J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

One of America's longest established ski areas has announced it is to change its name, with a new name decided but not yet announced.

Vermont's Suicide Six ski area says it will be "retiring" its current name this summer.

"Our resort team embraces the increasing awareness surrounding mental health and shares the growing concerns about the insensitive nature of the historical name. The feelings that the word "suicide" evokes can have a significant impact on many in our community," a resort statement explains, going on to say a new name has been chosen and will be announced later this summer.

"The Suicide Six Ski Area has an enduring legacy spanning nearly nine decades, and it is vital that the name better represents and celebrates what makes it a beloved and vibrant part of this community. Though some may find the change difficult, we stand by our conviction that this evolution is warranted for an iconic treasure and, more importantly, necessary to continue its rich history of inclusion and accessibility."

Suicide Six is not internationally well known but was where the first rope town in North America was installed in 1934.

The name change is the latest for US ski areas with the resort formerly known as Squaw Valley in California changing its name to The Palisades Tahoe having determined that the word "squaw" is a racial slur.

There is also a similar move to rename the small Big Squaw Mountain ski area in Maine to Big Moose Mountain.

The name of the physical mountain was changed in 2000 and the volunteers running the surviving ski lift seem to refer to it as just 'The Mountain' although some legacy factors like the website address continue to have the word "squaw" in them.

Thanks as always, very interesting. Just read the Orf story, quite depressing but very interesting as well.

24 hours later - this is now confirmed.

The Banff ski area of Sunshine in Alberta, Canada, says it is considering re-opening its slopes next Friday, July 1st, in celebration of Canada Day.

The centre, which has one of Canada's longest ski seasons staying open to late May each year, was one of several in the area reporting fresh snowfall in recent days.

It has posted pictures of groomers out on the snow and says it will make a decision on whether it will re-open or not later this week.

Canada Day commemorates the anniversary of Canada's Constitution Act, which consolidated three territories into the single nation of Canada, 155 years ago in 1867.

If Sunshine does re-open it will follow on from Mt Washington on Vancouver Island which re-opened a week ago in celebration of Father's Day. It was the first time it has done so for more than a decade.

It's also not uncommon for a number of US resorts to re-open a few days later on July 4th in celebration of US Independence Day, but so far none have announced they will in 2022.

Western North America had a very dry first three months of 2022 but saw cold weather and frequent snow showers through much of spring leading to unusual road closures and delays to summer resort openings due to snow in May and June.

The Norwegian Monoski Association will stage their annual National Championships this afternoon, Saturday 25th June, at Stryn Summer Ski Centre, one of three glacier areas currently open in the country.

The championships traditionally have a very relaxed atmosphere with a retro skiwear code dating back to the brief heyday of monoskiing in the mid-late 1980s. The summer weather also often leads to quite a lot of flesh being exposed.



The Championships begin with registration followed by lunchtime drinks. Competition in the afternoon include slalom, mono-speed and freestyle jumping.

The 'Aftermonoski' session starts at 5pm with a gala dinner and prize giving in the evening.

Thanks. So realistically summer skiing on the Italian side is over? (in summer months) I've been pondering the end-October/early Nov races, it is hard to see it at this point but I think it was 2020(?) there were huge September/early October falls so I suppose that might be enough IF they arrive this year in early autumn? Not sure if there have any Snowfactory type snowmaking machines either? I know they had the IDE one 15 or so years ago but not sure if it's still functioning?

Thanks for the 'reality' summer ski map too. I've noticed others that claim 20km or more summer ski areas (Les 2 Alpes, Tignes) rarely seem to have more than half of it actually open.

The number of ski areas open for summer skiing and boarding in Europe is set to get back into double figures for the first time since early-May, potentially, with Cervinia set to open on Saturday, 25th June.

'Potentially' because Tignes, which opened last weekend for a planned six-week summer ski season has been closed the past two days and its unclear if it can reopen. On Thursday it said there was "technical issue" but it has not given a reason why its closed today. However its snow report notes just 15cm (six inches) of snow cover on its glacier, with above freezing temperatures and webcam images show a lot of blue melting ice exposed on the Grande Motte.

Cervinia largely provides access to the year-round glacier ski area above Zermatt on the Swiss side of the border, although there is a small amount of terrain on the Italian side.

Cervinia has warned though that it is opening for summer skiing is subject to the same issues Tignes outlined when it opened – below average winter snow accumulation followed by a very warm spring that saw temperatures reach +10C above 3,000m in May and June.

The glacier is due to host four new cross-border World Cup downhill races next autumn on the final weekend of October and first weekend of November, two each for male and female racers, before the speed tour moves on to its traditional start events in Lake Louise and Beaver Creek.

Val d'Isere decided not to open for summer skiing at all this year for the same reason and the Molltal glacier in Austria is also closed at present.

The glaciers that are open include Fonna, Galdhopiggen and Stryn in Norway – which days unlike the Alps it had a snowier than average winter 21-22 and cooler than average spring so snow depths are up to 7.5 metres.
There's also Hintertux and Kitzsteinhorn in Austria, Les 2 Alpes and Tignes in France, Passo Stelvio in Italy and Zermatt in Switzerland.

The three confirmed candidates in the battle to host the 2030 Winter Olympics have all hosted the Games in the past five decades.

2010 hosts Vancouver in Canada, 2002 hosts Salt Lake City in the USA and 1972 hosts Sapporo in Japan are the three confirmed with two more former host, the Savoy region of France and 1984 hosts Sarajevo, then officially in Yugoslavia now in Bosnia and Herzegovina as potential bidders but not yet confirmed.

Three more potential bidders known at present are Georgia, Germany and Kazakhstan, with a fourth, Spain, announcing this week it was pulling out of the bidding process. The Spanish Olympic Committee said the various bodies behind their bids could not agree on key details and so they ultimately had to withdraw from the process.

After the countries bidding to host previous games got smaller and smaller the IOC have changed the host requirements from a single city/region/country to multiple cities, regions or countries.

Utah's bidding committee told NBC that they are focussed on 2030, but as the 2028 summer games are heading to Los Angeles and there have not been back-to-back Games in the same country since World war 2, they have 2034 as option B. Vancouver's bid is being led by indigenous communities.

After the Beijing Winter Olympics earlier this year the next games are in Cortina and Milan in 2026, marking a return to Europe and 'The West' for the first time in 20 years.