J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

An uphill drive in an indoor snow centre organised by car selling site CarWow had a different spin on it to previous cars-on-indoor-snow tests.

The site organised for a pair of Audi R8 V10s to drive up the slope of The Snow Centre in Tamworth with the aim of seeing how the slightly-different powertrains perform under pressure.



The video has quickly gone up towards a million views

One of the cars used was a coupe with rear wheel drive and 570 hp / 406 lb-ft. The other car had an almost identical set up, except for a convertible body style, all-wheel drive, and 620 hp / 428 lb-ft. Both cars use a naturally-aspirated Audi 5.2-liter V10 and start with normal (non-winter) tyres.

Both cars start on regular tyres with a drag race style full throttle start …and hardly move despite wheels spinning at a rate that would quickly take them to 200mph on flat tarmac.

The cars then switch to winter tyres and both then ascend the slope without major issues, the all-wheel drive car performing a little better.

The test was designed to underline that driving style (including gentle acceleration) works better for accelerating and braking on snow as well as the importance of winter tyres and superior performance of all-wheel drive on snow.

There have been lots of cars on indoor snow slopes over the years including F1 cars on German indoor slopes and before the Beijing Olympics the Jamaican bobsleigh team pushing a Mini uphill at the Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead a PR stunt (combined with team training exercise) for the car manufacturer.

In Northern Finland a major indoor ice track operates year round for vehicle and tyre testing.

Wolf Creek now say they'll open on 4th November - next Friday.

Lake Louise (pictured above on Thursday) and Mt Norquay are expected to be the first ski areas to open for Canada's 22-23 ski seasons next Friday.

The two Banff resorts in Alberta have set 'tentative opening dates" of 4th November and the good news is both have seen heavy snowfall in recent days with more in the forecast. Accumulations of more than 30cm (a foot) were reported in the past 24 hours with more snow falling.

Three more Albertan resorts plan to open over the following week with Nakiska aiming for Saturday 5th and Marmot Basin up near Jasper and the third near-Banff area, Sunshine, aiming for Thursday 10th November the week after next. There's been lots of fresh snowfall reported her to. Sunshine reported it was grooming the fresh snow on Friday ahead opening its Strawberry trail.

Over in the east of the country resorts will start opening later this month. After reporting first snowfalls in the past week several, including largest Tremblant, have begun snowmaking ahead of the season.

Colorado's Winter Park Resort (pictured below yesterday) has announced its earliest ever opening date, next Monday 31st October – or Halloween.

"How spooky is that? Terrain will be limited, but don't let that scare you," said a spokesperson.
The resorts will open its Arrow Lift first on Monday with the Gemini and Spirit lifts also running. Along with ski runs the resort's Sorensen Park will be open with a terrain park.

It joins already open Arapahoe Basin and opening today (Friday 28th) Keystone, which says it will have a 2 mile long run open from the get go.

A Basin itself will open their second run, Ramrod, this Saturday, but stress there's still no beginner skiing or riding available.

The early openings follow a week of cold and snowy weather on mountains across Western North America following a mostly hot summer and early Autumn before then.

Dozens more US ski areas hope to open over the next four weeks ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday long weekend.
However a fourth Colorado area, Loveland, which has been snowmaking since the end of September in cold weather windows in the middle of the night and had said it hoped to open this week now says it won't be able to do so yet.

"Loveland has received 16" in the past week, the snowguns are going and the snowcats are pushing snow but unfortunately, we still have more snow to make on the bottom section of Homerun and at the base area of Chet's Dream. Loveland Ski Area will not open this week. Loveland is very optimistic that we'll open sometime next week," a spokesman said.

Sadly, nine of the 12 planned FIS World Cup season opening competitions planned in Europe over the final weekends of October and start of November have had to be cancelled due to snow or weather conditions.

The first World Cup freeskiing events took place on Friday 22nd at Chur in Switzerland (above) on snow brought in from the occasion and the Alpine Skiing World Cup Tour successfully started on Sunday at its traditional opening venue of Solden with the men's first GS race won by Switzerland's Marco Odermatt. The Women's race on Saturday had to be cancelled though due to poor visibility and warm temperatures.

