WORLD SNOW ROUNDUP #152
Issued: 12 August 2020
By Patrick “Snowhunter” Thorne
North American Roundup
European Roundup
Asia Roundup
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE OVERVIEW
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE INTRO| Yet another week of good news and bad for the world’s current winter season areas. As has all too often been the case this year, the bad news is more COVID-19 related rather than snowfall.
New Zealand, which was a shining light in the world’s lockdown back in June, when the country was able to lift restrictions to such an extent that social distancing wasn’t required on the slopes when the season started, has reintroduced level 2 lockdown for at least the next three days. This is now more like what the rest of the world has as the current norm in terms of social-distancing, increased hygiene and contact tracing. It’s because the country has had its first cases, unrelated to overseas travel, in 100 days. It’s not too bad for the centres as they had planned to open under level 2 anyway back in June, before the early lifting of lockdown Therefore, they had preparations in place; however many, although not all, have closed mid-week to get protocols back in place and staff on a refresher course.
Elsewhere, not a lot has changed. Australia had a snowy week but most of its ski areas are closed due to the pandemic (or in Selwyn’s case, the earlier bush fires). More areas have opened to locally-based skiers in Argentina but Chile and south Africa remain closed to skiers. There is some possible good news from Chile. It is reported the country, or at least parts of it, are in ‘transition phase’ and some resorts including La Parva are allowing day visitors, although the lifts and skiing remain closed.
AUSTRALIA
AUSTRALIA REPORT| It’s been the snowiest week for quite a while in Australia with ski areas reporting up to around half a metre (20 inches) of snowfall through last week, then largely good weather since the weekend. Alas, most areas are closed due to the pandemic in Victoria province so it’s really just Perisher (40/87cm / 15/35″) and Charlotte Pass (40/87cm / 15/35″), as well as Thredbo (15/86cm / 6/35″), open on the mainland in New South Wales. As a result of the fresh snow Perisher now has 73km of runs open, almost twice as much as any centre currently open worldwide. It’s also worth mentioning that the ski season did get underway in Tasmania, on Ben Lomond, after the island reported fresh snow and some of its coldest ever temperatures, colder than Antarctica at times.
AUSTRALIA FORECAST| It’s looking quite snowy in New South Wales over the coming week after a sunny Wednesday. Temperatures should be a few degrees above or below freezing for much of the coming week and light snowfall is expected from Thursday through the weekend, perhaps totalling 10-20cm by Monday.
NEW ZEALAND
NEW ZEALAND REPORT| The news of the re-introduction of a level 3 lockdown for Auckland and level 2 for the rest of the country has been the big news of the past 24 hours in New Zealand. This may take the shine off the good weather the centres have been enjoying after some windy and sometimes snowy (up to Saturday) weather at the end of last week and into the weekend. Most ski areas in the country are closed on Wednesday for staff training and to get increased hygiene, as well as social-distancing markers in place but Ruapehu’s Turoa (45/125cm / 18/50”) and Whakapapa ski centres (40/97cm / 16/39”) on Mt Ruapehu, say they were already prepped enough and are staying open. Most of the others hope to re-open on Thursday. Of the areas closing on Wednesday, Mt Hutt (45/1231cm / 18/48”) has one of the deepest bases and biggest areas of terrain open in the country with all 40km (25miles) of runs open.
NEW ZEALAND FORECAST| It’s looking fairly dry but mostly cold over the week ahead which, combined with sunny skies, should make for great conditions once resorts re-open. The temperature range is from about 7 degrees below freezing to seven degrees above but mostly hovering nearer to zero Celcius.
ARGENTINA
ARGENTINA REPORT| The cautious opening of ski centres in Argentina is continuing with most of the country’s ski centres now operating on a limited basis for locally based skiers and boarders. Most have limited terrain open. Some are only open at weekends and all are quicker than usual to close in bad weather, or even when there’s a threat of bad winter, to remove the danger of groups of people having to hunker down together in one way or another. Catedral (90/235cm / 36/94”) has one of the deepest snow bases in the world at present and its 40km of open runs is also one of the five largest skiable areas open right now, although only a third of its 120km full extent.
ARGENTINA FORECAST| It looks like a return to very snowy weather over the coming week for most ski areas in Argentina. Around 10cm (4 inches) a day is expected from Thursday through to next week at Catedral meaning that half-a-metre (20cm) of snowfall is possible by the time of our next report. Temperatures look like they’ll be mostly subzero and typically 5-10 degrees below.
CHILE
CHILE REPORT| There appears to be some growing frustration as Chile’s ski areas remain shut during the lockdown and during one of the snowiest winters there for some years. The ski resorts continue to post “Stay home, stay safe” messages on social media but some of the comments are asking why indoor shopping malls have apparently been able to open but not ski slopes. Chile’s ski areas got together for a public ‘webinar’ last Friday, August 7th to talk about the economic and social impact of winter on the mountain. This included a presentation from the Association of Ski Centres of Chile who are developing a protocol to face COVID-19. The resorts are also stressing that there’s so much snow this year the ski season could run at least a month later than usual, to November, if it is allowed to start before then. As mentioned in the section introduction some resorts are now allowing non-skiing day visitors so this may be a positive sign.
CHILE FORECAST| In contrast to Argentina the forecast is generally drier but, if anything, colder in southwestern South America with the temps double-digits below freezing in the mountains. The forecast is for mainly clear skies.
