J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

Depressing indeed. It was only a few years ago they were telling me they were 'immune' from this kind of incident due to the altitude of the glacier slopes. Would put a 'star' like to say thanks for the post but we probably need an unhappy face emoji for this kind of thing...

Hintertux in Austria will be the only summer ski area left open in the Alps from this weekend after Zermatt announced it will temporarily suspend its year-round skiing provision on its glacier.

Zermatt's slopes, also accessible from Cervinia in Italy through the summer, are the highest lift-accessed in Europe and are normally open every day of the year, weather-permitting. During the pandemic they were only closed for a few months at the very start in spring 2020, but stayed open through later waves.

Zermatt's closure, from this Friday 29th July, means only one other centre is currently open in the Alps to summer skiers and boarder's, the world's other year-round ski centre of Hintertux in the Austrian Tirol. However it has been posting a rapidly thawing snowpack too, dropping most recently from 50 to 25cm in the last week having been at 2 metres a few months ago. The terrain open there has also dropped in the past week from 20 to six kilometres of runs.

Zermatt is the latest summer ski area to suspend operations after a prolonged spell of 'unprecedented' hot spring and summer weather followed a low snowfall winter. With temperatures remaining above freezing day and night at glacier level a lot of snow has melted from glaciers across the Alps exposing the ice beneath to faster thawing.

Zermatt and Cervinia are due to host new downhill races for both men and women on the final weekend of October and the first weekend of November to start the speed races of the 22-23 World cup season and the resort is keen to stress these four races are still on ad that preparation work will continue during the shut down. They also stress that slopes will reopen as soon as conditions improve.

Summer ski areas that have closed early or not opened at all include all three French areas Les 2 Alpes, Tignes and Val d'Isere, the Molltal glacier in Austria and Passo Stelvio in Italy. The former summer ski area of the Marmolada glacier in Italy also saw a partial collapse.

Elsewhere in the northern hemisphere the Fonna glacier in Norway remains open with the world's deepest reported snowpack of around 5 metres, a second Scandinavian glacier area, Galdhopiggen is due to re-open to skiers this weekend. Saas Fee is also open but is limiting access to a small part of its summer glacier area and to pre-booked race teams, not the general public, only. Timberline on Mt hood in Oregon is the only centre open to the public in North America and expects to remain so to late August. In Japan the Gassan Glacier is open but will end its 2022 season on schedule this coming weekend.

(Thanks to Swingbeep for first advising on the Zermatt glacier ski slopes closure)

Six-time Winter Olympian and most successful male Alpine skier ever Bode Miller has been announced as a headline act in a line-up of speakers set to appear at Snowbound Expo in Boston this November. It will be the first time the show has operated since 2019.

Previously known as the Boston Ski & Snow Show, the winter sports show has been rebranded under new event organiser Raccoon Events who also run Great Britain's only currently active national ski show, the National Snow Show at Birmingham's NEC each October.

Bode Miller, World Championship gold medalist, and two-time overall World Cup champion is the most successful male Alpine Skier of all time. Best known for his success in the World Cup series with 33 victories, Miller also won six medals in the Winter Olympics − two silvers (giant slalom and combined) in Salt Lake City 2002, a gold (super combined), a silver (super-G) and a bronze (downhill) in Vancouver 2010 and a bronze (super-G) in Sochi 2014. Admirably, across his twenty-year professional skiing career, Miller is now one of only five athletes who have achieved medals in 4 different disciplines.

When asked about joining the show line up, Miller commented: "I'm really looking forward to hanging out with the Boston ski show crowd again. No matter where you ski in the U.S., New England skiers stand out. I couldn't have succeeded without the ski culture they established. It's a homecoming for me."

Bode will join an impressive line-up of famous faces set to share their career stories, adventures and skills across two stages including North Face rock climber & American mountaineer Conrad Anker, pioneer of extreme skiing, Dan Egan, athlete and storyteller Dani Reyes Acosta, Disability Access Strategist and athlete, Vasu Sojitra.

Snowbound Expo is being run in partnership with the SIA, over three days from November 18-20, 2022 at the Boston Hynes Convention Center.

