Messages posted by : J2SkiNews
The closure of most glacier ski areas in Europe and the rise of China as a skiing superpower, building dozens of indoor snow halls over the past decade, has created an interesting list of countries with the most ski areas currently open – if we include indoor snow ski centres. There are currently about 200 snow destinations open, about half of them conventional ski areas in the southern hemisphere and most of the rest indoor snow centres predominantly in Askia and Europe, as well as just a couple of surviving glacier summer ski centres. Looking at countries with the most snow destinations open indoors or out, after China it's the four main southern hemisphere ski nations, which of course offer full ski areas with dozens of kilometres of pistes each compared to the limited areas indoors. However the rest of the top 12 includes some unexpected countries like India, the Netherlands, the UK and Indonesia thanks to their indoor snow facilities. Indonesia's third indoor snow centre (pictured top) opened last week. Major alpine nations which used to have 5-10 glacier summer ski areas each in the 1980s and 90s no longer feature. The nations with the most ski centres open in August are. (1) China (35+ all indoors). (2) New Zealand (24+ regular ski areas and one indoor snow centre) (3) Argentina (18 regular ski areas_ (4) Chile (16 regular ski areas) (5) Australia (12 regular ski areas) (6) Netherlands (7 – indoors) (7) UK (6 – indoors) (8) Indonesia (3 – indoors) (9) Norway (2 – outdoors, 1 indoors) (10) Germany (2 – indoors) (11) India (2 indoors) (12) USA (2 – 1 indoor, 1 outdoor) Another dozen or so countries have one ski area open – most of them like Brazil, Dubai, Egypt, Lithuania and Spain, indoor ski centre although Austria has the sole glacier area left one in the Alps (Hintertux) and southern Africa's Lesotho has the only outdoor ski area open on the continent, Afriski. France also has one centre open indoors, but Les 2 Alpes, which had hoped to open in August has had to close. Major ski nations with nowhere open to the public include Switzerland (although Zermatt says it'll re-open as soon as conditions allow and Saas Fee is open to teams booked for training) and Italy (where Passo Stelvio says it will also reopen as soon as conditions allow). |
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After damaging storms hit Australian ski areas a week ago, bringing heavy rain and gales, the resorts have been seeing increasingly snowy weather since, bringing slopes back up to prime condition. Friday morning saw skiers wake to find fresh snowfall lying with up to 17cm (7 inches) reported overnight. The latest post-storm snowfall follows similar accumulations last weekend and the good news is there's now much more in the forecast for the coming week too, with 30-60cm (1-2 feet) expected for most areas. The fresh snowfall marks a reset for the final few months of Australia's 2022 ski season which has been a bumper one both in terms of snow cover and visitor numbers. The season started with the best snowfalls for over 20 years and centres were soon fully open, in several cases opening terrain where it take longer for bases to build earlier in the winter than ever before. There have also been repeat reports of ski areas selling out, particularly at peak periods, in part due to the conditions, in part due to pent-up demand as skiers can head to the slopes for the first time in three years in many cases. (Falls Creek pictured top 12 August) |
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The famous Montreux Comedy Festival will take up residence in the French ski resort of Les Gets this winter, joining the existing Altitude Comedy Festival that's staged each spring in Mayrhofen to increase the options for skiers and boarders who enjoy a bit of apres live comedy in the mountains.
The week will feature both French and English acts on separate days and Les Gets promise, "there will be something to make everyone laugh." The French-speaking performances will be on 17 and 18 January, the English-speaking 19 and 20 January. Stand-up evenings, which will be held in the Salle de la Colombière, will showcase a range of well-known comedians, with Tom Houghton and Gérémy Crédeville headlining the event. There will also be a fringe festival in venues around Les Gets. Information, programme and bookings at http://www.MontreuxComedyfaitduski.com |
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The final ski area still open for the 21-22 ski season, Timberline in Oregon, has announced it will end its 9-month opening this year on Sunday, August 21st. The resort, which operates summer skiing on the permanent Palmer Snowfield on Mt Hood has one of the world's longest ski seasons and kept operating through spring and summer this year when many of the Western North American ski centres that usually operate to late spring/early summer were forced to close earlier than usual by the hot weather. The continent's only summer-only ski area, Beartooth Basin on the Montana/Wyoming border, also opted to skip this year. Timberline is popular for race teams looking for summer training but also operates terrain parks and ski slopes open to all. It will probably only be a few months after Timberline's closure that the first North American areas open for the 22-23 season. A number of high altitude ski areas in Colorado, including Arapahoe Basin and Keystone, tend to open in late October if conditions are right. Ski areas in Alberta, California, the Midwest and Vermont have also opened in October in recent years thanks to early snowfall and/or cold weather for snowmaking. Elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere the last ski area opened in Asia, in Japan, ended the 21-22 season there one the final weekend of July. Four ski areas are open in Europe, two in the Alps and two in Scandinavia. |
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The impact of a violent storm which brought gales and flooding to Australian ski slopes on Thursday and Friday appears to have been short-lived as temperatures dropped and heavy snowfall followed in its wake. Perisher reported 15cm (6") of fresh snowfall overnight on Friday/Saturday, Falls Creeks (Pictured above on Saturday 6th August) 17cm (7"), while Mt Hotham reported 28cm (11"). Snow is expected to keep falling through Sunday and a return to the sunny conditions that have dominated the first half of the season from next week. Thursday and Friday saw a huge storm move in from the west bringing very heavy rain and violent gales. Some ski areas closed completely for a day or so, others closed exposed lifts and terrain.
