J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

A group of British school children and their teachers, who had been skiing by Loon Mountain in New Hampshire, have had their stay in the US extended after the motel where they were staying apparently accidentally destroyed all but one of their 42 passports.

The children, from Barr Beacon School in Walsall, West Midlands, were staying at Kancamagus Lodge in the town of Lincoln below the ski area.

The group has now travelled to New York to the British Embassy to apply for emergency documentation to allow them to travel home.

"The embassy staff commented on how well our children have conducted themselves. The parents have all been very supportive and I am very proud of my staff for managing this very challenging situation on the ground," Barr Beacon head Kate Hibbs told US media.

The group is reported to have been sightseeing as part of their unexpected trip to New York and are currently expected to fly home on Wednesday with new travel documentation.

The main Swiss destination ski resorts are reported to have bounced back after some faced snow-shortage issues at the start of the years.

Swissinfo reports the Franco-Swiss Portes du Soleil ski area says it is enjoyed record business in February after having limited terrain open in the first half of January. Although February was largely dry and the latter half warm, most resorts have kept most of their terrain open and say the sunshine helped boost visitor numbers.

Most medium to large centres say that business since mid-January has more than made up for lower-than-usual visitors and revenue over Christmas and New Year. Whether 22-23 ends up an above or below average winter now depends on how March plays out.

However the warm weather has exacerbated the problem that smaller, lower altitude ski centres in Switzerland and around the world have been facing, with dozens closing in February as the warm weather melted away again what snow cover they had. Some only opened in mid-January and were forced to closed again after only a 4-6 week ski season, they're reporting 30-60% falls in business.

One small ski resort covered by Swissinfo described the situation as "a real challenge" with money needed to invest in new lifts and modern snowmaking as equipment ages, but then with the risk that the machinery stands idle if it is too warm for them to work.

The French ski resort of Formiguères, located in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France, close to the border with Andorra, is celebrating 50 years since it first started operating in1973, on Thursday March 2nd.

A day of birthday festivities ais planned, including the announcement of the winner of a prize draw which will see someone win a 50 year ski pass, valid up to the resort's centenary and with an estimated value of €27,500. The pass will be valid in the TRIO Pyrénées resorts which also include Porté-Puymorens and Cambre d'Aze as well as Formiguères.

Celebrations for the locals, known as the 'Formiguérois' and guests alike are planned to begin at 2pm on Thursday with a children's village, a farmers' market, and music from the Bande de Limos brass band. Then at 5pm mulled wine and hot chocolate will be offered on the slopes, hosted by DJ Mag3nta. At 8pm there'll be a "50 years of skiing" retrospective show on the slopes, fireworks, a meal and an evening at the Calmazeille restaurant.

Ski areas in the Pyrenees are among the first in mainland Europe to report snowfall in the last fortnight.
A front moving north from the Mediterranean has brough cold temperatures and snowfall to ski slopes in Andorra, France and Spain.

Ski areas on the Spanish side of the mountains posted 5cm accumulations on Thursday and another 10-15cm this morning, on the French side some resorts are posting up to 40cm of fresh up high from the storm.

After weeks of similar conditions to the Alps, with temperatures getting up to double figures in the afternoons at resort bases, we're now back to closer to freezing at low levels and double-digits below freezing on higher slopes.

More snow showers are continuing low temperatures are expected through the coming week and into the start of March and meteorological springtime.

Most of the main destination resorts in the Pyrenees had survived the recent warm temperatures with most of their terrain open, but base depths were increasingly thin at low levels, so the new snowfall and cold temperatures are welcome as they look to sustain cover for the final months of the 22-23 season.

There has been unexpected heavy summer snowfall in New Zealand.

Mt Hutt (pictured today) says its is postponing its 'summer' opening, planned for this weekend, until Sunday, while ice rime is removed from lifts and hiking and biking trails checked.

Snowfall is not that unusual at any time of year in New Zealand's mountains, but this fall is heavier than normal for February.

It followes snowfalls reported last week on Australian ski slopes and in the Andes of South America.

New Zealand ski areas usually start to open in just over three months' time, in June, with Mt Hutt usually one of the first to open.

In a world where it seems to best freestyle skiers and snowboarders are getting to be younger and younger teenagers, there's some hope for older snow sports competitors with the news that 42-year-old Austrian snowboarder Andreas Prommegger has become, it's believed, the oldest world champion in snow sports history.

Prommegger took gold in the parallel slalom on Tuesday at the World Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding Championships currently taking place in Bakuriani, Georgia.

Speaking afterwards Prommegger, who has been on the World Cup circuit for more than 26 years, said he always believed he could win, but hadn't expected to.

The previous oldest winner was another Austrian, Claudia Riegler, who won the 2015 World parallel giant slalom age 41.

Heavy snowfall has returned to Western Canada with Lake Louise posting half a metre (nearly two feet) of fresh snowfall in the past 48 hours.

Other resorts in Alberta and BC are reporting powder conditions too, as are resorts in US states including Washington, Montana and Wyoming south of the border. 24 hour totals include 25cm for Fernie in BC, 20cm at Norquay near Banff and 33cm at Alpental in Washington Stat.

Showdown ski area in Montana (pictured) says it has had 4 feet (1.2 metres) of snowfall in 72 hours, Grand Targhee 32" (95cm).

BC has had high avalanche danger for most of this year and agencies are warning the risk is expected to remain high for the rest of the season due to a complex mix of weather and snow factors. Sadly two more people were killed by an avalanche skiing in the back country near Kicking Horse in BC at the weekend.

Sweden's famous "spring skiing capital" of Riksgränsen will open for its 2023 season this coming Friday, February 24th.

Riksgränsen is one of half-a-dozen ski areas in the northern hemisphere that don't open until spring, or thereabouts, in its case partly because it is too dark, up at its northerly latitude 200km within the Arctic circle, until later in the year. It's sister resort of Bjorkliden opened in mid February.

Riksgränsen is thought to be the only ski area that has continued to operate throughout the pandemic lockdowns of the past three years. It stayed open through the first lockdown in spring 2020 arguing that it had its own medical facilities to cope with any covid outbreak.

Although popularly believed to be the world's most northerly ski resort, there are in fact a number of smaller, more northerly centres above it on the map, as well as a small ski lift for locals on the Svalbard Islands.

The ski season at Riksgränsen usually lasts for about three months until well into May and then it famously reopened for sell-out Midsummer ski weekends around June 21st each year, however these have not happened in recent years either due to inadequate snow cover or to minimise pandemic risk.