J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

After a week of heavy snow in the Alps and in Western North America (detailed in our report yesterday), with snowfall, unusually for this far in to spring, reaching right down to the valley floor, more of the world's ski regions are reporting significant snowfall too, with the start of May less than a week away.

The latest snow reports this morning include snowfall for Bulgaria, Scandinavia and Scotland, where again snow is falling down to the valleys for the first time since January.



(Hemsedal in Norway, above, which is still open, reported 10cm of snow overnight)

Most of the world's ski areas, including many summer glacier ski areas which are in a 'between-seasons-closed period', have now ended their ski seasons so the arrival of all the snow will be seen as particularly ironic in areas that struggled to get snow cover until January or even later in the winter. Here's at J2Ski.com we ran the last of our weekly snow reports last week and we can't recall a recent season like this!

The start of the 2016 ski season in the southern hemisphere is still about 6 weeks off but there's been around a foot/30cm of snow each at Ski La Parva in Chile and at Cerro Catedral in Argentina (La Parva pictured below yesterday, the picture at the top of this report is from Cerro Catedral).

It was a snowy end to the season at most of the 'still open for 2015-16' ski areas that closed yesterday.

Others that remain open are reporting powder conditions as we enter May as April continues to outdo December for snowfall.

There's been heavy fresh snow again in the Alps, the Rockies and even Scotland where snow was reported down to resort level at Aviemore on Sunday.

In the Alps, Lech, Engelberg (pictured above) and the Stubai glacier all announced another 20-30cm of fresh snow. The latter two centres still have 4 and 5 weeks of the season left respectively.

Across the Atlantic in Utah both Alta and Snowbird announced 'powder alarms' at the weekend for around a foot of fresh snow at each. Snowbird currently has a 2.5m base and is open Fridays to Sundays through May.

The snow in Utah followed up to another 50cm of fresh snow in 24 hours reported earlier in the weekend in California where Squaw Valley will also be open to the end of May.

At Cairngorm 800 people were reported on the slopes yesterday and there's currently full winter blizzard conditions with heavy snow and strong winds. The centre, which has not yet announced a closing date for the season, says it expects conditions to be good again on Wednesday 27th.

Alta ski area in Utah has won a case brought by a group of snowboarders who sought to overturn the resort's ban on boarding.

The snowboarders had originally lost their initial case ;last year and the original decision was upheld by the Court Of Appeal this week.

The snowboarders had argued that banning them from the slopes was discriminatory and based on out-of-date stereotypes. They also claimed it was illegal under the US constitution because Alta operates on state controlled land leased from, US forest service rather than privately owned land.

Alta, one of three US resorts that still bans snowboarding (and believed to now be the only three in the world to do so), said that their marketing of a 'snowboarder-free experience' was a business decision. They also argued that the snowboarding stance gave boarders, they said, 'a blind spot' making them more dangerous on the slopes.

The appeals court agreed with the original decision and said that Alta was free to make business decisions.

The court said that allowing one resort to ban boarders from federal land did not mean the government condoned the ban, pointing out that boarding is allowed on federal land at around 120 other US resorts.

"At this point, we can only hope that Alta will one day voluntarily join the vast majority of ski resorts by lifting its snowboarding ban," said the snowboarders' lawyer, Jon Schofield, who has not yet said whether group intend to continue the appeal process to a higher court.

Alta said they welcomed the court's decision.

Deer Valley, also in Utah, and Mad River Glen in Vermont also ban snowboarding.

Les 2 Alpes in the French Alps has announced that it will operate the longest summerski season in France this year, opening from 18 June to 27th August. It has also announced that it will be offering a lot more than snowsports for anyone visiting and buying a six day lift pass, pried at €196.50

The 6-day pass includes free access to the swimming pool and ice-rink, 6 luge runs, 1 hour of tennis, 1 golf session, 1 archery session, and 1 day of mountain biking in one of those 4 resorts: Alpe d'Huez, Serre Chevalier, Puy ST Vincent or Montgenèvre. The 6-day pas also gives a discount to the Aventure Parc Venosc.

Les 2 Alpes has one of the biggest summerski areas in the world, spread over 111 hectares, with 400m of skiable vertical down from 3600m and including 11 ski runs graded green to red, served by 17 lifts and including a large terrain park where summer camps are staged. More than 50 ski instructors work on the glacier in the summer.

The summerski business is big at the resort attracts an average of 1500 skiers and boarders each morning (The slopes are open from 7am to lunchtime daily) and more than 130,000 in total during the nine week long summer season.

There have been some big snowfalls on each side of the Atlantic in the past 48 hours (following on from an often snowy week last week when up to 30cm of fresh snow fell).

In the Alps still-open ski areas have reported up to 50cm of fresh snow had accumulated by this morning.

At Livigno in Italy (below) the resort reported 20cm of snow at resort level, more than 40cm up top.



Other still-open areas on both sides of the Atlantic reported heavy snowfall too.

