The ‘SnowHunter’
Given my pseudonym it’s no surprise to know that I send my life snow hunting. Some people think that means I go looking for deep fluffy powder to go powder skiing, but what it really means is that I look for snow the world over, 365 days a year, and I don’t really mind if its fresh powder or not. I just love snow.
To be honest I get excited about machine made snow indoors, like in the snowdomes of Dubai, Brazil or India – places where you don’t expect to find snow. I love snow on high peaks in countries like Uganda in Arica where you don’t expect to find it, and I get more excited than I probably should every time NASA announces it’s found a planet, or a moon or a comet that maybe has water on it. They’re usually cold places after all so it’s more likely they’ll discover snow and ice first.
But for all the novelty of the unusual snow locations I hunt down, you can’t beat fresh snowfall. And it has been snowing all around the world in the past few weeks. The 2015 ski season is winding down in the southern hemisphere but it has still been snowing in South America, Australia and New Zealand and north of the equator it has been snowing too in Europe and North America, the first exciting snowfalls of the 2015-16 ski season, if we can call it that yet ?
The first big accumulations happened in Western North America in mid-September. There’s still nowhere open there yet but someone managed to ski a run on a few centimetres of snow at Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada before it all melted, what a hero! Ski centres do usually open at high elevation resorts in Colorado by the end of October too, sometimes relying on snowmaking. These centres start nearly two miles above sea level and are among the world’s 20 highest areas, so low temperatures are fairly certain.
Closer to home the number of glacier ski areas already open is approaching double figures and should soon pass that mark. It was a bit of a worry as it was so hot in the Alps this summer the snowpack was severely affected, but that September snow has transformed things for the better and Solden ski area even opened a week earlier than planned because of it. October will be a big month for Solden as it stages the first World Cup races of the 2015-16 season and it will be appearing on cinema screens around the word as it’s a location for the new Bond movie ‘Spectre.’ So it’s a good choice if you want to head out skiing somewhere today.
Your other options include Saas Fee and Zermatt in Switzerland, Val Senales in Italy or perhaps Hintertux, Pitztal or the Stubai glaciers in Austria – all are currently posting gorgeous pictures of immaculately groomed wide slopes, with a fresh snow layer and blue skies above. It’s really drool-worthy stuff for snow-hunters like me.
They’re due to be joined by Tignes, the first area in France to open for 15-16, on Saturday October 3rd.
If you have deep pockets and time on your hands though the freshest snow is still likely to be found in the southern hemisphere for the next few weeks at least. Resorts in Chile have posted reports of up to 25cm of new snow in the last few days and there’s been fresh snow too in Argentina and New Zealand where Mt Ruapehu is the best bet through to the end of October. Most other areas in the southern hemisphere will be closed by then.
There’s been snow falling elsewhere too. Europe’s most southerly major ski area, Sierra Nevada near the Mediterranean coast in Spain posted film of fresh snow falling this week.
