J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by admin

If you haven't thought much about avalanches lately, then now's a good time to start.

Here's a quite personal account of an avalanche on Outside Online; perfectly illustrating how good judgement can sometimes get crowded out... and the consequences.

What started as a glorious powder day ended in a desperate fight for survival after three skiers were buried by a killer avalanche in the backcountry of Stevens Pass, in Washington's Cascades. Megan Michelson lived to tell about it, but she can't shake off a haunting question: How did a group of expert skiers make such a deadly mistake?

It's well worth reading the full account :- Tunnel Vision

I think about Laurie bravely stepping into their RV to tell her daughters that their dad was gone, and Josie, looking up at her, saying, "Am I not going powder skiing with Dad?"

:(

p.s. thanks to fatbob on snowheads for pointing that up.

Espace Killy wrote:smoothing and widening the run ... more enjoyable for regular skiers.

Espace Killy wrote:the 3km long Face is a legendary run and we'd like to keep it that way!"

Does not compute.

The Face is legendary due to it not being smooth and wide. :evil:

Easing congestion is certainly a good thing, but it's a shame if it's done at the expense of the character of the run.

I'd have thought they'd do better to "smooth and widen" some of their rather infamous Greens (some of which had moguls on when I last visited).

Still, reserve judgement until some of us have skied it I suppose... calling Ally and OldAndy??? :lol:

Skiset, the world's largest ski and snowboard rental network, and preferred Ski Hire provider to J2Ski, has launched a series of virtual guides on their website - www.skiset.co.uk - hosted by British ski racer, Chemmy Alcott. Chemmy guides customers through this season's range of ski and snowboard rental equipment to showcase the products and aid the selection process. This is the first time a ski rental company has created bespoke videos on individual products and demonstrates Skiset's commitment to providing customers with the very best equipment possible.

Visitors to the website can now take advantage of mini online tutorials by Britain's Number 1 alpine ski racer, who is on hand to deliver expert advice and top tips on the various levels of rental equipment available. By simply clicking on the 'Selection Guide' button next to the ski options, up pops a virtual Chemmy, to explain exactly what each category offers, for what terrain and level of experience so customers can choose the most suitable equipment for them and their family. This covers the products available for men, women, children and teens including skis, snowboards and snowblades. The product lines cater for numerous levels of ability, spanning beginner to expert, accommodating the needs of all winter sports enthusiasts.


Virtual Chemmy!

Three-time Olympian Chemmy, returned to competitive ski racing on 14th November after a career-threatening fall in December 2010. She was ranked 8th in the world before her accident and last season competed in ITV1s Dancing on Ice. Following intensive rehabilitation Chemmy has beaten the odds and achieved an incredible 8th place in her first race back, the FIS Race Ladies Super G at Copper Mountain, Colorado.

"I'm thrilled to be Skiset's new virtual guide," says Chemmy, "and to be in the position to assist holiday makers in choosing the correct equipment. As a recreational skier as well as a competitive one, I fully understand the importance of having good quality equipment to maximise your experience on the slopes. Skiset has something for everyone and is a convenient and cost effective way to hire some of the newest equipment on the market. I'm so happy to be back skiing in a professional capacity as this is what I was born to do."

Philippe Koiransky, Managing Director of Skiset, says:

"Having Chemmy onboard as the face of our winter campaign is a perfect synergy with our brand messaging. As the most successful female British skier of all time she shares our passion and enthusiasm for winter sports as well as having expert understanding of the mountain environment. As an online guide, Chemmy is able to introduce an exciting new dimension to our website by bringing the Skiset products to life, combining elements of both knowledge and fun."

For more information about Skiset and for discounts of up to 45% on rental equipment this season visit www.skiset.co.uk/j2ski/

Use the promo code J2SKI for the best prices.

For more information about Chemmy Alcott visit www.chemmyalcott.com

Skiset is the leading independent mountain sports shop network in Europe. With over 800 shops in 400 ski resorts Skiset covers almost all the large mountain ranges in France, Switzerland, Austria, Andorra, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria, Germany & Slovenia. In 2009 Skiset expanded into North America and in partnership with Christy Sports now offers stores at major resorts including Aspen, Heavenly and Banff in the US and Canada. Skiset was founded in 1994 on the initiative of former skiing champions including Annie Famose and Leo Lacroix. Each winter Skiset shops welcome about 1.7 million customers who have chosen to take advantage of the 200,000 pairs of skis and snowboards available for hire. The hiring process online is broken down to selecting your ski resort, your rental ski shop, your rental dates and your choice of equipment. Skiset internet specials offer discounts up to 40% throughout the season.

