WORLD SNOW ROUNDUP #197
Issued: 23 June 2021
By Patrick “Snowhunter” Thorne
European Roundup
North American Roundup
Asia Roundup
Southern Hemisphere
WORLD OVERVIEW
We’re now in ‘winter proper’ in the Southern Hemisphere by both the meteorological and astronomical measures of the season and thankfully, mother nature is increasingly playing ball with more snow for Australia and the Andes and a return to colder weather with plenty of snow in New Zealand after rather tropical conditions (as one frustrated ski area described them over last week). In South America, the snow isn’t quite there yet and pandemic cases are on the rise, raising tensions for local skiers.
It is ‘summer proper’ by the season measures in the Northern Hemisphere and although we have had more glacier ski areas open than close in the Alps over the past few weekends, the net change in numbers is zero as ski centres in Norway and the US have closed due to very warm temperatures. Actually, it has been very warm in alpine nations too but so far the usual summer ski destinations remain open and are successfully marketing themselves as a great escape from the 30C+ temperatures down in the cities.
EUROPE INTRODUCTION
After all the excitement of resorts re-opening after the lockdown in late spring and early summer we’re now, pretty much, in the usual position in terms of what’s open and what’s not in Europe. That’s particularly true in the Alps where the 10 glacier ski areas currently open are the same as any other recent season. Whether they’ll stay open as long as they plan into July and August or longer remains to be seen as Europe has been baking with temperatures passing 30C down in the valleys with glacier thaw to snow up above 3,000m.
Up in Scandinavia, the weather has closed one of Norway’s three glacier ski areas early, although the blame there is put on rain and wind more than heat. In better news, Slovenia’s Kanin (0/320cm / 0/128″) remains open for skiing at weekends and Russia’s Elbrus is also still open having recently extended its season a second time, this time to the end of June. We should also give a mention to Scotland’s Glencoe resort which ran the lifts briefly on Saturday morning for a ‘midsummer ski and board’ on the remaining snow patches, which were reported to be up to 300m long. That’s more than Riksgransen in Sweden managed, they cancelled their traditional midsummer ski this year due to inadequate snow cover.
ALPS
ALPS REPORT| Austria has announced it is easing its pandemic restrictions removing the requirement for social distancing and the need to wear medical-grade FFP2 masks in most situations from the beginning of July. However, more basic face masks must still be worn and there is also mandatory testing. The same three areas remain open in Austria, although a fourth, the Dachstein Glacier (0/280cm / 0/112″) is offering cross-country skiing to those pre-booking their ascent and descent to the snowfield. There are 5km of loops there. For downhillers, year-round Hintertux (0/425cm / 0/170”) continues to post a great snow depth for this point in the year despite the recent heat in the Alps. It has one of the largest ski areas open, around 20km (13 miles) of piste. The Kitzsteinhorn (0/175cm / 0/70″) has less snow and less skiing available in summer, but still, the 11km (7 miles) of runs and terrain park are plenty to enjoy for most in late June. It’s open for another month, all being well. There’s also the Molltal glacier (0/390cm / 0/156”) where the base has dropped below the four-metre mark in the past week as the summer thaw continues, but there should still be enough snow to see it through to next winter, fingers crossed. It has 5km of slopes open.
We are at three ski areas open in France but it’s a different third area to last week with Tignes (0/180cm / 0/72”) opening for its summer ski season on Saturday, replacing Avoriaz which had its ‘previously unheard of’ summer season opening ski weekend the weekend before and that weekend only. Tignes though will be open until the start of August, snow permitting. It joins Les 2 Alpes (0/285cm / 0/114”) and Val d’Isere (0/200cm / 0/80”), which is already half-way through its four-week summer ski opening. These are the three regular French summer ski options. Tignes has 20km of slopes accessible, representing about 85% of their potential summer terrain. Half the open runs are graded red, with one black slope and five blues, but no very easy greens. Half a dozen lifts are running.
In Italy, there’s skiing at Plateau Rosa above Cervinia (0/150cm / 0/60”) with the border now open to take a lift over to ski on the Swiss side. However, at the time of writing, the lifts are still not running at Passo Stelvio (25/210cm / 10/84”). There was initially a two-week maintenance delay here in the first half of June after the expected start of the season in late May was delayed, but the latest news is that following the maintenance there needed to be an official inspection by the authorities of the two regions the lifts are located in. They’ve now completed that and sent a report to Rome from where official approval for opening is now awaited with the day being uncertain.
Zermatt (0/150cm / 0/60″) also reported a mostly warm and sunny week, with temperatures climbing above freezing up on the glacier, home to Europe’s highest slopes, and much warmer down in the resort. This is one of the largest areas open in Europe at present (along with Les 2 Alpes and Hintertux), especially now the cross-border skiing is open again in to Italy. It’s also the only area currently open in Switzerland with Saas-Fee set to re-join it in a month.
