J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

Snowbombing

Festivals in the Alps have become an ever bigger attraction for skiers and boarders in recent years. All taking place in the last month or so of the season, when the skies are sunny and the temperatures warmer, the idea is that you have fun with lots of like-minded people on the snow all day then party together all night. The energy requirements, and the music involved, means that the festivals mostly appeal to the younger crowd.
There are currently four main events to consider, and they do follow each other pretty well insuccessive weeks so you could spend a month going from one to the next.
First up in The Big Snow Festival in Arinsal (www.thebigsnowfestival.com), Andorra which aims to just be lots of fun and actually attracted 80% first timers when it opened last year, so skiing and boarding prowess is not vital. It runs from 13th – 20th March.
Simultaneously the Little World Festival (12 – 19 March) in Meribel was initiated by local band The Feeling and this season will also feature Sophie Ellis Bextor and Squeeze and 40 other gigs. Unsurprisingly the onus here is more on the music.
Next it's the BRITS Music and Winter Festival (www.the-brits.com ) – one of the biggest and longest running events – staged in Laax, Switzerland, from the 20th – 27th March. There is a greater emphasis on good skiing and boarding – freestyle – here with serious competition for the UK's best boarders and skiers, as well bas all comer events where anyone can try their luck. Events include Freestyle insanity care of the Protest Slopestyle, SNO!zone Halfpipe, Giro Big Air and Trespass Snowboard/Skiercross Championships. Confirmed après ski acts include festival heavyweights Pendulum as well as The Correspondents.
The final festival, and the biggest, is Snowbombing (www.snowbombing.com) which takes place in Mayrhofen and indeed 'takes over' the resort with 5,000 attendees. This year The Prodigy and Fat Boy Slim will be headlining and it expects to sell out soon, so if you want to go, better buy your tickets.

Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI has followed on from his predecessor Pope John Paul II and blessed skiers.
Meeting a group of winter skiwear clad ski instructors at the Vatican this week he told them that skiing takes place in a mountain world which reminds us of how small we are in the greater scheme of things and reminds us of the magnificence of creation.
He told the instructors that their work reflected Christian values by helping people to confront and overcome difficulties, sticking to a task and respecting rules.
Pope John Paul 2nd was a keen skier sine his boyhood in Poland and often made unannounced trips to the slopes, even in his later years just to enjoy the scenery.
His ski jacket was donated a few years ago to the recently established Pope John Paul II High School at Hendersonville in Tennessee where it will become a second class holy relic if (or more likely when) Pope John Paul the 2nd is made a saint.

Val Thorens

For some reason France has lagged behind the other major Alpine nations for its pre-season ski opportunities. Tignes, once open for 12 months of the year, still manages to stay open for about nine months and has been stoically offering France's only outdoor lift-served snow since mid-September (there's also the world's biggest indoor run up at Amneville in the north east of the country), but while half-a-dozen or more areas have been open since October in each of Austria, Italy and Switzerland, France has stuck with just the one choice. Well apart from Les 2 Alpes opening for the October English and French school holidays week only anyway.
Why no other resorts challenge this regimented season structure is a bit of a mystery. Presumably economics play a part for the big players with their rigid Saturday-to-Saturday booking structure requiring enough guests to make it worthwhile employing enough staff to open, but that's not the case with the small hills.
Well anyway it all changes this weekend when the French areas begin to open, firstly Europe's highest resort, Val Thorens, this weekend, then everyone else en-masse over the next couple of weekends.
Val Thorens will be running seven lifts (two funitel gondolas, two chairs and three drag lifts) and 22 kilometres of easily accessible ski runs will open at 9am on Saturday 20th November . There's 40cm of snow at resort level and 70cm at the summit, and the season has five and a half months to run through to 8th May 2011.
There'll be several events as an added bonus for opening weekend. The Ski Force Winter Tour offers the chance of free ski tests for equipment from 15 major brands; the Andros Trophy at the ice driving track will see racers complete the first laps of the season on the Alain Prost ice racing track.

