Europe Weekly Roundup #262

Finland Opens First Ski Centers Using Recycled Snow

• Austria dominates early season with 10 open centers, including Hintertux, Sölden, and Stubai, offering expanded terrain and excellent conditions after fresh snowfall.
• Swiss and Italian glaciers like Zermatt, Saas-Fee, and Passo Stelvio are open with healthy snow bases, while more areas prepare for imminent openings.
• Finland's Levi and Ruka launched their seasons using stockpiled snow, offering both cross-country and downhill trails under sunny, cool conditions.

World Overview

It’s been quite a big week in Europe, with another significant pre-main-season snowfall in the Alps, the first centers opening for the season in Finland, and the number of resorts open on the continent getting back into double figures. We’ve also seen the start of the season in Finland with two centers opening using snow farming techniques—recycling last season’s snow stored through the summer. It all adds up to a dozen centers open already across five countries, which means there are now more centers open in the Northern Hemisphere than in the Southern. There’s less to report from North America, unfortunately. The most snowfall has been recorded in Canada, where most centers in Alberta and BC have seen more snow on their higher slopes, but it continues to be an unseasonably warm October in much of the Western US, and snowmaking has yet to get underway. In the Southern Hemisphere, there continue to be snowy spells, but as we near the midpoint of meteorological springtime, temperatures are realistically only going in one direction. The majority of centers have now closed, and there are more plans open now north of the equator. Most of those still open are expected to close this coming Sunday unless there are any last-minute season extensions, with just a few left operating into next week.

Europe

THE ALPS REPORT

It’s been one of the better October weeks in the Alps, with plenty of fresh snowfall reported and two more centers opening for their 24-25 seasons, taking the total up to 10. Conditions have been excellent over the last few days, with blue sky days and fresh snow cover. The snowfall also led more centers to open more terrain, with Austria, home to more than half the open centers, seeing resorts competing to offer the most in a battle for market share. Hintertux (0/85cm / 0/34”) continues to lead the way with 24km (14 miles) of slopes already, and it staged the launch weekend for the 20th incarnation of its Betterpark from Thursday to Sunday. However, both Sölden (0/111cm / 0/45”) and the Stubai Glacier (20/50cm / 8/20”) have raised their game and are coming close, with nearly 20km (12 miles) open each—more than double a week ago. They’ve got fresh competition from the newly opened Kitzsteinhorn glacier (0/165cm / 0/66”) above Kaprun, which has opened with the deepest base in Europe so far, and the Kaunertal glacier (30/40cm / 12/16”) near the Italian border. The sixth choice is Austria's highest slopes at Pitztal (30/50cm / 12/20”), which announced it now has all its lifts operational this week. A seventh glacier, the Mölltal, opens this coming weekend. In Switzerland, the slopes of Saas-Fee (0/140cm / 0/56”) and Zermatt (0/150cm / 0/60”) remain open, with about 12km (7.5 miles) of runs available each. There are signs that the Titlis Glacier above Engelberg, the Engadin’s Diavolezza glacier near St. Moritz, and Glacier 3000 near Gstaad are all moving closer to opening with the recent snowfalls too, but no confirmed dates yet. In Italy, Passo Stelvio (0/100cm / 0/40”) was among those posting heavy snowfall at the end of last week, with a 40cm (16”) accumulation ahead of the weekend. The second Italian option is Val Senales (0/30cm / 0/12”), although it only has about 2km (1 mile) of slopes open, most of which are reserved for team training. Access to Zermatt’s ski area from the Cervinia side remains closed until the 26th of this month. There’s nowhere expected to open in France until Tignes and Val Thorens during the final week of November. After the snowfalls at the end of last week and the start of this, conditions have been much quieter in the Alps, at least in terms of snowfall, with temperatures at 3,000m altitudes in the -7 to +3°C range and the freezing point moving between 1,500 and 400m altitudes.

THE ALPS FORECAST

After a largely dry and sunny few days, temperatures are set to drop down to double digits below freezing at 3,000m overnight and stay below freezing in the daytime too, with another round of snowfall potentially bringing 20-50cm (8-20”) accumulation totals over 3-4 days by the weekend. Most of this will be above 2,000m altitudes, but the snowline’s trajectory is downward, potentially reaching 1,000m by the weekend.

SCANDINAVIA REPORT

Finland’s season got underway on Friday, with Levi (50/50cm / 20/20”) and Ruka (50/50cm / 20/20”) starting their 24-25 seasons with a few kilometers (mile or so) of slopes open each, thanks to using snow stockpiled through summer and spread back out on the slopes. The centers were reported to be busy with both recreational skiers and boarders, and race teams making the most of training facilities. Both resorts created cross-country tracks as well as downhill trails. Last autumn, the slopes quickly turned white around the re-laid snow with early October snowfalls, but this year it's been a nice sunny start to the season, with fairly cool temperatures in the -6 to +2°C range, so the old snow has been freeze-thawing. The Galdhøpiggen summer ski area in Norway is also open, with about 3km (2 miles) of runs available. It's into the final 4 weeks of its planned 2024 season, which is expected to end early next month.

SCANDINAVIA FORECAST

It is looking promising for snowfall later this week on those newly laid Finnish slopes and the surrounding green and brown mountainsides. Temperatures are forecast to hover a few degrees on either side of freezing, with rain, sleet, and snow expected in the run-up to the weekend. Galdhøpiggen is looking at increasingly wintry weather and some significant snowfall through the latter half of this week.