J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

Baqueira Beret ski resort in Spain says it will open more runs for the Christmas Holiday weekend and expects to operate more than 130km of skiable pistes giving it one of the largest open areas in Europe at present.

The Pyrenean ski centre got nearly a metre of snowfall in late November but like much of Europe has had virtually no snow in December and battled warm temperatures at times.

However recent lower temperatures have allowed the snowmaking arsenal to be fired up and snow farming has also been used where needed. The centre's three key slope areas of Baqueira, Beret and Bonaigua will all be open.

Along with the skiing and boarding a full program of festive activities has been lined up over the coming fortnight including a Santa Claus visit to Beret and Baqueira where he will greet all the boys and girls who are at the resort, a downhill torchlit run, hot chocolate party, fireworks to celebrate the New Year and the Kings' Day parade on January 5th a snow plough machine (which celebrates the Three kings arriving at Jesus's stable).

2016 will begin with a good rhythm thanks to the traditional New Year's concert which this year brings together classical and jazz music in the concert to be held in the church of Baqueira. It will be a fundraising event with the objective of raising monies for the non-profit organization, "Mundo en Armonia" (World in Harmony).

All of the services and facilities of Baqueira Beret are in full operation including the Ski Service and Baqueira Store and the restaurants of the resort. The themed restaurants 5J Grill Baqueira in 1800, the classic Moët Winter Lounge in Orri are open as well as the informal Refugio San Miguel in Bonaigua.
www.baqueira.es

Whilst much of the skiing world continues to have a 'slow' start to the season in terms of snowfall, North America's Pacific Coast is enjoying incredible snowfalls after a near five year drought.

The snow started falling in late October and has been fairly constant for nearly two months now, with some ski areas nearing 5m (17 feet) of snowfall to date. Revelstoke in BC, Western Canada currently has the season running as its second snowiest ever on its historical snowfall graph.

Last week saw reports of four feet of fresh snow at Snowbird in Utah, three feet at steamboat in Colorado and at least two feet at most other areas. A foot of fresh snow overnight has become a normal event at many areas:

http://www.revelstokemountainresort.com/conditions/historical-snowfall

"This is our Avalanche Control Director who is 6'3". He just called in 21" (53cm) since 5pm last night and it's still snowing!" a Squaw Valley spokesperson said=, describing the picture above, taken yesterday.

The snowy deluge is being credited to the 'strong El Nino' weather system in the Pacific, which some have said is the strongest in 50 years, branding it the 'Godzilla El Nino'

There is a distinct line across North America where the 'El Nino Effect' turns from positive to negative for ski resorts. Areas in the mid-West and on the East Coast as far as Quebec and Ontario in Canada have been struggling to open, with no natural snow and temperatures too warm for snowmaking when they would normally be double digit below zero.

Some in Vermont have had a few inches of fresh snow in the past few days but others like Intrawest resort Blue Mountain in Ontario have reverted to summer operations for Christmas with zero snow cover.

In the autumn British tabloids decided this weather system would somehow cross the Atlantic bringing a severe winter to Europe, particularly Britain, and especially London, but so far that hasn't happened. If anything the reverse has been true, so far.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/weather/613168/UK-long-range-winter-weather-forecast-2015-snow

Concerns that fixing a cam on your helmet might lessen its protective qualities in an impact have been laid-to-rest, to some extent, by an exhaustive new study carried out by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL).

The august body was commissioned by BBC Safety to investigate the potential effects that mounting a camera, such as a GoPro®, may have on the safety performance of helmets and their findings were that there weren't really any. In fact in a few cases they found the camera mounting appeared to actually absorb some of the impact before the force reached the helmet itself.

Concerns had been raised about cam safety following various incidents, the most high profile of which was Michael Schumacher's crash above Meribel two years ago when his helmet, which had a camera mounted on it, reportedly split in two when he hit his head on a rock.

The TRL study involved studying impacts on a total of 75 test climbing helmets (slightly different to ski helmets), each with a camera mounted on it. Different types of camera location on the helmet, different types of camera mount and different types of impact were all tested. The study's conclusion was that,

"Results indicated that all helmet-mounted camera configurations investigated may be mounted to all three helmet models, and at all three impact locations, without increasing the risks of head injury beyond current legislative performance requirements or published injury thresholds."

The study focused on impacts and found that in 40% of tests the camera became detached from the helmet upon impact. It did not directly focus on the issue of whether chemicals used in adhesives used in camera mounting could damage helmet structure integrity although camera fixed with adhesive were tested alongside those that were clamped or strapped on.

authors noted that having a cam on your helmet was just one of a number of factors that might cause a differing result in an impact, others including the variables of helmet fit, size, weight, the angle of impact and the energy of an object strike or fall can all affect the end result.

The full report can be found at: http://www.trl.co.uk/reports-publications/trl-reports/report/?reportid=7032

Not so good in the east though :( http://www.torontosun.com/2015/12/16/blue-mountain-reopens-green-season-activities

The Austrian downhill racer Mathias Mayer, the Sochi Olympic gold medallist, suffered a high speed crash in the Men's World Cup Downhill in Val Gardena on Saturday, spinning through 180 degrees in the air before landing at high speed on his back.

Mayer was not seen to move much after the crash and was airlifted to hospital. However initial reports, including quotes from the Austrian team boss, were good, stating that he had been helped by the first deployment of the new airbag system for World Cup racers, and had been cushioned from serious injury, only suffering bad bruising.

