J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

It's all change on Europe's ski slopes which have gone from being virtually snow-free a month ago to buried up to four metres (13 feet) deep in snow this week.

Assuming the snowfall eventually stops, it's clearly good news that many resorts, particularly those with high altitude slopes, have snow cover that looks set to last well in to Spring, even if there's no more snow for the next three months.

But in the shorter term the huge snowfalls – particularly in France and Switzerland – have been causing problems for people to trying to get to the slopes and on to the slopes once they arrive in resort.

Among the casualties of the snowy deluge were the Chamonix Valley, which had its slopes largely closed for three days in the week up to Christmas; then the world's largest ski area, the 3 Valleys, was largely closed over New year as a metre of snow fell, and most recently the Glacier 3000 ski area above Gstaad and les Diablerets closed from New year while road and rail access to the year-round ski area of Zermatt were cut for more than 48 hours at the end of last week by a metre of snow falling there.

These are just a few of many resorts where all or most of the slopes are currently closed and even where they're open, the avalanche danger level is set a maximum, so that abundant off piste powder should not be skied or boarded.

Of course not all parts of the Alps and other areas of Europe have seen such disruption. Snowfall in Austria and Italy has in most cases been plentiful but more moderate, and the same is true down in the Pyrenees.

Over in North America conditions are good in the north west of the continent in Alberta, BC and Alberta as well as in southern states like Arizona and New Mexico; but resorts in major ski states like California, Colorado and Utah have had the opposite problem, much as Europe 12 months ago – too little snow, although some have been reporting 7 or 8 inches of new snow at last in the past 24 hours.

Colorado in snowier times...

"For the first time in 30 years, a lack of snow has not allowed us to open the back bowls in Vail as of January 6, 2012, and, for the first time since the late 1800s it did not snow at all in Tahoe in December," says Rob Katz, the Chief Executive of Vail Resorts which owns Colorado's Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, Vail and Keystone as well as Heavenly and Northstar in Colorado.

In fact, much as in the Alps last winter, conditions on the slopes, at least in Vail's Colorado resorts is not that bad, it's the deep powder that is beloved by powder hounds that's most noticeably lacking.

Despite this Vail has managed to increase sales of lift passes and of ski lessons by a shade under 1%, but still increase them.
Alas this has not impressed the money markets and the company's shares have dropped by just over 15% in a little over a fortnight.

There are mixed messages on how the rest of the winter will play out in the Western US – Snowbird in Utah issued a 'powder alert' today having received 5 inches (12cm) of new snow but weather forecasts for California are not looking promising so far for the next few weeks.

Further north, and perhaps more surprisingly, further south, Western US states are having a good to excellent winter – resorts in Washington State, Oregon and Wyoming all have reasonable to good cover and in the south ski areas in Arizona and New Mexico are also 100% open.

All five Scottish ski areas are expected to be open this weekend with some of the best conditions this season after a roller coaster months of storms, snowfalls and thaws.

Conditions were looking good at the start of the season a fortnight before Christmas before storms damaged lifts and knocked out power at the West coast resorts of Glencoe and Nevis Range.

Once the centres were able to operate the next challenge was a Christmas thaw which saw double digit temperatures rapidly wipe out the snow packs and most of the centres close all or most of their terrain.

Over the past week however temperatures have been creeping back below freezing and although storms have been ongoing for more than a month now, fresh snow has been building back up on the slopes and all five centres are now largely fully open again.
However because conditions – particular recurring gale force winds – are ongoing, centres recommend more than ever that anyone planning to visit to ski and board checks opening direct with the centres before leaving home.

"Saturday is looking more favourable as predicted northerly winds normally don't affect us. Most runs are complete with good skiing on packed snow to the top station," said a statement from Nevis Range, "Patrol have not been able to access the back corrie in recent days, but we believe there is good cover."

At Glencoe to the south lower slopes have good cover of firm snow making 850m vertical descents possible. Main Basin and Happy Valley have good cover of firm snow while Flypaper, Spring Run, Rannoch and Etive Glades are very icy.

Over at Cairngorm above Aviemore snow cover has improved across the mountain. The Ciste Fairway and Ptarmigan Bowl have good cover, the former reported to be nice and wide with pisted, soft snow. The run down from top station to the traverse is now complete with fresh drifting, zig-zags have a thin cover from the end of the second one. There's also great cover and good snow conditions on the upper Cas.

