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Kitzbuhel earlier this week
This Week's Snow Headlines
- Kitzbuhel opening early for the season this weekend.
- Big snowfall in the Alps.
- 15-16 Ski season gets underway in North America.
- Les 2 Alpes opens for a week.
- First 2015-16 FIS Alpine World Cup racing this weekend
The main snow news of the last seven days has been the big snowfalls in the Alps, particularly towards the end of last week. More than a dozen already-open glacier ski areas issued 'powder alarms' on Wednesday to Saturday last week when they received more than 20cm of fresh snow in 24 hours. These included Solden in Austria, reporting 20cm or more of snow on three successive days and Zermatt which posted the biggest single 24 hour fall of 40cm.
It's not all been about the Alps though, there's been excitement across the Atlantic too with the first ski areas opening for winter 15-16 in North America, with East Coast US resorts winning the annual battle opening ahead of high altitude resorts in Colorado in the West.
The 2015 season is still going but in its last few days in the southern hemisphere too with one area in New Zealand still operational.
In The Forecast
The cold of the last week is expected to ease over the next couple days, giving way to a week or so of milder weather across much of the alps. The longer range outlook continues to hold promise, with seasonal temperatures and more precipitation coming into the forecast as the month ends.
The Alps
Austria
Austria has been the place to ski or board for the past six weeks with up to eight of the country's glacier ski areas open and regular dumps of fresh snow since late summer. Last weekend its centres seem to have done the best with the fresh snowfall, reporting up to 70cm accumulating, the most at Solden, which got at least 20cm a day for three days running up to last weekend. Solden will again be the focus this coming weekend with World Cup racing, the first of the 2015-16 season's Alpine competition. Most of the other glacier areas received 40-60cm of new snow in the same storms last week and have good coverage of 80-120cm on their glaciers.
Just to add to Austria's October snow excitement, one of the lowest elevation major ski areas in the Alps, Kitzbuhel, has announced it is opening some of its higher elevation slopes this weekend – the first non-glacier ski area in the Alps to do so. Kitzbuhel was highlighted in reports a decade ago on the likely early victims of climate change, but has managed to open in late October or early November each ski season ever since.
France
After nearly two months of only Tignes being open in the French Alps, Les 2 Alpes begins its annual late-October one week/two weekends glacier opening for ski and board pre-main-season testing and associated festivities. Tignes received 25cm of fresh snow in the big snowfall last weekend and now has an 80cm base, Les 2 Alpes has a 50cm base and a little fresh snow is expected during its open week. The main French season starts to begin in four weeks' time.
Italy
Cervinia joined Italy's Passo Stelvio and Val Senales last weekend as a third open glacier ski area option in the country. It was perfect timing following around 40cm of fresh snow on its slopes. It has been closed during the week but will reopen at the weekend for cross-border skiing with Zermatt. After closing again next weekend it will then be open full time from Halloween onwards, a week on Saturday.
Switzerland
The open Swiss glacier areas of Saas fee, Zermatt and Diavaolezza near St Moritz are all looking good following 20-30cm of fresh snow at the end of last week. Bases are up around the metre mark. More glacier areas are scheduled to join the list in the next few weeks with Laax opening next weekend for Halloween, all being well.
Scandinavia
Finland's Ruka is into the second week of its season already with one run open thanks to its serious snowmaking efforts. Levi, which is currently snowmaking, says it expects to open within the next fortnight. In Norway the Galdhøppigen summer ski centre is still open and has a 180cm base and one run its open.
North America
Ski areas in the Eastern US states of Maine and Vermont won the honours for being the first to open in North America on Sunday and Monday after snowmaking efforts allowed both Killington in Vermont and Sunday River in Maine to announce their lifts were running and a few slopes each were open for October skiing. The two areas, which look set to be followed by several more in New England this weekend, managed to open quickly whilst ski areas like Loveland and Copper Mountain in Colorado which have been snowmaking on and off for a week now were unable to make enough to open, although it is now cold enough there for some natural snowfall as well as the machine made stuff. Talk is of opening at the end of the month if it stays cold.
North of the border the first areas to open in Canada – likely to include the three Banff-Lake Louise ski areas and Nakiska closer to Calgary, expect to start opening from Halloween weekend.
Southern Hemisphere
Turoa and Whakapapa ski areas on New Zealand's Mt Ruapehu are believed to be the only two ski areas still open for the 2015 ski season in the southern hemisphere and they're scheduled to close at the end of the coming weekend. Snow depths are 220 and 250cm respectively with no fresh snow recently.