WORLD SNOW ROUNDUP #240
Issued: 19 May 2022
By Patrick “Snowhunter” Thorne
European Roundup
North American Roundup
Asia Roundup
World Overview
We’re at a real turning point in the ski year with more centres currently closing than opening still but with that starting to change from next week on. The northern hemisphere’s season continues to wind down with the final area open in Italy joining Finland and France a week ago in closing down for 21-22. At the same time though the summer-ski season is starting to ramp up with the first of the Norwegian centres opening at the weekend and France and Italian areas due to be the next to open at the end of the month.
In the southern hemisphere, the excitement continues to build with the first areas likely to open in just over a fortnight, and there’s always a chance of an earlier opening.
For most in the main ski areas of the northern hemisphere, the keywords of the past week have been “hot” and “sunny”. That’s particularly been the case in parts of the Rockies and the Northeast in North America and in the Alps in Europe, where resorts have already started to promote themselves as an escape from temperatures already hitting +30C in alpine valleys before mid-May. In the US the heat has led to several resorts closing in the past few days that had hoped to stay open to the end of the month, or in the case of the continent’s only summer-only ski area, questioned whether it will be able to open at all this year. On the upside, Mammoth Mountain has announced it’s definitely now staying open to the first week of June.
Against that though there have been some snowfalls with May powder days reported in the Alberta Rockies and even down at Mammoth in southern California and while many southern areas are reporting thin snowpacks, drought and high wildfire danger, others up in Oregon and the northwest have above-average snowpacks and colder temperatures delaying the start of summer activities.
No particularly significant snowfalls were reported in the southern hemisphere but the picture looks fairly promising in most areas with the snowline dropping in New Zealand and the Andes.
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE INTRO
A quiet week in the southern hemisphere as the start of the 2022 ski season, hopefully the first for three years with minimal restrictions and with international travel increasingly possible, comes ever closer. There have been some light snow flurries reported on high slopes in the Andes and Australia but not much worth detailing. But the end of this week is looking much more promising for some areas with heavy snowfall expected for ski slopes in the Andes and in New Zealand.
AUSTRALIA REPORT
Australia’s ski season start is now just three weeks away. But, alas, it has not been looking very promising for the start of winter over the past week, with fairly mild temperatures at lower elevations mostly and some rain showers. Normal autumnal stuff. Some dustings of snowfall on the highest slopes though to keep spirits up and to start the week.
AUSTRALIA FORECAST
Not a huge amount of change in the forecast for the coming week, just the chance of more light snow showers in most areas. The long-term forecast, although more difficult to accurately predict, looks more promising with 5-15cm (2-6 inch) accumulations and colder temperatures. Perhaps a few centimetres more on the slopes of Victoria than New South Wales.
NEW ZEALAND REPORT
Mt Hutt has been the first ski centre to open in the southern hemisphere for quite a few seasons over recent decades. But this year it is targeting a date towards mid-June. So it is unclear if it will end up happening this winter or not yet. As it is the past week has not done much to get kiwi skiers in the mood for the upcoming winter, now about three weeks away. The weather has been rather warm and at times wet, but things are changing.
NEW ZEALAND FORECAST
The next few days could see some quite significant snowfalls on New Zealand’s slopes as a wintery blast hits the country, bringing temperatures down and dumping snow up high (rain below). Over 50cm (20”) is possible by the weekend with light snowfall continuing into next week for many.
ARGENTINA REPORT
It’s about a month now until the first Argentinian ski areas are expected to open for their 2022 seasons. After the heavy snowfall at the end of April led to the brief earliest-ever opening of Cathedral the weather has been more normal for autumn, with temperatures typically in the freezing to +10C range, getting below freezing up high overnight, but not much more fresh snowfall. The past week has seen more of the same with plenty of sunshine and double-digit plus tempos (Celsius) at mountain bases.
ARGENTINA FORECAST
Looking more wintery later this week with snow forecast from the end of the week in several regions after a sunny few days, which can see temperatures getting up to +15C. The end of week drop though will see lows of -5C on mountain slopes and potentially 50-100cm of snowfall.
CHILE REPORT
It has been mostly sunny weather across Chile over the past week with not much snowfall reported. The start of the season is about a month away at most resorts. Temperatures have been close to seasonal averages getting down below freezing in the mountains overnight and climbing to +3 to +6 degrees Celsius in the daytime. So, so far, all appears to be on course for the start of the 2022 season and the return of international skiers to Chile’s slopes for the first time since 2019.
CHILE FORECAST
There is more wintery weather in the forecast for Chile’s mountains later this week and through the weekend. The weather should become more unsettled, colder, and significant snowfall is currently forecast to boost pre-season bases.
