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Les 2 Alpes (pictured this week) plans to keep operating its glacier summer ski area through to July 7th this year.

The resort, which currently reports the snow lying over 3 metres (10 feet) deep up high, will officially end its winter season this coming Sunday, but then re-open the next day for a 10 week 'summer' glacier ski and snowboarding season from Monday 29th April.

Much of the glacier is reserved for team ski and snowboard training at all levels, but there are some slopes open to the public and it's also possible to take a ski lesson.

The late spring opening plan builds on a change last year from trying to run an increasingly problematic summer ski season from late June to late August, which increasingly had to be largely cancelled due to lack of snow left on the glacial ice, to opening through the latter half of spring instead as part of a transformation to being a 'four season ski resort'.

Last year Les 2 Alpes closed for five days between its winter season ending and 'summer' season starting and ended up staying open later into July than planned due to good conditions, it had originally thought it would stop glacier skiing in late June but continued a week or two into July. This year there's no gap between winter ending and summer starting and the planned glacier opening is 10 weeks rather than eight.

Two other French ski areas still offer summer skiing from a high of around 10 French resorts in the 1990s.

Tignes has shrunk from year-round glacier skiing to aiming to offer four weeks on the Grande Motte in summer, this year from 22 June to 21st July, conditions permitting. Val d'Isere is also aiming for four weeks, from June 8th to July 5th.

An event that has proven very popular in recent years, a running race on an adventure course created within the famous Ski Dubai indoor snow centre, returns this May.

With outdoor temperatures in the +25 to +40 degrees Celcius range, the DXB Snow Run offers the emirate's runners the chance to run in a much cooler atmosphere – up to 44 degrees cooler at -4C in fact.

The run takes place on Sunday, May 19, and is open to teenagers as young as 13 (down from 15 minimum age in previous years) and adults. There are various individual and group categories.

There are two race distances to choose from, 3km (nearly two miles), which is three laps around Ski Dubai or 5km (more than three miles) which is five loops of the centre.

Of course each laps involves running up in parts quite a steep gradient over snow, and running back downhill on snow.

The race has been growing in popularity each year with last year's attracting 600 athletes spanning 55 nationalities taking part.

The Snow Run is organised by the Dubai Sports Council and 2024 will be the fifth staging of the race.

Snow has continued falling in the Alps this week after the weather across the region turned wintry again last week.

The pattern mirrors the cold and snowy spring of 2023 which saw snow depths continue to build over a month after the usual snow depths peak in early March.

April has seen bases gradually fall from a high of 5.8m at Laax in Switzerland at the start of the month but the latest snowfall has pushed some back up again.

About 50 ski areas remain open for the final weekend of April in Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland for the final week of April.

The Glacier 3000 ski area near Gstaad (pictured above yesterday) claimed on social media it has had 1.5 metres (five feet) of snowfall in 72 hours on Friday. For most other areas the numbers are 25-50cm in the same period with snowfall, on and off, for most of the past 8-10 days.

Saas Fee, which is due to end its 23-24 season on Sunday, saw its base go back over 5 metres after a 45cm (18") accumulation there.

About 30 ski areas in the region plan to stay open to at least 1st May.

April 20th will by Easter Sunday next year so skiers and travel companies will be hoping that late season snowfall is the case for a third year running in 2025.

Update - reports from France suggest that the target completion/opening date is December 2026 for the start of the 26/27 season.

A huge €155 million project to replace lifts at the iconic Les Grands Montets ski area above Argentière in the Chamonix Valley has been announced, nearly six years after a fire destroyed several key lifts.

After a year of studies, fine-tuning, and preparatory work, the plans were announced at the Mountain Planet 2024 trade show currently underway in Grenoble with the Compagnie du Mont-Blanc awarding a €107.6m contract to Doppelmayr France to replace the two sections of cable cars destroyed in the 2018 fire, as well as the reconstruction and redevelopment of the infrastructure at the summit station of the Aiguille of the Grands Montets.

The reconstruction of the two sections of formerly cable car lifts is an opportunity for the Compagnie du Mont-Blanc to modernize access to the Aiguille des Grands Montets and offer future passengers a comfortable journey.

Thus, the first section from Argentière to Lognan will be equipped with a state-of-the-art monocable gondola consisting of 10-seat cabins. The second section of the route from Lognan to the Aiguille des Grands Montets will be equipped with a detachable 3S cable car.

This technology is specially designed to overcome the topographical challenges and extreme weather conditions of high mountains. The cabins will offer skiers and tourists 24 seats facing the majestic panorama of the Grands Montets site, Doppelmayr say.

A stylish design in harmony with the mountain is a big part of the project and a 20-metre cube, integrated into the slope (pictured top), echoing the perfect geometry of pyrite should be a stunning sight.

"This crystal marks the end of the mechanical journey and the sublime beginning of the routes leading to the summit of the Aiguille des Grands Montets with humility, a privileged place for the Chamonix valley and all the peaks overlooking it. Through its architecture, this project aims to requalify the industrial site into a sustainable one and change the perception of ski lifts by transforming passenger transport into a journey," a Doppelmayr media statement enthuses.

To align with the overall project concept, the lower lift stations will also be adorned with walls of crystalline glass

Work on the project will be completed with minimal environmental impact and avoid helicopter use. Two material cable cars (blondins), each with a capacity of 10 tons, will transport all materials and equipment from Argentière to the various construction sites with a service cable car created foir workers too, specially designed for the project (from the top of the Herse chairlift to the summit at 3,300 m).

These facilities will be dismantled as soon as the permanent installations are put into service - the expected date of which was not part of the project announcement.

