J2Ski Snow Report - December 27th 2012

The J2Ski Snow Report - Week Ending December 28th, 2012
(* Free to re-publish in whole or part so long as credited to www.J2ski.com with hyperlink to http://www.j2ski.com/snow_forecast )

The forecast for the next day or so includes more snow at altitude (above 1500m) for the European Alps. Although the North and Western Alps look like getting the best of it, localized snowfalls are possible over much of the Alpine area and snow lines may be lower in places.

Relatively settled and clear weather will be in abundance, however, with widespread temperature inversions giving cold conditions in the valleys and milder weather up the mountain.

Recent weather has left heavy wet snow at lower altitudes, although piste conditions remain generally very good due to the abundant snow that fell earlier in December.

High winds and varying temperatures mean widely varying snow conditions so, as always, do take local advice when planning your day.

This Week's Headlines

- Very heavy snowfall in Western USA; including Squaw Valley who report 70 inches (1.75m) in 7 days.
- Little fresh snowfall in the Alps, Dolomites or Pyrenees and warmer conditions.
- High avalanche danger in California; one snowboarder dies, snow patrol worker injured in separate avalanches.
- All five Scottish ski areas open.
- Western Canadian resorts on track for record snowfall.

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Europe
Austria
A second week of 'warmer than we would like' temperatures in Austria (as with most of the Alps) gave us 'spring like' conditions and little fresh snowfall. There's no panic yet as most resorts have healthy snow bases built up during the regular snowfall of November and earlier this month, but the best conditions have been on upper runs and at higher resorts.
Resorts reporting up to 20cm of new snow in the past week include Lech, Obergurgl and the Skiwelt with Obergurgl also reporting the deepest snowbase at 2.1m, overtaking the glacier resorts that have topped the Austrian snow depth table for the past three months.

France
There's not been much snowfall in France in the past week but with most major resorts having more than two metre snow depths on upper slopes that's not much of a problem so far, and rather more snow is expected to fall in the next week anyway. Tignes has had the biggest accumulation of the past 7 days with 30cm, Val Thornes and Val d'Isere both reported around 25cm and La Plagne 20cm. In terms of snow depth La Clusaz and Peisey Vallandry have around 3m (10 feet) each lying on upper slopes, the deepest in the country.

Italy
There's been very little snow in Italy either through the past week, Livigno's accumulation of 20cm is one of the few recorded. But most areas have a good snow base and conditions are generally good on piste. In the dolomites Arabba has some of the deepest snow at 1.6m on upper slopes, but over in the West in the Alps Cervinia's 2.6m depth is the greatest in the country. Also in the Aosta Valley La Thuile has a 2m base, Courmayeur 1.75m.

Switzerland
Verbier reported one of the largest snowfalls in Europe in the past week with 27cm/11 inches, and Andermatt has the continent's deepest snow base at 3.5m. in fact Swiss resorts in general have the deepest snow in Europe with Gstaad another of the few to have passed the 3m (10 foot) snow depth mark. Lower temperatures and bigger snowfalls are expected over the coming week.

Pyrenees
Not much new snow in the Pyrenees either, most areas in Andorra clocked up 5cm (a couple of inches) each in the past week. There was no snow reported on the Spanish side of the border but snow depths are greater there with around 1.3m at Baqueira Beret and Formigal on upper slopes, the deepest snow in Andorra is at Pas de la Casa with 90cm (three feet) on upper slopes.

Scandinavia
It has kept cool and kept snowing in Norway and Sweden. Hemsedal in Norway now has a metre deep snowbase after another 10cm of snow, nearby Geilo has just a little thinner snowpack. In Sweden the region's biggest resort Are has 30-40cm base depths. In Finland Levi and Yllas have 50ccm base depths.
Eastern Europe
There's been more snow in Bulgaria and upper slope base depths have now reached a metre (40 inches) in the country's most popular resort, Bansko. Former number one Borovets is only 10cm behind.

Scotland
All five Scottish ski areas are open and reporting good Christmas business. However as is usually the case with Scottish skiing it's something of a mixed bag with most areas partially open. The Lecht has the most runs open – virtually all, while Glenshee to the south has more limited areas available. Cairngorm had to close for four days due to strong winds prior to Christmas week but has been busy since,

"Boxing Day skiers, boarders and sightseers have been flocked to CairnGorm Mountain from 8am and by noon over 900 snowsports enthusiasts had come to the mountain to enjoy the great snow cover from mid mountain up, bringing to over 10,000 the number of skiers who have visited CairnGorm already this season since the beginning of December," said spokesperson Coling Kirkwood, "The Ciste Gully and East Wall of the Ciste Gully opened, providing some excellent skiing, although a 'heather hop' was required to get back to the West Wall poma."

Over on the West Coast Glencoe and Nevis Range are also partially open.

North America
Canada
It's looking good at Whistler where 48cm of new snow blanketed the slopes in 24 hours shortly before Christmas when the resort reported 116cm in seven days and that it was 100% open – the largest ski area in North America. The resort has now received more than five metres of snow so far this season, and has a 2.1m base with more than 3m of that falling so far in December.
Further inland, with nearly a metre of snowfall over eight days, Sun Peaks is on track to break its all-time record of 247 cm of new snowfall in December. The record, set during the winter season of 2006/2007, could potentially be broken with more snow in the forecast.
"Currently we are already at 41 per cent above average for new snow and 28 per cent above average for snow base for the month," says Jamie Tattersfield, Director of Mountain Operation for Sun Peaks Resort. "It looks like a very good snow year no matter how you slice it!"
There's been more fresh snow on the East Coast too although the figures are not so spectacular of course and base depths closer to 65cm at Mont Sainte Anne and Tremblant.

USA
The big snowfall news of the past week and indeed the past 73 hours is all about western USA with huge accumulations reported from California to Alaska.

In the week up to last weekend Squaw Valley reported a huge 175cm in 7 days, bbut in the week to Boxing Day big falls have continued to be reported with Alyeska in Alaska and Mt Rose on lake Tahoe in California both clocking up more than a metre of fresh snow. Squaw Valley said that its snow depth at Christmas was its second deepest ever recorded by Dec 25th.

The downside of all the snow is that multiple avalanches have been reported with a ski patrol worker injured at Squaw Valley and a snowboarder killed in separate avalanche incidents. It is not yet clear if the latter incident occurred on or off piste.

The snow has been moving in land and giving a continued boost to ski areas in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming bringing them gradually closer to their powdery norms. Steamboat has had a foot of snow in the past 72 hours, The Canyons 22cm and Aspen 20cm.

Conditions have improved dramatically in Eastern America too with up to 75cm of new snow falling in the North East, particularly in Maine on Sunday River and Sugarloaf, but also improving conditions at Killington in Vermont, Whiteface ain New York state and at most other ski areas. Jay Peak in Vermont has reported 30cm of snow in the past 48 hours.