J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

The annual Ski & Golf World Cup in Salzburgerland, Austria is coming up in May.

The contest sees well known Austrian and international skiers and golfers compete in a golfing competition at Zell am See, then a giant slalom on the slopes of the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier above Kaprun, which is due to stay open to the end of May.

In recent years competitors have included Kalle Palander, Thomas Sykora, Björn Einar Romören, Reinfried Herbst and Werner Franz include Bode Miller.

But the competition is open to all members of golf and ski clubs, divided into categories including juniors, masters, mixed pairs (1 male and 1 female) and everyone else, as well as teams of 4 or 5 and the professional level. Golfers must have a handicap of at least -18, or better.

This year's event will take place from Saturday, May 11th, starting with the giant slalom race at the Kitzsteinhorn with the golf competition on the following days.

Points (and eventually prizes) are calculated on ski race times combined with two rounds of golf competition scores.

Utah's Solitude ski area has broken both its all-time seasonal snowfall record, receiving more than 800"/20m of snowfall, and posted its longest ever season, beating its previous record 161 days and planning to stay open through to the latter half of May.

Owners the Alterra Group have also now advised that a previously announced new quad chairlift for the Solitude to be built this summer and open for winter 23-24 will instead now be a larger 6-seat chairlift.

"At Solitude, the previously announced Eagle Express replacement will now be a Doppelmayr six pack rather than a high speed quad. Solitude and the entire Wasatch have seen an extremely busy winter with plentiful snowfall and a growing Ikon passholder base in Utah" and Alterra spokesperson said.

Ikon is Alterra's multi-resort season pass set up as a competitor to Vail Resorts' Epic Pass five years ago. The Alterra Group now own 16 of their own resorts and the Ikon Pass is valid at more than 50 areas worldwide.

The new Solitude lift is one of half a dozen new lifts the group plans for the 2023/24 ski season as part of a of $400 million spent on resort infrastructure improvements.

More big-name ski areas including St Anton and Verbier, ended their 22-23 ski season at the weekend.

But the topsy-turvy season for weather has seen April become one of the snowiest of the past six months, at leas above around 2,000m altitude.

The result is reported to be great (very) late snow conditions on high slopes and glaciers with temperatures staying close to freezing above 2000-2500m. Many have reported 5-25cm of fresh snowfall almost daily for weeks. There have though been issues with hill fog and gales at times.

About 40 ski areas remain open for the final week of April, most of them staying open at least to May 1st and a dozen or so planning to stay open throughout next month.

Austria's Kaunertal Glacier, pictured above this morning, is open for another four weeks.

It's believed that nearly 100 ski areas in at least 15 countries will stay open at least to Monday, May 1st ("May Day") this year.

Austria, Norway, Switzerland and the US are likely to have the most centres open, with at least 10 each.

However three Austrian areas, Ischgl, Obergurgl and Obertauern and at least two Swiss (Andermatt and Samnaun) and US (Sugarloaf and the country's largest, Park City), ski areas will close on May Day itself.

The US will have the most areas open in May, around 20, many extending their seasons due to the exceptional snowfall in the west of the country this season. California, Colorado and Utah all have at least four centres open into May each. Several centres including Arapahoe Basin in Colorado, Mammoth and The Palisades in California and Timberline in Oregon say they plan to stay open to June, July or later this year.

Besides Austria and Norway, ski areas in Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland in Europe will stay open into May.

In Asia ski areas in at least China, Japan and Turkey will stay open into May.

Besides the US resorts in North America, at least six centres will stay open in Canada into May although three of these, Mt Norquay, Grouse Mountain and Marmot Basin (pictured top) are expected to close on May day, leaving lake Louise open one more week and Sunshine and Whistler to the 22nd.

The southern hemisphere's 2023 ski season is expected to begin in early June.

The year-round Hintertux glacier in the Austrian Tirol is giving anyone who fancies it the chance to test drive a 600 hp snowcat.

