WORLD SNOW ROUNDUP #164
Issued: 04 November 2020
By Patrick “Snowhunter” Thorne
European Roundup
North American Roundup
Asia Roundup
Southern Hemisphere Roundup
EUROPE INTRODUCTION
Unfortunately (it is never good to start a weekly snow report with this word), the good progression through autumn 2020 towards the start of the main season has hit a major bump in the road. It’s not due to snow conditions, which remain better than average up on higher slopes, but the resurging virus. It has led Austria, France, Germany and Italy (so far) to go into November lockdowns and close their ski areas.
So whilst we have some new areas open that weren’t open a week ago, about 10 of the three dozen ski areas that had opened in October and planned to stay open straight through to next spring are now temporarily closed until the end of this month or early December. All being well, the mini-lockdowns will not be extended or broader restrictions put in place on ski areas but that’s completely unknown at present.
Most of the closed areas are in Austria. Only Tignes, in France, was due to be open this week although others that had planned to open later in the month will have to now review those plans and delay. Italy is an interesting case as only Cervinia has closed to the general public, of the three areas that were open last week. The other two are in a semi-autonomous region and have decided to ignore the national ruling and open anyway, saying they believe their safety protocols are adequate to remain open.
Against this gloomy picture though, hopefully we’re not tempting fate to say things are looking good in Switzerland where no less than 10 ski areas were open at the weekend with four more opening for the first time this autumn. As Austrian ski areas were still open at that point we got up to around 40 ski areas open worldwide on Saturday and Sunday, now back down to around 30. There’s a much greater onus on pandemic spread prevention measures in Switzerland than there has been in the Alps to date, with limited numbers for the first time at some centres and riding some lifts.
Elsewhere, ski areas remain open in Scandinavia with no real talk of any lockdowns there and the pre-season is progressing fairly normally, for now.
As to the weather, if anyone is still thinking about that, there were lighter snowfalls at high altitudes and latitudes at the end of last week and start of this with a rather warm weekend in between.
AUSTRIA
AUSTRIA REPORT| Sadly, Austria followed France, Germany and Italy in announcing a new month-long lockdown on the weekend which came in to force on Tuesday and will last throughout November. As with other countries, the hope is to stop the spread of the virus, currently rising rapidly, and then open as normal for the main ski season in December. The next few weeks will show whether that’s possible or not. At the time the new measures began on 4th November nine Austrian ski areas were open, most of them glaciers.
Though it is difficult to have to write this, the start of November saw excellent conditions for the time of year after some very good October snowfalls and glaciers were expanding the areas they had open.
Most Austrian ski areas don’t open until December anyway so are currently hoping that that will still happen, whilst the closed glaciers are saying “we’ll re-open as soon as allowed”. Several areas were due to open mid-November though and most now have to delay, including Obergurgl and Obertauern. As throughout other countries experiencing the November lockdowns, elite sport is being allowed to continue and ski race team athlete training is continuing on glaciers.
AUSTRIA FORECAST| After a slightly too warm start to the week with snow up high, rain below, things should settle down for the next seven days with mostly clear weather. Temperatures around freezing to five above at 3000 metres, ten degrees warmer down in the valleys.
SWITZERLAND
SWITZERLAND REPORT| Switzerland, so far, is bucking the trend of November lockdowns, preferring instead to tighten restrictions on day-to-day life (overnight curfews, limits on group sizes etc). There’s also a strong onus on COVID-safe operations with some areas now limiting the number of people allowed on the mountain, everyone needing to pre-book and limit the numbers of people in cabin lifts.
Meanwhile, Swiss ski areas are opening and last weekend saw 10 open with Andermatt (0/180cm / 0/72”), Arosa, Laax (0/50cm / 0/20”) and Verbier (0/30cm / 0/12”) opening for the first time. Many are just opening at weekends, initially. In the case of Laax, only season pass holders were invited to ski at the weekend and Andermatt cut its capacity as it opened its ‘local’ Gemsstock freeride slopes from 12,000 down to 1,000 to allow social distancing. Meanwhile, Glacier 3000 near Gstaad and Les Diablerets, which is now into its second month open, although just approaching the date it had expected to open before all the late-September and October snowfall, has started limiting the number of people riding up in its cable cars by about two-thirds.