ALPS FORECAST| There is actually a chance of light snow showers on glaciers with cooler temperatures this week, at least up to the weekend. Things look set to warm up again from Sunday and it will be 20 or so degrees above freezing down in mountain valleys.
SCANDINAVIA
SCANDINAVIA REPORT| Norway’s choice of summer ski destinations has unexpectedly dropped to two with the Stryn Glacier ending its season after only three weeks, last weekend. Centre managers blamed “the fastest ever” snowmelt which they said was down to warm, windy and rainy conditions. These conditions actually closed the slopes in the first half of last week, but the centre re-opened for a final weekend in the sunshine during which it staged the fun Norwegian Monoski national Championships. So now only two glaciers remain open, the Fonna glacier (400/500cm / 160/200”) posting the world’s deepest base still and with 5km (3 miles) of slope open and the country’s highest slopes on the Galdhoppigen Glacier (60/150cm / 24/60”).
SCANDINAVIA FORECAST| Sunshine and showers for the week ahead in Scandinavia with temperatures ranging between around freezing and plus 10-15 degrees. So ongoing thawing of the snowpack and what precipitation there is will fall as rain, or at best sleet, not snow.
NORTH AMERICA
NORTH AMERICA REPORT| We are really down to just one ski area open in North America, the Palmer snowfield above Timberline Lodge (0/80” / 0/200cm) on Mt Hood in Oregon. The only other ski area open to the public, the Beartooth Basin centre on the Wyoming/Montana state line, closed abruptly shortly after our report last week went out. It had said it would stay open so long as the snow lasted, so it appears the snow lasted just over three weeks from the 2021 season-opening day at the end of May. That said there was some fresh snowfall reported for the first day of summertime on Monday on some high points in the Pacific northwest. The only other area with snow available is Copper Mountain in Utah, one of the world’s highest ski areas, where a terrain park has been maintained for the use of summer campers at the Woodward At Copper facility. As for Palmer, which aims to stay open to the start of September each year, there’s been a week of mostly sunny weather with no precipitation and temperatures quite warm, so the snow has been melting and is now half the depth it was at the end of winter.
NORTH AMERICA FORECAST| The forecast for Timberline is for a week of sunshine with temperatures at the snowfield mostly in the 50s Fahrenheit but potentially climbing up to the high 60s by the end of the week.
ASIA
ASIA INTRO| A fairly sunny week in Japan where the Gassan (0/150cm / 0/60”) ski area continues to operate its snowfield. The season probably has 3-4 weeks to run if the snow , now down to 15% of its depth when it opened two and a half months ago, makes it through. It has been a mostly warm, sunny week, although with some weekend rain showers, so the rapid thaw has continued with another 50cm (few feet) gone in the last seven days. The double chairlift provides uplift to the snowfield.
ASIA FORECAST| It’s looking wetter, cloudier and humid through the remainder of the week at Gassan so the snow sport may not be too much fun until the weekend when clear skies are set to return. Temperatures in the 10-20 degrees above freezing range, so the best conditions, as ever, are early in the day.
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE INTRO|We’ve had fresh snowfall in both Australia and New Zealand over the past week. With a few exceptions, cover at most areas is limited in this early season period but almost all Australian ski areas have now opened and several more Kiwi areas have too, although for the majority the season-start is still a week or two away.
Unfortunately, things are looking less promising in South America than they were back in May. Early snowfalls have not really added up to much early-season cover and despite high vaccination numbers, especially in Chile, pandemic infection levels are rising leading to local lockdowns at some resorts. So far it remains unclear when the virus and the snow will allow the 2021 season in the Andes to kick off. Hopefully, it will still be sooner than the mid-August start last year.
In Southern Africa, the season continues to build in Lesotho but South Africa’s ski area remains closed.
AUSTRALIA
AUSTRALIA REPORT| It’s still an improving picture in Australia with Mt Baw Baw the latest ski area to open at the weekend, having delayed for a week due to wet weather ahead of the hoped-for opening weekend. This coincided with a relaxation of rules for skiers and boarders living in the state of Victoria’s (home to half the country’s main ski areas) leading city of Melbourne. This had stayed in a mini lockdown a week longer than the rest of the state and over a third week, covering the start of the season. But then switched to ‘stay local’, precluding travel to the resorts. Now citizens of Melbourne can visit but must do so with a negative virus test dated within the previous 72 hours. They started arriving in resorts last Friday, as did some fresh snowfall. Conditions are still not fantastic but generally not bad for the early season with cold weather and fresh snow allowing resorts to open more terrain. Thredbo (25/60cm / 10/24”) has the deepest base so far and 10km (7 miles) of trails open, Perisher (20/37cm / 8/15”) is posting the most terrain skiable, by a narrow margin, with 17km of runs open so far, less than a fifth of its total terrain.
