J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

Australian ski areas are celebrating after long-awaited snowfall arrived over the past 24 hours.

The falls aren't huge so fall but appear to signal a change in the weather with more forecast next week. In Victoria there was 10cm of fresh snowfall for Hotham and 5cm at Falls Creek.

"This snowfall shows how things can change with the weather and offers insight into next week's forecast of snow – conditions can and do change and today's snowfall is a testament to that and a promising sign of things to come," said Betony Pitcher, Marketing Manager at Falls Creek Ski Lifts.

It has been an up and down season with little snow around for opening at the start of June, then a series of good snowfalls built bases and allowed several centres to fully open from kid June through to mid-July, but then above average temperatures over the past month set things back again.

Selwyn Ski area had had to close all slopes for lack of snow, Mt Baw Baw had very little left and other centres had seen snow cover and open terrain diminish.

"It's great to see the snow return to the mountain" said Emily Smith, Marketing Manager at Hotham, adding, "A wintry blast delivered 10cm this morning and the village is buzzing. With more snow in the forecast over the next couple of weeks we're looking forward to some great August skiing"

At Perisher, which is still posting the deepest base in the southern hemisphere at 1.3m after those earlier snowfalls, and the second most terrain open (about 50km) in the world too, Olivia Mason, Marketing Coordinator, commented,

"There's a lot of happy faces here at Perisher today and the snow dances have paid off! We've had 5cm of snow so far with steady snowfall throughout the day with more in the forecast."

Loveland ski area, one of the world's highest, located in Colorado, USA, has set its "start of snowmaking for next season" clock going on its website at: https://skiloveland.com/

The resort joins in an annual battle to be the first in the US to open each fall, and aims to start snowmaking at the end of September, so long as it's cold enough.

Other ski areas nearby including Arapahoe Basin and Keystone usually begin snowmaking around the same time. Last year Arapahoe Basin opened on the 23rd October and Keystone opened on the 28th but Loveland didn't open until early November.

However recent years have seen ski areas in the Midwest manage to open for the season first in North America, using snowmaking systems to create small terrain parks and snow-play areas in early-mid October.

One ski area is currently still open in North America, Timberline in Oregon, after Mammoth Mountain ended its 22-23 season after 9 months last weekend. Mammoth says it plans to open for its 23-24 season in three month's on November 10th.

There's been further snowfall on high peaks and glaciers in the Alps as the unsettled weather continues.

Germany's Zugspitze Glacier, the country's highest ski area, was the only one to measure how much had fallen, reporting a 10cm accumulation overnight (pictured above).

Austria's Hintertux glacier, one of four (along with Italy's Passo Stelvio and Switzerland's Saas Fee and Cervinia/Zermatt) that are currently open to skiers reported temperatures at -7C at 3250m, the top of its slopes.

French ski areas Avoriaz and Les Arcs (the latter pictured below) were among those publishing pictures of snowfall up high on their slopes, saying it's a "cold snap before the hot weather returns).

The picture in August 2023 is, so far, much better than 12 months ago when only Hintertux was managing to open this time last year with the other centres closed due to too little snow left on their glacial ice.

Meanwhile further north in Finnish Lapland Levi and Ruka reported its just 60 days until they expect to open for their 23-24 seasons on 6th October thanks to snow saved from last year being recycled using snowfarming techniques.

A planning application for a major new hotel and spa located next to Hillend Ski Centre in Edinburgh has been submitted.

Landscape Hotels Ltd have submitted the application to build a hotel which will include "38 luxury eco-suites, individually set in the landscape and 102 traditional hotel rooms within a main hub including a presidential suite" next to the Midlothian Snowsports Centre which is itself currently in the middle of a multi-year multi-million-pound revamp into 'Destination Hillend' adding more attractions to the dry slopes such as zipwires and a mountain coaster.

Landscape Hotels' describe their plans lodged with Midlothian Council as a, "high-quality, sustainable hotel development" which will also include restaurants, bar, a spa, a conference centre and leisure facilities.

