J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

Scotland's ski season is fast approaching with snow reported above 800m altitude above Aviemore this week.

There's good news and less good from Highland slopes with The Lecht investing to upgrade facilities and simultaneously cut its CO2 emissions, but Cairngorm Mountain unfortunately having issues once again with is key funicular railway, which is out-of-action once again …although its hoped it may be running again by the start of the season.

The Lecht Ski Company is spending £270,000 on a project to improve operational efficiencies that will result in a 23-tonne reduction in carbon emissions over the next three years, the centre says. The project will also increase capacity for snow sport beginners.

The investment will go on a more efficient piste groomer, a new magic carpet lift and retro fitting of more up to date controls for existing lifts which will help to reduce energy consumption.

Half of the money is coming from government agency Highlands and Islands Enterprise who have worked with the centre for more than 25 years and has supported investment in plant, equipment, infrastructure, marketing, strategy development, business modelling, mentoring and digital advice.
Meanwhile Cairngorm Mountain have described the latest closure of the funicular railway as, "…a frustrating situation for our customers and for the entire team."

The area is owned by Highlands and Islands Enterprise whose main contractor Balfour Beatty and project consultants continue to manage the current programme of snagging works.

"Due to ongoing technical difficulties coupled with the approach of the winter weather we have been given no definitive date yet for the railway re-opening," a spokesperson said.

Despite this Cairngorm have confirmed that their winter season will open on Friday 22 December. The centre's all-weather Snow Factory snowmaker will be operational at the base of the slopes from the end of November, and this guarantees snow for the beginners' zone, which does not require funicular access, for the opening date.

"If we also have some real snow by that time, the surface lifts will be operating, and the team will do its best to ensure we have snow sports for as many people as we can safely accommodate. At weekends, if there is no real snow, the tubing slides will be open for family-friendly tubing activities" the spokesperson added, noting that "early bird lift ticket pricing would continue all winter."

Livigno is the latest Italian ski area to announce it will open earlier than planned, this coming weekend, on Saturday18th November. That's a fortnight ahead of its planned date of the 2nd December.

It joins Madonna di Campiglio and the Presena Glacier which also plan to start their seasons early, this weekend, thanks to all the early November snowfall. Livigno has had over a metre of snow on its highest slopes, posting separate powder alarms for 50cm and 45cm of snowfall in two 24 hour periods over the past few weeks.

Four Italian ski areas have already opened, including Cervinia, which now offers year-round access to the glacier skiing above Zermatt, but on Tuesday also saw the first runs opening on the Italian side of the border for this season too.

Sulden has the most terrain open in the country so far with 15km of runs and two ski areas have opened in the dolomites in the past few days, Cortina d'Ampezzo and the 3 Zinnen Dolomites area, each with less than 3km of slopes available initially.

The French ski season gets underway on Saturday too with Tignes and Val Thorens opening early. Austria and Switzerland should both have at least 10 areas open from this weekend.

The Ski Club of Great Britain has released the results of its 2023 State of the UK Snowsports Market survey, conducted during September and October 2023, with results extrapolated from 1,100 responses from UK skiers across a wide demographic of over 1 million. The survey compares results from the last survey a year ago and found that:

12% of respondents intend to take the train this winter, compared to only 2% taking the train last season. Interestingly 92% say that more train services and lower costs would be the most likely factors in encouraging them to take the train in the future.

UK skiers are getting fitter compared to pre-Covid years when 15% of respondents admitted doing no exercise between ski seasons, this has dropped to only 10%. The most popular off-snow activities to prepare for skiing are cycling and hiking.

39% of respondents say they intend to book two holidays for this winter, up from 33% last year.

40% saying the reason why they didn't book a skiing holiday last season was due to cost, but a lucky 20% said cost is not an issue for them at all.

55% of skiers are booking more than 6 months before departure compared to 35% pre-Covid.

Those making late bookings of less than a month are back up to 13% though, compared to 7% last year.
More people are planning to stay in apartments versus hotels for this winter with 28% saying they will book a self-catered apartment compared to 25% last winter.

But at the other end of the market 31% are saying they intend to stay in a 4* hotel this winter, last season only 23% said they did.

Skiers are also dreaming about the experiences they would like to have including heli-skiing and travelling to long haul destinations with Canada and Japan top of the bucket list destinations. But perhaps more realistically over 30% would like to try ski touring at some point, and almost 30% intend to ski tour this winter.

The second attempt to open the Men's World Cup Speed Racing season on an all new course that crosses the Swiss-Italian border between Zermatt and Cervinia has been cancelled again.

Last year, the first attempt, the cancellation was due to too little snow on the lower part of the course. This year snow storage facilities had been put in place to ensure there was no repeat of that but the races have been cancelled due too to much snowfall, along with strong winds.

The new Grand Beca course is the world's highest and partially located on the glacier slopes above Zermatt, and one of only two outdoor ski areas worldwide that are open year round.