As to the weather, there have been some snow flurries but warm weekend weather led Arosa to lose its cross-country ski trails. But the weekend saw blue skies for many and perfect conditions to enjoy all the October powder.
Three Swiss resorts are currently open midweek. Saas-Fee (0/210cm / 0/84″) now has one of the biggest areas open in the world with 35km (22 miles) of runs skiable, as well as one of the deepest bases. Zermatt (0/220cm / 0/88”) has 26km (16 miles) of runs open, less than when the cross-border area over to Cervinia was open. Engelberg (0/110cm / 0/44”) is also open daily.
Other Swiss resorts open at weekends only at present include Davos (0/60cm / 0/24”) and St Moritz (25/80cm / 10/32”).
SWITZERLAND FORECAST| It’s looking mostly sunny for the week ahead on Swiss slopes, after a bit of midweek snowfall up high on the glaciers. Temperatures around freezing or below above 2000 metres so that should mean that existing snow cover should hold up OK.
FRANCE
FRANCE REPORT| The French government announced in the middle of last week that the country was heading into a month-long lockdown through November, meaning ski areas have to close. In fact, this only immediately impacts Tignes (4/90cm / 2/36″) in the first half of this month as the only other area that had been open at the time of the announcement last week, Les 2 Alpes, was already due to close for most of November anyway after a fortnight of October glacier skiing, which ended a few days earlier than planned. Most French resorts don’t start their seasons until December in any case and currently, they’re all hoping that the lockdown does successfully suppress the virus and they can all begin to open early next month as planned. As to snowfall, well there was some more in the Alps at the end of last week just as lockdown began, but it was rather warm at the weekend before a little more snow up high to start the week.
FRANCE FORECAST| It’s looking cold but mostly dry up high in the French Alps over the next few days. Down at resort level though temperatures are still reaching 10-15 degrees above freezing mid-afternoon so resort level snow cover remains some way off.
ITALY
ITALY REPORT| Italy was the first country to announce it was going into a November lockdown and this time last week we were not quite clear how that was going to play out; however, as of now, we know that some Italian ski areas have decided to stay open against the national ruling. They’re able to do so as they’re located in semi-autonomous regions where local rules can outweigh national ones. They’re arguing that the virus safety protocols they have in place plus the general mental and the physical upside of ski holidays outweigh any danger of them contributing to the pandemic spread. So currently you can still ski or board at Val Senales (5/100cm / 2/40”) or Sulden am Ortler (30/50cm / 12/20”). The latter has the most terrain open 18km/11 miles, there’s about half that in Val Senales. Cervinia too has re-opened since last Thursday, although in its case only to professional racers. One ski area has closed for the season though, as it was due to anyway, Passo Stelvio went out on a high after five months of spring-to-autumn skiing with heavy snows falling.
Indeed, there was snowfall for most high areas in Italy at the end of last week and the middle of this week after a rather warm weekend.
ITALY FORECAST| After the midweek snowfall up high it’s back to dry, mostly sunny weather. Upon the glaciers, temperatures should remain at or below freezing so the snow should hold up. Lower down we’re still getting into the teens Celcius (fifties Fahrenheit) so no chance of early snowfall there for now.
GERMANY
GERMANY REPORT| German has also announced a November lockdown so there’ll be no ski areas opening there until the start of winter. This doesn’t really impact many German ski areas as few open until December anyway, most mid-December, but the Zugspitze glacier, the country’s highest slopes, had been looking to open at the end of next week, potentially, after a mostly cold and snowy October laid down a good base. It now has to delay its plans.
GERMANY FORECAST| The weather is looking warmer and drier in the latter half of this week (although still cold enough up on the Zugspitze), but more consistent cold temperatures are needed to get the season started.
SCANDINAVIA
SCANDINAVIA REPORT| Scandinavia continues to see mostly cold weather and some fresh snow. The Galdhoppigen summer ski centre in Norway finally closed at the weekend but not before it posted 15cm (6”) of fresh snowfall for closing weekend. The five centres in Finland, Norway and Sweden that are currently open all started with snow saved from the previous season and spread back out on the slopes (snow-farming) but most now have a cover of natural snowfall from this season on top too.
SCANDINAVIA FORECAST|It looks like a snowy latter half of this week in the north before sunshine returns at the weekend, albeit in ever more limited daylight hours. Temperatures remaining slightly below freezing.
