J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

A new €26m gondola due to open this winter at Serre Chevalier ski area will do the usual job of a new lift – increasing capacity, comfort and speed of ascent over its predecessors – but unusually the resort is much keener to talk about its environmental benefits and future proofing for climate change than it is the tech spec of its shiny new Pontillas gondola lift.

While most resorts are spending more and more on snowmaking to try to pile up snow to build bases when it's cold enough, Serre Chevalier is taking a different approach and all but giving up on that approach. Instead they're proudly announcing they've cut back on snowmaking by 20% in the last two years and say they new lift will enable them to cut back further.

The idea is that the lift will ascend to a new beginners area at the top station, so that when there's no snow at the base in early or late season beginners can just take the lift up to where it is. Similarly no piling on the snow overnight from machines in autumn or spring to keep a run down to resort open for everyone else, once the snow I gone there's now the gondola to ride the last section back down on.

The two old lifts the new gondola replaces are not going in landfill either with Serre Chevalier working with a specialist environmental company to salvage and recycle as much as they can, including both renovation and repair jobs around the resort and providing spare parts to other ski resorts using the same model of lift. The number of support towers is down from 31 to 18 with 375 tonnes of scrap steel gone for recycling.

Serre Chevalier has been working to cut its environmental impact for many years now, pioneering solar, wind and hydro power on site to generate green energy while working in many ways to adapt its offer for the impact of climate change.

Australia's warmer-than-we'd-like latter half of its 2023 season has had a bit of good news with up to 20cm of snowfall reported in the last 24 hours.

The wintery weather was accompanied by a fresh temperature drop to -5C overnight, allowing for snowmaking systems to fire up too.

The snowfall was heavier than expected and Mt Buller says that as a result it swill be staying open longer than planned, to a week on Sunday, September 17th.
Mt Hotham reported they're increasingly confident of making their target closure date of 1st October.

"This snow and the cold temperatures will consolidate the terrain we have on offer, which consists of good beginner to intermediate terrain – as spring is typically quieter on the slopes it's a really good time for families and newer snow goers to visit. Hotham is working hard to keep the current terrain offering open through to the scheduled closing date of Oct 1, with snow making efforts in these areas continuing when conditions allow," said Emily Smith, Hotham Marketing Manager.

After some good early-season snowfalls in June, Australia had seen temperatures above average through July and August and two area, Selwyn Resort and Mt Baw Baw, announced last week they were forced to end their ski seasons.

However most of the larger ski areas have been able to keep most of their terrain open all season and at one point in July, Perisher, pictured top today and expected to stay open into October, had the most terrain open in the world.

Ski areas around Banff in the Canadian Rockies are the latest North American ski resorts to report fresh snowfall in the final weeks of summer.

There are currently no ski areas open for skiing or boarding in North America, other than the indoor Big SNOW centre in New Jersey, but late summer light snowfall has been reported over the past few weeks on high slopes in Oregon and Utah in the Western US and New Hampshire in the East.

The latest snowfall is believed to be the first of the 23-24 pre-season in Canada and has turned the slopes briefly white at Sunshine (pictured below) and Lake Louise (pictured above) ski areas, both usually among the first to open in the country in two months' time at the start of November.

US ski areas hope to start opening in the Midwest and at resorts high in the Colorado Rockies next month if conditions allow with snowmaking likely to get underway later this month.

While all ski resorts are now strongly promoting their pro-environmental actions, the resort of Morzine appears to be going the extra mile with local businesses getting together to form a non-profit group dedicating to looking at ways to get active to fight climate change, calling it Montagne Verte.

Among numerous initiatives they've created The AlpinExpress Pass which gives skiers and snowboarders arriving by train up to 10% off Morzine-Les Gets ski passes, ski hire, transfers, accommodation, and eating out with its wide range of partners.

Morzine is a 40 minute drive from Cluses and Thonon-les-Bains while Avoriaz is an hour's drive from both (the closest stations). Private transfers from these stations can also be booked with local transfer companies who are AlpinExpress partners.

Picking rail travel instead of flying and/or driving, uses around 66-80 percent less carbon.

