WORLD SNOW ROUNDUP #203
Issued: 11 August 2021
By Patrick “Snowhunter” Thorne
European Roundup
North American Roundup
Asia Roundup
Southern Hemisphere
WORLD OVERVIEW
The best news of the past week has been more fresh snowfall in Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand has posted the biggest numbers with up to 75cm (30”) at some areas so far and more forecast. Great news after the rather lacklustre start of the season for snow cover at many areas there. Against that though ski areas in the Australian state of Victoria, currently reporting some of their best snow conditions in over two decades, have been closed once more at very short notice in the region’s sixth pandemic lockdown. But there was a twist on Sunday, initially announced as a seven-day closure that would continue to the end of this week if not extended, the twist was a tweak to allow ski areas to re-open from Tuesday, whilst capital Melbourne remained in lockdown.
In South America, the lack of natural snowfall and continued warmer-than-average temperatures continue to cause significant problems. Several resorts remain closed altogether and most others are battling to keep much terrain open. The problem appears greater on the Argentinian side of the border but is affecting both countries.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the six ski areas open in the Alps and US continue their limited summer operations, although the final area open in North America has announced it will end its winter three weeks earlier than hoped, after the coming weekend, due to the impact of the hot summer on its snow cover.
EUROPE INTRODUCTION
We’re still down at only five glacier ski areas open in Europe, something of a historic low outside the pandemic, with both of the areas that should be open in Scandinavia (Fonna and Galdhopiggen) as well as the Molltal glacier in Austria all closed earlier than expected (the latter two, they hope, temporarily) due to warm weather melting the snow cover on the ice.
But for a more positive picture, it’s worth noting that we’re only a month from the start of the autumn glacier opening season in the Alps when the numbers currently open should just about triple. Scandinavian glaciers may re-open and the first areas with snow-farming should be opening for their 20-21 seasons too. Ruka, in Finland, pointed out at the weekend it is now only two months until it is due to open.
The last glacier ski area open in Scandinavia has now closed so we have removed this section until centres start to reopen there in the autumn.
ALPS
ALPS REPORT| The past few days have seen changeable weather in the high Alps with rain and, up on the glaciers, further dustings of snow at times, interspersed with sunny spells. Temperatures up at around 300m have been hovering around the freezing point, sometimes a few degrees above. Of the open ski areas Saas-Fee (0/270cm / 0/108″) has the deepest base and reported members of the Swiss National Alpine Squad have been training there over the past week. With Zermatt (0/150cm / 0/60″) also open, Switzerland is currently the only country in Europe and the Northern Hemisphere to have more than one ski area open. Zermatt has 15km (9 miles) of runs open on terrain also currently accessible from Cervinia on the Italian side of the border. Passo Stelvio (0/175cm / 0/70”) is also open in Italy with 7km of runs open, but Austria’s year-round Hintertux Glacier (0/145cm / 0/58”) is posting the most terrain open in the Northern Hemisphere at present with 20km of runs skiable.
Finally, Les 2 Alpes (0/75cm / 0/30″) remains open at present, the only ski centre currently open in France. Its 2021 summer ski season is due to continue to the end of this month if the snow cover lasts another three weeks.
ALPS FORECAST| The weather will continue to be unsettled in the Alps over the week ahead with plenty more showers expected, mostly falling as rain but as always with a chance of light snow showers and a bit of fresh powder at altitude. Sunny periods at times between the cloudy, showery spells.
NORTH AMERICA
NORTH AMERICA INTRO| It appears that we are into the final week of the very long ski season at Timberline, in Oregon, which began last Fall. The Palmer summer ski field, on Mt Hood, aims to operate to the start of September but has been battling very hot summer weather for months now and in the past few days the centre’s operators have announced that the end could be postponed no longer and that they had to close three weeks earlier than hoped, on August 15th, if indeed the snow lasted that long. The only real good news, other than the satisfaction that they had managed to keep operations going so long in the circumstances, was the arrival of comparatively cool weather in the past week after months of hot sunshine and at times record-breaking highs. This at least slowed the thawing. Ironically, given the heat being the main cause of operating issues, Palmer was closed on Sunday by gale-force winds.
The only other North American snow sport continues to be a terrain park maintained at high altitude. Copper Mountain, in Colorado, is providing this for those staying at camps organised by the facility. They reported some rain in the past week but kept shredding throughout.
Finally, the unwelcome ‘weather’ for a number of ski areas across North America continues to be smoke due to continuing forest fires. Sun Peaks, in BC, was cut off by the fires for a time last month. At the weekend Snowbird, in Utah, announced it was shutting down its summer operations temporarily due to poor air quality and its impact on both guests and staff. Back in BC Big White had to close access for the same reason.
