WORLD SNOW ROUNDUP #153
Issued: 19 August 2020
By Patrick “Snowhunter” Thorne
North American Roundup
European Roundup
Asia Roundup
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE OVERVIEW
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE INTRO| The big news this week is that ski areas in Chile have finally been allowed to open. The announcement by the Chilean government that this would be permitted for half-a-dozen ski areas in the country was made last week. La Parva and El Colorado are the first two to open over the last 24 hours; however, there are lots of restrictions. The limitations are perhaps the strictest in the world so far, including no weekend operations, as well as centres only being open to locally-based pass holders. Therefore, some centres say it probably won’t be worth them opening for the remaining months of the season. Others say they may be open for three months from now to November as there’s been so much snow, the most for 15 years in some cases. Chile’s borders will remain closed at least to mid-September.
The news that ski areas can open in Chile means only South Africa is left as the only country where ski areas can’t open. And with the natural 2020 ski conditions nearly over, it does not look likely that the sole area there, Tiffindell, will be able to open at all for skiers now until 2021.
Elsewhere, New Zealand has begun operating with pandemic restrictions for the first time and Australia has had fresh snowfall but most areas remain closed due to the surge in the pandemic in Victoria. That said, Perisher and Thredbo in New South Wales are open, the former with the largest snow area open anywhere in the world at present. In Argentina, more areas have been opening to locals so most of the country’s resorts are now operating.
AUSTRALIA
AUSTRALIA REPORT| After largely sunny weather it has turned much more unsettled in Australia since the weekend with light to moderate snowfalls gradually building bases, although they are still low for this point in the season. The country’s biggest resort, Perisher (40/87cm / 16/35″) is reporting slightly less terrain open than a week ago, 73km (45 miles) , but that’s still the most of any area on the planet at present. With most other ski areas closed by the second-wave of the pandemic in Victoria, Thredbo (15/86cm / 6/35″) is the only other large resort open, with 45km of trails skiable. It’s also one of the biggest open areas in the world at present. In Tasmania, Ben Lomond has reported stormy, warm and wet weather which has impacted the snowpack; however, the centre was still able to open some terrain in recent days. But it says it will not close until the weekend by which time it hopes there will be some fresh snow.
AUSTRALIA FORECAST| A very snowy week ahead in Australia which could see some of the best conditions of the winter so far. The most optimistic forecasts are suggesting up to a metre (40 inches) of snowfall may be possible. Temperatures are set to be in the region of freezing down to five degrees below for much of the week ahead with regular dumps across the country’s ski slopes.
NEW ZEALAND
NEW ZEALAND REPORT| There’s been largely sunny conditions in New Zealand over the past week but with a few light snowfalls in places at times. The leading commercial fields were busy at the weekend reporting full carparks by early morning and blue sky conditions. It’s unclear if capacity was reduced with the new coronavirus operating restrictions coming into force. Coronet Peak (30/135cm / 12/54″) is reporting the deepest base in the country with Mt Hutt (35/121cm / 14/48″) having the most terrain open, all 40km of its runs. Overall, the 2020 season is not turning out to be a particularly stunning one for snowfall so far and it has been warmer than most would like. Although most areas are now open some club fields still need more snow. Temple Basin and Manganui currently say they hope to open from next weekend.
NEW ZEALAND FORECAST| After the recent sunny spell conditions are due to start changing to something snowier from the middle of this week. Temperatures are forecast to dip below freezing and stay there (if only by a few degrees) with regular snowfall expected through the remainder of the week and into the weekend.
ARGENTINA
ARGENTINA REPORT| The delayed start of the 2020 ski season in Argentina continues with Caviahue the latest ski area to open for its ‘micro-region’ of local skiers. Most Argentinian ski areas are now open for local skiers although several, including one of the largest, Las Lenas, earlier confirmed they would not open this year. It has been an often cold, sometimes snowy and occasionally windy week, leading some areas to announces the day before that they would not open in case the weather caused operational difficulties and a build-up of skier numbers. Chapelco (90/350cm / 36/140”) has the deepest snow in the Southern Hemisphere and the second deepest in the world. It has around 20km of runs open. Catedral (90/235cm / 36 /94”) was one of those closed at the start of this week due to snowy, wintery weather but it usually has the most terrain open on the continent, around 50km the last time it was open.
ARGENTINA FORECAST| Following the recently snowy weather it should be sunny and rather warm for the remainder of this week with temperatures yo-yoing between 10 degrees below and 10 degrees above freezing. More changeable weather with some fresh snowfall is forecast from Sunday.
CHILE
CHILE REPORT| As mentioned in our introduction, ski areas in Chile are finally able to open this week and, whilst we do not have any recorded snow depths at the time of writing, it may be that we’ll finally see someone overtake Norway’s glacier slopes which have been posting the world’s deepest snow depth for six months now. At this time two ski areas, La Parva and El Colorado are opening for local skiers only. It has been mostly cold and sunny in recent days although with a little light snowfall so it’s looking good at present for those long-delayed opening days. Ski areas are set to open for local skiers until Friday, close at the weekend, then re-open next Monday.
CHILE FORECAST| The weather is looking sunny for the opening few days of the season with wall-to-wall sunshine for the rest of this week. Temperatures should remain below freezing throughout, however, so it’s looking like a good opening few days of the season are on the cards.
