WORLD SNOW ROUNDUP #204
Issued: 18 August 2021
By Patrick “Snowhunter” Thorne
European Roundup
North American Roundup
Asia Roundup
Southern Hemisphere
WORLD OVERVIEW
There’s little fresh snow to report in the past week, worldwide, with ski areas in New Zealand posting the biggest accumulations of the last seven days; up to a metre for some centres. But there’s been little anywhere else. It’s ironic, that the country has now gone into a three-day lockdown due to a virus case being detected. This is just as the conditions are the best they’ve been to date this season.
The South American Andes badly need a heavy snowfall, and there are signs they should finally get one later this week. But, in the meantime, more centres have closed for lack of snow.
In Australia, the snow cover remains good and there’s been some fresh, but the pandemic continues to throw a spanner in the works with ski areas in New South Wales the latest forced to close, including the country’s biggest resort.
In North America, the only lift-accessed ski area that had still been operating since way back in autumn last year, finally decided to call it a day on its 20-21 ski season on Sunday. This is three weeks earlier than planned thanks to the summer heat.
A similar thing has happened in the French Alps with one of the five glacier areas that had been still open in Europe becoming the latest to close earlier than hoped due to the summer sun melting the snow cover from the glacier there. Four glacier areas remain open in Austria, Italy and Switzerland. However, in famously hot southern Africa there’s actually been fresh snowfall for the one ski area open on that continent in Lesotho, giving a great freshen up to the slopes for the final fortnight of the season there.
EUROPE INTRODUCTION
We’re down to one of the all-time-lows for numbers of ski areas open in the Alps with Les 2 Alpes the latest to close early, ending the season in France a fortnight or so sooner than hoped (though pretty much as geared) with all the snow melted off the glacier. That leaves just four areas currently open in Austria, Italy and Switzerland.
Against that rather depressing picture, there is growing optimism with a light dusting of snow on alpine glaciers and the fact that ski areas are starting to announce autumn opening dates for their 21-22 season, the first now only a month away.
The Stubai glacier says it plans to open, “mid/end September, depending on the snow conditions.” Similarly, Solden, which stages the first World Cup Alpine Ski competitions of the 21-22 season at the end of October, says it aims to open on the 4th of that month, but may open earlier if conditions allow. The Molltal Glacier, one of those like Les 2 Alpes and Norway’s Galdhopiggen should also currently be open but has closed temporarily due to lack of snow on the glacier. The hope is to re-open mid-September. The Kaunertal Glacier will stage its official opening weekend from 25th September as does the Pitztal Glacier, the country’s highest. The Kitzsteinhorn, above Kaprun, currently says “autumn!” but usually tries to open at the end of September or the start of October.
In Italy, Val Senales reports it plans to open its glacier slopes on 17th September this year and in France, Tignes is usually the first in the country to open each autumn. It plans to open for its 21-22 season on 16th October.
For Switzerland, The Diavolezza Glacier near St Moritz, in the Engadin region, plans to open from the 23rd of October but initially only open at weekends and on Wednesdays for the general public. The Titlis Glacier, at Engelberg, says they hope to open in October but has not set a date. Last year, Glacier 3000, which had planned to open in mid-November, did so at the start of October after a big early snowfall. Crans Montana, Davos and Laax also have glacier areas but don’t usually open until November.
Outside the Alps, several ski areas in Scandinavia aim to open in the first half of the autumn too. Like the ski centres in Switzerland, these actually stayed open for their normal seasons. Among them, Norway’s Galdhopiggen glacier hopes to re-open September 11th or maybe the 18th. Ruka and Levi, in Finland, open at the start of October using snow-farming, recycling last winter’s saved snow to create their initial runs.
ALPS
ALPS REPORT| As mentioned in our Europe Intro only four glaciers are currently open in the Alps. Some have seen stormy conditions over the weekend and otherwise a lot of cloud, but many reported sunshine returning for the start of this week. Tuesday morning also left a number posting news of a fresh dusting of snow up high.
In Italy Passo Stelvio (0/150cm / 0/60”) is open for summer skiing and is due to remain open until the end of October. Cervinia (0/150cm / 0/60”) is also currently open accessing the ski area shared with Zermatt (0/150cm / 0/60”). It will close in early September but had announced it plans to re-open for the season from October 16th too whilst Zermatt continues access to its glacier, Europe’s highest lift-accessed, year-round. Saas-Fee (0/270cm / 0/108″) is the other Swiss option open, with the world’s deepest reported snow base at present, and in Austria, there’s just Hintertux (0/105cm / 0/42”) posting the most terrain open in Europe with 20km (13 miles) of trails skiable.
ALPS FORECAST| It’s a largely sunny week ahead for the Alps with temperatures on glaciers hovering a few degrees on either side of the freezing point. Clouds will bubble up in the late afternoon and evening almost daily and could deliver further dustings of snow each morning before the sunshine kicks in.
