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At one point the world’s most visited online snow sports portal, OnTheSnow.com -owned by Vail Resort’s Mountain News Corp- announced othat they will be shutting their site, as of July 13th, 2020. Unfortunately given the changing media landscape, OnTheSnow.com has experienced financial declines in recent years and now face additional economic challenges from COVID-19.

As stated by MNC: We have been proud to provide you with free access to snow reports, resort guides, and more, and we are beyond grateful for your readership and contributions to our community over the years. Unfortunately given the changing media landscape, Mountain News Corporation has experienced financial declines in recent years. Mountain News Corporation and our OnTheSnow and Skiinfo websites will stop operating on July 13, 2020.”

In 2010 Vail Resorts acquired California based ‘Mountain News Corp’, which at that time operated the world’s most visited online snow sports portal, OnTheSnow.com. OnTheSnow.com and it’s sister SkiInfo featured snow reports for more than 2,000 ski and snowboard resorts around the world, along with live resort webcams, video, resort information and news, vacation packages and deals, user-generated resort reviews, and a comprehensive ski and snowboard gear guide.

MNC is the top provider of snow reports to more than 1,200 web sites throughout the world, including approximately 400 news media websites. In addition to their snow reports and website, OnTheSnow.com publishes and delivers a weekly e-mail newsletter to its database of more than 250,000 subscribers worldwide. According to the Nielsen Audit & Demographic Study in January 2010, OnTheSnow.com is used by more snow sports enthusiasts to research and plan their ski and ride vacation than any other online source with more than 2.2 million unique visits per month during peak periods. OnTheSnow.com was the most visited snow sports web site as measured by Experian Hitwise in January 2010.

Update (12 oct): A substantial portion of the assets of Mountain News Corporation have been acquired from Vail Resorts by an investment group led by Chad Dyer and Jon Brelig, two ski industry digital pioneers.

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This spring with so much rainfall in much of Europe has brought an unexpected gift to lovers of summer skiing and all of us who care about the environment. A quantity of snow like years ago that was not seen in the Alps above 3,000 meters of altitude.

This is good news for glacier preservation and for the tourist summer ski season, the accumulated snow has reached a thickness not seen since the summer of 2013.

A level of 12 meters of snow accumulated throughout the winter and spring has been measured on the Les 2 Alpes glacier in Isère this Friday, June 12. A level unprecedented since the summer of 2013, indicates the snow operations manager of the resort Arnaud Guerrand to France3:

“We have 3 meters of compact and compacted snow at that time on the glacier, which is equivalent to 12 meters of fallen snow. With the snow groomers it compacts to better resist summer hazards, such as high temperatures and wind, and avoid it melts so quickly. ” Arnaud Guerrand explains.

“After several years marked by very strong heat waves, this year the snow should continue until mid-August, even in late August,” Guerrand says.

“This snow is good news because it means that the ice underneath is more protected from melting and the sun’s rays.” The Les Deux Alpes glacier is not immune to the declining trend of all Alpine glaciers, “laments Arnaud Guerrand. Therefore,” knowing that the abundant blanket of snow will protect the ice during the summer is good news. ” explained the resort’s snow operations manager Arnaud Guerrand

But these 3 meters of snow did not get there alone. For fifteen years, the person in charge of the snow of the 2 Alps has been working to study and thicken this layer of snow in the best way. By making it more compact, first. But not only:

“We use wooden barriers or grooves in the snow to retain the snow that the wind could carry. In reality, 12 meters did not fall on the glacier, but we have snow storage techniques.”

This spectacular thickness of snow should also delight winter sports professionals, who will be arriving at the resort in the coming weeks.

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