J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

A parent's victory against the council, and by default the government, over taking his child on holiday during school term time is set to be challenged by the council, with the backing of the government.

The Isle of Wight Council took Jon Platt to court over his refusal to pay a £120 fine for taking his daughter on a holiday in termtime, butt Mr Platt won primarily because he successfully argued that the law was vague about how many days a parent could take their child out of school, and that what figures were enshrined in law certainly didn't specify zero.

It seems that the current regime of fines for taking children out of school in term time, introduced by the Education Minister Michael Gove in 2013, were never actually made law, but were just government instruction on how councils should interpret existing laws. However those existing laws don't say you can't take your child out of school in term time at all.

The ruling in April appeared to opened the way for parents to appeal fines imposed over the past few years and to book healthy, educational ski holidays in term time at lower cost to their families, similar to trips organised by schools, where they were unable to travel in school holiday periods.

However the government quickly said it would amend laws to ensure Mr Gove's policies were in future properly set up in law.

The latest development however is that the Isle of Wight Council have been told it can apply to the Supreme Court for permission to appeal against the High Court ruling in favour of Mr Platt.

The High Court itself had refused the council permission to appeal but Senior judge Lord Justice Lloyd Jones said the case raised 'a point of law of general public importance'. The Supreme Court itself still has to decide if it wants to hear the case.

Former Olympian Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards will be doing a Q&A with fans at Manchester's indoor snow centre Chill Factore this Sunday, 24th July, before taking to the UK's longest real snow slope to ski with visitors.

The former Olympian – real name Michael Edwards - shot to fame in 1988 when he became the first person to represent Great Britain in Winter Olympic ski jumping for 60 years. More recently, Eddie's remarkable story hit the big screen in the eponymous film.

Eddie will be at Chill Factore from 11:30am on Sunday 24 July and will do a Q&A with fans, before taking to the 180 metre slope alongside guests.

"Eddie the Eagle is synonymous with ski jumping, so naturally we're thrilled to announce he will be joining us on the slope this July," said Morwenna Angove, CEO at Chill Factore who added,
"While he may never have struck gold at the Olympics, it wasn't through lack of effort, and we're excited to hear his story before he takes to the slope."

To book, purchase a one hour lift pass online for 12:30pm on Sunday 24th July and you will automatically be able to attend the fan Q&A and then hit the slopes with Eddie from 12:30pm for 45 minutes. It's only possible to book online and there are limited spaces available.

visit http://www.chillfactore.com/whats-on/news/the-eagle-has-landed/ for more information

There's been snow in northern and southern hemispheres over the past 48 hours including significant July snowfalls above 2500m in North America and in the Alps.

In the USA snow has been falling in the northwest of the country, with Jackson Hole posting pictures of sunflowers under snow there.

In the Alps the Kitzsteinhorn glacier has reported 30cm of fresh snow in the past 24 hours in Austria at 3000m.

In the southern hemisphere there have been big snow accumulations in the Andes of South America and significant snowfall in New Zealand both of which had had a dry warm month after heavy snow a month ago. The snowfall is ongoing in both areas with around 20cm reported in New Zealand so far and as much again expected in the next day or two.

Australia also remains snowy although here temperatures have been low and the snow falling for several weeks.

After a great start to the ski season in South America and New Zealand a month ago, things took a decidedly warm turn in mid-June leading to a similar scenario to last December in the Alps, if not worse.

Some ski areas that had opened were forced to close again as snow thawed away and temperatures were too warm for snowmaking; others that had not opened in the snowy start of June and stuck to their planned late June or early July regular opening days saw pre-season snow melt away and had to delay opening.

The good news is that that all seems to be changing this week. Cold weather in the Andes is expected to bring more huge snowfalls with around a metre of snow expected at Portillo in Chile by Thursday – although after its incredible 3 metre snowfall in seven days a month ago it is still fully operational anyway. Other areas, like Catedral in Argentina, which is the largest in the southern hemisphere by some measures, will be hoping it will get enough snow to be able to open. It's looking much better aleready this morning (pictured above) after bare slopes yesterday.

Across the Pacific New Zealand has had it six warmest months in temperature-recorded history over the first six months of 2016 and only a few ski areas were still marginally operating at the start of July. Here too though cold temperatures, if not yet abundant snowfall, have allowed areas to re-open or open for the first time this winter thanks to snowmaking. It's a crucial school holiday period in the country now.

Australia has had a different pattern to its 2016 season with almost no snow and warm temperatures at the 'official' season opening weekend on the second Saturday of June. Since later in the month though there have been low temperatures and big snowfalls across the country's ski regions, even allowing ski hills in Tasmania not normally open until mid-July to open three weeks early. Still more snow is expected this week and conditions are widely reported to be excellent.

It seems that the 2016 ski season is finally getting its act together in Australia and New Zealand this weekend after a mixed June.

Australia's ski season officially started three weeks ago but only one run at one resort was open for opening day and its only in the last week that it has really turned wintery. Fortunately it has turned very wintery so the ski season is now full on.

Perisher has 45 lifts open this weekend with all four of its resort areas linked. The storms over the last week have seen over 85cm of snow fall across Perisher Valley, Blue Cow, Smiggin Holes and Guthega.
"We're bringing in July with great skiing and boarding conditions, and with more snow predicted in the coming days, now is the time to get down to Perisher and enjoy these amazing conditions," said a Perisher statement.



