(Picture is Aspen this week)
This Week’s Headlines:
- Fernie reports 70cm of snow in 48 hours to Wednesday.
- After the heavy snow there are low temperatures in the Alps.
- Scotland goes from thaw to snow to gales.
- Deep early December snow lying in the Pyrenees.
The coming weekend will see the number of ski areas open in the northern hemisphere leap from the hundreds to 1000+ – it’s the first of the three big opening weekends of the 2013-14 Olympic Ski season, which will peak the weekend of the 14th and see most of the res open for Christmas week.
In the Alps the heavy November snowfalls have given way in recent days to low – double-digits Celcius below – temperatures and clear skier, meaning crisp, sunny ski days for those lucky enough to be already out on the piste. The Dolomites and Pyrenees are also looking good.
Western North American resorts have been posting some of the biggest snowfalls of December to date with most from Alberta to Colorado and all points west clocking up at least a foot (30cm) of fresh powder since the start of the month.
Closer to home there’s a mixed picture in Scotland with a thaw at the weekend, followed by snowfall midweek but also gales. It’s uncertain whether any Scottish centres will be able to open this weekend.
The Alps
Austrian ski areas dominated Europe from September to November with more areas open than any other, but three months on other nations have been catching up as Austrian skiing is still dominated by high altitude resorts along with the eight glacier destinations. That will of course change over the coming two weekends as most Austrian areas open for the season. And, although there’s not been much fresh snow to report since December began a few days ago, healthy snowfalls in November mean that the slopes are in good shape at most Austrian resorts. The Kaunertal glacier with a 2.7m (nine foot) snow base on upper slopes has one of the biggest base depths in the world at present. Other glacier areas in the country typically have 1.5 to 2.5 metres of snow lying. Obergurgl with 70-170cm on its slopes leads the base depth tally for Austria’s non-glacier resorts.
Another big swathe of French ski areas are scheduled to open this weekend as the ski season really gets going across the Channel. Big names due to crank up the lifts include Chamonix and the 3 Valleys (there’s not many bigger). There’s not been much fresh snow since the start of December but the heavy snow over the previous month has set all resorts up for a good season start and low temperatures have helped maintain the snow. Les Menuires says 20 ski runs will be open from Saturday. Of the already-open areas, Tignes, which has already clocked up two months of its 2012-13 ski season, has the deepest snow bases at 2.2m which seems only fair. Les 2 Alpes is on 1.5m. A lot of resorts in the Pyrenees are also already open or opening reporting bases of 1.5 – 2m already after the great start to the season there.
Italy
A dozen Italian ski areas are open in Italy and the 2.8m base at Val Senales, a glacier ski area that has been open for two months already this season, is the deepest in the world at present. Several of Italy’s best known and best loved resorts including Cervinia (40-180cm base), Cortina (20 – 100cm base) and Bormio (0-120cm base) are all already open and most of the rest of the country’s leading ski areas are scheduled to open this weekend. Ski areas have also opened down in the Apennines with great snow this early in the season too – the largest area in the region, Abetone has 50cm deep snow at its base and a metre on upper slopes.
Many of Switzerland’s leading ski areas are now open and most of the rest are planning to open this weekend or next. Saas Fee – which has already been open since last July so has a bit of an advantage – is claiming the second deepest snow base in the world at the moment, by a couple of inches, at 275cm. Andermatt, Engelberg, St Moritz and Zermatt all have 1.5-2.5 bases on upper slopes – so are in good shape. In common with the rest of the Alps temperatures have been low and fresh snowfall limited since the start of the month after the snowy November.
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees are in good shape after the huge November snowfalls, getting 2013-14 off where 2012-13 ended, with great conditions. The deepest snow depths are around 1.8 metres (six feet) at resorts including Grandvalira in Andorra (which opened on Saturday) and Baqueira Beret in Spain, both of which are already fully or mostly open. Most resorts opened last weekend or will do on Saturday in France, Andorra and Spain and most have at least a metre of snow on upper slopes. Like the Alps there’s ben little fresh snow in the past week, with low temperatures maintaining the snow already lying.
Scandinavia
Things are getting colder in Scandinavia and there’s a bit more snow about but most areas are relying on snowmaking to ensure proper piste cover so far. Voss in Norway has had 10cm of fresh snow in the past few days and Geilo now has a 30cm base, Hafjell 50cm. Temperatures are well below freezing at Hemsedal where snowmaking has boosted snow depth to 50cm on the pistes whereas it’s only 5cm in natural snowfall areas.
Eastern Europe
Web cams are showing thin to moderate natural snow cover in Bulgaria but no centres are thought to be open yet. Pamporovo days it will open this Saturday, December 7th, Borovets a week later on the 14th. Things are also looking good for Poiana Brasov in Romania where temperatures are well below freezing allowing for snowmaking as well as natural snowfall.
Scottish ski areas are enjoying their common roller-coaster of weather conditions. The slopes had turned back to brown by Tuesday after a warm spell but were all white on Wednesday morning with the return of the snow, which is supposed to continue and grow in intensity over the next few days (along with some fairly severe gales) so it looks to be 50/50 at present – if the snow arrives in abundance that one or more Scottish area may open this Saturday and/or Sunday
.North America
After a dry week the snow returned to Western Canada from Monday onwards and most areas have enjoyed healthy accumulations in the past few days, the biggest posting 30cm accumulations, so it’s looking good for the start of December with more than half of BC resorts not even open until this weekend or next. Panorama, Kicking Horse and Kimberley are among the resorts opening this weekend, Fernie reports more than two feet of snow in 48 hours, one of the biggest snowfalls of recent days. In Alberta the Banff area reports 20cm of fresh snow.
The snow has been more limited on the East Coast, as is the norm, but there was 5-10cm for most ski areas in Quebec on Sunday/Monday and base depths in the region are typically 30-60cm, with some of the deepest snow at Mt Tremblant.
It’s a good start to the season pretty-much across the USA. There have been huge snowfalls reported since the start of December at many resorts in the West of the country and things are looking bad in the East either with hundreds of ski areas now open or opening this weekend.
Some areas have been reporting 20-30cm a day for three successive days leading to 70-90cm (up to three foot) accumulations over 72 hours. Among the bigger beneficiaries have been Jackson Hole in Wyoming (55cm of fresh snow(, Crested Butte in Colorado (90cm of fresh snow) and Snowbird in Utah (50cm in 72 hours) – but most other areas in the region have had big snowfalls too – so December is looking very good indeed.
ends