SOUTHERN AFRICA
SOUTHERN AFRICA REPORT| Alas Tiffindell, in South Africa, remains closed due to the pandemic and with only a fortnight or so left of the southern African ski season in normal times, it looks like it might be the first country to completely lose out on a ski season due to the pandemic. Lesotho’s Afriski, which was the first area to open this winter in the Southern Hemisphere has had another cold snowy week. It continues to maintain a 600-metre-long main run but its problem looks to be lack of skiers with the border to South Africa, where most usually arrive from, still closed.
SOUTHERN AFRICA FORECAST| There’s no real change in the expected forecast with temperatures hovering a degree or two above or below freezing and wall to wall sunshine for another week, the Lesotho norm.
NORTH AMERICA OVERVIEW
NORTH AMERICA REPORT| Timberline (36/36″/ 90/90cm) continues to post a three feet base on its year-round snowfield as it has done for the past few months. The weather has remained consistently warm and sunny, typically 5-15 degrees above freezing on the mountain, 20-30 degrees above at the base. The only thing new at the resort this week was an employee in the bike park testing positive for COVID-19 but all the standard contact-tracing and self-isolation of co-worker measures were taken and ski operations were unaffected. There are just over three weeks left of the 10 month ski season here. The other North American ski lift still serving up snow for skiers and boarders is up high at Copper Mountain, in Colorado. It’s the last few days of operation at the Woodward freestyle facility which has been shaped into a terrain park and open for team training plus those booked in for courses. Their summer season is set to end on Sunday.
NORTH AMERICA FORECAST| It is looking like another week of full sunshine and warm temperatures on Mt Hood, in Oregon, with daytime temperatures of 5-15 above freezing up on the slopes and about ten degrees warmer down in resort.
INTRODUCTION EUROPE
Following the various opening and closing of ski areas over the past few months, dependent on their various summer ski season schedules, there have been no changes in the past week with the same six glacier areas open in the Alps in Austria, France, Italy and Switzerland.
In recent years August has proved a challenging month for glacier areas with resorts in Austria, France, Italy and Norway (as well as Timberline in the US) having to close temporarily or end their summer seasons earlier than planned as warm weather melted away thin cover. So far, with August almost half over, it’s looking like they’ll be able to stay open this year.
It is now only a month and in some cases less, until the first of the ‘autumn opening’ glaciers in the Alps are due to start their 20-21 ski seasons. They overlap with the closing summer-ski centres and the handful of areas already open through to next spring (or year-round).
ALPS
ALPS REPORT| After the excitement of the heavy fresh snow a week ago things have reverted to something closer to normal over the past week, with mostly sunny, warm weather in the Alps.
In Austria, there’s a choice of two glacier areas currently open for downhill skiing, as well as the Dachstein, which is currently only offering cross-country. Year-round Hintertux (0/165cm / 0/66″) says there’s 20km (13 miles) of trails open there, currently the joint-most. The Molltal Glacier (0/200cm / 0/80”) has a smaller area but deeper base.
In the French Alps, it looks like Les 2 Alpes (0/180cm / 0/72″) should make it through August to its planned summer season closing date at the end of this month if that upper-slope base depth is correct; however, its claim of having Europe’s largest summer glacier area may not be quite right in August as 16km (10 miles) of runs are reported open, about half the maximum possible.
Italy’s Passo Stelvio (0/180cm / 0/72”) is posting the same snow depth stats. It has 6km of runs open and had more fresh snow than a week ago.
In Switzerland, Saas-Fee (0/205cm / 0/82″) equals Hintertux in having the most runs open at present in Europe with 20km (13 miles) of runs. It’s neighbour, Zermatt (0/220cm / 0/88”), says 15km (nine miles) of runs are open on the Klein Matterhorn which can also be accessed from Cervinia on the Italian side. 220cm/88” is the deepest snow in the Alps on an open glacier at present. The Swiss Alpine Team are reported to be training on the glacier there this summer.
ALPS FORECAST| Quite mixed conditions for Europe’s glaciers over the next seven days with predominantly dry weather but periods of precipitation. Temperatures around freezing (sometimes a few degrees below) up to five above so at the lower end that precipitation may fall as snow at times. Down in the valleys, it’s about 20 degrees warmer. Depending on which glacier, Thursday, Friday and next Monday currently look the most promising for more snow.
SCANDANAVIA
SCANDINAVIA REPORT| Following the season-end closure of the Stryn glacier, there are two centres sill open in Norway. Both have enjoyed mostly sunny conditions following the light snow dusting a week or so back. Fonna (300/400cm / 120/160”) may no longer have the epic base it had back at the start of the season in the spring but is still posting the deepest base in the world at present, as it has since April. The other open area is Scandinavia’s highest centre at Galdhopiggen (30/100cm / 12/40”). It is a little cooler here and also reporting good conditions for mid-summer.
SCANDINAVIA FORECAST|A There’s mostly sun in the forecast for the week ahead with temperatures of 5-15 degrees above freezing for Fonna, a degree or two cooler at Galdhopiggen, where there may also be some rain Wednesday-Thursday, otherwise dry.
ASIA
There are no known ski areas operating lifts for skiing in Asia at present, except within indoor snow centres.