NORTH AMERICA
NORTH AMERICA INTRO| We’ve entered that brief period of a month or two each year when there are no lift-served ski areas open in North America. The last that was still running from autumn 2020, the Palmer Snowfield above Timberline Lodge in Oregon, USA, finally closed for the season on Sunday. It aims to stay open to early September each year but record summer heat impacted snow cover and only heroic work by the snow team kept it open as long as it did. So we’re now looking to October and, probably the first areas opening in states like Colorado and (sometimes, thanks to snowmaking) the Midwest. Against a heatwave and severe forest fire danger across much of North America, there was a glimmer of hope with snowfall very high up (14,000 feet) on some of the continent’s highest peaks at the weekend.
NORTH AMERICA FORECAST| It’s mostly sunny and hot in western North America still but up high there are more encouraging signs with temperatures close to freezing overnight on the highest peaks in the Rockies and even the chance of a dusting of snow from precipitation forecast for Wednesday evening.
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE INTRODUCTION
Once again the week’s main snow news stories centre on the impact of the pandemic, and the shortage of snow cover in South America. But there is good news in the form of a decent snowfall for much of New Zealand, and a late-season dump in southern Africa. There’s also the hope of a big snowfall finally arriving in South America.
The good news from New Zealand has, however, been tainted by the country now being in a three-day lockdown due to a virus case, closing the newly opened slopes, hopefully only until the weekend.
Otherwise, Australia seems to be getting hit hardest by the pandemic at present with ongoing attempts by the country’s provincial governments to suppress any outbreaks of the Delta variant with strict lockdowns. Last week ski areas in Victoria were allowed to re-open, but this week ski areas in New South Wales, which had so far escaped pandemic closures this season, have been forced to close for seven days until next weekend. The country’s biggest resort, Perisher, is among those closed.
Ignoring the NSW slope closure detail, conditions remain great across Australia and there has been some more snowfall. Not as much as in New Zealand, which has reported the biggest accumulations anywhere in the world over the last seven days, with some centres posting more than a metre of snow (just as they’re forced to close). It hasn’t all floated gently down though, with resorts closed by blizzard conditions and one area reporting 200km/h winds, which pulled the cable off a lift that had not yet opened for the season. But the overall picture in the aftermath is of better snow depths and more mountain open.
In the Andes, the snow situation remains fairly desperate after months of drought and Chile’s Nevados de Chillan is the latest to announce closure until snow arrives. That may finally happen later this week when a big dump is finally forecast after a largely dry winter.
Finally mention of Afriski in Lesotho, Africa’s sole currently open ski area, which has reported 20-30cm (8-12″) of fresh snowfall to start the week and the final fortnight of its 2021 ski season.
AUSTRALIA REPORT| Things seemed to have quietened down a little in Australia in terms of both lockdowns and snowfall. But then at the weekend, the state of New South Wales Government has declared a 7-day state-wide lockdown as it continues to try to restrict the outbreaks of the virus in the state. It’s one of the few times NSW ski areas have been in lockdown during the pandemic, most of this season, and most of last, it was ski areas in Victoria that were closed, but at the time of writing at least, they’re the one currently open.
That means the country’s largest resort, Perisher, which had the most terrain open worldwide up to lockdown, is currently closed, as is Thredbo. It’s particularly frustrating with great conditions continuing and most Australian areas reported 10-15cm (4-6 inches) more snow at the end of last week. Since then it has been mostly cold and sunny and with the country’s big cities closed. But great conditions have allowed centres to fully open if they wish. Those who can still get to the resorts with the various restrictions in place are generally finding they have the slopes to themselves.
Falls Creek (80/136cm / 32/55”), in Victoria, is now fully open and reported Drover’s Dream, Scott’s, Ruined Castle and Gully chairlifts open for the weekend. With Perisher closed its 46km (29 miles) of runs open is the world’s biggest open area at present. Conditions are also great at Mt Hotham (45/139cm / 18/56”) where once again all runs are open and the Gotcha, Keogh’s, Orchard and The Drift opened at the weekend and the resort recommenced its Heavenly Valley First Tracks service for early risers.
AUSTRALIA FORECAST| The current dry, sunny weather is expected to continue through to the weekend when a front will bring in fresh precipitation. Current forecasting is for this to possibly fall as rain, as daytime highs will be 5-10 degrees above freezing initially. Although it may be snow and in any case will turn increasingly wintery with 15-30cm (6-12”) accumulations likely for the new week as temperatures drop and when, hopefully, New South Wales ski areas will have been permitted to re-open.
NEW ZEALAND
NEW ZEALAND REPORT| As we publish this week’s report New Zealand’s ski areas are closed for three days as the country goes into a national ‘level 4’ lockdown from Wednesday to Friday.
The level of alert is the country’s highest and follows a single case of the virus being detected in a 58-year-old man.
New Zealand has managed to operate relatively normally for the past 18 months after successfully keeping the virus out and adopting strict lockdowns whenever a case of the virus is detected. A quarantine-free travel bubble with Australia is currently suspended for two months due to rising cases there.