Plans for Snowbound Expo are ramping up and is set to be the biggest meet up for the ski and snowboard community since 2019. The expo is a chance for thousands of visitors to buy the latest gear, apparel, boots and tech all at discounted show prices. There will be free coaching technical advice plus chill out zones to meet up with friends before the season starts.

Visitors will see The Seirus Inspiration Stage & Snow Skills Cabin sponsored by Boston.com where an all-star line-up of speakers will share stories from their careers including Olympians, adventurers, and world record breakers. Visitors to the show can meet the VIPs to get selfies and autographs after their talks at the show too.

Other features, free for visitors whilst enjoying a full day out, include an Indoor Slope to hone skills and technique, A Balance Board area to trial different movements and test agility, Action Sports Live, The Tech Zone, and the Ikon Pass Alpine Bar for visitors to meet up with the community before the season starts.

Signed-up brands so far include Blizzard, Burton, Head/Tyrolia, Helly Hansen, Nordica, Salomon, Tecnica and many more.

Day tickets are usually $15 but weekend passes (including Friday, Saturday & Sunday) are available for $30. Children under the age of 16 go free - Tickets for Snowbound Expo in Boston from ShowClix
http://www.snowboundexpo.com

The great snow conditions and good weather at Australian ski slopes has led to surging demand which, this weekend, has taken resorts beyond their capacity limits.

Australian media reports that carparks at the country's largest resort, Perisher, as well as at Thredbo, both in New South Wales, hit capacity early on Saturday afternoon forcing police to begin turning vehicles around as they approached the ski areas.

Those travelling to Perisher could still access the Skitube train by parking at Bullocks Flat however and the roads were re-opened after three hours as both resorts began to see parking spaces available again as day skiers left.

Australian ski areas have been reporting a bumper season and several sell-out days thanks to a combination of pent-up demand following two pandemic winters when skiers and boarders had little or no chance to hit the slopes.

Then the 2022 season had what was statistically the best season start in more than two decades with up to a metre of snowfall days before opening. The good conditions have continued for most of the nearly two months since, with another foot of snowfall last weekend.

Some ski areas in New Zealand also reported access road closures for periods at the weekend also for similar reasons.

The larger of the world's indoor snow centres are reported to be seeing strong business from international ski and snowboard race teams as their traditional summer glacier training areas are forced to close due to the climate emergency.

Italy's Passo Stelvio, which has a season from late May to early November in a normal year, is the latest glacier training centre to be forced to shut down after a combination of low snowfall totals last winter and unprecedented hot temperatures in the Alps in spring and summer, with the freezing point often way higher than mountain tops day and night, melted snow cover on the ice.

It joins centres including Les 2 Alpes and Tignes in France and the Molltal glacier in Austria in closing early, as well as Val d'Isere and America's Beartooth Basin summer ski camp in not opening at all in 2022.
SkiRacing.com reports that the loss of glacier training space has led ever more teams to seek indoor snow training facilities, in an acceleration of a long term trend.

"Bart Mollin's family owns Snow Valley in Peer Belgium, one of the most popular training ski halls… (and says they) …began this season with many bookings, but since the glaciers started closing or limiting space, daily they receive ten or more training requests. Mollin reports they have almost no availability through to the end of October," SkiRacing.com's report notes.

There's now just four glaciers currently open in Europe for snowsports when the 1990s saw upto 40. Nowhere is currently open in France or Italy although you can access Zermatt's year-round centre from Cervinia on the Italian side of the border. The other year-round centre Hintertux also remains open but with rapidly thinning cover. Saas Fee is also open but with half its usual summer area and only allowing race teams access, as is Fonna in Norway.

The Pal Arinsal ski resort formerly marketed as Vallnord is to be incorporated into the Grandvalira Resorts (which includes Pal and Soldeu) to create a countrywide ski pass providing access to 303 km of slopes.

The move follows the 2018 switch of the Ordino Arcalís area, that was also part of the Vallnord pass, into Grandvalira.

The latest change means that Andorra's three physically separate ski areas are now covered by a single pass.
It also appears to mean that The Vallnord name created to jointly market Arinsal, Pal and Ordino Arcalis when Soldeu, Pas de la Casa and other formed Grandvalira, will disappear.

