J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

Les 2 Alpes, which overtook Tignes to offer the longest season in France a few years ago, has announced its 24-25 season will last more than 7 months and conclude in July, conditions permitting.

Les 2 Alpes has 200km of slopes. With 75% of the ski area above 2,000 metres. The bulk of the ski area will close on May 4th but from 5 to 28 May, the ski area between 3,600m and 2,600m will stay open. Then from 29 May to 6 July, only the glacier, from 3,600m to 3,200m will operate.

"Thanks to the new cable-car, the Jandri, Les 2 Alpes offers access to the high-altitude summits across all seasons. The Jandri, which is the biggest new development in Les 2 Alpes and the most significant project in the French Alps in the last 10 years, allows the resort to adapt to the changing conditions and stay open most of the year. In less than 20 minutes, skiers, pedestrians and mountain bikers can travel from the resort at 1,650 metres to the glacier at 3,200 metres," a resort statement explains.

ESF Les 2 Alpes as well as European Ski Schools will organise ski and snowboard camps until 6 July.
International teams also come at this time to train and from 10 to 18 May, the resort will host the World Rookie Tour. International riders meet in Les 2 Alpes for a week of camps (juniors and under 17s) followed by a weekend of Slopestyle contest on the 2 Alpes snowpark, at 3400 m.

Many hotels and restaurants will also remain open non-stop, including the charming Chamois Lodge (www.chamoislodge.fr), Les Lutins in the centre of the resort (www.les-lutins-2alpes.com) and the trendy hostel The People Hostel (www.thepeoplehostel.com).

That's the deepest in Europe at the moment :)

Spain's Sierra Nevada ski area, the most southerly in Europe, is posting the deepest snowpack in Europe at present, reaching 3 metres (10 feet) in the past few days.

Sierra Nevada, which is located above the ancient Moorish city of Granada and has Spain's highest slopes reaching 3,300 meters (10,827 feet) at its Veleta peak, has posted Europe's deepest snow in the past, but that's when it has reached 5 or 6 metre depths, most recently about a decade ago.

This winter though snow depths across Europe are below average and it only needed to make the 3m mark to move to the top. The previous deepest, reported by Flaine in French Alps, dropped from 310 to 295cm over the past 24 hours.

The three-metre depth reflects a very snowy March in south-western Europe after a previously often dry and warm winter had left areas struggling to open much terrain. Since the start of March though most areas in the region have reported deeper bases and more terrain open than they've had all season.

One centre in the French Pyrenees posted on Facebook that it had it's best conditions of the winter after 30cm of snowfall in 24 hours on Sunday/Monday, but very few skiers, creating dream conditions for the lucky few there.

Portugal's only ski area, Serra da Estrela, was closed at the weekend due to blizzard conditions but has since dug out and re-opened its slopes.

A group of campaigners are hoping that Sheffield City Council and site developers can be persuaded to rebuild a dry ski slope on the site of the former Sheffield Ski Village.

The Ski Village, which was located in the city's Parkwood Springs, was one of the later British dry ski slope developments, opening in 1988, but rapidly grew to be one of Europe's largest. It was a hotbed for the development of freestyle skiing talent with six young skiers and boarders who learned their skills there going on to represent Great Britain at the Winter Olympics and in some cases win world class competitions. It was destroyed by repeated arson attacks from 2012 onwards.

There have been multiple steps and false dawns over the past 13 years in the hope of re-establishing the Ski Village, however more recent plans have included outdoor attractions like zip wires and mountain bike tracks, but not a fresh dry ski slope.

The group of snowboarders who want to see a new dry ski slope and calling themselves 'Revive' and group founder Pete Shipston told the BBC, "We want to show anyone who can make things happen that there are a group here who care and want snow sports back in Sheffield."

The group have made a film 'Revive Sheffield Ski Village' to highlight the history of dry slope skilling and its heritage and value to the city.

The Sheffield Sharks Ski Club which was where many of Britain's great snowboarders and skiers started their careers has continued to operate since the Ski Village closed, but they have to travel to other dry slopes and indoor snow centres in the wider region.

Oner of the sticking points to the site's redevelopment in recent years was poor access, but Sheffield council have now been granted nearly £20m in Levelling Up funding from central government to improve that.

The latest plans for the site come from New Zealand-based Skyline Lounge which has plans to potentially add a zipline, luge ride and gondola to the site, but not a ski slope.