In the East the Lecht the Eagle, Grouse, Chairlift, Robin, Wren and Kestrel runs all complete hard packed snow and at Glenshee to the south the East facing slopes now have an extensive cover of snow.

The world famous Cresta Run at St Moritz opens in January for a surprisingly brief period.

The Cresta Run is not a bobsleigh run or indeed an ice slope for those modern Olympic sports of skeleton or luge, but a slope on which participants slide on tiny metal toboggans at high speed.

Controversially those participants remain 'men only' originally due to reasons of chivalry and spurious and unsubstantiated medical grounds (essentially "women too delicate") but in the modern era with no attempt to give a politically correct explanation.

Along with the Cresta run there's also a separate bobsleigh track which was first created roughly 20 years later, in 1904, the St Moritz Celerina Olympic bobsled was created.

Today, they are the oldest runs in the world and the only ones made entirely of naturally formed ice making them the world's largest ice sculptures.

The St Moritz Tobogganing Club is based in The Kulm Hotel St Moritz (www.kulmhotel-stmoritz.ch) at the top of the runs. This was the very first hotel in St Moritz in the 1850s and is credited as being when the first ever winter sports holiday took place anywhere in the world back in 1864.

This was before downhill skiing had been invented and when the first British guests arrived to winter in St Moritz they looked for ways to amuse themselves until one bright spark came up with the idea of using the natural slope from St Moritz to the neighbouring hamlet of Celerina to create an icy shute, down which they could throw themselves attached to a tiny sled. The Cresta Run was born.

Today The Kulm is ranked as one of the top ten winter sports hotels in Switzerland according to Sonntagszeitung, the country's leading Sunday newspaper, the Kulm achieved its ranking thanks to its consistently high service standards and exemplary management.

The "Cresta Run" package includes three nights' accommodation, plus a lavish daily breakfast and lunch in the Sunny bar, the meeting point of the Cresta riders off the shutes, as well as five Cresta rides over 2 to 3 days including tuition, equipment and a 25-minute massage – essential for easing the pain after a ride! The package costs from CHF 1,515 (approx £1,050) per person sharing a double room. Female guests receive a credit of CHF400 to use in the Panorama Spa in compensation for not beding allowed down the Cresta Run,

Women are, however, allowed to participate fully in the "Bob Taxi Ride" package, which includes two nights' accommodation on a half-board basis, a bob taxi ride (with a certificate and an Olympic Bob Run pin) and a relaxing sea salt bath. Prices start from CHF965 (approx £670) per person sharing a double room.

Tthe Cresta Run is only open from 9 January 2012 to 9 February 2012 (excluding Saturdays) and the bob run is only open from 15 January 2012 to 9 February 2012.

A new gizmo that slots under your ski boot and has been invented by a Lancashire based firm has been created to allow skiers to find their "sweetspot" in their stance.

The inventors believe that this will result in better balance, smoother turns and a more professional style for the skiers that use it.

The SkiA Sweetspot Trainer consists of specially designed balance blocks that clip to the underneath of a skier's boot to line up exactly with the location of the "sweetspot", helping to improve balance and coordination.

Do you know where your sweetspot is? Inventor Martin Breach says that many skiers are unaware of its importance and may mistakenly believe that it is found under the ball of the foot, or even under the toes when in fact, it is right in the centre of the foot.

"By wearing the trainer, skiers can practise on the balance blocks away from the slopes so that when they hit the snow, their balance and coordination on the sweetspot is dramatically improved. Expert skiers know that balance on the sweetspot is essential for good style, control and performance." said Mr Breach, "Modern skis and boots are designed to work around this point, and using the sweetspot requires much less effort – which greatly reduces fatigue and muscle pain, making skiing at any speed much safer. The Sweetspot Trainer allows skiers to find and balance on exactly the right point for their skis to work perfectly."

The Sweetspot Trainer was developed with Hugh Monney - founder of the British Alpine Ski School (BASS) who has written an instruction manual with skiing pointers to accompany the device.

"The SkiA Sweetspot Trainer gives skiers the opportunity to improve their balance and coordination in a very sophisticated way. After a few minutes practice on the trainers, skiers benefit from a very clear and specific understanding of what it means to balance skilfully on skis. This is an insight that can elude even very experienced skiers. The Sweetspot Trainers will take users directly to this new experience," he said.

