J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by admin

Snapzzz wrote:try watching it without looking at the clock to experience the fear.

...or try holding your breath from when he gets buried...

A very lucky boy from many respects.

From 0:51 onwards he appears to be riding onto a slab of obviously wind-effected snow. The very obvious wind-lip he crosses, and the complete absence of other tracks on the slab were great big red flags.

He was very lucky not to be buried deeper, and to (apparently) have a little room to move his head at least.

The skier who sets off ahead of him appears to have a pack but there's no sign of any shovels when they're digging him out... :shock:

Watch and learn, and don't do it like this!

What Andy said; The Alps (North at least) have got a couple more days before it turns colder and there look to be a few cycles of precipitation coming in from this weekend.

Amounts and locations are all a bit too far out to be reliable at the moment, but the general pattern is changing from "mild and settled" to "cold and unsettled".

Denni77 - the 27th is a long way off yet, and the weather's about to change. Make your mind up nearer the time if you can; you're not in peak time so can afford to leave your accommodation / destination decisions to the last minute.

Hi, thanks for the report - and the feedback.

hollingrove wrote:I am currently in La Mongie skiing, and it is certainly a beautiful resort.

:thumbup:

hollingrove wrote:However, the daily report I receive states that "La Mongie is reporting powder."

The report we're receiving is "Packed Powder" which does appear to be used to cover quite a range of conditions...

It's not really what most of us understand as "powder", however, so we've (today) updated our Snow Mails so that they'll no longer treat "packed powder" as, er, powder. 8)

Regarding the forecast; it does look set to cool significantly in 2-3 days time with a good chance of snow in the Northern Alps at least. Not clear how far to the South the cold will spread at the moment though.

Ski-Scotland announces a new partnership with Britain's No. 1 male World Cup Alpine skier, Dougie Crawford.

"We are really excited to be working with Dougie to promote Scottish snowsports," said Chair of Ski-Scotland Heather Negus. "He has agreed to give his time to work with us on specific promotions during the winter which we expect to appeal to our existing customers and also bring new skiers and boarders to Scotland's real snow and mountain ski areas. He will also be a superb role model for Scotland's young snowsports athletes and future athletes."

Dougie is also looking forward to his new role and said: "Having grown up skiing in Scotland I have a close affiliation with all the Scottish resorts and as Scotland's only World Cup skier I am delighted to be working with Ski-Scotland to help promote their fantastic product to global audiences in the run up to the Winter Olympics in 2014."

With all five of Scotland's mountain ski areas open from early - mid December, Dougie's additional promotions are expected to raise awareness of the amazing, fun opportunities the country can offer skiers and boarders. Snowsports fans will easily find out more over the next few weeks on Ski-Scotland's and Dougie's Facebook pages, with more information and promotions rolling out over the winter.

Tony_H wrote:I'm distraught.

Enough already. There's loads of snow, you'll have a great time and come back and make everyone jealous as usual... :lol: Be gone with your worrying!

Your reporter was lucky enough to drop in on the new Folie Douce restaurant and club in Meribel in December, just before it opened.


(c) Skipedia

This is the third Folie Douce, following the very successful operations in Val Thorens and in Val d'Isere.

We were lucky enough to meet Val d'Isere supremo, Kely Starlight (pictured below with Graham Bell, who was also with us):


(c) Skipedia

Kely told us about the Folie Douce concept:

"We double up a restaurant with open-air clubbing. It's shiny, people are dancing in the middle of nowhere."

True, but that is only half the story. Until you've experienced the Folie Douce in its full madness – with themed dancers and half-naked bodies on tables (even if it's freezing cold), then you can't really understand what it's about.


(c) Val Thorens Office du Tourisme.

So try it out next time you are nearby – you'll not forget the Folie Douce experience quickly!


(c) Skipedia

La Folie Douce was dutifully experienced by our erstwhile reporter Iain from Skipedia, who we are unreliably misinformed was "only there for the skiing".

The J2Ski Snow Report - Week Ending January 4th 2013
(* Free to re-publish in whole or part so long as credited to www.J2ski.com with hyperlink to http://www.j2ski.com/snow_forecast )

The New Year has brought a bit of a change across The Alps, with blue skies, clear weather and an un-seasonal hint of Spring with unusually mild temperatures for much of the region.

This looks set to last for another week or so before temperatures fall back to their seasonal averages. Much of the French and Swiss Alps will remain largely clear, although heavy snow will push into Austria and the East this weekend.

This Week's Headlines

- Big snowfalls across USA, up to 1.3m in past 7 days in fact.
- Fresh snow after dry weeks in the Pyrenees.
- All five Scottish ski areas still open.
- Record snowfall equals record business in British Columbia.
- Up to 60cm (2 feet) of new snow in France in past week.

Europe
Austria
It has been a moderately snowy seven days in Austria with most resorts receiving somewhere between 10 and 20cm of fresh snow since Boxing Day, the biggest reported accumulation, 35cm at Lech in the Arlberg. Snow bases overall are generally quite healthy too – in the 1-2m range for most resorts, although a few now above 2m – including Obergurgl, with 215cm (over 7 feet), including another 25cm in the past week. Pitztal with 2.5m has the deepest snow in Austria at present along with the highest slopes in the country.

