J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

Although a lot of planned terrain expansions and lift upgrades were put on hold this summer in North America due to financial uncertainties following the pandemic lockdown, Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada, is moving ahead with a big terrain expansion.

The resort, famous for its stunning scenery and for staging the first speed races on the World Cup calendar each November will add 480 acres of new advanced terrain in the West Bowl.

Accessed by a new Doppelmayr fixed grip quad replacing the Summit platter, the terrain will be left ungroomed other than a ski-out trail at the base.

The new lift and terrain appears to be the first stage of improvements agreed by the resort in a new long-range plan with Parks Canada a year ago.

Global News reported at the time that these included two new lodges, up to six new lifts and access to the newly acquired West Bowl.

In exchange for these development rights the resort would move summer hiking to a higher elevation to protect prime grizzly bear habitat and give back 1,000 hectares of undeveloped land.

The resort described the move as "not an expansion of any sorts," but said it should mean they could expand capacity by 50% from 6,000 to 9,000 on a busy day once all the changes had been implemented.

A huge fire in the US state of Idaho came close to destroying buildings and lifts at Soldier Mountain Ski Area, but "heroic" fire fighters managed to save most of them.

The resort, once owned by actor Bruce Willis, had been sold only last week by its former owners to Utah based Ascent Ventures.

The huge Phillips Creek fire started back on August 5th with a lightning strike and grew to cover more than 2,000 acres but is now described as "91% contained" by the forest service.

However at its height the fire destroyed the aspen groves that covered the ski area, the resort's main access bridge and even came right up to the porch of the base lodge.

"We are heartbroken to inform you that the Phillips Fire passed directly through the heart of our beautiful mountain. The lodge and lifts are still intact, but the bridge that gives access to the resort was destroyed," a resort spokesperson said.

The conveyor lift on the nursery slopes was also destroyed and the resort is now bringing in safety inspectors to see if bigger lifts have been too badly damaged by the fire or not.

At the start of this year Selwyn Snowfields ski area in Australia was completely destroyed by bush fires. Its owners say it will be rebuilt and re-open.

New Zealand has been the envy of the skiing world for the past few months as the centres there have been operating to the 'old normal' since the season started there in June.

Whilst other centres in the southern hemisphere and re-opened areas in the northern hemisphere implemented social distancing and mask-wearing requirements, New Zealand's successful suppression of the virus meant that areas there could operate without any such restrictions.

Ut the recent sad news of four new cases in Auckland after New Zealand had gone more than 100 days without a recorded infection has led to the reintroduction of level 2 restrictions, last seen just before the ski season began. That means social distancing, face mask wearing, limited numbers on the mountain and increased hygiene measures. Like the rest of the skiing world.

Many New Zealand ski centres have been closed today to prepare for the changes, the majority saying they'll re-open with the new measures in place from tomorrow, although some say they'll need a few more days. Mt Ruapehu has kept operating saying it was already prepared for the change.

Elsewhere in the southern hemisphere ski areas are open in New south Wales and Tasmania in Australia, but closed due to the virus in Victoria; to locally based people in Argentina (local to each resort); and also to Lesotho's Afriski is open to residents in Lesotho.

Ski centres in South Africa and Chile remain closed due to the virus. In Chile some centres have now re-opened to day-visitors, tough without ski lifts running or slopes open. The centres are messaging that they have so much snow they think they could stay open until November though, hoping that the season might still happen there. South Africa's season normally ends at the end of August so it's looking less promising a 2020 ski season will happen at all there.

The announcement by the Telegraph Group shortly before the pandemic that they were scrapping the London Ski Show (above, before the move to Battersea) which had run for nearly 50 years and which they'd bought from the Daily Mail Group left the UK without a major ski show on the calendar for the first time in the history of mass-market skiing.

As the pandemic has continued around the world most of this year's ski shows have been cancelled in other countries worldwide too, although in most cases they hope not permanently in the way that the Telegraph one was.

Some organisations in the UK have announced plans for replacement shows and it remains to be seen which eventually happen and whether any can out down strong enough roots to continue after their first editions.

First to be announced, very early in the pandemic and not long after the Telegraph announcement, was the London Ski Show which hoped to be staged this autumn, based around The Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead.

