J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

Sounds like a great trip! Have not been in carnival but was there last January over New Year and we learned the Sellaronda is crazy busy at peak times and to find alternative routes around where we could. We did find some great restaurants, especially family-run La Bula and upscale Granbaita. Love Venice too.

Canada's 23-24 ski season is expected to get underway later today, Thursday, 2nd November.

The first Canadian centre that had named a target opening date, months ago, was Banff's local ski hill of Mt Norquay, aiming for Saturday 4th November. That was the earliest target opening date in North America, although four US resorts are now already open.

After a frequently cold and snowy autumn in Alberta, Norquay moved its opening date forward 24 hours to Friday the 3rd, it's current expected opening date.

Lake Louise has also announced it will now open on the 3rd, moving its opening date forward by a week.
Another Alberta resort, Nakiska, closest to Calgary, will open for a 'preview weekend' this weekend.

However Quebec's Sommet St Sauveur has now announced it will open from 2nd November after cold weather for snowmaking and some natural snowfall arrived in the east of the country, so it currently looks like it will be Canada's first.

Some more of the country's big hitters including Sunshine near Banff as well as Marmot Basin up near Jasper ae expected to open in a week's time.

Sun Peaks is expected to be the first in BC to open on the 18th then Whistler on the 23rd.

More glacier ski areas in the Alps have announced they'll open in the next few days after heavy snowfall to start this week, particularly on high slopes above around 2,500m. Several have reported as much as 30cm of fresh snowfall, one 50cm.

It remains a mixed picture though with several other centres announcing they'' delay their opening because they still don't have enough snow, despite the latest falls, because of the largely warm and dry first half of autumn.

Among the resorts planning to open for the season this weekend are Switzerland's Glacier 3000 and Austria's Kitzsteinhorn above Kaprun. It means we'll be into double figures for the number of areas open in the Alps with six in Austria and four in Switzerland along with a couple in Italy. There remains nowhere open in France so far this autumn.

The already open Stubai and Hintertux glaciers (pictured above on Tuesday) have reported they've each had over 30cm (a foot) of fresh snowfall and that they're opening more terrain. Solden, meanwhile, has jumped from a 30cm to 1 metre base figure on its glacier, which hosted the opening Alpine World Cup race of the 23-24 season on Saturday.

But the news isn't all good. Verbier has announced they won't open this weekend but say they'll announce when they will early next week. Another Swiss resort that has already delayed opening several times, Engelberg, have set their opening date back to the 18th. Despite fresh snowfall both are still building adequate bases to be able to open.

Following Arapahoe Basin's opening on Sunday, up to 17" (42cm) of natural snowfall in Colorado and consistent cold temperatures for snowmaking, a second of the state's ski areas, Keystone has announced it will also be opening imminently – from 9am tomorrow, Wednesday November 1st.

The Vail-run resort will open with 2+ miles of terrain on the Schoolmarm and Silver Spoon trails,

"A huge thank you to our incredible snowmakers, operations teams, and Mother Nature for more than a foot of new snow and the return to cold temps that have all helped to get us ready to kick things off this week," a resort statement reads, promising also opening day "…DJs, dancing, and donuts as the cherry on top!"

A third Colorado area expected to open soon, Lovelend, says it cannot yet name the day but expects to be opening imminently.

North of the border Canada's Mt Norquay has moved its opening day forward 24 hours to this Friday 3rd November, thanks to good conditions there too. It is expected to be the first in the country to open. Larger centres Lake Louise, Sunshine and Marmot Basin near Jasper all plan to open for their 23-24 seasons next week.

The UK's leading adaptive snowsport charity, Disability Snowsport UK (DSUK) have a new partnership with eBay, that sees the winter sports charity become the designated charity of the week on the leading global e-commerce platform for the week from today, 30th October 2023.

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 ski or snowboarding lessons for disabled children and adults in Britain this winter.

CEO of DSUK Virgina Anderson says, "Between 30th October to 5th November, 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."

Last winter DSUK launched their #SkiBay4DSUK campaign, encouraging members of the public to list their unwanted ski and snowboard gear on eBay, selecting DSUK as their chosen charity – with a percentage of each sale going towards DSUK.

Virginia continues, "Over the past 12 months our #SkiBay4DSUK campaign has generated over £3,000 in additional funds which have benefited more than 300 disabled children and adults so far. Whilst the volume of items sold has not been massive, it's a fantastic return and is a hugely encouraging foundation for us to scale the campaign from here. Ultimately the more people who list their unwanted gear on eBay and chose DSUK as a charity, the more lessons we can provide and lives we can help transform."

Ski Sunday Presenter and DSUK ambassador Ed Leigh, says "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."
Ed continues, "Perhaps even more importantly, we want more skiers and snowboarders across the country to dig through the back of your wardrobes and attics and list any of your unwanted gear on eBay. You can then choose a percentage of your sale to be donated to DSUK. The campaign is working brilliantly but we need more people to sell more stuff! There are millions of snowsports lovers in Britain and I'm sure we all have gear we no longer use that could find a new lease of life with a new owner – which is obviously great for the planet - and by selling your stuff for DSUK, you can really help make a major difference to the future of disability snowsports in Britain. So go rummage through your garage and get selling your stuff!"

You can donate your items via the DSUK eBay page here: https://charity.ebay.co.uk/charity/i/The-Uphill-Ski-Club-of-Great-Britain/23967

Supporters are encouraged to share their eBay listings on social media, using the hashtag #SkiBay4DSUK

After a successful first race of the 23-24 FIS World Cup Alpine ski racing season at with the opening races at Sölden on Saturday, all eyes are turning to Zermatt and Cervinia for the first four speed races of the alpine skiing season, coming up in mid-November.

