J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

There have been more significant snowfalls in Europe over the past 48 hours further improving conditions.

However the almost inevitable down side of all the snow is a high avalanche risk in many areas, there are reported to have been 12 avalanche fatalities in Switzerland in the past four weeks, including three people taking part in an avalanche safety camp, compared to 22 in the country in the whole of last season.

Resorts across Italy have done particularly well from the latest snow falls with Madesimo, the Fassa Valley, Madonna di Campiglio reporting a foot of fresh snow over the weekend. Monterosa (web cam pic above) claimed as much as 40cm, Bardonecchia 20cm.

The southern French Alps have also again been blessed with 40cm at Valberg and 30cm at Serre Chevalier and also Vars with its neighbour Risoul reporting 50cm and Isola 2000 45cm.

The latest snowfalls have been ongoing since Thursday/Friday when other big name areas posted big snowfalls including Switzerland's Andermatt (45cm) and Leysin, where it was particularly needed, 25cm. In France Flaine, Avoriaz, Morzinbe, Les Gets, Chamonix and Megeve 25cm each.

The long standing question of whether skiers and snowboarders should share the same slopes has been brought back to the fore with the launch legal action against one of the three US resorts that still bans boarders by a not-for-profit group called Wasatch Equality.

The case, brought by four boarders, is against Alta ski area in Utah, one of three in the US (and it's believed worldwide) that still ban snowboarders from the slopes. The other two are Deer Valley, also in Utah, and Mad River Glen in Vermont.

Wasatch Equality have filed their lawsuit in the District Court for the District of Utah against Alta Ski Area and also the United States Forest Service which owns the land where the ski slopes are located. This is crucial in the case as it's the only resort of the three, reportedly, based on public land.

The action seeks to, "…permanently enjoin Alta from enforcing its anti-snowboarder policy and snowboarding ban…and also seek a declaration from the Court that Alta's snowboarding prohibition, as enforced by the Forest Service, violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and is therefore unlawful."

Banning snowboarders from ski slopes and restricting them to sections of the mountain was common when boarding first gained popularity from the mid 1980s but by the mid 1990s only a handful of ski areas still banned boarders and some of the last to end their bans included Park City Mountain Resort (which went on to host the 2002 Winter Olympic Snowboarding events), Aspen and Taos.

Subsequently some purist skiers have argued that snowboarders different way of carving down the slope moves powder off the piste and in Italy there was a move to segregate skiers from snowboarders to avoid danger of collision, with the same thinking that the different ways skiers and boarders moved on the slope made collisions more likely, but nothing came of that.

"Alta is one of only three ski resorts in the United States that does not allow snowboarding, and Alta is the only one of these resorts that is operated on public land controlled by the Forest Service. Because of Alta's relationship with the government, Alta's actions must comply with the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause," said Jonathan Schofield, attorney with Parr Brown Gee & Loveless, who represents Wasatch Equality.

According to Schofield Alta's prohibition against snowboarders excludes a particular class of individuals from use and enjoyment of public land based on irrational discrimination against snowboarders, which denies them equal protection under the law as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment."

"Alta operates under a Forest Service Permit, which specifically states that the public lands "shall remain open to the public for all lawful purposes," yet Alta refuses to allow certain members of the public from using its land. The Complaint alleges that when Alta set forth its snowboarder ban in the mid-1980s, its policy was initiated as a result of animus held by Alta's ownership, management, and customers towards snowboarders, and that Alta continues to enforce its ban based on this animus," he added.

The Complaint further alleges that the reasons offered by Alta in support of its policy are a pretext and that there is no legitimate reason for Alta and the Forest Service's continued denial of access to one group of people (snowboarders) while granting access to a similar group of people (skiers). Thus, according to the Complaint, Alta's anti-snowboarder policy and snowboarding ban cannot be enforced.

"Snowboarding and skiing are wholesome, family-friendly activities, and there is no reason why they cannot coexist," said Drew Hicken of Wasatch Equality. "We feel that it is time for Alta to let go of outdated prejudices that perpetuate a skier-versus-snowboarder mentality and allow everyone, regardless of whether they are skiers or snowboarders, to share the mountain together."

http://wasatchequality.org/lawsuit.

Channel 4 is launching a new winter-sports themed celebrity reality show in the run up to the Sochi Olympics – The Jump.

Airing at 'prime time' over eight nights from Sunday 26th January 2014, The Jump will see 12 people, each well known in their area, get to grips with a selection of winter sports.

Initial training began at indoor ski complex The Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead, with ex Olympian and TV presenter Graham Bell giving many of the celebrities their first taste of skiing.

The show itself will be presented by Davina McCall and will be broadcast from the Austrian Alps, where the participants will confront their fears and each other to compete each night in a series of open air alpine challenges.

Competing contestants will be trained by expert coaches and Olympians in some of the best known winter sports including skiing, skeleton, slalom and ski jumping. It's not yet clear if Eddie the Eagle will make an appearance.

"I can't wait to see who is going to hold their nerve over the series and take The Jump title. We've had so much fun coaching all these people, from their early days on snow at The Snow Centre to facing their fears on the 'big jump' in Innsbruck!" said coach Graham Bell.

Those taking part include Olympic rower and recreational skier Sir Steve Redgrave; comedian, snowboarder and one of the men behind the annual Altitude comedy festival in Mayrhofen Marcus Brigstocke; TOWIE's Amy Childs, Laura Hamilton, Five singer Ritchie Neville, cricketer Darren Gough, party promoter Henry Conway, hairdresser Nicky Clarke, singer Sinitta, TV presenter Melinda Messenger, former Pussycat Doll Kimberly Wyatt and broadcaster Anthea Turner.

