable cars will be rebuilt on the same route but the mountain station of the new Höllboden cable car will be built approximately 500 metres east of Idalp at a new location between slopes 10 and 11, just above Idalp.

The diversion of the planned Höllboden cable car and the relocation of the mountain station opposite the existing 8-seater Höllboden chairlift are intended to significantly improve the crossing for winter sports enthusiasts in the area of the Höllboden/Idalp mountain station.

A total of over 1,200 m² of photovoltaic modules with a total output of 274.5 kWp will be installed on all roofs of the new cable car systems.

A dry ski slope located at Aldershot in Hampshire is set to reopen after it was closed suddenly at the start of April when its former operator ran into financial difficulties.

Although owned by the local Rushmoor Borough Council, Aldershot was one of several dry slopes and many other leisure facilities across England run by a charitable trust called Active Nation which ceased operating at the start of April.

Its operations have now been taken over by a new venture, Places Leisure, which already operates Aldershot's pools and lido, it has been announced. However, the council is reported to be looking at 'long term options' for the dry slope centre.

The Alpine Snowsports Centre was originally created by the British Army in 1969 and at the time was one of the longest dry slopes in the country. The main slope is 110 metres long and there are two nursery slopes are both 75 metres long. All slopes are fully floodlit and can open until late evening. Visitor numbers are reported to exceed 25,000 users each year.

"(The centre is) …an important facility for local people which we don't want to lose. It's been integral to the success of winning Special Olympic gold medals and it's the first place many people learned to ski," said Sophie Porter, Rushmoor Borough Council's cabinet member for healthy communities and active lives.

A date for the reopening has not yet been confirmed with the new operators currently carrying out an audit of the centre's assets and working out its new operating plans.

One of the biggest terrain expansions in New Zealand ski history is coming this winter when Cardrona Alpine Resort opens 150 hectares of newly lift-accessed skiable terrain served by a new high-speed 6-seater Doppelmayr chairlift in its Soho Basin area.

If that wasn't enough, a new T-bar is also being installed in Cardrona's Main Basin between the existing McDougall's and Whitestar chairlifts, providing options for quick laps for skiers and snowboarders utilising the Big Bucks World Cup slopestyle course, Lil' Bucks terrain park, Gravity Cross course, and Racecourse trail.

And on top of all that, a modern retail and restaurant building will be constructed in the existing retail and admin location, moving Cardrona's Noodle Bar to a more accessible location with more seating, and providing a bespoke space to house Cardrona's retail offering.

Continued improvements have also been made to snowmaking, carparking, roading and other amenities over the summer months.

"It's important to us to make sure we're able to cater to the increase in skier capacity that Soho brings, and these measures will help improve our guest experience across the mountain," says Cardrona and Treble Cone GM, Laura Hedley.

Cardrona's 2025 season is expected to open on June 14th, early conditions permitting, and run through to October 5th, 2025. The resort has already had several pre-season snowfalls.

The resort is also building a new freestyle dry slope also due to open in June 2025 as we reported here:
https://www.j2ski.com/ski-chat-forum/posts/list/0/21264/new-freestyle-dry-slope-cardrona-new-zealand-open-june-2025.page

Climatologists in America have determined that the weak La Niña system in the Pacific which brings warmer weather and is credited with delivering the huge snowfalls to Japan last winter and some decent dumps in the Pacific Northwest Corner of North America too, has now faded way.

La Niña and her antithesis El Niño, which are the names for warming and cooling of the Pacific Ocean, are credited with having a big influence on North America's weather and some believe weather systems around the world. Although trends indicated by one or the other are often played out, they don't always, with other factors often at play, particularly the further you get from the Pacific.

The El Niño/La Niña Monitoring Water Area in the Pacific Ocean reached its lowest ever level earlier this year and in low level years, there have been several cases of La Niña, often in winter, so ski businesses in North America and Japan are already saying that a return of a weak La Niña is the more likely scenario this winter, although all caveat that it's too early to say for sure and no one really knows. August is seen as a more reliable time for a realistic winter forecast.

In terms of the fast-approaching ski season around the southern Pacific Ocean the neutral state of the Pacific is basically being promoted as "probably better than an El Niño" which typically brings dry, warm conditions to the region and below average snowfall. In fact, neutral conditions have brought more snowfall than La Niña years to some mountain areas, including Australia's Snowy Mountains, so the current situation, expected to last until September, which coincides with the end of the Australian ski season, is being largely welcomed there.

Australia's 2025 ski season is due to kick off in a month's time, on the country's King's Birthday long-weekend which this year begins on June 7th. Traditionally almost all Australian ski areas open that weekend, unless it has been cold and snowy enough for any to have opened early. In recent years though, more centres have been investing in all-weather snowmaking machines from companies including TechnoAlpin, alongside traditional snowmaking arsenals, to ensure their seasons start on time.

None more so than Mt Buller, which now has five of the machines, believed to be more than any other centre in the world. Two of them replaced with newer models for 2025.

The resort's head snowmaker Paul Richmond and his crew have already been testing out the resort's Snow Factories and with test piles of snow popping up on Bourke Street over the past month.

"We're getting the mobile factories into position and putting them through a series of tests so we'll soon be ready to build stockpiles of snow for our guests," said Paul.

The pre-season snowmaking plan involves striking a balance with enough time to build stockpiles using the factories and being efficient with the use of resources by making snow during a cooler weather window and to coincide with early natural snowfalls.

"Two of Mt Buller's mobile Snow Factories have been replaced with upgraded models this season and we've been working with the team at TechnoAlpin to make improvements and efficiencies so we can make more snow, as efficiently as possible," Paul explains, adding, "The all-weather Snow Factories are an important piece of the snowmaking puzzle and give Mt Buller a head-start on the season while we wait for Mother Nature to deliver and for the sub-zero temperatures needed to run our extensive network of over 290 snowmaking guns across the ski area."

Mt Buller led was the first ski resort in Australia to invest in a Snow Factory in 2017, but this year there are another two new machines installed at the small Corin Forest ski area. The centre says its aim is to remain a top choice for snow play and learning to ski or snowboard, even in the face of a changing climate.

The new Snow Factories will allow Corin Forest to produce 200m³ of flake ice per 24 hours—nearly 300% more than their existing all-weather snowmaker, nicknamed "The Yeti". The resort has already opened a snowplay area for 2025 with snow produced by the new machines.

Snow Factories complement fan gun technology used at Corin in the cooler months but do not rely on sub-zero temperatures to operate, allowing for more reliable cover and longer snow season.

Mt Buller has invested in two large SF220 snow factories and three mobile units over the past 7 years. These units can be deployed to boost the snow cover where it's needed including the resort's Chamois run, the toboggan parks and Northside beginner area at the top of Burnt Hut.

"I get asked all the time about how we make snow – there's no secret recipe. It's frozen water. But our Snow Factories make it possible to produce these unique icy particles, build up huge piles and groom them out across the runs when we're ready to welcome guests for a ski," Buller Ski Lifts General Manager Noel Landry adds.