J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

Ski resorts in Alberta and Eastern BC are celebrating after some of the biggest snowfalls of the season.

Ski areas around Banff in Alberta including Norquay (pictured above yesterday), Sunshine and Lake Louise, as well as Kicking Horse and Panorama over the border in BC have posted up to 20cm in 24 hours, whilst Jasper's Marmot Basin to the north posted 25cm in the same period.

Canada has not had a good season for snowfall and the famous light powder in the west has been thin on the ground, blamed on the strong El Nino effect from the Pacific.

That's hit West Coast BC ski areas particularly hard with some smaller areas in Western BC hardly opening this season, others like Cypress Mountain and Grouse Mountain close to Vancouver have less than 20% of their slopes open.

The warm weather has also impacted North America's largest ski resort Whistler Blackcomb, with its low lower slopes. It has struggled to maintain snow cover and snow quality at time but is currently 90% open.

Most of the region's other major ski areas have now managed to open all or most of their slopes.

Serre Chevalier is offering skiers the chance to tour their huge ski area in the southern French Alps and find out how everything works.
More and more ski areas are offering this type of visitor experience, but the majority are for pedestrians using the lifts, Serre Chevalier's two-hour tour take place on skis and the resort spokesperson notes,

"A good skiing level is required, able to ski red runs minimum."

The tour is named Les Cols'Porteurs 19th century after the pedlars of the past who, by carrying their wares from one mountain to the next, created links between communities. It usually includes a meeting with Guillaume Bertrand, the lift company's operations director.

The two-hour tour takes place every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 2:10pm to 4:10pm. It leaves from the first aid station at Serre Ratier in Chantemerle and is free for holders of a valid ski pass. Groups of two to eight people head out with information provided in French and English.

Heavy snowfall on high slopes in the Alps has seen the deepest snowpack in the world edge towards the 5 metre mark.

Unusually, The alps have had the world's deepest snow all of this season, a title normally held by a US or Japanese ski area, however the 'El Nino Effect' seems to be suppressing snowfall in North America and East Asia.

The Alps raced to a 4 metre base soon after Christmas thanks to plenty of November and December snowfall with French areas including Chamonix, Tignes, Les Arcs and Flaine the only ones in the world to pass 4 metres.

The warm weather and lack of snowfall of the past month though saw most drop back below 4 metres, with only Alpe d'Huez hanging on to the 4m mark ad of last Thursday.

With the new snowfall of the past 48 hours though, Flaine and Les Arcs are back to 4 metres and Alpe d'Huez has reached 4.8 metres, the deepest in the world this year. Usually somewhere reaches 5 metres by March, sometimes 6 in Europe and as much as 8 or 9 metres in Asia and North America before the spring thaw starts to win over any late fresh snowfall.

48 hour snowfall totals in the Alps have reached 80cm with the Stubai Glacier posting the biggest numbers, then Glacier 3000 near Gstaad 60cm and Courchevel, Alpe d'Huez and Solden reporting 50cm so far.

The snow has started falling again in the Alps and the first snowfall totals for Friday morning are in. The snowfall is expected to continue for several days and bring half-a-metre plus to higher slopes at some areas by the end of the weekend. Most areas report heavy snow falling at present.

Swiss ski areas have reported the biggest numbers so far with Arolla claiming a remarkable 95cm (to be confirmed!), others reported up to 45cm. Of the big name areas Verebier say they've had a foot of snowfall so far, as does Grimentz, with 20cm in the Jungfrau and for Engelberg.

Italy has seen some of the best early falls with Passo Tonale posting the image above and a skier at Val Senales (Schnalstal) describing the snow as "between ankle and knee deep" with cold temperatures, no wind and fresh snow off-piste.

Serfaus and Galtur have posted the biggest 24 hour totals in Austria so far of 20cm. Lech got 15cm so far and there's been 14cm at the Pitztal Glacier. With valley temperatures still quite warm, St Anton has posted images of wet looking snow in resort this morning.

In France, most reports in so far are from Thursday afternoon, not this morning yet. But at that point Morzine had posted 20cm in the last 24 hours, Chamonix 10cm and Val Thorens 7cm of fresh.

There was a first spell of snow falling at the start of this week when 20-30cm accumulations were widely reported on Monday/Tuesday before sunshine returned in most areas.

There's also been fresh snowfall in the Pyrenees with Spain's largest ski area Baqueira Beret describing conditions there as "powder" after a 5-10cm snowfall over bight.

Slovenia's government has made a huge investment in new lifts and other upgrades to many of the country's ski areas.

Slovenia's Ministry of the Economy, Tourism, and Sports Restructuring Funds have splurged on no less than 11 new lifts across nine ski areas and lots of other upgrades too.

