J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

The revamped ski train service between London and the French Alps will run again next winter and continue a little later into the season.

The former direct public service was cancelled before the pandemic, then replaced by a direct charter service. That too was cancelled but replaced by an indirect service, with a change in Lille, known as Eurostar Snow, last winter.

Last winter's revived service ran from December to early-February, ending half-way through the season, but next winter Eurostar Snow will depart St Pancras every Saturday from 21 December to 1 March with the return from the Alps every Sunday morning between 29 December and 2 March.

The outward journey takes just under eight hours, the return nine hours, which can be similar to the getting to the departure airport – in the airport – flight – in the arrival airport – transfer time combined, depending on your journey start and end points. Other benefits include a generous baggage allowance.

The service to Bourg-Saint-Maurice below Les Arcs and La Rosiere and not far from Tignes and Val d'Isere also stops at Chambéry, Albertville, Moûtiers-Salins-Brides-Les-Bains and Aime-la-Plagne along the way providing easy access to many of the major French resorts.

Standard tickets on Eurostar Snow from London to the Alps start from £119 (€141), with return tickets priced from £169 (€200). A number of tour operators including Inghams offer packages including rail travel rather than air.

Iain from The Ski Podcast took the inaugural service last year and reported on the Lille transfer and journey:

A month into Australia's 2024 ski season, the country's resorts continue to struggle to open terrain.

Falls Creek is currently posting the most open runs in terms of terrain percentage open – at 40%, but larger Perisher has more runs open although its percentage of terrain open so far is a little lower. It's at about 24km of slopes, representing 30% or so of its runs. It's also just announced some runs are now open in all four of its sectors. At the other extreme Mt Buller has still only been able to open 5% of its runs.

The problem has been a lack of natural snowfall over the last two months, although there have been some snow showers and low overnight temperatures as low as -7 degrees have allowed for plenty of snowmaking.

"The persistent sub-zero temperatures have enabled the Perisher Operations Team to continuously make snow, allowing all four resort areas of Perisher to open. We're so excited for these school holidays here at Perisher, we're stoked to have all four resort areas open and ready to explore" said Claudine Talbott, Perisher Snowsports Instructor. "It's going to be an awesome few weeks and we are going to continue to open more terrain."

There's still not much snowfall in the forecast but light showers are now expected through the latter half of this week.

Les 2 Alpes say that July 8th is the day that they'll cut the cables on the old Jandri Express ahead of the installation of the replacement of the resort's iconic lift in time for next winter.

The ski area has just completed what is now France's longest ski season, which ran, running for over 7 months straight, after Tignes, which had the country's longest season for many years, withdrew from its early autumn opening and continued to shorten its summer ski season.

The cutting of the cables means that for this summer, the high-altitude mountain area above 2400 m will no longer be accessible to non-skiers after July 7th.

"Rest assured though, your holiday at Les 2 Alpes this summer will still be one to remember! Our teams are already working hard to develop exciting experiences whether it be for those on foot looking to contemplate the mountains or those who can't wait to hit the MTB trails," a resort spokesperson reassured summer visitors.

The new Jandri Express, set to debut in December, will cut access to the peaks at 3200m above les 2 Alpes in just 17 minutes, less than half the time of the existing, 40-year-old lift. It will be of the fast, stable 3S lift type, with more spacious, more comfortable cabins.

Saas Fee is expected to open for summer skiing from this Monday, 8th July.

The resort, popular with ski teams for race training, has one of the largest glacier ski areas in the world, with about 20km (13 miles) of runs.

It will initially open from 7am to noon daily, then from 26th Auitumn stay open to 1pm but open half an hour later. At the end of September it will switch to 8am to 2pm as temperatures cool, then in October get close to its winter hours with 8.30am – 3pm operations.

The resort was part of the area impacted by severe storms nearly two weeks ago where flood waters caused damage to neighbouring Zermatt and Cervinia but as yet there is no sign that that will impact the operation of glacier skiing.

When it ended its winter season at the end of April the resort was post a 4 metre snow depth on its glacier. It was cold with more snowfall through much of spring but temperatures have risen in line with summer norms in recent weeks.

Lift tickets will be from 79 CHF for a day pass for those aged 16 and over, 48 CHF for children aged 6 to 15 with discounts for-multi-day tickets.

Although it is not marketed as such, Saas Fee is in some ways the first ski area to open for new 24-25
season as it does not usually close again now until spring next year.

There are two area – Hintertux and Zermatt/Cervinia open year round though, whereas Saas Fee clearly ends one period of ski operations in late April sand starts the next in early July.

