J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

Vail Resorts will create the largest ski area in the US for winter 2015-16 thanks to a $50m spend this coming spring/summer on their new acquisition of Park City Mountain resort, linking it to Canyons ski area, which the company also controls, with a new gondola.

With 7,300 acres of terrain the newly combined areas will be around 30% bigger than the next largest US area, Big Sky in Montana (which took the biggest area title previously held by Vail in Colorado itself) , and less than 1,000 acres smaller that North America's long-standing biggest resort, Whistler Blackcomb in BC, Canada.

An eight-passenger, high-speed two-way gondola, 'The Interconnect,' running from the base of the existing Silverlode Lift at Park City to the Flatiron Lift at Canyons. The gondola will also have an unload at the top of Pine Cone Ridge to allow skiers and riders the opportunity to ski into Thaynes Canyons at Park City via gated ski access or to the Iron Mountain area at Canyons through new trails that will be created from Pine Cone Ridge. This will mark the first gondola at Park City Mountain Resort since "The Gondola" was dismantled in 1983.

Canyons ski area will apparently lose its status as a separate area to some extent and be re-named "Canyons at Park City" so it appears Park City will now have 'two' ski areas. Canyons was originally a small locals' hill called Park West but has changed its name four times in the past two decades. Becoming first 'Wolf Mountain', then 'The Canyons,' then just 'Canyons' and now Canyons at Park City. It had been grown in to one of the largest ski areas in North America by the now defunct former owners, The American Skiing Company.

In addition to the new gondola the King Con Lift will be upgraded from a four-person to a six-person, high-speed detachable chairlift, increasing lift capacity. The Motherlode Lift will also be upgraded from a fixed-grip triple to a four-person, high-speed detachable chairlift, also increasing lift capacity.

There will also be expanded snowmaking, a new restaurant and many other improvements.

After almost a year out of competition due to injury, and in only her second race within 24 hours of returning to the World Cup tour, Lindsey Vonn returned to the top of the podium at the second downhill race at Lake Louise at the weekend.

The 30-year-old American great finished nearly half a second ahead of Stacey Cook while Vonn's long time friend Julia Mancuso finished third to complete a US clean sweep after European racers had dominated in the race the previous day.

"I always believed in myself to come back but I never really knew until today. And today I'm finally back at the top. It's an amazing day," said Vonn after the race.

The win takes Vonn one more place up the all time greats list moving from third to second. She needs just three more wins to take the record set by Austrian Annie Moser-Proell 35 years ago in 1980. Although it seems likely she'll now achieve this sooner, it's possible that day may come at the Alpine Sking World Championships at her home resort of Vail Beaver Creek in two months' time.

Although the big winner in the ladies downhill at Lake Louise on Friday was Slovenian Tina Maze, the main interest for many racing fans was the return to the World Cup circuit of the great Lynsey Vonn, a year after two injuries in 2013 wiped out her 2013-14 Olympic season.

The 30-year-old tore American racer finished in eighth position, although only a quarter of a second behind the third placed racer. At one point in her run she was ahead of the field, but not at the finish line.

If Vonn's form holds she'll be competing at the Alpine Skiing World Championships in her home resort of Vail Beaver Creek in two months' time.

Maze, who won the overall title in the 2013 season and had already won a gold in the slalom in Levi, started 20th and won in a time of 1:50.98 to take her first downhill victory of the year.

Anna Fenninger of Austria was second, nerarly half a second behind, and Tina Weiratherof of Liechtenstein was third.

Prior to injury Vonn had won both the Super-G and downhill races at Lake Louise in 2011 and 2012.

Although many resorts that were scheduled to open for the season today have postponed doing so, Verbier has not.

The famous Swiss resort, and the full 4 Vallées which nearly ended during the summer due to disagreements between its member lift companies, officially celebrates the beginning of the season with the Opening Session held today this Saturday, December 6, 2014.

The first arrivals to Châble this morning will be served coffee and croissants. The day will then move to the pistes with a DJ, paragliding demos and mulled wine as well as at the Place Blanche from noon with entertainment such as an airbag, brand village and live music.

As today is also the day of St. Nicholas, lift company Téléverbier are offering a free lift pass today for all those who arrive at the ticket desk dressed as St-Nicolas (Santa).

From 8pm everyone is invited to gather at the Verbier cinema for the Swiss premiere of the film 'Le Bec des Rosses - Montagne de Légende.