The new lifts include three 3 six-seaters chairlifts, six quad chairlifts, one regular cable car and one rotating-cabins cable car. The spend has come with funding from the React EU initiative.

A chunk of the money is going on expanding summer attractions with e-biking, mountain biking, summer go-karting, zip coasters, star gazing domes, archery, climbing walls, paragliding options, adventure parks and many other projects unveiled.

Among the beneficiaries, Krvavec ski area has a new six-seater chairlift with heated seats and protective covers and has expanded several ski runs. It's also expanding its summer mountain activities.

Pohorje ski area has seen a €7.5m spend including new Ruška four-seater and the Ruška ski lift.

€11.3m has been spent at Golte ski are which has seen the old Smrekovec chairlift and Stari stani chairlift replaced by two modern quads. with two modern 4-chairlifts.

Rolgla has enjoyed a €12.3m spend that has seen new Mašinžaga six-seat chairlift with heated seats and protective cabins, replacing the old Mašinžaga I and Mašinžaga II lifts.

Velika Planina has had an €8.8m and now has a new six-seater chairlift connecting three stations, spanning from the Šimnovec station at 1,400 m above sea level to the Zeleni rob guesthouse at 1,614m and the highest peak, Gradišče, at 1,660 m.

Kope received € 9.7m and installed two new quad chairlifts and a ski lift while Vogel got €8.7 and replaced the Zadnji Vogel double chairlift with a panoramic cable car with circular cabins. They're also now offering snow rafting. Finally Trije Kralji got €4m and has replaced its old chairlift with a new quad and installation of a new four chairlift.

The BRC Snow Club which has been a Burning Man theme camp for several years and last summer brought a dry ski slope to the famously hot, dry and dusty festival in Nevada have announced their intention to return with an enhanced slope in 2024.

"We are once again looking for someone with CAD experience to help us redesign our ski slope for 2024!" A BRC spokesperson said, adding, "The lower ramp is currently a lot of heavy and bulky wood and was damaged in the rain, so we need to streamline using scaffolding."

The rain referred to gained worldwide attention last summer when the festival, which attracted 73,000 campers in 2023, became a mud bath due to a torrential deluge.

The BRC Snow Club's dry slope is designed to be portable and is next due to appear at the San Benito County Fair in California from 2-5 May offering skiing, snowboarding and sledding to unSCruz for the first time ever.

A musical based on the infamous ski trial court case between Gwyneth Paltrow's and optometrist Terry Sanderson is heading to the state where the legal battle took place, Utah, as part of a US tour.

"Gwyneth Goes Skiing" was conceived and created by Awkward Productions and debuted in London shortly before Christmas. In will open in the US at The Egyptian Theatre in Park City, Utah, although dates have not yet been published.

The show's creators Linus Karp and Joseph Martin will reprise their London roles as Paltrow and Sanderson but will be joined by Paltrow's "Glee" co-star Darren Criss who'll provide Sanderson's singing voice and comedian Cat Cohen of "What We Do in the Shadows" also added to the US cast, according to Variety.

Drag star Trixie Mattel also joins digitally as Paltrow's mother Blythe Danner.

The case was brought by Sanderson against Paltrow claiming she collided with him causing injury on the slopes of Utah's Deer Valley in "2016. Paltrow said that wasn't true and successfully counter-sued for $1 plus legal fees. The televised trial grabbed global media attention last spring.

A separate TV documentary of the trial is also in production.

The Parsenn Derby, one of the world's oldest downhill ski races, will celebrate a century since it was first staged above Davos in Switzerland, with its 2024 staging on 29th February.

The race, still one of the world's longest despite various route changes over the years, takes place on a 12.5km long route from Parsennfurka down towards Küblis over 2,000m of vertical. It was conceived by a 1920s English spa guest, Fred W. Edlin, and created by the Ski Club Davos and the Davos English Ski Club.

The race originated 10 years before the invention of the T Bar lift at Davos and for the first four decades of its existence, before the creation of the world Cup Tour, was one of the most important international ski races.

The winner of the first Derby in 1924 completed the run in 22 minutes and 27 seconds and up to 1942 racers could decide on their own route down. However, after a racer named Edy Rominger achieved a time of under 14 minutes by taking a detour of the summit, two compulsory gates were added. More gates have been added over the last 82 years and there are now 35 positioned over half of the route while the 400-500 racers each winter can hit speeds of up to 80kph.

Today the Derby is regarded more as a public race in which amateur ski racers and prominent former professional racers can taken part and there's now also a team event with each team consisting of four men or women skiers.