Messages posted by : J2SkiNews
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I think it was £20+ last year but it did include the Telegraph ski mag subscription. This is also the 'Early Bird' price so will perhaps go up to £20+ at some point - so far they've not said what full price is or if mag subscription is included this year (no mention i could see of that on their site) - but have asked the question :) Agree £15 seems more realistic and family ticket good if you've got teens.
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The 2016 Telegraph Ski & Snowboard Show Park will return for its second year at the Battersea Evolution exhibition centre within Battersea park this autumn. Although sticking to its new venue, the show is moving back to its late October date from its early November one last year, meaning it will be staged in the English school holidays just before Halloween from the 27th – 30th October, 2016. There will be something of a family feel to this year's show too with magic shows, face painting, a free-to-use ice rink for all abilities as well as a real snow tubing slope. There's a new Kid's Corner promised as the hub of family entertainments. Children aged under 11 will be free, 11 – 16 year olds £8, and there's an advanced purchase 'family ticket' currently available for £30, otherwise advance prices for adults are £15. Most of the popular attractions from last year's show will be back too, along with some new ideas. 'Mount Battersea' – a real snow slope – will be back for tubing and events, there'll also be a rail jam, the return of the Alpine Street Food area providing authentic dishes and regional wine and beers completes the après vibe. The Altitude Comedy Festival tent (pictured above), Boot Fitting Clinic and Mountain Talks Theatre will also return. The Travel Genius Bar where experienced ski journalists and other experts provide top tips will be back and from 5pm on Friday 26th there'll be a late night après party. Opening times are below and earlybird tickets are on sale now via: www.skiandsnowboard.co.uk Thurs 11am-7pm Fri 10am-10pm Sat 10am-8pm Sun 10am-5pm |
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Mt Rose, which closes for the season today, has reported 33cm (13 inches) of fresh snow has fallen for its final weekend of this season (pictured above yesterday). Indeed even though it's approaching mid-May the snow is still falling on mountains across Western North America with no real sign of an end to the cold snowy weather in the coming week. Mammoth Mountain and Squaw Valley in California have both announced they'll be staying open through May, at the end of which they'll re-assess conditions and consider staying open in to June. Other US ski areas with similar plans (and conditions) include Arapahoe Basin in Colorado, Snowbird in Utah and Mt Bachelor in Oregon. Timberline, also in Oregon, is also open and normally stays open to the end of summer. Crystal Mountain in Washington State closed for the season three weeks ago but says it plans to re-open for spring and possible summer skiing at weekends, conditions permitting, from the American Memorial Day holiday weekend at the end of the month. On the East Coast – which has not had a snowy winter 15-16, Killington in Vermont is the only area open with an ungroomed few runs and a 60cm base at best. North of the border Sunshine at Banff is open for another fortnight and Whistler to the end of the month (then re-opening in mid-June for a month's summer skiing). |
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The Ski Club of Great Britain's (SCGB's) Chief Executive Frank McCusker has branded a French appeal court decision in favour of the Ecole de Ski Français (ESF) and against the Ski Club as, "misguided and inappropriate." "This is the outcome we expected but we still believe it to be misguided and inappropriate. We will continue our fight and we will be launching a further appeal in the French Criminal Supreme Court in Paris," said Mr McCusker who was commenting after Ski Club of Great Britain leader Ken Piddlesden was unsuccessful in turning around the original court's decision at an initial appeal hearing in Chambéry. Supported by the Ski Club, Piddlesden attended the Court of Appeal in Chambery on 30th March 2016, where, on his behalf, his lawyer presented the case for his defence. The appeal was immediately launched by the Ski Club after the initial judgement in the lower court in Albertville which found Club leader Ken Piddlesden in contravention to Art.L.212-1 of the French Code du Sport in January 2015. The Ski Club contends that Mr Piddlesden was a volunteer so did not have to meet teaching qualifications of paid instructors in France, the French case is that he was effectively paid so does have to abide by their law. "As Ski Club leaders are non-remunerated volunteers the club continues to maintain the action is misguided and inappropriate," a statement on behalf of the Ski Club reads. It is one of three similar but different cases currently working their way through the French and potentially European court system involving British people leading, hosting, guiding or teaching in some way British people on French ski slopes without the qualifications the French government say they must have. Along with saying they have not broken the law, most argue that the French rules in any case contravene European law in their opinion. At the appeal in the SCGB case a further €800 of damages has been awarded in favour of each of the Ecole de Ski Français (ESF) associations involved. The legal reasoning behind this decision will be given in the written judgement to follow. The Ski Club of Great Britain, on behalf of Ken Piddlesden will seek to launch a further appeal in a higher court in Paris and in due course his lawyer will also be lodging an official complaint with the European Commission on his behalf. A request to the appeal court in Chambéry to refer the case to the European Court of Justice was refused. |
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An initiative to get more school children to try out snowsports has been hailed a success by organisers Snowsport England, who have already announced it will be back in 2017. The new National Schools Snowsport Week, which ended last week and had won sponsorship from Visit Andorra saw just under 150 schools taking part at 21 ski slopes across England – including indoor snow centres and dry slopes. 1066 school children took part altogether, trying skiing or snowboarding either for free or at low cost. There were free taster sessions at most of the participating slopes as well as low cost recreational slope time. Visit Andorra and another sponsor, school tour operator Equity, helped ensure each child away with a goody bag for their efforts. "2016's National Schools Snowsport Week has exceeded our expectations by a long way, and more importantly given the snowsports bug to hundreds of children across the country," said Dominic McGonigal, Chairman of Snowsport England's Youth Development Committee, "A big thanks goes out to all the schools, slopes and volunteers involved. We definitely plan to do the same again next year but even bigger and better!" www.nssw.co.uk |
