Europe Weekly Roundup #265

Winter Begins Early: 20 European Ski Resorts Now Open for 24-25 Season

• Snow has blanketed slopes across Europe, including the Pyrenees and the southern resorts of Spain and Portugal, bringing early excitement for skiers.
• Austria leads with the most open terrain, hosting the World Cup season kickoff at Sölden, which has over 32km of slopes available.
• Scandinavian resorts are finally cooling down enough for snowmaking, with Finnish and Swedish resorts leveraging stored snow to keep slopes open.

OVERVIEW

Last weekend saw more centres opening in the Swiss Alps as well as up in Scandinavia, taking the number of centres open in Europe (and the northern hemisphere/world) close to the 20 mark. There was some snowfall towards the end of last week, not just on high slopes in the Alps but also in regions like the Pyrenees that don’t yet have anywhere open. In fact, the latest snowfall in the Iberian peninsular extended to Europe’s most southerly resort, Spain’s Sierra Nevada, and the mainland’s most westerly, Portugal’s Serra De Estrella. Since then though it has been rather warm to high elevations and unfortunately that’s now the forecast into the first few days of November. That’s not the case in northern Europe though where temperatures have finally dropped in Scandinavia allowing snowmaking to fire up and there’s been a dusting of snow up high in Scotland too.

AUSTRIA REPORT

Austria continues to lead the world in terms of having the most centres open and the most terrain available at the centres that have opened. They also had all eyes on their slopes at the weekend as Sölden (0/106cm / 0/42”) hosted the opening World Cup ski races of the 24-25 Alpine Ski Tour, Women’s and Men’s GS races on their Rettenbach glacier. Sölden is also currently posting the most terrain open in the world with about 32km (20 miles) of terrain open so far. There was some snowfall here and on Austria’s other glaciers at the end of last week, but the falls were fairly light with rain below around 2500m (and sometimes as high as 3,000m in the afternoons). There have also been strong winds – not unusually – on high slopes. The Stubai (0/45cm / 0/18”) and Hintertux (0/85cm / 0/34”) both have more than 20km (13 miles) of slopes open; whilst the Kaunertal (30/40cm / 12/16”), Kitzsteinhorn (0/110cm / 0/44”) and Pitztal (30/70cm, / 12/28”) all have more than 10km (7 miles) of slopes skiable. Carinthia’s Molltal Glacier with a reported 2.5km (1.5 miles) of slopes. With the seven Austrian glacier areas open there are no plans for any other areas to open in the country for a few weeks. Kitzbuhel is expected to be next though, early in November, thanks to their snow farming operation, then the first non-glacier areas Obergurl and Obertauern a little later in the month.

AUSTRIA FORECAST

It’s not a bad forecast for Austria’s glacier ski areas, with sunny skies expected into the weekend and temperatures around freezing above 3000m, but with the freezing point between 2500 and 3500m all week, as we move into November lower level ski centres, will be nervously looking towards colder temperatures arriving so snowmaking can get started and any natural snowfall that comes will stick around.

FRANCE REPORT

There remains nowhere open in France at present. In years past, Les 2 Alpes and Tignes would currently be open but both have decided to finish offering autumn skiing and boarding. There are though reported to be decent snow depths on France glaciers, as with the rest of the Alps, thanks to top autumn snowfalls up high. The French ski season is expected to begin in just over three weeks, with Chamonix, Tignes and Val Thorens all planning to open for the final week of the month.

FRANCE FORECAST

After some further snowfalls on glaciers at the weekend, it's been predominantly sunny in the French Alps since the start of this week and that’s expected to continue for the rest of this week. It is a little milder than it has been with the freezing point between 2,500 and 3,500m, and temperatures on glaciers in the -3 to +3C range.

ITALY REPORT

There’s been no change in the number of centres open in Italy, with Passo Stelvio (5/120cm / 2/48”) and Val Senales (0/50cm / 0/20”) both offering small amounts of terrain, largely taken up by race teams training. However, one change this week is that the lift connection from Cervinia up to Zermatt's glacier, which had been promoted as year-round but has been closed for the past two months, has now re-opened. The weather on Italian glaciers has been similar to elsewhere, a little warmer than ideal at times, with some snow and occasional rain and turning sunny since the weekend. Unless it extends its season, Sunday will mark the end of Passo Stelvio’s 2024 summer ski season. There are no more Italian areas expected to open next weekend, but the Pragelato Glacier above Passo Tonale and Sulden ski area are both targeting the weekend after next, from November 98th, at present.

ITALY FORECAST

It’s a mostly sunny forecast for Italy too, with the freezing point also set to climb above 3,000m as we start November. There’s little or no precipitation expected until next week and temperatures on glaciers will climb a little above freezing at 3,000m.

SWITZERLAND REPORT

We’re up to five Swiss areas now with Engelberg the latest to start their season, on Saturday, running their Ice Flyer chairlift on their Titlis glacier ski slopes. Engelberg joins already open St Moritz (0/40cm / 0/16”) (Diavolezza Glacier – weekends only at present), Saas-Fee (0/180cm / 0/72”) and Zermatt (0/150cm / 0/60”), all with an expanding amount of glacier terrain available as they switch to winter modes, whilst Adelboden (0/40cm / 0/16”) has also open limited terrain in its TschentenAlp sector, although in its case using snow farmed snow recycled from last winter rather than glacier slopes. Some of these centres are only open at weekends at present. There’s been more fresh snowfall up high, the snowline mostly between 2000 and 2500m with rain below. However, accumulations of 10-20cm (4-8”) have been reported on glaciers. Murren is expected to be the sixth Swiss area to open, this coming weekend. It reports it actually had terrain open, thanks to snow farming, since late September but has only allowed Swiss ski teams access to it for pre-season training. From Saturday though it will be open to all, at weekends only though initially with training continuing during the week.

SWITZERLAND FORECAST

Unfortunately, the forecast is for predominantly sunny weather over the coming week with temperatures climbing a few degrees above freezing on glaciers and staying in the teens to low 20s down in the valley. That said it should continue to be very pleasant on glaciers in the sunshine, with not much thawing expected, but the wait continues for good snowmaking conditions and/or early snowfalls to lower elevations.

SCANDINAVIA REPORT

Finland's Levi (40/40cm / 16/16") and Ruka (40/40cm / 16/16") ski areas which opened at the start of the month with a few kilometres (1.5 miles) of slopes created with snow stockpiled through the summer from last season and spread back out on the slopes have been struggling with warmer weather than they’d like thawing the old snow and without many of the overnight frosts they'd expect in October. But it is now a little colder and there have been some snow flurries so there is some hope that a corner will be turned. It’s a similar issue for Sweden’s Kåbdalis (40/50cm / 16/20”) which opened with the same technique just over a week ago. In Norway though things are much more wintery on Scandinavia’s highest slopes, the Galdhøpiggen glacier summer ski area (20/110cm / 16/44”). This is actually, officially, the final week of its season, with closure day scheduled for Sunday, unless it's extended.

SCANDINAVIA FORECAST

Continuing to hover around the freezing point in northerly Scandinavia with a mix of light snow showers and sunny spells expected. Levi and Ruka both say they plan to start snowmaking imminently now that temperatures have dropped.