Opening Day At Mammoth Mountain

Most of North America's biggest resorts will be open from this weekend ahead of the country's major Thanksgiving Holiday. The two biggest hitters, Vail and Whistler, along with resorts like Heavenly and Squaw Valley, will open in the next 24 hours, joining already-open Mammoth.
Both are reporting very good pre-season snow conditions, thanks perhaps to the much hyped La Nina, Pacific weather cycle which is expected to bring above average snowfall to Western North America this winter.
Whistler Mountain is opening six days earlier than planned on Friday, November 19 with Blackcomb Mountain following six days later on November 25th – a week today.
"Couple the great natural snow with the truly incredible snowmaking infrastructure, hosting the Games afforded us, we'll have a great opening weekend at Whistler," says Doug MacFarlane, mountain manager at Whistler Blackcomb. Whistler are being a little more coy than the Colorado resorts as to how much snow they've actually got. You can check whistlerblackcomb.com/whatsopen to see.
Vail is much more excited about its actual snowfall, with three feet (90cm) added to the base in the past week, "This opening scenario is probably better than we even dare to hope for and it doesn't happen very often," said Chris Jarnot, chief operating officer of Vail Mountain. "We've been blessed with some of the best early-season snow we've ever had, and our crews have worked incredibly hard to prepare as much terrain and as many lifts as possible. I know everyone in town and certainly everyone at Vail Resorts is excited to kick off Vail's winter season on Friday."
Vail joins resorts like Breckenridge and Copper that have been open for several weeks and have been reporting 'powder days' in the past few days thanks to all the fresh snow.
In California Mammoth has been open for skiing and boarding for a week and more than 2,000 p[eople turned up for opening day when there were six lifts running, including the Panorama Gondola.
In Tahoe, where over a foot of snow fell last week, Heavenly, Northstar and Squaw Valley all open this weekend
Tahoe Visitors Authority commented, "The early season vibe is buzzing with anticipation for another banner year with the predictions of a burly La Niña."
North of the border Sun Peaks in British Columbia also opens this weekend joining already open Banff and Lake Louise, which will host the opening Downhill World cup races shortly. However most other areas won't open until early December as Thanksgiving is of course not such a big deal there.

Aye, another epic season begins, hopefully!

It's good news from Scotland after its record breaking eight month long winter 2009-10, Cairngorm will open tomorrow for winter 2010-11!
The skiing that's available initially is limited and the slopes will not be groomed, so it's really for intermediates and experts only.
On the upside you can ski for a pound by getting a copy of the local Strathy newspaper with a voucher therein that allows you to do so. Otherwise it's £9.75 for adults or £6.15 for juniors with no half day tickets available and no ski rental on site either. Those still holding last winter's season ticket will also be able to use it.
Skiing will be accessed by the funicular railway only and a route has been prepared as much as early snow conditions allow down the Traverse, 105 and back to the train mid station stop. The White Lady and M1 runs are both described as, "skiable with care."

Lake Louise

Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada is preparing to host the first event of the ski world cup downhill season with their annual Winterstart contest.
After a promising pre-season in October warm temperatures have made the start of winter 2010-11 a little less snowy than 2009 but Lake Louise was able to open on schedule on November 5th, the first resort in Canada to do so after the planned October 30th opening of Banff neighbour Mount Norquay was delayed by the warm conditions.
This year racers will be preparing for the Alpine skiing world Championships in Garmisch, this time last year all the preparations were for the Whistler Olympics.
It was quite a controversial Winterstart in 2009 too with several of Canada's favourite downhillers put out of action for the season, missing the Games, as a result of injuries sustained. This played a part in a delegation of racers approaching the FIS with a long list of requests for safety enhancements on Downhill Courses, a list which a working committee are currently investigating.
This year's contest kicks off on November 27/28th with the Men's downhill, the first Ladies race is a week later on December 3rtd to 5th.
The entertainment doesn't stop with the races. The festival area, located at the base of the mountain, will be packed with activities for the whole family and is free to enter.
Inside the festival area there will be tons of giveaways, free hot chocolate, ice sculptures, and contests.
Guests will also be able to view the finish area and cheer on the World Cup athletes as they cross the finish line!

You've got a phone you can talk on?! that's a brilliant idea, someone should market one of thodse...

Anon's App

If you've ever wondered about buying goggles online but were put off by not knowing just what the view through them would be like, a new iPhone app may be the answer to your visualisation dreams!
A company called anon optics (www.anonoptics.com) has launched a new iPhone App which magically provides a 'Lens Visualizer' facility allowing you to look at anything through your iPhone screen as if you are seeing it through a range of six different lenses to see which works best for you in the conditions.
The tool works by using the iPhone's camera as a view finder to capture their surroundings, then, riders can point the phone at whatever they want and see how it would look under six different anon lens tints.
The app, which includes full online directory and spec for a range of goggles, is available free of charge on iTunes.