J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

A ski resort in Japan has posted a 610cm (20 feet plus) base depth on its upper slopes, the world's deepest reported base for several years.

Japan's ski area have been reporting epic snowfalls for the past few months, peaking in recent weeks with some ski areas posting 1 metre accumulations in 24 hours.

Although mainstream media reports on the practical problems all the snowfall has been causing has been focused on the northerly island of Hokkaido, home to ski areas like Niseko, the deepest snow depths are actually being reported in the Niigata prefecture, north of Tokyo on the Japanese mainland.

The region is benefitting from a weather system known as the Siberian Express when dry air blowing East across large swathes of central and Eastern Asia hits the sea of Japen before dumping abundant snowfall when forced to rise as it hits Japan's mountainous coast.

Here Arai ski area near the ski town of Myoko is is posting a 610cm base with Charmant Hiuchi Ski Area near Itoigawa City in second place with a 560m base.

Ski areas in Nagano, host of the 1998 Winter Olympics, are also posting huge snow depths, with the famous resort of Happo-One in the Hakuba Valley on 5.5 metres (pictured above today).

The 6.1m base depth is about double the deepest snow being reported in Europe, in the French Alps and in North America, on the West Coast, both closer to 3 metres (10 feet)

Wowzer to that video! That would have been terrifying...

18-year-old snowboarder Mia Brookes from Sandbach in Cheshire has won the big air Crystal Globe for the second time in succession.

Mia, who only turned 18 on 19th January, was presented with her second consecutive big air Crystal Globe at yesterday's competition in Aspen, Colorado, despite not competing there.

"I thought maybe (I'd finish) second if I was lucky, but definitely not a win. It's really special when you've worked so hard over the season," said Brookes.

Despite not competing in the fifth and last big air competition of the 2024/25 FIS Snowboard World Cup season, Brookes won the big air Crystal Globe with 305 points thanks to her two victories from Beijing and Klagenfurt and her third-place finish at Kreischberg.

Leading ski holiday company Inghams, which started operating 91 years ago with Walter Ingham offering ski holiday by rail, is going back to its roots as part of an ambitious effort to cut its CO2 impact.

The company has just published it First Impact Report which has seen it cut its emissions intensity reduction by 16% since baseline and achieve a 12% year on year decrease in its absolute emissions.

Inghams' fresh focus on trains saw the company launch 'Project Flight Free' internally in 2023. Inghams Ski partnered with Eurostar Snow train for ski packages to Tignes, Val d'Isère and Les Arcs, and additionally, Inghams launched online rail packages to ski and walking resorts across Austria, Switzerland, and France, covering over 25% of its total resorts by the end of the year. Over 130,000kg of CO2e has now been saved across all Inghams' programmes from guests making the switch to rail.

Aviation contributes 83% of Inghams and Santa's Lapland's total footprint. As the majority of the brands' guests travel from the UK, and a high proportion of Inghams' ski and walking holidays operate in mainland Europe, the operator said in a statement that it has an opportunity, and it believes, a responsibility, to make it as easy as possible for customers (and employees) to switch from plane to train.

"In 2022, we completed our first carbon audit and since then we've made great efforts in our people and planet goals. I'm incredibly proud of all the progress we've made so far, and the work we are doing to ensure our brands are better for people and planet long into the future," said John Mansell, Managing Director of Inghams and Santa's Lapland, adding, "We've been open and honest in our report about the challenges we face as tour operators, particularly around aviation decarbonisation, one of our industry's biggest challenges. The whole travel industry will need to work together if we are going to achieve the scale of change required."

Ski areas on both side of the US/Canadian border have been positioning themselves in light of the (now delayed) imposition of tariffs on Canada by the US.

Canadian ski areas and wider travel industry have been stressing the need to ski locally and keep Canadian dollars in Canada in a bit to try to support the country's economy.

A post by BC's Big White ski resort stressed that the resort was Canadian family owned and operated and received positive feedback from Americans saying they'd bring their US dollar ski send north, one of them saying, "most of us are both mortified and scared," by the current situation.

South of the border, several US ski areas that do business with Canadian skiers have been stressing their love of Canada. Steve Wright, General Manager of Vermont's Jay Peak Resort posted a lengthy statement complete with a Canadian flag logo and a tree indicating the resort's Canadian connections (below).

