J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

The UK's biggest ski holiday operator Crystal has decided to end its ski hosting service at all of its resorts and offer its customers an ever improving digital app guide service instead, which it says its research has found is what its customers actually prefer.

The company surveyed more than 2,300 of its customers in March and found that take up of the once popular ski hosting service had dropped to only 4% whilst it's self-guiding App was being used by 15% of its customers and growing.

The company's Ski Explorer (iOS and Android) app includes recommended ski routes for all levels by our expert resort teams. Customers can independently rate the runs and track how far and fast you ski through the day. The 'My Friends' feature answers that eternal ski resort problem of finding your friends wherever they are on the mountain (or the bars…).

Ski hosting, or social skiing, involves tour operator staff taking clients on orientation tours of easy slopes to introduce them to the ski areas they're visiting. The service has been offered for decades by many tour operators but has proved ever more controversial in some countries, particularly France, where ski schools have claimed tour operator staff do not hold adequate qualification to offer the service. Crystal are currently part of a group of leading tour operators backing tour operator Le Ski in a 'test case' with the French authorities over the legality of the service, currently working its way through the appeals court process.

However in the meantime there have been signs from other countries, including regions in Italy, that they'll follow the French lead.

Crystal say that despite their changing priorities with their own ski hosting service they will continue to support Le Ski in its case.

"Crystal will continue to invest in mobile tools for the winter season 2015-16. Social skiing will no longer be offered, and our expert in-resort teams, who live and breathe the mountains, will continue to help customers get the most out of their time on the slopes," said a statement on behalf of Crystal.

"Our mobile tools will mean they are always on hand to offer tips on where to ski and resort information. For instance, we all know that the hardest choices to make in the morning are how much clothing to take and which slopes are going to have the best conditions. We will be discussing with our in-resort teams how they can best liaise with mountain patrol and ski schools to provide customers with the best morning briefing possible and provide them with valuable updates during the day through the app and even into the après-ski."

www.crystalski.co.uk/skiexplorerapp

Richard "Dick" Bass, the first man to climb all seven of the highest peaks on seven continents and the co-founder of Snowbird Ski Resort in Utah has died yesterday, July 26th, 2015, in Texas, aged 85.

Bass was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1929 and graduated from Yale University with a degree in geology in 1950 before seeing active service in the Korean War.

Having been one of the original investors in Vail Associates when the company was founded in the early 1960s (and later a majority share holder before selling his stock), Bass founded Snowbird in 1971 and remained owner until last year when he sold his majority share to the Cummings family which also owns Powdr Corporation which runs a number of other US resorts, although Snowbird is not counted within that group. Mr Bass had remained chairman of the Snowbird board and said at the time,

"'This partnership will enable Snowbird to achieve more rapid growth and even greater benefits for our guests in keeping with our founding perspective and philosophy of providing a year-round destination mountain resort for the enhancement of body, mind, and spirit, with our ever present emphasis on environmental protection and sensitivity."

Bass became the first person to achieve the Seven Summits on April 30, 1985 and at the time, aged 55, he was also the oldest person to have climbed Mt. Everest.

Bass was living in Texas having found it more difficult to stay at altitude during his later years. Funeral services will be Friday on July 31st at 4pm at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Dallas, Texas.

The city-centre freestyle snowsport and music festival Freezer is back after a year-off this autumn and is being revamped thanks to Lottery funding in to what the organisers say will be the biggest snowsports event in British history on home snow.

Freeze also has a new venue - London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, and a new status as an FIS sanctioned Snowboard World Cup Big Air competition - Freeze Big Air.

The event will take place on Saturday 14th November, a week after the revamped London ski show, and earlybird tickets are on sale now priced at £37.50 from the event's website www.freezebigair.com for an unspecified 'limited time'.

The Freeze Big Air event will form part of UK Sport's National Lottery funded major events programme and see over 60 of the world's best male and female snowboarders and skiers descend on the capital's Olympic Park to take on a huge real snow jump measuring 120m x 41m - that's 15 metres longer than the Wembley Stadium pitch - created with 360 tonnes of snow.