As the extend of restrictions from the pandemic lockdown became clearer however the organisers have switched to a digital online show The World's Biggest Ski Show due to take place in the first few days of October. With the hope that a physical show can still happen in 2021.

Other players have also now begun to emerge. Racoon Events has announced they're planning to stage the 'The National Snow Show' at Birmingham's NEC in October next year - 2021.

In their press release announcing the event they promise, "…the event will be a mecca for winter sports enthusiasts providing a comprehensive retail experience, a first-class speaker line-up and a plethora of impressive interactive features under one roof."

The two-day event will be set across 8,000 sqm and Raccoon Events expect 10,000 winter sport enthusiasts with attend and that over 140 exhibitors will be present.

The show would mark a return to Birmingham for a ski show after almost a decade. There was a ski show here for several decades up to the early 'noughties. An attempt to create a new show there in 20-13 was thwarted when the Telegraph Group sought to monopolise British ski shows by organising another show in Manchester with as direct dates clash with the new Birmingham show. The Telegraph Group later dropped the Manchester show.

There is talk of still more shows from other parties, online and (in 2021) physical, but those plans don't appear to be fully finalised yet.

The UK did support at least half-a-dozen major ski shows and many smaller regional shows in the pre-internet era from the 1970s to 1990s with shows in Glasgow, other major UK cities and several London events all in the autumn calendar.

Links:

World's Largest Ski Show: https://worldslargestskishow.com/
The National Snow Show visit http://www.nationalsnowshow.com

During an online meeting the FIS Council decided that the 52nd FIS Congress 2020 will be postponed from 4th October in Zurich (SUI) until 5th June 2021 in Portoroz (SLO) to protect the health and welfare of all participants.

However a decision on which destination will host the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2025 will still be announced following online meetings.

The FIS Technical Committee Meetings scheduled during the Congress week in Zurich from 29th September to 2nd October will proceed as online-meetings during the same dates with each of the candidates making its final presentation by video prior to the election of the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2025 organisers the following day, October 3rd, 2020.

There are three applications to host the 2025 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships submitted by Crans Montana (SUI), Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GER) and Saalbach (AUT).

In a separate development the FIS has confirmed the World Cup schedule for 2020-21 and it looks very much like a normal year with all the flagship events in place. However it seems likely the many, and depending on how things go, potentially all, will be staged without spectators or media.

The calendar will actually start a week earlier than usual with the World Cup season opener in Solden taking place a week earlier than usual this year, the reason given being to increase virus safety.

"By moving the races forward, it will be possible to use the Rettenbachferner glacier area largely exclusively for the World Cup competitions, to separate the participants, officials and employees from tourists and to arrange the accommodation for the teams according to needs and regulations. The ultimate goal for the organizer and his partners in Sölden is to ensure that everyone involved in the Ski World Cup has the best possible and safest conditions at the start," said the Austrian race organisers.

The 2021 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships will take place next winter in Cortina d'Ampezzo after a request to postpone them by the organisers was declined. The 2023 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships.

Commenting on the decision to postpone the 52nd Congress, FIS President Gian Franco Kasper said,

"The current status of the Covid-19 outbreak globally and the resulting travel restrictions made it clear that this was not the time to bring our global FIS Family together. However, it is very difficult for FIS to delay the Congress until next Spring. The Congress is the backbone of our democratic process and governance and we do not take its postponement lightly. Nevertheless, we look forward to the day when all FIS stakeholders will meet together next Spring in Portoroz."

More than half of Australia's leading ski areas are currently closed in a season like no other – hit by bush fires, COVID 19 and at times a shortage of snow cover.

The year started with severe bush fires destroying the ski resort of Selwyn Snowfields which the announced it wouldn't open this year whilst it begins rebuilding.

Then the autumn arrived with the autumn lockdown in Australia raising fears there would be no ski season.
The traditional season start on 6th June was postponed but an easing of lockdown meant resorts could open from 22nd or 24th June and half-a dozen areas did so.

However snow cover was thin and limited, causing additional issues with resorts running at 50% capacity anyway due to the pandemic.

Two areas in Victoria, Falls Creek and Mt Hotham, decided to postpone opening several times due to the limited snow, eventually doing so a month later than planned on July 6th.

However the virus spiked in the city of Melbourne, capital of Victoria, just about then and three days after the two areas had opened, their owners Vail Resorts announced they'd close through to at least mid-August.

