J2Ski Snow Report - March 28th 2013

Week Ending March 30th, 2013
* Free to re-publish in whole or part so long as clearly credited to www.J2ski.com with the words "J2Ski Snow Report" linked to
http://www.j2ski.com/snow_forecast/

As March draws to a close, the season that keeps on giving, er, keeps on giving. There have been good falls of snow in many Alpine areas in the past week, and heavy snow has been reported in the past 24 hours.

The overall outlook is for temperatures to drop in the East, to around 5C below their March averages, with seasonal - but varying - temperatures elsewhere.

There is more snow forecast for the next few days over a wide area and, though very low slopes may see some rain, it's still cool enough for snow at most levels.

This Week's Headlines

- Up to 50cm of new snow in Quebec.
- More heavy snow at Scottish areas, access road temporarily blocked by snow.
- Niseko, Japan, has now had more than 15m of snow fall this season.
- Resorts in France, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the US report 5m+ bases.

Europe
Austria
The period of heavy snowfall in Austria 7-10 days ago eased off towards the latter half of last week and over the weekend when temperatures went above freezing and a minor thaw set in. Most Austrian ski areas are due to close over the next 2-3 weeks so the thinning base depths are not a huge issue in most places, but lower slope base depths are near 30cm now at many Austrian areas.

Temperatures have cooled again this week and fresh snow – albeit 3-8cm falls, have been reported in the past 48 hours at resorts including Ischgl (30-150cm) which still has a month of the season to go; Kitzbuhel (60-160cm) and Obergurgl (70-200cm) – also open for another month. Ischgl has had the most overall snow in Austria over the past 7 days at 22cm whole Pitztal still has the deepest snowbase at 3m, it's open in to May.

France
In a similar set of circumstance to Austria, as indeed is the case across the Alps this past week, heavy snowfall which ended a week ago in France was followed by a few days of warmer temperatures right up to the highest altitudes over the weekend, but it is now getting colder again with more pre-Easter holiday snow. If not huge amounts so far – resorts in the 3 Valleys, Grand Massif and Espace Killy have reported 5-10cm of fresh snow in the past week. Snow cover is largely good across the French Alps however with at least a metre of snow on lower slopes at most areas and 2-3m on upper slopes at many resorts, the deepest Alpe d'Huez with over 4 metres lying following more than a metre of new snow in the first half of last week.

Italy
Italy has had the same pattern of heavy snow at the start of last week, a warm weekend and now a return to snowier conditions as elsewhere in central Europe. Sauze d'Oulx and Cervinia are among the resorts reporting limited fresh snowfall in the past 48 hours. Cervinia is one of Italy's resorts scheduled to remain open for more than a month more in to May so the fresh snow and its healthy base of nearly 3 metres (10 feet) at the top of the slopes are good news, although with little over a foot left lying at resort level it may get tricky to maintain runs right to the bottom in the latter half of April unless more substantial snowfalls arrive in the meantime. Passo Tonale with 3.6m (12 feet) now on the glacier gas the deepest snow in Italy still, which is good news again as it is likely to remain open for another two months to late June, upper runs at least.

Switzerland
The snow is back in Switzerland, perhaps more than any other Alpine country, in the last 48 hours following the warm spell at the end of last week and in to the weekend. Swiss resorts have some of the best bases in the Alps too, with Gstaad having the mountain range's deepest reported base at 5.1m, equalling Niseko and up there with Mt Baker in Washington state, in fact only beaten by one French resort in the Pyrenees. But the list of resorts with fresh snow – 8-15cm (3-6 inches) of it, includes Davos, Saas Fee, Verbier and Murren. Bases are generally good for the remainder of the season across Switzerland with typically 60-150cm (2-5 feet) on lower slopes and 1.5-3m (5-10 feet_ on upper slopes, although several have deeper bases still. Resorts including Engelberg, Saas Fee and Zermatt will be open in to May.

Scotland
Scotland is having its best season since 2010-11 and arguably one of the three best this century as although there have been the usual issues with centres being closed due to strong winds or inaccessible due to blocked roads at times over the past four months, almost all five centres have been able to stay open almost every day. As the Easter Holidays approach at the weekend the snow that has been making news headlines for the problems it has been causing in parts of the UK mean that Scottish ski slopes are in good shape with fresh cover on well established bases. In fact Scotland's five ski areas have had more snow that most other parts of Europe in the past seven days. East Coast resorts were inaccessible with blocked roads at the weekend and West coast resorts were stormbound by gales, but in the past 48 hours they've been re-opening as roads have been cleared and winds eased.

Pyrenees
It's been snowing again the Pyrenees, freshening up the big bases still lying from the huge January and February snowfalls. Andorran ski areas saw 5cm of fresh snow cover on Wednesday – bases in the country are still at 2.1-3.1m, although it's deeper still over in Spain where Baqueira Beret still has more than 4m and in France where Cauterets' still tops the world with a claimed 5.5m base – although it is finally declining.

Eastern Europe
There's been some fresh snow in Eastern Europe where upper slope bases are typically 80-160cm but getting rather thin ()20-50cm) at resort level in many areas. Bansko and Borovets in Bulgaria both say they've had 10cm ()4 inches) of new snow in the past few days.

Scandinavia
Very little new snowfall has been reported on Scandinavian ski slopes where cold weather has maintained bases. There remain at 80-160cm across the region as they have been most of the winter. Of the few snowfalls reported, Are in Sweden got just an inch of snow yesterday.

North America
Canada
There's been snowfall in east and western Canada. The former is the slightly more unusual with resorts in Quebec proclaiming up top 50cm of new snow during a 72 period up to last weekend. Tremblant added more than a foot to its base aft5er a long largely dry spell and Mont Ste Anne, further East had a similar accumulation. In BC there have been falls of up to 50cm too (less unusual but still good to see!). Fernie's 51cm, the biggest reported accumulation in Canada over the past week, has also taken it past the 3m/10 foot base mark to 3.1m – the first major Canadian resort to do that this season.

USA
As with Canada, Eastern US resorts saw some serious snowfall last week, however as it largely arrived just as we were compiling last week's report and stopped again in most places by Thursday, it's now well skied out, although it has helped bases and local media in the region is full of reports on how this 'final blast' has revived the end of the 12-13 season in the area. Anyway 20-40cm falls were reported at many resorts in the area.

In recent days the snow has been falling in Western states, particularly Colorado with Breckenridge, for example, reporting 55cm in the past week, 10cm (4 inches) of that in the past 24 hours. Many other Colorado ski areas including Arapahoe basin and winter park have added at least a foot of snow in the past week, as has Jackson Hole in Wyoming, which only has a week of the season left after the coming weekend, always one of the first of the world's major resorts to close each season, even though it has a 224cm/8 foot base.

I'm keeping an eye on serre che having recently been and my mate is off this Sunday, and they've had several good dumps this week down to valley level. Not sure that tally's with this report precisely.