Re-publication :- our Snow Report Summary, being the text up to "The Alps", is free to re-publish, but must be clearly credited to www.J2ski.com with text including "J2Ski Snow Report" linked to this page - thank you.
Snow Report Summary
This is the first of our monthly guides of where to ski and what's happening during the months of the Northern Hemisphere Summer.
After a very odd winter 2014-15, more than 4,000 ski areas in the northern hemisphere closed last month (April) leaving only a select few dozen heroes to stay open in to May. With the majority of those closing after the first weekend in the month, no Southern Hemisphere destinations yet open and even some Summer and Autumn glacier ski areas taking a break, mid-May is actually the quietest period in the whole ski year with the number of open areas dropping below 20 worldwide.
But - after the exceptionally bad start to the season for snowfall in the Alps, Dolomites and Western North America, the last few weeks have seen some quite significant snowfalls on top of the bases that did eventually build, so at those few centres that are still open, May 2015 isn't looking too bad a month for snowsports! In some cases it's better than December was in fact.
Some ski centres do remain open in most of the Northern Hemisphere's major skiing regions, with the exception, as far as we've been able to ascertain, of Eastern Europe and The Pyrenees where all centres now appear to have closed for the season.
Here's the j2skicom low down on what's looking good high up (by altitude and latitude):
The Alps
Austria
Although a few resorts including Obertauern and Ischgl stay open to the first weekend of April, you'll need to head up to one of Austria's glacier ski areas (and, with eight, it has more than twice as many as any other country) to ski or board during the rest of May.
The good news is that the snow depths are very good and there has been fresh snow in the past few weeks, so things are looking good!
The Kaunertal and Stubai glaciers both aim to stay open at least to June and Hintertux is open year round.
Solden will close its twin glaciers for snowsports, until September, after this weekend (May 3rd) and the Dachstein glacier will also close then but the Molltal and Pitztal glaciers will have their last day of the season on 10th May. Kaprun's Kitzsteinhorn glacier will stay open another fortnight until the 24th May.
France
France is the only one of the big four Alpine nations that has no ski areas open from mid-May on, although several glacier areas – including les 2 Alpes and Tignes, will re-open in the latter half of June.
French ski areas open for a week or two more include Chamonix and Val d'Isere to this Sunday 3rd May and Tignes and Val Thorens to a week on Sunday, 10th May. All currently have upper slope bases of at least 1.5m (five feet).
Italy
Snowsports in Italy this May look set to be extremely limited. The former summer ski destination of Val Senales as well as glacier resort Cervinia and other high altitude ski areas like Livigno are set to close this Sunday, May 3rd, for the season leaving only Passo Tonale likely to be the loner Italian ski option through May – a few red runs are normally served by a single drag lift up there through to early June. The snow is currently more than 4m deep there, one of the biggest bases in the world, so it's looking good. At the end of the month, on Saturday May 30th, Passo Stelvio, the country's summer-only glacier area, will open for its 2015 season.
Switzerland
Glacier 3000 (by Les Diablerets) which was formerly open to mid-May has decided to close earlier this year, after the coming weekend in fact, so the only options in Switzerland from next Monday are year-round Zermatt, Engelberg (until the 24th of May) or the Diavolezza glacier near St Moritz. All have good bases and reported fresh snow in the past week. Zermatt's near 800m summer vertical is among the biggest in the world from May to November, beating most resorts in the southern hemisphere for that measure too.
Scandinavia
Finland
Ruka used to be open from October to June but for the past few seasons has decided to close earlier than previously, this year the last day will be May 10th. On the upside, it used to just keep one run open to the end, whereas it enters May with almost all 30+ runs open.
Norway
Most Norwegian ski areas close for the season after the coming weekend. It has been a good season for most with consistent snowfall from start to finish. Narvik up in the north got 20cm of fresh snow in the last few days of April. There are three glacier areas in Norway which are starting to open in May for summer skiing. Folgefonn will be first – opening on May 1st in fact, then Stryn, which operates a double chairlift, will follow on 21st May. A third area which operates Northern Europe's highest lift, a T Bar up to 1850m, Galdhøpiggen, is due to open the following day, May 22nd.
Sweden
As with Finland and Norway most Swedish areas close after this weekend, when the focus switches to 'the spring skiing capital' of Riksgransen 200km north of the Arctic Circle. Famously open to midsummers day in June, Riksgransen is also bathed in 24 hour daylight from mid-May when skiing under the midnight sun is offered on selected days. Snow conditions are currently good with lots of fresh snow in the last weeks of April.
Scotland
The last five days of April have been the snowiest for several weeks bringing fresh cover for the start of May at the two centres that have remained open – Glencoe on the West coast and Cairngorm above Aviemore. Glencoe has most recently says it expects to close on May Day due to too little business to justify running the lifts any longer, rather than too little snow. Cairngorm may keep open a little longer.
Canada
Canada's ski season continues to mid-May at Sunshine ski area near Banff and at Whistler – both of which will remain open to Sunday May 17th. It has not been a particularly memorable ski season in Canada but both have good snow depths of 1.5m (five feet) plus and have had fresh snow. There'll be about a month with no lift-served skiing in Canada when they close until Whistler re-opens for glacier skiing in June. Lake Louise and Marmot Basin in Alberta are also open for the first weekend of May.
USA
It's not yet clear how many US resorts will make it through May. Some of the usual candidates for late spring skiing on the West Coast like Squaw Valley in California and Crystal Mountain in Washington state have closed up shop already after the lacklustre winter here, but that said the last weekend of April saw a foot of fresh snow on Californian slopes. Mammoth hasn't specified a closing date but enters May with top to bottom skiing and talk of events at the Memorial Day weekend at the end of May so it looks a promising bet. Mt Bachelor in Oregon has also said it plans to stay open from Wednesday to Sunday each week through to Memorial Day too, subject to snow cover. Arapahoe basin in Colorado has said it intends to stay open in to June and snowbird in Utah is normally open through May, especially at weekends. Timberline on Mt Hood in Oregon should also remain open. On the East coast end-of-April snow in New England has helped Killington in Vermont which has built a big base on one of its runs and may also stay open through to June.
Southern Hemisphere
There has been some snow reported south of the equator already in Australian and particularly New Zealand, where the very keen have been hiking up to ski down in April. But, unless there is significant and consistent pre-season snow resulting in early opening, most ski areas won't open until the start of June.