J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

(Serre Chevalier image Credit: Zoom Agency)

French ski areas appear to be starting to adopt the US model of measuring their ski slopes by area rather than piste length.

The new development seems to be a response by French ski area operators to adopt a standard measuring system, several years after the issue was first brought to the headlines by the German ski writer and cartographer Christoph Schrahe, who has now launched his own official ski area size measuring and verification service: http://www.pistelength.com - adopted by Kitzbuhel, Saalbach and other leading, so far primarily Austrian resorts, which had already been the first react to the publicity over unfair measuring practices two season ago.

The latest French move was first noted in late summer when Les 2 Alpes announced it would be publishing the hectares of area of its ski slopes, but (apparently) not piste length figures, any more.

Now Serre Chevalier has followed and created a page on its website explaining how it has measured its slope area (http://www.serre-chevalier.com/en/ski-area-total-surface). Again they talk about north America style area stats with acres and hectares, rather than piste length. They say they've had their ski area dimensions independently verified by third party specialists.

It will be interesting to see how many more French resorts do the same. France is famous for having the biggest ski areas in the world, dominating more tables of the top 10 or 20 biggest ski areas by total piste length, so switching to an area measure might be a step backwards for those areas like the 3 Valleys whose 600km/biggest in the world are almost trade marks.

Ski areas tend to be measured in three different ways around the world. By area in North America and in the southern hemisphere with the amount of easy, moderate and difficult terrain divided in to percentages; then by total trail length in Europe, although on the French-speaking side resorts tend to say how many green, blue, red and black runs there are, whilst on the German-side they go for the km of blue, red and black runs to make up the total.

The battle is (even more) on to be the first ski area to open for the 15-16 in Colorado after up to a foot of snow landed in the past few days on High country ski slopes.

The fresh snow, which is expected to continue after the weekend, follows an October of stop-start snowmaking which hasn't yet allowed areas to open.

Instead Killington in Vermont over on the East Coast instead stole 'earliest to open in North America' honours last weekend when it opened a trail thanks 100% to snowmaking.

Loveland and Arapahoe Basin are looking the best bets to open in Colorado in the next few days although neither had officially said when they'll open as yet.

The earliest to give a fixed date is Keystone Resort which says it will open as panned a week on Friday on November 6th.

"Winter weather has arrived in Colorado and the team at Keystone is busy getting ready for opening day," said Mike Goar, vice president and chief operating officer of Keystone Resort, adding, "Snow storms are in the forecast and snowmaking preparations are underway, creating lots of excitement for the start to the 2015-2016 ski season. "

Opening day for Breckenridge (pictured above) is scheduled for a week later Friday, November 13th.

Kitzbűhel have announced they'll be opening for the 2015-16 ski season this weekend.

It's not the first time that the well known resort in the Austrian Tirol has opened in October, indeed in recent years they've made a habit of it, partly it seems in response to dire predictions a decade ago that
the ski area's low elevation will mean it will be a likely early victim of climate change.

It's the first non-glacier ski area in the Alps to open, although elsewhere in Europe Ruka in Finland has opened too.

Snowfall and cold weather for snowmaking in recent days has covered the mountains around Kitzbühel (and many other parts of the Alps) in white.

Several lifts will be operating over the weekend (24/25 October) in the resort's Resterhöhe / Pass Thurn slopes.

At the same time Sölden has the first World Cup Race this coming weekend from Friday to Sunday and excellent snow conditions are forecast after heavy snow at the end of last week.

Crystal Ski Holidays, which broke the Kitzbűhel early opening story in the UK, has come up with a special offer to celebrate the early snow: if you book your Crystal ski holiday by 2nd November to any of the European resorts, you qualify for a Buy-One-Get-One-Free (BOGOF) offer on ski or snowboard equipment rental saving you up to £165 (based on the price for superior snowboard hire in Grindelwald).

The 2015-16 ski season officially got started in North America yesterday with Killington in Vermont opening for the season thanks to its mighty snowmaking arsenal firing up due to sufficiently low temperatures.

It is due to be joined by Sunday River in Maine, which in years past has beaten it to be first to open in the country, later today.

There's a battle to be first in the US each winter which is quite often won by resorts in Colorado such as Loveland and Arapahoe Basin, which are among the world's 20 highest ski areas, but even though these areas have been snowmaking on and off for the past few weeks, this year it appears the East has won.

The only near-year-round ski area in North America at Timberline in Oregon had to close in the early summer due to warm temperatures thawing the upper snow cover from the permanent snowfield.

North of the border Canadian areas like Sunshine near Banff and Nakiska near Calgary look set to open at the end of the month or early in November.

Around 20 areas are currently open in the Alps and Scandinavia.

Vail Resorts are advertising a peak season one day lift pass at $151 US dollars at Val and Beaver Creek resorts in Colorado, – or approximately £100 depending on where you exchange your currency.

The advance-purchase online price is likely to be lower than the walk-to-window price charged if you were to buy your ticket in resort on the day you want to use it, which is traditionally the most expensive way to buy a lift pass. The $151 rate is offered at the peak New Year 2016 week.

Vail is famous for having some of the world's most expensive lift tickets, as well as offering some of the lowest price per-day tickets, if you advance purchase the company's season pass.

The other ski area that sometimes posted the most expensive lift pass prices in the world some years, depending on the strength of the Australian Dollar, was Perisher ski resort. It was purchased by Vail Resorts in the summer.

It is also believed that very few people actually buy there lift ticket at the high price, most use the Epic Pass season ticket and/or buy a package which includes accommodation and lift pass at a cost for lower than the cost of combining the published lift pass and accommodation rates.

The Epic Pass, which cover's Vail's 10 US and various leading international resorts, can cost less than just a few single day tickets if purchased during the spring or summer prior to the ski season.

The company also offer much lower regular priced tickets away from the peak New Year week. In low season at the start of winter the advance purchase price is S100 per day.

Riksgränsen ski resort in the Arctic Circle of northern Sweden will be home to more than 600 asylum seekers over the winter.

The resort, which is located 200km north of the Arctic Circle and is in 24 hour darkness in mid-winter is normally shut up during midwinter and has an unusual ski season, not opening to paying guests until mid-February when daylight returns and then staying open to midsummer in June when it is possible to ski or board under the midnight sun.

The director of Lapland Resorts which runs the centre told Swedish media that they were reacting to the refuge crisis and said that the centre could quite easily be kept warm and snug through the winter. He added that although the refugees would be moved on before the start of the ski season he hoped that some might stay on to work in the centre during the spring season.

More than 2,000 ski areas in the Alps, and several companies have already digitally mapped all of them, so yes it depends on definitions of what is a ski area and what sort of mapping :) ...but yes, great project and good luck to them!

It's an interesting period for Murren's famous Piz Gloria revolving mountain restaurant.

The restaurant is getting extra attention at present because of its James Bond connections, with the new SPECTRE movie the first for a decade with scenes shot in a ski resort.

It opened a new 'James Bond 007 Walk' recently which follows routes taken by actors in the 1969 Bond film 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' and includes information boards, leading to the existing Bond Exhibition. Both are year round and free to access so long as you have a lift pass to get there.

The restaurant , which played a crucial role in the film as the lair of the arch baddy, was built 50 years ago, but was reported to only have been completed after finance was provided by the movie production company after investment cash had dried up. They also built a helicopter landing pad with huge expense and effort just for the film.

Along with the latest Bond attractions however the attest improvements work for skiers too. The stairs that used to need to be negotiated to access the slopes are now a thing of the past with connections levelled out and a new passenger lift means that stairs in ski boots are a thing of the past throughout the building.