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This Week's Snow Headlines
- Another (fourth this autumn) band of snowfall crosses the Alps
- Loveland and Arapahoe Basin will open on Thursday 29th October.
- First snow 'of 15-16' in Scotland.
- Laax scheduled to open on Halloween.
- Les 2 Alpes open for second and final weekend of week-long October opening.
Another week of snow in the Alps and in North America, so we can tick off a continuing mostly chilly trend as we enter November. Now we just need it to keep getting colder and keep snowing and we can look forward to a great winter, simple!
The latest band of snowfall in the Alps is expected to deposit around 30-50cm of fresh snow on higher slopes by the time it ends at the weekend, with currently Italy and Switzerland looking like they'll do particularly well from it. That's similar to snowfall in Western North America earlier in the week which has led to resorts starting to open in the Rockies.
There's also been excitement in Scotland as the first snow has been reported on ski runs there last weekend and Scandinavian areas have also had fresh snow on top of their snowmaking efforts.
In The Forecast
Once the current band of snow clears from The Alps, it does look as if temperatures are set to rise for a few days as we move into November although the outlook a week out is quite uncertain at the moment.
The Alps
Austria
Kitzbuhel successfully surprised everyone last week by opening some of its highest runs to skiers and boarders at the weekend - the first non-glacier ski area in the Alps to do so, and ironically at one of the lowest of the major ski areas. It credited the recent natural snowfalls.
It was also a big weekend at Solden, one of the eight Austrian glacier resorts already operational (more than any other country) as it staged World Cup Men's and Women's GS races over the weekend and this week is involved in the launch of Bond movie SPECTRE with many of the on-snow scenes shot there.
So Austria remains the place with the widest choice of ski areas open. Glacier base depths are reported to range from 20cm (Dachstein) to 1.1m (Hintertux) with most resorts at the upper end of those numbers. Solden, Stubai and Hintertux all have around 30km/20 miles of terrain open - the biggest areas available.
France
Les 2 Alpes opened last weekend for its annual end-of-October week of ski tests and festivities. That concludes this weekend, after which it will just be Tignes for nearly three more weeks until Val Thorens opens in the latter half of November. Both Tignes and Les 2 Alpes are reporting 'good conditions' and 50cm base depths on their glaciers.
Italy
It's been snowing and continues to snow in Italy this week. Passo Stelvio expects to have received a foot of fresh cover by Friday morning. It has the deepest base in the country already at 2m (also one of the deepest in the world at present) and all six runs open. Cervinia (120cm base), which moves to full time operations from this Saturday after opening the previous two Fridays has also got fresh snow, and Val Senales (50cm base) is a third Italian option open for skiing.
Switzerland
Things are looking very snowy at present and in the forecast for the next few days for Switzerland's already-open glacier ski areas. Up to 50cm of fresh snow is expected to have accumulated by the weekend at Saas Fee and Zermatt leading to another weekend of autumnal powder conditions. Both areas have 25 - 30km of terrain open and 80-120cm bases. Laax is due to join them and the other already open Swiss area, the Diavolezza Glacier near St Moritz in the Engadin, on Halloween. It should have plenty of fresh snow by then too so it should be an epic opening weekend!
Scandinavia
There's been some fresh natural snow in northern Scandinavia to add to the machine made covering at resorts including Ruka and Levi in Finland. Ruka has now been open for a fortnight (if only one run) whilst Levi is gearing up to stage the next round of the World Cup after Solden last weekend, in a few week's time. In Norway Gladhoppigen and Geilo both report a run open each.
Scotland
There was lot of excitement on Sunday last week when fresh snow was reported on higher Scottish slopes, with Cairngorm doing particularly well and able to post pictures of staff scraping up a few inches of snow off decking. So far it has not been added to but Scottish centres can open quite quickly once a significant snowfall (or two) occurs.
North America
Canada
Lake Louise is scheduled to open a week on Friday and other Banff/Alberta resorts may do likewise if conditions remain good - currently it has been below freezing with snow flurries at night.
USA
There's been decent snowfall in the Rockies over the past week, which, coupled with snowmaking efforts, means ski areas are expected to start opening in the next few days. Loveland, in fact, one of the world's highest ski areas, says it will open today, Thursday 29th October (two days earlier than last year!).
"The warm fall weather delayed the start of snowmaking this year, but Mother Nature finally came through," said Rob Goodell, director of business operations. "A winter storm delivered 17.5 inches of natural snow last week and brought the cold temperatures our snowmakers had been waiting for. They have done an incredible job getting the mountain ready for the first skiers and riders of the season."
Keystone and Copper say they'll open a week on Friday, on November 6th. Elsewhere in the West there's been significant snowfall reported in the past few days in states including Utah and Washington.
On the East Coast Killington and Sunday River remain operational with more areas expected to open soon.
Southern Hemisphere
The 2015 season is over.