J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by admin

One of the three ski areas at Park City in Utah has announced a major investment in new on-mountain equipment this winter and that it is going to drop the 'The' from its name. Now known simply as 'Canyons', or 'Park City's Canyons' if you will, the resort was formerly known as 'The Canyons' and before that several other names. It came under new ownership recently after more than a decade as the flagship resort of the now defunct American Skiing Company. They took the Canyons from being very much Park City's third ski area, behind Deer Valley and Park City Mountain Resort, in to one of North America's 10 biggest resorts with a fleet of modern chairlifts.

The resort is spending on a new quad with weather-protection hood complete with heated seats – a first in North America. The lift will replace the Golden Eagle chair and increase uphill capacity from the resort's base area by over 45% taking people to the Sun Peak in nine minutes. The pull-down hood has sunglasses style orange tint for maximum visibility.

"The new lift will enhance the ease of skiing both north and south off of Lookout Peak and guests will be able to ski directly to the Red Pine area," said resort spokesperson Libby Dowd, "The south end of the resort is accessible via Timberline Lift which you can ride in both directions. It has stations at the bottom of Tombstone and the bottom of the new Iron Mountain Lift."

The new lift means the resort is adding 300 acres of new terrain with ten new ski runs createdwill be located off the new lift. These runs will range from intermediate to expert levels and bring the total number of runs to 176.

Other improvements include moving and renovating the resorts gondola to improve skier flow from the car park, enhancing snowmaking on the lower mountain with a new 20-million-gallon reservoir above Lookout Peak for snowmaking water and the creation of a Ski Beach at the base of the slopes for après ski activities.

Courtesy of and © Snow24 plc

Saalbach Hinterglemmm Leogang in Austria, one of the country's largest resorts with 200 kilometres of piste and 55 modern lifts, will add a new gondola this winter.

The T-bar lift located near to the Funpark will be dramatically upgraded through replacement by a modern eight person gondola with heated seats and the capacity to transport 2,800 people per hour with the total length of the lift being doubled. The top station will be situated above the 'Gerstreit' reservoir. As well as the lift construction, the floodlit piste and night park will also be expanded and enhanced.

The resort has also spent another 2.3 million Euros on new snowmaking equipment and oin reshaping several pistes. 90% of the huge area now has snowmaking cover.

Another improvement is a new year-round 'Treetop Path' located at the end of the Saalbach Hinterglemm valley. Believed to be unique in the world the kilometre long path loops around the foresty, incorporating a 200 metre long hanging bridge, approximately 40 metres high.

In the last 10 years Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang has invested over 204 Mill. Euro.
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The famous French holiday village group Club Med has announced it will open its first resort in China this winter, at the country's top resort of Yabuli.

Club Med has run ski holiday villages at resorts around the world for many decades with ski areas including Copper Mountain in Colorado, La Plagne in France and Wengen in Switzerland all home to Club Med villages either now or in the past. The company also pioneered ski holiday packages to Japan before other European or North American companies arrived with their village at Sahoro.

Club Med's plans are to open five similar villages over the next five years and has partnered with Chinese company Fosun, which now in turn owns ten percent of Club Med one of the biggest business groups in the country.

Club Med believes the Chinese measure market will continue to grow rapidly as personal wealth in the country increases.
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It's been a good few weeks at Perisher with lots of fresh snow and virtually all of the resort's terrain open.

In addition this weekend Olympic Halfpipe Gold Medallist and Perisher Ambassador Torah Bright is being honoured at Australioa's largest ski area with the resort's Superpipe officially re-named "Brights' Pipe". The dedication honours not only Torah but also her brother Ben who is her coach and a long-time Perisher snowboarding athlete.

The Perisher Superpipe is the only one of its type in Australia and is the official training facility for the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia. The 2010 Australian Junior Series Halfpipe event was held at Brights' Pipe this Saturday and the official naming ceremony coincided with the event's presentations.