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The heavy snow in the last week of April that has led to ski areas on both sides of the Atlantic re-opening for snowsports this weekend looks set to continue in to the first week of May. Up to 90cm/three feet of fresh snow has fallen in the Alps and Rockies over the last seven days and similar snowfalls are expected over the next week which takes us in to May. In the Alps Chamonix is expecting a foot of snow before the end of the weekends on top of 75cmin the last week and at year round Zermatt up to 75cm is expected. Tignes, open to the 9th May, is also expecting another foot of snow after 50cm this week. The snow follows heavy snow on almost all still-open Alpine glacier ski areas and right down to lower levels in the past week which has seen Engelberg report 85cm (nearly three feet) of new snow on its glacier since Monday – it is open for another three weeks. In Scotland still more snow is forecast as we enter May. The Lecht is re-opening and Glencoe and Cairngorm are both still open although Glencoe says Monday, May 2nd will be the last day of its season. There's been up to a foot of snow in Scandinavia too where it's the last weekend of the season for many leading areas. Hemsedal (pictured top) reported 15cm of fresh snow overnight on top of 15cm on Wednesday and announced a powder weekend ahead. Across the Atlantic Wolf Creek in Colorado has announced it is re-opening this weekend whilst still-open Arapahoe Basin and Loveland have been pointing to the latest big storm front moving in which they expect will bring much more snow for the start of May. Other American areas still open and enjoying the powder include Snowbird in Utah (65cm fresh), and Squaw Valley (45cm fresh) and Mammoth ( 20cm fresh – 457cm base) in California. |
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The Lecht ski area in Scotland (pictured above this morning) has announced it will re-open some runs this May Day Bank Holiday long weekend after a week of snowfall and consistent snowfall in the Scottish highlands which is expected to continue over the weekend. The Lecht was forced to close, along with nearby Glenshee, before the start of the Easter Holidays in late march as warm, dry conditions melted away snow cover. However the past week has seen 'mid-Winter weather' return to the Scottish Highlands with snow reaching the valley floor in some areas for the first time since January. The Lecht joins two of the five Scottish Highland ski areas which have stayed open since January – Glencoe on the West Coast and Cairngorm above Aviemore, both also reporting excellent snow conditions. There's no word yet on openings beyond Bank Holiday Monday. Glencoe has said that will be its last day of operations for the season but Cairngorm is yet to announce a season end date. |
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Ocean temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific are on the move and from that it's possible to extrapolate the likelihood of a snowy ski season 2016-17 in Western North America – kind of. The region's weather is dominated by two long standing weather phenomena - El Niño and La Niña, one or the other of which ends to dominate for a year or longer at a time. This past year has seen a particularly 'strong' El Niño, dubbed the 'Godzilla El Niño' which has brought large amounts of precipitation to the Western US, falling as snow in many ski areas. The biggest snowfall totalled nearly 18 metres at Alyeska in Alaska whilst ski areas like Mammoth and Squaw Valley are sitting on bases metres deep as we enter May and plan to stay open at least another month, possibly longer. Most importantly it also ended a five year drought in California. Resorts in South America are now hoping that they'll also benefit from the Godzilla El Niño and a snowy 2016 season has been forecast with heavy snow already reported two months before the season is due to start in Chile and Argentina. However the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the US say things are changing and that last month the sea temperature in the crucial area OF THE Pacific dropped by nearly half a degree Celcius. This signals, they belief, a flip to La Niña conditions. It can be confusing because the marketing departments of ski resorts in the region tend to say both La Niña and El Niño can mean heavy snow, but what it seems to be is that a 'strong' La Niña or El Niño can mean heavy snow, whilst a weak one of either tends to be a bit lacklustre on the snowfall front. Historically though a strong La Niña tends to follow a strong El Niño and the NOAA are saying that the 2016-17 La Niña should be a strong one. La Niña is associated with colder weather than El Niño raising hopes of still more snow than this winter, indeed the world record snowfall of 28 metres in one season reported by Mt Baker in Washington state in the late 1990s happened in a strong La Niña winter. The extent and in the influence of the Pacific weather patterns is very complex, largely unpredictable and difficult to measure beyond the Western sides of North and South America. El Niño tends to be associated with warmer, wetter weather and Japanese ski areas as well as those further East in North America had either less good or fairly terrible winter for snowfall with conditions too warm and wet in the past winter. However attempts by British tabloids last autumn when the strong El Niño was reported to suggest that excess snowfall would travel across the Atlantic to create an Armageddon-like winter weather in Britain and Europe in 2015-16 proved 100% wrong. http://www.express.co.uk/news/weather/613168/UK-long-range-winter-weather-forecast-2015-snow http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/weather/11999259/British-winter-could-feel-longer-and-colder-because-of-El-Nino.html However that's not stopped them already forecasting similar conditions for next winter in the UK: http://www.express.co.uk/news/weather/647010/Weather-UK-El-Nino-La-Nina-warning-UK-storms |
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