Back to main site >
Search Our News Hub
Month:

August 2022

Uncategorised

WORLD SNOW ROUNDUP #255

Issued: 31st August 2022 By Patrick "Snowhunter" Thorne Southern Hemisphere European Roundup North American Roundup Asia Roundup World Overview Springtime, by the meteorological measure of the seasons, kicks off on Thursday in the Southern Hemisphere, which also marks the start of autumn or fall (depending on which continent you're reading this). The changing of the seasons always seems to be reflected in ski area operations. Sure enough, we are, as you'd expect, generally seeing fewer freezing nights and warmer afternoons on the south side of the Equator, where most ski areas will end their 2022 seasons in the latter half of this month. Snow depth stats growth also seems to have stopped and even gone into reverse for some areas. North…

MarcD 31st August 2022
Adventures

Andrzej Bargiel Making Second Attempt To Ski Everest

Andrzej Bargiel, the ski mountaineer who became the first person to successfully climb and ski K2 in 2018, has announced he’ll make a fresh attempt at skiing Mt Everest this autumn. Bargiel announced his fresh attempt in a live Youtube press conference from Polish capital Warsaw, stating that he would attempt to ski Everest without taking any supplementary oxygen and without sherpa support, instead he will be part of a small team including his brother, who will provide drone support. The use of drones were a big positive impact, Bargiel (34)  said, in his successful descent of K2, allowing him to view particularly dangerous sections of the descent. In the film of his descent the drone was also shown flying…

Snowhunter 30th August 2022
Environment

Protect Our Winters UK Publish Impact Report

The past year have shown the impact of the climate emergency on the world’s snowy places like never before, but the Protect Our Winters (POW) group continues to raise awareness with the aim of encouraging everyone to do what they can to fight back. The groups UK’s division have just published an Impact Report detailing what they achieved in 2021. “Do you ever wonder what aliens would think of us? Would they think us mad? Given the only habitable planet we’re aware of to live on, we have set about systematically destroying our life support system - exterminating species, destroying habitats, poisoning the biosphere, destabilising the climate and so on,” the report’s introduction by POW UK founder and chair Sandy…

Snowhunter 28th August 2022
EnvironmentWeather

Warm Weather Having Serious Impact on New Zealand’s 2022 Season

A period of warm and wet weather over the past fortnight has unfortunately had a significant impact on the country’s 20-22 ski season. The small family-run field of Mt Lyford announced on Friday that they were “Gutted” to have to announce they were ending their 2022 season after warm, wet weather severely impacted the previously excellent snowpack.  The resort noted that hoped for colder temperatures and fresh snowfall had not been adequate to turn things around over the past week as they had hoped. Elsewhere most of the larger commercial fields on the South Island are operating, albeit with more limited terrain and warmer temperatures than previously. Treble Cone noted that a high danger of heavy slab avalanches (as pictured…

Snowhunter 27th August 2022
Environment

Verbier Unveils Summer Walk Themed on Melting Glaciers

Verbier has created a trail in its Col des Gentianes themed on the melting of glaciers. The path starts at more than 2,800-metre altitude and descends from the Gentianes station to the Tortin glacier. “(The trail offers) …a rare and precious experience that allows you to get into relationship with a glacier by contemplating it, touching it and discovering both its history and future,” a Verbier statement explains. The walk only takes about 20 minutes but there are marked points along the way for spending additional time. These include a bench-photo spot to take a picture with the glacier; milestones with dates showing where the glacier used to cover; an interpretive panel showing the glacier's past, fixed to a large…

Snowhunter 25th August 2022
Uncategorised

WORLD SNOW ROUNDUP #254

Issued: 24th August 2022 By Patrick "Snowhunter" Thorne Southern Hemisphere European Roundup North American Roundup Asia Roundup World Overview A few landmark changes in the ski year over the past week, most notably the last area still operating from 2021 in North America, Timberline, ended its 21-22 season at the weekend. This means we're down to ski lifts turning on only four continents from the next month or two, down from a high of six only a month ago. That's if we don't include indoor snow centres that are where you can still find machine-made snow on six continents. Europe is down to just one area open with Scandinavia’s last glacier summer ski centre shutting to the public suddenly last Wednesday,…