"The addition of the Pal Arinsal to Grandvalira Resorts will provide some very beneficial changes for skiers. For example, multi-day ski passes that combine skiing at Pal Arinsal and Ordino Arcalís with days at Grandvalira will be available for purchase," a Grandvalira statement claims, adding, "In the coming weeks Grandvalira Resorts will define the full details of the product, price and brand."

The former Vallnord pass, covering a smaller area than Grandvalira, was cheaper than the Grandvalira one.

Pal Arinsal's regular customers will be incorporated into My Grandski, described as, "…a loyalty club aimed to simplifiy access and user queries regarding the resorts' platforms, while offering a range of skiing-related benefits such as Wi-Fi access, online shopping, ski track logs and subscription to the newsletter." By Grandvalira.

The three separate areas include approximately 210km of linked slopes above six resort villages including Pas de la Casa and Soldeu (the largest ski area in the Pyrenees), approximately 55km above Pal and Arinsal and approximately 40km above Ordino Arcalís.

Australian ski areas are continuing to report one of their best seasons this century after a major snowstorm at the weekend bolstered already good cover since the start of winter.

"After an incredible start to the season Falls Creek and Hotham have enjoyed unbeatable conditions during the school holidays with families enjoying blue skies and clear days. Today, a huge snow storm has hit both resorts, delivering a dumping of fresh snow," said Dominique Tait who promotes Vail Resorts in Australia. The company owns those two ski areas as well as the country's largest, Perisher.

Australian ski areas are reported to have enjoyed bumper business this winter after most of the 2020- and 2021 seasons were lost to repeated pandemic lockdowns and in some cases poor snow cover during the brief periods centres could open. This winter the reports have been more of skiers and boarders having difficulties finding available accommodation in ski resorts, particularly at affordable prices during the current peak season.

"Anyone planning a trip is encouraged to plan early and book lift tickets, lessons and rentals online and in advance for the best savings," Dominique Tait advises.

Most Aussie ski areas report 95% or more of their terrain open and Thredbo currently reports the deepest base in the country at 120 cm (four feet) up top, a very healthy mid-July figure for Australian ski areas. Most of the country's other centres are within a few centimetres of that total.

The latest storms follow Australia's ski centres posting their best season start since the year 2000 after major snowfalls at the start of June and during the first third of the season there have been fairly consistent low temperatures and smaller snowfall top-ups.

Perisher has the most terrain open in the country (60km) and the second most in the world at present after Argentina's Catedral.

The obituaries of Ivana Trump in recent days have understandably focussed on her relationship with and influence over Donald Trump, for whom she was his first wife and he her second husband, but she was also a great skier.

Ivana was born in 1949 near Prague in what was then the Soviet-run Eastern European nation of Czechoslovakia

Born Ivana Zelnickova she excelled at sports and began skiing at age four. She became so good at skiing that in her early teens she got into the Czech junior national team (but apparently not the Olympic squad as Donald Trump claimed).

This skiing prowess led to a short marriage to an Austrian ski instructor and escape across the Iron Curtain with her Austrian passport and a job at a Canadian resort as a ski instructor. She also worked as a model with two careers coming together when she got some modelling work for the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck.

Moving to New York she met Donald Trump at a restaurant he was managing for the family business and they were married within a year.

From here Ivana's life trajectory moved rapidly upwards to a multi-millionaire lifestyle but she continued her love of skiing, visiting top resorts like Aspen and St Moritz and introducing the couple's three children to the sport.

One anecdote from the obituaries references a family ski holiday to Aspen in 1989 when Ivana was approached by a woman whom Donald Trump was having an affair with.

"Ivana spotted Trump trying to make a hasty getaway and memorably — for those watching — chased him down the slopes," Tom Leonard wrote in The Daily Mail, adding, "She pursued the wobbly novice down the mountain, wagging her finger in his face as she skied backwards beside him and he tried to avoid falling over."

This was the end of the 15-year marriage however although the pair are reported to have remained in regular contact for the rest of her life.

"Behind every successful woman, there is a man in shock," Tom Leonard's report notes that Ivana later wrote, with her adding, "I was too successful to be Mrs Trump. In our marriage, there couldn't be two stars. So one of us had to go."