In France Les 2 Alpes will, conversely, be the last area to close in the Alps at the end of its 23-24 season on Sunday, although Timberline in Oregon, is still going with theirs in the US.

Only one ski area is open in the US this 4th of July, Independence Day 2024, the lowest number for some years.

Timberline on Mt Hood in Oregon is expected to be the only centre open, it's lifts running from 7am to 2pm up on the Palmer snowfield, where there are a few miles of runs and a terrain park to enjoy.

Last winter almost a dozen US centres had stayed open into July, or re-opened especial for the holiday as they still had so much snow lying after a record snowfall winter for many.

Most other years there are at least 4 or 5 centres open on 4th July, with The Palisades and Mammoth in California often managing to stay open until then. This year poor snowfall in the first half of winter got things off to a poor start and whilst there was heavy snowfall in March and April taking some ski centres up to their annual average stat by the final week of winter, it was not a great snowfall year.

Even with that Mammoth – which stayed open into August in 2023 – might have been open but key lifts used for late spring and summer access are being upgraded ahead of the 24-25 season, so it closed unusually early, at the end of May.

It is of course also possible to ski indoors in the USA today, at the Big Snow indoor snow centre in New Jersey.

Mürren is about to unveil its biggest hi-tec upgrade since the filming of Bond Movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service' there more than 55 years ago helped fund the completion of Piz Gloria, the world's first revolving mountain restaurant.

This time it's the upgrading of the main uplift that's going to be grabbing headlines next season with the Schilthornbahn 20XX coming to fruition after more than five years of planning and construction.

For skiers the main news is the replacement of the old lifts with much more comfortable and spacious lifts of the 'Funifor' variety …a type of gondola/cable car hybrid known for its stability in strong winds.

The upper two new sections between Mürren and the top of the Schilthorn will now have this kind of lift, promising a faster, more comfortable ascent with 25% more personal space per passenger.

However the full series of lifts from Stechelberg in the valley will reduce from four to three sections, cutting nearly a fifth from the combined line length, achieved in part my creating the steepest cable car ascent in the world – which will no doubt be an attraction in its own right. This lower section will be a traditional cable car, with an 85 people per cabin capacity, and a maximum gradient of 160%.

The cable car and lower section of the two funifor lifts, from Mürren to Birg, are expected to be ready for the start of the upcoming 24—25 season, however the top section to the summit of the Schilthorn will be closed until 15 March 2025. This will mean one black run from the top won't be accessible until mid-March next season, but everything else will be whilst the project is completed.

New Zealand is the latest country to report a big snowfall after Australian ski areas saw their biggest snowfalls of the season so far over the weekend.

New Zealand ski areas have reported up to 30cm (12") of fresh snowfall so far, with the snow still falling in many areas.

"This snowfall is a total game-changer for our mountains!" said Laura Hedley, Cardrona & Treble Cone's General Manager, "Both Cardrona and Treble Cone will be looking to open more terrain off the back of this week's storm, and we're hyped to have a solid base to build the rest of the season from. Winter is well and truly here!"

Like Australia, New Zealand's ski areas have had a slow start to the season due to limited snowfall to date. However most do have a little more open than their Aussie neighbours, with Mt Hutt already able to open 50% of its terrain even before the latest snow fall, whilst no Aussie area had opened more than 25% of theirs so far.

Most New Zealand ski areas are now open with Treble Cone and Turoa among centres opening for the first time this season at the weekend, however a few smaller ski field have delayed doing so for lack of snow. Several were closed on Monday due to strong winds that accompanied the snowfall.

A multi-day snowstorm has begun for Australian ski areas which they're hoping will have deposited at least 20cm of fresh cover by Sunday evening.

The country's centres have had a challenging start to the 2024 season, which began three weeks ago, with cold temperatures for snowmaking but very little natural snowfall.

As a result very little terrain has opened so far with key July school holiday weeks now here.

"We're in blizzard mode at the moment and we couldn't be more excited," said Alex Pankiw, Marketing Coordinator at Hotham, noting that they've cut accommodation prices by 20% across the board over the coming weeks, "What a way to kick off school holidays here at Hotham and we've got plenty of fresh snow coming down right now, it's been heavy through the day and this will continue through the evening – at least 20cm fresh snow is expected by tomorrow."

All Australian centres are currently open but most only have 5-10% of their slopes open so far, representing 2-4km of slopes available so far each and reporting machine made snow cover of 5-30cm.

The country's largest resort, Perisher, is out in front with 12km of slopes open, about a fifth of its full area, Falls Creek in second for open terrain with 7km, about 15% of theirs.