J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

A company called Cyrusher, which has made its name for selling e-bikes, has turned its attention to snow sports and launched what it says is the world's first electric snowboard.

The 15kg board they have named "The Ripple" comes in at a 156cm length, can carry a rider weighing up to 250klb and between 5'4" and 6'4" tall and can hit speeds on the flat of up to 50 km/h (31 mph) the company says.

Cyrusher say that 'The Ripple' features a 3000-watt electric motor integrated into the snowboard with a V1 controller, "specifically designed for accurate navigation across snow and ice-covered landscapes."

The Ripple features a wide, high-traction rear tire, designed for traction on icy snow cover and can cover distances of 15-20 kilometres (9-13 miles) on a single charge.

"Equipped with a high-voltage-resistant MOSFET and an advanced heat dissipation, the controller ensures precise control and responsiveness. Easily fine-tune snowboard forward speed and manoeuvrability for the ultimate snowboarding adventure, guaranteeing a thrilling yet controlled riding experience every time," said a Cyrusher spokesperson, adding, "The advent of Ripple electric snowboards has revolutionized winter sports, offering sustainable thrills with lithium-ion battery power. The Ripple snowboards are silent and emissions-free, reducing noise pollution and promoting eco-friendly outdoor activities. The development of electric snowboards reflects a promising future for a more sustainable and exciting snowboarding experience."

A major rain storm has led to the temporary closure of most ski areas in New England this week as resorts endeavour to repair damage caused by the torrential rain. Snow cover is reported to have been washed away and some are reporting damage to roads and other infrastructure.

The rain, driven in on strong winds, turned to snow at some areas as the storm progressed but as most only had thin bases of machine made snow.

Ski areas in Quebec, Canada, to the north were also impacted, with many announcing temporary closures.
Sunday River in Maine had been posting the most terrain open in the region until flash floods caused damage there, it announced on Tuesday that it would remain closed on Wednesday, 20 December, while they assess the situation.

In a statement the resort said, "Ski operations will be reopened as quickly as possible and snowmaking will resume once necessary repairs are made. We appreciate your understanding and patience as we work through this. Updates will be shared through our daily Mountain Report."

Temperatures are now starting to dip in the East and snowmaking machines firing up again.

Many North American ski regions are facing a challenging start to the season with dry weather for most and sometimes temperatures too warm for snowfall or snowmaking, possibly associated with the 'very strong El Nino' weather system this winter from the Pacific, and/or climate change.

A huge new dry ski slope has opened at Aprilia Park, located in Romania's Gorj County.

The new slope, supplied by Italian company Neveplast who also supplied the surface for the famous power plant ski slope in Copenhagen, is 311 metres long and has three tubing courses running alongside the ski slope: two straight tracks measuring 166 metres each, and one track with two parabolic curves measuring 176 metres.

The slope's surface area of over 7,000 square meters, places it in the top 25 in the world by size.

"After a lot of effort and hope, tens of thousands of cubic metres of excavated soil, thousands of working hours, hundreds of technicians, collaborators and people involved in the project, dozens of machines and all in only one year the Aprilia Park complex is ready for the inauguration of its incredible all year round ski slope," a spokesperson for The Aprilia Park said.

Aprilia Park is best known for its water park, operating since 2011, and also offers a variety of activities besides skiing, including basketball, beach volleyball, ping pong. There are also 4,000 square metres of beach and three large hot water pools.

Europe's largest ski areas have begun moving towards full opening for Christmas and new year with the amount of area offering 200km or more of open slopes jumping from one to six this weekend.

For the past three weeks only the Samnaun-Ischgl cross-border Swiss-Austrian ski area had offer over 200km of slopes open, but it's now dropped to sixth place with other big areas overtaking it.

The world's biggest area the 3 Valleys in France is now in top spot for available terrain with 377km of its 600km of slopes now open. It reports the snow lying a metre deep even on its lowest slopes at 1100m altitude at Courchevel Saint Bon, with 1.8 metres up high. Les Menuires, which opened this weekend, is pictured top.

Despite having a third less terrain with and reporting only a third of the lower slope depth of the 3 Valleys, the Swiss 4 Valleys around Verbier is almost 90% open already with 362 of its 412 km of slopes open. It's posting snow depths of 35 to 110cm.

The Arlberg region of St Anton and Lech has overtaken Ischgl/Samnaun for Austria's most open terrain to move into third spot with 75% (220km) of its 301km of slopes open. It also has deeper snow, up to 2.6 metres up top.

Then it's Zermatt/Cervinia and the Skiwelt including Soll and Ellmau also having more than 200km of slopes open.

Although there's some natural snowfall in the forecast after a very warm and windy few days, it looks like Scotland's ski season will get underway in the week before Christmas thanks to all-weather snowmaking machines.

After years of very unpredictable snow cover challenging their operating plans, all five Scottish centres invested in all-weather snowmaking machines such as the TechnoAlpin SnowFactory to ensure they have at least some snow to offer visitors through the season, even when mother nature doesn't play ball.

