J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

We were in Niseko at Easter with our kids and had a great time. I know it's the obvious place but plenty of slopeside lodging, special children's areas and ski school classes, loads of good places to eat - hard to go wrong really.

In a departure from the conventional ski hill offer, the French resort of Les Arcs, part of the Paradiski region,has announced plans to open a sector of its slopes for more than 10 hours a day, seven days a week, all season long.

In addition to 'just' skiing and boarding, the area, to be known as "Mille 8" will feature a wide range of snow fun activities including a toboggan trail track (intriguingly slated to include video screens and a tunnel – details yet to be explained), snow sculptures, an enclosed and secure children's area and igloos.

In terms of ski and boarding facilities there'll be an illuminated discovery piste through the forest, a blue run for beginners, a freestyle fun course for all ability levels and a baby snowpark.

A new indoor/outdoor 3780m2 Aquafun Centre swimming and leisure complex with a view of Mont Blanc is part of the overall project, which is located above the largest Les Arcs village at 1800. It has an outdoor pool, covered fun pool with massaging jets, jacuzzis, waterfalls, caves, water games areas for children, wellness area and fitness area.

The whole area, which will also be open in summer under the same operational model with summer activities replacing the snow ones, is being seen as a major new investment for Les Arcs with a price tag of €36 million.

Most activities are included in the regular lift pass but the toboggan will be €8 (from 3.30 to 7.30pm) and a special night riding price option for using the facilities from 5pm to 7.30pm of €15 will also be an option.

The sector will be open until 7.30pm, seven days a week and a new gondola is being built to access it, that's scheduled for completion in 2015, but the new attractions will open at the start of the coming season in December, accessed initially by existing lifts.

Promo Video:

Davos Klosters is running a 'free lift pass' offer to try to encourage more people to visit during the five weeks they are open before Christmas week.

The famous Swiss resort partially opens its slopes on 14th November and the free lift pass deal runs right through to the 21st of December.

To qualify you need to book a stay in the long list of participating hotels and other accommodations in the resort. Prices start at 80 Swiss Francs (about £53) for an overnight stay with bed and breakfast in a three star hotel from 88 Francs (about £58 ). A one day lift pass normally costs up to 69 Francs (£46) on its own.

Although not fully open until December, Davos Klosters covers 320km of piste, the highest of which is at 2844m and 80% of which is located above 2000m.

http://www.davos.ch/en/holiday-shop/lift-pass-for-free.html

The battle for control of Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR) is rumbling on after a court hearing in Utah yesterday, which local businesses had hoped would give some indication as to whether the famous ski area would open this winter or not, failed to reach a decision.

Instead the Judge has said that the two key parties involved PCMR can continue in their mediation longer than expected, to this Friday, while he himself has delayed giving his own verdict until next week, when a new court hearing will be heard on Wednesday September 3rd.

The court was reported to be packed yesterday by business leaders from the ski town who are increasingly concerned by the failure to clarify what will happen or whether the centre will open at all this winter, which is putting pressure on their own businesses as skiers delay booking or choose to go elsewhere while the uncertainty continues.

The judge is expect to name an amount for a 'bond' which PCMR must pay Vail resorts in order to operate on the land which is now controlled by the Colorado based multi-resort operator while the legal case over eviction continues. PCMR have estimated the amount should be in the $1-$6 million range, Vail reportedly say $124 million is closer to the mark.

The complicated situation has deep roots but the catalysts for the current position were PCMR's failure to renew a lease it held on land on the upper part of the mountain on which it operates, followed by the landlord's decision to lease that land to Vail Resorts. However PCMR do own all the lifts, snowmaking and other equipment on the mountain and crucially do own the land at the base of the mountain next to Park City on which base lodges and terrain parks and some of the lifts are wholly or partially located.

Both companies are playing hardball with Vail showing no signs of backing off and PCMR insisting it will not sell its base to Vail even if it is ultimately evicted from the upper mountain, leaving Vail resorts in control of an 'island' it will continue to operate at the bottom having realigned its lifts on to its own land and removed all others from the disputed land above.

Aware of the rising discontent in the Park City community, PCMR's operators have, in the past week, published an open letter to the community and launched an online petition to gather support for its efforts to keep PCMR open this winter.

Reaction on social media has been divided with some blaming Vail for the situation and others saying PCMR have no one to blamed but themselves having failed to sign the lease and saying that if they really did care about the park City community they would leave and sell their base to Vail so it could open and operate as usual.

A map showing the proposed ski lift connection between the Swiss resorts of Andermatt and of neighbouring Sedrun has been published. Work is reported to have started on the slopes this summer in preparation for the huge changes required.

Seven gondola and (mostly) quad chair lifts will be needed to make the connection, with another six lifts (most of them drags) shown on the map to replace existing lifts. Some of the larger connecting lifts will also replace older structures above Andermatt although four of the lifts will be on new terrain.

A large number of new ski runs will also be created, most of them graded blue or red but one crucial section is currently shown as a black run only travelling from Andermatt to Sedrun, although it's possible to ski on blues and reds in the other direction.

