J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

Mammoth Mountain is installing a new Doppelmayr high-speed quad chairlift to replace Chair 5, a fixed-grip triple. The new High-Five Express will whisk 2,400 people uphill per hour (600 more people per hour than the old chair) and will cut ride time in half. The new lift's terminals will be positioned to provide improved access.

In addition Direct-to-lift access will be available thanks to a newly installed RFID gate system, helping eliminate queues at lifts and ticket windows. With 68 total RFID gates installed across 19 different lifts, Mammoth's will be the largest RFID system at a single ski resort in North America.

Thanks to MyMammoth Direct, guests who register with MyMammoth can save some cash as well. Preloading passes with a seven-day advance purchase will come with savings of nearly 15% on lift tickets by purchasing online at MammothMountain.com or through the Mammoth2Go apps for iPhone and Android.

Europe's highest, and one of its youngest resorts, Val Thorens, is 40 years old this winter.
Back in 1971 an enthusiastic, pioneering team began the project of creating an all new resort at a staggering altitude of 2300 metres at the top of what was shortly to become the world's largest ski area, the 3 Valleys. Critics at the time argued "too high and too much snow!" But keen developers countered, "that gives us carte blanche to do as we please and overcome challenges!"
Since then Val Thorens has gone from strength to strength with a ski area open from November to May, guaranteed snow cover, an ever more varied choice of accommodation, restaurants and activities.
His winter along with new four and five star accommodation the resort unveils its fourth Funitel, the type of lift first created in Val Thorens in 1989; will climb from the summit of the Portette chair lift (2795metres) to the col du Bouchet at an altitude of 3000 metres in less than two minutes. From here, skiers and boarders can take either the new "Asters" red run or the new "Chocard" blue run.
With these two new slopes accessible from the Funitel de Thorens, another new slope in the Plein Sud area and further improvements to existing runs, the Val Thorens/Orelle ski area will be significantly increased and 150km of runs will be available from resort.

A new gondola with cabins each holding eight passengers is already operational for the 2011-12 ski season which began last week at Pitztal in Austria.

The ski season began in Pitztal a week ago and the glacier slope's, Austria's highest, which have a special snow making system which can make snow in plus temperatures if needed, opened with a foot of fresh natural snow on them.

The new Wildspitz lift has heated seats and takes under six minutes to reach Brunnenkogel. At the top station there are great views of the 3,774 m high peak game - from the free-floating sun terrace or from the broad picture windows of the café 3440 - Austria and Tyrol's highest café's.
Piztal joined The Molltal, Stubai and Tux glaciers that were already open in Austria and have subsequently been joined by the Solden and Kaunertal glacier – all with fresh snow cover.

A new ski route around the a sector of the Dolomites has been launched in the South Tyrol, the latest in a list of marked piste routes which have proved popular in the area in recent years including the World War 1 sites trail and the Witches Trail.

Rather than history however the Giro delle Cime 'adventure trail' is one that concentrates on spectacular scenery and beautiful runs.

Travelling across five ski mountains and covering 30km of piste for a total of 10,000 metres of vertical both up and down, the route is being promoted as, "the most beautiful ski tour in the eastern Dolomites."

The Giro delle Cime summits day tour offers spectacular scenery taking good skiers and boarders from the Monte Elmo/Helm mountain, via the Croda Rossa/Rotwand and Monte Croce/ Kreuzberg mountains, as far as the new Val Comelico valley ski area, and back to the Monte Baranci/Haunold mountain.

Highlights include the 4.5 km long Helmissimo piste, the giant snowmen and reindeer on the Croda Rossa mountain, and the steepest prepared piste in Italy, known as the "Holzriese" ("wooden giant"). A free ski shuttle will ferry you between the individual sections.

Over the past 20 years and particularly the past five there's been a big growth in the number of places people can sleep in igloos or ice hotels.

Many thousands of skiers and boarders have tried it and mostly had fuiun but some did not enjoy the cold and some have never tried it because they think it will be too cold.

Iglu Dorf (www.iglu-dorf.ch), one of the main 'chains' of igloo villages at half a dozen top resorts in the Alps and Andorra, which already installed hot tubs in their 'romantic' igloos hopes to attract that market with the launch of their comfortable heated 'Hot Igloo' in Engelberg.

From this you can marvel at the clear winter sky through the room's transparent dome roof and enjoy all the luxuries of a hotel room, right next to the original Igloo Village above Engelberg, so that guests can take their meals there too.

