The Matterhorn's waiting for winter too...
Top 100 Snowiest Ski Areas Worldwide
This Week's Snow Headlines
- Eight ski areas open in Austria - over half the northern hemisphere's total.
- Two ski areas open briefly after September snow in the USA.
- First Finnish ski area due to open on October 7th, using stockpiled snow from last winter.
- 40cm of late September snowfall in Canada.
- The first non-glacier resort has just opened (Sept 30th) for the season in Norway.
- Will a ski area in Arizona be first to open for 17-18 in the USA?
- 2017-18 season gets underway in France.
- 2017 season winding down in Southern Hemisphere, though some have extended seasons.
Well, what a difference a month makes. Writing our September report at the end of August we were reporting glaciers where the snow had melted away following months of high temperatures, and forest fires were raging in Western America. Since then we have had a month of mostly cold temperatures with high slopes in the alps seeing two or three September snowfalls, and we have gone from less than five areas open in the northern hemisphere to 15 for the start of October. There have also been some big snowfalls in Western North America and first turns made on that snow, although the ski areas concerned only opened temporarily.
There's been snow in the Dolomites, Pyrenees, even on high slopes in Scotland and Croatia and in Scandinavia centres are starting to open, aided by snowmaking and in some cases snow stockpiled from last season.
In the Southern Hemisphere the season is starting to wind down and more than half of areas now closed, with 95% due to be closed by the 8th October - with several enjoying a week-long extension to their planned seasons thanks to all the late snowfall.
In the Forecast
It's way too early to make any predictions for the coming European winter, but it is certainly not too soon to start watching the forecasts in earnest; and they're currently pretty typical for the time of year.
European mountains should see snow high up this coming week and temperatures look likely to fall encouragingly as October progresses, with colder-than-average weather particularly likely to the East.
This will be the last of our monthly reports before we revert to our usual weekly round-ups toward the end of this month.
Always check local conditions and resort opening times directly before travelling!
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.
NORTHERN HEMISPHERE
Austria
Austria is a clear winner for early-season skiing in the Northern Hemisphere! As of the last day of September, all eight of the country's Autumn-opening glacier ski areas had opened for 2017-18 with The Dachstein and Kitzsteinhorn glaciers last to join the party, following the Kaunertal Glacier the week before them; the Stubai and Pitztal glaciers on the 16th, and Solden the weekend before!
The Molltal glacier which had been open since the spring but closed due to the snow-melting summer heat also re-opened and the Hintertux glacier is open year-round. It's unusual for all eight to be open by the start of October, even without the long hot summer, and we certainly weren't expecting them all to be open by now. The September snow has transformed things – so long as it stays cold anyway. Bases are in the 45-95cm bracket and most areas have 3-9km of runs open although the Hintertux has more than 20km accessible.
There is only one other ski area scheduled to open in Austria in October, now that all the glaciers are open, and it should be the first non-glacier ski area to open in the Alps for winter 17-18, just as it was the past few seasons. Kitzbuhel plans to open a high altitude (by its standards – about 1800-1900m) slope using farmed snow from last season on 14th October.
France
The French ski season got underway this weekend with the Grand Motte glacier at Tignes opening for its eight month long season through to next spring.
It will probably be the only ski centre open in France until mid-November when Val Thorens will lead the mass-opening of the country's centres, excepting Les 2 Alpes which will open for a week at the end of October for its annual celebration of all things snowsport.
Last season though several centres including Alpe d'Huez opened early after big snowfalls in early November, so the picture is far from certain.
Italy
Italy has two glacier ski areas open at present; Passo Stelvio which has been open since May, and Val Senales which opened last month. The hot summer weather had led Passo Stelvio to close for a few weeks and Val Senales to delay its autumn opening but there's been lots of fresh snow on high slopes in Italy during September and Passo Stelvio now has an upper slope snow depth of 1.5m, the deepest in the Alps. Cervinia will be open for weekends in the latter half of October and full-time from the 29th.
Switzerland
Saas Fee and Zermatt have been the two choices in Switzerland for the past 10 weeks, longer in Zermatt's "always open" case. Both have around 15km of runs open, with base depths in the 60-70cm bracket.
Four more Swiss glacier ski areas will open in October though, providing conditions allow. First up, in terms of scheduled openings is the Diavolezza glacier near St Moritz which plans to open for its long season through to next spring on 21st October. The glacier at Laax and Glacier 3000, close to Gstaad and Les Diablerets, are aiming to open a week later on the last weekend of the month, 28 Oct. The fourth area to open in October looks set to be the Titlis glacier above Engelberg but it hasn't named an opening date yet.
Scandinavia
Norway's Galdhoppigen glacier is still open and posting a 3m base, still the deepest in the northern hemisphere. However Norway now has a second choice of ski area as Geilo opened a run again on the last day of September, the same as it has the past few seasons. The centre uses stockpiled snow from last season, preserved under tarpaulins in a shady spot on the slopes and spreads it out on the slopes to create a 1km long run, reported to be popular with teams for training and kids for fun.
Next Saturday, October 7th, Ruka ski area in Lapland, Finland, plans to open a run using the same trick, beginning a 200 day season. Ruka claims the longest season in the world of a non-glacier resort but as it now tends to close in early May, rather than early June as previously that claim might be challenged. Arapahoe Basin in Colorado was open from October to July last season and Mammoth from early November to early August – more than 260 days.
North America
Ski areas in Canada and the USA look well placed for the start of winter 2017-18. There was heavy snow across the west of the continent in late September with many areas reporting 5-10cm of snow but more at some.
Silverton in Colorado managed to open to locals for a bit of powder skiing whilst Mt Bachelor in Oregon opened a terrain park the weekend after the snow fall. The biggest reported fall was a 40cm dump on Marmot Basin near Jasper in Alberta over 36 hours on the last day of summer and first of autumn.
In terms of the real start to the season though the usual high altitude suspects, Arapahoe Basin and Loveland in Colorado are reported to have started snowmaking and hope to open by mid-October. This time last year things started well but then hit a warm spell. A Basin managed to open but Loveland had to delay in to November. This year's wildcard is Arizona Snowbowl which is also reported to have started snowmaking.
Southern Hemisphere
The ski season has ended at many southern hemisphere ski areas and is in its final week or two at most of the rest.
All Australian ski areas had been scheduled to close by October 1st but the sensational snowfall there in August and early September meant that most of the bigger resorts extended their seasons to the 8th. Bases are still at around 2.4m (8 feet) at Perisher and Thredbo.
New Zealand's ski areas have some of their deepest snow depths of the season so far too with a little fresh snow at most in the last week of September. Mt Hutt has the deepest in the world at present for an open ski area at 3.6m (12 feet). Several others have 1-2m with Mt Ruapehu on the North Island which usually stays open longest in the southern hemisphere in to late October and sometimes 'Snowvember' at the deeper end of those. Most other areas are due to close on 8th or 15th October.
Ski areas in South America will mostly close at the end of the day on the 1st of October with a few staying open to the 8th or 15th. Not much fresh snow has been reported since early September but base depths are as in New Zealand, still fairly good at 1-2m for most. Valle Nevado has 3m/10 feet, the deepest on the continent. Bases in Argentina are up to 2m.