J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

The top Austrian ski areas seem to be moving ahead of much of the competition in terms of their investment in state-of-the-art lifts and comprehensive snowmaking systems, and now there's an increasing spend on remarkable mountain restaurants.

Solden and Hintertux are among the resorts announcing flash new multi-million Euro dining options opening for the coming winter.

The new Tux-Finkenberg restaurant is a €10 million transformation of the main Tuxer Fernerhaus restaurant.

The new building which will include a table service restaurant and sun terrace while those inconvenient things for skiers in - stairs - will be replaced by escalators bringing an end to the ungainly task of climbing up and down of stairs in ski boots.

At Solden the new €4 million Gaislachkogel restaurant, one of the highest in the area and the Alps at 3048m, has a modern design with glass exterior to project, the architect intends, a transparent feeling making visitors feel up close and personal with the spectacular ?tztal's mountain scenery.

The technical masterpiece goes one step further, as the roof terrace is connected to the Gaislachkogel mountain peak via a glass suspension bridge.

The restaurant will be gourmet standard and a planned highlight will be a new signature wine 'Pino3000', a cross-border wine project bringing three top wine growers their best Pinot Noir from Austria, Italy's South Tyrol and Germany to mature the wine in a special wine cellar at the Gaislachkogel.

Those who have moaned about how long it takes to get from the bottom to the top of the world's second biggest lift served vertical up to the Klein Matterhorn above Zermatt in Switzerland (and Cervinia in Italy's Aosta Valley just across the border), should feel fairly awe-inspired by the achievements of Spanish mountain runner Kalian Jornet who has just run and climbed up the Matterhorn proper, and got back down, in under three hours, smashing the old speed record.

Jornet's a new record for running up and down the Matterhorn, completing the route in 2 hours 52 minutes and two second broke the previous record by 22 minutes, set in 1995 by Italian runner Bruno Brunod.

Jornet set off from Cervinia on the Italian side of the Matterhorn at 3pm on 21st August to make the 17.48km journey, ascending 2,469m vertical metres.

The 4476m high Matterhorn is the third in the set of seven summits Jornet plans to beat the speed records on, as part of his Summits of My Life project.

Jornet did the ascent from the Italian side, via the Arista Lion route, which is divided into three main parts. The first section comprised mountain paths similar to those of any trail race and so here speed was Jornet's greatest ally. In the second section, there were more technical parts covered with snow, so special skills were needed. The final 1,000m stretch was graded level 3-4 in climbing difficulty. In this part, Jornet used fixed ropes and his climbing skills were essential.

Jornet encountered very favourable weather conditions: warm temperatures and sunshine even at the summit, which he reached 1h56'15'' hours after leaving Cervinia. After a brief stop there, Jornet began his main challenge, the highly technical descent.

"I've felt great during the climb. At the beginning I was very hot but step by step I started getting the rhythm and then I felt great," said Jornet, "When reaching the summit, it was a very special moment. The downhill has been good also, I'm happy I didn't have to take many risks. I fell a couple of times, but nothing serious. When I was reaching Cervinia, I was very surprised, I really thought it would be extremely difficult to be able to beat the record."

After this expedition, the Catalan athlete will be travelling to Russia to try to attempt the ascent and descent of Elbrus (5,642m), the highest mountain in Europe, so as to complete the 2013 challenges of his Summits of My Life project, in which he will try to set ascent and descent records for the most important mountains on the planet. The project lasts four years, and is planned to culminate in 2015 with the record attempt on the world's highest mountain, Mount Everest.

A new initiative to try to go more people to try skiing or boarding in England has been launched by Snowsport England with the hope of capitalising on an anticipated increase in snowsports due to the Sochi Olympics.

The Go Ski Go Board initiative aims to make trying snowsports for the first time simpler, less intimidating and more affordable for first timers.

This is to be achieved by offering free 'taster sessions' on indoor snow slopes and dry slopes in England and then offering six hour blocks of lessons for first timers – typically four 90 minute sessions, which include slope time, rentals and tuition for a flat rate of normally around £80, although prices vary.

Those wanting to try the scheme should enter their postcodes on the simple www.goskigoboard.org.uk website which will then locate the centres closest to their address. Click on one and details of the centre and a list of GoSkiGoBoard schemes available are displayed.

A quick click around by J2Ski found lots of courses on offer, but no free taster sessions, perhaps that will change by the time the scheme officially goes live on 1st September or perhaps we were just clicking in the wrong place.

Although the scheme seems to be primarily designed for first timers the organisers also say it's available to all levels of skier or boarder wanting to improve their standard.
Snowsport England is the National Governing Body of snowsports in England.

Those hoping to ski at a new ski area under construction in North Korea which leader Kim Jong Un has commanded should be asia's largest and which should be created from scratch within a year have had several set backs.

Firstly bad weather including torrential rain led to damage to the construction site and flooding of the base area last month and now lift manufacturers in Austria, France and Switzerland have declined orders valued at around £5m from North Korea for ski lifts for the new resort for fear of breaking international sanctions which forbid the sale of 'luxury items' to North Korea.

The Swiss government said they thought the resort was being built for 'prestige and for propaganda' purposes and for use by North Korea's elite rather than by the general population.

Kim Jong Un has however said the new Masik Pass ski resort will be available for use by all, unlike an existing north Korean ski area, Begaebong, which does have an elderly double chairlift which is believed to have been imported from Switzerland prior to the current sanctions regime, which is reported to be only used by the North Korean military and elite.

Kim Jong Un is believed to have learned to ski himself in Switzerland where he was educated and his desire to build a ski resort bigger than any in South Korea is seen by many Western commentators as one-up-manship after the North Korean leader declined to participate with the south in plans for the 2018 Winter Games to be staged in South Korea.

Woodsy's Winning Run Last night, Picture Credit: Morgan McFie

21-year-old British freeskier James 'Woodsy' Woods from Sheffield, current slopestyle World Cup champion ( you don't get to write that very often for a British snow sports athlete), got his 2013-14 Olympic season off to a good start last night with victory in the rail jam competition held as part of the Audi Quattro Winter Games in New Zealand.

Some of the world's top freestyle skiers and riders pulled out their best 'tricks' in front of thousands of spectators at the Parklife Invitational rail jam in downtown Queenstown last night (Saturday August 17). Woodsy took the best male skier title from two-time winner Gus Kenworthy of the USA.

Competitors dropped down a specially-built 36m-long snow ramp, going head to head on a purpose-built stair feature set up by terrain park crew from local resort The Remarkables, and covered by snow trucked down from the ski area.

Entertaining the 4,000-strong crowd in between heats were freestyle motocross champions who drew gasps from the crowd with thrills-packed FMX demos.

"It was an absolutely awesome show and the standard of competition was intense," said The Remarkables ski area manager Ross Lawrence, "It's great to be able to bring a 'taste' of the Remarks to town and awesome to see such a great turnout. The crowd loved every minute of it and the atmosphere was electric."

Looks like Glasgow one is on: www.scotlandsskishow.co.uk "This year's show will take place on 18,19 & 20 October"

Yep that's still on, just the Birmingham one cancelled.

So what's on are: London as usual, the new Manchester one and not sure about the Glasgow one that has run past few years .

25th to 27th Oct in Manchester:

http://www.skiandsnowboard.co.uk/manchester/

This one, in Birmingham, planned for same dates, is now cancelled though their website didn';t say it when I just took a look:

http://www.inthesnowlive.com/