The Perisher Valley recorded a huge 83.4mm of rainfall and there was some localised flooding, but it appears the fresh snowfall since has created something of a clean sheet for the weekend. |
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The unusual situation of an American company taking a majority stake in a Swiss ski lift company has been completed with the world's biggest ski resort operator Vail Resorts Inc completing its purchase of a majority stake in Andermatt Swiss Alps AG at a cost of 149 million Swiss Francs. The money means Vail Resorts now owns a 55 per cent stake in Andermatt-Sedrun Sport AG The company has not been slow to start trying to drive interest in ski holidays to Andermatt, with marketing posts on social media channels for the three Australian resorts that are among the 40 ski areas it owns or operates, most of the rest in Canada and the US, within hours of the deal completing on 3rd August. Although Vail have a number of Alpine partner resorts where their Epic Pass holders can ski for a few days or weeks in a season, Andermatt will be the first European resort to be fully integrated into the pass, which has transformed how people buy ski slope access in North America. More than half of American skiers now buy the Epic Pass or one of its competitors giving season long access to multiple resorts, rather than individual lift tickets. Vail Resorts say they will work in partnership with Andermatt Swiss Alps AG (ASA) in developing Andermatt-Sedrun and say they will be marketing it as "The Prime Alpine Destination". There are no specifics yet on how Vail's money will be spent at Andermatt-Sedrun but a media release talks of CHF 110 million of it going on, "…capital investments to enhance the guest experience including lifts, snowmaking, gastronomy, leisure offerings and infrastructure on the mountain." As of August 4th, the management of the company is the responsibility of Vail Resorts. US ski industry veteran Mike Goar, who has worked managing ski resorts in California, Colorado and Utah for more than 45 years, has been appointed Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director of Andermatt-Sedrun Sport AG.
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Arapahoe Basin, one of the world's highest altitude ski resorts in the Colorado Rockies and usually one of the first to open in North America each ski season is busy installing a fast new queue-gobbling chairlift ahead of next season. The resort, which typically opens in late October and has a seven-months-plus ski season is upgrading its old Lenawee fixed-grip triple chairlift to a new detachable six pack from Leitner-Poma. The new lift will dramatically improve A-Basin's uphill capacity, partly due to doubling the numbder of seats on each chair, partly as the ascent to the summit of the slopes from mid-mountain will be even faster. A-Basin ski area's COO Al Henceroth recently reported that the old Lenawee triple chairlift has been completely removed and a lot of the work completed on the upper station with concrete poured. Lift towers have also begun to arrive and it's hoped the new lift will be up and running for the start of the season. The old lift is being recycled and will be reinstalled at another Colorado ski area, Sunlight. |
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Australian ski areas are celebrating after a big snowfall brought deep powder conditions for the first week of August. Conditions were already good to excellent across the country's ski slopes after the snowiest start to the season in more than two decades at the start of June. Most areas were already fully open with a healthy snowpack. Now at the start of August a 20cm (8") dump reported by a number of areas including the country's largest, Perisher in New South Wales, has freshened things up nicely as we hit the midpoint of winter 2022.
The excellent conditions coming after two winters which saw most Australian areas closed by multiple lockdowns has led to bumper business for Aussie ski centres and several are struggling to cope with demand at peak times. Perisher and Thredbo have had to hold/turn back day skiers as car parking reached capacity in recent weekends and other areas including Falls Creek and even Ben Lomond in Tasmania reported similar actions had to be made at the weekend. More snowfall is forecast over the next few days. |
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