J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

Tignes became the first French resort to open for 2012-13 when it re-opened on Saturday (29 Sept 12). Temperatures are currently hovering just below freezing and there's a 20cm snow covering on the Grand Motte glacier which has 20km of piste open.

British tour operator Snoworks will launch their annual All-Terrain courses on the glacier in less than three weeks' time, from October 20th, and run every week until the winter kicks off in December, enabling recreational skiers to enjoy the quiet pre-main-season slopes whilst brushing up on their skills before the winter ski season proper kicks off.

"The autumn is the time to develop skills," said Phil Smith, course director at Snoworks (snoworks.com), who have been pioneering skiing in the autumn for over 15 years, "The glaciers offer limited skiing compared to the winter so it's a great opportunity to get stuck into improving your skiing without having to think about where to go, looking at a piste map or deciding on which restaurant to stop at!"

During the autumn, the glaciers are alive with an international mix of clubs, teams and skiers from all over the world. You'll see skiers from as far afield as Japan, Korea and America along with skiers from all over Europe.

Snoworks Ski Courses cater for a whole cross section of skiers including holiday and recreational skiers, professional racers and ski instructors, ski instructor training for students in their gap year and mature skiers looking for career breaks.

The Snoworks Courses include junior race training for children, all-terrain for skiers with ski everywhere aspirations, learning to really take control on mogul fields and combining race training with developing carving skills with four times Olympic ski racer Emma Carrick Anderson.

Kaprun will officially celebrate the start of the 2012-13 ski season with The White Start Games on 10th – 11th November 2012 on the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier.

The event will include 2013 ski testing from Atomic, Blizzard, Fischer, Head, Salomon, Rossignol and Völkl; plus the latest helmets from Alpina. There'll also be Live music at the alpincenter and a competition to win a new Audi A 1 Sportback car that's open to all.

Competitors will take part in four novel snow sports beginning with 'snow surfing' on fresh powder (hopefully). Second the Flipper Snowrun – described by the resort as, "Anyone can walk on snow in skiing boots, but only the most skilful manage it in flippers," then third is 'Freeride Sweating' in the sauna at the Tauern Spa mostly where naked participants will need to survive three minutes wearing a thick woolly hat. Finally deep snow diving will involve diving to hunt for various objects.

Everyone who successfully completes all four challenges will have their names added to a draw. 20 whose names are drawn will then take part in a quiz, the winner of which wins the Audi.

Entry is free but anyone wanting to take part must register at: whitestart.zellamsee-kaprun.com

Official Arlberg opening date 30 Nov apparently...

Anyone able to get to Scotland's five ski areas between this autumn and next summer might consider acquiring one of the limited edition All-Area Season Passes just released (www.ski-scotland.com).

The passes are valid at all five areas - Cairngorm above Aviemore, Nevis range at Fort William, Glencoe on the West Coast and The Lecht and Glenshee on the Eastern side of the country from December 2012 through to October 2013.

"This is the only ticket that keen skiers and snowboarders need to enjoy a winter of great sliding and sport in the Highlands," said Chair of Ski-Scotland Heather Negus. "It not only gives the freedom to follow the best snow and weather conditions, but also means any queues for tickets can be bypassed – you can find the best snow and hit it first!"

Scottish snow cover is of course notoriously unpredictable. Areas have opened as early as October in the past (The Lecht) and offered skiing right through to July (Cairngorm) but last winter the country's slopes were closed for most of March due to the unseasonably warm weather.

Until the end of the weekend (September 30), the ticket can be bought at a special Early Bird price. Only a limited number are available, with sales finishing at the end of November, or when the quota is reached if this comes sooner. The early bird price is £430 for adults, £235 children. The Child ticket applies to age 5-17 at 1st December 2011. From 1st October the prices rise to £465 and £270.

Tickets booked and paid for on the Ski-Scotland stand at the Scottish Snowsports and Outdoor Show at the SECC, Glasgow on 20 and 21 October will also benefit from the Early Bird prices.

"There's no limit to the number of times the All Area Season Pass can be used," continued Heather, "so it offers tremendous value for adults and children aged five to 17 – under fives don't need a lift pass at all."

A new study in to what people really want from their ski holidays is being undertaken by Veronica Tonge or www.ResponsibleSkiing.com with help from the London Ski Show (where Veronica is organising a Responsible Skiing forum), tour operator Neilson and trade body ABTA.

Veronica is looking for as many people as possible to take part in an online survey at:

http://www.skiandsnowboard.co.uk/a-holiday-for-your-thoughts/

…before midnight on 10th October.

