J2Ski Snow Report - November 8th 2012

Week Ending November 10th, 2012
(* Free to re-publish in whole or part so long as credited to J2Ski.com with hyperlink to http://www.j2ski.com/snow_forecast)

The week ahead

In an Alpine forecast rather similar to last week (which brought some decent snowfall - see below), temperatures are about to dip and snow is about to fall.

This week, the main event looks like being on Saturday or Sunday (or both!) depending on location, with accumulations exceeding 30cm in places. The snow line should reach around 1,200 metres by Sunday night. Temperatures will moderate as we move into next week and look likely to stay a few degrees above the seasonal average for the rest of the week.

So, powder for the weekend and skiing under clear skies next week...

This Week's Headlines
- Another 30cm of snow, on average, in parts of the Alps over the past 72 hours.
- Saas Fee reports 60cm of snow in 24 hours.
- Lake Louise, Sunshine, Banff, Canada and Breckenridge, Colorado, USA opening Friday 9th November.
- First non-glacier resorts in the Alps open for 2012-13 in Austria.
- Bormio, Italy, aiming to open three weeks early this Saturday, November 10th
- More than 100 ski areas now open across the northern hemisphere.
- Southern hemisphere 2012 ski season ended at the weekend.
- Garmisch Partenkirchen has opened Germany's first terrain for the 12-13 season at Zugspitz.

European Alps
Austria
In contrast to last year, the heavy snow in Austria over the past few weeks (most resorts have reported at least another foot in the past week after bigger falls in late October) has led several resorts to open early including Obergurgl and Schladming last-weekend – the first non-glacier resorts in the Alps to open. Obergurgl reports five lifts will be operating at Hochgurgl this weekend.

Conditions are excellent on all seven of Austria's glacier ski areas which have now all been open a month or more. Hintertux now has one of the biggest areas open on the planet at present, with 50km of piste open served by 16 lifts and more than 1,100m of vertical open down to 2100m.

France
Les 2 Alpes has ended its autumnal week opening so only Tignes is open in France, subject to conditions until Val Thorens opens in a fortnight. Tignes has a 60cm base.

Elsewhere in the country pictures have been flooding in showing the ski slopes of resorts including Chamonix and la Plagne in great shape with several feet of pre-season snow. Chamonix reported snow right down to resort level (1035m) on Tuesday.

Italy
Pre-season snow conditions are looking good in Italy with Cortina d'Ampezzo reporting a 40cm snowfall on November 1st. Some glacier ski areas are already open however with Cervinia on 120cm including a foot that fell a week ago and Val Senales also open with fresh snow on an 80cm base too. The Presena Glacier has opened one intermediate level piste, 3000m up above Passo Tonale.

Bormio has announced that thanks to good conditions it will open three weeks early this Saturday, November 10th with 500m of vertical down to 2500m from the top of the lifts at 3000m.

Switzerland
Swiss resorts have been reporting heavy snow. Eight centres are now operational (although Engelberg is closed for maintenance this week through to November 16th) with Verbier opening earlier than expected last Thursday, November 1st joining other glacier centres. Saas Fee, which now has a base of nearly two metres on its glacier reports an incredible 60cm of snow at glacier level and 29cm of new snow at resort level 1800m below in the past 24 hours (to Thursday 8th November). There are also good conditions on the Diablerets Glacier, the Diavolezza Glacier, at Laax and Zermatt.

Scandinavia
Resorts across Scandinavia are continuing to report a great 'early season' with dozens of centres already open across Finland, Norway and Sweden sand temperatures generally hovering at or below zero. Hemsedal, one of Norway's leading resorts with 4 lifts and 4 runs operational and 35-50cm snow depth goes one further and says the 2012-13 season start is the "best ever" in its 51 season history. Another top Norwergian resort Trysil has two runs open and a 30cm base. Over in Sweden conditions aren't quite so good but resorts including are and Vemdalen are both open, with a run or two each and 20cm of snow cover. Up in Lapland temperatures are heading towards double digits below And the big resorts each have two or three pistes open. At Levi the runs on the front face are open until 7pm daily to make the most of it.

(*We will add snow reports from other main ski areas once these areas begin reporting significant snowfall)

North America
Canada
After the early opening of Mt Norquay at Banff and Nakiska in Alberta at the end of October the first of the country's bigger resorts – Sunshine, Lake Louise and Marmot Basin – are scheduled to open on Friday taking the Alberta/Canada count up to five. Resorts are reporting 28cm in 24 hours yesterday in the area. Conditions there and at Western Canada's yet-to-open other Western resorts are generally good for this time of year with snow depths around the 50cm mark and more snow/cold weather forecast. On the East Coast, Mont Ste Anne reported they'd fired up the snow guns on Monday.

USA
With four ski areas now open in Colorado (Arapahoe Basin, Copper, Keystoke and Loveland) as well as a handful of resorts in Oregon (Timberline), Maine (Sunday River) and Vermont (USA) the number of ski areas open in the US should be back in double figures by the weekend and that number will rise dramatically as many more try to open for the Thanksgiving Holiday period in a fortnight. Next to open will be Breckenridge in Colorado, the most popular US destination for Brits, on Friday 9th November. It has a 50cm base. Californian ski areas are also expected to-reopen when temperatures drop dramatically there over the weekend - Squaw Valley and Boreal both opened in the last few days of October but closed again as temps headed back up to the 50s Farenheit.

Conditions are fairly average with most areas that are open only having a run or two open and a snow depth of 20-30cm in most cases, usually a mix of machine made and natural snow.

Temperatures are continuing to fluctuate across the country in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy making snow making difficult. Killington has however reopened with a 20cm snow depth after Sandy made it too warm for snowmaking.

Southern Hemisphere – Season Over
The end of the ski day last Sunday, November 4th, marked the end of the southern hemisphere's 2012 ski season. Yet again Turoa in New Zealand was the last resort open for snowsports south of the equator, closing despite still having a 2m base.

Opening Soon (subject to conditions)
Engelberg re-opens for skiing and snowboarding on Friday, November 16, 2012.
Heavenly and Vail open for skiing and snowboarding on Friday, November 16, 2012.
Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec; Sun Peaks, BC, November 17, 2012.
Obertauern, Austria, November 22, 2012.
Val Thorens, France, November 24, 2012.