The company says that the "low carbon" hotel will use "a timber frame structure from, wherever possible, locally sourced sustainably sourced timber and renewable energy in the form of Solar PV's will be used extensively. Air Source heat pumps will be used throughout. The use of timber frame cross laminated timber creates a highly air-tight building … greywater harvesting: significant investment into landscaping biodiversity and natural sustainable drainage solutions."

Hillend is one of the world's longest established ski areas, first created in the 1960s, as well as one of the largest. It has two 400 metre main slopes, served by a chairlift, a recently added 130 metre terrain park and two nursery slopes.

Tignes has given up on its glacier opening in Autumn, announcing it does not intend to open before 25th November this year.

The French resort used to open its ski lifts 365 days a year, weather permitting, then moved to a model when it opened from September to May then for summer skiing from June to August, so that it could say it was open for skiing every month of the year.

However, even without pandemic closures, climate change had been impacting Autumn glacier cover, and Tignes was increasingly missing its planned September opening due to lack of snow, or was only able to open extremely limited terrain. Last year, after hardly managing to open for summer skiing, it missed October too.

This summer it did open for five weeks of summer skiing in June and July as planned, not yet following Les 2 Alpes' decision to switch its summer ski season from June to August to May – June. The two resorts and Val d'Isere are the only French areas still offering brief summer ski seasons.

A 2011 report, at which time Tignes stayed open to early September and closed for just a few weeks each autumn before re-opening for an over 7 month ski season, noted that at that point the Grand Motte glacier where summer and autumn skiing takes place had lost 30% of its mass over the previous four decades. It is thought the rate of thaw has since accelerated.

The decision not to open until the end of November appears to mean that Tignes will no longer have the longest season in France, even though it id expected to stay open for five months to May and if summer skiing continues in 2024, still be open for a total of more than 6 months. However Les 2 Alpes managed over 7 months opening in 22-23 including its 2 months of summer (or more accurately now 'late spring') skiing.

Retailer Ellis Brigham Mountain Sports have announced they'll be staging a special event this autumn, aimed at those who find that they experience negative emotions, such as anxiety or fear, sometimes overwhelming them on the ski slope.

The sessions, led by "the UK's leading Personal Coach for Anxious Skiers" Louise Pode alongside experienced ski instructor Rob Britton, will aim to show participants how to overcome fear, suggesting techniques to change your mindset and create the right environment for your skiing to thrive in.

Louise has over 25 years' coaching experience and Rob is a Carte Pro Ski Instructor with New Generation Ski School where he has developed a speciality in enabling anxious skiers to prosper on the slopes.

The sessions, priced at £15 and planned for Ellis Brigham's Covent Garden store on Tuesday 14th November, then the next day at their Deansgate, Manchester branch, aim to help participants to understand what's behind their anxiety, then change their mindset and taking control as well as build a tool kit of coping strategies and explore ways to create the right environment for their skiing to thrive in.

The Italian ski resort Cervinia has announced, "the beginning of a new era: skiing and snowboarding all year round, without interruptions."

Currently the centre offers glacier skiing for around nine months of the year in total, with 4-8 week breaks in late spring and early autumn.

The resort is crediting the completion of the new Matterhorn Alpine Crossing, which opened just over a month ago, and now provides a year-round connection between Cervinia and Zermatt via gondola and cable car lifts, including access to the year-round ski area ski area.

For much of the year, from mid-spring to mid-autumn, the glacier skiing that's accessed from Cervinia is just on the Swiss side of the border above neighbouring Zermatt. This area already aims to open year-round, however until now lift-access from the Italian side has closed for a period in May-June and again in September-October.

From this Autumn's re-opening however, the plan is to just remain open every day from the Italian side too, weather permitting,

"Immediately after the summer break the countdown to the never-ending winter will begin: opening in mid-October, skiing until 5 May 2024, reopening the following day, without even realizing of the end of a season," Carvinia confirmed.

Well it all sounds completely above board to me... And top value...