This Week's Snow Headlines
- Sensationally snowy start to 16-17 ski season continues in the Alps.
- More resorts to open early for the season; Chamonix, La Clusaz, Gstaad, Wengen and Grindelwald this weekend.
- Ski areas opening early in the Dolomites too including Cortina, Madonna di Campiglio and Val Gardena.
- Scottish ski season starts briefly then stops again.
- All of Scandinavia's leading resorts opening by this weekend.
- Western US resorts get some snow as warm autumn there holds off more openings.
- Men's Downhill at Lake Louise cancelled.
Gstaad, opening for weekends from 19th November
The exceptionally snowy first half of November has continued through the last seven days with more big snowfalls in the Alps and accumulated totals reaching 1.5m (five feet) at some resorts. It's now increasingly looking like the snowiest start to a ski season in Europe this century and certainly the complete reverse of the previous two warm dry autumns in the Alps.
Even more remarkably the good cover is fairly widespread. There's good snow lying in the Dolomites and Pyrenees too, very different to a year ago, as well as in Scandinavia. Several leading ski areas in the Dolomites say they'll be opening early for the season this weekend. Scotland is already having its usual ups and downs of temperatures and snow cover with one area opening last weekend but then seeing almost all of its snow gone by Monday morning as temperatures rose (and now it's snowing again).
Across the Atlantic November temperatures are more challenging and resorts are still battling to open against unseasonably warm temperatures. The FIS has cancelled the first of the planned speed races in the 16-17 World Cup calendar, the Men's Downhill at Lake Louise. But resorts are now opening.
In the Forecast
This coming weekend sees another band of snow, heavy in places, sweep into The Alps. We expect heaviest falls in the Swiss Alps this time around, with Zermatt and surrounds potentially getting massive amounts next week, but significant snowfall across a wide area, again including much of the French Alps. This will further improve already-excellent conditions.
Either side of the snowfall, current forecasts are for temperatures to rise before falling toward seasonal averages again in the last week of the month. With the snow now fallen, and coming, we don't expect those temperatures to make a significant difference to the snowpack at mid altitudes and above.
Please note :- Most of the early-opening resorts are opening only for the weekends, prior to their full opening; so check before travelling! Also, as usual at this time of year, the snow reports from resorts are somewhat sporadic; most resorts are not yet fully-staffed and only a few are reliably reporting snow depths.
Once again, if you are heading into the mountains this weekend, do take care; lots of new snow on a young (or non-existent) base will mean high Avalanche Risk over a wide area; take local advice, and conservative lines! But enjoy.
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
It has been another good November week in Austria and conditions are looking great across the country. The number of areas open is now in double figures, the first country to reach this tally for 16-17, marginally ahead of Switzerland. Obergurgl and Obertauern are the latest to open, reporting excellent conditions with top to bottom skiing. Solden, one of the eight glacier ski areas that have been open since September or early October, is reporting the deepest snow in the country at 1.3m, most of the other glaciers 60-120cm.
France
We began November expecting a fairly boring month with just Tignes open until the last weekend, only to find the first fortnight of November would be one of the snowiest on record in the country, leading to remarkable images of snow lying a metre deep on the streets of resorts like Chamonix and up to 1.5m deep on the higher slopes above. Alpe d'Huez decided to open early and join Tignes last weekend, with Courchevel opening for one 'preview day' on Friday, running its lifts for free for a lucky 3000 or so skiers who came up to take advantage of the amazing early November conditions. This coming weekend Chamonix, La Clusaz and Val Thorens have decided to follow suit and it seems likely more French ski areas will join them with more early opening announcements expected before the weekend.
Italy
Italy too is seeing plenty of fresh snow and low temperatures for snowmaking. This has led to several ski areas in the Dolomites deciding to open some terrain early. Cotina d'Ampezo will have two of its three sectors partially open at the weekend, joining Kronplatz which will open on Thursday and several smaller areas. Val Gardena will open too but only to ski clubs, not the general public. In other areas Madonna di Campiglio also plans to open this weekend. The best conditions are still up on the glaciers, Cervinia has nearly 2m of snow lying and there's 40km of ski runs open with the link over the border to Zermatt. Val Senales also has good conditions.
Switzerland
More and more Swiss areas are opening early thanks to the great conditions. Bases are up to almost 2.5m at Verbier, the deepest reported base in the world at present. Up to a foot (30cm) of snow feel on Swiss slopes at the weekend leading to great conditions and forecasters are predicting some more big snowfalls over the coming week. Andermatt, Arosa, Crans Montana, Davos, Engelberg, Gstaad, Saas Fee and St Moritz now also all have terrain open and Grindelwald and Wengen in the Jungfrau region say they're opening early this weekend.
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees are looking nice and white and ready for the start of the season with a mix of natural snow cover and machine made snow. So far there have been no reports of resorts planning to open early but Grandvalira has confirmed it plans to open the weekend after next so long as conditions continue to be good. Many other ski areas in the Pyrenees will also open for the 26th/27th weekend.
Scandinavia
Scandinavian ski areas continue to be in good pre-main-season shape and the region's largest resort operator, Skistar, says all five of its destination resorts will be open from Saturday, with the biggest, Sweden's Are, opening for its near six-month season through to next May. Geilo, Hemedal and Trysil are already open in Norway with Geilo posting an 80cm base already, well ahead of the competition. Up in Finland the biggest ski area, Levi, hosted World Cup slalom races at the weekend. Ruka is also open.
Scotland
It's been the usual British mix of weather in Scotland. After several weeks of low temperatures and hill snow allowed The Lecht to claim to be the first area in the country to open at the weekend, temperatures by Monday this week were nearly in double figures Celcius, leading to all the snow melting away and the centres closing. But the next seven days will see temperatures largely sub zero again with more snow forecast.
Canada
Canadian ski areas have been posting images of snow falling at the start of this week but there are still issues with early season snow cover. This has led to some areas delaying planned opening dates and to the cancellation of the first FIS Men's Downhill race of the season - due to take place at Lake Louise later this month, however the resort plans to open to everyone else on Friday. It's not all gloom though, nearby Sunshine has a base depth of 80cm of all natural snow, more than 70 runs open and all but one of its dozen lifts operational.
USA
The US has also been battling warm weather leading to ski areas in Colorado delaying opening. But here, too there has been some fresh snow and more resorts plan to open this weekend to join the handful that have already managed to open (these include Arapahoe Basin and Loveland in Colorado, Mammoth in California and Killington in Vermont – most relying heavily or entirely on artificial snow). Others, including Squaw Valley, are rolling back their planned opening this weekend by at last another week. However Breckenridge say they will open some terrain this weekend.