J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

Andy Campbell

An ex-British soldier is one of two winners of a remarkable competition run by Utah ski area Canyons.
Andy Campbell's prize includes flights to Utah, a $40,000 salary for four months work, season pass, superior suite at the Waldorf Astoria, spa treatments, heli-skiing, full equipment and VIP status to events in resort.
Andy, who was operational in the Iraq war but lost the use of his legs in a climbing accident in 2004, was born in England but when not in Utah riding his sit ski, is based in Scotland.
The Park City resort's 'Ultimate Mountain Gig' contest attracted around 450 entries including nearly 400 videos, written entries and CVs and the judges say choosing winners was tough.
"This season Canyons guests are enjoying the first phase of a major re-creation project with the most technologically advanced chairlift in North America, our new 'Ski Beach' gathering area, six new restaurants, new gondola portal, expanded terrain and easier access to the Mountain," said Mike Goar, Managing Director of Canyons.

"The Ultimate Mountain Gig was created as a key component of our new future and we are so pleased to have selected Andy, who brings with him a plethora of unique experiences and
distinctive skills that set him apart from other applicants. He will be a great ambassador for our guests in sharing their perspective on the new look and feel of Canyons."

Andy's job is to help with marketing Canyons, particularly in social media at www.TheCanyons.com/umg/

Andy's winning video is at; www.howdoyoumountain.com/your-mountain?video=92.

'First tracks' packages are a standard offer at many leading North American resorts, you typically sign up and pay a small fee a day or two before, then get exclusive access to the slopes for 30 or 60 minutes before the ski area opens to, "the general public."
For most it's a bit of a strain to get up early enough, but feels worth it, so long as conditions are good, to be first in the powder or perfectly groomed slopes. You can often head in for breakfast just as the lifts open to everyone else.
'First tracks' packages are less common in the Alps, but this winter an increasing number of ski areas are offering them.
In Switzerland the Graubünden region's top resorts have several such offers available – generally on Sunday.
Every Sunday morning from January to March the first cable cars start moving in Lenzerheide at 6.30 am.
In St. Moritz, where everyone starts a bit later, it's at 7.45am you can be among the first to carve your skis through the snow.
At neighbouring Arosa, you can sit down for a Schwiizer Zmorga (Swiss Breakfast) in the Weissenhorn mountain restaurant as dawn unfolds in front of your eyes before snaping on your skis and beginning a dawn descent on the slopes. Brigels also offers a dawn buffet and the cable car for Alp Dado begins at 7am.

Supposed to be good at all five areas. They all have intermediate standard skiing - Nevis Range or Cairngorm above Aviemore have about the biggest areas and best resort villages (Aviemore for Cairngorm, Fort William for Nevis Range)

Strange things are afoot at Sunshine ski area near Banff in Alberta, Canada.
The Calgary Herald reports that a spate of sackings of ski area staff, some of whom had worked at the resort for 30 years, led to a mass "call in sick" of employees on Wednesday, leaving the centre only able to operate three lifts and offering refunds to disgruntled customers.
According to The Calgary Herald, Sunshine itself remains tight-lipped on the matter with a resort spokesman telling media they do not comment on such matters.
Now ex-staff are less tight-lipped however and say that the employee unrest and resulting sackings resulted from an as yet unexplained, "confrontation on the mountain" between a member of the Scurfield family who run the resort and several staff members. Internet chat room rumours say the incident involved the son of the owner being caught skiing out-of-bounds.
Four mostly long-serving senior staff were fired after that incident on 29th December. Following the walk out of staff last week several off those involved were told they were fired, they told the Calgary Herald. They were then escorted from the ski centre and told they were never allowed to set foot on the property again or they would be prosecuted for trespass, they said.
The four staff fired on 29th December say they are commencing legal action against Sunshine for wrongful dismissal.
www.skibanff.com

Anyone heading to the Dolomites this winter might want to view a new 3D map of the vast Dolomiti Superski region before they head out there.
' 3D Dolomiti Superski' is a new application that gives a fairly realistic 3D overview of "the world's widest ski resort" – in fact about a dozen valleys, 50+ village and nearly 1,300km of piste, served by almost 50 lifts.
The new online software, which works with most Macs and Windows XP and above (You'll need to download it) includes panoramic views of the pistes, lifts, mountain restaurants and more.
So if you're heading to Alta Badia, Arabba, Cortina, Val di Fassa or any one of the dozens of other ski areas on the Dolomiti Superski Pass, this is a great way to get acquainted with the mountains before you arrive, or indeed to reminisce afterwards if you've been, or even just have a good nosey if you've never been, never intend to go and are just plain curious!
You can access the software, free of charge at:
http://www.dolomitisuperski.com/en-US/dolomiti-webcam-skimap-2160EN.html?tab=livecam

