Messages posted by : admin
Yes... wait and see! As you're driving, and it's (very) early season you can afford to wait and see where the snow falls. Gives you plenty of time to look at options too. How long is your trip? If only a week then you'll not have any problem finding good accommodation that week. Also worth looking out for early season offers on lift passes, hotels, etc. - many resorts do "opening week specials" and such like. If your trip is extending over Xmas then you'll need to book ahead, of course, but having the car gives you lots of flexibility. Look at the Ski Jewel / Ski Welt (large interconnected area with the worlds most confusing piste map 8) ), maybe Lech (evening liveliness might be pricey) or (what Tony said) Mayrhofen. |
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It's that time of year when the Heliski operators put out their promos...
Get a coffee, kick back and dream away - here's the latest from Last Frontier Heliski :-
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The J2Ski Snow Report *
Week Ending October 18th, 2013 * Free to re-publish in whole or part so long as clearly credited to www.J2ski.com with the words "J2Ski Snow Report - October 17th 2013" linked to this page or http://www.j2ski.com/snow_forecast/ As predicted, we saw a fair amount of snow across the Northern Hemisphere this last week. This Week's Headlines * Heavy snow in the Alps - deep powder conditions on open glaciers. * Resorts open in USA. * 255cm base on Val Senales glacier in Italy. * French 2013-14 ski season gets underway at Tignes. * Ruka, Finland, opening Saturday - first non-glacier resort in Europe to open. * Cervinia scheduled to open on Saturday (weekends only in October). 
Hintertux, Austia, 11th October 2013 Heavy snow in the Alps has been the main talking point of the last seven days with accumulations of up to 50cm reported; great news for the already open glacier ski slopes and those that are about to join them. The biggest falls were reported at the weekend but snowfall is ongoing, with around 10cm reported on the Kitzsteinhorn glacier above Kaprun on Wednesday. More is expected over the coming weekend. It's not just the Alps either; there have been snowfalls reported in many parts of the northern hemisphere and in combination with low temperatures these have allowed the first non-glacier ski areas to open for 2013 in Colorado and (this weekend) Scandinavia. South of the equator only Turoa in New Zealand is continuing the southern hemisphere's 2013 season. The Alps Although it can no longer claim to have more than half of the open ski areas in the northern hemisphere, Austria's eight open ski areas represent a third of the world total now most southern hemisphere areas are closed, and half of the tally for the Alps. More exciting than the open area numbers however is the recent snowfall numbers which has brought powder conditions to all areas, and the snow is still falling. Tirol has five areas open for which the snow depth data, much of it fresh cover, is Kaunertal Glacier: 93cm; Stubai Glacier: 100cm; Hintertux Glacier: 135cm; Pitztal Glacier: 86cm and Sölden Glaciers: 75cm. Elsewhere in Austria snow depths on the Kitzsteinhorn glacier are up to a metre, on the Dachstein have leapt from zero to 50cm and for Molltal are at 1.5m. The fresh snow has tied in perfectly with special October season start festival and gear testing weekends being staged at present at most centres. In France, the 2013-14 season has begun, with the Grande Motte Glacier above Tignes first to open and for the next month (bar a week long appearance by Les 2 Alpes later this month), the only open French area. ed to open this Saturday, October 12th. Tignes reports an 85cm base with fresh powder. In Italy Cervinia is re-opening, currently at weekends only, 19th-20th and 26th-27th October and then every day for six months from the 1st November to the 4th May next year. It reports base depths of around a metre. Two other Italian glacier resorts - Val Senales and Passo Stelvio - are also open. Four ski areas are now open in Switzerland, although the Titlis glacier above Engelberg is only open at weekends, it has a 22cm base. The Diavolezza Glacier close to St Moritz, along with the glaciers of Saas Fee and Zermatt, each with bases around the 1.5 metres mark, are the other options. Scandinavia Ruka in Finnish Lapland has an online countdown to opening day this Saturday, 19th October, two days later than initially planned. Once open it has a season length expected to last around seven months/200+ days, the longest for a non-glacier resort in Europe and (depending on how long already-open areas in Colorado, see below, stay open) the world. In fact some US ski areas have already opened (see below) but they have closed again whereas Ruka will try to remain open thanks to its snowmaking. The Galdhøpiggen glacier in Norway is also open and Levi, which will host World cup Racing in four weeks' time, reports snowmaking underway on its front pistes. Pyrenees Although it seems likely the ski season in the Pyrenees is still at least six weeks away, Baqueira Beret, one of Spain's leading resorts, has announced it has run a successful test of its 600+ snow gun system this week, thanks to low temperatures. The resort says its ready to go as soon as a longer spell of cold weather is in the forecast. Scotland The widespread snowfall in the northern hemisphere extended to Scottish mountains with online pictures posted from Cairngorm showed snow at least six inches deep on the summit slopes. There's no news yet of any early openings, but ski areas including The Lecht have opened as early as Halloween in the past. North America Snow has continued to fall in North America and has reached as far east as the mid-West. Thanks to the snow and snowmaking Colorado's 2013/14 ski season got underway on Sunday at Arapahoe Basin which opened its Black Mountain Express lift to crowds of animated skiers and snowboarders to ski on intermediate run High Noon. It was joined on Thursday (17th October) by Loveland and both areas reports a 45cm base. Both resorts had begun making snow on the evening of Friday, September 27, and had made snow or received natural snow most days since then. New snowmaking equipment upgrades, ideal snowmaking conditions, and recent natural snowfall have added to Arapahoe Basin's base accumulation resulting in the resort's current conditions described as, "packed powder" by the resort.
The near-year-round ski area of Timberline in Oregon is a third ski area open in North America. Southern Hemisphere Virtually all ski areas in the southern hemisphere are now closed. However Turoa in New Zealand on Mt Ruapehu is likely to stay open in to November and currently reports a 118cm base, down around 20cm on a week ago. Temperatures are just above freezing. |
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Surely you should be training St.Bernards Dave? Does she ski?
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No. Well, not for France IME anyway. 8) Although it can be an issue for peak weeks - with hotels and accommodation that rely on package Tour Operators, it's not difficult to find flexible accommodation nowadays. Independent Chalets, some of the smaller tour operators, and local Hotels are generally very, er, accommodating. You'll definitely improve your chances by looking beyond the mega-resorts and going where the Tour Operators don't. The majority of our trips in recent years have been mid-week to mid-week (makes a massive difference to flight prices - even/especially in the high season weeks). When are you looking to travel? |
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We do. Twits too, occasionally... :lol: Back on topic though... Hot off the press; we've just revamped some of our (many) Airport-related pages and you can now sort the resorts near particular airports by their suitability for Beginners, Intermediates and Experts, and their altitude and distance from the airport. We actually have 223 Ski Resorts within 3 hours drive of Basel! :shock: |
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Video Snow Report from Kaunertals 2013 Opening Weekend
Started by User in Snow Forecasts and Snow Reports, 2 Replies |
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From those friendly people at the Tirol Tourist Office...
...the Tirol sent a film crew to the Kaunertal Opening on Sunday and made this video snow report...
For further information about Tirol's 5 Glacier regions visit http://www.tirolergletscher.com/en/ |
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We've been asked (via Twitter) for some advice on the ski resorts around Basel, suitable for Beginners.
Can anyone suggest a specific area? For info, there are about 100 within a couple of hours drive - see our list of Ski Resorts near Basel. Any advice? |
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