J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

Several resorts in the Spanish Pyrenees have announced they're closing from tomorrow. They are Cerler, Formigal-Panticosa and Valdelinares ski resorts run by the Aramón group. It seems to be a group decision rather than something the government has forced on them, and so far other major ski areas in the Pyrenees seem to be operating normally.

Ski areas in France are increasingly highlighting that they are still open in social media, presumably to counter-balance all the rumours of imminent closure for them too, but of course who knows what today or tomorrow will bring.

"Just to confirm, this includes St. Anton as it is in the Tyrol region, correct?"

St Anton is indeed in Tyrol so presumably yes I'm afraid so. Confirmed on their site:

https://www.stantonamarlberg.com/en/archiv/highlights-news/coronavirus-latest?fbclid=IwAR2sVQmTyPlPj1adj5X6fFJiOZQbups1ncMleSHE7EBvN-zpmVbE6z_RyEk

It looks like most, but not all, Norwegian ski areas are now closing. Jasna in the Slovak Republic has announced a two week closure from tomorrow.

It appears that many ski areas in Norway will close for the forseeable future in response to advice from the country's government.

Two of the biggest resorts in the country, Hemsedal and Trysil, have announced they're closing, as has Roldal, which currently reports the deepest snow base in Europe and the world at 5.4 metres.

The thinking behind the closures is reported to be that the Norwegian government has asked municipalities to consider how they would cope with large numbers of coronavirus cases and the ski areas have decided they could only really cope with the needs of their local communities in a worst case scenario.

Not all Norwegian ski areas have announced they'l be closing early so far. Narvik in the north says it will be staying open with restrictions on human interaction in place (limited numbers of people in cafes and shops) but says its position could change at any time.

Two of Norway's leading resorts have just announced they're closing - Hemsedal and Trysil. The reason given is that the local municipalities won't be able to cope if the virus infects large numbers of tourists. Given this line of thought it would appear likely that most Norwegian ski areas that attract large visitor numbers will also close.

Obviously most events across the Alps are now cancelled. The Altitude Comedy Festival in Mayrhofen had been hoping, until this morning, that it would get under the wire, but has just announced it won't be happening either. https://www.altitudefestival.com/ It has already announced it will happen again from March 29th - April 2nd, 2021

Ischgl in the Tirol has announced its ski lifts and runs will close for the season from Saturday 14th March, although they will remain open on Friday.

The resort says the decision has been made by the Tyrol regional government in the fight against the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19.

The ski centre is believed to have had a number of positive results for the virus, with those catching it rumoured to include a ski instructor and bar staff. The resort had already closed most of its infamous apres ski bars.

Ischgl has stressed that smaller ski areas near it that are included on its Silvretta lift pass including Kappl, Galtur and see will remain open.

Ischgl has a reputation for reliable snow conditions and runs its season from the end of November to the start of May. It initially announced a 14 day closure giving the impression that it could potentially re-open later this month and operate through April if given the go ahead, but it later announced it was closing for the season (Thanks to J2Ski contributor SwingBeep for highlighting this change).

Although the vast majority of final World Cup competitions, including of course the Alpine World Cup Finals that were due to have been staged in Cortina d'Ampezzo, have all been cancelled, a few are still, at time of writing, still due to go ahead this weekend.

"The FIS competition schedule has seen many changes in the last few weeks due to both the continued spread of the Coronavirus and some weather-related reasons," a statement from the International Ski Federation today reads, continuing, "Should any changes to the current competition calendars be necessary as a result of measures imposed by National and Regional Governments, they will be announced as any decisions are made."

The Skicross and Boardercross finals are still due to take place this weekend though, at Veysonnaz in the Swiss 4 Valleys. The FIS currently have these listed as "proceeding as planned" with no mention of there being no spectators allowed in the official listing.

The same is true for Moguls Finals planned for Idre Fjall in Sweden this weekend as well as the last 'still on' event in the calendar, the Freestyle Slopestyle Finals due to take place at Silvaplana in Switzerland from 19-21st March.

Final Alpine World cup races due to have taken place this weekend but without spectators, have now been completely cancelled.

These included a final Women's GS and a last slalom race at Are in Sweden from Friday to Sunday March 13-15.(This is now cancelled completely: https://www.fis-ski.com/en/alpine-skiing/alpine-news-multimedia/news-multimedia/news/test2/audi-fis-women-s-world-cup-races-in-are-swe-cancelled) and the men were also due to be racing their final GS and Slalom races this weekend, in their case at Kranjska Gora in Slovenia, but with races also taking place without spectators, but these races too have now also been completely cancelled.

It seems not every event that has been cancelled has been cancelled due to the coronavirus. The Parallel Snowboard Finals scheduled for Winterberg in Germany this weekend have been cancelled for the old-fashioned reason of, "not enough snow."

https://www.fis-ski.com/en/international-ski-federation/news-multimedia/news/update-on-remaining-fis-world-cup-events-and-upcoming-congress