After a 3-year hiatus, Selwyn, NSW, Australia has literally risen from the ashes and is back in action tomorrow!
Snow in Australia, season starts in Argentina.
The Snow Headlines - 22nd June
- Ski season gets underway in Argentina.
- Tignes opens for glacier ski season.
- More snowfall in Australia mean most centres are now open..
- Skiing at midnight under the midnight sun in Sweden this weekend.
- More centres open for the 2023 season in New Zealand, but one closes.
- Norway's Stryn glacier ends its 2023 season.
- US down to three centres open as they head towards 4th of July.
- Snowfall in Western North America closes one of few still open ski areas.
- Aussie area last open in 2019 will re-open Friday.
Some decent snow bound for South America
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World Overview
We are into winter proper (by the astronomical calendar as well as the meteorological one) in the southern hemisphere, and summer in the northern. We're also now into double figures for the number of ski areas open in South America, Australia and New Zealand with at least one centre now open in every ski nation there.
Australia in particular has been reporting plenty of fresh snow now, in other areas, cold temperatures. Against that, Mount Hutt, the first resort to open for the season in the southern hemisphere, has been forced to close again by rain.
In the northern hemisphere, the summer heat is beginning to build with the consequence that Snowbird in Utah has abandoned plans to stay open to US independence day on July 4th, and Norway's Stryn glacier has ended its 2023 season.
There has been a hiccup in the warming of the weather in north-western North America however, with up to 30cm of snowfall reported and the snowstorm temporarily closing one of the three still-open US ski areas.
On a positive note, Tignes opened for its summer ski season at the weekend and Riksgransen, 200km north of the Arctic Circle in northern Sweden, re-opens for midsummer skiing under the midnight sun for this weekend only.
Southern Hemisphere
Australia
The snow was falling in Australia as we were posting last week's report and in the end, it allowed two more centres - Mount Hotham and Falls Creek, to open their slopes for the season. They joined Mount Baw Baw, Mount Buller and the largest centre Perisher, which had all started skiing the previous Saturday. The terrain had been very limited at those three centres though and Perisher opened some main runs for the first time last Friday after the fresh snowfall.
The weather stayed cold into this week though with more snowfall at the weekend adding a further 20-30 cm and then it kept snowing through the week, on and off.
Thredbo opened for the season on Tuesday.
Selwyn in New South Wales says it's opening Friday, for the first time since the lifts and base building were destroyed by bush fires in January 2020.
New Zealand
It's a mixed picture in New Zealand with some cold temperatures allowing snowmaking but with clear skies and no snowfall, but then milder air has brought rain.
The result is that some areas have slightly expanded the limited terrain they opened with, others have had to close completely or delay opening.
The outlook isn't that great for any significant cold, snowy weather arriving any time soon either unfortunately - although there is some light snow in the forecast now.
The Remarkables, Coronet Peak and Cardrona all opened last weekend, with the first two adding a bit more terrain through the week.
More were due to join them this weekend but one of them, Treble cone, has now delayed opening for the time being. Sadly Mt Hutt, which had been the first in the southern hemisphere to open back on June 10th, announced last weekend that it was forced to close due to the impact of heavy rain on its snow.
Argentina
Argentina's big opening weekend is coming up on Saturday but one centre, Las Lenas, has already opened, kicking off the country's 2023 season and its own 40th.
So far it's been cold but hoped-for big snowfalls have not materialised. The heaviestto date in 2023 have tended to be in Patagonia.
The continent's biggest resort, Catedral, and the world's most southerly, Cerro Castor, are among the centres due to open for the season from Saturday.
Chile
Chile has seen cold temperatures but little snowfall to date and La Parva is currently the only ski centre there reporting it has open slopes. More of the country's better-known ski areas including Portillo and Valle Nevado are aiming to open for their 2023 seasons this coming weekend if they can.
Africa
At the present time, it does not appear that either of southern Africa's ski areas – Tiffindell in South Africa, which last opened in 2019 for skiing and Afriski in Lesotho – will open for skiing this winter.
Europe
Alps
We are up to three ski areas open in France now, with Tignes opening last weekend, joining its neighbour Val d'Isere. The two areas report 20km of slopes open, the greater part on the Tignes side. Tignes is open for five weeks for snowsports, and Val d'Isere is already nearly halfway through its four-week opening.
You can also ski for a week or so more at Les 2 Alpes.
Elsewhere the Hintertux glacier is open in Austria, Passo Stelvio in Italy and Zermatt in Switzerland.
All the glaciers have reported warmer weather this past week, rarely getting below freezing below 4,000m now and reaching +10C in the afternoons at 3,000m altitude. It's been mostly sunny but there have been some rain showers.
Cervinia opens at the weekend for its summer-autumn run but it really only provides lift access from the Italian side of the Matterhorn to the glacier skiing already open above Zermatt at this time of year.
Scandinavia
It's a big weekend coming up at Sweden's Riksgransen which reopens from Thursday to Saturday inclusive for three days and nights of midsummer skiing – the lifts opening from 10 pm to 1 am on Thursday, Friday and Saturday for skiing under the midnight sun to welcome in summer. It closes again on Sunday.
One of Norway's three summer ski glacier areas, Stryn, has ended its season as well, leaving two centres planning to continue through summer and posting some of the world's deepest snowpacks at 3-4 metres, helping to see them through warm temperatures this last week. They're the Fonna and Galdhopiggen glaciers. The latter with Scandinavia's highest lifts up to 2,200m.
North America
This time last week there was excitement that Utah's Snowbird was re-opening after a three-week hiatus, planning to open weekends to at least the 4th of July, making use of the huge remaining snow reported to be remaining after 800" (20.3m) plus of snowfall that had fallen.
Unfortunately though, things didn't play out as planned with Snowbird deciding the thaw was so fast it was going to open for last weekend only, so that's it now closed until next winter it seems.
Still open and hoping to remain so into July, despite the impact of hot temperatures for them too, are Mammoth Mountain and The Palisades in California and Timberline in Oregon.
There was some respite from the heat too in the Rockies with cooler temperatures and some significant snowfall reported in the Cascades, Rockies and other resorts in the region. Timberline was actually closed for several days at the start of the week by snow and low visibility while Marmot Basin up near Jasper in Alberta reported 30cm (a foot) of snowfall. The fresh snow was apparently not enough to change things enough for Snowbird though.