J2Ski Snow Report - April 18th 2013

Week Ending April 20th, 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/

After a week of warmth in The Alps, temperatures are set to fall significantly over the next few days - with the likelihood of fresh snow above 2,000 metres...

We had planned for this to be the last weekly round-up for the 2012/13 season but it seems we can't pack up our keyboards for the summer just yet!

This Week's Headlines

- Heavy snow continues to fall in Western North America, but most resorts there are now closed.
- Up to 45cm of fresh snow in the French Alps, with some resorts extending the season to late-May.
- Very warm in the Alps this past week, but getting colder this weekend.
- All five Scottish areas open, still, subject to demand, and winds dropping, except Nevis Range which is now weekends only.
- Breckenridge, Copper, Vail to re-open this weekend, joining still open Aspen and Winter Park.
- 4m+ upper slope base depths still reported at Alpe d'Huez, Engelberg, Gstaad, Passo Tonale, Mammoth, Niseko and others.

Europe
Austria
Around three-quarters of Austrian ski areas have now closed for the season, perhaps marginally the highest proportion in the Alps. But for those that are still open there's a battle for market share with big name stars at festivals (Deep Purple heading to Ischgl for the last weekend of the month) and events like ' win a luxury car' in an on piste treasure hunt for the keys at Obertauern). Solden has piste bashers pretending to be elephants in a glacier wide recreation of the story of Hannibal.

As to snow, not much, although Ischgl, Kitzbuhel, Obergurgl and Obertauern each reported 5-10cm falling at the end of last week. Piste depths at the open resorts still look very healthy though, topped by Pitztal with 3.8m (nearly 13 feet), but with 2.5m (over 8 feet) lying at Solden and Obertauern and 2.2m (over 7 feet) at St Anton.

France
Most French ski areas remain open at least until this weekend, and a good number including Tignes, Val d'Isere and Val Thorens open in to May. Val Thorens, which still has a month of the season to run, is looking good with another 40cm of fresh snow this week, including a foot (30cm) on Sunday and has a base just below 4m – so some snow will probably last now to winter 2013-14 there. It's not the deepest in the country though, Alpe d'Huez still has a 4.1m base.

Tignes, open to 12th May, posted the biggest snowfall this week though with another 45cm (18 inches). Its 3m (10 foot) base on the Grand Motte glacier sets it in good stead for summer skiing from June to August. Elsewhere across the French Alps snowfalls typically in the range of 5-20cm (2-8 inches) have been recorded, including 10cm at la Plagne, 15cm at La Rosiere and Meribel, and 20cm at Les Arcs.

Italy
Unlike France, but rather like Austria, most Italian ski areas have now closed for the season. But many of the few dozen that are still open, will be staying open a week or two more in to May, and in some cases in to June. Passo Tonale, with a 4m (13.3 feet) base still, is in that latter category. Ion the former, Cervinia with a 3m (10 foot) base, is the only resort in the country to report fresh snow 20cm (eight inches) in fact. Also open in to May is Cortina with a 1.5m (five foot) base.

Switzerland
Around half of Swiss resorts are still open and with many of those offering skiing above 3000m, they've been perhaps the best placed to see minimal impact from the double digit temperatures in the Alps at times this week. The biggest snowfall, 20cm, was reported by Verbier which still has 3.6m (12 feet) lying on higher slopes and hopes to be the venue for the new speed skiing world record in the next few days. Andermatt, Engelberg and Crans Montana are among those still looking good with 3-4m upper slope base depths. Gstaad now has the deepest reported snow base in the world at 4.8m. Saas Fee and Zermatt both reported 15cm (6 inch) snowfalls at the weekend.

Pyrenees
In Andorra temperatures have been hitting +12C but Grandvalira say they'll be open for another fortnight to the 28th and although there's no fresh snow, more than 140km of runs are still open and upper slope base depths are up to 2m at Pas de la Casa. Spain's Baqueira Beret is still open too and will be at weekends through to May 5th. It reports 3.2m on upper slopes and says the golfing season opens this weekend down in the valley. Sierra Nevada in the south of Spain is also open in to May with a hefty snow depth to rely on.

Scandinavia
"It's still like February here," a spokesperson for Are, the region's leading resort, told J2ski this morning. Good news with the season still having a fortnight to run there and at several other leading Scandinavian resorts including Hemsedal over the border in Norway, and which reported 7cm of new snow this week, maintaining the 60-110cm base it's had, more-or-less for most of 2013 to date. Are's base is 83cm. In Lapland, Ruka, which normally stays open to June has a 65cm base, but Levi is the only centre to report fresh snow – 5cm of it.

Scotland
With the Easter Holidays over and a return to more normal lukewarm Scottish temperatures with some gale force winds and rain thrown in, Scotland's excellent 2012-13 ski season seems like it may end sooner than expected by the most optimistic. That said, snow on the top of Cairngorm does normally last and there's still top-to-bottom skiing, just about, at most of the five areas. Nevis range has announced it will only open at weekends due to lack of demand, rather than lack of snow, and gale force wind closed Glencoe at the start of the week, while the thaw looks to be affecting The Lecht the most from the webcam images.

North America
Canada
The vast majority of Canadian ski areas are now closed although the snow is still falling in Alberta and BNC. Fernie reports nearly two feet more snow since it closed last weekend. However whistler will be open for another five weeks, and then there's summer skiing, and in Alberta Banff, Sunshine, Lake Louise and Marmot Basin will be open for up to a month more. Over in Quebec, Mont Ste Anne is still open, but at weekends only. In terms of snowfall, Whistler has had another foot (30cm) of snow and currently has a 2.4m (8 foot) base. There's also been 24cm (8 inches) for Banff/Lake Louise and 10cm for Marmot Basin – so all looking good for mid-Spring skiing.

USA
Most US resorts are now closed but that doesn't mean the snow has stopped falling. It seems bizarre that Colorado resorts opened in mid-late November and went a month with no significant snowfall, but have now nearly all closed but up to 90cm (three feet) of snow has fallen on the state's ski slopes in the past week, some of the biggest accumulations of the season. But that's how it's always been and to be fair there are rumours of areas reopening at weekends (Which have just been confirmed for Breckenridge, Copper Mountain and Vail as we 'go to press'). Currently three areas in the state remain open Arapahoe Basin (57cm/23 inches in past 72 hours), Aspen Highlands (60cm/24 inches in past 72 hours); Loveland (82cm/33 inches in past 72 hours) and Winter Park (62cm/25 inches in past 72 hours). It's snowing elsewhere in the West too, if not quite so much. Timberline in Oregon, the closest thing to year-round skiing in North America with a 49 week season (just closing briefly in September usually) has one of the deepest bases in the country at 4.3m (a good sign) and 30cm of fresh snow. There's also been new snow in Utah where Snowbird and Alta remain open and looking good and in California where Kirkwood will re-open this weekend after a 25cm fall and Mammoth still has one of the deepest bases in North America at 4.3m. A few resorts remain open on the east coast too and Killington reports receiving 5cm of fresh snow on Monday.