The experience is offered from of charge to those who have a lift pass and take the resort's Gletscherbus 3 lift up their snow groomer test area high up at 3,250 metres above sea level.

"Finally you get to control a 600 hp snow groomer yourself," a Hintertux spokesperson said, adding, "Participants will receive individual training on turning manoeuvrers so that you can feel the interplay of power and technology on snow."

Participants must have a driving license B and are advised to wear sturdy shoes and apply-sun protection. The sessions will take place on Thursday 27th April and places are offered on a first-come, first-served basis with no reservation required.

At the end there is an opportunity to take a nice souvenir photo of the snowcat drive.

Utah's governor Spencer Cox has declared a state of emergency warning that melting snow is likely to cause months of flooding in the state.

The snowpack on Utah's mountains is currently averaging 200% the norm and several ski areas including Alta and Snowbird have posted more than 800" (20 metres) of snowfall through the season, their all-time record levels, with the snow still lying up to five metres deep.

Under a state of emergency, Utah can access funds from its disaster recovery account and be able to request additional funding from federal and other states' agencies. Local officials are reported to have issued evacuation orders for a small number of homes in communities thought to be in particular danger of serious flooding as temperatures rise.

Along with potentially months of flooding, there are warnings of possible avalanches, landslides, mudslides and rockslides.

More than a million sandbags have been used by Utah's Division of Emergency Management to prepare for expected flooding and federal employees from all departments have been offered time off in order to help fill more sandbags.

More Utah ski areas have announced they're staying open into May, including Brighton, Snowbird, Solitude and America's largest ski area, Park City.

The record snowfall fits both with climate change deniers arguments that there's still lots of snow and climate scientists' warnings of more extreme weather events.

Andorra's Pal Arinsal ski area, which this winter became part of Andorra and the Pyrenees' largest ski area, Grandvalira, has reported fewer skiers, due primarily to periods of poor snow cover, but income up as those visiting each spent more on average.

Describing the season as "unusual and complicated" the ski area posted a total of 430,516 ski days, down 12% from the previous winter. .

The resort blamed a general lack of precipitation in the Pyrenees this winter, which impacted Easter operations for the drop in numbers. Pal received 176cm of snowfall, half that of last winter, while Arinsal received 276cm 43% less than in 21-22.

In a detailed report, the resort reported it switched to snowmaking converting 278,581 m3 of water to snow, to keep 75% of the ski area open with 7,667 hours of snowmaking undertaken.

Despite the snowfall challenges, revenue was up as the resort reported an average 19% increase in spending per visitor.

The new Nord pass, resulting from joining Grandvalira, proved popular, which offered full access to the Pal Arinsal and Arcalis ski areas, plus four days in Grandvalira.

In terms of skier origin, the resort reported 55% from Spain, 19% from Andorra and growth in the UK market, back up to 16% of all customers.

Tignes, one of three remaining summer ski destinations in France, says it will aim to open for summer skiing and boarding from 17th June to 23rd July, 2023.

The resort is one of the last still open for winter 22-23 in the Alps and will stay open to May 6th. It is also posting the deepest snowpack in Europe, lying 4.5 metres (15 feet) deep on is glacier with more late season snowfall forecast over the coming week.

The five week season target is one of the shortest yet for the centre which was formerly open for snowsports 365 days a year and most recently aimed to open at least one day every month of the year.

Last summer however it hardly managed to open for summer skiing due to the exceptional spring and summer heat rapidly thawing away glacier snow cover. This year, so far, the snow is lying much deeper and temperatures have been cooler than in 2022.

If fully open Tignes has 20 km of glacier runs between 3,456 m and 2,724 m and also offers cross-country skiing on the Grande Motte glacier.

Of the other French glacier areas Val d'Isere has announced a 4 week summer ski season from 10 June to 7 July on their Pisaillas glacier.

Les 2 Alpes had adjusted its summer ski season to reflect changing weather, moving it forward to run from 1st May then throughout June, closing before temperatures get really hot.