J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

Gstaad is offering a spring promotion on accommodation targeted a families where children parents and grand children would all like to holiday together.

Although not especially aimed at the snowsports market the package is available from 21st March and runs right through to the end of June, so could be used on a ski holiday.

14 hotels rated from three to five star are offering the "3 Generations Package" which means that parents pay full price, grandparents half price and children up to 16 stay in their own room for free.

Prices vary depending on the exact make-up of the family group but for example 2 parents, 2 grandparents and 2 children under the age of 16 for 2 nights in a 3-star hotel from a total of CHF 684 Swiss Francs or approximately £242 per night in total on half board.

March marks the start of music festivals season in the Alps with several dozen events, at least, being organised over the next eight weeks.

You can catch Bryan Ferry in Zermatt, Deep Purple in Ischgl and Kasabian in Mayrhofen among many more.

However the Festival that seems to have lined up the most British big name acts this season is the Caprices Festival (www.caprices.ch) which is celebrating its 10th anniversary in style and runs from 8th – 16th March 2013.

Internationally renowned artists across all music genres take to the stage and perform to the ever-growing allegiance of festival fans and big names such as Björk, Portishead, Fatboy Slim and The Killers all feature on the line-up, alongside up and coming acts looking to make their name.

Crans Montana is located high above the Rhône valley on a south-facing plateau providing great views and has a reputation as one of the sunniest resorts in the Alps, which hopefully bodes well.

Under blue skies and in perfect racing conditions skiing legend Alain Baxter was one of four BASI (British Association of Snowsport Instructors) pace-setters who hurtled down the famous White Lady piste at CairnGorm Mountain (www.cairngormmountain.org) on Tuesday to set the time for aspiring top level ski instructors to emulate.

Twenty-one BASI level 4 instructors attempted to get within 18% of the aggregate time of the pace-setters in order to gain this final accolade and widespread international recognition for their qualification.

The FIS (Federation International de Ski)/BASI test on a Giant Slalom course takes place 13 or 14 times a year usually in Europe but this was the first such test to take place in Scotland for five years.

The target time for the men set by Alain and his fellow pace-setters (Aaron Tipping, Jazz Bruce and Nicolas Sauvage) was 45.82 seconds in the morning and 45.87 in the afternoon but it was just too demanding for even the best of the racers with the closest, Todd O'Brien, missing out by a gut-wrenching 0.5 seconds.

"This was a very efficiently organised event in perfect racing conditions and I would like to congratulate CairnGorm Mountain on their race piste preparation as well as thanking them for arranging the wall to wall sunshine!" said BASI Eurotest co-ordinator Susie Berry,

"Obviously the participants were disappointed not to pass, but this demonstrates just how tough a challenge this is. It is not uncommon for BASI Level 4 instructors to take five or six attempts before they pass this speed test. BASI hopes to run a Eurotest in Scotland every two years in future."

Alain Baxter last skied competitively in the British Championships five years ago and is currently contracted as an 'opener' for BASI Eurotests in Europe, undertaking up to six tests each season. He runs a specialist ski-boot fitting service and shop in Stirling where he lives with his family. Two of his children were on the pistes at CairnGorm skiing with their grandfather, Iain Baxter, himself a former BASI Trainer and British ski champion.

(indoor snow centres are attracting business from dry slopes)

Sheffield Ski Village, once Europe's largest artificial-surface snow centre, will probably never re-open according to its owner.

Buildings at the complex were destroyed by a series or arson attacks last spring and subsequently the large area has become a magnet for criminals seeking metal and any other items it is possible to sell, as well as a constant run of destruction by vandals.

Despite the now derelict and dangerous sate of the centre that are still believed to be attempts by local ski clubs to work out a way to use the slopes again. The UK's most successful ever down hill snowsports competitor, 'Woodsy,' learned his skills in Sheffield before winning two successive world cup stages this winter, a feat never before achieved by a British competitor in the modern era.

However the site's owner Kevin Pullan told the local Sheffield Star newspaper that he is no longer able to get insurance on the site.

"It's the forgotten area of Sheffield," Mr Pullen told The Star. "When we took over in 2007 there was talk of the landfill site eventually closing and a huge park being created, and there was talk of EU grants for the area, but all that seems to have fizzled out.

