J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by admin

An annual study of business reported by Switzerland's ski lift operators has revealed that the country enjoyed its best winter for five years last season.

"In spite of the global economic turmoil it was the early arrival of reliable snow conditions, coupled with favorable weather at weekends and holidays throughout the winter season that did it." Said report author Laurant Vanat.

Confirming winter 2008/09 as the best in the last five years for Switzerland, the Report recorded a rise in attendance at Swiss resorts of 2.2% compared to the previous season, and of 7.3% compared to the average of the last four seasons.

Resorts reported a total of 29.3 million skier-days and business turnover was up overall by 1.9%, to 862 million Swiss Francs.

Davos-Klosters was again the most popular resort in the country in terms of skier-days and in fact the top 13 places in the table remain unchanged from last winter.
Courtesy of and © Snow24 plc

Cold temperatures and natural snowfall have arrived earlier than expected in Colorado, USA allowing Loveland Ski Area, one of the world's highest altitude resorts, to officially kick-off snowmaking for the 2009-2010 ski season.

"Our Trail Maintenance department has been busy preparing the hill, and have started beautifully with all the necessary conditions to start blowing snow. The weather forecast for the next few days looks very favorable for snowmaking," said Eric Johnstone, Loveland's Snowmaking and Trail Maintenance Manager.

Loveland Ski Area has started making snow on the Catwalk, Mambo, and Homerun for Opening Day 2009. These trails form a top-to-bottom run of 1,000 vertical feet (330m).

"Everyone at Loveland is just very excited to start the new ski season. The temperatures look good right now, the equipment is in place, and the crew is fired-up to make snow. We got together this morning and decided that today was the day." said Bob Magrino, Director of Mountain Operations.

Snowmaking updates are available atwww.skiloveland.com/snowmaking. The site is updated continuously with pictures and reports of our snowmaking progress.
Loveland usually opens in the first half of October, but other resorts in the state which won't open until closer to Thanksgiving in late November have also reported fresh snow for the start of autumn.

At Steamboat Ski Area the first snow of the season was reported just below the top of Christie Peak at about 8,000 feet with between a trace to half an inch as you moved up from the top of the gondola up to the summit of Mt. Werner. The Steamboat Ski Area opens for the 2009/10 season in two months on November 25, 2009.

North America's only 'near-year-round' snowfield is scheduled to re-open at Timberline, Oregon this weekend after a few week's annual maintenance closure.
Courtesy of and © Snow24 plc

What's this football stuff you're on about? Pele? Skidaddle's avatar appears to show some bloke mincing around in a field - what's that all about?

...anyway, back to skiing... :D

Whistler is set to open a new hydro electric system that will generate enough renewable energy to match the entire resort's power news.

"This is going to be a monumental winter season for Whistler Blackcomb. Excitement is mounting for the 2010 Winter Games and we are thrilled to showcase our world-class mountains and PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola to the world," says Stuart Rempel, Senior VP of Marketing and Sales, Whistler Blackcomb.

The Fitzsimmons Creek Renewable Energy Project will produce 33 gigawatt hours of green electricity per year - the equivalent amount of energy required to power the ski resort's winter and summer operations including all 38 lifts, 17 restaurants, 270 snowguns and countless other buildings and services.

The Fitzsimmons Creek area is an ideal location for a successful Run-of-River project. The creek has an abundance of water, the necessary vertical drop, it is not a major fish-bearing stream, and the creek water is not used recreationally within the project area.

This summer, crews installed and buried 3.5km of pipeline, which will carry the water from the intake at Fitzsimmons Creek all the way to the powerhouse, near the Whistler Sliding Centre.

This September, project crews are doing concrete work on the intake structure, backfilling, grading and seeding for re-growth over the buried pipeline, and erecting the powerhouse. The 450m-long transmission line will also be installed and buried this month.

Commissioning and commercial operation date is expected to occur later this fall with the anticipation that the Run-of-River project will be producing power by Christmas.

“The Fitzsimmons Project represents a very meaningful step for us in doing what we can to address climate change inside our own operating footprint,” says Arthur DeJong, Mountain Planning and Environmental Resource Manager, Whistler Blackcomb.

“I look forward to the day this winter when we begin to generate power out of the Fitzsimmons Project. It has been a long and challenging road, and we’ve made great gains, but this project is still only one of many steps that we need to make to become truly sustainable.”

Courtesy of and © Snow24 plc

St Anton will open on 27th November and the famous Austrian resort has launched a VIP-competition to give entrants the chance to win pole position and carve the first line of the new season with ski legend Karl Schranz.

On the morning of the 27th the lucky winner will ride the Galzigbahn to the top with a glass of champagne and canapés to hand before becoming the first skier to ski the piste and officially open the season to all. The prize also includes two nights in a four star hotel and two lift passes.

The resort's celebrations will include a party kicking off 8.45am, a spectacular ski show by the Arlberg Ski School and the chance to try out the hottest new trends for free during three days of testing for the new season's ski, snowboard and Telemark equipment.

Enter online at www.stanton-ski-open.com
cS24

Joaquín Guzmán Loera wrote:Can you fix it for me to have a months powder skiing in the U.S all expenses paid?

Dear JGL,

No. But I can fix a drink for our very own International Man of Mystery; Mister Rosco Pablobar, should he reveal himself (oo err) at the ski show...

RoseR wrote:I want Ruka :lol:

:cry: ...still working on that... anyway I thought the forecast for Ruka was cold with snow... until July?

ATOO wrote:Same here ...j2ski does give a snow report for Baqueira-Beret but it doesn't come up in the options for my favorite ski resort

It does now... 8)