J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

It's the last few days of spring in the southern hemisphere, by the meteorological measurement of the seasons at least, but there has been fresh snow reported on the ski slopes of Australia and in Chile, about two months after the 2019 ski season ended there. Mt Hotham is pictured below.



However the 2019 season has not ended at one area, Mt Ruapehu in New Zealand (pictured top last weekend).

Here the Whakapapa ski area has been re-opening for four hours a day (10am-2pm) on Saturday and Sunday when the weather is good (which it has been most weekends) with one T Bar lift serving the slopes.

Temperatures have been in double digits above freezing but a lot of the 1.6 metre base depth at the end of October has survived the month and the plan is to open for a final weekend of the season.

The last day will be Sunday, December 1st, the first day of summer in New Zealand.

A new festival, the Arinsal Icebreaker, is being billed as "The biggest party in the Pyrenees this winter."

Taking place between March 15th and 22ns there'll be 15 DJ's, four live bands and apres ski on the slopes as well as mountain lodge BBQ's.

"Arinsal has somewhat of a pedigree for hosting some great events over the years. It's been the hub to a number of big one off parties and week-long events and festivals in the past. Icebreaker aims to follow in the footsteps in terms of creating a great atmosphere and a fantastic week of snowsports but with a slight difference," said a spokesperson for the festival.

As the week also covers St Patricks Day a big Irish-themed party is planned on the 17th including fancy dress on the mountain then in the evening taking over the Irish Bar in the village which also has a live Irish Band.

3 and 7 night stays are available with festivals goers getting an Icebreaker wristband, which entitles them to special discounts at all participating venues as well as access to all events. arinsal-icebreaker.com

Avoriaz has announced a 'partial opening' this weekend, two weeks ahead of the official opening date.
The move comes thanks to what the resort describes as, "the good snow conditions, with 40 cm of snow in the station and 70 cm at the top of the area."

Located above 1,800 metres, Avoriaz is one of the beneficiaries of the heavy snowfall in the Alps through November, which has provided great bases on higher slopes, although there's much less snow below 1500 metres so far.

The resort says it will open four lifts to serve eight runs, most of them graded blue, and that lift ticket prices are reduced to 21 euros per day or 40 euros for the weekend. Passes can be bought online from today at www.skipass-avoriaz.com

Avoriaz will close during the week but will reopen for the weekend of 7 and 8 December with the same lift pass rates. An update on which lifts and runs will be open then will be given nearer the time.

A number of French resorts in the Alps and Pyrenees are already open although some only at weekends. They include Alpe d'Huez, Cauterets, Chamonix, Montgenevre and Val Thorens.

The forecast is for 30-60cm more snow in the region over the next 72 hours.

French resorts which were already planning to open this weekend include Isola 2000, Les 2 Alpes, La Rosiere and Val d'Isere.

The 2019-20 ski season is now fully underway in the Pyrenees with ski areas open in Andorra joining leading areas on the French and Spanish sides of the border that opened at the weekend, joining a few smaller centres that opened early a week or two ago.

Although the region has not seen the huge snowfalls it did in late October last year or quite as big dumps as parts of the Alps this autumn, things are initially looking good with some healthy natural snowfalls as well as machine made snow.

The deepest snow to date is reported on the French side of the border where Cauterets, which opened early for the season last weekend (pictured above), has 180cm (6 feet) lying, also the deepest in France at present (Tignes, in second place, has 150cm/5 feet).

It opened its smaller area at Pont d'Espagne at the weekend but will open the main Cirque du Lys sector directly above the resort from this weekend.

On the Spanish side there's a major public holiday in early December and so areas in Andorra and Spain are keen to open before that.

All of the larger Spanish centres are open with Formigal reporting the most terrain skiable so far with more than 40 runs open and the deepest base on that side at 20-145cm

Down in the south of the country Europe's most southerly major ski area Sierra Nevada has also opened, reporting 80cm of snow lying on upper slopes and 30 runs open.

Another very heavy snowstorm in the Alps over the weekend brought more big accumulations to the region ahead of the start of the main season now just a few weeks away.

The snowfall was most intense in most areas on Saturday and was accompanied by very strong winds which led to the temporary closure of some areas whilst the worst of the weather passed.