The UK's biggest adaptive ski and snowboard charity, Disability Snowsport UK (DSUK), have just launched 'The Big Spring Prize Draw', as the charity seek to raise £10,000 to support grassroots adaptive skiing and snowboarding across the country this spring.

With over £1,600 worth of prizes available, the prize draw costs £10 per entry and runs until March 27th, with top prizes including a summer holiday to the French Alps for two, Carv 2 Sensors with a Season Pass, a white-water rafting adventure, a guided hiking experience in Scotland and lots of ski related goodies and gift vouchers.

Virginia Anderson, CEO of Disability Snowsport UK says, "We're very excited to follow on the success of our recent winter prize draw with another opportunity to win some incredible prize. For just £10 per entry, you can win one of 25 prizes – with every penny raised coming directly to Disability Snowsport UK to help more disabled children and adults to experience the fun, freedom and thrill of snowsports."

Virginia continues, "We're so thankful to all our amazing partners for their generous donations and being able to offer another fantastic opportunity for people to win some truly great prizes.

"This time we've also capped the maximum number of entries to 1000, giving everyone who enters a great chance of winning.

"This spring you can help to support more disabled people and their families to be part of the wider ski and snowboard community. Please snap up tickets while they're available and help us reach our £10,000 target.

"The funds raised will go a long way to supporting our community. Just one adaptive ski or snowboard session can create a pathway to change a person's life forever."

For a full list of prizes and details, or to enter The Big Spring Prize Draw, click this link:

https://uk.givergy.com/TheBigSpringPrizeDraw/?controller=home

The draw will close in a week's time at 11am on Thursday 27th March 2025.

The Pyrenees are enjoying their best conditions of what, up to now, has been a rather sub-par season in terms of snowfall and open terrain.

A warm autumn with little natural snowfall and temperatures too high for snowmaking started things off badly last November and resorts finally opened after a good snowfall around December 10th, a fortnight later than hoped and missing a key public holiday period in the region at the start of December.

Since then few areas have managed to open all of their terrain with the biggest resorts still failing to do so with a month of the season left.

However March has been snowier in the Pyrenees than many other parts of Europe and this week has seen the first resorts reach 2 metre base depths on the French side of the mountains, whilst the region's largest area, Andorra's Grandvalira, which incorporates Soldeu-El Tarter, Pas de la Casa and now most other centres in the principality has passed 200km of slopes open, about 95% of its slopes, for the first time.

Ski areas across the Pyrenees are reporting excellent, powder conditions too, the only thing for freeriders to be aware of is an increased avalanche danger to level 3 ("considerable") on the scale to 5 in many areas. Baqueira Beret pictured.

Great Britain's Kirsty Muir capped off the 2024/25 FIS Freeski World Cup season with slopestyle wins at the Tignes Mountain Shaker event.

Scottish skier Kirsty Muir claimed victory at Tignes (FRA) on Friday after topping the 10-woman final thanks to her first run score of 77.98.

The 20-year-old took to the slopestyle course with ease in the first run to put down a switch left bio 900 blunt, then a right 720 safety, then a left 270 continuing 270 on rail one, then a switch left 270 to forward, a right slide to frontside 450 off, followed by a left cork 900 tailgrab on the final booter.

Australia's Abi Harrigan was runner-up on 75.41 to claim her first World Cup top-three finish, while 20-year-old Ruby Star Andrews (NZL) was third on 72.75, marking her third World Cup career podium and the first since 2023.

"It's crazy, this is my first World Cup win and just coming back from my knee and everything – honestly, the best feeling ever," said Muir, adding, "I'm just so hyped and so stoked for the other girls; Ruby and Abi absolutely smashing it."

Her victory on Friday marks a remarkable return to form, as the 20-year-old only returned to World Cup competition in February following more than a year away due to a knee injury.

Eighteen-year-old Brit Mia Brookes has won the overall Women's Park & Pipe Crystal Globe with a total of 500 points with seven podiums from a total of eight World Cup starts across slopestyle and big air.

"It's been such a long season, to walk away with this is really special," said Brookes.

In February Brookes claimed her second consecutive Big Air Globe after amassing two wins and one third place finish from five World Cup contests.

She also finished runner-up to New Zealand's Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, who won slopestyle gold at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, in the Slopestyle, after the finals in the last Slopestyle World Cup were cancelled in Flachau, Austria today due to weather conditions. Brookes finished with 300 points, just 12 points behind Sadowski-Synnott.