AFRICA REPORT
It has been another largely sunny week as we approach a month since the last significant snowfall in Lesotho. Afriski’s ski season is three weeks away now, kicking off on June 9th and entry to the kingdom is open to those who are fully vaccinated, a recent #negative certified PCR test result is required for those who aren’t. Temperatures have been cold enough for some snowmaking overnight. It remains unclear in South Africa’s Tiffindell intends to open this winter. There are currently no signs that it will.
AFRICA FORECAST
It’s looking much colder over the coming week with temperatures dipping to around freezing and forecast to get as low as -5 by the end of the week. Light snow showers are forecast for Friday getting heaving on Saturday, with the potential for 10cm (4”) accumulations.
EUROPE INTRO
We’re close to single figures for the number of ski areas open in Europe after the last centre still open in Italy, the Presena Glacier ended its 21-22 season on Sunday. There’s currently nowhere open in France or Italy but both will see summer skiing starting in a little over a week with French centre Les 2 Alpes and Italy’s Passo Stelvio due to open for their 2022 summer runs then.
The only other ski area that had still been open in Europe, outside of the Alps and Scandinavia, Kanin in Slovenia, ended its 21-22 season on Saturday.
ALPS REPORT
Italy’s season, like France’s the week before, ended with warm, sunny weather, dominating in the Alps. Temperatures have ranged from freezing overnight to +25C in the day with mostly sunny weather although still some light snow showers developing on glaciers at the weekend. It has been classic freeze-thaw conditions with icy, hard-packed slopes first thing, thawing mid-morning then getting too wet by early afternoon.
There are seven ski areas open in the Alps this week, all glaciers. Three are in Switzerland and four in Austria. Along with the Presena, Austria’s Molltal glacier in Carinthia also ended its season at the weekend. It will re-open next month and usually aims for an 11 month ski season although the past few summers, even without the pandemic, have seen the glacier closed for longer periods and they’re currently hinting that the ski lifts may not reopen when other facilities do in mid-June. It may be that they don’t re-open until September/October when the main Austrian Autumn opening takes place.
Austria’s year-round Hintertux Glacier (0/305 cm / 0/122”) is posting both the deepest snowpack and the most terrain still open, some 32km (20 miles) of runs.
Engelberg (0/260cm / 0/104”) reports Switzerland’s deepest snowpack. It still has 21km (13 miles) of slopes open on the Titlis glacier. The other two resorts open in Switzerland are the year-round ski centres. Zermatt (0/120 cm / 0/48″) has its standard summer 21km (13 miles) of runs open on Europe’s highest slopes on the Klein Matterhorn. Crans-Montana (0/70 cm / 0/28″) also has terrain open at the top of its glacier with just a kilometre of slops open into June.
Elsewhere in Austria, the Kitzsteinhorn glacier above Kaprun (0/245cm / 0/98”) has 19km (12 miles) of slopes open. You can also ski into June on the Stubai Glacier (0/260cm / 0 104”) where there are 16km (10 miles) of slopes and the Kaunertal Glacier (65/180cm / 32/72”) with 11km (7 miles) of glacier slopes.
ALPS FORECAST
The summer heat is building, even though it is still spring, and we could see +30C in some alpine Valleys towards the end of the week, with daytime highs of +5C even up at 3000m on glaciers, further thawing the snowpack. The forecast for much of the region is non-stop sunshine through to the weekend when thunderstorms could bubble up due in part to the heat.
SCANDINAVIA REPORT
The start of Norway’s summer skiing season was delayed again at the weekend. The Fonna ski area (500/900cm / 200/360”) had planned to open on May 1st but had to delay due to awaiting lift parts. The scheduled new date, Saturday 14th, didn’t happen as dense fog made it unsafe to operate, then there was a repeat on Sunday 15th. But now the season is finally underway and lift-serviced skiing is back in Norway after an unusual two-week break (usually there’s always somewhere open in Norway almost 365 days a year, unless hot weather closes one of the three summer ski areas). Fonna is posting the world’s deepest snowpack for an open ski area overtaking Japan’s Gassan, which started with similar numbers about five weeks ago but has seen its snowpack thaw fast. Back in Norway Scandinavia’s highest slopes on Galdhøpiggen (280/320cm / 112/128”) are also reported to have opened. Both areas reported fabulous sunny weather, finally, from Monday on. The other centre open in Scandinavia is Sweden’s Riksgransen (130/275cm / 52/110”), which unlike the Norwegian glaciers is coming to the end of its 2022 season and is in the last few days of its fortnight of skiing under the midnight sun.
SCANDINAVIA FORECAST
Staying close to freezing at Scandinavia’s still open ski centres with a mixture of sunny spells, rain and snow showers. Overnight lows down to -15C are still possible over the next few days at Riksgransen. But daytime highs of +10C are also on the cards for the Norwegian glaciers at times, though the average temperatures will remain closer to zero Celsius.
