J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by admin

NellyPS wrote:Anyone going to the ski show this year? I haven't been for a long time but got a deal on tickets so thought I'd venture to the London show.

Various of the J2Ski Team will be there on the Thursday, including myself - anyone else?

Well it's all kicking off in here I see, best get off the beach and back to work then... :lol:

Welcome back NELLY! 8) Keep the recovery going...

Iceman wrote:Today - offered a new job and redundancy pays for wedding, skiing and an impromptu trip to Dublin this weekend to celebrate

Back of the net! That's great news, enjoy it all.

Hope everyone's had a grand summer, or is looking forward to things picking up if you haven't; just need it to cool off a little now and the webcams will soon be turning a whiter shade of pale.

Oh yes, back on topic... where am I going? Dolomites and Serre Che are group's top picks but nowt booked yet.

J2Ski's Guide to Where to Ski in October 2014

25th September, 2014

Re-publication :- our Snow Report Summary, being the text up to "The Alps", is free to re-publish, but must be clearly credited to www.J2ski.com with text including "J2Ski Snow Report" linked to this page - thank you.

Snow Report Summary



October normally sees the ski season showing early signs of getting underway in the Alps and Rockies. Although a warm autumn can scupper this normal state of affairs (and cause increasing tension if it continues into November), the very early signs have been good with record low temperatures in New England and healthy late-summer / September snowfalls in the Alps and Rockies meaning spirits are high - even if it could all suddenly change.

Glacier ski areas have started opening in the Alps already and will continue through October with gear testing and Octoberfest weekends organised. Snowmaking is also underway at high altitude and high latitude ski areas on each side of the Atlantic and several non-glacier centres in New England, Colorado and Scandinavia are currently hopeful of opening by the middle of the month.

It's very much the end of the 2014 season in the southern hemisphere where three quarters of centres are now closed.

A few areas in Australia have in fact extended their seasons into October because of the great seasons they've had and ski areas in New Zealand (rather ironically) received what has generally been agreed to be the best snowfall of a lacklustre season in the first days of spring last week after several centres had already given up and closed until 2015. Some are open for the first few weeks of October however.

This months Snow Mail is sponsored by...

The Skier's Dream that is British Columbia

The Alps
Austria
Austria is the main ski destination in the world in October with more areas open than any other country on the planet – up to eight centres will be operational in fact, five of them in Tirol.
Most of these are already open. Five centres, the Pitztal, Stubai, Molltal, Solden and Kaunertal glaciers opened for 2014-15 over the past few weekends joining year round Hintertux and Dachstein. The other two – Kitzsteinhorn and should open on the first weekend of October.

The Pitztal glacier operates Austria's highest lifts and is open for an eight month season with the Wildspitzbahn and Brunnenkogel T Bar lifts in operation to 1pm daily at present. More will be added and opening hours extended. The Kaunertal glacier reopened a week ago with 4km of groomed slopes open served by the Weisseefernerlift I and II and Falgin lifts. It too will initially be open until 1pm daily, right through to spring 2015.

France
There's been no skiing in France during September (lift assisted at least) but there have been early autumn snow flurries on the tops. That's good news for the one area due to open in the country for the month, Tignes, where the Grande Motte glacier opens on October 4th.

Les 2 Alpes will join Tignes for a week with its traditional half term opening, running this year from 25th October to 2nd November, before closing again for a few weeks ahead of full 14-15 operations getting underway. It currently reports a 145cm base on its glacier.

Italy
In Italy Val Senales re-opened for in mid-September, joining Passo Stelvio which has been open all summer and meaning there's a choice of two Italian areas through October. Val Senales reports a 55cm base.

Cervinia will open its Plateau Rosa glacier skiing, linked across the Swiss border to Zermatt, on weekends from the 18thOctober before opening daily from Halloween, 31st October.

Switzerland
Zermatt remains open year round and Saas Fee re-opened in July, but more Swiss glacier areas are scheduled to open through October. Both have seen dustings of fresh snow in September. Engelberg should be the first to open on October 4th, then the Diavolezza glacier near St Moritz in Engadin is scheduled to open on the 18th and glacier 3000 between Gstaad and les Diablerets the following weekend, the 25th.

