La Plagne, France, posted quite the sunrise last weekend...
Some decent snowfall for parts of the USA, even more in Austria... and there's more in the forecast for the Alps.
The Snow Headlines - December 28th
- Over half-a-metre of snowfall for Christmas in the Colorado Rockies.
- Huge snowfalls in Austria - up to a metre in 24 hours reported.
- Australia's Mt Buller ski area unveils snow stored for Christmas celebration.
- St. Anton posting the world's deepest snowpack of 3.55m (nearly 12 feet) up high.
There's snow forecast for the French Alps, parts of Canada and US, and Japan.
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World Overview
We're into the final few days of 2023 and for most skiers happy to stay on the pistes in the Alps and Dolomites, conditions are really very good at most resorts.
The past week has seen a lot of sunshine and after some snowfall, heavy in places, a week ago it's been mostly dry and a little warmer than we'd like, but nearly all resorts are largely open, typically with 75-95% of their slopes skiable. Snow depths are up to 3.5m deep too, the best numbers we've seen at this point in the season for quite a few years.
Other areas doing well include Scandinavia, which has seen big snowfalls in the last few days and north-eastern Europe, where resorts like Jasna are also almost fully open.
Elsewhere it's a mixed bag. The Pyrenees, for example, have had little snowfall so far and often temperatures too warm. Some areas have hardly opened but bigger resorts like Grandvalira and Baqueira Beret have 40-70% of their slopes open and on the French side one centre has managed 100%.
In Bulgaria, conditions are described as "spring-like" at present but centres have 60-90% of their slopes open. Up in Scotland it has been a wild week of torrential rain, wet snowfall and gales cutting power and closing access roads - but the centres there have at least opened nursery slopes for the Christmas holidays.
Across the Atlantic, it remains 'challenging' for lack of snow in many areas although Colorado and Southern Utah saw up to two feet (60cm) of snowfall reported this week. In the West though it remains too dry and centres are battling to open much, whilst in the east snowfall alternates with rainfall as it is too warm, the latter damaging the snowpack.
Europe
Austria
Austria has reported some of the biggest snowfalls of the past week, most of it happening on the Friday and Saturday before Christmas – most areas have seen predominantly dry weather since then, getting quite warm below 1500m.
But the snowfalls were very heavy, with the Zillertal Arena claiming a full metre in 24 hours and other Austrian areas posting pictures of huge dumps for them too. As a result, St Anton is now posting the deepest snowpack in the world at over 3.5 metres with the Kaunertal glacier only a little way behind.
Most Austrian areas are also 70-90% open, so it's all very different, in a good way, from a year ago when they were struggling for adequate cover.
France
We're seeing two extremes on French ski slopes, with some of the world's deepest snow depths above 2,000m, but down in low valleys not much snow left after a few weeks of mostly sunny weather, so it's the old ribbons of white down to resort bases we've been familiar with.
After the last snowfalls at the end of last week it has been mostly dry, often sunny and with the snowline up around 2,000m, some thawing at lower levels. It's very different to a year ago, so far though, with plenty of snow still lying above about 1500m.
Important to note though that it's essentially all good above 1800m so big areas like Tignes-Val d'Isere and the 3 Valleys have 80% of their areas open with 3m+ snow depths up high that weren't seen until spring last season.
Italy
It's been a mostly sunny week in Italy with some warmer-than-we'd-like temperatures on lower slopes, getting up to +10C in the afternoons.
There are also big differences in snow depths across the country with some areas surviving on thin cover of 30-50cm, while others in the Northwest are up near 3 metres.
So the big picture is that overall, some cooler temperatures and fresh snowfall would be welcome.
Ski areas like Dolomiti Superski, which have long become experts in operating with thin snow cover, have 80-90% of slopes open despite only 20-40cm bases, but the Milky Way (Via Lattea) in the west still only has about 40% of its slopes open around Sauze d'Oulx and Sestrière.
Switzerland
It has been a predominantly sunny week across Swiss ski slopes too after a little snowfall at the start of last weekend. Conditions are excellent on slopes across the country, with centres here posting the most open terrain (highest percentages) of any of the main ski nations.
The 4 Valleys around Verbier, for example, are more than 90% open and it's a similar story for most of the country's other well-known areas. Snow depths are much better in the north and west with thinner cover for areas like the Engadin and Jungfrau, although they still have most of their runs open.
Pyrenees
Sadly there's been no respite for the problems faced by ski areas in the Pyrenees due to a lack of snowfall and warm weather so far this season. Most centres are now open but some resorts like Cerler and Canadanchu in Spain have only about 5% of their runs open with a few centimetres of cover.
The big resorts like Grandvalira (Soldeu, Pas de la Casa etc) in Andorra and Baqueira Beret in Spain are managing a lot better, to be fair, with 80 and 120km (40/75% of their terrain) open respectively but everywhere could do with colder weather and a big snowfall of which there's no sign as yet.
Scotland
Scottish ski slopes have turned from brown to white since Christmas Day with repeat light snow showers and low temperatures making things look much more wintery. Cairngorm, The Lecht and Glenshee have all opened small beginner areas using their all-weather snowmaking machines, but there's not enough natural stuff yet to open any full runs.
The coming week is looking fairly promising – staying cold, snow showers, but a bigger dump to really build bases is the dream at the moment.
Scandinavia
It has stayed cold across Scandinavia where the sun is due to start rising again from January 1st up in Lapland's Levi.
There was also the first decent dump of more than just a few centimetres a day, reported by Bjorli in Norway, getting 60cm in 24 hours, and other Norwegian ski areas reporting 20-40cm accumulations too, giving a much more powdery pallor to the pistes.
Overall, conditions are good with the big areas now reporting 70-90% of their slopes open. The largest, Sweden's Are, has the most open with more than 80km of its 90km of slopes skiable.
Eastern Europe
Skiers in Bulgaria have been describing "almost spring like conditions" as warm weather has followed some decent pre-Christmas snowfalls. Snow depths have dropped a bit but remain fairly solid with still the best part of a metre lying on high slopes.
Borovets has more than 90% of its slopes open, for Bansko it's more like half.
Elsewhere, Jasna in Slovakia continues to look good with most runs open there. It's looking sunny through the weekend and into the start of January, valley temperatures continuing to be too warm, reaching +10C in afternoons, but staying closer to freezing up high.
North America
Canada
Whistler Blackcomb is finally posting the most terrain open in Canada after passing the 50% of terrain open mark a few days after Christmas, it's now at 60%. It's a struggle though, its most optimistic snow depth measure is 90cm (3 feet) up in the Alpine and it's rainy with no snow at resort level.
A similar issue is impacting all ski areas in Western BC with Red Mountain only just managing to finally open for the season with just a few runs available in the last few days.
Along the BC / Alberta border on the eastern side of the province though, conditions are the best in the country with areas around Banff and resorts like Panorama 80-98% open with decent depths.
Over in the east ski centres continue to face problems with warm weather bringing rain rather than snowfall and making snowmaking impossible but still, there are some runs open at bigger resorts like Tremblant.
USA
Another week of mixed fortunes with the ski resort marketing men pushing to keep a positive spin on what remains a fairly lacklustre season start across the US.
The Rockies continue to post the best of it with Steamboat reporting more than half-a-metre of snowfall perfectly timed for Christmas while Vail still has the most terrain open in the US, ahead of resorts with larger areas.
Others like Snowbird and Alta in Utah are posting the deepest snow in North America (outside Alaska) and almost everything is open now.
On the East Coast, there's still a battle with periods of warm wet weather, whilst on the West it's just too dry and with too little snow so resorts continue to struggle to open much.