J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

Sweden, home to Scandinavia's largest ski centre at Åre, is expected to be the next country to open for the 2022-23 ski season, this coming weekend.

The country's Kåbdalis and Idre Fjäll ski centres are expected to open, using snow farming – recycling snow saved from last winter and stored under cover through the summer – to create ski runs.

The two centres will take the Scandinavian total number of snow ski areas open to five, with two ski areas in Finland, Levi and Ruka, open for a fortnight already, thanks to snow farming there too and the region's highest glacier slopes at Galdhopiggen in Norway also still open at the end of its on-off spring-summer-autumn 2022 season.

Over the past few years it has become possible to ski year round in Scandinavian capitals with first the SNO indoor snow centre opening near Oslo, one on the world's largest, in early 2020, then a large dry slope opening in Stockholm last month, created by the same Italian company, Neveplast, that created the dry slope on the power plant in Copenhagen.

The 22-23 ski season is underway in North America with not a big name resort in Colorado – where snowmaking has been underway for nearly three weeks, but two small centres in the Midwest, where snowmaking has been underway for less than three days.

Wild Mountain in Minnesota claimed first on the continent to open at noon yesterday. It had also been the first in North America two years ago in October 2020. Andes Tower Hills, another small Minnesota ski area, had earlier said it would open at 1pm and opened an hour later.

Both areas have only small amounts of snow cover so far, probably less than what's to be had in the continent's only indoor snow centre, Big Snow, in New Jersey.

"Keep in mind that we've only had two nights of snowmaking, so our terrain will be extremely limited. We'll be opening with the Front Stage trail serviced by the Front Stage rope tow. We'll have 4-6 terrain park features available as well." Wild Mountain posted on social media.

October 17th matches Wild Mountain's second earliest ever opening date after the centre opened on October 7th in 2012.

The Midwest has actually had the biggest natural snowfalls reported in North America in October so far, with up to 12 inches (30cm) of snowfall on Monday/Tuesday in the Upper peninsular region around Michigan. However no ski areas appear to have opened there yet and the two that have opened have no snow other than the machine made stuff, having taken advantage of low temperatures to fire up their guns.

Ski areas in Colorado, meanwhile, continue to make snow during cold-weather windows in the middle of the night. Several, including Arapahoe Basin and Loveland which usually open in late October ot early November, appear to have laid out quite sizable snow areas according to posted images, but there has been no announcement on opening dates yet.

Plans for a new ski show in London next October 2023 have been announced.

The show will be run by Raccoon Media Group who have been organising the revived NEC ski show in Birmingham the past two years, along with outdoor sports shows in the UK and USA.

They'll work in partnership with Evening Standard Live, the latest newspaper group to be associated with a London ski show following,. Most recently, the Telegraph Group and in the1980s and 90s, the Daily Mail.

The London Snow Show will take place at Excel on 22-23rd October 2023 following the third edition of National Snow Show Birmingham which will take place at the NEC, Birmingham on 15–16th October 2023.

"The National Snow Show Birmingham has attracted more than 23,000 visitors over the last two years, increasing its floor space by over 5000sqm year-on-year. The London Snow Show will mirror the Birmingham event, covering approximately 9,000sqm and will bring a mix of retail, content and interactive features to snowsports enthusiasts in London and the surrounding counties," a statement from organisers Racoon Media says.

"There's huge demand for the show we have created hand-in-hand with the industry in Birmingham to be available to the London audience and with the successful model we have created, we are totally stoked to be able to meet that demand," said Stephen Morgan, MD at Raccoon Active Events, who added, "The introduction of National Snow Week sandwiched between the two large scale consumer events will provide strategic opportunities for the UK and international snowsports industry, press and wider stakeholders to network and continue to develop the role the UK plays, not only in its own snowsports industry but in the wider European market too."

Another group had been due to organise a revival of the Telegraph's London show, most recently named 'The London Ski & Snowboard Festival', for the past two years but cancelled each show, the 2022 show is currently officially only 'postponed' though so there could potentially still be two London shows in 2023. The Smart Group, the business trying to revive the telegraph's show last staged in 2019, but now without the Telegraph as sponsor, made this statement in May this year,

"We are pleased to have acquired a new partner who is keen to take on the organisation of the Festival for 2023. More information on the new partners and details for the London Ski & Snowboard Festival 2023 are to come."

A US ski area with 636 feet (194 metres) of vertical is to have a major lift upgrade for winter 2023-24 with the region's first high-speed six-seater chairlift installed, replacing three old lifts.

The new lift is going in at the Jackson Creek Summit area which makes up Snowriver Mountain Resort in Michigan with two other areas. It will be the first high-speed detachable lift in the Upper Peninsular area.

The new lift will be built and installed by Doppelmayr and will be named the Voyageur Express. The lift will feature 53 chairs and have a three-and-a-half-minute ride to the top travelling at 1,000 ft/min instead of the 8-10 minutes, plus stops, it took with the existing fixed grip lifts.

