J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

There have been some huge snowfalls in Alberta and BC over the past few days giving exceptional powder conditions.

Resorts along the Alberta/BC border have seen some of the biggest accumulations with Panorama (pictured) in BC and Sunshine, over the border near Banff, both reporting more than a metre (40 inches) of snowfall in the past 7 days.

Revelstoke has also reported more than a metre of snowfall. It has a 1.8m (six foot) base, one of the deepest in Canada.

The biggest fall of all was reported at little known Manning Park Resort, 200km east of Vancouver, which got 154cm (five feet, two inches) of snowfall.

Most resorts in the two provinces got at least 50cm of snowfall and for many this has so far been the winter that has kept giving with two months now of regular snowfalls.

However it's been a different story on the Pacific coast where north America's biggest resort Whistler Blackcomb has struggled to open much terrain with only about a quarter of its usual snowfall average arriving so far.

Things have picked up here too though and several feet more snow are expected here over the coming weekend.

The biggest snowfalls reported in the Western Alps have again passed the metre mark for the second weekend in as row.

At this point we should note:

• It's not everywhere, that's the biggest total reported.
• It's still "a bit mild" with less snow down low.
• There's been extreme weather with it – gales and/or blizzard conditions closing slopes.
• Mild, windy and heavy snow = high avalanche danger, closed slopes and travel disruption until it settles down.

…but that all being agreed, it is "pretty snowy" in most places, especially above 1800 metres, and lots of resorts have lots of fresh snow to start the busy Xmas/New Year fortnight.

It's La Norma in the Northern French Alps that has posted a 115cm (just under four feet) total of snowfall since Friday, taking its upper base (up at 2750m) up to nearly two metres. That said its lower slope base down at 1350m is put at 10cm, meaning much less snowfall or, worse, rain down low.

Airolo in Switzerland has posted the second biggest total of 80cm, with bigger resorts reporting 40-60cm in the past 48 hours including Bormio, Tignes, Madonna di Campiglio, Puy St Vincent and Val Thorens.

The more widespread totals to date are 20-40cm.

It's expected to keep snowing in many areas through today and Monday then start to return to clear skies from Christmas Eve on.

A new comedy festival is heading to the French ski resort of Les Gets, at the heart of the Portes Soleil, next month.

Let's Get Comédie, which will take place from 20th to 24th January 2020, is being billed as Europe's first dual lingual comedy festival, featuring 'Frenglish' comedians.

Essentially this means French comics doing their shows in English and English-speaking comics doing their shows in French, as well as comics speaking in their own languages. Then there will comics singing their comedy whilst other comics will rap theirs as well as comics that will make no noise at all.

Headlining acts include Paris based comic and TV funny man Paul Taylor (Canal+ what the fuck France), BBCR4 regular and Live at the Apollo headliner Marcus Brigstocke, The Mash Report's Rachel Parris and French musical comedian Redouanne Harjane.

They will be joined on stage by mime sensation Men In Coats, well known improvisers Andy Smart and Ian Coppinger, Sing-a-long virtuosa Kirsty Newton, Stand-Up headliners Phil Darwin, Tom Wriggesworth, Nick Doody and Ian Moore.

There will also be daily apres ski music featuring Hobo Chic, The Blakanic Project, Squid Lips and Les Lunettes

"Let's Get Comédie is a truly original comedy festival that we know you will love – We will be throwing some après-ski live music parties to keep the festival fun going all night!" said Richard Lett of promoters Piste Productions, adding "Expect high octane giggles in the hills of Les Gets this winter!"

The headline shows each evening of the week will be in Les Gets town centre at La Salle de La Colombiers.

Doors and a fully serviced bar will open from 8pm with shows starting at 9pm. Other shows will add to the festival vibe from après-ski right through to the wee small hours in local bars, restaurants and hotels.

Tickets will be individually priced and there will be the possibility to buy an access all shows pass for €50 for the first 100 purchases – thereafter the price goes up to the standard pass price of 65€

www.letsgetcomedie.com

Another major snowstorm is moving in to Western Europe with forecasting models predicting some resorts could see several feet (60cm+) of fresh snowfall in 24-36 hours over the next few days and some totals of more than a metre more snow by Monday.

It's the second successive weekend of snowstorms, which may impact those heading home or arriving in the mountains for Christmas week. The storm is already hitting and several resorts in the Alps and Pyrenees have announced they're closing today and/or tomorrow because of it.

Among them, the Stubai glacier is closed today and Lans en Vercors says it won't be able to start its season as planned tomorrow because of the weather, but aims to on Sunday.

In between the two storms past week in the Northern French Alps has been warm and windy. Big depths of snow received last Friday and Saturday have shrunk due to the melting effects of the Foehn wind.

The good news though is that after the storms pass, next week is looking good with beautiful conditions expected over the Christmas period. Most resorts also have almost all of their terrain open (and in some cases 100%) thanks to all the snow this autumn to date.

The long-established Henry's Avalanche Talk (HAT) group which provides training and essential information both in The French Alps and the UK for skiers who want to go off-piste, has published an update from their Val d'Isère base, reporting,

"Following the past week's warming up and loosening of the snowpack, cooler temperatures in the next few days (at least until the beginning of next week) should firm up this looser snowpack at altitudes above 2000 m where temperatures should be hopefully be going down below freezing point. But it looks as if we're due for large amounts of snow again in much of the Northern French Alps and surrounding areas. The forecast is for very stormy weather with blizzard conditions over the weekend. With the significant precipitation, which looks like continuing for several days, there will come a lot of natural "direct action" avalanches due to the huge quantities of snow (above 2000 m)."