As well as being unable to protect the site, Mr Pullman said a growing gypsy camp had appeared at the ski village. He said he did not blame the police or Sheffield council with the former fully stretched and the latter lacing funds.

The Ski Village operated from 1988 to 2012 and employed approximately 50 people.

The famous and historic Arlberg region will grow to 340km, placing it in the world's top five largest ski areas, when it expands for next winter 2013-14.

The new terrain, adding 62km of runs to the existing 278km, will come courtesy of a gondola connection to the neighbouring ski area of Warth/Schrocken from the Lech side of the Arlberg.

The new Dopppelmayr built Auenfeldjet gondola lift will be a two-kilometre long lift starting at the upper station of the Weibermahd chairlift in Lech and crossing the Auenfeld pass to the Geissbühel Alpe. Some sources have reported that the lift would have been built for this season but agreement had to be reached with land owners between the two resorts. The resorts are also stressing the 'environmentally friendly' nature of the lift and it's minimal footprint with only a few support towers needed and power lines that were there already being buried underground as part of the project.

Whether the Arlberg's 340km of terrain can really be counted as fully interlinked is debatable. As with the La Plagne/Les Arcs connection of 'Paradiski' in France (which celebrates 10 years next winter), the connection between the Lech sector and Schrocken/Warth will be by gondola only, with no ski runs to make the connection. And the connection between St Anton and Lech over snow is tenuous in any case, only possible in one direction by very experienced skiers. However it will be physically possible ski all 340km without needing to take a bus to make a connection.

The Lech/Zurs – Warth/Schrocken sector will also be the largest skiing area in Vorarlberg with a total of 47 ski-lifts and cable-cars and 190 kilometres of piste.

(Hemsedal)

The new destination choices are starting to come in for winter 2013-14 from the big tour operators and there seems to be a distinct tendency towards Scandinavian ski areas so far.

Crystal have announced that a number of resorts in Norway are 'new' for them, while Inghams have just announced they're going to be offering Pyhä (pronounced Poo-ha) in Finnish Lapland. In most cases the 'new' option for 20130-14 are resorts previously operated by the operators, or other operators, then dropped and now re-introduced.

Situated just north of the Arctic Circle, Pyhä is the fourth Finnish resort in the operator's programme along with Levi, Ylläs and Saariselkä as Lapland continues to regain ground after being dropped from some tour op brochures following the 2008 economic slowdown.

Pyhä is the perfect place to learn to ski and improve technique with easily accessible beginner slopes and confidence building blue runs. Previously awarded Finnish Ski Resort of the Year the ski area has seen heavy investment in recent years with the new Polar Express 6-seater chairlift which whisks skiers and snowboarders to tree lined slopes, and a FunPark for boarders and freestyle skiers.

Pyhä also offers some of the most challenging slopes in Finland including Huttu-Ukko, used by the Finnish Ski Team for race training.

Unique attractions include For snow-cat rides to visit an Arctic Amethyst mine, the only one in Europe, taking home their very own lucky amethyst and ice climbing on the Tajukangas ice fall close to the piste.

Inghams will offers a range of accommodation in Pyhä and flights from Gatwick, Birmingham and Manchester to Kittila.

Meanwhile Crystal Ski, is reintroducing Geilo, Hemsedal and Beitostølen in Norway to next winter's programme.

Geilo is a traditional "chocolate-box" village at the heart of Norway's 'winterland 'region with ski areas on both sides of the valley. It offers 40 pistes to suit mainly intermediate and beginner skiers, several snow parks and over 220km of cross country tracks.

Nearby Hemsedal, renowned as the biggest ski area in Norway with an excellent snow record, offers a huge diversity of terrain, some convenient slope-side lodging and good children's nursery slopes.

The small resort of Beitostølen located in the Jotunheimen National Park offers a well planned and efficient lift network, a high quality English speaking ski school and gentle, confident building slopes for families, beginners and low intermediates. There is plenty for children from the Ski Fun Land to the special sledge lift, mini-snowmobiles, husky sledding and floodlit night skiing.