"We here at Jay Peak have a long-standing relationship with Canadian guests, homeowners, season passholders and day visitors – strengthened, in part, across the years Quebecois operator MSSI owned and helped grow the resort. Our relationship has survived border crossing reductions and closings, global pandemics, domestic tragedies, jittery economies and fluctuating exchange rates, tough winters, cold summers and just about anything else that could be dreamed up and thrown at both the resort and our extended Canadian family. The common denominator through all of it, was the lack of control any of us had or have over these issues; we reserve all our mortal influence and energy toward mother nature and making sure our appeasements net us all the snow we can carry. The current state of geo-political affairs, however, and philosophies relating to tariffs, various taxations and the viability behind them is neither something we can influence (somewhat obviously) nor are we inclined to comment on any further than to say, we dislike anything that keeps You from Us."

Most Canadian ski areas are Canadian owned, but the largest in the country and North America, Whistler Blackcomb, is currently owned by the US-based Vail Resorts.

A dry ski slope at Folkestone in Kent on England's south coast appears to have been saved from closure, although full details of its rescue have not yet been disclosed.

The dry slope is part of the wider Folkestone Sports Centre, a popular leisure centre that shut unexpectedly last July after former operators Folkestone Sports Centre Trust ran into financial difficulties and administrators were called in.

It's now being reported that after six months and a nearly 9,000 signature petition among many other attempts to save the centre, a buyer has been secured and it will reopen to the public.

"So buzzing to hear that Folkestone Sports Centre will re-open! The details are still being finalised but this is clearly a massive win for the community," said local MP, Tony Vaughan who posted the image above.

However the details of who will operate nor how and when the centre will reopen have not yet been revealed whilst final legal details are tied up.

"Some really positive, good news …Let's hope its not too long until they re-open the slope," Folkestone Ski Race Club posted on their social media channel which has remained verey active during the closure period, competing and training at other slopes and on indoor snow.

Folkestone Ski Centre has a 60m main slope with tuition is offered from fully qualified ASSI (Artificial Ski Slope Instructors). The centre has also run a Junior Snowsports Academy for younger skiers to have fun while working their way up through the various tuition levels.

Warner-Bros DiscoveryPlus, which offers live coverage of all Alpine ski races and many other winters ports and other sports, having taken over multiple smaller operators in recent years, has contacted its subscribers on a 1p under £7 monthly plan and told them that they now need to switch to a 1p under £31 monthly plan to continue watching, a nearly 4.5 times increase.

"On 28 February 2025, the Eurosport and TNT Sports brands will be brought together, with all sports content available in one single destination via TNT Sports. This in turn means the discovery+ Standard plan & Eurosport linear channels are closing," the statement to subscribers explains.

The £31 plan includes a vast swathe of sports including coverage of sports like boxing and football that traditionally customers pay a lot more for.

"This is a travesty and very sad. Eurosport is an excellent brand in existence since the early 90s. You can't just close it," one viewer wrote on the DigitalSpy forum.

It's unclear if there will be any way to watch ski racing at a more affordable price for those not interested in all the other sports. The International Ski & Snowboarding Federation launched its own FIS TV service last year highlighting its completely free, however it currently appears only to show short race highlight clips for the World Cup, with more detailed coverage of Europa Cup races.

It's unclear if Eurosport will only be shut down just for the UK and Ireland, as per the official announcement, or across the EU as well. Some tech-savvy viewers say they watch German Eurosport free on the astra 19.2e satellite.

With ever more ski holiday companies and resorts themselves emphasising the importance and pleasure of heading to the mountains by train rather than by air, it's timely news that Alpine mapping specialists, 2theAlps, have updated their Skiing by Train map for 2025.

The map features over 200 winter sports resorts, most of which can be reached by train for a high-comfort low-carbon journey to the mountains. The new 2025 map now includes ferry routes across the Channel and the North Sea, sleeper train services to the Alps from Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, and the classic Eurostar

routes to help adventurous travellers piece together a flight-free itinerary.
"Overnight train travel is becoming increasingly popular in continental Europe, and we are pleased to include the brand new 2025 service from Brussels to Venice (via the Austrian and Italian Alps) operated by European Sleeper, as well as several Night Jet services operated by OBB, and two routes by Intercité de Nuit (part of SNCF)," said Neil Guthrie of 2theAlps.

The map shows the surprisingly dense network of railway lines in the Alps and for non-rail served resorts, a bus route from the nearest station is indicated. All resorts are included in an indexed list for ease of navigation.

The map is available via Cosmographics, as a download The Alps-Skiing by Train via Cosmographics Ltd for £3 (including VAT) or there are various printed options.

Download link: https://www.cosmographics.co.uk/product/the-alps-skiing-by-train-download/
Print link: https://www.cosmographics.co.uk/product/the-alps-skiing-by-train-map/