NORTH AMERICA FORECAST| The cooler weather has continued into the start of this week at Timberline with a few below-freezing temps hit overnight for the first time in quite a while. However, things are set to warm up again for the final days of the season getting progressively warmer towards the weekend and with a return to fairly constant sunshine in the daytime.
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE INTRODUCTION
The best news from the Southern Hemisphere (where we’re now at the ‘mid-season’ stage for 2021), was a long-awaited big dump over the first half of this week for many New Zealand ski areas, especially those on the country’s North Island, which had been really suffering from limited snow cover and where the season usually continues later into spring if they have the snow depth built up by October. It has been wild, windy and as a result often ‘blizzardy’ in the country with most centres closed Sunday-Monday or longer due to the extreme weather but things are starting to look very nice as centres re-open. It’s also very good news in Australian state, Victoria, that ski areas have been allowed to re-open. Actually, things are moving so fast there that when we posted our last snow report a week ago we had no word of a sixth week-long lockdown being called by the state’s leaders, which began last Thursday and closed resorts through the weekend. The improvement came on Sunday evening when it was announced ski centres could re-open earlier than expected, from Tuesday, whilst state capital, Melbourne, remained locked down.
Less good news to report from South America though is what The Guardian is reporting as a “multi-year super-drought linked to climate change”, which continues to keep things dry and too warm making those centres that are open have to severely limit the terrain they can open. And another centre has been forced to close until things improve, if they now can with only a month or so of the season left.
AUSTRALIA REPORT| It’s been another roller-coaster week for Australia’s ski areas, but as noted in our introduction the issues have almost all been related to Covid lockdowns, not the snow, with widespread excellent conditions. Ironically, after scenarios earlier in the pandemic when ski resorts didn’t have enough snow and had to limit access to what there was, causing many people to miss out on a trip due to lack of space, there’s now loads of space on open slopes, according to reports from the resorts. But few people are able to actually get to the resorts with most of Australia’s cities in lockdown. As mentioned in our introduction, the state of Victoria began a fresh 7-day lockdown (their sixth) after we published our last report, but it has ended early for the ski areas at least. However, the main city of Melbourne remains shut down and skiers and boarders based there can’t get to the snow. It’s the same for Sydney based snowsports fans and for other more heavily populated parts of Australia.
All that being said, for those lucky enough to be able to go skiing conditions remain excellent. Most resorts had fresh snowfall at the weekend and that’s on top of a snowy end to July and start to August which have left very healthy snow depths and everything open, pretty much. Mount Hotham (45/139cm / 18/56”) is reporting the deepest snow in the country and Perisher (35/80cm / 14/32”) the most terrain open in the country and indeed the world at present with over 60km (40 miles) of runs skiable.
AUSTRALIA FORECAST| Some midweek snowfall (possible rain at times in places) will clear from Australian mountains and the weather will return to largely clear skies. Temperatures should remain close to freezing on the slopes during the day dropping well below freezing overnight so snowmaking can be fired up if needed. But for most areas right now it probably isn’t required and with low visitor numbers, perhaps isn’t worth spending on operating at this stage in the season either.
NEW ZEALAND
NEW ZEALAND REPORT| After a cold and clear start to the weekend for many ski areas in New Zealand the new week has started with significant snowfall, some strong to gale force westerly winds and temperatures remaining well below freezing. Actually, the strong wind has been a factor in some areas since the weekend, Mt Lyford was one of the areas closed by the storm-force gusts on Saturday whilst others like Mt Dobson have been closed through Monday too whilst the worst of the storm passed through. They reported white-out conditions and 40cm (16″) of snowfall by Sunday with the access road blocked by snow. Resort teams reported it wasn’t safe to clear the road at present as they couldn’t see where it was. Lyford had hoped to re-open Tuesday but postponed to Wednesday as digging everything out was taking longer than expected. Although that’s good news in terms of how much snow there is. Accumulations reached 75cm (30”) by the time the storm cleared. Across New Zealand there are also warnings of high avalanche danger for backcountry skiers, with resorts also warning inbounds skiers and boarders not to enter any closed terrain as it’s closed for a reason and that reason is normally ongoing avalanche danger mitigation work. Some of the country’s larger commercial fields did keep terrain open but warned skiers to wrap up warm in the subzero temperatures with increased windchill, and for those deriving up to ensure they carried/used chains. Mt Hutt (40/225cm / 16/90”) continues to post the deepest snow in the Southern Hemisphere (all built up from a big dump before the season even started in terms of the upper depth). The lower level cover is going in the right direction up from 25cm/10” a week ago. It also has the most terrain open in New Zealand with 40km (25 miles) of runs to enjoy. However, things are now improving a lot on the North Island with Ruapehu’s Whakapapa (66/120cm / 25/48″) showing one of the biggest increases in snow depth and Turoa (45/140cm / 18/56”) the deepest snow from the recent storms.