Scandinavia
October, so long as it's an average autumn, sees the first Scandinavian ski centres opening for the season. Among the front runners are usually Levi and Ruka in Finnish Lapland, which hope to open for the weekend of October 12th/13th, or the one after, thanks to snowmaking rather than natural snowfall. This makes them usually the first non-glacier ski areas in Europe to open for the ski season, and helps gives them one of the longest ski seasons on the planet, usually through to the following May, or even June in Ruka's case. Levi stages the first non-glacier, non-indoors FIS world cup racing of the season in November so needs to be ready for that. Several other leading Scandinavian ski areas, including resorts in Norway and Sweden, start to open in late October and early November if conditions are good.

North America
Only one North American ski area is expecting to be open right through October, but others will be opening as the month progresses, so long as it's cold enough for their snowmaking to work, or they get lucky with early season snow.

The Palmer Snowfield at Timberline on Mt Hood in Oregon is planning to re-open on October 3rd and operate four days a week through the month (Friday through Monday).

Resorts hoping to open by mid-October thanks to snowmaking include Arapahoe Basin and Loveland in Colorado, among the dozen highest ski areas on the planet. Killington in Vermont on the east also says it aims to open from mid October (the golf course officially closes on the 12th) but admits that's in part down to mother nature providing low enough temperatures for them to fire up their famously might snowmaking arsenal.

It did get a boost in the last 48 hours of summer when record lows were reported across New England – with temps as low as –9C on mountain tops, and ski areas started snowmaking.

Banff in Alberta Canada aims to be the first ski area to open in the country on Halloween, 31st October, the target opening date also of Keystone, A Basin's neighbour in Colorado.

Things are looking promising if early snowfall is anything to go by as there was snowfall across the west of the continent in early September, with around a foot falling overnight in parts of Alberta and British Columbia.

Southern Hemisphere
The 2014 ski season is largely over in the southern hemisphere now with most areas already closed or planning to close in the next few weeks.

In Australia it has been a very good ski season and some of the big areas ended September with still metre deep snow. Perisher, the biggest, has extended its season to October 12th.
In New Zealand it has, by contrast, been a largely poor season with most centres opening late and closing earlier. But ironically the first days of spring this week saw huge snowfalls – by far the best of the season with up to 70cm reported. Mt Hutt at Mt Ruapehu are among the areas open in to October.

Both African ski areas are closed and most South American areas are now closed also, or will be closing on the first weekend of October in a few days, in the case of Portillo in Chile. South American ski areas have mostly reported an above average winter 2014 for snowfall

Indoor Snow and Dry Slopes

If you need a quick snow fix closer to home there are more than 50 year-round indoor snow centres and several hundred artificial surface 'dry slopes' operating in more than 50 countries around the world.

For the UK there are six indoor snow centres from Hemel Hempstead to Glasgow and around 60 dry slopes.

Whilst confident that the great nation with the best mountains in the British Isles will make the right decision, Scottish skiers should probably take note of a couple of news items to hit our desk in the past day or so... or maybe they'll be left scratching their heads like us...

So...

MPI Brokers – the Ski and Travel Insurance specialists wrote:If the Scots vote for independence from the UK this Thursday it is a possibility they will no longer be able to continue using the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), as it's a European Union benefit, paying for some medical treatment in public hospitals overseas.

The effect of this will be increased costs of medical treatment in Europe and thus a corresponding increase in Travel Insurance premiums. Skiers will be particularly badly hit as, unlike Travel Insurance, medical claims for Ski Travel Insurance represent around 60% of the total payouts.

...and...

Chemmy Alcott wrote:It has got me thinking, Now that I am married to a Scot, I'm wondering if it would mean I could compete in another winter category for Scotland

So there you have it, vote YES and (maybe) gain Chemmy but pay more for your insurance!

Were there any other issues to consider?

