J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

The start of the ski season up in Finland is now just days away. Levi and Ruka ski resorts have unwrapped their massive stockpiles of snow, stored under covers from last winter, and begun spreading it out on the slopes ready to open for the first weekend of October.

Both will create 2-3km of slopes and terrain park features. Last year natural snowfall arrived within days of the white ribbons being laid on the brown hillsides turning everything full winter by mid-October. This late summer/early autumn so far has been a little warm.

Both resorts aim to make much more of this huge effort than just saying the slopes are open and leaving skiers to it.

In Ruka's case Thursday, October 3rd sees the start of the Arctic Weekend with lots of events lined up in the Ruka ski centre, on the snow-covered Saarua slopes and in the Restaurant Piste.

The long-weekend through to the 6th includes ski movie screenings, talks by figures in the ski and snow world, the chance to test the season's new equipment on snow,

"During the weekend, we enjoy a good atmosphere and meet old and new friends. The perfect way to kick off the new season.," a resort spokesperson said.

America's National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have released a combined outlook for the 2024-2025 winter season, which can be used to help set some expectations for winter sport enthusiasts headed to Colorado.

The weather tends to be dominated by the El Niño / La Niña cycle from the Pacific with this winter expected to see a return of La Niña (a 79% chance) after El Niño last winter.

What does that mean? Well you never can predict the weather with certainty, especially many months ahead but the agencies' forecast is, broadly, that the Rockies will get lower-than-normal precipitation, with the southern Rockies seeing above-normal temperatures.

The forecast is more positive for the West Coast, particularly the Pacific Northwest including Oregon, Washington and BC where above-normal precipitation is expected in this region for the first half of winter and colder than average temperatures also expected for much of the season. Hopefully that equals abundant snowfall!

The new Jandri Express cable car, the backbone of Les 2 Alpes, is "the most significant project in the French Alps in the last 10 years," a resort spokesperson has claimed, adding, "It stands out for its technical prowess, its excellent customer experience, and the fast and easy access it gives to guaranteed snow."

The new lift, called Jandri 3S, replaces the original lift which was almost 40 years old and its replacement is the biggest new development in Les 2 Alpes in decades.

The 3S design combines the best gondolas and cable-car systems. Made up of two carrying cables and a tractor cable, it is a silent, high-performance device, suitable for long distances like in Les 2 Alpes, climbing 1600 vertical metres between 1,600 metres and 3,200 metres.

The new lift can operate in high winds, even when they're above 28 m/s, and allows a high flow rate. In addition, there are only 7 pylons – as opposed to the Jandri Express, which has 17 – guaranteeing a lower impact on the environment, less maintenance and more savings in terms of energy usage.

Fabrice Boutet, CEO of SATA Group-Aeon, Les 2 Alpes' lift company, says: "This project is a signature for the next 50 years! It is designed for all our customers, all practices and across all seasons. It integrates not only an economic dimension and a social dimension (ensuring the wellbeing and work of locals) but also the environment. We want to protect and look after the territory we live in and everything is designed to enhance and protect it."

The heavy snowfall in the Alps, which appears to have been particularly intense over Austria, has led to the Stubai Glacier announcing it plans to start its 24-25 season this coming Friday, September 20th.

Although Austrian glaciers opened in early-mid September until a few years ago, the rapid advance of climate change has led most to postpone their planned start dates to October, or the final weekend of September and the Stubai had not been expected to open for 3 or 4 weeks, but it reports that it has received 50cm of fresh snowfall, hence the decision.

There's nowhere currently open in Austria although the previously year-round Hintertux Glacier is officially only temporarily closed after warm July and august temperatures at altitude melted its snow cover. It has however had at least 25cm of snowfall from the recent storms so it remains to be seen how soon it will re-open.

The Piztal and Solden glaciers had previously announced they'd open on the final weekend of September, the Kaunteral on the first weekend of October and the Kitzsteinhorn and Molltal in subsequent weeks next month, so it remains to be seen if any others will push their planned opening dates forward too.