Meanwhile New Zealand had a great start to their season three weeks ago for resorts that were scheduled to be the first top open with some reporting early conditions the best in years. But since then it has turned warm – too warm for snowmaking and thawing existing snow so some areas have been forced to close whilst others have delayed opening.

It has however finally turned cold again for the start of July here too, and whilst there's not been much fresh snow reported yet, at least snowmaking equipment has been able to fire up.

The Remarkables near Queenstown, for example, pictured above, has 60cm of snow on the upper slopes and 35cm at base. A return to colder overnight temperatures has also seen The Remarkables receive 5cm of new snow fall on Saturday, and a further dusting today.

Thanks to the temperature drop, the ski area's arsenal of snow guns has also sprung into action, pushing 110 litres a second onto the slopes.

"Queenstown has just been going off with people enjoying the skiing, great snow, the atmosphere and fun events," says The Remarkables ski area manager Ross Lawrence.

"We've had hundreds of Australian students in school groups on the slopes here each day and they've been loving it. It certainly helps spread the message about the snow we've got into that important Australian market.

This week, Queenstown Airport launches into its eight-week winter peak, with overall capacity scheduled to increase 20% compared to last winter. Domestic capacity is up 24% and international up 14%, and peak days this winter are likely to be this Saturday (July 9) and July 16, with 28 landings on each of these days. Of those landings, there are two more international flights coming into the resort each day compared to last winter.

Chamonix has announced a new high-speed detachable six-seater chairlift and an improved draglift connection are under construction in the resort's Brévent ski area and will be ready to operate next season.

The Leitner built chairlift will carry just under 3000 skiers per hour on the route, ascending just over a kilometres in just under four minutes.

The new lifts will replace the slow old non-detachable quad chairlift and two existing drag lifts. The lift company's aim is to make skier flow much more fluid through the area, as well as improving uplift for novice skiers and boarders. In addition it should improve the connection from Flégère to Planpraz.

In the short term, the biggest fear of British ski tour operators following the Brexit vote is that reports of a plummeting pound, restricted travel and general uncertainty as to what's coming next will lead to people not booking ski holidays for the coming winter.

So the past few days has seen a move to re-assure skiers and boarders that prices have not risen as the pound has fallen, with an increasing number of companies announcing a 'price freeze' and "prices unchanged since before the Brexit vote" although in most cases there's the proviso that it's "or the time being" as tour operators wait to see what is going to happen too.

But some have pointed out that whilst the pound may have dropped a bit against the Euro and is at a 30 year low against the US dollar, it remains much healthier against the Euro than it was a few years ago, and unless there's a dramatic down turn the pound should buy as much or almost as much in resort this winter as it did last. After all the EU is hurting as much, or almost as much, as the UK as a result of the Brexit vote.

In the longer term there are concerns about what will happen with Britain formally leave the EU in terms of British workers working abroad – with chalet holidays seen to be under particular threat, and travel restrictions, but tour operators are keen to point out that those concerns are several years away and who knows where we'll be then.

"We have seen an increase in sales to Canada as their early booking offers are so good and France as usual is seeing big demand especially for Easter. For the time being, Erna Low prices are being kept the same as they were before the nation voted to leave the EU. We feel that we owe it to our clients remain calm and do as much as we can to encourage people to book!" said Jane Bolton, MD at Erna Low, the UK's oldest ski tour operator and one of the few established long before Britain joined the EU, in fact even before the EU itself was formed!

Inghams, one of the UK's biggest ski holiday operators, which also owns Total Ski and Ski Esprit, has frozen all their winter holiday prices, as well as committing to absorbing any currency, fuel or other cost increases and ruling out any surcharge once guests have booked.

"The price freeze should alleviate uncertainty for those who have already booked, and gives prospective customers the advantage of booking with a stronger pre-referendum rates of exchange to get the most out of their holiday" said Paul Carter, the company's Chief Operating Officer,

"We advise customers to book their holiday as soon as possible and add on any additional extras such as ski hire, tuition and ski passes to avoid future price rises caused by Brexit."

As we approach July, ski areas in Europe that are open (or about to open) for summer skiing are reporting great snow conditions on their glaciers.

In most cases this is down to an exceptionally snowy mid-to-late spring with heavy snow reported on the highest slopes as recently as the past week.

In France conditions at Val d'Isere, which is one of three resorts currently offering glacier snowsports in the country, is reported to be the best in years (pictured above). Snow depths at neighbouring Tignes (2m,) as well as at Les 2 Alpes (2.4m) are also very healthy.

Snow depths are at 2.2m on Europe's highest slopes at Zermatt in Switzerland, there's been fresh June snowfall there and neighbouring Saas Fee is scheduled to open in just under three weeks.

In Italy Cervinia re-opened at the weekend providing cross-border summer skiing with Zermatt and Passo Stelvio (1.5m) is also open.

Austria as usual has the largest choice of summer skiing glaciers including at Huntertuix which reports the deepest base in the Alps at present at 255cm (Nearly seven feet), powder snow and 18km of runs and a terrain park open. The Kitzsteinhorn, Dachstein and Molltal glaciers are also all open and in good shape.

In Norway all three summer glacier areas are open at Fonna, Galdhopiggen and Stryn- the first two reporting the joint deepest snow base in the world at a remarkable 7m/23 feet.