(Pic: Fresh powder at Snowbird, Utah last week)
Welcome back to J2ski.com’s weekly snow reports! As the snow is falling across the northern hemisphere and the number of ski areas open in the northern hemisphere is back in to double figures, we’re now officially in to the run up to winter 2013-14! And that’s a decision of Mother Nature, not just the tour operators and ski resorts.
After last winter’s historically-big snowfalls in the Alps, some resorts still have a base left from 2012-13 and more and more will be opening over the coming weeks and months, as we hope for another snowy autumn on the mountains so all can open on schedule.
At present it’s the usual mixed-weather for this time of year with periods of cold and snowfall, then warm and dry or wet on the mountains.
This Week’s Headlines:
* 13 glacier ski areas now open in the northern Hemisphere.
* Season winding down in southern hemisphere, more than half of all areas now closed for 2013.
* Up to 15cm of fresh snow reported on the slopes in Utah this week.
* Kitzsteinhorn Glacier at Kaprun in Austria the latest to open, last weekend.
* Best snow depths around 1.5m at Turoa in New Zealand and Kaunertal in Austria.
The Alps
Austria and especially the Tirol is way-ahead in terms of ski areas already open in the Alps. In fact half of all the ski areas open in the northern hemisphere at present are in Austria.
The Kitzsteinhorn was the latest to open, on the last weekend of September, and reports a 70cm base. It joins, Hintertux, Kaunertal, Pitztal, the Stubai, Molltal and Solden glaciers, all already operating. The Dachstein glacier is also open but says it doesn’t have enough snow for downhill skiing.
Italy’s Val Senales re-opened in late September joining Passo Stelvio which has been open all summer. A third option, Breuil Cervinia, will open at weekends from the 19th of October before opening full time in November.
In Switzerland there’s currently skiing on the glaciers of Saas Fee and Zermatt with Engelberg’s Titlis glacier scheduled to open this Saturday (4th) and the Diavolezza Glacier in the Engadin, close to St Moritz a week later on the 11th. Glacier 3000 between Gstaad and les Diablerets should be the fifth Swiss Glacier to open a fortnight later on the 26th.
There’s currently no ski slopes open in France, the Grande Motte Glacier in Tignes opens next week however on October 12th.
Scandinavia
Scandinavian resorts often boast the longest ski seasons in the world for resorts that don’t have glaciers. Ruka up in Finnish Lapland aims to post the longest such-season from mid-October to mid-June and has announced that its target opening date for 13-14 is Thursday the 17th October. Another Finnish resort, the country’s largest, Levi, is also hoping for an October opening. Both resorts aim to stage World Cup competitions in November.
In Norway the Galdhøpiggen glacier re-opened last weekend (27th September) and may open again during October.
North America
No ski areas are officially open in North America at present as the nearly-year-round Timberline ski area in Oregon closes during September and in to October. Currently it reports having ‘a little wet snow’ and says it cannot say when it will re-open, except that it may be in October or possibly not until Thanksgiving at the end of November.
Most of the continent’s better known Western ski areas have been posting reports of September snowstorms however with particularly impressive pictures of powder at Snowbird in Utah, while Mt Baker in Washington State, officially the world’s snowiest resort, reporting several feet of fresh snow in the last week of September.
Snowmaking is also underway at resorts including Arapahoe Basin and Loveland in Colorado, both among the world’s dozen highest ski resorts, and both hoping to open by mid-October, although Loveland reports it has had to stop snowmaking for, it hopes, 48 hours due to a warm spell.
Southern Hemisphere
The ski season is winding down across the southern hemisphere with the slopes of southern Africa and of most Australian and South American ski areas closing last month after a ‘mixed’ winter 2013.
In south America Las Lenas has called it a day in Argentina and there are only a few runs left open in Catedral. It’s more promising in Chile which has a week or so of the season left at Portillo and Valle Nevado – most lifts and runs are open at both and snow depths are 50-125cm.
The still-operating New Zealand ski areas report relatively healthy snow depths. Mt Hutt has extended its season to the 13th and will offer national team training in to November. Whakapapa with 1.2m looks likely to stay open to the end of the month and Turoa, with 1.5m, normally makes it in to November, the last area south of the equator to close for the season.