A new gondola with 10-person cabins will go into service at Austria's Fieberbrunn ski area this winter.

Unusually, crowdfunding was used to part-finance the new lift, capitalising on the 'emotional attachment' skiers have to the famous red cabins of the former lifts. Over 200 people decided to contribute raising around € 600,000 towards construction costs.

The old lifts, installed in 1991, are reported to have carried over 23 million people during their 33 years of operations. They were of the pulse gondola variety, clusters of several gondolsa cabins moving on the cable together, stopping in stations rather than moving congtinuaslly, so those in cabins half-way up or down the cable stopped in midair too.

The new Streubodenbahn replaces the 33-year-old Streuboden and Lärchfilkogel lifts, increasing capacity to 2,500 people her hour on the 3km long route, which climbs over 800 vertical metres and cutting ascent time to 8.5 minutes.

The ski area is part of the huge Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang Fieberbrunn ski region, Austria's second largest with 270km of slopes.

One of the very few lifts still operating for the 2024 Australian ski season has made its final ever spins today.

The Mt. Perisher Triple Chair's final days were marked with a retro style this weekend at Australia's largest resort, which as of Monday will be the only centre still open in the country after all others closed earlier than hoped due to warm weather.

A brand new, 6-seater chairlift is set to replace the old triple for winter 2025, providing access to Australia's highest lift-served point at 2,042m.



The upgraded lift will improve capacity and assist in speeding up distribution of skiers across Perisher's network of 48 lifts, reducing general lift wait times and improve flow and circulation, Perisher expects.

Key points of the new chairlift include wider better wind performance, and a 5.6-minute ride time (currently 10 min). The lift will see a 60% increase in chairlift capacity on Mt Perisher and contribute to a 22% increase in overall lifted capacity in the Mt Perisher region.

An extra bonus for guests will be the start time of the chair, earlier in the day than before, with resort management reported to have been discussing the lift opening time, now expected to be 8.30am in 2025.

"The multi-year multi-million-dollar project represents a significant investment in the guest experience at Perisher and highlights the continued commitment of Vail Resorts to its Australian operations as part of the Epic Lift Upgrade capital improvement project," a resort statement concludes.

Updates on the new lift's construction are being published on Perisher's website.

The colder weather that has seen varying amounts of snowfall in various parts of the Alps over the past week has intensified and expanded the area its covered over the past 24 hours, with snow falling down to low elevations and as far east as Slovenia.

Resorts liked Kitzbuhel (above) and Lech in Austria (below) have reported snow right down to 1,000m altitudes this morning whilst at higher elevations accumulations have passed the 30cm (one foot) mark on some glaciers.



A thin covering of snow, the first of the season, has also been reported by ski areas in the Pyrenees.

Late summer snowfall at altitude is not unusual in the Alps, but snowfall to low elevations in the first half of September has been rare in recent years.

There are currently three glacier ski areas open at Passo Stelvio, Saas Fee and Zermatt. A further,m the Hintertux glacier, may reopen soon thanks to the fresh snow. Aiming to open 365 days a year for skiing it has been closed the past month as hot weather in July and August melted snow over from its glacier.

More Austrian and Italian glaciers including Pitztal, Solden and Val Senales plan to start their 24-25 seasons later in September.

Whitewater Ski Resort in British Columbia has announced that it'll be adding 60 acres of inbounds terrain this winter.

"We're continuing to expand our playground and offer even more diverse and thrilling runs for our skiers and riders. This addition ensures that Whitewater continues to deliver unparalleled adventures as it enhances our unique blend of challenging steeps and gladed trees," a resort spokesperson said.

The latest expansion comes on the back of a new fixed-grip quad chairlift unveiled last season, which brought 123 new acres of unspoiled terrain and increased vertical to the Canadian ski resort.