The focus of the snowstorms appears to have been the southern French and Italian Alps not far from the Mediterranean where the small Italian ski area of Limone reported nearly 1.5 metres (five feet) of fresh snow in 48 hours.

Other ski areas in the region, including Sestriere (pictured above) and Isola 2000 over the border in France, reported 60cm or more.

Of the big name resorts Tignes reported 50cm of fresh snow in 24 hours on Saturday and newly opened Montgenevre 30cm.

Cervinia, which has already had more than three metres of snowfall this month, reported another 70cm of snow from the storm. It is posing a 3.2 metre base now, the deepest in the world at present.

Big name resorts opening for the season at the weekend included Alpe d'Huez, Chamonix and Val Thorens as well as Spain Baqueira Beret and Sierra Nevada and ski areas in Andorra.

The current forecast is for a few clear sunny days now before the next heavy snowfall begins on Wednesday.

The Telegraph group may currently be up for sale but the UK's only remaining show for the general public, the long running London ski show which is currently staged at the Battersea Evolution centre and known as 'The Telegraph Ski & Snowboard Festival' will be back for its 47th year next year, October 29- November 1, 2020, the organisers say, and tickets are already on sale!

The 2019 show, the 46th, saw visitor numbers hold firm despite terrible weather including torrential rain at the start of the four day event – which is partially staged outdoors. More than 16,000 people attended the four day event, a similar number to 2018.

"Since the doors closed on the 2019 Festival, 47 exhibitors have already booked for the 2020 Festival. It is expected that around 50% of exhibitors will confirm their participation before the end of November , due to the success and enjoyment taken from the Festival," a statement from the organisers claims, continuing,
"With further investment planned for 2020 , The Festival team will be introducing even more exciting, experiential features. There will be more opportunities than ever before for potential sponsors to associate their brands with stand out, memorable experiences that bring their brands to life."

A limited number of 30% off tickets are currently available from www.skiandsnowboard.co.uk is bought by next Saturday, 30th November 2019.

Image credit James North.

Many of the 50 or so ski areas already open for the 2019-20 season have announced they have closed for all or part of today as another huge November snowstorm has arrived in the Alps.

Storm force winds gusting to 100kph and very heavy snowfall have made conditions unsafe to open at many areas with Crans Montana and Verbier (pictured above this morning) amongst those announcing they are closed today.

Some forecasts are for as much as 1.5 metres (five feet) more snow at some ski areas in Italy and Switzerland with heavy snow in Austria and France too.

Cervinia, which reported 2.4m (8 feet) of snow in 7 days last week is forecast to get another 60cm (2 feet) of snow whhich would take its 14 days total to three metres/10 feet.

Chamonix and Val Thorens have opened for their seasons today but with terrain limited by the conditions.

The Stubai Glacier announced yesterday that a planned World Cup Freestyle event there today would be cancelled due to the forecast but said it hoped to open for recreational skiing and boarding, however the centre is currently stormbound with no lifts operating.

Conditionns are expected to improve tomorrow.

The 2019-20 World cup ski season switches its focus to Finland this weekend with the annual Levi slalom races for both men and women.

These are the first World cup competitions for three weeks since the Solden GS competitions but from, now on contests come thick and fast with something most weekends for the next four months, culminating with the world Cup Finals for alpine events in Cortina d'Ampezzo next March.

Unfortunately a Park & Pipe World Cup event planned for Austria's Stubai glacier this weekend for which four Brits including Sheffield's own James 'Woodsy' Woods were entered has had to be cancelled following the heavy snowfall over the past three weeks, with another metre of snow expected this weekend there as the competition was due to take place.

But Lancaster's Dave Ryding will be starting his world Cup campaign in the Levi slalom on Sunday 24th.

Coverage on Eurosport is due to start soon after 9am on Sunday. Laurie Taylor is also competing.

For the women the competition takes place on Saturday, tomorrow, with Charlie Guest competing for Team GB and Eurosport coverage scheduled to begin at 9.10am.

The first run is scheduled at 9am, the second at noon, on both days.

From next week the focus switches to the speed events and North America with competitions heading to Lake Louise in Canada for the traditional Downhill World Cup season openers and competitions at Killington and Beaver Creek too.