Mammoth Mountain, California, will finally end a mammoth season on Sunday...
More snow coming for NZ (and wind too)
The Snow Headlines - August 4th
- Gales and more snowfall for New Zealand as winter finally picks up pace.
- Mammoth Mountain ending a 275 day 22-23 ski season on Sunday.
- More fresh snowfall expected on high slopes in the Alps.
- Australia's Selwyn resort closes temporarily while awaiting snowfall.
- Lake Louise plans November 10th 23-24 season date, less than 100 days away.
- Cervinia to commence year-round skiing from October.
Some high summer snow in the Alps, and more inbound for New Zealand
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World Overview
The past week has seen continuing wintery conditions in New Zealand, improving conditions there, while ski areas in Australia and South America have reported some snowfalls, but nothing major. Most have 60-90% of their terrain open now, and a few 100%.
In the northern hemisphere, although it remains hot in Alpine Valleys and the south of the continent, there has been more mixed, sometimes stormy and occasionally cold weather at high elevations in the Alps, as well as in Scandinavia, leading to occasional fresh snow flurries.
In North America, one of the two US ski centres still open, Mammoth Mountain, is due to end its 9 month+ season on Sunday. Resorts that aim to open early for the season in the autumn/fall have been announcing 23-24 season start target dates, some just a few months away now.
Southern Hemisphere
Australia
Australian ski slopes saw a little fresh snowfall earlier this week and most are reporting little change in the amount of terrain they have open and their snow depth stats on a week ago.
For most of the big names that means the depth stats hovering in the 50-100cm bracket and terrain open at 70-90%.
Falls Creek though continues to report it is 100% open while Perisher has the deepest snow at 1.3m on its upper runs.
The news isn't all good though as warmer weather and some rain at the end of last week have depleted snow cover so much at the recently re-opened Selwyn resort that it has had to temporarily shut down its skiing until it gets colder and snowier. Currently, there's no real sign of that with a mostly dry forecast.
Overnight lows should get down below freezing but daytime highs will be up at +10C.
New Zealand
The switch to much more wintery weather than was present for the first half of the season continues in New Zealand with a snowy week leading to a continuing improvement in conditions overall.
The Manganui snowfield which had been the first in the southern hemisphere to open for the 2023 season in mid-May but then struggled to open at all for the next two-and-a-half months has managed to finally re-open some runs as a result.
Elsewhere, Tuesday was the main powder day after many areas were closed Monday by blizzard conditions and galeforce winds; it's been snowing again since then and there's more snowfall forecast, the only complaint from some is that it's wet stuff at lower elevations.
Turoa on Mt. Ruapehu is the first southern hemisphere ski area to post a 2-metre base this winter, with Mount Hutt not far behind on 1.7m.
Argentina
All of Argentina's ski areas remain open and posting good conditions, although there has not been much fresh snowfall this week to report and snow depths remain fairly modest with Cerro Catedral near Bariloche posting both the largest amount of terrain open in the southern hemisphere (nearly 100km of slopes at the weekend) and the country's deepest snow at just 80cm up top.
Las Lenas is looking a little better than it did with a 20-50cm base and about half of its runs open. The forecast points towards colder weather at more southerly latitudes with the best chance of snowfall here too.
Chile
It's been a mostly dry and often sunny week in Chile's mountains, with wintery temperatures ranging between -10C on the slopes overnight up to +8C in the resort in the afternoons. That's a pattern that looks set to stay over the coming week too with not much snow in the forecast, more southerly parts of the country looking most likely to see any snowfall into the weekend.
Most ski areas have about 60-80% of their slopes open with El Colorado now posting the most, overtaking Valle Nevado while powder Mecca Portillo has the deepest reported snow – hitting four feet (1.2m) up top.
Africa
South Africa's Tiffindell appears permanently closed having not operated for skiing since winter 2019. Lesotho's Afriski is open for "snow fun" (tubing) but isn't running its ski lifts.
Europe
Alps
The Alps have seen more weather extremes over the last seven days with gale force winds closing lifts earlier in the week. Currently, there's a chance of more snowfall over the next few days on high slopes with a fresh front moving through.
There's no change in the four centres open but there has been a continuing marked drop in the published snow depth at year-round Hintertux and at Italy's Passo Stelvio, which now has less than half its slopes open.
It's unclear therefore if we are heading to a temporary shutdown of summer skiing at any centre, as happened at most through August and September last year, or if the cold and snowy weather forecast will be enough to see them all through.
The two open Swiss areas, Saas Fee and Zermatt, are both sticking with published 2m+ snow depths and around 12-14km of open slopes so from the numbers appear to be in a stronger position.
Cervinia, from which you can also access the glacier skiing above Zermatt until early September, announced on Thursday that from this autumn it will begin offering skiing year round, either on its own slopes or by lift access to neighbouring Zermatt's glacier.
Scandinavia
Norway's Galdhøpiggen summer ski area remains the only area open in Scandinavia. It's reporting a 1.5m base, about a mile of runs, the highest in the region, as open and quite wintery weather with temperatures hovering a few degrees on either side of freezing and more snow flurries reported.
North America
It's the final weekend of a very long 22-23 ski season at Mammoth Mountain, which plans festivities to celebrate its 275th and final day of operations for its 22-23 season, this coming Sunday. Having operated for over nine months and making it into August for only the third time in its 69-year history. There are just a couple of runs still open, suited to intermediate or advanced level skiers and boarders only, and temperatures are hot by the afternoon so conditions are best first thing.
Mammoth's closure means that from Monday the one centre still open (in North America) will be Timberline in Oregon where the traditional North American summer ski area and race training facilities on the Palmer snowfield on Mount Hood continue to operate.
Meanwhile, there's increased focus on the start of the 23-24 season Lake Louise plans November 10th 23-24 season date, less than 100 days away and Mammoth has already announced it's aiming to re-open on November 10th too.