In Scotland there was fresh snow at the two-still open centres of Cairngorm and Glencoe.

Loveland in Colorado has reported 15 inches (38cm) of fresh snow over the weekend (Pictured below)



Although only a few hundred ski areas are now still operating their 2015-16 ski seasons, compared to more than 4,000 in December it seems that many open and closed areas will see more snow this month that they did in the last month of 2015, as well as having much greater base depths.

Three of Scotland's five mountain ski areas still have snowsports to offer skiers and snowboarders, but there aren't many takers.

"It's always the same at this time of year," said Chair of Ski-Scotland Heather Negus, "We can offer great sliding, particularly on the upper mountains, but down in the valleys and in the cities, people see daffodils and cherry blossom and believe the ski season is over, but believe me it's not!"

CairnGorm Mountain has had fresh snow over the last few nights (Tues/Wed and Wed Thur 12/13 and 13/14 April) with more forecast into the weekend. Weekend events planned at the top station include Atomic ski demos on Friday and Saturday and the Ptarmigan Freestyle Jam from 11am on Saturday, with no need to register, just take part on the day.

Cairngorm report there is also good skiing and snowboarding from the top down to the middle of the mountain, and six lifts are scheduled to operate including the funicular.

Nevis Range is also offering competent skiers and snowboarders the chance to enjoy the upper mountain and back country for one last time this winter. After this weekend, the resort will close for snowsports for the season.

Glencoe Mountain staff report that they still have upper, mid and key lower slopes open and what they describe as, "amazing skiing."

Glencoe and CairnGorm Mountains will remain open for snowsports though, with both now offering special reduced-price midweek tickets.

With more snow forecast, Ski-Scotland recommends anyone planning a weekend's sliding should check the conditions and weather on the official website www.ski-scotland.com/conditions.

"Forget about cutting the grass, check the conditions, and come skiing and boarding – the season's far from over yet!" said Heather.

Nightmare! I will be extending my journey to avoid Manchester in future so I can get my consignments ion safely, so many of my cheese addicted friends rely on my regular top ups to their supplies. Thanks for the tip off!

Nevis Range ski area in the Western Scottish Highlands has begun work on a hydro electric plant which will generate most of the energy needed to run the centre and at times of peak supply export excess green electricity to the grid.

The new 1,100kW hydro scheme is being built at a cost of £4 million and is due to be up and running by the end of November in time for the next ski season.

The project is being developed by a subsidiary - Nevis Range Hydro Company Ltd – with advice from Green Cat Renewables Ltd with finance made possible thanks to a loan from Close Brothers Leasing.

It will provide green electricity to the base station at Nevis Range to power the gondola, the offices and the Pinemarten café. When there is excess power it will be exported to the grid.

Principal contractor, George Leslie Ltd engaged Highland-based specialist hill contractor, Hitrak to install access roads in advance of main works commencing this week. The scheme comprises a small dam at 580m in the 'Back Corrie' of the ski centre, 1.3km pipe for a penstock which will be buried, and a turbine house with 2 x 550kW turbines. An electric cable will be buried through the forest to connect the power house to Nevis Range base station. Once the water has been through the turbines generating electricity for Nevis Range, it flows back into the Allt choille Rais burn, where it drops into Rio Tinto's intake and plays its part in generating power for the smelter – so it gets used twice.

Marian Austin, a director of Nevis Range Hydro Company Ltd said, "It has been a complex negotiation to raise money for the scheme as it involved the many parties who have an interest in the facilities at the ski centre/visitor attraction and the surrounding land. I'm very pleased this phase is over and we can progress to building it. We know that it will be a challenging scheme to construct because of the steep terrain and the isolated, wild nature of the construction site. Specialist machinery and helicopters will be used to minimize damage to the Corrie which has various environmental and landscape designations. It does snow and rain a lot – a challenge for construction - but that is why it is a great location for a hydro scheme.' She added 'I really appreciate the support we have had from both of the landowners – Forest Enterprise Scotland and Rio Tinto - in getting to this point and from many other organisations and individuals involved in the permissions and consents. I'm looking forward to seeing the project take shape. It will be visible from a distance during construction but after the pipeline is re-instated, and the access roads restored, it is designed to disappear back into the landscape."

Managing Director, Peter MacFarlane also commented, saying, "This is an exciting project –to be part of a company that generates its own power in an environmentally friendly way ticks all the right boxes for a ski area and visitor attraction in this beautiful location. Added to the existing biomass boiler that heats the base station, this will reduce our carbon emissions – something that matters to a company that utilizes the weather to make its living. Secondly, electricity is one of our main costs and this will reduce it, and finally being the majority shareholder in the hydro company means we will benefit from 'poor' weather, something that affects our core business negatively."

(Pictured above: Charlie Gallagher (left) Site Manager for Contractors, George Leslie with Peter MacFarlane and Marian Austin at the burn which which will provide Hydro power. PICTURE IAIN FERGUSON, THE WRITE IMAGE)