J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

Interlaken in Switzerland, at the foot of the Jungfrau region, has launched an online fondue guide that outlines the different types of fondue available as well as the different venues in resort in which to find each type.

The guide, found in > offers, > winter offers at Interlaken.ch acknowledges that first there was cheese, the oldest form of the dish known as fondue, but that there's so much more to fondue these days.

As well as chocolate fondue for desert, there's also meat and now fish fondues cooked in oil (Fondue Bourguignonne) or stock (Fondue Chinoise).

Besides eating fondue in a restaurant or mountain hut, you can buy fondue equipment and ingredients to make your own if you rent a holiday apartment, and the guide also lists 'fondue experiences' where you combine a fondue meal with sledging or snowshoeing.

But the classic cheese fondue remains the most popular. With this the cheese is mixed with white wine and cornflour as a binder, plus a shot of Kirsch and various spices. The mixture is melted in a special pan known as a caquelon and small cubes of bread are then dipped into it.

The caquelon is set on a small réchaud (burner) at a gentle heat to keep the cheese warm and melted. There are many variants on this basic recipe which can be refined to taste with spices, herbs, vegetables and alcohol.

Adelboden, which incidentally reports 25cm of fresh snow in the past 24 hours, has a novel contest this winter in which the prize is a free ski instructor for the day.

Actually it is not so much of a competition, more that you pick a day and email your ski instructor requirements (what you need to learn) and the day you'd like to win your free ski instructor for to p.calanca@adelboden.ch and hope your request is chosen.

The prize of the ski instructor for the day is available to win 16 times from 15 - 30 March 2014, you have to be in Adelboden to make use of your ski instructor's skills.

If you win you can use the ski instructor alone or with up to three others, and a ski pass for the day is included for the winner.

Adelboen rates ther instructors highly, claiming they are,

"Genuine, refreshing, active, dynamic, sporty, charming, fun, honest, spontaneous, creative, happy, amusing, enthusiastic, welcoming, down-to-earth, popular, open minded, attractive, discreet, strong, kind, sincere, relaxed, helpful, perceptive, patient, successful, passionate, courageous, attentive, ambitious, at-one-with-naturre, sociable, unique …and professional."

So you'll be in safe hands.

Winners' details will be published on Adelboden's Facebook page one week in advance and the resort recommends anyone trying to win an instructor will have a better chance if they try for a less popular day – which means midweek rather than weekends.

Fresh snow is bringing Christmas cheer to skiers and boarders across Europe.

Reports of 20-30cm of new snow are coming in the J2Ski.com from the Southern and Northern Aps and Pyrenees as well as Scandinavia and Scotland. The Dolomites are expecting heavy snow over the next 24 hours too, according to a spokesman for Dolomiti Superski.

"The wish of a snowy, white Christmas is about to become reality. Heavy snowfall is forecasted for December 25th, for a wonderful end of the year. Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!" said the spokesperson from the giant Italian ski region.

The snow so far reported has included 20cm in 24 hours recorded by Cauterets in the French Pyrenees, a foot (30cm) at Auron in the southern French Alps and the same amount at Champorcher over the border in Italy. Bardonecchia reports 50cm.

The snow is good news for areas that have seen little fresh snow in December, although most still have good piste bases thanks to heavy November snowfall and snowmaking during cold periods.

Across the Atlantic there have been similar snowfalls across North America with resorts in Colorado, Utah and on the east coast, Quebec, posting big snowfalls in recent days. Santa stopped in Squaw Valley, California, for a ski (pictured)

All five Scottish ski areas say that they hope to be open on Boxing Day – weather permitting.

The wild weather that has been battering the UK in recent days brought snow to the Scottish mountains, so much so that the access roads to Glenshee and the Lecht were blocked for periods, along with the main A9 trunk road north to Aviemore and Cairngorm. Gale force winds also knocked out cams, weather sensors and sometimes power supplies at some Scottish centres meaning that assessing the slopes has had to be done the old fashioned way, once safe to do so.

All five centres currently report fresh snow and enough to each say they'll open, if they can, on Boxing Day, which at present appears to be a possible 'weather window' ion the continuing and fairly unprecedented run of storms which keep bringing up to around 100mph winds, then heavy snow, but also periods of very warm thawing temperatures in repetitive succession.

Several Scottish ski centres including Cairngorm and The Lecht have managed to open briefly during those brief periods of good snow/calm weather over the past month but so far Boxing Day looks good for all. With the current unsettled conditions however, it is not yet clear however how long centres will be able to remain open, if they do manage to open.