Kitzbuhel

The biggest annual race in the World Cup calendar looks set to take place as scheduled this weekend, 80 years after its first staging.
The 71st Hahnenkamm, a race first staged in 1931, will take place on the famous Streif slopes above Kitzbuehel, attracting a probable 60,000 fans to the world famous resort, and of course millions more to TV screens worldwide.
As with a Grand Nationbal win for a joickey, success here means your status as a 'ski legend' is guaranteed for life. You'll join the list of greats that have crowned their careers with Hahnenkamm wins including Sailer, Killy, Klammer, Zurbriggen, Maier, Eberharter, Defago and Cuche to name but a few.
Although most famous for the downhill on Saturday, the Hahnenkamm weekend includes a Super G race on Friday 21st and a slalom on Sunday 23rd. A combination award will be given to the racer who gets the best time overall in the races.
The races gor the go ahead to take place a fortnight ago when conditions were judged excellent and fresh snow in the past few days should hopefully not hamper events too much.
Racers to watch out for on Saturday include defending champion Didier Cuche as well as Carlo Janka and the latest famous Zurbriggen – Silvan. Austria's Michael Walchhofer, vclose now to retirement, is a past winner and seen as an outside chance. Bode Miller, who was second in 2008, has the right temperament to win the race and Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal the chance to become the country's first ever winner on the Streif.

In a rare public demonstration of an individual ski resort's buying power, Austrian's Ischgl (www.ischgl.com) will be appearing on TV screens over the next three weeks as the resort has splashed out on a 30 second advert which will be appearing on a selection of satellite TV channels.
Ischgl is perhaps best known for its start and end of season concerts, usually staged on the first weekend of December and first in May each season which have starred some of the world's biggest stars – including Kylie, Elton John and Rihanna. This year The Killers will perform the closing concert on Saturday 30 April, on the penultimate day of the season.
However one purpose of these concerts is to highlight how big and how snowsure the resort is, It shares a lift pass with neighbouring valley resorts like Galtur and is lift-linked over the Swiss-border to duty-free Samnaun – altogether there's nearly 240km of piste to explore, one of the world's biggest areas.
The resort is served by an increasingly long list of major British tour operators including Inghams, Crystal, Ski Total, Neilson, Ski Independence and First Choice.
It's not the usual old second-rate cheap Euro-TV ad either, but a fully storyboarded, specially built sets, and directed commercial involving more than 20 actors and costing "a six-figure sum" to produce. In short, a rarity on British TV,
"Showing this movie-quality ad on British TV is an exciting step for us and demonstrates our commitment to the UK ski market," said Ischgl's Tourist Office Director Andreas Steibl.
"Skiers and boarders from the UK are highly valued by Ischgl and the numbers coming to our resort have been steadily increasing. They are obviously very impressed by what they see, too, because we are experiencing an increasingly high level of repeat bookings.
Look out for the ad, which seeks to convey an upmarket feel the resort wishes to convey, as well as ease of access, with a short transfer from Innsbruck airport, served by carriers including British Airways and Easyjet, on channels including Sky News, Sky Sports News, MTV, Discovery Travel and Living, E4 and Eurosport.
"Ischgl has become a very cosmopolitan and fashionable resort, with some of the best slopes as well as the best hotels in the Alps, and such a stylish TV ad emphasises this image. We hope to welcome many more British holidaymakers to Ischgl." concludes Mr Steibl.

The ski and board helmets many of us now wear today are based on 70s design technology, apparently, but that's all about to change thanks to a deal signed today between industry leader Burton's subsidiary R.E.D, and Swedish technology company, MIPS.
MIPS or 'Multi-directional Impact Protection System' uses technology which mimics and reinforces the brain's own protection. This further reduces the risk of brain damage, the company says, and thus aims to set new standards in helmet safety.
MIPS is designed to provide protection from an "angled impact to the head" in the way that helmets currently on the market do not, the company says.
They do this by integrating a, "unique sliding low-friction layer," between the head and the helmet liner, designed to absorb energy from an angled impact to the head (the commonest form of head injury in snow sports).
"This is a major breakthrough and we are delighted that R.E.D. has selected the MIPS protection system", says Niklas Steenberg, CEO of MIPS AB.
Reducing the effect of rotational force is a key objective for leading helmet brands, including R.E.D, which will be integrating MIPS in the 2012 "HI FI" helmet model as well as other as yet undecided helmet models.
R.E.D. will initially implement the MIPS protection system in the RED HI-FI, a helmet that was used by six out of seven snowboard medal winners at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver and will be available in shops worldwide from August this year.
"Test results have shown us that the MIPS protection system can reduce the likelihood of serious head injury and that was why we chose to partner with MIPS" says Jeff Gilberti, Vice President for R.E.D. Protection and ANON Optics. "At Burton we are all about helping riders progress and the addition of MIPS to our team driven HiFi helmets gives them added confidence to do just that."