Glenshee, which usually creates a short run, ay they plan to open this Wednesday, 20th December, with Cairngorm (pictured above this week) using there's to cover nursery slopes, on Friday 22nd December.

"A big thanks to our SnowFactory providing a helping hand," a resort spokesperson said.

Scotland did have a very cold November and early December with roads closed by snow around ski centres at times, but it has turned warm, wet and very windy in recent days, although colder weather and snow is forecast later this week.

Of the other three centres, Glencoe has already started using its SnowFactory but for sledging, not skiing or boarding. Their access chairlift also provides uplift to ski tourers seeking high altitude snow patches outside the ski runs.

The Lecht have not announced an opening date et but have announced an opening event for a new terrain park between Christmas and New Year so are presumably using their SnowFactory to make snow for that.



Finally Nevis Range near Ben Nevis and Fort William, the only centre that doesn't have a SnowFactory, having invested in an alternative all-weather snowmaking system which doesn't seem to have worked, says they'll open whenever natural snow cover is good.

In a lengthy online statement the centre said it had not made money on snow sports for over 15 years and lost £5m in the past five years so was having to be careful in future, with changes including no longer selling season tickets, no longer running their own ski school, and only offering rentals at weekends.

"It's no secret that the weather over the last five years has made snowsports an extraordinary challenge. We haven't made profit on the ski season for over 15 years – we do this because we love it and because it is who we are! That said the losses for winter have increased to unmanageable levels. Last year the loss by April was over £1m and we experienced similar issues the year before, add in Covid winters and we find ourselves in a situation where the winter period has lost £5m in five years," an online statement from the centre explains, however confirming that, "Our approach to core opening hours is simple – if the conditions are good enough to open – we will be open!"

Disability Snowsport UK (DSUK), the UK's leading adaptive snowsport charity, was recently eBay's charity of the week raising £1,858 in addition to hundreds of new items being listed for sale for DSUK as part of their wider #SkiBay4DSUK campaign.

The new partnership allows anyone in the UK who makes any purchase on eBay during the seven-day window to make a charitable donation to support DSUK at the point of sale – with all donations going directly towards providing lessons for disabled children and adults in Britain this winter.

The charity will again be eBay's charity of the week between 25th -31st December, providing another opportunity for anyone buying anything on eBay during that week to make a £1, £2, £5 or £10 donation at checkout and help DSUK transform people's live through snowsport.

DSUK encourage people to shop their eBay page, the perfect place to find Christmas gifts, as well as list any unwanted items for sale on eBay - selecting a percentage of the sale price to go directly towards supporting their cause.

CEO of DSUK Virgina Anderson says, "If you are buying anything on eBay in the UK, you will have the chance to make a donation to Disability Snowsport UK at checkout and help us to provide everyone with a disability in Britain with the opportunity to try Snowsports. It's a really exciting partnership with huge potential and a massive opportunity for us as a niche charity to expand our reach beyond the existing Snowsports community."

Ski Sunday Presenter and DSUK ambassador Ed Leigh (pictured) commented "The fact one of the world's largest e-commerce platforms are helping a niche charity like DSUK is a major milestone – so help them make the most of it, if you're buying anything on eBay, please donate what you can when you click to check out."

Links and info can be found via http//www.disabilitysnowsport.org.uk

The French ski resort of Risoul which saw its base and access road severely damaged by flash flood which brought mud and boulders down the mountainside with them at the start of this month, just a week before it was due to open for its 23-24 ski season, says it will still open in time for Christmas week.

The resort, linked to Vars in the southern French Alps in a ski area known as the White Forest, suffered the sudden damage after torrential rain hit the area at the start of December, falling to high elevations after heavy snowfall preceded it.

The ensuring 'torrent' brought boulder up to a metre across in to some buildings and opened a two metre wide gap in the access road, cutting the resort off and leaving it without power for more than 48 hours. However the ski season had not started and only about 100 people were in the resorts at the time and were eventually evacuated.

Although some buildings were damaged, many were not and its unclear kif there was any damage to lifts. A major concern has been creating an access road and restoring power, but a secondary former access road that had been closed has been reopened and power restored. Leading to a resort statement declaring,

"It is with great joy that we can announce that Risoul 1850 will open as of December 20th"
Last season the White Forest pass did not operate due to a disagreement between new owners of Risoul and those of Vars, meaning two tickets were needed to ski the linked area, however it had been previously announced that the single pass will be operational again this winter.

In common with many ski areas up in northern Scandinavia, Finland's largest ski area, Levi, has entered a period of 'Polar night' during which the sun does not rise above the horizon.

The sun set yesterday and will not reappear above the horizon until 12.16 on New Year's Day. The period is known as 'Kaamos' in the region.

The ski slopes, which are normally floodlit anyway, remain open and there is some daylight, coming from just below the horizon, through the three week period.

Along with floodlit downhill ski slopes there are 28 km of illuminated cross country ski trails and another 25 km of floodlit winter hiking and biking routes. Lighting is on from 6am to 11pm daily.

Levi is already into the third month of its 7-month long 23-24 season, which began in early October.