It was the first day of Autumn yesterday and that also marked the first day of skiing for 2011-12 at Austria's Stubai glacier near Innsbruck.

After "umming" and "ahhing" about when they'd open – largely because most of the glaciers in the alps were in a fairly dire state just a week ago following months of ice-thawingly warm temperatures; a cold front at the start of this week suddenly brought 20 – 50cm of new snow to the Alps – and transformed them overnight in to veritable powder heavens.

The snow is reported to have made it down to low elevations, and even left a foot of snow at Obergurgl – usually the first non-glacier resort to open in the Alps by mid-November each year, but that's still nearly two months away. It had had a dusting snow in August too.

After the Stubai, Pitztal is due to re-open this Saturday and Tignes a week late on September 1st. Others within the next few weeks are likely to include the Kitzsteinhorn glacier above Kaprun, Cervinia in Italy and Engelberg in Switzerland – some initially at weekends only.

Resorts still open from last spring include Saas Fee and Zermatt in Switzerland, Val Senales in Italy and the Tux glacier in Austria.
Across the Atlantic resorts in Colorado announced their first white covering last week and Copper Mountain says it plans to turn on the snowmaking guns next Monday. Whistler says it has had fresh snow too and pointed out this was a 'top up' of their base from last season which is still lying there, after their second greatest season snowfall accumulation on record. Resorts in California are saying the same thing and all are talking or another bumper snow 'La Nina' winter as predicted by weathermen. The first area to open though looks like Timberline in Oregon which expects to re-open on 28th September next week.

It's not all over in the southern hemisphere either. Ski areas are starting to close over the next few weekends but Turoa on new Zealand looks likely to stay open to November as usual as it has a 3m+ base.

People attending the second Scottish Ski and Snowboard Show at the SECC in Glasgow this October can get to ski for free for a day at one of three Scottish ski resorts – Cairngorm, Nevis Range or Glencoe – next winter.

The deal is that if you pre-purchase a ticket for the show online for GBP10, you'll get a free mid-weekl ski pass to one of the Scottish resorts – worth GBP30, as well as your show entry!
The show, sponsored by Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, will again run in tandem with the Scottish Outdoors Show over the holiday weekend of the 15th and 16th of October.

There will be over 100 exhibitors with almost every outdoor activity imaginable represented at the show, from rock climbing to water-sports to kite surfing to paintball. There'll also be the latest ski and outdoors gear to try.

In terms of shows within the show, visitors will be treated to a spectacular free-style big air ski and snowboard performance featuring Olympic standard freestyle masters on a 40 Foot kicker.

As well as this, there will be spectacular freestyle cycle stunt performance featuring Danny Macaskill's cycle stunt team "The Clan," here to show you how he earned 26 million hits on youtube!
There'll also be an interactive climbing wall and talks, demonstrations and workshops running all weekend from some of the UK's foremost outdoors heroes, as well as bush craft and survival experts.

Bookings via www.ticketsoup.com or by calling 0844 395 4000.

A typical day at Glenshee...

A ' Ski-Scotland All Area Season Pass' giving access to all five of the country's mountain ski areas all winter long as well as a day at the SNO!zone indoor slope in Glasgow is now on sale until 30th November.

Passes can be purchased through the website www.ski-scotland.com with application forms also available at the Scottish Ski & Snowboard Show. Early Bird prices are GBP420 adult, GBP230 child; from 1st October, the prices rise to GBP460 and GBP260. The Child ticket applies to age 17 and under at 1st December 2011.

"The income from the sale of these passes comes directly to ski-scotland, to fund joint promotion of the great snowsports opportunities Scotland offers," said Chair of ski-scotland Heather Negus, "This is important not only for the ski areas, but also for countless local businesses which benefit from good skier numbers. Over the last two seasons, the mountain ski areas have had well over 660,000 skiers who spent an estimated GBP66.5M. More than GBP53M of this was spent off the hill, in accommodation, places to eat and drink, shops, filling stations etc, so this is an industry which is important not only locally, but also to Scotland as a whole."

Ski-scotland will also have a major presence at the Scottish Ski and Snowboard Show on 15-16 October at SECC, Glasgow, where people buying tickets in advance and registering at the ski-scotland stand will receive a special offer from Glencoe, CairnGorm and Nevis Range ski areas of a free mid-week ticket. This essentially means a ski pass valid at around GBP30 is given for your GBP10 ski show advance purchase ticket!