The weekly flights from Gatwick to Fagernes will operate from Sunday 22 December 2013 until 16 March 2014 as the final inbound.

"The snow-sure resorts, the varied terrain and excellent family facilities in Norwegian resorts have always been popular with British skiers, but no one has facilitated what customers also want: making ski holidays to Norway more affordable," said Crystal Ski managing director Simon Cross, "Norway isn't known as a cheap destination, but we've managed to use our buying power to get some great value half board options plus incredibly inexpensive self catering cabins and apartments."

Prices for a week's stay start at £375 (per person based on six sharing) at the Hovi Cabins in Beitostølen on self catering basis including return flights from Gatwick and transfers departing on 5 January 2014.

All 33 lifts and 120km of pistes are open at Baqueira Beret in the Spanish Pyrenees. Last to open were The Tuc de la Llança 1 and 2 and the Argulles chairlifts which opened after the epic task of digging out 4m deep snow from support towers after more than 4 meters of snowfall in the Bonaigua area.

Baqueira Beret has created new marked ski safari routes through its three sectors - Baqueira, Beret and Bonaigua (www.baqueira.es/estacion/safaris). The routes are well marked with details of starting point, which lifts to take, which pistes to go down, restaurants and services along the way and so on.

Skier ability level have also been taken into account with three different safaris routes available which have specific markers on the pistes.

The blue Safari is for an intermediate level skier, ideal to ski along comfortable, wide runs without exaggerated slopes.

The red Safari is designed for the skiers with a good level as it runs along more challenging pistes.

The black Safari is for the expert level skier as the itinerary runs through the most difficult pistes of the resort.

Another option is to take a safari with an expert guide at the weekend. The safari lasts four hours and concludes in the Baqueira 1500 bar with a glass of cava. Price per day per person is 20 euros (minimum 8 people). It is necessary to reserve your spot before Friday at 2pm via carmeta@baqueira.es

Ski Miquel www.skimiquelholidays.co.uk is offering a seven-night half board ski break to the Spanish ski resort of Baqueira Beret in the Catalan Pyrenees this Easter, from £499 per person, between 24-31 March

80 Skiers from 15 nations descended (literally) on the resort of Vars in the Southern French Alps for the 2013 FIS Speed Ski World Cup. The Chambrieres piste there is renowned for being the steepest and if not one of the fastest in the world. It is a truly frightening piste for the faint hearted, but one that every speed skier wants to conquer.

Speed skiing is the fastest non-mechanized sport in the world, whereby it requires it special type of person to go in a straight line down exceptionally steep mountains. Every stage of the race the skiers go from higher until the final, which is from the top!

Speed Ski GB had 5 athletes competing with one, Benja Hedley, competing in Speed 1, the fastest category to compete in whereby they wear rubber suits and ski on 238cm long skis.

This was Benja's first race in this category and he was 8th, with victory taken by the world record holder Simone Origone from Italy with a speed of 240kmph (150mph).

It is normally quite rare for Britain to do well in winter sports however Marc Poncin, a veteran of Speed Skiing made it into the final. Marc began Speed Skiing in the late 80's and has gone on to become Britain's most decorated Skier at World Cup level, the holder of two FIS crystal globes.

Marc competed in the 1992 winter Olympics when Speed Skiing was a demonstration sport. He has achieved a great amount in the sport including being Britain's fastest skier, clocking 245.23kmph. This World cup he clocked a speed of 195.38kmph, which placed him 4th in the competition. The winner of the speed downhill category was Gregory Meichtry from Switzerland with a speed of 207.40kmph.

Millar Reid, 220.72kmph, indoor world record 2006-2011 at 103.05kmph is also Speed Ski GB's coach and team manager and commented, " The boys put in a commendable effort all week. Its good to see younger guys like Yannick Green and Jan Farrell coming through as it bodes well for the future. I am happy that Benja Hedley has progressed to Speed 1. We definitely have something to build on, as all of the hard work in preparation for these Championships has been off our own back. We receive no funding or support from our governing body despite having some of the best winter results for Britain. Currently we are supported by Adidas, Frencys Clothing and Dirty Dog Eyewear who have helped us a lot with our kit for this season, so many thanks to them for all the help!"