Europe Weekly Roundup #251

France's Summer Skiing Ends as Tignes Closes Early

• Only four glacier ski areas remain open in the Alps for summer skiing, with Austria's Hintertux and Switzerland's Zermatt offering the most terrain.
• Tignes, the last French ski area to close, ended its shortened summer ski season due to wild weather, and no French ski areas are expected to open again until late November.
• Scandinavia's Fonna and Galdhøpiggen glaciers report excellent conditions, but Fonna is closing for the summer season on July 28.

THE ALPS REPORT

We are down to four glacier ski areas open in three countries in the Alps for summer skiing, the smallest choice of 2024 so far. The options are Austria’s year-round Hintertux (0/190cm / 0/76”) and year-round Zermatt (0/150cm / 0/60”) in Switzerland, where the glacier slopes can also be accessed daily from Cervinia over on the Italian side of the border. There’s also skiing at Passo Stelvio (0/200cm / 0/160”) in Italy and at a second Swiss option, Zermatt’s neighbour Saas Fee (0/300cm / 0/120”), which opened for its 24-25 season a few weeks ago. Temperatures have been getting warmer to higher elevations, with resorts seeing +20°C at 2,000m, and +6°C in recent days even at 3,500m, so no surprise that snowpacks continue to reduce. While it’s been mostly sunny, there has been precipitation, with glacier slopes getting a decent covering on Sunday during a temperature dip. There are about 50km (31 miles) of slopes open altogether, the most at Hintertux, which is posting 20km open still. The short summer ski season has ended at Tignes, which ended up opening for four weeks rather than five after wild weather in mid-June led to a week’s postponement in its summer opening day. It was the third and final French ski area to end its summer ski season, meaning nowhere is now expected to be open in France again until late November, assuming Tignes sticks to its changed schedule, abandoning September and October opening introduced last autumn after a run of lean years. Les 2 Alpes aims to open for a week or so in late October and early November, but it too has had to cancel that plan due to lack of early-season snow in recent years, although it was still supposed to happen last autumn. The base depth at Tignes had dropped from 3m (120”) to 2m (80”) over the past few weeks prior to its planned summer ski season end.

THE ALPS FORECAST

More sunshine is dominating the forecast for the week ahead. Temperatures will range between +5 and +20°C at 2,000m altitudes, still getting down to freezing overnight at 3,000m, with daytime highs around +5°C – so the thaw will continue as normal in the warmest months of the northern hemisphere's year.

SCANDINAVIA REPORT

Scandinavia’s two open areas, the Fonna (150/300cm / 60/120”) and Galdhøpiggen (10/150cm / 4/60”) glaciers, have reported great conditions over the last week with plenty of sunshine, but the snow remains in good shape through the mornings. Both centres report 3km (2 miles) of slopes open, 100% for Galdhøpiggen and about 65% of slopes for Fonna. Fonna reports that this is the last week it will operate this summer. The center boasts two public runs and a terrain park with rails and small and large jumps reshaped daily, but it is coming to the end of its season, planning to close to the public on July 28. The past week at Fonna has seen overnight lows a degree or two above freezing up high but getting above 15°C at the base of the slopes. There's been lots of sunshine but also a few rain showers to start the week. Although its terrain park is closing, the main slopes are aiming to stay open until late September. Galdhøpiggen, with Scandinavia’s highest slopes, is half as high again as Fonna, and temperatures have stayed in single figures, even in the afternoons. It aims to stay open until November.

SCANDINAVIA FORECAST 

Sunshine and rain showers will continue through the coming week. Temperatures in the +1 to +11°C range at higher altitude Galdhøpiggen, +2 to +14°C at Fonna.