The opening follows several weekends of 'early opening' thanks to good snowfall in late October and the first half of November.

After course inspections for World Cup races planned for Courchevel and Val d'Isère over the weekend of 13/14 December the FIS has decided to cancel both races.

They will be staged in Are, Sweden instead, another coup for the Scandinavian resort which earlier this year beat Cortina to win the candidacy to host the 2019 Alpine Skiing World Championships.
Are is not reported to have much snow cover either but is clearly seen as the safer bet by the FIS, although the French resorts do not seem happy, saying the decision is premature.

"We could manage to run one of the two races. Optimism was based on two main criteria: Firstly, announced snowfall should deliver about 40 cm. of fresh snow; moreover, a 96 hours cold wave would have allowed the resort to use the snow guns and put down the additional snow for the stadium to be ready on time," said Bruno Tuaire, Courchevel's Sports Club director, "The FIS has chosen not to take any risk."

Val d'Isère were a little more fatalistic about the decision, and whilst it will not be staging the men's races next week, hopes to still be able to organise the ladies competition in a fortnight.

"It's a terrible deception. We all did everything we could, but nature is still more powerful than the will of men. It's one of the attractions and risks of organising top level alpine races. Now we are concentrating all our efforts on organising the World Cup ladies events on December 20th and 21st.'' said Vincent Jay, Director of the Val d'Isère Club des Sports.

"Despite the efforts of all the resort services over the past few weeks to produce enough snow to cover the Face de Bellevarde, the current unseasonable weather conditions in the Northern Alps have prevented the production of the quantity of snow necessary for the organisation of this high level competition, run according to FIS standards. In order to organise a fair race, 25 000m3 of snow would have to be produced at temperatures of -4 to -6°C. The challenge is technically impossible," said a statement from the resort.

Val d'Isère opened in late November, Courchevel resort will open at the latest on the 13th December the resort says.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CSA), based in Lausanne, Switzerland, has announced that Vanessa Mae, known as Vanessa Vanakorn, has filed two appeals against the decisions taken by the Hearing Panel of the International Ski Federation (FIS) of 6 November 2014 and by the FIS Council on 18 November 2014, in relation to her qualification for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games. Ms Vanakorn had had three weeks in which to make her appeal.

The FIS Panel had found that Ms Vanakorn was either an active or knowing participant in the manipulation of the results of four giant slalom races that took place in Krvavec, Slovenia in January 2014 and they imposed a four-year ban on her from attending or participating in any FIS event.

The FIS Council subsequently acknowledged such decision and cancelled the results of the four races in question. As a consequence of this decision, Ms Vanakorn was no longer eligible to compete in the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games, where she had been the first Alpine skier ever to compete for Thailand, nor in events this coming season, and so the FIS Council submitted its decision to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for any further action in its competence.

"In appealing to the CAS, Ms Vanakorn seeks the annulment of both decisions. Two arbitration procedures have been opened and are being conducted in accordance with the Code of Sports-related Arbitration. The CAS will not comment any further at this time," said a statement from the organisation.

Sad news

(happier times...)

A number of ski areas have announced a delay to the start of the ski season from the planned dates due to the 'current conditions' – which are, at lower elevations in particular, little or no natural snowfall and temperatures too warm for snowmaking.

The largest area to make the announcement so far is the Skiwelt, the country's largest lift-linked area with 280km of piste connecting resorts including Westendorf, Brixen, Ellmau and Soll. It had hoped to open this Saturday the 6th, but now says it will open on Thursday the 121th – or sooner if conditions improve in the meantime.

Many other smaller areas such as Grossarl in Salzburgerland, has simply postponed its opening date with no new date given.

Austria is home to eight glacier ski areas with lifts. Most of which have been open for the season for two months already, and they remain is largely good shape thanks to the heavy November snows at altitude, several have also had a few inches more snow in the last 24 hours which sadly fell as rain at lower altitudes.

The year-round ski area on the Hintertux glacier has a 185cm base at the top with 40km of runs and more than 1,000 metres of vertical open.

Some non-glacier resorts with high altitude skiing are also open including Ischgl (0-40cm) and Obergurgl (5-80cm).

The good news is that the weather is expected to get colder by the end of this week allowing for hoped for natural snowfall as well as snowmaking. The Skiwelt and other northern Austrian areas had a poor snowfall winter last season and are hoping for better times this.