High standards at first ever FIS European Indoor Moguls Championships at Chill Factor-e

This weekend (12-14 September) Chill Factore, Manchester, was home to a world first as it hosted the first ever FIS European Indoor Moguls Championships.

With 35 world-class athletes in attendance from Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, Italy, Japan, USA and Great Britain, the skiing standard and level of competition was high with the crowds being wowed by extraordinary skills on the well prepared moguls course.

Japan coach and Olympian Janne Lahtela, who won a gold medal for Finland in moguls in Salt Lake City 2002, was full of praise for the event, saying the course was 'amazing' and the standard of skiing 'very high'.

In a busy weekend of competition, Japanese athlete Ikuma Hiroshima was dominant in the men's competition, winning the European Moguls Singles, as well as taking the European Duals Elimination title. In the female field Demi Corstjens from the Netherlands put in some strong performances, taking the British Moguls Singles and the European Duals Elimination title. Equaling her was Melanie Mellinger from Austria who took the British Duals Elimination titles and the Women's British Duals title.

Andrew Longley produced the best British performance taking the European Men's Duals title and coming second in the British Duals Elimination event. Thea Fenwick and Francesca Lee also performed well for Great Britain, both making finals with Thea Fenwick taking the British titles. Will Feneley, the ever-improving National Academy for Moguls athlete, took the British Dual Moguls title.

Ian Findlay from Snowsport England wrote:"We were delighted to welcome so many international athletes to Chill Factore for the first European Indoor Moguls Championships. We had two single moguls competitions using the Olympic format and two dual moguls competitions where the youngest athlete in the field (Sam Burley) had to compete against World Cup skier, Ikuma Horishima from Japan. It was without a doubt a great success, and we would hope to carry on the trend of running a European level competition, or higher, at an indoor snow centre in this country."

For full results visit www.freestylesnowsports.co.uk/res.htm and for information on getting into moguls or freestyle skiing visit www.snowsportengland.org.uk

Hi, welcome to J2Ski...

Les Arcs in March is generally pretty darned good. No guarantees, of course, but you can see from our snow depth history for Les Arcs that snow depths actually peaked in March in the last 2 winters :-



With plenty of skiing above 2,000 metres, Les Arcs is not somewhere you should really be worrying about for March TBH. La Plagne is similar. Pick one of the higher villages/centres and you'll be higher than the majority of European resorts.

HTH

With thanks to Montagnes Representation who tell us that the following Hotels and Residences have been revamped or added for the 2014/2015 ski season...

Avoriaz



The Sibuet family who owns the five-star hotel l'Altapura in Val Thorens and several luxury hotels in Megève is opening a new hotel in Avoriaz. L'Hotel des Dromonts has been completely renovated by the Sibuet Group to combine vintage style and modern comfort. It has a Pure Altitude Spa, offering treatments with organic products made with local plants, a sauna, a steam room and a fitness area.

The hotel has two restaurants; La Table du Fromager serves traditional mountain dishes such as tartiflette and fondue. The second restaurant is a chic bistro, Les Enfants Terribles, based on the successful other Enfants Terribles brasseries in Megève and Val Thorens.

You can find out more about L'Hotel des Dromonts here on J2Ski.

Beaufortain - Hauteluce

Cozy three-star hotel La Ferme du Chozal in Hauteluce has created a 12th bedroom in a Mazot. A Mazot is a small Savoyard building where farmers used to keep valuable goods such as hay, food, tools, etc. Le Mazot du Chozal is an authentic Mazot from 1849 which has been converted into a luxury and cosy suite on two levels. On the first floor, there is a bedroom with a balcony with views of Mont-Blanc, and on the ground floor there is a lounge and a luxury bathroom. The Mazot also has a private terrace. Guests can enjoy total peace while benefiting from the hotel's service and its gourmet restaurant.

