Europe Weekly Roundup #266

Ski Season Heats Up in Europe and North America – Who’s Opening Next?

• Austria holds the lead with the most open ski areas, though warmer weather has slowed snowmaking.
• France and Italy are gearing up for season openings, with Italy’s Cervinia-Zermatt connection already accessible.
• Switzerland and Scandinavia have both seen early openings, with snow farming supporting initial trails and slopes.

WORLD OVERVIEW

Although a few more ski areas have opened in Europe this week, including Switzerland’s Murren, with more than 20 open in six countries there now, it’s a more dynamic situation in North America where ski centres in the Rockies are lining up to launch.

Three are now open in Colorado, along with one ion Nevada, with at least two more set to join this coming weekend when it seems the US might jump to the top spot for country with most centres open in the world, having just one available this time a week ago. Unfortunately, Canada’s 24-25 season didn’t start as hoped in Banff last weekend, but all three Banff areas and several more resorts in Alberta are expected to open this coming weekend. Mainland Europe has had more than a week now of predominantly dry, mild and sunny weather in most areas.

Fortunately, it has not been so warm as to do much damage to glacial snowpack, but it has been too warm for any pre-season snowmaking to take place so fast change would be welcome now. It’s a different story up north in Scandinavia where subzero temperatures and snow have now arrived after an unusually warm October there.

Elsewhere in the wider world it’s been mild, wet and windy in Japan, with even a typhoon impacting some areas, so there no real pre-season progress there. However North Africa’s Atlas Mountains have reported fresh snow down to their bases in Morocco to start November. There was a very late spring snowfall in the southern hemisphere too with Argentina’s La Hoya, which closed for the season almost two months ago, reporting a decent covering to start the week.

EUROPE

AUSTRIA REPORT

Austria is holding on to its position of having the most ski areas open in the world, but depending on how many are open in the US by the weekend, it could be dropping to the number two spot. Possibly even number three if more Swiss centres open than have so far announced they will. For now though there are seven Austrian glaciers to choose from. Solden (0/45cm / 0/18”) still has the most terrain open in the world, just, with about 32km (20 miles) of slopes. 

Hintertux (0/85cm / 0/34”) is just a few kilometres behind now though with 29km (18 miles), nearly half its full area. The Stubai Glacier (0/45cm / 0/18”) also has more than 20km (13 miles) of runs available., Salzburgerland’s Kitzsteinhorn (0/110cm / 0/44”) above Kaprun has the deepest snow in the country and you can also ski at the Kaunertal, Molltal and Piztal glaciers. As to the weather, it’s been warm and sunny, meaning glorious conditions on the glaciers, but ski areas will be wanting to see a temperature drop now and more wintery weather arriving so snowmaking systems can fire up and there’s snowfall for base building.

As it is, the freezing point has been up to around 4,000m. Kitzbuhel is expected to be the 8th Austrian area to open, creating a couple of kilometres (mile or so) of piste at Resterkogel using snow farming – snow stored over summer under covers ready for reuse this autumn.

AUSTRIA FORECAST

It’s still not looking great for ski areas wanting to get snowmaking underway or hoping for some more natural snowfall ahead of the season start but it is getting colder, the freezing point moving down to around 2000m and overnight lows on Austrian glaciers back a few degrees below freezing. But it looks set to continue predominantly clear and sunny into next week.

FRANCE REPORT

It has been a warm and sunny week in the French Alps with temperatures on glaciers in the freezing to +5C range and in valleys +10 to +20C, so almost feeling more late summer than November at times. Nowhere is open in France at present and nowhere had planned to be. However Chamonix, Tignes and Val Thorens are now just over a fortnight away from target opening dates around the 23rd of the month, the first in France for 24-25 unless anywhere can sneak in early.

FRANCE FORECAST

There is a more wintery forecast for the latter half of this week with much more cloud, the freezing point dropping and some light to moderate snow showers expected above about 2000m altitudes.

ITALY REPORT

With summer ski centre Passo Stelvio, which had had the most terrain open on Italian soil, closing at the weekend, there’s less skiing currently available in Italy than there was a week ago. That said, the connection between Cervinia and Zermatt is now open again so that accesses 24km (15 miles) of slopes from Italy, if not technically in it! The only other centre open is Val Senales (0/50cm / 0/20”) with about 2.5km (1.5 miles) of slopes open. However at least one more Italian area is expected to open this coming weekend. Sulden in the Ortler region often opens in October but the recent warm and sunny weather appears to have delayed things. Conditions are looking more promising now though.

ITALY FORECAST

Although there’s not much snow in the forecast and still plenty of sunshine, we can console ourselves that temperatures are starting to dip in the latter half of this week with the freezing point moving down towards 2000m from its recent 4000m+ and overnight lows at 3000m down as far as -7C, so higher snowmaking systems should be able to fire up.

SWITZERLAND REPORT

Swiss centres have enjoyed a week of glorious sunny weather. Temperatures have been mild for the time of year, but fortunately only got a few degrees above freezing on glaciers, so there’s not been too much thawing yet. But it has been too warm for snowmaking. We’ve reached six Swiss ski areas open with Schilthorn – Mürren the latest to do so, in its case thanks to snow farming. In fact it reports its been offering training facilities to athletes since late September but is now opening to everyone, including a terrain park and a couple of miles (3km) of runs, at the weekend.

It’s a similar scenery to recently opened Adelboden which has just over a kilometre (.8 mile) of snow-farmed snow slope open at TschentenAlp. The other four Swiss centres currently open are all glacier resorts, now switching to winter mode, although the weather may not currently agree. Zermatt, which would have been hosting World Cup races about now had things gone differently, has the most terrain open, about 24km (15 miles) of runs. It’s neighbour Saas Fee has about 10km (6 miles) of runs at present and you can also currently ski on the Titlis Glacier (0/310cm / 0/124”) above Engelberg and at the Diavolezza Glacier (0/40cm / 0/16”) near St Moritz. Engelberg has about 7km (4 miles) of slopes open so far plus the world’s deepest reported base at present, for the Diavolezza its a few kilometres (1.5 miles) of runs open so far. Gstaad’s Glacier 3000 has said it plans to open this coming weekend and Verbier may also open its high terrain for the season.

SWITZERLAND FORECAST

Continuing predominantly sunny through the rest of this week but getting a little cooler so glaciers will drop back below freezing overnight and the snowline moves down to about 2200m. That could be crucial as conditions look to become more unsettled with the chance of snowfall returning to higher slopes at the weekend.

SCANDINAVIA REPORT

Temperatures have finally dipped, snowmaking systems fired up and there’s been some natural snowfall too in northern Scandinavia. That’s stabilised things at Finland’s Levi (40/40cm / 16/16”) and Ruka (40/40cm / 16/16”) ski areas which had been battling to preserve their runs created with snow farmed from last season which had been threatened by the mild conditions since it was laid back out on their slopes a month ago.

It’s a similar story for Sweden’s Kåbdalis (40/50cm / 16/20”) which also has a slope open thanks to snow farming. Temperatures have been down as low as -10C overnight with daytime highs remain subzero too. A second Swedish centre, Tärnaby, is expected to open this coming weekend whilst Norway’s Bjorli, which has been posting some very snowy looking images, is also due to start its season. It will replace the closing Galdhøpiggen summer ski centre which ends its six-month long 2024 run.

SCANDINAVIA FORECAST

It’s looking a little warmer for the coming week than the last but overnight lows should still be dropping well below freezing, allowing snowmaking systems to fire up. A mixture of sunny and cloudy weather there’s not much snow forecast, just a few centimetres here and there.