SOUTHERN AFRICA
SOUTHERN AFRICA REPORT| We’re into the last fortnight of the normal ski season in southern Africa and it’s looking like winter 2020 could end without the ski season being allowed to start at Tiffindell, in South Africa, due to pandemic restrictions. If that happens it would become the first country to lose a whole season to the virus. Over the border in Lesotho, at Afriski, the season continues much as before with a 600-metre main slope still open and temperatures ranging from a few degrees below to a few degrees above freezing, plus wall-to-wall sunshine. It did report a light dusting of snow on Tuesday morning. The season here was the first to begin in the Southern Hemisphere at the start of June and is due to end a week on Sunday.
SOUTHERN AFRICA FORECAST| There’s no real change in the forecast for the final week and days of Afriski’s 2020 season with non-stop sunshine and temperatures hovering around freezing most of the time.
NORTH AMERICA OVERVIEW
NORTH AMERICA REPORT| The big excitement in North America this past week was some fresh snowfall up high up north. Marmot Basin up in northern Alberta near Jasper posted pictures of snow-covered slopes.
In terms of lift-served skiing and boarding though, with the terrain park at Copper in Colorado closing, there’s just Timberline ski area (0/36″ / 0/90cm) on Mt Hood, in Oregon, open now through to early September. It has continued warm and sunny here and the only real change of status was a positive COVID test on an employee in the resort’s bike park which was briefly closed for a deep clean as self-isolation and track and trace protocols were put into place, but that didn’t impact the ski area.
Some US ski areas have begun talking about next winter. It’s now only a couple of months until resorts in Colorado and a few other areas aim to open for the season in a normal year. Loveland, one of the world’s highest resorts, say they hope to open on schedule, potentially in late October. They say the season will be different with mask-wearing and social-distancing part of the ‘new normal’ but that they plan to operate a normal season otherwise.
NORTH AMERICA FORECAST| There’s little change in the forecast of warm, sunny weather for Oregon during another week, temperatures on the mountain staying above freezing. That said there’s just the outside chance of brief periods of cloud and even light rain.
INTRODUCTION EUROPE
The weather has been warming up in the Alps and that has led to the temporary closure of Austria’s Molltal glacier which will re-open in mid-September. It ceased ski operations for around a month at the end of the day on Sunday. This was done in order, they say, to preserve the snow on the glacier until busier times in late September and October. The Molltal closure takes the number of open areas in Europe down to seven in five countries. There was some fresh snow up high though, on Tuesday morning, with the Hintertux glacier reporting blizzard conditions for a time. Meanwhile, up in Finland, Levi ski area has noted that it’s less than 50 days to the start of the season there, they hope, as they plan to open for the season on October 2nd using snow stored from last spring in the process known as ‘snow farming.’ Ruka, in Finland, also aims to open in early October using the same technique.
ALPS
ALPS REPORT| With the announcement of the Molltal glacier closing on Sunday we’re unexpectedly down to five areas open in the Alps across four countries, with Switzerland the only one with two areas open. It is very unusual for only one centre to be open in Austria. The weather has been pretty typical, a little above freezing and mostly sunny up on the glaciers (much warmer in the valleys). There’s been some precipitation and even occasional snow flurries at night.
Year-round Hintertux (0/125cm / 0/50″) has seen its base diminish quite a lot this month. The amount of terrain open is also down to 20km. No real change at Les 2 Alpes (0/180cm / 0/72″) which continues to have around half its summer ski terrain open (16km/10 miles of slopes); the only area open in France at present. Its final summer ski season week is due next week and it currently looks like this year it will make it without having to close early. In Italy, the one area open is Passo Stelvio (0/180cm / 0/72”) with 6km of runs skiable. The two Swiss options are Saas-Fee (0/205cm / 0 82″) and Europe’s highest runs at Zermatt (0/220cm / 0/88″), which has the deepest base in the Alps now and with 15km of runs open (also accessible from Cervinia on the Italian side of the border).
ALPS FORECAST| It’s looking changeable for the week ahead though with sunshine more often the case than rain/snow flurries. Temperature up on the glaciers will continue to vary from a few degrees below freezing up into positive stats, but mostly not too warm. That said, later this week it could get 10 degrees above freezing in the afternoons at glacier level which clearly isn’t good news for the snowpack.
SCANDANAVIA
SCANDINAVIA REPORT| Two glacier ski areas remain open in Norway. Fonna (300/400cm / 120/160″) remains the only open area in the world reporting a 4-metre base. Although it is down 10 metres on its peak four months ago (and some areas in Chile might have deeper if they could open). It’s 5km of slopes are all open. Galdhopiggen (30/150cm / 12/50″) has a thinner base and only about 75% of its 2km of runs open. Both areas have been enjoying warm, sunny weather.
SCANDINAVIA FORECAST|After the largely sunny conditions the coming week should see temperatures staying warm (5-10 degrees above freezing), but with much cloudier conditions and quite a lot of precipitation. With these temperatures and at this time of year this means mostly rain not snow, unfortunately.
ASIA
There are no known ski areas operating lifts for the purpose of skiing in Asia at present, except within indoor snow centres.