France
It has been a mixed picture for snowfall in France with some resorts reporting as much as 60vcm of new snow in the past seven days, while the majority have reported no fresh snow at all. In the latter case that is not too much of a problem so far with most resorts reporting 1-2m snow depths at least, and several of the big players including Les Arcs and Val d'Isere more than 2.5m. Chamonix has another metre still, it's 3.5m base depth on upper runs one of the deepest in the world at present. The big snowfalls have been reported by Flaine (60cm), Avoriaz (55cm) and La Plagne (52cm) – all in the past 7 days.

Italy
The largest snowfall in Italy over the past week was 20cm reported by Chiesa, one of a handful of Italian resorts now posting snow depths of more than 2m on upper slopes. The best of the snow, or at least the deepest bases, are on the alpine side of northern Italy with Cervinia topping the list with 2.4m. Over in the Pyrenees the snow levels are at their lowest but there's still 80cm in Val Gardena and around the Sella Ronda and further south Cortina reports a more impressive 110cm. The thinnest base though is on lower slopes at Cavalesse – only 5cm, so more snow there would be handy. We're expecting 5-10cm across the country over the next week.

Switzerland
Swiss resorts continue to boast some of the best ski depths in Europe with Andermatt and Gstaad both having more than 3m (10 feet) of snow lying on their upper slopes. It's also been a moderately snowy week with most areas reporting 10-30cvm of new snowfall in the past seven days, one of the biggest falls being at Verbier with 37cm – it now has a 2.3m and it just doesn't stop snowing there. Engelberg, Villars, Leysin and Wengen were also beneficiaries of particularly heavy snowfall I the past seven days and piste conditions there are all reported as 'excellent.'

Pyrenees
After a few largely dry weeks, ski areas in the Pyrenees have received 5 – 15cm of fresh snow over the past 48 hours which has improved conditions on the hard packed pistes, making coverage much fresher. Upper slope base depths are at 60-80cm in Andorra, peaking At 1.43m at Formigal in Spain.

Scandinavia
Not much chance of seeing the best Northern Lights in 55 years in Finland over the past week as the snow has been dumping down, at least by the rather limited scale that's the norm reporting 10cm since the 26th December. There's been less new snow in Norway.

Just a few inches in the past week, but base depths are slightly better with Geilo, Hemsedal and Lillehammer all neck-a-neck with a metre each on upper slopes of the region. Yllas has since 25cm (10 inches) since Christmas. Base depths are around 50-60cm at all major Finnish and Swedish centres, with the biggest, Are.

Eastern Europe
There's been no new snow in Bulgaria for nearly a fortnight but bases are quite well established at around a metre on upper slopes across the country so that's not too big a problem, although fresh would of course be nice . Poiana Brasov in Romania received 10cm of new snow on Boxing Day, bases now 20-40cm.

Scotland
All five Scottish ski areas are, as we compile this report, still open, having enjoyed the traditional mix of gales, sub-zero temperatures, some nice spells and fresh snow when much of Blighty was enduring rain. However an extended warm spell expected over the next few days may make skiing ever more difficult to provide, particularly at Glenshee and The Lecht on the East where many runs are broken now. Cairngorm probably has the best conditions with top-to-mid-station open. And you never know it may unexpectedly get colder, this is Britain after all. Glencoe and Nevis Range on the West are also in reasonable shape.

North America
Canada
The rate of snowfall has slowed a little in Canada but conditions remain great and the snow is still falling.

Big White Ski Resort, located near Kelowna, British Columbia, has a 177cm base which has allowed it to open all 118 runs and all 16 lifts (16 including 6 high-speed chairs and gondola) which resulted in shorter queues (max 15 minutes) during what the resort says was its busiest ever New Year holiday.

The deepest snow in the country and the biggest fall in the past seven days has been reported at red Mountain, also in BC, with 212cm snowbase and 45cm (18 inches) of new snow.

Although there's been little new snow in the past week in Eastern Canada the heavy7 falls in mid-late December has ski areas in the region looking far better than they did, with more than 60cm at Tremblant and over 1.2m blanketing Mont Sainte Anne near Quebec City.

USA
The USA has received more snow than any other part of the world over the past seven days, with ski areas in Alaska receiving as much as 1.3m in the past seven days. But Colorado, Utah and California resorts all had good falls too, if not quite so huge, and it's beginning to look a lot more like a normal powder winter, after 20 months, in Colorado. Aspenites woke to a fresh foot of powder for the new Year's holidays with bluebird skies too in addition to opening of new terrain on Snowmass, Aspen Mountain and Aspen Highlands. The resort received 20 inches (nearly 2 feet) of snow in the past seven days. Even more unusually there have been big snowfalls on the East Coast and in the mid-West too thanks to the latest storm system which typically deposited 30-60cm on most of New England's slopes. Smuggler's Notch in Vermont was typical with 40cm of new snow and base depths are now past a metre on upper slopes at some resorts including Killington.

Hi folks, we'd like your input please...

Over the years our (weekly and daily) snow mails have grown in size... whilst at the same time an ever-growing number of you are reading them on smartphones (and even dumb ones).

A fair number of you also receive and read the mails on your phones while abroad and, although much cheaper than they were, we feel your pain with the data roaming charges (where free wifi is not available).

We're going to do some work on refining the existing format to make it more "smartphone-friendly" but we'd like to get your opinions, and any other suggestions you might have for improving our snow mails.

Our favoured option at the moment is to give you the option to switch between a new "Mobile optimized" version and a mildly refined update of the current format. But you may have a better idea!

So, please vote in the poll above and reply here with anything you'd like to see.

We can't promise to action all suggestions, but fire away...

TVM,