However it later emerged later on Sunday that Mayer broke two vertebrae and had four vertebrae bolted together to aid the healing process and that he'll be hospitalized for at least 10 days and out of racing for the season.

Mayer is quoted as saying, "It could have been much worse...(without the airbag)" however a debate seems to be developing as to whether the air bag helped minimise the accident or actually made its effect worse. US racer Ted Ligety posted on Facebook:

"I feel horrible for Matthias Mayer I wish him all the best. It's really unfortunate racers are being used as crash test dummies to experiment with an unproven airbag system. To my knowledge he was the first real race crash with the airbag which resulted in the worst back injury in more then a decade for World Cup. It looks to me like the airbag acted as a fulcrum for his back to break around. This needs to be investigated."

The airbags have been developed over several years by the Italian company Dainese who have worked on a similar system for motor cycle racers. The system was developed by the FIS with the aim of minimising injuries and Dainese worked with World Cup racers on developing an algorithm that is intended to ensure the airbag deploys only when needed, as accidental deployment could cause problems at high speed too. British speed ski racer Jan Farrell volunteered to stage high speed crashes wearing the test version of the airbag system before it was finally approved.

Wearing the airbag or not is a matter of choice for each racer. Initially no racers are believed to have worn one because the feeling was that the added bulk might add vital fractions of a second to their race times. Saturday's race winner Aksel Lund Svindal said he didn't wear one as his suit split open when he moved.

However it appears racers are now beginning to wear the airbags, and Mayer is reported to have already had an accident in training previously when he was wearing the airbags, whilst Saturday's deployment was the first time in an actual race.

A new ski area will open in Utah in the USA tomorrow (Monday 21st December). Cherry Peak ski area, located close to the border with Idaho, is believed to be the first new ski area to open in North America since the 2008 economic crash.

It is also reported to have been planned since before that crash, and delayed opening as planned last season due to final design changes. Even for opening day one of the three triple chairlifts is not fully complete so will not open, but the other two, and a fourth lift, a 165m long carpet conveyor, will.

The ski area may have chosen a good ski season to open as there's been heavy snow in Western North America and some ski areas in Utah reported up to four feet of new snow last week, although accumulations at cherry peak seem more modest to date. However it looks like it will be snowing for opening day.

http://www.skicherrypeak.us

In an achievement that's being described as historic, the 23 year old British cross-country skier Andrew Young took bronze in the World Cup event in Italy today.

"First final, first podium, it was an amazing day. I had perfect skis. The whole team worked really hard," saidYoung, adding, "I had worked a lot on the qualification before the winter. Last season I was a lot between 30th and 45th place. I felt strong the whole day. I had a good start and a very good middle part."

Young was competing alongside Andrew Musgrave in the World Cup Freestyle Sprint competition at Toblach in Italy. It's the first medal a Brit has ever won in the event.

The achievement follows a 9th place in last weekend's World Cup race in Davos, pictured above (picture credit Fabien Mauz).

Young, who is from Huntly in Scotland, in 2008 he became the youngest skier ever to compete in a World Cup event.

The two Andrews will race in the 15km Classic tomorrow.

Coincidentally Young's achievement today comes on the same day that the Men's Downhill race was stage in Val Gardena, also in Italy. This was the race in which Britain recorded their greatest ever Alpine World Cup result 34 years ago when Konrad Bartelski finished second in December 1981.

http://www.teamgb.com/athletes/andrew-young

(Les Arcs this week)

December weather conditions in the Alps look like they're going to be warm for Christmas for the second season in a row, but two things have been different this autumn to autumn 2014: firstly the big snowfalls at the end of November and secondly periods of cold enough weather for snowmaking.

The snowfall in the last few days of November, which was typically in the region of 50cm -1m in total, gave most resorts in the alps and the Pyrenees a good base for the start of the season. Cold weather allowed most areas to power up snowmaking too and build up their bases.

The result is that whilst there's no off piste skiing due to the lack of hardly any fresh snow in December, on the pistes conditions are generaly good, and far more terrain is open than this time a year ago,

"Conditions are actually not bad at all in the Arc 2000 bowl; we've been skiing pretty much all day, every day on pistes that are well covered," said a J2Skier currently based in Arc 1950.

It's a similar story across the alps with some resorts including Saas Fee and Solden maintaining top to bottom skiing over their big verticals and Zermatt announcing today it has 150km of runs open for Christmas week.

Without wishing to paint too rose tinted a picture however, it is not an ideal Christmas week and lower elevation resorts and ski areas are suffering. Meribel for example has announced all runs to the resort are currently closed although you can reach the higher slopes and return from them on its extensive gondola network.

The Pyrenees are reported to be in good shape, on the pistes again, too and even the Dolomites, which have had almost no fresh natural snow so far this autumn, have opened hundreds of kilometres of trails with their mighty snowmaking arsenal and this weekend have World Cup racing in Val Gardena on white slopes on top of a green valley.

The picture is less rosy in Scotland, where the currently very warm British weather is preventing areas opening, and some of the worst conditions are in the snowmaking-capital-of-the-world, NE North America, where it has been too warm for snowmaking to operate and some resorts have switched to 'summer operations' with golf and mountain biking for their Christmas week guests and not a snowflake in sight.