J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

They definitely did say Hari Kari was Austria's steepest piste but I've got a vague feeling they downgraded the claim so not sure if someone else has put a bid in! I suppose with all these a lot of it depends on conditions on the day, I read a review from someone doing Hari Kari saying it was immaculately groomed and thus dead easy despite the pitch when they visited...

The Hoff

Anyone with a mad desire to wear bright neon leg warmers and stone wash their salopettes will be delighted to hear that 80s icon, 'The Hoff' – a man who just won't go away, is appearing on stage in Laax this Saturday night.
David Hasselhof who rose to fame through Saturday evening favourites like Knight Rider and Baywatch in the pre Simon Cowell or Ant and Dec era will be spinning a few 80 hits as part of the last leg of his 'The Hoff is Back' tour with the Baywatch Soundsystem at the Swiss resort's Riders Palace venue this weekend on the night of Saturday 26t, February, 2011. The party begins at 9pm in venue which can hold up to 1,000 crazed Hoff fans. party hard 80s fans.
Fortunately Riders Palace (www.riderspalace.ch, +41 81 9279 700) is also a hotel so anyone too exhausted by the excitement of the evening can simply collapse in one of the rooms. During the weekend of 26 Feb are from £54 per person/night (CHF 85) staying in a One-Eighty Room with up to five people sharing.

The historic 'Forcella Staunies' piste

Although 'slow skiing zones' have become favoured features at leading resorts across Italy this winter, expert downhillers will welcome the re-opening of one of the country's toughest pistes, the run nicknamed 'Black Vertigo' high above Cortina.
The historic 'Forcella Staunies' piste not only offers the biggest skiable vertical in the entire Dolomiti Superski area but with a dizzying initial pitch of 64% it's also the steepest.
The views are good too, the run descends between beautiful snow-capped peaks providing breathtaking views of the entire Ampezzo valley as you descend.
The piste was created in 1956 as a 'back up' for the Olympic downhill in case conditions down at resort level weren't great in the era when snowmaking was only just starting to take hold in New England, but wasn't widely used in the Alps.
The run descends from 3,000m through a steep, narrow gorge between two rocky cliffs, with a panorama where the sky and the earth appear to fuse together and spectacular views to the very centre of Cortina.
The piste is accessed by first taking the Rio Gere chairlift to Son Forca, from where you reach the Valgrande-Staunies chairlift. The slope plunges headlong down the slopes of Mount Cristallo, following a three kilometre (nearly two mile) long route down to Padeon at 1,982m altitude.

Keen Skier Putin

It's not looking too great for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics after terrorists attacked a tourist minibus heading to the ski slopes at Elbrus, Europe's highest mountain and located in the southern Russian Caucasus area. The men opened fire on the Russian skiers, murdering two with four more taken to hospital where one more died.
Later terrorists attacked the ski area at Elbrus itself, attempting to "blow up a ski lift." This resulted in the lift being "damaged" according to local media quotes from ski centre management.
The attacks appear to be an attempt by separatist groups to pile pressure on the Russian government ahead of the Sochi Olympics by targeting soft ski area targets and sending a message to the wider world that the flagship Russian Games are not safe.
In addition to the Olympics, Russian President Dimitry Medvedev's has a $15 billion plan to develop a string of world class ski areas in the region to help stimulate the region's poor economy and create jobs. He was talking with investors at the world economic forum in Davos about that plan last month.
The Sochi Olympics are also a long term personal project of former president Vladimir Putin, a keen skier, who drove their development before Medvedev took over and remains a strong supporter of the Games.
Several world class ski areas are emerging as a result of the Olympic development and Austrian ski lift manufacturer Doppelmayr is installing 20 new ski lifts in the region alone.

At long last there has been some fresh snowfall today in the Western Alps.
Although fairly limited in spread, along the French / Italian border, two leading resorts of Bardonecchia in Italy and Montgenevre in France reported 20cm each of new snow in the past 24 hours.
Other resorts including Courmayeur and Serre Chevalier got 10 - 15cm each.
More snow is expected tonight with some for the Northern Alps too, although falls are currently only expected to be "light."
Generally conditions are holding up well on the listed of the Alps above 1600m thanks to good falls in November and December last year which left bases of up to 2 metres on upper slopes which have lasted all winter.
Elsewhere Arabba in the Dolomites says it received two feet of snow overnight,there have been more heavy snowfalls in Western and eastern North America, resorts in the Spanish Pyrenees have received up to 20cm of snow and in northern Europe there's been more for Scotland and Scandinavia.

