WORLD SNOW ROUNDUP #259
Issued: 29th September 2022
By Patrick “Snowhunter” Thorne
World Overview
The ski areas of the Southern Hemisphere continue to see ever more spring like conditions with warmer days and fewer sub-zero nights. There have been more snowfalls reported, but also some rain showers. More of the big resorts in the Andes closed for the season at the weekend and most of the rest there, as well as in Australia and New Zealand, will follow suit next weekend or the one after. At least one New Zealand centre has announced its intention to at least keep a terrain park open into November, however.
Ski areas continue to open in the Alps, perhaps 2-3 weeks later than usual and so far unable to open very much terrain. But the past few days have been much more promising with fresh snowfall reported up high across the Alps as well as more in the Tatras, Dolomites and first in the Pyrenees. Solden is the latest addition taking the number of centres operating to six. Although two of those are only for race team training. A seventh European option is open (again just for team training though) in Norway and the European total should be back in double figures for the first time since May when more areas open this coming weekend.
Over in North America, there’s been more light snowfall in both the east and west of the country with high slopes at Lake Tahoe and the Adirondack Mountains in the east both seeing snowfall.
We continue to see spring take an ever stronger hold on the ski slopes of the Andes, Australia and New Zealand, yet winter hasn’t given up yet and against the relentless climb in average temperatures, all three areas have seen periods of snowfall as temperatures briefly dip back toward freezing. But the direction of travel is definitely towards the inevitable season ends with Chile’s Nevados de Chillan and Argentina’s Las Lenas among the centres to succumb to the inevitable at the weekend. Other though plan to soldier on well into October. New Zealand’s Mt Hutt says it has at least another three weeks to go and even hopes to keep a terrain park open into November once the main ski slopes close.
AUSTRALIA REPORT
After the big snowfall a week and a half ago things have been much more settled on Aussie slopes. There’s been plenty of sunshine and a real spring feeling with temperatures rarely getting below freezing at resort level now even in the nighttime, so the thaw is fairly constant. There have been some light snow flurries but also rain showers reported at times. But thanks to a snowy season overall snow depths are generally holding up if diminishing now fairly briskly. Thredbo (55/170 cm / 22/68”) reports the deepest base in the country, marginally, just ahead of New South Wales’ neighbour Perisher (65/169cm / 26/68″), which is still reporting the most terrain open in the country (and currently in the world) around 60km (37 miles) of slopes. The next two weekends are likely to see most Aussie ski areas calling it a day on their winter 22 seasons.
AUSTRALIA FORECAST
After a warm start to this week with temperatures getting well into double figures above freezing a mid-week cold front is expected to move through the ski areas, potentially bringing some fresh snowfall to give the slopes a refresh ahead of the coming weekend, which will be the final one for several of the country’s areas.
NEW ZEALAND REPORT
We now know there is almost a month, at least, of New Zealand’s season left to run with Mt Hutt (115/161cm / 46/64”) announcing its plans to keep going through to at least October 24th and then keep a terrain park open after that, into November. Mt Ruapehu’s Turoa (23/86cm / 9/34”) and Whakapapa (42/76cm / 17/30”) often stay open to the end of October too and sometimes into November but this has been a challenging snowfall season for them (although improved in recent weeks) so it remains to be seen if they can stay open that long. As to the weather it has been a bit of everything over the last seven days with some clouds, some sun, some windy days, some still and a little snowfall and sleet. Temperatures have typically been varying between a few degrees below freezing first thing to as high as +10C by the afternoons. Most centres continue to report slopes are 80-90% open and most will be closing for the season over the next three weekends. Mt Dobson was among those that closed last weekend.
NEW ZEALAND FORECAST
It’s looking a little warmer and there’s a danger of rain falling rather than snow in the latest front moving into the South Island over the next few days. Dryer and a little cooler, particularly overnight, on the North Island.
ARGENTINA REPORT
A largely sunny week for Argentina’s ski centres, with a front moving through on Monday bringing snowfall for some. Temperatures are largely above freezing day and night now although some are still seeing the occasional overnight freeze, especially on high slopes. More of the country’s big-name resorts ended their seasons at the weekend. Las Lenas, which had been enjoying its first season since 2019, having been completely closed the past two, closes this coming weekend, as does Caviahue (150/200cm / 60/80”), which is posting the country’s deepest snowpack. The biggest resort by uplift, Catedral (0/100cm / 0/40”), remains open for at least a week into October but only has about 40% of its slopes still skiable. Although with 50km that remains one of the biggest open anywhere in the world at present. La Hoya has announced the latest planned closing date, 10th October.