Each pair of SkiA Sweetspot Trainers includes four different sized balance blocks following the same grading as French and Italian pistes - green (beginner), blue (intermediate), red (advanced) and black (expert). They cost £45.00 per pair from www.skia.com or independent ski retailers.

Heavy snowfall has been reported across the Alps and other parts of Europe over the past 24 hours, ending a largely dry week where skiers and boarders on the slopes for Christmas were able to enjoy great conditions after the last big snowfalls earlier in December.

Major resorts in the French Alps as well as ski areas in the Aosta Valley have reported up to a foot (30cm) of new snow in the past 24 hours including Chamonix, La Rosiere, Tignes, Les Arcs and many others. Cervinia and Courmayeur in Italy area also big winners as are Lech and St Anton in the Austrian Arlberg.

Coming on top of accumulations of more than two metres (seven feet) at many resorts already in December and with bases now passing three metres (ten feet) at resorts like Chamonix it appears that European ski areas are in good shape for the rest of the 2012 season, barring a sudden stop in snowfall and dramatic thaw.

...which is alas what has happened in Scotland with all five areas that had been open prior to Christmas forced to close due to lack of snow and/or gales after temperatures shot up to double figures for the third warmest Christmas on record. Fortunately the snow is now back and there's limited terrain open at Cairngorm and Nevis range with Glencoe also looking to reopen this weekend if conditions are good.

Elsewhere in Europe it's still looking good in most areas of the continent with Scandinavia also receiving regular snowfalls and resorts in Andorra and other are4as of the Pyrenees, which had perhaps the worst start to the season anywhere with very little natural snow and temperatures too warm for snowmaking right up to mid-December, now reporting base depths of 150 – 18-cm (5-6 feet).

There has been a turn around across the Atlantic though where November snowfalls had conditions looking great at the start of December when it was rather dire in Europe before the snow arrived. Both east and West USA have had a warm dry December leaving Colorado resorts with their lowest reported snow base since the 1990s and resorts inn normally snowy California as well as New England struggling to open runs – in a complete reverse of this time last year when they were reporting falls of up to five metres in a week.

Conditions are better in the North West of the continent where Alberta, BC, Alaska and Washington State resorts all have good bases and are fully open.

Snow has finally begun falling in the Pyrenees – one of the last major ski regions in Europe that was still warm and dry last week with almost no ski areas able to open due to no natural snowfall in a month and temperatures too warm for snow making.

Fortunately, as with the Alps a fortnight ago, there has been a complete change over the past 48 hours with accumulations of up to 70cm reported and snow expected for at least the next five days with sub-zero temperatures allowing for more snowmaking too.

Grandvalira in Andorra, the region's largest single ski area which announced it will break the 200km of piste barrier for the Pyrenees, with new runs adding up to 205km when fully open, has reported 35km in the past 24 hours.

Snow conditions are described as 'powder' with the Soldeu Encamp area able to finally open this weekend with a base depth of 20-50cm.

On the French side of the Pyrenees the falls have been still more dramatic with Piau Engaly reporting 60cm (two feet) in the past 24 hours, La Mongie / Barèges 40cm and Font Romeu 30cm of new snow.

With Niseko in Japan reporting three metres of snow in the past fortnight, the only major region where snowfall is still lacking and temperatures warm is New England.

Whistler has announced that it is now fully open with the most terrain in North America available to skiers and boarders.

"Today we opened the Symphony Express Lift on Whistler Mountain as well as the legendary Peak to Creek trail, the longest continuous run in North America. With these two additions, Whistler Blackcomb is officially 100 percent open, offering 8,171 acres of terrain and a mile of vertical," says Stuart Rempel, Whistler Blackcomb's vice president of marketing and sales.

Although larger European areas are now fully open thanks to the recent deluge of snowfall, Whistler is right up there on the world scale with 321cm or 10.5 feet of snow this season so far and on top of that, the Whistler Blackcomb snowmaking team has converted 175 million gallons of water into snow.

BC's send largest resort, Sun Peaks Resort, has also announced it is fully open with the final one of its 11 lifts operational today.

With the West Bowl opening on Saturday, over 100 alpine runs are available for skiing and snowboarding at Sun Peaks. The entire Nordic trail system is also groomed and track-set for cross-country skiing.

Although the snowfall has snowed a little from the pre-season deluge in November, regular snow is still keeping slopes fresh in Western Canada and the country's weather service is forecasting more flurries for the weekend and into next week.