Easter Snow In The Alps

There's been increasingly heavy falls of snow over the past 48 hours in the Alps with resorts like Flaine reporting 5cm of fresh snow yesterday and Courmayeur 20cm today, Austrian areas are expected to get it next – particularly those at higher altitudes.

Saas Fee in Switzerland, which is open to mid-May before a six week closure and then re-opening in July through to May 2013, has also had 20cm/eight inches of new snow.

It's all part of an Easter trend towards cooler temperatures following the long warm spell. However most areas are in relatively good shape for April compared to most years thanks to the heavy December/January snowfall building up big bases.

Elsewhere in the world there's been heavy snow in parts of Scandinavia, with the leading resort in the region, Are in Sweden, reporting 10 inches of fresh in the past 48 hours, and some little known places up north more than six feet in the past seven days.

In North America it's fairly dire in the east with only six areas remaining open of the 100+ ski resorts there due to the warm temperatures in the region. In the west the Tahoe area has had big falls again in the past week but it's a bit more iffy in Colorado. Further north Whistler has had another 1.5m in the past week and is well above its seasonal average.

Snake Pass was looking good yesterday

Roads from Saddleworth to Huddersfield over here still closed this morning

City road was cold.

Saas Fee is closing on the 22nd of April this year (much earlier than in the past) and will be open for summer skiing from 14th July until 31st October.

I don't know if the opening / closing dates for the 2012/13 season are known yet.

The lift company has some financial problems; turnover was down 7.5% last year. The largest share holder has recently replaced most of the local directors with outsiders and is about to embark on a cost cutting program. Personnel costs are 20% more than they should be.