British Olympic bronze medallist Jenny Jones is the official event ambassador and British Olympian Jamie Nicholls will be competing alongside a field of world-class snowboarders and skiers. Both are pictured above).

And, with Snowboard Big Air now set to be an official Olympic event, Jenny Jones is confident that Freeze Big Air will become one of the most important annual Olympic Big Air qualifiers on the calendar in the lead up to the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea.

"The news that Snowboard Big Air will be an Olympic discipline in 2018 is huge for British snowboarding and skiing" said Jenny, "British riders like Billy Morgan and Katie Ormerod are real medal prospects in 2018. And the fact that we'll be able to see the best riders in the world battling it out in the middle of London will be an amazing start to each winter. I can't wait!"

Similar events in former summer Olympic stadia have included repeat shows in Beijing's Birds Nest stadium in recent winters.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson also commented on the event's announcement, "The Freeze Big Air Festival is clear proof that anything is possible at the magnificent Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. We have already hosted a plethora of world class sporting events and can now add Olympic-level snowboarding to that incredible mix. I am delighted that London will be showcasing the spectacular talents of some of the world's leading winter athletes in such a unique setting. It promises to be an extraordinary day that adds to our reputation as the world's number one sporting city."

Large snowfalls have been reported in Australia ahead of one of the country's busiest months of the ski season.

Perisher, the nation's largest ski area, recently acquired by Vail Resorts from the US, reported 70ccm of fresh snow in the past 48 hours.

The resort now has 45 lifts operating and has opened more runs including Eyre, International, Sun Valley and Interceptor, as well as linking Perisher Valley with Smiggin Holes.

Other Aussie resorts have had healthy snowfalls too, Falls Creek reports 16cm (six inches) of fresh snow overnight and describes conditions as "awesome" with full ski-in, ski-out access.
Mt Hotham has had similar accumulations.

Base depths are creeping up towards the 1m mark and more snow is expected today although snow showers will ease, whilst temperatures remain well below freezing moving towards August.

The big Aussie snowfalls follow healthy falls in the last fortnight across South America after a slow start to the season there, with some resorts there now reporting almost 2m depths on upper slopes (Catedral in Argentina) and in Southern Africa where roads top the Afriski centre in Lesotho were blocked yesterday by snow.

We've been asked by a student for help getting responses to a short survey she's compiled for her thesis on climate change in ski resorts. If you'd like to help her please follow the link...

https://leedsmet.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_6R4ynNmItSAX2yF

The Altitude Comedy Festival will be back for its tenth annual staging this ski season, but is moving forward in the calendar a couple of months for a mid- January staging. Along with most music festivals, Altitude, which started off in Meribel but moved to Mayrhofen, normally had a start-of-spring March time slot.

Tickets are now on sale for Altitude 2016 which promises "five hilarious nights" from 11th – 15th January 2016.

Over the past 10 years, Altitude has brought the world's top comedians, including Eddie Izzard, Jimmy Carr, John Bishop, Tim Minchin, Bill Bailey, Micky Flanagan, Jo Brand, Kevin Bridges, Nina Conti Frankie Boyle, Sean Lock and avalanches more, to some of Europe's most charming and intimate venues.

The 2016 line up has not yet been announced but the organisers say that… "To celebrate a decade of lederhosen-clad laughter, Altitude HQ are busy sculpting a line-up bursting with top drawer favourites, along with the most side-splitting new acts around. All will be revealed soon."

Tickets on sale from: http://www.ticketline.co.uk/altitude-festival#bio include the Early Bird Full Week Festival Wristband for £155.00 (plus booking fee), or a VIP option for £225.00 (plus booking fee) which includes some free beer or wine at Gala shows, reserved seating, meet and greet with the comedians, a T Shirt and entry in to the clown downhill race. After the Early bird periods prices rise to £185 and £280 respectively (both plus that booking fee). Day tickets will go on sale during the festival.

www.altitudefestival.com

The Ski Club of Great Britain which is one of three British-based ski organisations involved in separate long-running legal disputes in France over the use of ski guides, hosts or teachers that do not, the French say, meet their legal requirements, has announced an agreement with a French ski school to provide leader groups and other services on French slopes next winter.