Italy appears to be edging ahead in Europe, and indeed leading the whole world, for snow depth at present.

The Passo Tonale glacier is the only one in the world to report more than a 4m base (4.2m) in 2014 to date and Madesimo is Another world leader with the deepest snow reported anywhere for a non-glacier resort.

Elsewhere an increasingly large number of the country's resorts are reporting 2m+ lying on upper slopes whereas France, although conditions are generally good there too, is not yet quite reporting any areas with a 2m base or more.

Italy seems to have benefitted the most from the snow storms of the past three weeks which seem to have repeatedly tracked predominantly across the southern side of the Alps and over the Dolomites, but being much less generous in the north.

The latest accumulations over the past 72 hours have again brought big falls to Italian resorts from West to east.

The country first started to build bases on Sunday/Monday and by Tuesday accumulations were reported to have reached 20cm of fresh in the Milky Way, 25cm at Courmayeur and as much as 50cm at Breuil Cervinia. Moving west there was 20cm of new snow for Bormio and Sella Nevea over on the Eastern border with Slovenia had 50cm of fresh snow.

"Up to 30 cm of fresh snow have fallen on the Dolomites, turning the landscape into a white paradise. The conditions for spending a fabulous "white week" couldn't be better," said a spokesperson from Dolomiti Superski where Cortina d'Ampezzo (pictured) was one of the beneficiaries of the latest big accumulations.

Other big 24 hour accumulations included 30cm for Madonna di Campiglio and 40cm at Macugnaga.

Heavy snow has been falling on North Western North America over the past 72 hours – good news for the normally snowy region which had had a below average start to the season in some areas.

The Pacific coast had had snow well below average, just as four years ago ahead of the Vancouver Olympics, and in some places it was worse, particularly on Vancouver Island where Mount Washington, an official training base for the 2010 Games and with a deep snow reputation, has had to postpone opening for around a month, until today. 65cm of fresh snow in the past 24 hours has transformed conditions there for the better.

Whistler reported a similar two feet of snow over the weekend, bolstering its base to 1.7m. Inland Big White and Kicking Horse are among those reporting a foot of new snow in the past 24 hours, most other resorts in BC and Alberta report at least 20cm.

Just south of the order Mt Baker in Washington State, which normally reports the most snowfall in the world of any ski area every season, with more than 20 metres, is also regaining lost ground with more than 80cm of new snow reported in the last seven days. Resorts in Colorado and Utah have also been receiving 20-30cm snowfalls over the past few days. Jackson Hole in Wyoming has also reported a foot of snow for each of two days in a rows.

The news is not yet very good further south still in California however, where resorts around Tahoe and further south such as Mammoth have reported around 20% of the normal precipitation for the season so far, although most have top-to-bottom terrain open thanks to snowmaking.

A feared dates clash between the 2022 Football World Cup in Qatar and the 2022 Winter Olympics (venue yet to be decided but all candidates in the northern hemisphere) now seems less likely with the announcement by Jérôme Valcke, the secretary general of FIFA, that the organisation, that the World Cup would take place between November and January rather than on the traditional summer dates when temperatures can reach 50C in the Middle East.

However the November to January being considered for the World Cup are those in late 2022-23 rather than 2021-22 as first feared.
Wherever they're held, the 2022 Olympics will be around February 2022, therefore some 9 – 11 months before the Football World Cup, easing fears of a battle for TV rights and sponsor money between the IOC, FIS and FIFA – all based in Switzerland.

FIFA is still in a consultation process with national footballing bodies on the move from a summer to winter staging of the World Cup. The move is believed to be especially unpopular with England who were not only an unsuccessful candidate for the 2018 World Cup but is also home to the world's most popular and successful domestic league where many of the world's top players play, and which would face major disruption with the dates change from the World cup norm between football seasons.

A carefully famed picture of the apparently completed Masik Pass ski resort in North Koreas has been published in a state publication.

"An all-inclusive area for physical activity during the winter season has been prepared, where our people and youth may enjoy the benefits of Socialist civilization to their heart's content," said the caption.

Masik Pass was built at high speed through 2013 by the North Korean army and attracted global attention for the effort and money put in to its construction when many North Koreans are reported to live in poor conditions and in near starvation.

The credibility of the picture has been questioned by some observers who pointed out that the skier in the bottom left of the picture seems to be skiing very quickly for the flat terrain and to be out of proportion to the people standing to the right, who are dressed in Alpine skiwear but carrying cross country equipment.

Masik Pass is the pet-project of the 31 year old north Korean leader Kim Jong Un who's friend the former US basketball star Dennis Rodman is reported to have visited the ski area by helicopter yesterday.

Kim Jong un said the ski area was to be asia's largest, but so far Google earth images indicate it is not yet the largest on the Korean peninsular. It is so far unclear what lifts exist there following an international ban on selling ski lifts to the regime, but riot is believed at least one lift has been fabricated in North Korea – officials recently visited a ski industry trade show and the country already has one elderly chairlift operating at another area that was donated by Switzerland long before the current embargo.

Documents prepared by North Korean officials for potential foreign investors indicate North Korea hopes to make $43.75 million in annual profit from the resort and to attract up to 5,000 skiers per day.

I also thought that unfamiliar skis might be a factor and it was the first time I'd read a mention of it so thought would include. Although on the other hand it may be completely irrelevant and it's no use to speculate anyway, albeit human nature to do so. I have my own good skis but often take up offers to demo equipment so - speculation again - that might be the explanation with Mr Schumacher, he can obviously afford as many pairs as he likes, but equally he can test as many as he likes too and there's always some new pair to try.