"I practically grew up at Perisher and try to get back here whenever I can," said Ms Bright. "It's my favourite Aussie snow resort and I'm so proud to be an Ambassador. It gives me a chance to give back and support some of the next generation of winter sports stars."

Perisher's General Manager of Marketing, Sales and Hospitality Gary Grant said: "As part of her new role, Torah will become the face of Perisher in advertising and promotional campaigns over the next two years, representing the resort where she first started snowboarding and where she developed as an athlete. We'll be filming TV commercials with her this week and she'll be posting on Facebook and blogging her experiences."

"And the timing of the current snow falls couldn't be better. We have received over 30cm of fresh snow in the last 48 hours with even more forecasted. Perisher now has five terrain parks open including the Slopestyle Park that includes a 70 foot kicker, Australia's largest terrain park jump. With all this happening this weekend is shaping up to be huge."

Over the past weeks Perisher conducted a "Board with Torah for a Day" promotion. Intermediate snowboarders entered to win a day lift ticket for them and two friends which included four hours on-snow with Torah this Saturday 14 August. Also, on Sunday lucky Winter Sports Club children will be given tuition, tips and advice during a coaching session attended by Torah.

Torah will be making appearances in Perisher's video snow reports and an interview of her at the resort will be made available on the Perisher website.
cS24

Les 2 Alpes – which is currently one of the two French resorts open for summer skiing – is building a new quad chairlift, as part of a raft of upgrades for winter 2010-11.

The 2.7 million euro POMA built lift will improve access to the La Fee sector. The 474m long lift rises 164 vertical metrtes and will carry a capacity of 2,000 people per hour.

Work on the lift began a few weeks ago and seven towers are currently being installed during August. Then the drive terminal, cables, electricity will follow and testing is due to take place in late October ahead of a November completion for the new season.

Other improvements include a 1 million Euro spend on upgrading mountain signage over two years. More than 500 directional arrows, 160 sign posts and 15 electronic notice boards with scrolling information will be installed.

Finally two new CATEX avalanche triggers are being installed at a cost of 700,000 Euros to protect power lines, improving safety for resort employees working in the La Fee and Thuit sectors.
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Pralognan La Vanoise in the French Savoie region will see one of the biggest infrastructure upgrades in the country this winter when the resort installs new quad and six-seater chairlifts.

Pralognan will replace the old Edelweiss chair with a high speed detachable six-seat lift and the double Chaberne chair with the new POMA built quad.

These two lifts, which run in succession from the valley floor, the new six-seater first, provide the only alternative route up to the ski are to the cable car from the village and so the increased speed and capacity on the route will be a great benefit.

Pralognan is one of a group of about eight smaller French ski resorts in the Alps with ski areas that are operated by the Labellemontagne group.

It is a traditional, quiet mountain village set among fir and spruce trees at the gate of Vanoise national park, close to Courchevel and La Plagne.

There's good off-piste on Les Pariettes and right up to the 3855m high Pointe de la Grande Casse from which descents of nearly 2500m are possible.
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tino_11 wrote:what about the token snowboarder :(

No problem - you can buy the second round! 8)

Australian ski resorts have seen their biggest snowfalls of winter 2010 so far over the past week, with two resorts – Mt Hotham and Perisher – both reporting around 60cm (two feet) accumulated taking average snow depth above the metre (3.3 foot) mark.

Prior to the big snowfalls, Australian ski areas had had low temperatures for snowmaking for most of the two months the majority have been open, and Perisher had set a record for snow made by machine as a result, but there had not been a great amount if natural snowfall.

The snowfall has reportedly slowed but it still continuing with temperatures well below freezing and most areas reporting a few centimetres more each night.

Hotham reports 59cm of fresh snowflakes falling and eight lifts now running after Australia Drift opened for the first time this season this weekend. The Heavenly Valley Chair has also started turning from for the first time this season, and will continue to run from 7.30am from Wednesday to Sundays (snow and weather permitting) so early-birds can beat the crowds and grab first turns on Hotham's slopes.
Courtesy of and © Snow24 plc