WORLD SNOW ROUNDUP #260
Issued: 06th October 2022
By Patrick “Snowhunter” Thorne
World Overview
As we enter October there are still more areas just about open in the Southern Hemisphere than the Northern. But that’s changing quite rapidly now with more glacier ski areas opening each week in Europe, while big chunks of the remaining areas open in the Andes, New Zealand and Australia are now ending their 2022 season each Sunday. In fact, all Australian areas closed last Sunday and this coming weekend looks like being the final one for all but a few New Zealand stalwarts. So, by next Monday we should formally see more areas open in the northern half of the planet, than the southern.
The season has ended in Australia with all of the country’s major centres closing at the end of play on Sunday. They were still seeing sub-zero nights but the daytime thaws were fast diminishing even the healthy snowpack that had built up this season. Elsewhere, most ski areas in the Andes and New Zealand are also now closed although the biggest by uplift, Catedral in Argentina, is hanging on for another week. It looks like New Zealand will be the last country with lifts turning in 2022, as in most seasons, with several centres planning to continue to the latter half of October and one aiming to keep a terrain park open into November, the last month of spring.
October is definitely the final month of the 2022 season for virtually all Southern Hemisphere ski areas that have made it this far. Australia’s resorts closed en-masse on the first Sunday of the month and we’ve lost some big names in the Andes, including las Lenas, since last week. Conditions, generally, are not that bad with more light spring snow showers reported and some still seeing sub-zero temperatures overnight. But the daytime highs are impacting the snowpack considerably, so the end of the season can’t be ignored for much longer for most remaining areas that are still open.
NEW ZEALAND REPORT
Most of New Zealand’s ski areas have now closed for the season, just as one of the biggest October snowstorms in recent history hits the country. Among the big name ski areas closing at the weekend were Treble Cone and Coronet Peak. However, despite snow depths dropping, five centres are still open with Cardrona (40/101cm / 16/40″) posting the most terrain open still in the country with 36km (23 miles) of slopes open. Mt Hutt (101/151cm / 40/60″) is currently looking good, with another fortnight of the season left to run and then plans to keep its terrain park open into November. It’s closed some terrain in the past week but remains 80% open. The weather this past week has been a mixed back with more warm weather thawing the snowpack but also light snowfall giving an occasional refresh reported. If the snowfall, expected to hit both South and North Islands later this week, is as heavy as expected it could be good news for the ski areas on Mt Ruapehu on the North Island which aim to stay open at least to the end of the month but are battling to fully open still after a poor snowfall winter. In fact, it was announced on Tuesday that Turoa would not be re-opening this season. So it is a case of trying to Keep Whakapapa (0/51cm / 0/20”) going as long as possible.
NEW ZEALAND FORECAST
As per the main report a major Antarctic blast of winter weather, which could potentially bring snowfall down to low levels and see cities like Christchurch get their first October snow for more than 50 years from Wednesday on.
ARGENTINA REPORT
Most of Argentina’s remaining ski areas closed at the weekend, with one of the country’s biggest, Las Lenas, as well as the world’s most southerly, Cerro Castor, ending their 2022 seasons. Although the biggest in the Andes, Catedral (0/50cm / 0/20”) near Bariloche remains open, it is down to about a quarter of its maximum terrain open, down from 120km to only 30km for what is expected to be the final week of the season there. La Hoya also remains open for one final weekend this season. Conditions have been changeable with warm temperatures at lower elevations. But still, snow showers bringing light coverings to slopes reported.
ARGENTINA FORECAST
The weather continues to be quite a mixed bag for the final week of the season, with more snow showers expected up high. But temperatures hitting +15C at mountain bases.
CHILE REPORT
As with Argentina, most of Chile’s ski slopes are now closed, but La Parva (20/60cm / 8/24”) remains open for one more weekend and a second area, Antillanca (30/200cm / 12/80”), is open weekends only for the next two weekends. Antillanca is actually posting the deepest base of any open area in the world at present so that should help its ambitions to keep going the longest in South America. Although we may be coming up to mid-spring temperatures areas have been fairly cool on higher slopes, close to freezing with the occasional fresh snow dusting. But afternoons on lower slopes have brought fast-thawing double-digit temperatures meaning the season has had to end for most.
CHILE FORECAST
It’s quite a sunny week ahead for Chile and with clear skies we could see temperatures dip as low as -10C overnight on high slopes. But equally +10C or more in the daytime on lower slopes, so the overall impact will be freeze=thaw conditions with nothing to replenish what thaws.
The start of the 22-23 season appears to be taking hold in Europe with more glacier ski areas opening in the Alps and the first Finnish ski areas ready to open in the north of the continent later this week. The snow has kept falling across the continent with more snowfall building up in the Alps and up to 40cm of fresh reported in Norway. There’s also been snow though for areas in the Spanish Pyrenees and even as far south as Europe’s most southerly ski area, Sierra Nevada on the Mediterranean Coast, posting pictures of snow on its peaks last Friday. There was also more snowfall for the Dolomites.