See La Ferme du Chozal on J2Ski

Chamonix-Mont-Blanc

Located in the heart of Chamonix, 3-star hotel Pointe Isabelle is re-opening its doors this winter after being completely revamped. Its 45 bedrooms are decorated in a Swedish style. The new owners have kept the original name of the hotel. The hotel had been named after Isabella Straton, the famous mountaineer who was the first woman to climb Mont-Blanc in winter. She completed this feat in 1876 with her husband the famous guide Jean Charlet.

See Pointe Isabelle on J2Ski

Les Gets



Le Chasse-Montagne is an old farm from 1820 which has been transformed into a charming hotel. Located at 1,350m overlooking the resort, Le Chasse-Montagne is directly on the slopes and offers a 360 degree view of Mont Chéry and the other mountains around. There is a huge terrace facing south and an outdoor jacuzzi.

The 11 bedrooms are decorated in a chic alpine style with stone, old wood and steel.

See Le Chasse-Montagne on J2Ski


Val d'Isère



Hotel Le Grand Paradis, located at the foot of the Bellevarde and Solaise runs, has become Le Yule, a new 5-star hotel. It has 41 bedrooms decorated in a vintage Scandinavian style, spread over five floors. Le Yule has a brasserie with a relaxed and cosy atmosphere, a lounge bar, a cinema and a spa Nuxe.

Le Grand Paradis on J2Ski


Val Thorens

A brand new Club Med is opening in December 2014 in Europe's highest ski resort. The Club Med Sensation 4 Tridents will have 384 bedrooms, including 12 deluxe bedrooms, 5 junior suites and 6 suites. It offers a new restaurant concept: on top of the main restaurant, it has three tasting areas, Le Comptoir Gourmand, the Bar Lounge and the Cave à Vins. The new Club Med also includes a 600m2 Spa Club Med by Carita. With a young, chic but relaxed atmosphere, it will fit perfectly well in the resort.

Annecy

The Impérial Palace in Annecy, ideally located just by the lake, has been bought by property group PVG. They have completely refurbished the 99 bedrooms and the reception. A new brasserie l'Impérial is opening, managed by Michelin starred chef Jean-Christophe Ansanays-Alex. The Impérial is aiming at becoming a 5-star hotel.

Combloux

La Barmaz is a beautiful traditional Savoyard house which had been converted in a small 5-bedroom hotel, with stunning views on the Chaine des Fiz, Aravis and Mont-Blanc. Breakfast and dinners mainly made of local products are served to the guests. La Barmaz will open for winter 2014-15.

Courchevel

Courchevel has a new B&B. Located in le Praz, Chalet l'Etagne includes four beautiful double bedrooms and a family suite, all fully equipped and tastefully decorated. There is large lounge and a small spa area with a sauna and a Jacuzzi.

Méribel

Les Chalets du Hameau are luxury catered chalets with large bedrooms, cinemas, spas and all the services needed for a ski holiday. A new chalet has been built, in the heart of the Raffort, the highest hamlet in Méribel Valley. The new chalet, 'L'Ecume des Neiges', can sleep up to 16 people, on four levels, accessible by lift.

Tignes

Freeride champion Guerlain Chicherit lets his luxurious chalet in Tignes-Les Brévières. It includes six spacious suites, a gym, a jacuzzi and a game room. Breakfast and afternoon tea are served to guests. The décor match the ski champion, it is sporty, arty and rock'n roll!

Vallée d'Aulps

La Ferme du Lac Vert in Montriond is a traditional farmhouse built in 1842 which has been completely renovated in 2010 to offer a luxurious accommodation. The chalet has ten bedrooms, and can sleep up to 24 people. The meals are prepared by chef Sharif Gergis who took part in the BBC programme Masterchef in 2006 and went into the quarter final.

St Gervais

B&B the Mont-Joly in St Gervais has been taken over by a British couple, Brendan and Miranda. There are two twin rooms and three family rooms, which can accommodate couples with babies.

You can find thousands of Hotels, in great French Ski Resorts, here on J2Ski.

Nice One! 8)

... feel free to not post pictures direct from your hot tub though... :lol: :lol:

Enjoy the last days of summer... the snows are coming!