HAT reports the avalanche risk is currently at a moderate 2/5 below 2200 m, and a considerable 3/5 above that altitude. However, during and after the snowstorms that are forecast, this will go up to a high 4/5 or may even become a very high 5/5.
http://www.henrysavalanchetalk.com

It's currently looking good for the popular Christmas Holiday period on Scottish ski slopes after all five Highland ski areas announced they'd have terrain open from this weekend – with most already open or about to.

Cairngorm opened first, the weekend before last with Glencoe and The Lecht joining them last weekend.

Glencloe is the latest to open, today, Wednesday 18th December with Nevis Range set to join the other four when they open tomorrow (Thursday 19th), "wind permitting" they say.

Glencoe probably has the most terrain open o far and report, "some lovely skiing on the mid and lower mountain runs."

Their Access Chair, Cliffhanger ("Cliffy") Chair, Coire Pollach and plateau Poma are all open and conditions on the upper mountain is being reviewed daily. Cliffy opened yesterday to great excitement.

Glenshee has opened Claybokie, Plastic and Dink Dink running and hope to have the Cairnwell T-Bar running later today.

Nevis Range will celebrate 30 years since their 1989 opening this Saturday 21st December with ski passes for the day reduced to their 1989 price: £12.50 for adults and £8.50 for kids when booked in advance.

Scotland had a very cold first three weeks of November with consistent sub-zero temperatures but the next three weeks in to the first half of December has seen rapidly changing conditions including gales, heavy rain and temperatures getting up top double digits above freezing.

However the past week has seen a return to more consistently low temperatures and that looks to be holding firm now in to the latter half of December.

There has been some natural snowfall but for most areas not yet enough to open much, if any runs with only natural snow. However it has been cold enough for snowmaking systems to operate and all five areas now have all-weather snowmaking machines.

So each has snow play and beginner areas open using snow made in this way, whilst some, including Glencoe, have more extensive terrain open too.

There's been heavy snowfall in the Alps with a number of resorts reporting more than a metre of snowfall on Friday – Sunday.

Ski areas in France, Italy and Switzerland have all passed the magic metre mark combing snowfall on Sunday-Tuesday at the start of last week and the latest accumulations on Friday-Saturday.

Among the biggest totals are Vaujany in the Northern French Alps, which shares the Alpe d'Huez ski area and reports 110cm; Risoul in the Southern French Alps got 109cm and Champery in Portes du Soleil has had 103cm. In Italy La Thuile in the Aosta Valley got 105cm.

Bellwald in the Swiss Alps has reported the most snow with 1.5 metres (five feet) of snowfall.

The extreme weather has caused some issues on and off the mountains in the Alps though. FIS ski racing was cancelled at Val d'Isere on Saturday, roads were blocked in places and some resorts reported torrential rain rather than snow on lower slopes.

There's currently a bit of a lull in the snowfall but more heavy snowfall is expected from Tuesday.

It's snowing hard in the Alps for the second time this week, after big snowfalls on Monday.

With tour operators beginning their 19-20 programme tomorrow in most cases it seems like perfect timing – so long as related disruption is minimal.

Up to 60cm (two feet) of fresh snow has been reported in the last 24 hours, similar to accumulations in the same period on Sunday/Monday at the start of this week.

With the snowfall expected to continue in to the weekend it looks like some areas may boast 7 day metre snowfall totals by Sunday.

Heavy snow has been reported over a wide area (and down in the Pyrenees), but the biggest accumulations have been around Tignes, Val d'Isere and Bonneval sur Alp. Val d'Isere is due to host World cup racing this weekend and had already re-arranged the race schedule to best suit likely conditions.

This week's snow has not only refreshed upper slope cover after a fortnight of it becoming hard packed since the last snowfalls at the end of last month, but has also brought good snow depth to lower slopes which had previously been bare.

After heavy snowfall in November built bases in the Alps up to 4 metres at one resort, all in all it is looking like one of the best starts to the season for some years.

The huge Vail Resorts group which now runs 37 ski areas in the US, Australia and Canada – including many of the top resorts in all three countries- has announced they'll be investing "approximately $210 million to $215 million" during 2020 to "enhance the on-mountain guest experience."

The investment represents an approximately 10% growth in the 2019 spend of $190 million to $195 million this year, although the group has more than doubled in size over the last 12 months in terms of the number of areas it operates, growing from 18 area this time last year.

Last year Vail's main rivals the Alterra Group announced a $196m spend shortly after Vail had announced their $195m investment.

"We're excited to share what's next in our continuous efforts to enhance the guest experience with a focus on maximizing our guests' time on the mountain," said Rob Katz, Vail Resorts chairman and chief executive officer, who continued. "As our company grows, we are determined to grow thoughtfully and with our mission always in mind: to create an Experience of a Lifetime for our guests."

The most visible share of the spend (a big chunk of it will go on snowmaking and technology upgrades) will be a terrain expansion at Beaver Creek where the new McCoy Park area will be served by two new chairlifts including a four-person, high-speed lift providing rare beginner and intermediate level bowl skiing bowl skiing.

Also in Colorado the company plans to install a new four-person, high-speed lift to serve the Peak 7 area at Breckenridge and the Peru quad chairlift from Keystone Base Area will be upgraded to a six-person, high-speed quad.