Snow at altitude for many places on Sunday, deepest in the East! See Snow Forecast for Austria
J2Ski Snow Report 19th October 2017
Yeah! We're back... welcome to the first J2Ski Weekly Report of the World's Snow for the 2017 / 2018 winter. There's been snow in the high hills already, and there's more to come... though it may not stay, so get your snow dance on.
Top 100 Snowiest Ski Areas Worldwide
This Week's Snow Headlines
- Kitzbuhel is the first non-glacier ski area to open in the Alps.
- Only one ski resort still open in southern hemisphere.
- Arapahoe Basin first to open in Colorado.
- Les 2 Alpes cancels planned annual Autumn opening week.
- Ruka's October 6th opening one of the earliest in its history.
- Diavolezza glacier near St Moritz, should open for snowsports this weekend.
It's obviously way too early to be getting excited for the ski season but, so far, autumn has been good for early-opening ski centres with around 20 now open in Europe and North America for the 2017-18 ski season.
Things were not looking great at the start of September after a long, hot summer had melted most of the snow from glaciers in the alps, causing two summer ski areas in Austria and Italy to close in August, a fairly unprecedented event. But then repeated heavy snow storms transformed things to some extent and nearly all of the main glacier resorts in the alps have opened with some enjoying powder days already.
But it's not entirely good news. The snow hasn't been enough to fully restore glacier bases yet and Les 2 Alpes has had to cancel its planned opening at the end of October - an annual fixture since the 1990s - due to lack of snow cover.
One growing trend to note has been ski areas opening in early autumn by saving up snow in huge piles through the summer then spreading it out to make a 1-2km run in the autumn when temperatures are low enough. Geilo in Norway, Ruka in Finland and most recently Kitzbuhel in Austria have all used this technique to open in the past three weeks. For Kitzbuhel, it was their earliest ever opening and they are the first non-glacier resort in the Alps to open for the season.
Across the Atlantic there have been snow storms and cold weather for snowmaking, very different to this time a year ago when unseasonably warm weather was causing concerns (before that all changed mid-November and it didn't stop snowing). So far Timberline and Arapahoe Basin are open with Loveland set to join them imminently.
In the southern hemisphere the season is just about over with the remaining centres in New Zealand coming up to their closing weekend this Saturday.
In the Forecast
Yes, it's way too early to predict the season but this weekend will bring snowy scenes to many webcams as a band of snow rolls through much of The Alps.
Many Swiss resorts will see snow at altitude on Sunday. See Snow Forecast for Switzerland
This will be a cold interlude between relatively mild spells but it should bring snow down to moderate and even low levels for a while. In most areas the snow will fall through Sunday and into the first couple of days of next week before milder temperatures follow for the following week.
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
About half of the ski areas currently open in the world are in Austria, with eight glaciers to choose from, plus Kitzbuhel. Conditions are generally good on the glaciers although more snow would always be welcome, bases vary from 30cm (Dachstein) on top of the glacial ice to 90cm (Molltal, Kitzsteinhorn) and terrain open from 3km (Dachstein again and Molltal) to 35km (Hintertux). The other open options are Solden (23km open), Stubai (14km), Kaunertal (10km) and Pitztal (7km).
France
Conditions aren't great on French glaciers. The only centre open, Tignes, has a 20cm base and four runs open, a blue, a black and two red adding up to 7km of runs. Less good news at Les 2 Alpes which has decided to cancel its planned last-week-of-October-special-opening-week, an Autumnal feature at the resort for more than two decades, due to inadequate snow cover after the long hot summer.
Italy
There are three ski areas currently open in Italy with Cervinia opening for the first time for the 17-18 ski season last weekend (about 5 weeks after it closed at the end of its 2017 summer ski season). It's currently closed midweek but will re-open next weekend and then permanently for the 2017-18 season from the last Saturday of the month. It has joined Passo Stelvio, which has been open since last spring and Val Senales which re-opened at the start of September. Passo Stelvio had to close in August due to the hot summer sun melting all snow cover on the glacier but now reports its base back up to 50-150cm and all six runs open. At Val Senales there are five easy to intermediate runs open and a 30cm base.
Switzerland
There are three glacier areas open in Switzerland at present following Engelberg's decision to open, despite only having a 20cm snow depth on its Titlis glacier, last weekend. It joined year-round Zermatt and Saas Fee which has been open since July. A fourth Swiss glacier ski area, Diavolezza near St Moritz, scheduled to open for snowsports this weekend with Laax due to follow a week later.
Scandinavia
Norway's Galdhoppigen glacier has been open all summer and posts the deepest snowbase in the northern hemisphere at present at 3-4m, although how much of that is fresh is a moot point. It has been joined, as mentioned in the introduction, by Geilo, also in Norway, and Ruka in Finnish Lapland which have opened thanks to snow stock-piled from last season then re-distributed on a 1km or so long slope at each area.
North America
It's been an early start to the ski season in North America with several bands of heavy snowfall crossing the west of the continent and low temperatures for snowmaking too, so the permanent snowfield on Mt hood in Oregon, Timberline, has been able to re-open and Arapahoe Basin in Colorado was the first to open with fresh snow (albeit mostly machine made) on a previously green grassy slope last weekend – a fortnight earlier than in 2016. Indeed the whole region is much colder than a year ago when most centres had to delay opening plans until mid-November when a snowy deluge began that continued for much of the following six months. Loveland ski area, a second Colorado option, will join A Basin this weekend and other areas are also making snow in the region though none have announced plans to open before November so far. On the East Coast Killington in Vermont, also known for its early start to the ski season each year with an end-of-October target opening day, has started snowmaking too.
Southern Hemisphere
It's probably the last few days of the southern hemisphere's 2017 ski season with only two ski areas in New Zealand's north island, Turoa and Whakapapa, both on Mt Ruapehu, still operating. They are both set to close on Sunday after pond-skimming type 'final weekend' events. Both have 2m bases. Cardrona is still operating but only for athlete training in their terrain park ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympics; it's closed to the general skiing public. Mt Hutt closed on Sunday with a 3.3m (11 foot) base still on the mountain.