AUSTRALIA FORECAST| Another round of snowfall is expected through the remainder of this week. Hopefully, most areas will see another 5-20cm (2-8 inches) although some could see sleet at times. The weekend looks clear and sunny but temperatures should stay low allowing for more snowmaking and there shouldn’t be much thawing.
NEW ZEALAND
NEW ZEALAND REPORT| New Zealand’s ski season start has stalled a little with warm, wet and windy weather hitting the region after the earlier heavy snowfalls. Cardrona further delayed their opening, which had initially been delayed a week, through a second weekend. But, finally, opened some terrain at the start of this week after temperatures dropped enough for snowmaking to resume. Coronet Peak, which had scheduled its season start a week later, has also had to delay, Initially, it hoped only through the weekend to the start of this week, but this has now been extended to a target opening on this upcoming Saturday 26th June. The return to a winter weather pattern at the end of last week also brought varying amounts of fresh natural snowfall with already-open Mt Hutt (125/240cm / 6/96”) again one of the big winners reporting 25cm (10 inches) of fresh snowfall by Friday morning. It is still boasting a huge base on the upper mountain for this early in the season from the big late May snowstorm there. It reported another 25cm (10”) of snowfall on Monday, the shortest day of the year, but there was rain too at the end of it as the skies cleared so we’re still waiting fully cold winter weather. The only other areas open so far in New Zealand include the Happy Valley snow play/beginner area at Whakapapa on Mt Ruapehu on the North Island. In addition The Remarkables opened a few days earlier than expected, on Wednesday, in an opposite move to Cardrona, but it too currently only has limited terrain open to start. Most of the rest of New Zealand’s ski areas aim to open over the next two weekends.
NEW ZEALAND FORECAST| Still not full-on winter really in New Zealand but daytime temperatures shouldn’t be much above freezing going into the weekend and well below overnight allowing for snowmaking systems to do their stuff. Moderate snowfall is also forecast for many areas through Thursday and Friday.
ARGENTINA
ARGENTINA REPORT| Argentina’s ski season continues to be on hold and it is difficult to know how much that is due to the pandemic and how much is due to lack of snow cover. A number of the country’s leading ski areas had originally targeted last weekend to open, but none are known to have done so so far. One, Chapelco, is showing almost no snow lying on its slopes on its webcam images, so that’s probably the reason there. Another, Las Lenas, which did not open at all last winter, has now named an opening date as July 3rd. That’s a day after the only other Argentinian ski area known to have set an opening date, Cerro Castor, down in the south of the country, which already has cross country trails so isn’t missing snow cover. Catedral and La Hoya are also believed to be targeting the first few days of July, the only resort with a June date mentioned on their website is Cerro Bayo, selling tickets from June 26th, so there’s a chance it may open next weekend. The lack of snow should be less of a problem by this time next week though with many areas already seeing heavy snowfall and much more forecast.
ARGENTINA FORECAST| Lots of snowfall is forecast right through the coming week for many Argentinian ski areas. Subzero temperatures day and night on the slopes and rarely getting above freezing even at the base. Some big seven-day totals of more than a metre (*40 inches) of snowfall totals in the forecast for some including the biggest by uplift, Catedral.
CHILE
CHILE REPORT| Ski areas in Chile have had only limited snowfall so far this winter and although the country is in the world top 10 for the percentage of the population vaccinated, infection numbers are rising and a number of ski resorts there have said they are unable to open due to local infection lockdowns in their areas. Valle Nevado is one of those currently closed because the local commune of Barnechea has gone into a local lockdown. Elsewhere, Portillo says it won’t open until mid-July at the latest, most others seem to be biding their time. Corralco looks the most promising candidate to open and has named a hoped-for day of this Friday, June 25th, after postponing its original target date of the 19th. Here, they say they’ve had some good snowfalls, but not enough yet.
CHILE FORECAST| The weather is looking increasingly cold and snowy for much of Chile over the coming week with temperatures rarely climbing above freezing and snow forecast up to the weekend. So things look to be getting back to a more wintery feel.
SOUTHERN AFRICA
SOUTHERN AFRICA REPORT| Afriski continues to be the only option for southern African skiers and boarders with no sign of any activity at Tiffindell, sadly, for the second successive winter. This winter, unlike last, South Africans can cross the border into Lesotho with a negative COVID test. Afriski has had a largely sunny week and though there’s been no fresh snowfall, snowmaking is operating overnight and much of the main run is complete, along with the snow park.
SOUTHERN AFRICA FORECAST| It’s going to stay sunny for the next few days but should get colder as we move towards the weekend with the chance of snowfall as the new week starts. Overnight lows should also allow more snowmaking.