In addition, to help guests make savvy choices, Morzine-Avoriaz has also created the GO MORZINE AVORIAZ App. This platform allows travellers to see different ways to reach the resort – the fastest, the most cost effective, and the lowest carbon footprint.

The App also means holidaymakers can plan, book and pay for their journey in one go, from anywhere in the world, and easily select the most environmentally-favourable option.

Utah's ski areas have reported their first snowfall of meteorological autumn ahead of the 23-24 ski season.

Alta Ski Area (which posted the pictured below) posted, "We like our summers short and our winters long—today we received our first snowfall of the 2023–24 season," noting it was 74 days until the centre is due to open for its new ski season.

Last winter was one for the record books with the resort recording over 900 inches (nearly 23 metres) of snowfall.

Snowbird, which received 800 inches of snowfall last season, also posted images of the small snowfall on high slopes (including the image above), as did Solitude which noted it was less than four months since it last had a snowfall.
Currently Brian Head in southern Utah has set the earliest planned season opening date in the state of 10th November, now just over two months away.

Fingers crossed then! Do you know if they are doing the snow farming thing and storing snow to spread on the course near the race days (is that the snow depots you mention?) or just relying on natural snow/cold enough for snowmaking by November?

Vail Resorts have announced that they're commencing "…a multi-year investment in the guest experience, funded by the CHF 110 million (£98m) capital that was invested as a part of the purchase of the company's majority stake of Switzerland's Andermatt-Sedrun-Disentis ski area.

For the upcoming 2023/24 winter season the spending is going on upgrades and expansions to the Sedrun area, including the resort's snowmaking capabilities, expansion of the Valtgeva children's and family area, a new family restaurant Valtgeva, and a new (secured, not groomed) "yellow" slope on Schneehüenerstock.

Plans for the future include new lifts and the further expansion of artificial snowmaking, Vail Resorts say.

Vail Resorts' took a majority stake in the SkiArena Andermatt-Sedrun in 2022, its first European purchase to add to its 40+ ski areas which are mostly in the US but also include three Australian resorts and Canada's Whistler Blackcomb.

Andermatt-Sedrun had previously benefitted from a huge investment by the previous owner, Egyptian billionaire Samih Sawiris who had already upgraded most of the lifts to the state of the art models and made many other improvements to make Andermatt-Sedrun a world class destination.

For Vail Resorts they hope that Andermatt-Sedrun and the neighbouring Disentis ski area makes their Epic Pass product, a multi-resort season-ticket more appealing to European buyers.

For a flat fee holders get unlimited access to Andermatt-Sedrun-Disentis and limited access (five consecutive days) to Verbier 4 Vallées in Switzerland, Les 3 Vallées in France (seven consecutive days), Ski Arlberg in Austria (three consecutive days) and Skirama Dolomiti in Italy (seven consecutive days). For free lift use in Ski Arlberg and Verbier holders are also required to book overnight stays at resort lodging.

Epic Pass holders offers unlimited, unrestricted access to Vail's 37 resorts in North America, including many well-known names (Vail Mountain itself, Breckenridge, Heavenly, Park City Mountain Resort. Here the high price of regular lift passes often makes the Epic Pass better value after just a week's stay. There's also well as limited access to Hakaba Valley and Rusutsu in Japan.

So if you are planning multiple trips this winter to resorts on the Epic Pass it could be worth buying.

The only ski area in Portugal, Serra da Estrela, has posted images of its buildings and ski slopes turned white at the start of September.

However the centre stressed that this wasn't snowfall but a freak heavy hail storm, giving a similar impression.

Located at the country's highest mainland point, east of capital Lisbon and close to the Spanish border, Serra da Estrela manages a full ski season most years, sometimes opening in November and remaining open into May.

There are about 6km of slopes with three lifts, including a chairlift, serving a 150 metre vertical upto 1997m.

The Iberian peninsula has had over a week of weather extremes following exceptionally hot temperatures in July and for most of August with severe storms hitting Mediterranean beach resorts and the first snowfall (not hail) spotted on high slopes in the Pyrenees.