NEW ZEALAND FORECAST| It’s looking like changeable, wintery weather with plenty more snowfall is set in for the coming week in New Zealand. Temperatures look set to stay close to freezing at most areas in the daytime with overnight lows as low as double-digits below freezing point. So this really feels like winter at last. We could be seeing another 50cm (20”) of snowfall for some areas by the weekend with some areas on the North island clocking up over a metre (40”) of snowfall since the latest storms began.
ARGENTINA
ARGENTINA REPORT| Unfortunately, it continues to be an exceptionally challenging season in Argentina and as we pass the halfway point, with no real change in sight to the dry conditions, hopes are diminishing that resorts like Las Lenas will be able to open at all, in its case for a second successive season. La Hoya, which had been open but has been forced to close by the conditions, has sought to reassure it will reopen just as soon as it can, whenever that is. The continent’s largest ski area by uplift, Catedral (30/10cm / 12/4”) near Bariloche continues to struggle to open any runs on the upper mountain due to the lack of snow cover. It has novice terrain on lower slopes open still and with 20km (13 miles) of runs available each day, about twice as much as almost any other ski area in the country. Almost because way down south in the province of Tierra del Fuego the world’s most southerly ski area of Cerro Castor (10/90cm / 4/36”) is having a more normal season, with everything open and top-to-bottom skiing possible. So that’s both the deepest snow in the country and the most terrain open. Cerro Bayo (0/40cm / 0/16”) and Chapelco (0/45cm / 0/18”) are also clinging on to a few kilometres of open terrain each at present.
ARGENTINA FORECAST| Yet another week of dry sunny weather with daytime temperatures creeping higher is going to put further pressure on the centres that are still managing to keep terrain open at present and bring no hope to those that want to open but can’t. Overnight lows should get well below freezing still but that may be too little a respite to stop more centres from having to close more of the meagre terrain currently open.
CHILE
CHILE REPORT| Chile is also battling the warm, dry conditions in the Andes with a number of ski areas struggling to stay open. La Parva (15/30cm / 6/12″) is the latest to announce that it has to close most of its terrain after six weeks of snowmaking efforts and other initiatives to save the snow. It will maintain beginner runs at the mountain base from this weekend but all other tracks are closed until there’s more snowfall. But the majority of the country’s ski centres do remain open. Corralco (35/70cm / 14/28″) has both the largest area of lift-accessed terrain open in South America at present (35km – 22 miles) and one of the deepest bases. El Colorado (35/60cm / 14/24”) reports it is snowmaking every night to try to keep runs open. It currently has 7.5km (5 miles) of its 50km (32 miles) of slopes skiable. There was some snowfall this past week in parts of the country with Antillanca (25/85cm) posting a 20cm (8 inch) accumulation at the weekend but noting that the snow had all fallen on the upper mountain. It has the country’s deepest reported snow base though. As first reported last week, Portillo will, unfortunately, not be opening for a second successive season because of the ongoing ban on international travel. Their resort is reliant on foreign tourism to break even when operating.
CHILE FORECAST| Another week of predominantly sunny weather is continued bad news for snow cover at Chilean resorts. Overnight temperatures are below freezing and the same above about 3,000 metres but warmer temperatures in resort and on lower slopes will continue to impact the remaining snow cover. Long term forecasts hint at snowfall at the start of next week but not a great deal and it is too far off for a firm prediction.
SOUTHERN AFRICA
SOUTHERN AFRICA REPORT| It has been another fairly cold, dry week in Afriski (20/50cm / 8/20”) with no fresh snowfall reported for over a month now. However, with temperatures too low for much of a thaw the main slope built up with snowmaking remains intact, as do the nursery slopes and terrain park. There’s a little over a fortnight left of the 2021 ski season, due to end on the final weekend of August. For those able to travel to Lesotho, primarily South Africans, a negative PCR test less than three days old is required at the border. Tiffindell, over the border in South Africa, looks increasingly unlikely to open at all for a second successive winter.
SOUTHERN AFRICA FORECAST| There’s another week of sunshine ahead for South Africa with temperatures likes to be 2-6 degrees above freezing, although feeling closer to freezing with the wind chill.