The J2Ski Snow Report - Week Ending November 24th, 2012
(* 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 )

Although they've pushed it back a few days since we mentioned it last week, the European weather models have converged nicely on a forecast switch to cold as this coming weekend ends.

Temperatures should drop from their current mild levels to below the seasonal average by mid-week, with widespread snow - heavy in places - likely from late on Monday. The exact locations and extent of the snow will become clearer as we move into the weekend, but many parts of the Alpine region should see some decent snowfall next week.


Cortina on opening day - 2012/2013

This Week's Headlines
It's all happening on both sides of the Atlantic as resorts scramble to open.

To be honest the best-in-snow of the past week has been North American, and particularly North Western North America, where Whistler has reported a metre of snow in the past seven days. There's currently a rush on for North American resorts to open for Thanksgiving.

- 120cm of snow in past 7 days at Whistler Blackcomb.
- Little fresh snow in the Alps but Ischgl and Val Thorens ready for opening this Saturday.
- Lake Louise is fully open – probably the first major resort in the world to be able to make that claim for 2012-13.
- Nearly 1500m of vertical open at Zermatt.
- Cortina and Montgenevre open early.

Europe
Austria
In common with most of Europe, there's been little new snow and some warm, weather in the Austrian Alps this week. However the warmer spells were largely at lower elevations so the 10 glacier/altitude resorts already open, most in Tirol, have not suffered much and the big snowfalls in October and earlier this month are still giving most plenty of base depth.

Hintertux continues to offer one of the biggest ski areas open anywhere in the world at present with 58m of piste served by 17 lifts and an 1150m vertical descent possible down to Sommerbergalm (2100m), the snow is lying just over a metre thick. Non-glacier resorts Obergurgl and Obertauern that already opened will be joined by Ischgl on Saturday which is starting a week of opening celebrations culminating with The Scorpions in concert.

France
After Tignes long run as the only ski area open in France since the end-of-September (apart from that brief Half Term week appearance by Les 2 Alpes) all eyes are on Val Thorens which is looking set5 for a successful opening on Saturday, despite little new snow in the past week. That's much better than last year however when there was only very limited machine made snow and the famously highest-resort-in-the-Alps had to postpone opening and cancel a big opening event. This year natural snow lies two foot deep on upper slopes 1100m above the resort and at resort level its at least 30cm deep. However Montrgenevre, with a 60cm base, beat Val Thorens to being the second French resort to open for 2012-13 by opening last weekend and also reporting a 60cm base.

Italy
After the early opening of Bormio and Passo Tonale, which joined glacier ski centres Cervinia (now with a 1.2m base and Val Senales) the ski season kicks off in Cortina d'Ampezzo today (Thursday 22 November) in the Faloria sector thanks to a period of low temperatures and recent snowfalls at altitude. From 1 December the larger Cortina lift-system will be up and running with the opening of the Tofana ski area and the area of Lagazuoi-Cinque Torri and indeed most of Dolomiti Superski will also be opening.

Switzerland
Little new snow in Swityzereland either but the high altitude ski areas remain in good shape thanks to early snowfalls this month. Saas Fee has some of the deepest snow depths in the world with nearly 2m lying on its glacier. However neighbour Zermatt has snow opened up terrain right down to Schwarzee at around 2500 meaning nearly 1500m of vertical is now open, the lower sectors rated intermediate level or above. Engelberg has re-opened after its maintenance closure earlier this month joining Laax (weekends), Glacier 3000 (Gstaad/Les Diablerets) and Diavolezza (near St Moritz)

Pyrenees
We have no reports of any resorts open yet in the Pyrenees and snow cover is fairly scant (eg 5cm at Formigal) after warm weather with little snowfall. However it does look to be getting colder over the next week.

Scandinavia
There has been little new snowfall in Scandinavian ski areas over the past seven days although temperatures have been hovering around zero. Hemsedal in Norway has some of the best November ski conditions with a 60cm base and 20 runs open served by nine lifts. The region's largest resort, Are in Sweden, only has a 14cm base and two lifts and two runs open. Ruka in Finland, which has already been open a month, has nine slopes open served by seven lifts.

Eastern Europe
We have no reports of any ski centres open yet in Eastern Europe and there seems to be little if any natural snow cover at any of the larger resorts. Bansko last reported snowfall just over a week ago on Nov 13th.