NORTH AMERICA INTRO
We’re down to around a dozen ski areas still open in North America with another five centres closing on Sunday. Weekend season-ends took place on Sunday at Alyeska in Alaska, Breckenridge and Winter Park in Colorado, Snowbird in Utah and Jay Peak in Vermont…assuming they don’t decide to re-open. Grouse Mountain near Vancouver, in BC, also called it a day on their long 21-22 run, despite still having snow over three metres/10 feet deep up top.
Of these, the closures at Breckenridge and Snowbird were unexpected coming a fortnight earlier than previously announced.
“While our teams have worked hard to keep the skiing and riding rolling into mid-May, Mother Nature has the ultimate say. We’ve been experiencing warm daytime temps (in the 60s) and our night-time temps haven’t been dipping below freezing, so this has caused snow to begin to melt very quickly,” a statement from Breckenridge explained, with a similar announcement from Snowbird pointing to the same issues and the warm and sunny forecast ahead.
But after the heavy falls and historic record-breaking May accumulations last week in Idaho the snow has kept falling in some parts of the continent at least, with Mammoth Mountain (20/56” / 51/140cm) reporting 3-6+ inches of fresh snow in the latter half of last week. Conditions were then described as a “mix of fresh, dust on crust and some fun-packed powder,” by a local reporter. At the start of this week the resort announced a further season extension to “at least June 5th”.
Mammoth remains open daily and reports about half of its slopes still open whereas The Palisades (4/99” / 10/248cm) are open at weekends only (Friday to Sunday). It had its Funitel, Siberia, Gold Coast, Shirley Lake, Aerial Tram, Big Blue, Mountain Meadow and Bailey’s Beach lifts running at the weekend. More details in our ops blog, link in bio. That said these coming weekends are a bonus following the big April snowstorms as the resort had originally planned to close last Sunday.
Breckenridge and Winter Park may now be closed by Arapahoe Basin (12/57” / 30/142cm) is still open in the Colorado Rockies for now at least, the last US area open in the Rockies; they staged a rail jam at the weekend. Whether A-Basin makes it into June this year is looking more uncertain than usual, but fingers crossed.
Oregon and Washington continue to post the deepest bases in North America, especially with Alaska’s season now over. Reports from Mt Hood this week indicate the late melting of the above-average snowpack there means summer campgrounds won’t open until later in the year than usual, good news for Timberline (178/204” / 445/510cm) ski area. Mt Bachelor (16/90”/ 41/244cm) is also still going strong and aiming to stay open through the remainder of May.
North of the border there’s still another week of the season left at Sunshine (40/203cm / 16/81”) near Banff in Alberta, which also reported some fresh snowfall and most of its terrain still open, as well as Whistler Blackcomb (0/215cm / 0/86”) on the BC Coast. Sunshine staged their annual ‘board-shorts and bikinis’ charity snow fun day on Saturday focussed on the Strawberry run and having their Slush Cup, believed to be the world’s oldest pond skimming contest, coming up next weekend.
In the East, Killington (12/24” / 30/61cm) in Vermont remains open at weekends. Jay Peak also opened last weekend but said it was the final time this season. North of the border Sommet-Saint-Sauveur (0/30 / 0/12”) has also been re-opening at weekends, mostly for its terrain park and continues to decide week by week whether there’s enough snow left for another weekend. It was open on Saturday but decided not to open on Sunday in order to preserve the snow for next Saturday.
As with Breckenridge, snow cover is apparently potentially an issue for America’s only ‘summer only’ ski centre on the Montana/Wyoming border at Beartooth Basin. This normally opens in late May or early June for a short season of a month or two but this year reports early inspections to indicate snow cover may be too low to open at all this summer. A final decision is pending.
NORTH AMERICA FORECAST
There’s a lot of sunshine and warm temperatures for the western US over the coming week, part of the reason behind Breckenridge and Snowbird’s decision to close earlier than planned. That said further north in eastern Canada it’s looking unseasonably cold and snowy as Sunshine and Whistler Blackcomb play out the final days of their 21-22 ski seasons. Temperatures look like they will dip back down in the US Rockies by the weekend too, after some very warm weather over the next few days. In the east a mixture of sunny spells and rain showers with daytime highs in the 50s or 60s so the fast thaw will continue here.
JAPAN INTRO
With Fonna opening in Norway, Gassan (180/690cm / 72/276″) has lost the place it held for five weeks as having the deepest snowpack of an open area in the world. As usual, its snowpack is dropping fast, but about 30cm/a foot each week anyway and is now starting to get thinner on lower slopes and to drop below seven metres up high from its season start at 9 metres (30 feet) just over a month ago. The weather here has actually been very pleasant, with plenty of sunshine and only limited fog. Temperatures up high close to freezing, more like +10 to +15C down in valleys.
JAPAN FORECAST
There’s plenty more sunshine forecast with temperatures climbing through the week. On the one hand, pleasant skiing conditions, on the other faster thawing. The current range of around +1 to +12C will rise to +7 to +17C by the end of the weekend.