Sadly though, a much heralded new start to the Alpine Speed Racing Circuit with a new cross-border course (the world's first) from the formerly year-round ski destination of Zermatt to Cervinia in Italy have had to be cancelled. Two women's and two men's races had been planned over the next two weekends but organisers say that despite this being the highest and they'd hoped most snowsure race course in the world, two days of rainfall caused too much damage to the course, and forecast warm temperatures continuing into November, meant the races had to be cancelled.

"We're already starting to prepare to run the races in 2023" they said.

Similarly the planned start of the World Cup SnowboardX and SkiX tours at Les 2 Alpes in France with four competitions (two men's, two women's) over the same upcoming weekends have been cancelled de to inadequate sow cover on the glacier there.

A major storm has brought up to a foot (30cm) of fresh snowfall to Western North America, in some cases more than was forecast.

Although it was Colorado where the 22-23 ski season kicked off on Sunday, heavier snowfall was reported further north in Utah, Wyoming and Montana and over the Canadian border in BC and Alberta, the province where Canada's season will most likely begin in just over a week's time at Lake Louise.

The snowfall was widespread, with West Coast ski centres in California's Sierra Nevada where a couple of inches of snowfall were reported, the first of the autumn/fall.

The storm, which also brought strong winds, with gusts of upto 90mph reported, at times, followed a week when the Western US had had a heatwave with temperatures upto 15 degrees above the average for the time of year, with temperatures dropping back tens of degrees to the 40s Fahrenheit and colder in the mountains.

Among the big winners was Alta in Utah which reported 25 inches (62cm) of snowfall, a little more than the average for all of October there. Nearby solitude was another big winner. Big Sky in Montana (pictured top yesterday) reported 17 inches (42cm) of snowfall on Sunday and then the same total as Alta, 25", by yesterday evening.

Many resorts in inland BC and Alberta posted images of a healthy snow covering too.

Colorado got some snowfall but not so much as further north. Along with Arapahoe Basin, Keystone and Loveland have been snowmaking through October and hope to open soon.

Two Colorado ski areas have skiers on the slopes this weekend – one the general public – the other just race teams training.

Copper Mountain opened Saturday and had members of the US ski squad on its slopes for pre-season training (pictured) while Arapahoe Basin opens to the general skiing public on Sunday.

Three ski areas in the Midwest already opened small areas last week, but Arapahoe Basin and Copper are the first to open full length runs.

Both have been snowmaking at night all month and have been boosted by natural snowfall that's being reported on ski slopes across Western North America this weekend after a mostly dry October.

Arapahoe Basin will open with one lift, the Black Mountain Express operating and one run, High Noon, open initially. They say the available terrain is not suitable for beginners and that lift tickets must be purchased online in advance.

Arapahoe Basin will give the first 50 people in the lift line today "Legendary for a Reason" A-Basin duct tape to get their season started!

With glacier ski areas Les 2 Alpes and Tignes both deciding to postpone opening this October, its looking like Val Thorens might be the first resort to open for the season in France this autumn.

Europe's highest altitude resort will open for its 50th full season with its Grande Première opening festival in four weeks' time on November 19th and 20th.

The event will see a test village operating at Place Caron with all the latest equipment to test from more than fifty major brands. There'll also be activities organised throughout the weekend and a fun area (mini snowpark..), Live DJ, quizzes, a Raclette Party followed by a fireworks display on the Saturday.

Although a dozen glacier ski areas have opened in Austria, Italy and Switzerland already, Les 2 Alpes and Tignes both say that although they've had some snowfall, they've not had enough to open their glaciers as planned.

Tignes, which used to open every day of the year, then at least every month of the year and until recently always by late September, says it will open as soon as it has enough snowcover – and there's about a foot of snowfall forecast this weekend – so it may still open this month. However its marketing is now focussed on its main season start on 26th November.

Les 2 Alpes though has given up on its planned three week late-October – early-November opening and says it will offer activities like mountain biking instead and now open for the season on 3rd December.