J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by admin

Bright sunshine, excellent snow cover and all lifts operating made for a beautiful day in the mountains at The Remarkables ski area near Queenstown in New Zealand for the start of the 2009 winter season.

It was all smiles at the alpine resort as people drove up through the low cloud over Queenstown to discover the mountains bathed in sunshine. First on the chair honours went to Will Orr, Adie Lawrence, Connor Gambles and Conor Dolman all of Queenstown (pictured). The four arrived at 5.30am to secure their first on the chair spot in the lift queue.

Early birds to The Remarkables were welcomed with a glass of Lindauer bubbles to celebrate the occasion while mascots Spike and Shred entertained the young and not-so- young.

Ski Area Manager Ross Lawrence said the opening was the best in years.

"It was an awesome day. Just one of those beautiful days with excellent snow and everything running the way it should be. There was a laid back atmosphere with music on the deck, kids with their faces painted and people really enjoying the day. We were able to open all lifts including the shuttle for Homeward Run, which we thought was a pretty good effort for opening day."

The DirtyDogTerrainPark and TararuaIceCoffeeMiniPark were also open with a full range of features on offer.

"The feedback on snow cover, quality and terrain available has been awesome," said Mr Lawrence. "It was also great to see people using the FReemarkables bus service. The bus drivers reported strong numbers and the feedback is that people are finding the service easy and stress free."

See http://www.nzski.com/ for more info.

cS24

Tignes is the second French resort to open for summer skiing after Les 2 Alpes a week ago. To celebrate the resort staged a bikini ski event in which a small number of enthusiasts took to the snow slopes clad only in swimwear and ski boots. Ski gloves, eye protection and sun cream were also allowed in this 'competition.'

This thread is nothing without video, so here you go... Admin


The lifts opened at 7.15am on Saturday, June 20, heralding the start of the summer ski season which is staged on 20km of piste on the Grande Motte glacier between 3,000 and 3,500m above sea level.

The ski area will be open for the next 10 weeks through to 30th August from7.15am to 1pm daily.

The Perce-Neige underground funicular lifts skiers to the glacier in only seven minutes where a dozen ski lifts are operational.

A one day ski ticket costs 31 Euros for an adult, 25 Euros for a child.
cS24


Photo (c) Tignes.net

Bad Gastein is currently building a spectacular 140m long 'hanging bridge' from the summit station of the Stubnerkogel lift to the Sender.

At the northern end of the bridge a footbridge leads from the existing hiking trail to the hanging bridge, which is anchored to the solid rock. At the southern end of the bridge there will be a connection to the terrace of the existing summit restaurant.

The floor covering grid and the rails of the bridge will be made of transparent mesh that is aesthetically designed to give a ?light' construction. The design does not interfere with the terrain and allows those on foot to experience the altitude difference first hand.

The new hanging bridge will open at the start of next season in December.
Courtesy of and © Snow24 plc

New Hampshire's Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort was the first ski area to erect a wind turbine, one of the largest ever built by a private company, but now a second New England ski resort will construct a big turbine to generate power itself.

The smaller Berkshire East ski area will built a smaller windmill generating 600-kilowatts instead of the 1.5 megawatts generated by Jiminy Peak, producing power to meet a third of its energy needs.
The windmill should be operational by the end of 2009 and has recently been awarded a $400,000 dollar state grant towards the project costs.

James Schaefer, co-owner of Berkshire East and a managing director for the Swiss UBS bank said the decision to invest in wind power was to help future proof the area against rising energy costs, saying that the area's main energy needs were for snowmaking.
Courtesy of and © Snow24 plc

Several of Australia's ski areas opened with little or no snow on June 5th/6th, but that has all changed in the past week with snow falling at most centres, leading to excellent early –season conditions.

Perisher opened its Mt Perisher ski slopes last week reporting conditions for this early in the season, "the best in a decade."

The resort had received 58cm (almost two feet) of fresh snow since Sunday 7 June and thanks also to Perisher's $19 million snowmaking expansion, Saturday 13 June saw Towers Run on Mt Perisher open for skiing and boarding.

Ten lifts are currently operating across Perisher Valley and Smiggin Holes and the PlayStation Slopestyle course on Front Valley now contains a 20-foot table top in addition to other impressive features.
"There is a nice light, dry cover of snow on the slopes and with more snow expected over the coming days, lowering to 1500m." said a resort spokesperson (Perisher village sits at 1720m).