SCOTLAND
SCOTLAND REPORT| We returned to the wild and windy weather for which the Scottish Highlands are famous, but of which there’s been precious little since last winter. Lots of precipitation too but mostly rain, although some dusting of snow up high and getting lower in the valleys on Tuesday. Snow-making systems have also been fired up and Cairngorm produced a big pile of snow for snow play as they tested their all-weather snow-making machine. So far, Scotland is not going into the lockdown that England is.
SCOTLAND FORECAST| Similar weather in the forecast although with colder temperatures midweek the forecast is showing the chance of more snow cover up high in the latter half of this week and the hilltops should turn white again for a time.
SPAIN / ANDORRA
SPAIN / ANDORRA REPORT| After the often snowy October, the weather has been calmer over the past week with little change on a week ago, other than some thawing on lower slopes. Higher slopes did see a little more fresh snowfall to start the week though.
SPAIN / ANDORRA FORECAST| Temperatures shouldn’t stray too far above freezing on higher runs this week. More snowfall is expected on Friday/Saturday but otherwise mostly sunny conditions are forecast.
BULGARIA / ROMANIA REPORT
BULGARIA / ROMANIA REPORT| It has been colder in Bulgaria at last and some sleet and snow have been reported in the past few days on the country’s mountain tops, but nothing to get excited about yet.
BULGARIA / ROMANIA FORECAST| There’s not much snow in the forecast but temperatures are looking more promising than they’ve been recently, dipping below freezing on the slopes overnight and not getting more than a few degrees above freezing in the daytime either.
CZECH REPUBLIC / SLOVAKIA
CZECH REPUBLIC / SLOVAKIA REPORT| So far it remains a little too warm for snow-making and no ski areas are open as yet in Northeastern Europe. There’s been some rain in recent days but drier conditions now.
CZECH REPUBLIC / SLOVAKIA FORECAST|The rest of the week looks mostly dry with temperatures 1-10 degrees above freezing but getting cooler, especially on higher slopes, later this week.
NORTH AMERICA
NORTH AMERICA INTRO| A bit of a holding pattern in North America over the past week with mostly dry weather and temperatures warmer than the previous week for many, so attempts to build bases stalled a little.
The big exception was in the northeast at the start of this week where lots of fresh snowfall and cold weather led the first area to open in the region up in Quebec.
The most resorts open so far this season and there remain about half a dozen including several in Alberta and several in the Midwest. The usual candidates in Colorado were unable to open in October (although wolf Creek did), but the forecast is for colder, snowier weather later this week which should hopefully see areas starting to open now.
ROCKIES
ROCKIES REPORT| At the time of writing only Wolf Creek (26/28” / 55/60cm) was open in Colorado and the entire Western US. With November now here it can claim to be the only ski area in the region that managed to open in October 2020. Three more Colorado areas do look likely to open before this time next week.
Keystone had set Friday 6th November as their opening day for a long time. Owners Vail Resorts will be keen it does as a ‘mark in the sand’ for the world’s biggest ski resort operator, keen to show it is back in business after the pandemic shut-down last March. They want to encourage the purchase of the Epic Pass, pass holders being the only ones allowed on the slopes in November with no day ticket sales. The company previously made a lot of noise about their investment in state-of-the-art snow-making in Keystone and previously (pre-pandemic) said they’d open from October. Also due to open beyond October, are Arapahoe Basin and Loveland ski areas. They could open any day and will be waiting to do so before Keystone if they can.
Is the weather helping? Not much. It has been mostly dry and sunny. Overnight temperatures have been sub-zero allowing snow-making guns to fire but in the daytime its quite warm, which has the counter effect.
ROCKIES FORECAST| Not a lot of snow in the forecast still, with more sun up to the end of the week. There are two promising signs for snow-making though: daytime temperatures due to drop down to freezing by the weekend and to double digits below overnight. Plus a band of snowfall is expected on Saturday. So it is currently looking good for the weekend.
USA WEST
USA WEST REPORT|It has been back to wall-to-wall sunshine for much of the western US over the past week. After the very cold weather a little over a week ago temperatures have warmed up although it has remained cold enough overnight in many areas for snow-making systems to keep working at pre-season base-building.
No resorts have opened in the region so far but they are getting close with some of the big hitters, including Mammoth, still looking to open at the end of next week. Smaller areas could potentially open sooner with the favourable forecast for the coming weekend.