MarcD 24th August 2022
Ski ResortsTechnique / Safety

Japan To Ease Travel Restrictions Ahead of Ski Season

Japan, the last major ski nation with strict COVID travel restrictions in place, has announced significant easing of its rules. Japan’s public broadcasting service, NHK, have reported that individual travellers will be permitted to enter the country again from September in the ongoing normalisation process of travel. Previoulys, after having closed their borders for more than two years, Japan resumed accepting tourists from 98 countries on June 10th, but only if they arrived as part of escorted group tours. This did see the numbers arriving from abroad jump from zero to nearly 8,000 in July, but that compared to nearly 2.4 million foreign nationals visiting the in January 2020, before the arrival of the virus and border closure. Japan has…

Snowhunter 24th August 2022
Technique / Safety

“Nobody is Asking About Covid Anymore”

Some ski holiday companies have been reporting that as most ski nations have dropped all Covid  travel restrictions, most customers are no longer asking about the likely impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on their future ski trips when making booking enquiries. “It’s true nobody is now asking about Covid when they book,” says Nick Edwards, boss of ski travel agency Snowfinders, who adds, “I firmly believe that the demographic of skiers means that 99% have been fully vaccinated and they know that booking through an agency like us means they will get their money back in the event that borders are closed or resorts are closed. We are also insisting that clients have adequate insurance so they should be covered…

Snowhunter 22nd August 2022
Adventures

Underwater Snow ‘Rising’ on Jupiter’s Moon Europa

A new study, published in the August issue of the journal Astrobiology, has projected that Jupiter’s icy moon Europa has pure snow that rises underwater to generate the moon’s icy crust, rather than falling from above. “Underwater snow" is not an entirely extra-terrestrial phenomenon but is already a known fact on earth, where ‘fluffy accumulations of ice crystals’ also rise up beneath ice shelves. Europa, which has deep oceans crowned with ice sheets, is seen as one of the best potential destinations for a future manned space mission. The additional good news from the study is the finding that the ice probably has a lower salt content and is more pure ice than had been previously thought, in line with…

Snowhunter 20th August 2022 1
Technique / Safety

NZ Accident Protection Agency Uses ‘The Thinker’ To Encourage Skiers To “Have a Hmmm”

A small part of Paris has been lending a hand on the slopes of Mt Hutt in New Zealand this week. A replica of Rodin’s famous bronze statue ‘The Thinker’ has made his debut on various parts of the Canterbury ski field. The statue’s presence is part of the country’s comprehensive ACC injury prevention campaign which is a government-backed programme that ensures everyone in New Zealand is covered by a no-fault scheme if they've been injured in an accident. Over the past six years ACC have accepted 6,595 snow-sports related injuries in the Canterbury region alone. The idea of ‘The Thinker’, part of ACC’s Preventable campaign, is to encourage skiers and boarders to think before they act and help prevent…

Snowhunter 18th August 2022
Uncategorised

WORLD SNOW ROUNDUP #253

Issued: 17th August 2022 By Patrick "Snowhunter" Thorne Southern Hemisphere European Roundup North American Roundup Asia Roundup World Overview It has been a good week in the main ski regions of the southern hemisphere with more snow falling and some sublime days following the falls. Ski areas in New Zealand reported ideal weather over the weekend with blue skies, light winds and temperatures a degree or two below after the snowfall last week. The snow was falling in Australia and the Andes at this point with some whiteouts before the calm returned. Afriski in Lesotho, southern Africa, is also open for a few more weeks as the season winds down there.In the northern hemisphere, we’re into the last few days of…

MarcD 17th August 2022
EnvironmentSki Resorts

Swiss Resort Tunnels Piste Through Mountain As Its Glaciers Melt Away

Switzerland’s Glacier 3000 ski area, close to the village of Les Diablerets and resort of Gstaad, has been in the news for several reasons this month, some good, some bad. On the ‘good side’ for skiers and boarders is the news that the resort has dug 100 metres of a 265m long tunnel to provide new access to what it describes as the ‘mythical’ Pierres Pointes sector.  The tunnel will emerge high in the sector and the 3km (nearly 2 miles) long black run emerging from it will pitch at up to 41 degrees below it with a huge 1,000m+ vertical descent down to Pillon (1546m) in the valley below.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FwsnAXlVaE On the bad side, the melting of the…

Snowhunter 15th August 2022
  • 1
  • 2