28th August, 2014
Re-publication :- our Snow Report Summary, being the text up to "The Alps", 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.
Snow Report Summary
September, like May, is change over month for the global ski scene as we get the exciting first tastes of the northern hemisphere's 2014-15 ski season, while the southern hemisphere's ski areas begin to close down.
In the northern hemisphere very little is open as summer ski operations have largely ended - September is the only month of the year when no ski area in France or Norway is scheduled to be open at all. But equally glacier ski areas in Austria and Italy will be looking to open from mid-September on if they get fresh snow on their high slopes as is usually the case.
In the southern hemisphere most ski areas will be winding down their 2014 seasons through September with the majority closed by the end of the month. Southern Africa's two small areas closed at the end of August in fact.
Australian ski areas have had a bumper snow season, so there may be extensions, whereas New Zealand areas - many of which had a poor start to the season - may try to add extra weeks to to make up. In South America there's been heavy snow in the last week on August after a relatively dry month.
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The Alps
Austria
Austria comes in to its own in autumn as its eight glacier areas open from mid-September to mid-October, which together normally add up to more areas open than the rest of the northern hemisphere combined by early October. There was some fresh snow reported in mid-August but last month also saw a major thaw of established bases.
Two areas are already open as we enter September. The Hintertux glacier in Austria is the largest open centre, although its snow cover has dropped dramatically with an August thaw from 2.8m deep at the top a month ago to 1.25m now at the top, and 40cm at the base of the 600m+ glacier vertical. 18km of runs remain open though. The Molltal glacier reports it has three runs ope, served by three lifts and reports a 2.6m base.
Centres expected to open from mid-September include the country's highest, the Pitztal Glacier, which plans to open on September 20th, as do the Kaunertal, Kitzsteinhorn, Stubai and Solden glaciers. The Dachstein glacier tries to open year round when there's snow cover, but is currently reporting there isn't any and that it's closed , so needs fresh snow before it re-opens.
France
Les 2 Alpes, which saw fresh snow a week ago, was the only French resort open through much of August, closing at the weekend, and there are no French resorts planning to open in September. Tignes will be next to open on 4th October.
Italy
With Cervinia's skiing on Plateau Rosa due to finish on the first weekend of September (Sunday 7th), there's only one Italian area expected to be open throughout the month; Passo Stelvio which reports a 1 – 2.5m base as we enter September. However the former summer-skiing area of Val Senales expects to open soon after Cervinia closes, conditions permitting, any time from the 13th September on (but that date is to be confirmed).
Cervinia reports no fresh snow since the end of July but describes conditions as still 'good' with a 1m base on top of the Plateau Rosa glacier. It will re-open for the 2014-15 on weekends from mid-October.
Switzerland
Swiss skiing is limited to Saas Fee and Zermatt in September with more areas like Engelberg, the Diavolezza glacier and Diablerets due to join them from mid-October. It's been a pretty dry month in the Swiss Alps through august and both resorts have hard packed bases on which we hope to see some September snow soon. Zermatt reports a 120cm base, 14 slopes open and 12 lifts running. The snow's deeper at Saas Fee with 225cm and there's a centimetre or two of fresh in the past few days. Nine lifts are operational.
Scandinavia
The last glacier area open in Norway, Folgefonn, closes for the season on August 31st. However the start of the 2014-15 season is likely to be only weeks away, last September saw early snowfall and limited opening in September, and most years centres in Lapland start to operate by mid October.
North America
It's unlikely there'll be any lift-served skiing in September in North America . The Timberline ski area on Mt Hood which is open for much of the year, typically closes in September although it does sometimes open at weekends. But currently there's limited snow so that seems unlikely.
Some of the world's highest ski areas in Colorado – particularly Arapahoe Basin and Loveland – like to start snowmaking in September if temperatures dip cold enough, but they very rarely open before October.
September 2013 also saw surprise huge September snowfalls in Washington State leading to a few areas opening for a few days to celebrate, before it all melted, but we can't predict if that scenario will repeat itself.
Canadian ski areas usually begin opening in the first week of November.
Southern Hemisphere
Africa
The season ended at the end of August at Afriski in Lesotho and Tiffindell in South Africa. Ironically after virtually no natural snowfall all season, the slopes got a covering for the last week of August. But both centres had successful seasons thanks to their comprehensive snowmaking. Tiffindell was able to stage the first FIS sanctioned races in Africa last month.
Argentina
Despite (or perhaps because of) very low temperatures (double digits below zero) it was a mostly dry August in Argentina after heavy snow at the start of the month. However base depths on the pistes are largely good with most lifts and runs open. Caviahue has the deepest reported based in the country with 2m of packed powder, although bigger Las Leñas is not far behind with a 1.6m hard packed base. There's a metre at Catedral, South America's, and by some measures the southern hemisphere's largest resort.
Australia
Australian ski areas have had a great 2014 season and although most will be closed by the end of September, the majority still have healthy bases as we start the month. For most the last significant snowfall was about three weeks' ago but temperatures have stayed low and there have been a few centimetres every now and then to freshen things up. Most of the major areas are reporting snow depths between 135 and 160cm including Hotham, Falls Creek, Perisher and Thredbo. Falls Creek is on 115cm.
Chile
Chile's ski areas are largely in good shape as they enter the last month of the season. There was little or no new snowfall for most of August after heavy snow in the first week of last month, but in the last week of August there was more heavy snow, with Valle Nevado reporting 72cm in 48 hours and Portillo 40cm in the same period, so things are looking up for the last month of the season there. Nevados de Chillan currently has the deepest snowbase in the world at present at 3.4m. Villarica has a 2.2m base and Valle Nevado 1.2m. The coverage is a bit more scant at Portillo (75cm) and La Parva (60cm).
New Zealand
It has certainly been an interesting season in New Zealand. To sum up the key points – firstly, the snow came late, secondly, it was so late some small club fields didn't open until early august, a few still haven't opened, but, thirdly, a few areas had huge snowfalls in the end and now have healthy bases. Most areas have in fact received average-good snowfall through August.
Among the areas looking good for the rest of the season, are Mt Ruapehu where Turoa and Whakapapa now have bases above the 2m mark; The Remarkables and Temple Basin, both also around 2m, and treble cone which reports the country's deepest base at 2.6m.
Indoor Snow and Dry Slopes
If you need a quick snow fix closer to home there are more than 50 year-round indoor snow centres and several hundred artificial surface 'dry slopes' operating in more than 50 countries around the world.
For the UK there are six indoor snow centres from Hemel Hempstead to Glasgow and around 60 dry slopes.