Level 4, dubbed the “eliminate” phase, means people must stay at home in their bubbles, only making essential journeys etc.
The closure of the country’s ski areas comes after the biggest snowfalls of the season for many, with some resorts reporting around a metre of snow over the past seven days.
“We’ve been having so much fun this season but unfortunately at level 4, we aren’t able to operate. We haven’t given up on winter just yet and hope we’ll be seeing you all back up here soon,” a spokesperson for The Remarkables ski area said.
There had also been some wild weather, with winds of up to 200km/h reported, damaging some lifts.
Ski areas had just begun re-opening slopes after digging out access roads and lifts and making terrain avalanche-safe so that Kiwis could enjoy all the new snow.
Before this, the country had a problematic first half of the winter due to weather conditions rather than the virus (other than its impact on expected Aussie visitor numbers) with a record warm June and limited snowfall in July. Up to the current closure, and hopefully again from Saturday, Mt Hutt (40/225cm / 16/90”) has the country’s deepest snow and the most terrain open with 36km (23 miles) of runs, about 90% of its available terrain, open. However, most of the snow lying on the upper slopes at Mt Hutt dates back to a huge pre-season storm in late May, although it did report 40cm (16″) of fresh last week, one of its biggest accumulations in nearly three months. Other areas like Mt Dobson (80/152cm / 32/61″) have reported more snowfall recently. This area was one of those closed by strong winds at the weekend.
Prior to the weekend storms though the first round of snowfall last week brought unusually heavy midweek business to ski areas like The Remarkables (95/125cm / 38/50”) where operators joked skiers should “call in sick” to work to make the most of the new snow.
On the North Island on Whakapapa (63/101” / 27/41”) and Turoa (75/176cm / 30/80″), on Mt Ruapehu, the winds were stronger still and damaged a lift at Whakapapa where wind speeds of 200 km/h were reported, along with lots of snow and big drifts.
The area says it has over 200 individual avalanche start zones within the ski area at Whakapapa and 98 start zones within the ski area at Turoa so cleaning up work was just getting completed as the lockdown began.
NEW ZEALAND FORECAST| Cold and sunny for the next few days, with temperatures remaining below freezing day and night at most New Zealand ski areas. This all bodes well for the hoped-for re-opening at the weekend. Fresh snowfall is currently set to move in across most of the country from Sunday.
ARGENTINA
ARGENTINA REPORT| Base depths remain thin in the Andes of Argentina, with another week without fresh snowfall. The continent’s largest area, Catedral (35/30cm / 14/12”) continues to scrape by with largely beginner terrain open and up to 20km of slopes skiable in total. However, as we compiled this report on Tuesday it reported that the snow had started falling finally and that the snowstorm was ongoing with 20-cm (8″) of fresh snow already. Cerro Bayo (0/45cm / 0/18″) has the most snow in the area. Yet whilst most areas in the Andes are struggling to stay open, Cerro Castor (80/100cm / 32/40”) way down south near Tierra del Fuego (the world’s most southerly ski area), continues to have pretty good cover and top-to-bottom terrain open. What’s more, with spring fast approaching and increasing daylight hours, they extended the opening of key lifts until 5 pm to extend the ski day from the weekend.
ARGENTINA FORECAST| As mentioned in our report above there are finally signs of a change in the forecast at last although whether it is too little too late remains to be seen. 50-80cm (20-32”) of snowfall is forecast to land on South American ski slopes on Wednesday/Thursday after several largely dry months, so anticipation levels are running high.
CHILE
CHILE REPORT| The snow is starting to fall across the ski slopes of Chile, which have been starved of much fresh powder all season. The volumes forecast should transform the season from very lacklustre to spectacular for the final month if they live up to the forecast projections. For now, there remains thin bases and limited terrain open with Corralco (50/70cm / 12/28”) reporting the deepest snow in Chile and with 25km (16 miles) of slopes skiable; the most runs open in the country and indeed all of South America.
CHILE FORECAST| It’s the best forecast by some way for the season to date for parts of Chile, with some resorts expected to clock up more than 1.5m (five feet) of snowfall over the next seven days, much more than the total snowfall to date. Some are expecting 10-30cm (4-12”) daily which will truly transform conditions for the remainder of the season.
SOUTHERN AFRICA
SOUTHERN AFRICA REPORT| There’s been excitement in Lesotho with a great snowfall bringing 20-30cm (8-12”) of new cover to the country’s ski slopes, with less than a fortnight of the season to go. The snow arrived on Sunday and Monday transforming the scene at Afriski (50/80cvm / 20/32”), the only ski centre open in Africa at present. The season runs until the last Sunday of autumn. The southern half of the continent’s other ski area, Tiffindell, remains closed.
SOUTHERN AFRICA FORECAST| After the snow, we’re back to sunny weather and low temperatures mostly in the range of 1-4 degrees above freezing but dropping below freezing again at the weekend.
