Messages posted by : J2SkiNews
June 7th may not seem a likely candidate for a busy day on world ski slopes, but the season has kicked off in Australia and New Zealand earlier this morning and the lifts are scheduled to be running again France after four weeks with none operating, as the glacier at Val d'Isere re-opens for five weeks of summer skiing. The Australian press has been full of 'no snow at start of season' stories after a warm May there, but Perisher, the country's biggest ski resort, has kicked off the Australian snow season by being the first resort to offer guests skiing and boarding for the Australian June long weekend. With temperatures reaching -4 degrees overnight, the snow-making crew had 95 snowmaking guns blazing, making over 8,000 cubic metres of snow across three of Perisher's four resort areas, Perisher Valley, Smiggin Holes and Blue Cow. Beginner skiers and boarders enjoyed lessons on a groomed area on Front Valley, while the Perisher Valley Quad Chair was open, free to all foot passengers to enjoy the scenery from the top of Australia. Meanwhile in New Zealand Queenstown's Coronet Peak opened today with a celebratory spray of Amisfield bubbles signalling the official start of the winter season. Under blues skies, a beautiful day with no wind, the ski area was the first to open in Australasia, celebrating the occasion in style with around 300 excited skiers and boarders who had queued up for the lifts to open, eager to cut their first tracks. Coveted 'First on the Chair' honours for the first four to ride the Coronet Express, went to a group of Queenstown teenagers who arrived at 11pm the night before and spent a cold night trying to sleep under the picnic tables on the deck to claim their spot of first on chair fame. Finn Duffy, Tiarn Collins, Jacob O'Donoghue-Price and Cooper Neilson, all 14, were the lucky riders to receive a 'First on the Chair' T-shirt and bragging rights to be the first down the hill. "We've never done this before but we thought we'd do it to check out what the competition was like," said Finn. And after their first run? "It was great to have the run to ourselves, it was hard and fast," said Finn. Over 600 guests flocked to the mountain for the much anticipated opening day and were welcomed by ski area manager Ross Copland. "Today is all about Queenstown locals dusting off the gear and having a ski," he said. "We've got the best snow in the Southern Hemisphere at this early stage of the season thanks largely to the great investment in snowmaking and the reliability that gives us. "It's great for Queenstown to get the season underway, and looking ahead we're excited about Winter Festival and the re-launch of night skiing with doubling of the terrain. Overall we've got some really promising signs for the season to come." Coronet Peak opened with an average 30cm of snow on the main trails, providing access on the Coronet Express to the main M1 trail, Upper and Lower Wall Street, Pro Am, Mid Gully and Million Dollar. |
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This is very true but on the upside Scotland doesn't fine parents for taking their kids out of school for ski trips. I've had written permission from head of my kids' school every winter for years granting time off. |
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The southern hemisphere's 2014 ski season is due to kick off in the tiny African kingdom of Lesotho tomorrow when Afriski (afriski.com) says it will open. The resort, which has just over a kilometre of runs, has been snowmaking and says its slopes are in good shape. The other southern African ski area, Tiffindell in South Africa itself, opened for its winter season last Saturday June 1st, but did not have any natural snow and temperatures were too warm for snow making. The latter fact changed yesterday and the snow cannons have been working full blast, making their opening imminent too. The first full scale ski area to open in the southern hemisphere looks set to be Queenstown's Coronet Peak in New Zealand which will open as scheduled on Saturday (June 7th) signalling the official start of the Australasian winter season. The picture above shows the resort team ready to go. Mother Nature doubled with a world-class snowmaking system has produced an average 35cm of snow on-piste. Ski area manager Ross Copland said he was "thrilled" to be open on time and with such great snow conditions. "The May snowfalls and extremely cold temperatures we've had over the past two weeks or so mean we've got great coverage on-trail," he said, adding, "On opening day our Coronet Express quad chair will be up and running, providing access to the main M1, Million Dollar, Wall St, Pro Am and Mid Gully trails. True to tradition, the first four on the Coronet Express lift will receive a 'First on the Chair' T-shirt with Central Otago winery Amisfield on board once again to welcome skiers and snowboarders with locally produced bubbles. "First on the chair is very hotly contested with keen skiers getting up here extra early for bragging rights. It's a really fun, celebratory day and there's always a great atmosphere up the mountain," said Mr Copland. It's less good news for Mt Hutt which had also planned to open this Saturday, but has decided to postpone opening due to warm temperatures and a poor weekend weather forecast. Ski area manager James McKenzie said it was "hugely disappointing" to make the call not to open when all systems, lifts and staff were ready to go, but said it was a "good decision" to make. Elsewhere in the southern hemisphere most Australian areas official open for their 2014 ski season on 7th June too, with Monday June 9th a bank holiday for the Queen's Birthday, but snow cover looks likely to be limited or non-existent after a warm May there. Most South American ski areas will also open over the coming fortnight. |
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(Sun worship on Stubai) With all of France's ski slopes currently closed the number of ski areas open in the Alps for glacier skiing has dropped down in to single figures at this 'low season' in Europe before more areas open for summer skiing and boarding in late June and July. But conditions at those areas that are still open remain well above average with the start of summer only a few weeks away. After the heavy snowfall in mid-May temperatures are currently hovering around the freezing point at 3,000m in the Alps meaning both good snow conditions and the occasional fresh snow flurry to top up cover. Bases are reported to be up to three metres (10 feet) on Austrian glaciers including the Dachstein and Stubai in Austria, the latter announcing it expects to be open in to July. The Presena glacier above Passo Tonale in Italy reports the deepest snow base in the world still (as it has all last winter) at 4.5m. There are currently five areas open in Austria, two in Italy and just one in Switzerland after the Diavolezza glacier near St Moritz ended its season on Sunday – year round Zermatt is the only option until Saas Fee re-opens in July. There are four areas open in Scandinavia to keep the European total in double figures, three small single-lift glacier options in Norway and the famous Riksgransen ski-under-the-midnight-sun option in the Swedish Arctic. With less than half a dozen areas open in North America following the end of the ski season at the areas still open in Alberta (Banff), BC (Whistler), California (Mammoth) and Utah (Snowbird) after the US Memorial Day holiday on Monday, and with the start of the southern hemisphere's ski season not sue to kick off until a week-on-Saturday, there are currently thought to be less than 20 of the world's 5,000+ ski centres in operation. Four French ski areas (Tignes, Les 2 Alpes, Val d'Isere and Alpe d'Huez) are expected to re-open for 5-10 week summer ski periods through June and early July. |