Zermatt's lift company, Zermatt Bergbahnen, has announced a change of summer skiing strategy following the decision of the International Ski & Snowboard Federation (FIS) as well as the Italian and Swiss federations to give up on attempts to stage World Cup races on the new course created there.

The new policy is to expand the area available to recreational skiers and to help advance young ski racers at the expanse of national squads, which will no longer be offered training facilities.
That's the plan, effective immediately, for 2024 at least, the company says its decision is up for review in a year's time.

"In connection with its strategy of providing skiing facilities all year round, Zermatt Bergbahnen intends to concentrate its summer skiing operations on visitors from Switzerland and abroad. An improved offering will address the issue of high levels of demand. At the same time, Zermatt Bergbahnen will make a number of glacier training slopes available exclusively for the use of young talent from the ski clubs, regional associations and National Performance Centres from summer 2024. The training provision for elite athletes in all winter sports will be discontinued and reassessed for summer 2025, in line with the decisions of the FIS and the two national federations Swiss-Ski and FISI regarding the World Cup races in Zermatt/Cervinia," a statement from the resort explains.

Although the number of resorts offering summer skiing has declined dramatically over the past two decades, Zermatt, which has Europe's highest lift accessed slopes and the biggest summer-ski vertical, says it remains as popular as ever.

"Climate change and generally rising temperatures are leading visitors to seek out cooler destinations in the summer. This is illustrated by the pleasing number of ski tourists coming from northern Italy to enjoy summer skiing here in recent years, a positive trend confirmed by increasing numbers of skiers from other international markets. The new "SnowXperience Plateau Rosa" beginners' park operating on Testa Grigia gives visitors a chance to get their first taste of skiing or snowboarding alongside a range of other activities on the snow and ice in the summer ski area,"

the statement continues, adding:

The promotion of young talent is a key pillar of Zermatt Bergbahnen's strategy. Ski clubs, regional associations represented by their junior teams, and the National Performance Centres (NPC West, Central and East) provide important foundations for youngsters participating in winter sports. The large number of children and young people actively committed to skiing produces many good athletes destined for a career as a professional skier. For the resorts, these ski fans go on to form a vitally important pool from which to recruit instructors, mountain guides and promoters of winter sports. Zermatt Bergbahnen has a key role to play in supporting young enthusiasts and contributing to the development of skiing and snow sports generally. For example, free travel in Zermatt for children up to the age of nine.

The statement concludes:

"Zermatt Bergbahnen has been investing money and human resources to provide skiers from Switzerland and abroad with the perfect infrastructure for training during the summer months in preparation for the World and European Cup seasons. If World Cup races had been staged in Zermatt/Cervinia, Zermatt Bergbahnen and its partners in Cervinia, across the border in Italy, would have offered the skiing elite innovative downhill runs with no equal, as well as training facilities to prepare for the races. This was not how the associations and athletes viewed the provision, however, with the result that the four World Cup races were removed from the Alpine Ski World Cup calendar for 2024/25 – despite the five-year contract with the FIS. The annual investment in preparing pistes for top-level athletes will immediately be diverted to supporting junior skiers, who enjoy the training conditions in Zermatt. At the same time, the resort waives any claim to federal funding related to the national sports facility programme. Elite athletes will be able to use Zermatt's summer ski slopes (21 km) for free skiing in the same way as other visitors."

Franz Julen, COB, and Markus Hasler, CEO Zermatt Bergbahnen AG, say: "Starting this summer, there will be no training pistes in Zermatt for elite ski teams. The situation will be reviewed in a year's time. This strategic decision means that young teams from ski clubs, the regional associations and NPCs will be provided with a generous, specially adapted infrastructure with training times throughout the summer months. The decision is effective immediately and ensures that Zermatt Bergbahnen will continue to play its part in the development of the next generation of winter sports talent. Furthermore, visitors will be able to enjoy an expanded offering and greater variety during their summer ski breaks in Zermatt. Skiing for all on natural snow in the summer is set to become even more attractive."

Image credit: Pascal Gertschen 

A wandering bear led California's Palisades Tahoe ski area to close some of its slopes.

The black bear was initially spotted near the top of the Granite Chief run, "looking curiously at people and the garbage bin at the top," Palisades spokesperson Patrick Lacey told SFGATE.

The resort made the decision to close the two lifts closest to where the young bear was, Emigrant and Granite Chief having checked there were no skiers still in the area, for its safety.

The bear was seen to have a tag on its ear and a GPS collar which usually means that the bear had been caught and re-released into the wild after being trapped to close to an urban area.

As the snow melts, black bears are waking from their winter hibernation in the region. A spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said the young bear may just be trying to get home.

The Palisades currently plans to stay open at least to the end-of-May, having extended its season thanks to good spring snowfalls.

North Korea is reported to have a new ski resort under construction after the first international winter sports tourists since 2019 arrived from Russia.

The group of Russian skiers, reported to number 98, visited North Korea's best known and largest ski area Masik Pass ski resort which was famously conceived and built to what seems to be a high standard in less than a year in 2013.

The new Wonsan-Kalma tourist zone will be much bigger than Masik Pass, at least in terms of its tourism infrastructure which will be spread over 2.8 km², with 17 hotels, 37 guesthouses, 29 shops and a four-kilometre beach alongside the ski slopes.

North Korea is believed to have had a small ski area for its political and military elite prior to Masik Pass opening, with a chairlift donated by a Swiss ski resort in the pre-sanctions era as a gesture of goodwill. It has opened several more smaller ski areas since Masik Pass including Kanggye in 2018 and Yangdok in 2020.

On their visit to Masik Pass, the Russians reported high service standards, low prices, empty slopes and facilities to enjoy but one was quoted as saying she felt sorry for what few local people she saw from the bus between the airport and resort and that she had not felt safe on the aged aircraft she travelled on.