Scotland
It is stormy in Scotland at present. There was heavy snow last weekend but the past 72 hours have been very warm and with the exception of surviving patches at Nevis range, all that fell has melted. Cairngorm has announced it has four snowmaking cannons to use this winter so when it is cold enough, snow will be made.

North America
Canada
Resorts are opening on the East Coast too with Tremblant, Quebec, the most popular in Eastern North America, opening today, 22 November. Further east Mont-Sainte-Anne and Stoneham open from Friday night onwards, the former with a snowpark and the La Quanik and La Mélanie Turgeon runs open.

However Western Canada continues to be a world leader for both snowfall and open terrain. It's all happening on both sides of the Atlantic as resorts scramble to open.

Over the last seven days, Whistler Blackcomb has received 120 centimeters of snow, and forecasters are calling for another 25 centimeters in the next five days.  Coupled with cool temperatures for snow making, it comes just in time for Blackcomb Mountain to open on November 22.

Further East, Lake Louise in Alberta declared itself 'fully open' yesterday (Wednesday 21 Nov) after opening its two final chairs giving access to all four mountains. The resort has had fresh snow falling all week with 254c, in the past 244 hours and has the go ahead for World Cup racing over the next two weekends, the men this weekend, the ladies next.

USA
The US is definitely leading the world for open ski areas at the moment with an estimated 100+ areas expected to be open for Thanksgiving.

Mt Baker, officially the world's snowiest ski resort, is on form already for 12-13 reporting a metre of snow in 72 hours from Saturday to Monday. There was big snow in California too with the two highest elevations in Lake Tahoe, Heavenly Mountain Resort and Kirkwood Mountain Resort received 15-20cm and 46-51cm, respectively, in 24 hours over the weekend.

Further south still in New Mexico temperatures are less favourable and Ski Apache which has slopes reaching 3500m has had to delay its planned opening. Mid-western resorts, some of which had opened early in late-October, are also complaining it's too warm for their snowmaking systems.

It's looking good inland of the West Coast with Grand Targhee in Wyoming opening tomorrow (Friday 23rd) and reports a base built from 1.8m of snow fallen over the past four weeks.

More areas are opening on the East Coast too, generally limited terrain and thanks to snowmaking. Stowe Mountain in Vermont was one opening last weekend with twice as much terrain as late November 2011. Stowe plans to have top-to-bottom skiing and riding on Mount Mansfield from Friday 23rd.

"Our 4.7 million dollar snow making investment has already paid off," said Michael Colbourn, Stowe's VP of Marketing and Sales. "Opening more terrain earlier in the season is on top of our priority list. 2012, mission accomplished."

Whiteface and Gore in New York State are also due to open this weekend but are sketchy on what will be available and recommend skiers call ahead. It's a bit of a mixed picture again as some resorts have had trouble snow making due to 'fluctuating temperatures' Belleayre, also in New York state has had to delay opening this weekend as it had hoped for that reason.

Opening soon
24 November
Crans Montana
Ischgl
Val Thorens
1st December
Dolomiti Superski
Val d'Isère

Far Queue wrote:OMG....

It's true! I am FQ too :lol: ...and Spartacus!

Tony_H wrote:used against me

It's people getting enough information about you to pretend to be you that you need to be careful of.

Iceman wrote:I find out this afternoon he has been looking at my profile on linkedin.

:lol:

Facebook told me your name way back when, I think because you're connected to Tony?

Actually, both LinkedIn and Facebook are really quite nasty in this respect because they suggest connections/friends for you based on friends-of-friends. People often use the same sets of photos/avatars and often address each other via nicknames (e.g. forum names) when using FB.

So, no, you don't even have to try - FB and LI just tell you! :shock:


NOW READ THIS!

Something everyone should be careful of is their "out of office" settings. We get hundreds of these each week (when sending out the snow mails) and the amount of personal information people put in them is quite alarming.

The most basic ones tell us who people work with ("please contact X Y in my absence"), but also what their phone numbers are (regularly including home and mobiles). We get told who's pregnant, on maternity leave, in court, getting married, going to a funeral... the lot. :shock:

Now consider that those "out of office" replies will get pinged back to every scammer and spammer who sends you junk mail!

IF YOU'VE GOT PERSONAL INFORMATION IN YOUR OUT-OF-OFFICE SETTING; then go and remove it right now!

Happy Birthday Wickers!