We've taken the survey – which takes about 15 minutes to do – and found that after a few minutes of run-of-the-mill stuff, the survey does start you thinking about what is really important to you on your ski holiday, …and what among the info we're provided with to make our choices, doesn't actually count for much when you think about it!

So hopefully the results will be interesting…

And Veronica is looking for as many people as possible to take part.

As an added incentive, everyone who completes the survey will be entered into a free prize draw to be in with a chance of winning a seven-night holiday to Sauze d'Oulx for two with Neilson Holidays. The prize includes flights from Gatwick, transfers to the resort and accommodation in the four-star Hotel Torre.

Runner up prizes include a £60 Snow+Rock voucher, a £40 Snow+Rock voucher and 10 pairs of tickets to the Ski and Snowboard Show.

Dolomiti Superski (www.dolomitisuperski.com), the giant ski area with 1200km of piste groomed by 320 snowcats, has announced there will be new terrain to ski in some of its many valleys this winter. Whether this will increase that total piste length figure is yet to be revealed.

The new runs are spread right across the limit of the pass and are accompanied by improvements to some existing runs also announced in the sectors of Cortina d'Ampezzo, Kronplatz (Valdaora, Perca, San Vigilio), Val Gardena (Plan de Gralba/Piz Seteur), Sextner Dolomiten/Alta Pusteria (Alta Val Comelico), Val di Fiemme/Obereggen (Alpe Cermis) and Valle Isarco (Jochtal-Vals).

In Cortina d'Ampezzo a new blue slope - "Lorenzi" on the descent to Valdaora, will start at 2043m and descend to 1690m and have as total length of 1,334m over a 353m vertical.

A new 4.5km long slope, also blue, named "Campo" will open in the Ski Area Val Comelico (Padola), with a 785m vertical.

A third new blue will open at Valle Isarco. The "Luckner-Schwandt" slope in the Jochtal area, will be 1,277 m long, have an average width of 36m and descend 288 vertical metres.

As of this weekend five ski areas are open in Austria - that's more than half of the northern hemisphere's total! Most are in the Tyrol where half of the world's currently open ski areas are located.

The Solden and Stubai glaciers have opened for 'winter' 2012-13 on the first weekend of the Autumn joining the already open Hintertux, Molltal and Pitztal glaciers. Snow depths range for 20 to 60cm with the most terrain open at Hintertux with 22km.

A sixth option, the Dachstein glacier has lifts running to access cross country trails but no downhill at present. However it, the Kitzsteinhorn glacier near Kaprun and the Kaunertal glaciers are all expected to open in the next few days - Taking the Austrian total up to eight.

This compares to nowhere open in North America or France - where the season begins in Mt Hood and Tignes respectively at the start of October, and a few areas open in Switzerland (Saas Fee and Zermatt) and Italy.

The 2012 season is winding down in the southern hemisphere.
Some major new lifts are opening on the Stubai and Pitztal glaciers in the Austrian Tyrol.

At Pitztal the new Wildspitze gondola with eight-seater cabins will replace Austria's highest ski lift, the Pitz Panorama gondola from next month. The gondola, which will feature heated seats, will take skiers and boarders more than 2km in under six minutes and up to an altitude of 3340m to the Hinterer Brunnenkogel. At the top station will be Austria's highest cafe, with breathtaking views of the Wildspitze at 3774m, Austria's second highest mountain and more than 50 surrounding mountains over 3000m.

Tour operator Crystal Ski (www.crystalski.co.uk) have just launched a special offer for skiers who can be tempted to make a booking in the next fortnight (up to 3rd October).

If you book your Crystal ski holiday to the Hotel Du Col in Sestriere or the Hotel Splendid, Hotel Miravalle or Hotel Gran Baita in Sauze D'Oulx by 3 October 2012, you can get two Milky Way lift passes for the price of one - saving you £169, providing effectively half price access for two people to one of the world's largest ski areas, the cross border Milky way with more than 400km of ski runs linking 2006 Winter Olympic venues Sestriere and Sauze d'Oulx to Montgenevre in France. Children up to the age of 7 receive a free lift pass as well as seniors over 75.

"But that's not all!" ... If you book your Crystal ski holiday to ANY resort in Andorra, Austria, France, Italy or Switzerland by 3rd October, you qualify for a Buy-One-Get-One-Half-Price (the less well known 'BOGOHP') lift pass saving you up to £142 (that would be at Zermatt, Europe's priciest pass, although kids up to age nine ski free there).

Crystal Ski offers a wide range of ski resorts across Europe and regional departures from all mayor UK airports. The deal is valid at 112 ski resorts for adult lift passes based on a seven night holiday but excludes the peak weeks over Christmas, New Year and the 2013 Easter holidays.

The offer will end on Wednesday 3 October at 23:59hrs.