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Tour operators are advising people to book early for the coming ski season and saying this particularly applies to families looking for February half term holidays. While tour operators of course always advise people to book early, there seems to be more to it this year as the February half term week is concentrated in to just one week, rather than being spread over several depending on where you live. This is compounded by the fact that many French, Belgian and Dutch schools are on holiday the same week, concentrating demand. "Almost a third of Le Ski's holidays for next winter are already booked – by those in the know! They know ...that there is only one half term this February…" said a statement from the company. That main half-term week begins with departures on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th February 2015. The high, early demand is concentrated on ski holidays to France in particular, most other major ski nations do not have school holidays at this time, although of course demand from the UK will be up to all brochure destinations. |
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It's the final weekend of the season coming up at a number of the remaining still open US resorts which have stayed open to the coming long US 'Memorial Day' holiday weekend but will then call it a day on their 2013-14 ski seasons at the end of next Monday the 26th. Mammoth, the last ski area still operating this season in California, Mt Bachelor in Oregon and Snowbird, the last one operating in Utah will all close. Mammoth, which has top to bottom skiing still with more than 30 trails available, reports a 175cm base at the top and 5cm/2 inches of fresh snow in the past 24 hours. At the weekend it will open its golf course for summer operations so will be able to offer snowsports, golf and downhill mountain biking to guests on the same day. Mt Bachelor will stage its annual pond-skimming contest. Crystal Mountain in Washington state plans to stay open for one more weekend, and close at the end of Sunday June 1st. On the East Coast, Killington, the last area operating there, finished operations at the weekend, as did the last two areas still open in Canada (Sunshine near Banff in Alberta and Whistler in BC). However Arapahoe basin in Colorado has announced it will stay open at least to June 8th and Timberline in Oregon is normally operational through to August. Other spring and summer skiing options in North America include glacier skiing at Whistler Blackcomb when it re-opens from June 21st to July 27th and summer skiing camps at Red Lodge Mountain, Montana which begins this Saturday May 24th and continues through to July 12th. |
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Les 2 Alpes in Summer All the ski lifts in France are currently closed with no lift-assisted snowsports available, but four of the country's resorts do plan to re-open for summer skiing and boarding in June and July through to April. That number actually increased as of last summer, against a trend of ever decreasing summer skiing opportunities over the past 20 years, as Alpe d'Huez decided to reintroduced summer snowsports after around a decade long break. This year the Alpe d'Huez lifts will be open for skiing and boarding "as long as conditions allow" from 7th of July until 24th August. However the first glacier in France to reopen in late spring each year is the Pissaillas glacier above Val d'Isere, this will open for summer skiing and boarding from 7th June to 13th July this year. It's neighbour Tignes has one of Europe's largest summer ski areas and biggest terrain parks, it's open from June 21st to August 3rd 2014, with only three lifts running the first fortnight then the full summer operation with a dozen lifts from July 5th. Les 2 Alpes has been offering summer skiing for 40 years and has one of the world's most developed areas, attracting 110,000 people each year, including numerous ski clubs and major national and international teams, especially from Italy. It's open from 21st June to 30th August this year. In the summer there's 700m of vertical between 3,600 and 2,900 metres attracting an average of 1,500 skiers every day in summer (compared to 10,000 in winter). Facilitioes include an 18 hectare terrain park with a half pipe and superpipe with their own lifts and a big airbag. All four areas operate from around 7am to around 12.30-1pm each day during the summer and offer many other summer sports. There is no word as yet that other French resorts that operated summer skiing on their glaciers up to a decade ago – including la Plagne, Val Thorens and Chamonix, have any plans to restart that side of their operations. |
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It's the last day of the ski season at Canada's two still open ski areas – Sunshine near Banff in Alberta and Whistler in BC. Sunshine Village will mark the end of their season with what they describe as, "The end of season party, to end all season parties," the 86th Annual Slush Cup party. The event welcomes "crazy" skiers and snowboarders brave enough to ski or ride over a pool of ice cold, slush water, wearing their craziest and most original outfits. Awards are given for biggest splash, best costume, and to those victorious few who make it across the ice pond. Day skiers and snowboarders can enjoy the sunny weather, beer garden, and live music throughout the day. The event is open to everyone (non-skiers included) for the price of a gondola ticket up to the main village area (sunshine's unusual resort layout means you take the gondola from a valley car park up to the base area. The event concludes Sunshine's long weekend activities which have included the final acts in its Spring Concert Series, the 6th Annual Bikini's and Boardshorts Ski & Ride in support of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and the new Salomon SlushShine Rail Jam. Sunshine Village received nearly 10 metres/30 feet of snow this season with a current settled base of 207 cm (6 ft 9 in). |
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