J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

Seefeld photo library... alegedly. Although actually they just sent me the pics when I asked.

I'm confident that picture was taken just yesterday and is certainly not a 10 year old 'on file' image.

Well just off to the Leveson Inquiry to plead my case...

After the Dutch Soccer U21 National Team and the Austrian National Team trained in Seefeld over the past week, the Olympiaregion Seefeld will host for the first time England's Premier League Champions Manchester City for a training camp.

The camp will be held from 8th to 20th July with the team accommodated in the five star Hotel Klosterbräu in Seefeld.
Three test matches will be played at the Tivoli soccer stadium in nearby Innsbruck.

Man City are the latest club to visit the Olympiaregion Seefeld in 20 years of hosting top teams from the international soccer scene.

Other ski resorts also offer summer training facilities for major football teams in the Alps, often prior to major championships. The Japanese team was based in Saas Fee for altitude training prior to the last World Cup while the French national squad is regularly in Tignes.

In July last year Germany's Hamburg football team decided on a fairly unusual place to train when they opted for a sessions on a special pitch built at 3,250m on the side of a cliff by the Tux summer ski slopes in Austria's Ziller Valley.

Several airlines have announced new routes for winter 2012-13 which are already available to book.

Monarch Airlines will launch 10 new 'ski routes' including flights to Grenoble in France and Friedrichshafen and Munich in southern Germany as well as departures from Leeds Bradford International Airport for the first time.

British Airways has not announced new routes but it is increasing the number of flights to two of its most popular European ski destinations from Gatwick next winter.

From December 18th BA flights to Turin in Italy will increase to 10 a week and flights to Salzburg in Austria will increase to five a week from the south London airport. The extra return service to Turin will operate on a Sunday and extra return services to Salzburg will operate on Thursday and Saturday.

"These routes are already very popular with winter travellers and skiers in particular, so we have taken the opportunity to boost our winter schedule with the extra flights," said Sophie McKinstrie of British Airways Gatwick.

Monarch says that with its new routes alongside its year round services to Milan, Venice and Verona it can now give British skiers access to routes in to the Alps and Dolomites from north, south, east and west.

"The launch of these routes for winter 2012/13 marks an exciting new era for Monarch as we introduce our first programme of scheduled ski flights and target a new customer base of skiers looking to fly to Grenoble, Friedrichshafen, Munich as well as via our numerous Italian destinations," said Kevin George, Managing Director of Monarch Airlines.

The new routes are four flights per week from London Gatwick to Friedrichshafen and four flights a week from London Luton to Munich. From Manchester there'll be two weekly flights to Friedrichshafen, three to Grenoble and four to Munich and from Birmingham three to Grenoble and four to Munich weekly. The new routes from Leeds Bradford are to Grenoble three times per week and to Munich twice weekly.

There are two pieces of good news for skiers from the famous and spectacularly-scenic Swiss Jungfrau region next winter.

Firstly, the area above Interlaken, home to the resorts of Grindelwald, Wengen, Lauterbrunnen and Murren, has announced it will be holding prices at last season's levels.

Secondly Wengen will be upgrading its old Wixi double chairlift to a six-seater chairlift with pull down weather-protection hoods in a fetching yellow colour. Uplift capacity on the route will increase from 1200 to 1800 people per hour which is good news as the lift is reported to be one of the most popular in the entire Jungfrau region, providing access to some of the most popular sunny, south facing but still snow sure pistes. Indeed when the decision to build the new lift was made in 2009/10 it was the only lift in the entire region that had seen an increase in passenger traffic (by 20%) in the whole Jungfrau pass area.

As well as the new lift a new bridge over the Wengernalp Railway line is being built to handle the growing skier and boarder traffic. The new bridge will be will be replaced by a new 20-metres wide and 35-metres long when complete.

The 2011-12 ski season in the northern hemisphere has finally ended – or at least the number of resorts still open is about as low as it gets before centres start re-opening for summer glacier skiing.

Only Timberline, Oregon; Crystal Mountain in Washington State and the Blackcomb Glacier are open in North America after Mammoth called it a day at the weekend. In Europe less than a dozen areas are operational in Europe with none in France, just Zermatt in Switzerland and a handful in Austria, Italy and Norway plus Riksgransen in Sweden and Ruka in Finland – our own dear Cairngorm also ended its ski season at the weekend as temperatures ion Aviemore suddenly soared to a near May record 27C.