The new downhill course, the world's highest and the first to cross an international border from Switzerland into Italy, was due to host its inaugural races a year ago, but these had to be cancelled due to inadequate snow cover. This year the organisers have taken no chances, stockpiling snow in case needed, although there have been natural snowfalls over the past few weeks.

After a course inspection, the FIS have now given the organisers the final green light to run the races, weather permitting.

Known as the 'Matterhorn Cervino Speed Opening' The World Cup races in Zermatt/Cervinia will take place on 11/12 November and 18/19 November 2023. On the programme for the first weekend are two men's downhill runs and on the second weekend the two women's downhill runs.

It means that Lake Louise, which won't stage any races this year, loses its place as the opening venue for downhill racing each season, and also brings the start of the season forward by several weeks for the speed racers. Men's downhill and super-G races were initially scheduled in Lake Louise for November 25-26th but Alpine Canada pulled out of hosting due to "financial challenges", ending more than four decades of the speed skiing season starting there.

The course, which starts at 3,800 metres above sea level and finishes at 2,865 metres above sea level, was designed by Didier Défago, 2010 Olympic downhill champion. Covering 935 metres of vertical descent over four kilometres, the maximum speed will be around 135 km/h. All the athletes will tackle the same piste, with the women's start slightly below the men's.

Lara Gut-Behrami had a second run charge to win the season opening race at Sölden with near perfect conditions after fresh snowfall eased leaving a blue sky. Unfortunately however the men's race on Sunday had to be cancelled due to strong winds.

Arapahoe Basin ski area in Colorado has announced that it will open for its 23-24 season on Sunday, 29th October and will most likely be the first area to 'properly open' in North America.

Arapahoe Basin will open for the season, Sunday, October 29 at 8:30 AM with Black Mountain Express and the High Noon trail.

The high altitude resort is one of several that has been snowmaking, on and off, for most of October. A warm spell in the latter half of the month made it seem less likely anywhere would be able to open this month, but a recent temperature drop and some natural snowfall have improved matters.

US ski media focussed on a small ski area in Massachusetts, Ski Ward, creating a small area of snow using an all-weather snowmaking machine a week ago and deciding that was the North American season start, but its up to personal choice as to whether you consider that the season start.

The Trollhaugen ski area in Wisconsin had created a similar small snow area, in its case using snow stored through the summer from last winter earlier in October.

There's also always a chance somewhere else will manage to open today and beat Arapahoe Basin to it.

Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe (WBD) has announced that it will cover 600 winter sports races live and deliver 1,100 hours of coverage across 11 sports covered by four federations this winter.

The company runs discovery+ and also owns Eurosport, which is now in its 35th year of providing comprehensive coverage.

Viewers in the UK and Ireland can watch winter sports throughout the season on television on Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2 (Sky channels 412 and 413, and Virgin Media channels 521 and 522).

For more comprehensive coverage, discovery+ is the streaming home of Eurosport in the UK and provides uninterrupted streaming of every major winter sports event as part of its Standard package for £59.99 a year or £6.99 a month. Eurosport and discovery+ are accessible through all smart TVs, Sky, Virgin and Amazon.

Coverage starts this weekend with the opening World Cup Alpine races of 23-24 on the glacier at Solden in Austria.

WBD has bolstered its panel of expert with a team that together have more than 100 World Cup wins between them and include an expanded role for Britain's Dave Ryding.

New to the team is former French racer Johan Clarey who became the oldest ever Olympic alpine skiing medallist at last year's Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.

Clarey will provide punditry and analysis during selected races and features as part of WBD's team alongside fellow World Cup icons throughout the season.

"By combining our huge portfolio of World Cup rights across the widest range of disciplines with our winter sports expertise, passion for storytelling and commitment to content creation, this season is sure to captivate millions of fans across Europe and Asia and inspire the next generation of winter sports stars," commented Scott Young, SVP Content and Production at Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe.

For the 2023-2024 season, WBD Sports has produced a new marketing campaign titled 'Winter Sports Take Over' which highlights the sheer volume of exhilarating action throughout the season on Eurosport and discovery+. The campaign launches on 8 November ahead of the weekend's Alpine Speed Opening in the shadow of the Matterhorn – the first ever FIS World Cup race to cross a national border.

Last year the company delivered more than one billion streaming minutes from Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 to 156 million fans across Europe with viewers watching an average of 24% more content than PyeongChang 2018.

Key dates in the 2023-2024 winter sports calendar

• FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cup: 20 October 2023 – 24 March 2024
• FIS Park & Pipe Snowboard World Cup: 21 October 2023 – 23 March 2024
• FIS Alpine Ski World Cup: 28 October 2023 – 24 March 2024
• ISU Speed Skating World Cup: 10 November 2023 – 4 February 2024
• FIS Cross-Country World Cup: 24 November 2023 – 17 March 2024
• FIS Ski Jumping World Cup: 24 November 2023 – 24 March 2024
• IBU Biathlon World Cup: 25 November 2023 – 17 March 2024
• FIS Alpine Snowboard World Cup: 14 December 2023 – 17 March 2024
• FIS Snowboard Cross World Cup: 2 December 2023 – 24 March 2024
• FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Cup: 2 December 2023 – 24 March 2024
• IBU Biathlon World Championships: 5 February – 18 February 2024
• ISU Figure Skating World Championships: 18-24 March 2024
• World Curling Federation World Championships: 26 March – 7 April 2024