The new deal is a partnership with French ski school Evolution 2, to offer a new instructor-led guiding service for their members at 11 resorts in France. Evolution 2 will offer a regular ski programme of at least three sessions a week designed to suit a variety of member standards, adapted to their needs and snow conditions. As fully qualified instructors under French law, they will be able to lead, guide and instruct.

The Ski Club suspended its leading programme for its members in France last season after one of its Leaders in the country was charged with working illegally. The Club argues that the leader was an unpaid volunteer and did not charge for his services so is not covered by French ski teaching employment laws, but this is currently being argued through the courts. Last season they offered 'ambassadors' in France who provided social and practical services for SCGB members but no longer skied with them.

Leaders provide guided tours and social skiing in more than 30 resorts around the world free-of-additional-charge to paid-up Ski Club of GB members. They continue to do so at 17 ski resorts covered by the club outside France.

The new French service from Evolution 2 will be what's believed to be the first Ski Club members have to pay for in addition to their membership fees, albeit just what the club describes as "a nominal booking fee" of £10 for a half day session or £20 for a full day.

"The Evolution 2 instructors assigned to the new service will complete training on the Ski Club's purpose, values and commitments as well as the logistics of running a session and what's expected from members and the Ski Club. They will both ski and socialise with members, running regular social hours in all resorts and events in the more popular ones. This retains the value and benefits of the Ski Club Leader programme previously run in France, with the additional benefit of skiing with a qualified instructor," a Ski Club statement reads.

"Evolution 2 and the Ski Club of Great Britain have known each other and worked together for many years and so we are delighted to be working even closer together on the new and exciting look of The Ski Club in France," said Hervé Favre, Founder of Evolution 2, "The changes facing the Ski Club's Leader service in France may be a departure from the norm for many members, but it provides an excellent opportunity for members to improve their skiing and mountain safety awareness through the wisdom and knowledge that will passed onto them from our Evolution 2 professionals."

The Ski Club stressed it is continuing its fight in the courts against the prosecution of its French ski Leaders which it continues to believe work within French legal requirements.

Travel agents and tour operators are warning that February school holiday dates are 'almost' booked up already for next winter 2015-16.

Of course they would say that, but industry expert and boss of specialist operator to unspoilt French ski villages connected to giant French ski areas, Peak Retreats (www.peakretreats.co.uk), Xavier Schouller, confirms that the main British half term week is also the main week for several other countries.

"February half term for French schools run from 6/2 to 5/3 with most areas (the whole of France except Paris) having theirs' from 13/2 (which is the main UK holiday week). A few other smaller European countries like the Danes will be off then too so it will be a mega busy week," says Xavier.

In terms of the other main school holiday periods… "Christmas and New Year are the same school holiday dates across Europe which means they'll be busy," Xavier explains, adding, "At Easter Belgium (and despite being a small country they usually send more people than the UK at that time of year) join Germany and the UK for holidays from 26/3. This will be the best week for anyone in the UK with kids: about 50% of the price of half-term, still decent snow conditions in most resorts, normally sunny and longer days and it won't be busy on the slopes or in the resort. For departures on 2/4 (UK second week) only one area of France (Marseille + the North) + Belgium will be on holiday so it shouldn't be mega busy either."

In a separate development the company Travelzoo surveyed 2,000 state school parents on the impact of fines for taking their children out of school outside official school holidays in order to save money,

The survey found that more than half of UK parents were prepared to lie in order to avoid the fines but that over 64,000 fines were issued in the year from September 2013-2014.

"It's clear that the current system isn't working," said Louise Hodges of Travelzoo, who added, "The fining system is messy, confusing and makes law-abiding families feel like criminals."