So focus can switch to the southern hemisphere where Australia's biggest resort, Perisher, became the first to open in the southern hemisphere last weekend following a foot of pre-season snow arriving.

Due to open on the 9th of June the resort, which has closed its slopes again for the week, says it will re-open for 2012 proper a week early this Saturday 2nd June.

Next up will be Afri-ski in Lesotho, all being well, which is due to open a few days later and has already announced good snowmaking conditions. Most of the resort of the Southern Hemisphere's nearly 100 ski areas – most in Argentina, Australia, Chile and New Zealand, will open over the following three weekends.

New Zealand will be hoping for no report of the very warm May/June of 2011 that delayed opening in a manner very similar to the Alps last Noivember.

n South America they're hoping La Nine will be good news for them as it was for Western Canada if not California earlier this year. There's also relief that the volcano erupting close to Catedral ski area near Bariloche, causing travel and operational problems a year ago, has been downgraded to 'minor.'

In any event Valle Nevado in Chile, will be opening the country's first gondola. Seventy cabins with a capacity of six passengers each will add to the already modern infrastructure which includes quad chair Andes Express, the fastest lift in the region.

Another Chillean resort, La Parva, will open the first half-pipe Olympic training centre in South America and just over the border in Argentina, Las Leñas is installing a new Doppelmayr quad chairlift .

Italy's Cervinia ski resort, in the north west of the country, has announced it will open for glacier skiing for 10 weeks from 30th June to 9th September this year.

Summer skiers and boarders will be able to ski on the glacier of Plateau Rosà with access using the resort's newly opened cable car, and also enjoy the unique panorama from the viewing platform at the arrival station of the Plateau Rosà cable car and take a visit to the highest museum in Europe, dubbed "A Mountain of Work."

The new Plateau Rosà cable car with its futuristic design offers improved comfort, and better views through the maxi windows.
With summer skiing also possible from Zermatt on the Swiss side of the border (year round), and from mid-July in neighbouring Saas Fee (joint summer ski pass available with Zermatt) it's possible to summer ski and board the three resorts between mid July and early September.

The resorts also offer mountain bike excursions and downhill runs, uphills facilitated by the lifts so as not to take away from all your fun...

The first ascent for skiers each morning will be at 7.15am with the last return descent from Plateau Rosà at 3.45pm daily. The last lift from Cervinia for those based in Zermatt and returning over is at noon, because lifts on the Swiss side run from 7.40am to 1pm a with the slopes closing at 1.30pm, after which the snow is usually too wet. Adult tickets are 31 Euros for one day, 98 Euros for 6 day, with children half price.

The Ski Club of Great Britain has announced details of its annual mountain clean up at three of the UK's five commercial ski fields.

Summer mountain clean ups have long been regular occurrences at ski areas around the world, but the Ski Club first launched their annual Big Spring Clean as part of their 'Respect The Mountain' environmental awareness campaign five or six years ago, initially at Cairngorm and Nevis Range.

A few years ago they added Glenshee to the list and this year's Clean Up takes place simultaneously, starting at the bases of the three ski areas from 10am on Saturday 16th June.

Volunteers are welcome to take part and enjoy a day (or just an hour or so) hiking on the slopes and bagging up rubbish.

This year's event has a new twist in that participants can opt to take part in activities besides just litter picking!

At Glenshee anyone filling a bag of rubbish will be able to enjoy a free demo of a mountain bike, thanks to a partnership with Scott Sports. Nevis range is also offering post litter-pick mountain biking, in their case with a 50% saving on regular rates.

At Cairngorm a guided 'Eco walk' is on offer, with a funicular ride to the top followed by a guided walk down. The guide will give information on the eco systems and other points of interest in the area.

The event has a mixed history at Cairngorm as last year it was possible to ski on the day at the top and this year too that might still be the case, as snow sports are continuing today, but with temperatures finally up towards double figures and set to get warmer this time the snow may not last to mid-June. Rules on the use of the funicular for environmental reasons means people cannot ride the funicular up and leave the top station to litter pick on their own, only with a guide, so previously litter pickers had to hike up.

Last year 44 sacks of rubbish were collected and the Ski Club hopes that with the new events and offers this year's Big Spring Clean will be the biggest yet. Gloves and bags are provided and there will be tea and cakes for everyone who brings back a bag of litter.

More information from kate.thorman@skiclub.co.uk / 0208 410 2000.