The expansion is linked to the development of a large five star resort base at Andermatt over recent years which is revitalising the resort.

The connection, which should create a ski area of more than 200km, one of the largest in Switzerland, should be finished for winter 2017/18. More details and map at: http://www.skiarena.ch/infos/projekt-skiarena.html

A 'new' ski area is set to debut in Scotland this winter, the first new centre to open since Nevis Range near Fort William more than 20 years ago.

But unlike Nevis Range and the four other conventional ski areas, the Lowther Hills are not in northern Scotland, but close to the English border in Dumfriesshire.

And while they have somehow been missed from the ski history books, there has in fact been skiing in the area for some 60 years, and the region was considered for a commercial ski resort development before the first lists were installed in the Highlands.

There have been primitive lifts here in the past, and more recently people have used 4X4 cars to drive up, taking it in turns to drive down while the others skied, but the new lifts planned to be installed this autumn have been secured from the Harwood ski club in northern England, which ceased operating at the end of 2013.

The ski area, located near Wanlockhead, Britain's highest village, not far from the M74 up the West Coast to Glasgow, typically gets 20 days of snow cover each winter.

The new plan, put forward by the Lowther Hills Ski Club (www.skiclub.lowtherhills.com), involves the installation of one 600m long tow up to 725m creating an intermediate run and two shorter 100m long lifts to serve separate nursery slopes, all above a club house at 585m.

"My vision for the place is to have a New-Zealand style centre (low operating cost, financially sustainable) with a few tows, snowgrooming and curling facilities," said Anjo Abelaira, Chair of the Lowther Hills Ski Club.

Funding for the work has been approved through a wind farm grant and planning permission is expected to be granted imminently.

Courchevel has announced it has spent a sizable chunk of the €140m the Three Valleys announced it would be spending on upgrading its ski area over the five years to 2019 over this summer. Towards €20m is being spent in the Courchevel Valley on some flashy new lifts, as well as a new piste and some low energy snowmaking.

Two new six-seater chairlifts will be in place for the coming winter.

The first six-person detachable chair lift has replaced both the Les Gravelles and L'Aiguille du Fruit chairlifts in the Creux area, improving the connection between Courchevel Moriond and Courchevel at a cost of €8m.

The new lift's capacity of 3,300 skiers/hour is higher than the two previous structures combined and the environmental impact has been reduced with 11 pylons instead of 30.
"We strive to protect the area in which we live and work," says Courchevel's ski area director Thomas Thor-Jensen. "That means having installations which consume less energy and are less restrictive on the land on which they stand."

The Park City piste has been redesigned in the same area where the detachable chair lift L'Aiguille du Fruit will open. The new layout makes it easier to reach and has seen it reclassified as a blue piste. It now starts from the top of the chair lift and goes down to the Altiport piste, providing exceptional views.

The resort has also replaced its four-person gondola lift Forêt with another six-person detachable chairlift at a cost of €9m. The new lift is more comfortable and faster as well as being able to transport 2,400 skiers per hour compared with 1,000 previously.

"The Forêt chairlift provides a better connection from the village of Courchevel Le Praz whilst highlighting the exceptional ski area in the forest and all the levels available in this area," says Thomas Thor-Jensen.

In terms of new snowmaking, eight new-generation snow machines have been installed on the new Park City piste at a cost of 300,000 Euros. State-of-the-art low energy equipment currently accounts for 55% of the fleet. Over the years, the proportion will only increase, the resort says.

Courchevel has always been one of Europe's leading snowmakers and currently has 578 snow guns covering 60% of the area,

"We focus on updating our fleet at the same time as expanding our snow machine network," says Thomas Thor-Jensen, "The newest models use less water, less electricity and less air."

Austria's largest ski area has officially hit 280km of piste - 87% of them covered with snowmaking after newly cut runs added a couple of kilometres to the terrain tally.

The region had been very careful to measure its pistes lengths properly and called independent assessors last year when several other Austrian ski areas had been found to be exaggerating their total terrain by counting a wide run three times and other tricks exposed in a study by the German ski expert Christoph Schrahe. But the Skiwelt's independent assessor found they had measured their runs perfectly correctly.

The SkiWelt has invested 23 million euros in this coming winter season. Topping the cable car company's wish list is the new construction of the Aualm lift in the SkiWelt Scheffau.

The new detachable 8-seater chairlift will be one of the most advanced, most technically sophisticated and most comfortable lifts in the world. A of the latest generation, incorporating conveyor belt entry, heated seats, weather hoods, self-locking restraining bars with footrests and is particularly well designed for families and beginners. It is also one of the world's mopst expensive ever chairlifts at 10 million euros.

The 280km total has been reached thanks to the construction of a completely new slope, equipped with snowmaking facilities in the SkiWelt Brixen area down from the Holzalm at 1,440m, covering a distance of 1.2 kilometres to Gasthof Nieding (1,215m) where it joins the valley descent. Consequently, the Brixen ski slope range will be a "red run" richer, with even more scenic beauty and sporting excitement on offer.