USA WEST FORECAST| It’s looking sunny into the weekend but Friday should see a big dip of more than 10 degrees in temperatures as a weather front moves in. This should, hopefully, be snow-bearing. Clear weather behind but should stay colder day and night which could lead to early openings of some centres in the region from next week onwards.
USA MIDWEST REPORT
MIDWEST REPORT| Warmer weather has slowed snow-making and thawed some of the snow cover but the midwest still has more ski areas open than any other in part of the US: 2. Wild Mountain (12/18” / 30/45cm), in Minnesota, is primarily operating a terrain park but Trollhaugen (12/18” / 30/45cm) over the state line in Wisconsin has a chairlift running and full-length trails open. It is concerned about the impact of the warmer weather on its snowpack though and has decided to close midweek before re-opening at the weekend.
MIDWEST FORECAST| Most midwestern ski areas will see more dry weather through to the weekend with temperatures up to ten degrees above freezing for most of the week, just dipping below freezing at night. The weekend could see temperatures dipping well below freezing night and day though in a marked climate shift and some parts of the region, particularly South Dakota could see very cold temperatures (20 below), and snowfall. Warmer in Minnesota and possible rain though other parts could stay dry.
So it’s a very mixed bag.
USA EAST
USA EAST REPORT| Whilst most of the US has been dry and sunny this past week snow started falling in the northeast on Monday leading to plenty of ‘snowvember’ posts on social media and it does look likely that one or more ski areas in the region will be opening in the next few days, just none confirmed as we go live with this week’s reports. Whiteface reported 10 inches (25cm) of snowfall by Tuesday morning (US election day). Promising candidates include Sunday River in Maine and Killington in Vermont, both seeing several snowfalls since mid-October and both often opening terrain in October some years and by early November most years. The only possible hiccup on the horizon is temperatures climbing again through the rest of this week.
USA EAST FORECAST| As mentioned, after a snowy Monday and Tuesday temperatures are unfortunately climbing again in the northeast and the sunshine is back. It won’t get too high above freezing on Wednesday but from Thursday on we’re seeing temperatures mostly above freezing and climbing to double-digits above in the afternoon.
Alas, probably not good news for early snow cover.
CANADA
CANADA WEST
CANADA WEST REPORT| Alberta continues to have the biggest ski areas open in North America so far with Banff’s Norquay ski hill (45/47” / 18/19”) and Lake Louise (43/52cm / 17/21”) both posting their earliest ever openings last week, with more snow falling in recent days too. Nakiska (which by contrast has delayed opening by a week), Sunshine and Marmot Basin are expected to be next to join them in the next week.
CANADA WEST FORECAST| Unfortunately, after the cold snowy weekend temperatures are set to climb through the coming week, potentially hitting ten degrees or more above freezing by Friday, which probably isn’t good news for snow-making or the current snow cover.
CANADA EAST
CANADA EAST REPORT| Eastern Canada’s ski season got underway last Friday, October 30th with Sommet Saint Sauveur (20/40cm / 8/16″) opening its first run after some natural snowfall and cold weather enabled snow-making systems to fire up. The weather was good news across eastern Canada with lots more resorts starting up their snow-making too and a little sledging was to be had on the thin natural snow cover.
CANADA EAST FORECAST| Continuing to look good for early snow cover in Alberta with temperatures staying at or below freezing and more snow on the way with Thursday and Saturday the best bets at present for extra accumulations, sunshine in between.
ASIA
JAPAN REPORT| The ski season has kind of got underway in Japan with at least two areas opening runs made from entirely all-weather snow-machine snow. So it’s a case of a ribbon of snow over grass and leaves down the slope. SnowJapan.com reported that Snow Park Yeti, known as Fujiyama Snow Resort Yeti last year and other names before that, was the first in the country to open on Friday 30th October. For the main season, there are slightly more promising signs with fresh snow reported right down to resort level at some of the country’s leading ski areas, including Nozawa Onsen, where some first (small) snowmen of the season were built.
JAPAN FORECAST| A typical autumn week with temperatures continuing to fall. Temperatures around freezing overnight in the mountains and in the daytime at altitude with a mixture of rain and snow showers with dry spells in between. Nearer 10 degrees above in resort.