At a second Australian resort, Mt Buller, the Skyline terrain park and half pipe open for the first time this season at the weekend.

"For those who prefer the corduroy, groomer's pick of the day is Shakey Knees." said a resort spokesperson.
Courtesy of and © Snow24 plc

Whistler Blackcomb's 7,000 Year Old Glacier "Shrank By Half in Past Century"

A report in Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper says that the 7,000-year-old Horstman Glacier has lost half its volume in the past century, and that the rate of melt has accelerated in the past decade with more than 10 per cent lost since 1999.

The glacier which re-opens for summer ski and boarding later this month, has not decreased much in surface area, the globe & Mail reports, but has lost a lot of its thickness.

"It's not so much less snow in the winter, it's warmer temperatures in the summer, that's what's eating away at it most," Arthur De Jong, a mountain planner at Whistler-Blackcomb told the paper. "It clearly shows the climate is warming."

Mr De Jong is guiding a new climate change/mountain environment tour in August and September, in which he explains glaciology.

Whistler is reported to be considering trying to grow the glacier again by protecting the remaining ice and adding to it with snowmaking, the summer snowsports business is worth approximately $1m to the resort, the Globe Mail says.
Courtesy of and © Snow24 plc

More of New Zealand's ski areas opened at the weekend, joining Mt Hutt in enjoying a great start to the winter after a snowy May. In Australia the country's major ski areas opened although with scant snow cover on Saturday, June 6th – the traditional opening weekend.

After the unexpected large pre-season snowfalls a month ago, temperatures had risen and the snow melted, leaving limited machine made snow enough for snowball fights and snowman building at most areas and a nursery slope at Perisher.

However the situation improved through the weekend as temperatures dropped below zero and fresh snowfall came in. 21cm (8.5 inches) of fresh snow settled in Perisher village on Sunday night (7 June) and across Perisher's four mountain areas, allowing top to bottom skiing and snowboarding on Front Valley on Monday.

Light snow flurries began to settle in the resort throughout Sunday and as the mercury levels continued to drop overnight, Perisher's Mountain Operations Department fired up 95 snow guns across parts of Perisher Valley and Blue Cow Mountain adding to the growing base. This enabled the Village Eight Express, Australia's only 8-seat chairlift to make its season debut on Monday.
"It has been a fantastic start to the season. We've had fresh snowfalls and guests have flocked to the resort in the thousands and we've sold hundreds of lesson and lift packages," commented Nathan Butterworth Perisher's Resort Services Manager.

Other Australian ski areas have also reported fresh snow. Mt Buller reported 8cm (3.5 inches) falling overnight with the snow continuing to fall. It hopes to open its ski runs next weekend.
Natural snowfalls are forecast to continue for the next few days (lowering to 800 metres on Wednesday 10 June)
Courtesy of and © Snow24 plc

An artificial ski slope is reported to be currently under construction at Auli, a tourist spot and well known ski centre located at an altitude of 2,500m in the Indian Himalayas.

The area, one of India's best known ski resorts although with facilities including a chairlift and cable car, will host the Asian winter games this December, however some reports claim that there has been very little natural snowfall for the past two winters, possibly due to global warming, and thus the local authorities are investing in the artificial surface slope as well as a new snowmaking system.

Auli is regarded as one of India and asia's most beautiful ski areas, located in pine forests in a region where the temperature can drop to -8 degrees celcius at night time in mid-winter.

Auli is linked to the gateway town of Joshimath by what was, when it opened, the longest cablecar in Asia, supported by ten towers. The foundation for that ropeway was laid by the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, in 1983 with the lift, which has two 25 passenger cabins, completed in 1994.

The ascent of 4.78km (almost 3 miles) takes 20 minutes and offers spectacular views. Ski lifts include a chair and a French built 500m long surface tow, also the longest in the country when it opened.

The slopes of Auli are flanked by stately coniferous and oak forests and visitors to the resort can enjoy panoramic views of Himalayan peaks like the Nanda Devi (7817m), Kamet (7756m), Mana Parbat (7273m) and Dunagiri (7066m).
Courtesy of and © Snow24 plc