With two races planned for the men on the first weekend and two for the women on the second weekend each year, Sunday's cancellation marks the sixth in succession. A reserve race day originally in the calendar for Monday appears to have been discounted for logistical reasons although the forecast doesn't look great tomorrow either.

Large crowds of race fans were in resorts for the races but instead watched the Women's Slalom World Cup from Levi in Lapland, where there have been perfect conditions, on big TV screens along with enjoying music concerts, bib draws, and other festivities.

There is a chance though that the two downhill women's races set to start the women's speed skiing season next weekend may still go ahead.

Last year the Men's speed skiing season ended up beginning with its traditional opening races in Lake Louise, Canada, however that meeting had already been cancelled for 2023 due to financial issues. It therefore currently appears the season will now start in early December at Beaver Creek, Colorado.

Davos is among the resorts opening this weekend for early-season skiers and boarders.

Along with the excitement of getting on the slopes in early-November, and discounted lift tickets, the famous Swiss resort is also promising 20% off seats at the local Hockey Club Davos home games. The team is a professional Swiss ice hockey.

The slopes of the resort's Parsenn ski area are open Friday to Sunday with weekend operations this month. There has been a lot of early season snow and 15 kilometres of slopes are open.

The Parsenn funicular railway is taking skiers and boarders up to the ski area with the "Totalp", "Rapid", "Furka" and "Kreuzweg" lifts and their associated pistes all open. The summit lift is also in operation for freeriders, with the East summit having no groomed piste.

For opening weekend the mountain railways are offering 10 per cent off all day ski passes and there's also that 20 per cent discount on an ice hockey match seat. The discount applies to seats in the East sectors 8 and 9 of the stands for all games between 19 November and 21 December 2023.

Val Thorens have just announced they're joining Tignes in opening a week early, both resorts saying they'll open a week on Saturday, 18th November, instead of the 25th originally planned.

The decision follows more than a week of cold, snowy weather which has seen some areas report more than a metre of snowfall above 3000m altitude, with more of the same forecast for the week ahead too.

"Val Thorens is Europe's highest ski resort at 2,300m and we're super excited that they're opening early, with passes at such a compelling rate. Other resorts in Les 3 Vallées system have also had decent early snow. For example, 60 to 80 cm has fallen on Mont Saulire which links Courchevel to Méribel, so it's looking like a very positive start for winter 2023/24," said Olivier Desaulty, the Association Les 3 Vallées' executive director.

Lifts and associated runs open from the 18th will include the Funitel Péclet, the Cascade chairlift and all the magic carpets in the centre of the resort.

For this pre-opening week only - up to Saturday November 25, 2023 - skiers and snowboarders will be able to hit the slopes at a discounted rate of just €20 per day, with Val Thorens' mountain operation staff working hard to prepare the entire ski area for full operation in time for Val Thorens' big annual launch event– the La Grande Première, held over the weekend of November 25 & 26, 2023.

The amount of terrain available at already open ski areas in the Alps is set to jump for some this weekend.

Although more than a dozen glacier ski areas have already opened for their 23-24 seasons, mostly in Austria and Switzerland, the majority have only 5-10km of slopes open so far.

However Sölden has announced that its going beyond glacier terrain and will open its winter ski area from the Friday 10th November, 2023 when it will have around 60 kilometres of slopes open.

Sölden is already posting the most terrain open in the world at just over 30km with Zermatt/Breuil-Cervinia, due to host the first ever World Cup cross-border ski race this coming weekend, weather permitting, in second place with 27km of slopes. It often has the most terrain open in the world is late November and early December so is also likely to open more.

The Hintertux and Stubai Glaciers also have more than 20km of slopes open.

The expanded terrain availability comes as more high-profile ski areas including Arosa, Davos, Kitzbühel, Schladming and Verbier are due to start their seasons this weekend too.

60km swill be the most available anywhere in the world since Australia's Perisher and Argentina's Cerro Catedral each had that much terrain open or more, three months ago in August.

Tignes has announced it will open a week earlier than planned in what they are calling a "pre-opening" from 18th November - a week on Saturday.

"Following the huge snowfall (more than a metre fell on our peaks), we have decided to open a part of the ski area from Saturday November 18th," a social media post from the resort announces.

The resort will open up with skiing on the Grande Motte glacier with the option of a returning slope to Val Claret, via the Double M piste.

There will then be the 'progressing-opening' of the rest of the ski area from 25th November as planned.

A growing number of ski areas in the Alps have announced early openings as a result of all the snowfall of the past week coupled with low temperatures for snowmaking. Up to 20 are expected to be open this weekend with Kitzbuhel, Verbier, Davos, Arosa and Schladming among those joining already open glacier centres, but France has been notable for having nowhere open or, until now, planning to open before the end of the month.

Tignes formerly opened year round, then at least one day on each month of the year but has now given up on early Autumn opening.