Vail, Colorado, USA, looking very tempting...
Eastern Alps get snow, as does USA and Japan...
The Snow Headlines - 2nd February
- Fresh snowfall in Austria and the eastern Alps, little or nothing for France.
- Snow falling across North America – best conditions of the season so far.
- Europe's big ski areas are close to fully open for the first time this season.
- Up to 90cm (3 feet) of snowfall in 24 hours was reported in Norway.
- Huge snowfalls bury some Japanese ski areas.
- As low as -60C forecast for Quebec this weekend.
Austria leads the way in Europe, decent snow elsewhere
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.
World Overview
The Alps have an East-West divide at present with snow falling in Austria and other eastern areas, but remaining dry in most of France and the west, where the Northern French Alps have not seen much fresh snowfall for a couple of weeks again now. Despite that though, resorts are opening ever more terrain, helped by the cold weather, and the giant regions are nearly fully open.
It's improving too in the Pyrenees (although there's been no snow here for a few weeks either) and Bulgaria (which has had more snow), while Norway and Scandinavia continue to see full winter and report the biggest falls of the week in Europe.
Over in North America, there's been snowfall pretty much everywhere, but most welcomed in the east where it was most needed. With up to 2 feet reported in New England and very low temperatures, things have been transformed.
Canada is reporting good conditions but ultra-low temperatures in the east and high avalanche danger in the back country of BC.
In the wider world, Japan has seen its biggest snowfalls of the season, measured in metres at some resorts and there have been big falls for India's Gulmarg too.
Europe
Austria
Austria is where winter has returned in the alps this week, with snowfall starting on Sunday and continuing on and off ever since. Some ski areas have posted more than 30cm of snowfall so far and the storm has intensified a little as we complete this week's report so some may reach double that by the start of the weekend.
Saalbach was one of the early beneficiaries posting 15cm (6") of snowfall in the 24 hours to Tuesday and several top-ups since then. A similar picture for Zell am See, with 25cm (10") of snowfall on Wednesday morning and for most other Austrian resorts.
France
France has not seen much of the fresh snowfall so far but it continues to post the best snow stats in Europe.
Considering the Portes du Soleil and resorts like Les Gets, Chatel and Morzine were making headlines three weeks ago for having little or no terrain open due to the warm weather, it's in good shape for the start of February with more than 500km of slopes open – about 90% of the total and Avoriaz posting the deepest snowpack in Europe with around 3.3 metres (11 feet) on its highest runs.
Other big-name French resorts are also filling Europe's top 10 for snow depth and most of the country's huge ski areas are now 85-95% open, the most this season so far.
Italy
Italian ski slopes are generally in good shape, although there's been little fresh snowfall to report over the past week. The snow in the west just over a week greatly improved conditions in most areas however and the Dolomites have been in pretty good nick all winter, having skipped the early warm and wet periods further west, then also had a snow top up just over a week ago.
Sunshine has dominated much of the country the past week and through the coming weekend with no snow likely until the middle of next week, maybe.
Switzerland
Switzerland has had its own moving dividing line this week with mostly cloudy conditions and light snow falling in the east, but sunshine prevailing in the west. So far the snowfall hasn't amounted to much beyond a freshen up of the snow cover, typically a few centimetres a day and the other trend is a warming of temperatures at mountain bases, reaching 5C at 1500m in the afternoon after the fortnight-long freeze.
But conditions are largely good and there is more terrain open than in December and January; the 4 Valleys around Verbier are around 90% open.
Scandinavia
Winter continues in full force in Scandinavia with Western Norway posting some of the biggest snowfall totals of the season so far over the last few days. One little area, Bjorli, reported 90cm (three feet) of snowfall in the final 24 hours of January.
Base depths in the area have now reached 2 metres at Voss and the largest Scandi area, Sweden's Are, has about 75% of its slopes open.
Pyrenees
It has been a dry and sunny week in the Pyrenees, staying fairly cold but getting progressively warmer with temperatures getting into plus figures to high elevations, if only by a degree or two. The recent cold and sunny weather has improved conditions a good deal from where they were the last time it was like this a fortnight ago though.
The biggest area Grandvalira (25/70 cm / 10/28") continues at about 80% of its slopes open, the most all season, and quite a few smaller centres on the French and Spanish sides of the mountains are 100% open even though base depths remain below average.
Scotland
Scottish ski centres have had more promising conditions over the past week, with blizzards on Tuesday and snowfall down to the valley floor, however, it's not yet really compensated for the snow lost around mid-January.
Glenshee remains down to three runs maintained with their snow machines and Glencoe has the most open, about half of their terrain, mostly upper mountain.
Eastern Europe
Conditions continue to improve in Eastern Europe.
The areas in the south that had been really struggling with warm temperatures and almost no snow at all in Bulgaria and neighbouring countries have seen more snowfall and are now between 40% and 70% open. Pamporovo has top to bottom coverage, Borovets has been able to open its terrain park and Bansko has nearly 50km of slopes open.
Further north there have been blizzard conditions at Jasna and across the Slovak and Czech republics.
North America
Canada
Conditions are good right across Canada right now in most respects.
On the East Coast, it is definitely the best snow of the season so far thanks to a series of snowstorms and consistently low temperatures. The tree skiing or 'sous bois' for which the region is famous is coming into its own with Tremblant reporting excellent snow there. That said the next few days will see temperatures in the -40s Celsius, dangerously low, which is likely to see centre closures.
In the west, where conditions were already good, bases keep building with more snow showers. Silver Star in BC was the latest to hit a 2m base on their upper mountain terrain. British Columbia is reporting very high avalanche danger in the backcountry though, with warnings to keep away from steep runs. There have been five fatalities since Jan 1st.
USA
There's been snowfall reported at US ski resorts from coast to coast.
There was already deep snow in the West with more and more areas posting that they've already had more snow than they had by the end of last season.
The snow has been most gratefully received in the East where it's been a very different story and up to two feet of fresh cover has made a huge difference at resorts like Killington and Stowe, allowing them to open all their runs and for skiers to enjoy great powder conditions since the weekend.