The new lift will replaces the Chippewa Double, Leelinaw Triple and Voyager Quad fixed-grip chairlifts. The lift's initial capacity will be 2,800 people per hour (pph) with the option to upgrade to 3,200 pph in the future should additional capacity be needed.

The Chippewa Double, Leelinaw Triple and the Voyager Quad are three of the original chairlifts from the 1960s, installed soon after founder Jack English brought skiing and riding to the U.P. back in 1959.

"The new lift will greatly enhance our guest experience at Jackson Creek Summit," stated first year GM Benjamin Bartz. "Because the new lift will be much easier for guests to load and unload, we anticipate smoother operations, meaning guests will spend more time skiing and less time sitting on a lift."

Snowriver Mountain Resort combines Big Snow Resort, Jackson Creek Summit and Black River Basin ski areas.
Black River Basin is the new name for the ski area formerly known as Blackjack and Jackson Creek Summit the ski area formerly known as Indianhead. Both were renamed along with other US ski areas that have changed their names following the Black Lives Matter movement.

"High speed lifts are a perfect fit for our Midwest ski areas," explained Charles Skinner, President, and Owner of Snowriver, Granite Peak and Lutsen Mountains. "High speed lifts transform the ski experience at our resorts from spending most of the ski day riding the chairlift or waiting in line to enjoying most of the day skiing down the hill."

The energy crisis in Europe resulting from the Ukraine War has led to concerns about high-energy using non-essential businesses like indoor snow centres being able to operate this winter.

Germany is one of the three largest operators on indoor snow centres along with The Netherlands and the UK and the country's centres have begun clarifying whether they will be able to open or have to close this winter.

Now two major German indoor snow centres, The Snow Dome in Bispingen and The Alpin-Center at Wittenburg, say they will be able to keep operating for the foreseeable future due to use of renewable energy, highly energy-efficient operating, or having a long-term energy price cap in place.

However the centre at Snowtropolis centre at Senftenberg, says it will be closed this winter.

Meanwhile the Snowdome at Bispingen confirming they have an energy price fix in place with its suppliers to 2025.

"Since we work very conservatively, a fixed electricity price is safer and more predictable for a long time than highly speculative purchases on the spot market at current prices," a spokesperson said.

The centre also says they are reaping the rewards of an upgrade to its floor cooling system 2013 which had already led to a 60 percent cut in the amount of energy used compared to before. The centre also has further efficiency plans in place which should cut energy use by another 20% this winter.

"We are now in the process of planning photovoltaics and wind energy so that we are completely self-sufficient in 2025/2026 and are not dependent on the electricity exchange or the federal government," the spokesperson continued.

The Alpin-Center at Wittenburg ski hall switched to using predominantly renewable energy generating their own power from a rooftop Photovoltaic system early in its operations and a spokesman said that decision is now really paying off. 130,000 square metres of roof space – the area of 10 football pitches - generate 10 making the centre "more or less energy self-sufficient," a spokesperson said.

They had also cut energy use by 15% during the pandemic by installing improved systems control technology to improve operating efficiency.

A new 8-seater chairlift will open this winter in the Zillertal Arena this winter as part of an ongoing run of upgrades.

The Zillertal Arena is the largest ski area around the Zillertal valley in Austria with just over 160 kilometres (100 miles) of piste with 50 lifts and a combined uplift capacity of 80,000 people every hour.

The new Kapauns 8-seater chairlift will make it quicker and easier to access the Gerlos ski area from the slopes near Zell am Ziller.

The lift replaces an old double chairlift but takes a newly extended route for greater vertical ascent in a shorter time and is equipped with weather protection hoods and heated seats.

It's the latest in a string of upgrades which will also see the Krimml X-Press renewed ahead of winter 23/24.

Sadly we've now heard Les 2 Alpes won't open its ski slopes for the end of October/start of November. They've had some snow but not enough. The Ski Cross World Cup opener has been cancelled, the Snowboard Cross postponed to the start of December.

Japan has fully opened its doors to tourists after more than two-and-a-half years of pandemic isolation, meaning international skiers can return to the country's 500+ resorts for the first time since early in winter 2019-20.

The country had allowed visitors to return in June, but only as part of organised groups, and only half a million had entered this way over the past four months, compared to more than 30 million visiting the country in 2019.

Vaccinated arrivals can now enter Japan without restrictions, unvaccinated skiers need to have a negative PCR test before traveling to the country.

For Brits Japan is one of the few leading ski nations where the currency is performing slightly worse than the pound, with the Yen reporting its lowest value since the major economic crash in the Japanese economy in the 1990s.

Long-range weather forecasters are also predicting a slightly better than average winter for skiers and snowboarders in Japan – in terms of lower temperatures and more snowfall – due to the ocean temperature in the Pacific.

Most of the country's ski centres should begin opening for the season in late November.