Here's the first of our 2016 monthly round-ups of where to ski, which we'll be sending out until around October when the snows come again to the North (not that they've actually stopped this winter yet!).
This Month's Snow Headlines
- Heavy late April snow in many ski regions leaves excellent conditions for the start of May.
- Alyeska in Alaska closes for 2015-16 after receiving nearly 18 metres of snowfall through the season.
- Ski areas in California extend season to the end of May.
- Resorts in Europe and North America re-open after heavy snow!
- No French ski areas open after May 8th.
- Engelberg (open to May 22nd) received a metre of snow in the last week of April.
May - like October - is change-over month in world skiing. All but a dozen or so ski areas in the Northern hemisphere usually close, but (unless there's an unexpected early wintry blast), skiing in the southern hemisphere doesn't kick off until the start of June. Even most glacier ski areas in the Alps opt to observe a month or two closed-time before re-opening in June or July for summer skiing.
So it is that of the world's 5,000+ ski area, as few as 20 can be open in the latter half of May. In fact at that point in the year more indoor snow centres (there are now about 50 of them) are operating than outdoor ones!
The start of this May, however, is looking like a vintage one for the areas that are still open after heavy and consistent snowfall in the last weeks of April in most ski regions. There's been significant snow in the Alps, Rockies, Scandinavia and even Scotland where The Lecht re-opened after a month's closure for the April 30/May 1st weekend. Wolf Creek in Colorado has done the same.
Re-publication :- our Snow Report Summary, being the text above this line, 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.
The Alps
Austria
Austria looks to its glacier ski areas in May – at least after the initial weekend which a few resorts, most notably Ischgl, stay open for. And those glaciers are in great shape after several feet of fresh snow fell in the last few weeks of April. Not all of the eight glaciers in Austria are open in May though. Year-round Hintertux is, of course, but the Molltal and Solden glaciers will close on May 8th and the Piztal glacier has closed already. Two glacier centres are open to the last Monday of May – the Stubai and Kaunertal glaciers. So that leaves the Dachstein and Kitzsteinhorn glaciers which both aim to be open through May and in to June.
France
France has more areas open to the end of April than any other country, but from early May to mid-June there's an odd five weeks or so when there's no ski area open in France most years, and this spring is no exception. Val Thorens and Tignes will be the last centres open there for the next few days – both open through to Sunday the 8th, but until mid-June there are no French centres open. Val d'Isere, Les 2 Alpes and Tignes will re-open for summer skiing then.
Italy
May skiing options have been on the wane in Italy too. The number of summer ski centres has dropped from half a dozen a decade or so ago to just two now, and one of those won't be opening until June. To be fair Passo Tonale would normally be open through to June but for the past two winters has been seeing a major upgrade of its lifts (Last summer) and on-mountain restaurants (this summer) so is closing early. Val Senales, the former summer ski area, is open to May 8th and Cervinia is open weekends through to May 22nd but that's probably it for Italy until the Passo Stelvio summer ski area opens at the end of the month.
Switzerland
The snow is lying deep and crisp and even on Swiss slopes as we enter May. Most of the country's ski areas are now closed with four glacier centres open as we start the month, although only one will be open by the 31st! Glacier 3000 between les Diablerets and Gstaad will be the first of the four to close on May 8th, but Engelberg – which currently has the deepest base of any open resort in Europe at 3.5m up on its Titlis glacier, is open for another fortnight to the 22nd, as is the Diavoleza glacier near St Moritz in the Engadin region in the south east of the country. It's Zermatt, with Europe's highest slopes and normally open year round (Conditions permitting) that will still be open through the summer months – all being well.
Scandinavia
Many leading ski areas in Scandinavia stay open to the first weekend of May and close at the end of Sunday the 1st. Hemsedal in Norway is one such area, and it had 10cm of fresh snow in the last week of April. Some stay open longer, most notably Ruka, up in Finland, which expects to stay open to the 9th and Narvik in northern Norway which will continue to the 16th. Riksgransen, the 'Spring skiing capital of Europe' will stay open to the weekend nearest to midsummers day in June and begin offering its annual snowsports under the midnight sun later in May. Norway has three summer glacier ski areas too which begin to open around now. The Folgefonn glacier, for example, opened at the weekend, with the Stryn glacier due to join it at the end of the month.
Scotland
It's often the case that Scotland has better snow conditions in spring than in winter and this year is no exception with the centres unable to open until mid-January due to too little snow and weather extremes but now closing in some cases due to lack of business not lack of snow. As we enter May, Glencoe says Monday May 2nd is its last day of the season, leaving only Cairngorm which has not yet announced a closing date. Both areas received significant snowfall in the last week of April.
North America
Canada
There are only four areas open in Canada in May and two of them – Lake Louise and Marmot Basin in Alberta – close after the weekend of the 7th/8th. However the other Banff, Alberta resort of Sunshine is open for a further fortnight and plans to round off it season with its inaugural staging of the Pond Skimming World Cup.
Whistler is staying open right to the end of May, closing after the last Sunday of the month, and then only for 12 days before re-opening for summer skiing and boarding on Blackcomb Mountain. It has over 2m of snow lying and was still getting fresh snow at the end of April so is looking good for at least another month.
USA
It's been a snowy winter 15-16 in Western North America and as a result it's looking like the best May skiing for five seasons. Mammoth and Squaw Valley are the main Californian ski areas that have already announced plans to stay open to at least the end of the month. Mammoth has a 15 foot/4.5m base on upper runs. In Colorado Arapahoe basin is still open and Wolf creek has re-opened for the first weekend of the May at least after fresh snow, Loveland is also open for the start of the month. Mt Bachelor in Oregon and Snowbird in Utah are also operating weekends in May – all report significant snowfall in the last few weeks of April. The nearly year-round snow field at timberline in Oregon is also operational and on the East Coast Killington in Vermont is managing top keep a few runs open with a few feet of mostly machine made snow despite a more challenging season there.
Southern Hemisphere
No southern hemisphere ski areas are expected to open until early June when resorts in Australia will open regardless of snow conditions and Tiffindell in South Africa and Afriski in Lesotho are also expected to open. The mass opening of ski areas in New Zealand and South America usually gets underway around mid-June.
That said, there have been promising pre-season snowfalls reported in the Andes in the latter half of April with La Parva in Chile and Catedral in Argentina amongst those posting very snowy pics on social media. Ski areas in New Zealand have also been posting pictures of their slopes turning white, raising anticipation south of the equator.
We'll have more on the prospects for the Southern Hemisphere in next months update.