ARGENTINA FORECAST
It’s looking mostly sunny and increasingly warm in Argentina over the remainder of this week. Overnight lows close to freezing up high but potentially 15C and even approaching 20C at resort bases towards the weekend so full-on season-ending springtime.
CHILE REPORT
There’s been fresh snowfall for the start of springtime in the Andes, giving a great powder boost at the end of what is generally agreed to have been one of the best snowfall seasons of the past decade. But it has not stopped most ski centres ending their seasons in Chile. Among the latest batch is Nevados de Chillan, which had posted the deepest base in the world during the Southern Hemisphere’s midwinter a few months ago. The weather has been quite mixed with sunny days in between the snowy ones and temperatures fluctuating about 10 degrees on either side of the freezing point for classic springtime freeze-thaw weather. Valle Nevado (60/120cm / 24/48”) has the most terrain open of the resorts still operating in Chile, about 40km/25 miles. But it looks like the last weekend of the season coming up here too.
CHILE FORECAST
An ongoing mix of light snowfall and sunny days over the coming week with temperatures continuing to swing from well below freezing at night to well above at daytime. The latter highs and lack of much fresh snowfall means snowpacks at ski areas still open will continue to shrink at an accelerated rate.
Conditions remain very challenging at present in Europe with the glacier ski areas that have managed to open so far having very little terrain available as yet. Much of what there is open is maintained by snowmaking or snow farming. But there has been a big improvement since the weekend with widespread snowfall at altitude transforming the high alpine landscape into a winter wonderland. Thus the outlook at this point can be said to be promising with some light snow showers in the past few days and more forecast, along with ever lower temperatures, now staying sub-zero day and night upon glaciers. The number of centres open also continues to grow from the low of just one, Hintertux in Austria, for much of August and September. Last weekend we hit half a dozen in four countries (Austria, Italy, Norway and Switzerland) and next week we should reach double figures with Finland next to open up.
AUSTRIA REPORT
Sölden (0/55cm / 0/22”) became the first ski area to open in Austria for several months, re-opening last Friday, 23rd, a week earlier than they had previously hoped but following the fresh snowfall there the previous weekend. It announced there were ”perfect conditions” when it opened last Friday. Since then there’s been fresh snowfall and it’s looking better still. With the Tirolean resort hosting the opening of the FIS Alpine World Cup season starting in a month it must open its slopes well ahead of the world’s top racers arriving in the resort. Hintertux (0/25cm / 0/10″), the only ski area open in the Northern Hemisphere until about a week ago and now the only centre able to maintain a 365-day opening, remains in operation and it has now jumped back from 6km to 18km of slopes open. The terrain park opened at the weekend here too, all thanks to the fresh snowfall that has improved conditions a lot. Austria’s other glacier resorts keep revising their planned opening dates but at present three more, Kaunertal, Pitztal and the Stubai, plan to open this coming weekend. Two others, Dachstein and Molltal, have announced they won’t open this season (Dachstein) or are on long-term hold (Molltal). So we are waiting for just the Kitzsteinhorn to confirm its planned opening date (it has been posting images of fresh snow cover). To clarify on the Dachstein, the announcement is no downhill skiing, it’s already open for high-altitude cross country skiers.
AUSTRIA FORECAST
It is look promising with more cold weather, plenty of clouds and light to moderate snowfall forecast above about 1500 metres through the week. Below freezing day and night above around 2000m altitude and getting as low as -10C overnight on glaciers, daytime highs around +10C in valleys.
SWITZERLAND REPORT
Zermatt (0/20cm / 0/8”) got a lot of ski media attention last week when it re-opened after a seven-week closure caused by the exceptional heat at altitude in the Alps, stopping its year-round operation for the first time on record, other than the start of the pandemic. Drone images showed a much better picture with fresh snow cover and the terrain-open stats show the resort is now back to its usual 14km (9 miles) of slopes open from only 4km (2.5 miles) of runs skiable before the latest snowfalls of the past few days. Zermatt is gearing up to host the first-ever cross-border FIS World Cup Alpine downhill ski races in a month. Saas Fee is also open and has been for more than two months now but at the time of writing it continues to limit its open terrain to race teams there for training. There’s not enough open terrain for the general public. Andermatt has announced it hopes to open at the end of October joining Engelberg and the Diavolezza Glacier near St Moritz on the list of Swiss areas hoping to open next month. The Glacier 3000 area near Gstaad and Les Diablerets suffered a major fire in its top cable car station last week but has just announced it still plans to open for the season in November.