Less than 24 hours after our weekly snow report bemoaned the lack of fresh snow in December for much Europe (although we did say that's about to change…), we're pleased to report it HAS changed this morning and resorts in the Alps, Dolomites and Pyrenees are reporting big snowfalls this morning.

The picture above was kindly sent to us by the Hautes-Pyrenees region who report:

Cauterets: 40cm of fresh snow. Snow depth: 70cm at the bottom / 130cm at the top
Saint-Lary: 15cm of fresh snow. Snow depth: 110cm at the bottom / 170cm at the top
Grand Tourmalet: 15-30cm of fresh snow. Snow depth: 70cm at the bottom / 140cm at the top
Peyragudes (pictured): 10cm of fresh snow, Snow depth:120cm at the bottom / 200cm at the top.

Elsewhere in Europe Avoriaz in France reports 20cm of new snow this morning, Bardonecchia in Italy a foot (30cm) and Gstaad in Switzerland 20cm. The snow is still falling, and even Voss in Norway say they've had a foot too. Most other resorts have had significant snowfalls as well.

Most leading resorts already had a healthy base, especially on upper slopes, from the big falls in November, they just needed a 'freshen up' and this is it, just in time for the Christmas and New Year holidays!

A number of new lifts are opening this month at ski areas on the giant Sella Ronda circuit in the Italian Dolomites.

At Val Gardena/Alpe di Siusi there's a major new gondola, with the largest cabins possible, each capable of carrying 10 passenger. It's nearly two miles long and has an hourly uplift capacity of 3000 people.

Named the "Dantercepies" lift it has a mid-way station on its 2,578m cable length as it climbs 644m uphill.

All three stations at the bottom, in the middle and at the top have been designed to be aesthetically pleasing and integrates in to the landscape.

In Val di Fassa, there's another 10 passeger gondola lift connecting the village of Nova Levante with the slopes of Frommer Alm over a distance of 3.6km (two and a quarter miles).

Finally in Arabba/Marmolada a new six seater detachable chairlift, Alpenrose, links Pont de Vauz to Arabba but climbs only 131 vertical metres over its 1.2km length, the aim to avoid a flat section for skiers.

Arabba has also unveiled a new kilometre long red run, "Rutort" from Bec de Roces to the Campolongo Pass.

With two new gondolas and the flashy new slopeside W Hotel opening in Verbier and the 4 Valleys this month, there's a lot going on in the famous resort.

Of course it's famous too for being not the most inexpensive ski destination, but the local lift company has tried to combat that image, at least a bit, with a new lift pass scheme.

Verbier's new Card Club guarantees discounts on your lift pass spending and other benefits besides.

Once subscribed via verbierbooking.com you receive a pass which allows you to go straight to the lifts, by-passing the ticket office.

That's not a new idea of course, but the pass charges your bank account direct as you access the lift and has a lowest price guarantee, with a minimum discount of 10% off the regular day pass price.

Special offer days with 30% and 50% savings are also promised.

Registration for one year, costs CHF 50 for adults and CHF 25 for children.

Early snow reports from Sochi have indicated that, with just over 50 days to go until the Games, pre-season snowfall has been good and there's currently 50cm of snow lying on the slopes of Olympic venues.

Snow cover had been (and probably still remains) a concern as Sochi's snow records has been hit-and-miss over the years.

Along with potential problems including its proximity to 'terrorist areas' and its location in an earthquake belt, Sochi is also in Russia's only sub-tropical region and tends to get either large falls of snow or none-at-all. Several 'test events' staged in previous seasons on the same February dates as their equivalent Olympic events have had to be been cancelled.

As part of the guesstimated €50 billion cost of the games a very sophisticated snowmaking system has been installed, although this is not thought to include the IDE All weather system used on glaciers at Pitztal and Zermatt to top up snow cover in positive temperatures.

Ski venues have also been closed to the public for periods at the end of last season and start of this and half a million cubic metres of snow is reported to have been 'stockpiled' from last season if required for the Games.

At the 2010 Games British Columbia was rather short on snow at the start of the Olympics and a gargantuan and ultimately successful effort was required to complete the pipe at Cypress Mountain in particular.

The last major event that had to be cancelled for lack of snow was the Alpine Skiing World Championships in Sierra Nevada, Spain, Europe's most southerly resort and also a leading snowmaker. The championships were due to be staged in 1985 but were rescheduled and staged successfully in 1986, the only time they've been staged in an evenly number year.

Sierra Nevada is due to host the next Winter Universiade in 2015.