The residents of Falls Creek and Mt Hotham said that whilst the ski lifts were closed, people could still go cross country skiing or ski touring.

Two other areas in Victoria decided to keep operating, Mt Buller and Mt Baw Baw, the latter at weekends only, arguing the virus was not bad when they are located.

This week though a new state of emergency for Victoria, set to run at least until mid-September, has come in to force today has lead both areas to close until at least mid-September – only a few weeks before the usual end of the ski season there as spring takes hold.

Vail resorts announced yesterday that both Falls Creek and Hotham won't re-open for skiing this year.

So two main ski areas, both in New South Wales, are still open. Perisher, which actually has the most open piste of any areas in the world at present with 60km of runs skiable, and Thredbo. Both report fresh snow this morning, Thredbo (pictured above this week) 15cm.

Other smaller centres are open including Charlotte pass, Corin Forest, the closest ski area to capital Canberra, and Tasmania's Ben Lomond says it will open for the season this coming weekend as there's finally enough snow there.

There's been heavy snowfall on many higher slopes in the Alps overnight after a cold front moved across the mountains.

Of the six glacier ski areas currently open for August skiing and boarding Italy's Passo Stelvio reported the most fresh snow, stating it had had 40cm of "fresh heavy snow" above 2700 metres (pictured below).

The pass is a major attraction for cyclists in summer, with national ski teams practicing on the snow slopes above, so road crews were busy this morning clearing snow.

Other glaciers have not yet published how much snow they've had, but the Hintertux glacier said it had fresh cover and the Stubai glacier, which usually opens for is long ski season in September, published the image op this morning of part of is summer mountain playpark under snow.

Also open for Autumn glacier skiing at les 2 Alpes in France, the Molltal Glacier in Austria and the glacier ski areas above Saas Fee and above Zeramtt in Switzerland, the latter also accessible a present from Cervinia in Italy.

After months of silence, the UK's two largest ski holiday companies have begun pushing 20-21 ski holiday sales.

Media releases received by J2Ski were clearly compiled after the government removed the requirement of a two-week quarantine to most ski destination nations, unofficially kickstarting the return of international holidays, but before they re-introduced the quarantine requirement on holidays to Spain, which has stalled the process again.

What's noticeable in the releases is that there's little talk of snow guarantees, new destinations and budget deals (although some do get a mention later on), but instead the focus is on reassuring those who book that their holidays, or at least their holiday spend, are safe, whatever happens, and second the COVID safety measures are also in place.

"In the weeks since the relaxation of air travel we've had a whopping 125% increase in customers booked with us – this is a great indicator that demand for ski holidays is still there. Our research has also told us that financial protection is of paramount importance during these times, so an ATOL protected package holiday is a lot more appealing in the current climate than a 'DIY' ski holiday," said Chris Logan, Managing Director of the UK's largest ski tour operator Crystal Ski Holidays, who added,

"Many of our customers lost their time on the mountain last winter, as the pandemic forced us to cancel our entire programme in March. We are delighted to see that skiers and snowboarders are itching to get back on the slopes in just a few months. Things will undoubtedly be a bit different, with health and safety measures being introduced to protect our customers and staff, but by the time our season launches we'll have had a year since the crisis hit and we are now used to a 'new normal'. We cover every element of the ski holiday, from flights and transfers to accommodation in over 100 resorts and equipment, and there's a huge amount of work going on to get ready for a safe and enjoyable return to the slopes."

It's a similar message from Paul Carter, CEO of the UK's second biggest ski holiday company, Inghams,

"Following lockdown, we know people are really looking forward to a well-deserved break in the mountains. With our offering for the 20/21 ski season collated into an interactive digital brochure, we'll be saving paper and making it as easy as we can for our customers to get something in the diary to look forward to," he said, adding, "We hope our winter ski season programme, alongside our In Safe Hands campaign, and our continual endeavour to do the right thing enables our customers to travel with confidence. Essentially, we would like skiers and snowboarders to feel they can start getting excited about hitting the slopes again."

Inghams, one of the UK's longest established ski holiday companies, celebrating 85 years in business this winter, but currently restructuring the company as a result of the pandemic, also let it be known that customers could be reassured that their ultimate parent company is more financially secure than most – It's the Swiss supermarket chain, Migros.