AUSTRIA REPORT
Austria is where it’s at when it comes to early autumn skiing in Europe, and three more glacier ski areas opened at the weekend, taking the total there to five – half the total currently open in the northern hemisphere. A sixth, the Kitzsteinhorn above Kaprun, says it will open this coming Friday. It is the only glacier area in Salzburgerland, the five already open are all in Tirol. October is a big month here with terrain parks opening, new season gear tests and Oktoberfests too, so it’s been great that the snow has been falling for much of the past week giving excellent conditions on the glaciers, albeit coming after the hot summer melted all last season’s snow cover so what’s there now remains quite a thin layer compared to a usual autumn, if such a thing still exists. The Hintertux Glacier(20/45cm / 8/18″) has finally been able to report an increased snow depth from the 25cm (10″) reported for the past few months and the terrain it has open continues to be the most in Europe, now up to 23km (14 miles) of slopes, quadruple what there was a fortnight ago. The newly opened Pitstal (0/55cm / 0/22”) reports slightly deeper snow though. Sölden (0/72cm / 0/31”) says their snow is deeper still but the Stubai Glacier (0/15cm / 0/6”) reports a thinner base and two runs open. The Kaunertal was the fifth glacier to join the party, last weekend. Down in Styria, the Dachstein glacier is also open already but only for cross-country skiers and the Molltal glacier in the province of Carinthia, which used to be open 11 months of the year but has been closed since last May this year, says it will open for the final weekend of the month.
AUSTRIA FORECAST
After the snowy week last week it has been dry and sunny in the Austrian Alps and that continues to be the picture through the remainder of this week and into the weekend. Temperatures remain below freezing day and night on glaciers, however, but up to +15C down at 2000m.
SWITZERLAND REPORT|
Zermatt (0/30cm / 0/12″) remains the only ski area open in Switzerland to the skiing public and has been posting images of great fresh snow conditions after a week of wintery weather up on Europe’s highest slopes. It’s back to 13km (8 miles) of runs skiable. There’s also a big build-up underway to the first cross-border World Cup Downhill races due to take place at the end of this month, the course continuing over to Italy and Cervinia. Saas Fee has also been open for more than 10 weeks now but continues to restrict the limited terrain it has open to race teams for training. The next Swiss centres expected to open in the latter half of this month include Engelberg, the Diavolezza glacier near St Moritz and Andermatt.
SWITZERLAND FORECAST
The sunny weather that arrived this week is set to continue for the rest of this week in the Swiss Alps. It should stay below freezing above 3,000m, but in valleys temperatures of 10-18C are possible.
FRANCE REPORT
The start of the French ski season is coming up fast with Les 2 Alpes and Tignes both planning to open their glacier slopes a week on Saturday. The good news has been plenty of snowfall above about 1500m across French ski slopes over the past week, including down in the Pyrenees. The deepest accumulation anywhere in the Alps so far appeared to be sat the Aiguille du Midi above Chamonix where staff were photographed clearing snow about 60cm (two feet) deep from terraces.
FRANCE FORECAST
A mostly sunny week with temperatures on the glaciers reaching +5 mid week, but mostly into the -3 to +3 range through the 24-hour cycle. The weekend is looking colder and there’s a chance of some fresh snowfall.
ITALY REPORT
It has continued to be ‘wintery’ at altitude in Italy with resorts in the Dolomites, as well as the Italian Alps, posting images of ankle-deep snow at upper mountain restaurants. Cervinia re-opened its access to the glacier above Zermatt at the weekend. Two glacier areas continue to operate, albeit with thin cover and not much terrain open yet. Val Senales (0/15cm / 0/6”) has just 900 metres (half a mile) of slopes open, the re-opened Passo Stelvio (5/20cm / 2/8”). There has though been about a week of on-off light to moderate snowfalls which have added up to 20-50cm (8-20”) of snowfall on higher slopes.
ITALY FORECAST
It’s looking sunnier and a little warmer than it has been over the coming week but at glacier altitude temperatures should stay close to freezing, dropping below overnight and hopefully the fresh snow should survive this spell.
SCANDINAVIA REPORT
It’s a big weekend coming up in Finland with Levi and Ruka ski areas due to open for their seven-month-long ski seasons this coming Friday. Both use snowfarming to create a base for their initial few kilometres of runs, then build on it with natural snowfall and snowmaking as temperatures continue to fall. Levi says they are actually ‘creating a glacier’ and plan to keep snow on their slope year-round from now on. But it’s unclear if that means summer skiing next year or if it will be covered over to protect from the summer heat. In more good news for the region the only operational ski centre at present, Norway’s Galdhopiggen glacier, Scandinavia’s highest ski area, reported 40cm (16”) of fresh snowfall.
SCANDINAVIA FORECAST
Temperatures are typically in the freezing to plus seven or eight degrees region for most Scandinavian mountains. A little cooler and a chance of some snow or sleet in the days before opening at Levi and Ruka where it should be cloudy but dry for opening day.
USA REPORT
There was a good deal of excitement at the weekend as widespread snowfall was reported on higher slopes in Colorado. Ski areas like Loveland, Keystone, Arapahoe Basin and Wolf Creek, will open their 22-23 seasons in October if conditions are right. The heaviest accumulations, up to around 8” (20cm), were reported in the San Juans in southern Colorado. Snow was also reported on other mountains such as the Tetons in Wyoming and to the east. The remains of Hurricane Ian also brought some unexpected early October snowfall to the blue ridge mountains of Virginia it was reported, for a short while anyway.
USA FORECAST
It’s looking dry and sunny again for most of the coming week, especially into the weekend. On the highest slopes in Colorado, we’ll be seeing below-freezing overnight lows which may be cold enough for snowmaking systems to fire up, but daytime highs will be 5-10 degrees above freezing even on the highest slopes.
CANADA REPORT
The weather has been fairly stable in Canada over the past week with plenty of sunshine and temperatures in the 0 to +6C range on higher slopes, nearer +12C at lower elevations. Lake Louise is believed to be the first to commit to a tentative opening date noting November 4th as its target day to kick off Canada’s winter 22-23.
CANADA FORECAST
More sunshine in the west. But after a warm week in the east temperatures are expected to drop significantly over the next few days bringing potential snowfall as a front moves in across Quebec and Ontario.