SWITZERLAND FORECAST
Quite a promising forecast with snow showers expected through the coming week. Temperatures stay below freezing above 2000m, daytime highs around +15C at 1000m, but reaching -10C overnight up at 3000m.
FRANCE REPORT
We’re just over a fortnight away now from the hoped-for start of the French season with Les 2 Alpes and Tignes both aiming to open on October 15th. For Les 2 Alpes this will be an opening for about three weeks around it hosting the World Cup Ski Cross season opening competitions for the first time. For Tignes though the resort will aim to stay on through to May next year once the lifts start spinning. At the moment more snowfall is needed. Both centres were forced to close their summer ski seasons early last June and July and although there was some snowfall earlier this month it’s not yet really been enough to transform the situation. But the good news is there has been some healthy snowfall through the weekend and to start this week, closings some high mountain passes in the French Alps and there is more coming. So things appear quite promising at present.
FRANCE FORECAST
It’s looking good for those early-opening French resorts over the coming week with plenty more snowfall in the forecast and temperatures between freezing and ten below on glaciers; freezing to +15C in valleys but mostly colder.
ITALY REPORT
Italy will have three ski areas open as of this weekend when Cervinia re-opens its access to the glacier skiing above Zermatt at the weekend, four weeks before the first FIS World Cup downhill race from Switzerland into Italy is due to recommence. Currently, it is Val Senales (0/5cm / 0/2”) and Passo Stelvio (0/15cm / 0/6”) that are both open. But with very limited terrain and very thin, icy cover. There have been light snowfalls over the past few days though so it’s an improving picture as we head towards October.
ITALY FORECAST
It is looking promising for more snow showers at high elevations over the coming week. Skies will be mostly overcast with temperatures not getting above freezing and potentially getting down to double digits below freezing by the end of the week, so much more wintery up high.
SCANDINAVIA REPORT
We continue to edge towards the first ski area openings for 22-23 in Scandinavia with Finland’s Levi and Ruka ski areas set to open at the end of next week using snow farmed for last season and spread back out on the slopes. For now, though it is just the Galdhopiggen summer ski area (5/50cm / 2/20″), the region’s highest lift-served slopes in Norway, that is open and it reports currently still only to pre-booked teams rather than anyone who just turns up and buys a ticket. That could change at any time though, particularly with the weather turning much more wintery there in recent days with temperatures generally freezing or up to five degrees below and snow showers blowing through.
SCANDINAVIA FORECAST
The cold temperatures with snowfall on higher slopes are expected to continue on Scandinavian mountains for the next few days as cold air continues to flow down from the Arctic. It will feel bitterly cold with frequent snow showers.
USA REPORT
Snowfall has been reported on both the eastern and western sides of the US over the past few days. Last week also saw some of the first snow visible on high-altitude webcams in the Lake Tahoe region including 8,260 feet up at Mt Rose, often one of the first in the region to open each fall. Currently, it has a target opening date in about five weeks on November 3rd, actually believed to be the earliest date any North American resort has actually named as a target. Although a number of high resorts in Colorado say they hope to open in October and Loveland say they hope to start snowmaking ahead of opening this coming weekend, according to their ‘snowmaking start countdown clock’ on their website. Other Californian ski areas, including Heavenly, posted images of light snow dusting up high. In the east high slopes in the Adirondack Mountains also got a snow dusting with Lake Placid among the areas reporting snowfall up top.
USA FORECAST
Looking to the Colorado Rockies it’s looking like a predominantly sunny week. Up high overnight temperatures may get down a few degrees below freezing, which may enable Loveland and others to start snowmaking. But daytime highs of 10-15 degrees above freezing don’t look conducive to snow hanging around too long. The end of the week may also bring the first significant snowfall of fall.
CANADA REPORT
There’s been more snowfall reported in western Canada with ski areas in Alberta and BC reporting fresh coverings on higher slopes. For some like Banff’s Lake Louise and Sunshine ski area, aiming to open in early November, this is their second or third coverings of the month already.
CANADA FORECAST
After a fairly warm and sunny few days temperatures are expected to dip into the weekend, getting down towards freezing overnight on the highest slopes with a front moving in too.