With the Alpine Skiing World Championships underway in Garmisch, the International Ski Federation (FIS) have chosen to update media on their long-term plans to improve safety for racers on the slopes.
In particular this time the FIS's Injury Surveillance System (ISS) which launched five years ago in January 2006, has reported on a research project that remains in progress under the direction of the University of Salzburg.
This research has involved interviewing 63 World Cup experts last season, which identified five main injury risk factors for Alpine ski racing. The current project is focused on three of the five: course setting/speed, snow conditions and equipment (combination of ski, binding, plate and boot).
The FIS report that to assess course setting and snow conditions, specific bio-mechanical measurements have been conducted at ten Audi FIS Ski World Cup events so far.
Test racers equipped with sensors and GPS devices have evaluated course setting's impact on speed, energy and forces affecting the athletes. In addition, the Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) from Davos have been measuring snow conditions along the race courses to assess their impact on speed and the various forces impacting the racers.
At the the same time as all this on-course testing has been going on, an equipment-testing project involving development of special ski prototypes is underway through the support of the ski manufacturers.
FIS, the ski industry and the University of Salzburg defined the specifications last summer and a number of prototype skis have been built for downhill and giant slalom. Recently retired World Cup racers have started testing these prototypes this season.
"The goal of producing these prototypes was, first of all, to gain more safety. The ski industry is ready to invest in the safety of the athletes. A key problem seems to be the combination of aggressive snow and aggressive skiing. To make the skis less aggressive, the new prototypes are experimental in terms of radius, length, standing height and ski plates," noted Dr Michael Schineis, Chairman of the Ski Racing Suppliers' (SRS) Association.
"This is a very interesting project. Due to the geometrical changes, these prototype skis were clearly different to ski on and require changes to the ski technique. But they are definitely skiable. Although there still needs to be more testing, I am very optimistic about the direction this is taking," said Austria's Peter Struger, one of the former racers testing the prototypes.
Atle Skaardal, FIS Chief Race Director for ladies' Alpine Skiing commented, "The bottom line is that Alpine ski racing involves speed and courage, therefore also some residual risk. However, we are doing our utmost to create the safest possible frames for our sport and the current projects are a strong demonstration of hard work in many different key areas. They are all designed to provide clear information for adapting new rules and procedures in order to avoid as many injuries as possible in the future."

TWO SKIERS SNUGGLE UP IN A SNOW HOLE ON THE LEMMING RIDGE, LOOKING OUT 'OVER THE BACK', AT THE NEVIS RANGE SKI CENTRE, HIGHLAND. PIC: P.TOMKINS

Single people who have never skied or boarded before are being invited to a special leartn-to-ski day at Nevis Range Ski resort on Aonach mor near Fort William in Scotland this Monday.
The St Valentines day event is intended not only to introduce never-evers to snow sports but also up their chances of falling in love. It's scientifically proven to work in fact.
"The idea of excitement/fear being related to developing emotional attachments or love has been about for a long time. The classic studies in this area showed that a young woman became twice as attractive to men under conditions that we might now describe as being 'extreme sports' - they were on rope bridges." Said Dr Niall G MacFarlane of Glasgow University.
"So you might say that the excitement of skiing - whether that means a novice on a nursery slope or an experienced skier going off piste - has the potential to make us more attractive to possible suitors; while more sedate activities could re-inforce 'that loving feeling' in established relationships."
The Nevis range package includes lift ticket, ski rental and tuition for £45. But there's more. The morning lesson is followed by a complimentary Valentine's day lunch in the Snowgoose restaurant and bar. The afternoon is then left free for couples to continue to play around on the slopes and at the end of the day, a mug of hot chocolate will be waiting for them in the bar.
But Davie Austin, head of the resort's Snowsports School warned romantic newbies noit to get too excited,
"Singles should remember that clothing should be warm and waterproof, rather than slinky or suggestive. After all, the lesson will be taking place in a snowy mountain environment!"
As an added bonus Nevis Range is about to launch its wedding package in the spring of 2011, so any couples who meet on the slopes will find themselves in a strong position to negotiate a great deal.

With the giant ISPO trade show in Germany just over, the big manufacturers are starting to make public their 2011-12 season lines of new hardware innovations public.
Inevitably they're all "major breakthroughs" and "groundbreaking" etc (Actually, now I think about it, do we really want to break the ground with our ski gear?). But picking through the marketing hype there do seem to be some interesting ideas in there.
Salomon, for example, has a new range of goggles planned for launch.
Much like the innovations in TVs over the past decade, Salomon's three stand alone patents for its new XTEND frame concept basically include a larger lens, surrounded by a narrow frame - giving around 20% greater peripheral vision than other goggle designs.
The Googles' 'Thermo Control System' consists of scoop shaped air vents which create low pressure zones to pull moisture away from the lens and face to eliminate fogging.
And the custom Frame is a very flexible membrane between the frame and the face foam that softly adapts to any face shape, for improved comfort all day. Actually that all sounds rather good.