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.
This Week's Snow Headlines
- Up to a metre of snow falls in seven days in Western Canada.
- Early opening for Davos.
- FIS World Cup races Cancelled in Finland despite some snow.
- Big name resorts opening this weekend including Keystone, Lake Louise and Mammoth.
- Obergurgl opening early for pre-opening weekend.
- East Coast US ski areas close again.
After the latest wave of snowfall across the Alps a week ago attention has switched to Western North America where most resorts have had more good snowfalls in the last seven days. The scale of the snowfall has varied but where it has been snowiest in the North West, it has been very snowy indeed - Revelstoke (not due to open for another three weeks) claimed a metre of powder in the last week and posted pictures to prove it.
In Europe it has been a mostly sunny week after the snowfall last week with glaciers in great condition and perfect skiing at most. The first non-glacier ski areas are scheduled to open at the end of next week.
Fresh snow has been reported in some parts of Europe however, most notably the Pyrenees and up in Scandinavia where resorts in Lapland now look very white after opening with snowmaking only last month. However World Cup races in the region planned for the weekend after next have been cancelled as its too warm and not snowy enough apparently.
In The Forecast
Mild weather will persist across much of The Alps for the next week or so, with the models indicating cooling and a return to un-settled weather by the middle of November.
The Alps
Austria
Austria will be the first country to get in to double-digits for number of ski areas open this weekend when Obergurgl joins Kitzbuhel as the second non-glacier ski area to open in the country, joining its eight glacier opens. Obergurgl doesn't officially open for another week, but has announced a 'pre-opening' with around 10 lifts and runs operating.
Across the country, as across the Alps, it's been mostly dry, sunny and cold with great conditions after the snowfall a week ago. The biggest areas currently open are at Solden, Hintertux and the Stubai where there's around 30km of runs open at each. Snow depths are typically 50 -110cm.
France
After Les 2 Alpes ended its one week October run there's only Tignes open with lift-served skiing in France again now until Val Thorens opens in a little over a fortnight – conditions permitting. It currently has a 60cm base with five runs open. There's been no fresh snow for a week and none in the forecast but temperatures have stayed cold at altitude so conditions remain good – as is the case for most Alpine glaciers at present.
Italy
A similar position to last week with three Italian areas open and similar to the rest of the Alps with mostly cold sunny days and no fresh snow since the falls a week ago. There are some changes however. The country's Passo Stelvio ski area which was its lone operator for parts of the summer and autumn has closed at the end of its 2015 summer season although Sulden am Ortler/Solda in the Ortler Alps has opened 15km of altitude runs. Val Senales remains open and Cervinia, which had been open for the last two weekends in October, is now open daily. It has the deepest snow base at 125cm and terrain open over to Zermatt.
Switzerland
Switzerland is closest to catching Austria for numbers-of-area-open with stalwarts Saas Fee and Zermatt now joined by up to six more Swiss ski areas although opening for most is weekends only. Now open are Glacier 3000 above Gstaad and Les Diablerets, the Diavolezza glacier near St Moritz. However Davos and Laax both opened last weekend and Engelberg has also been opening. Again there's no fresh snow after the big falls last week but good conditions on the pistes with bases up to 1.2m deep. Saas Fee and Zermatt still have the biggest glacier ski areas open with about 20km of runs open a piece.
Scandinavia
It seems to be a mixed picture in Scandinavia. Earlier in the week Ruka in Lapland, Finland, which had been open using snow making since mid-October, reported a healthy natural snowfall transforming everywhere to white. But this morning (Thursday 5th November) the FIS has announced that the next wave of early season World Cup races planned for Levi in 10 days' time have been cancelled as its too warm for adequate snowmaking. Levi is saying it will open tomorrow (6th November) anyway.
Pyrenees
No ski areas are due to open in the Pyrenees for at least another three weeks but there have been more pre-season snowfalls on the southerly mountain range raising hopes that the area will get off on time to a good winter 15-16, especially important to Andorran and Spanish areas which have a big public holiday in early December.
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe got an unexpected snowy deluge in mid-October when a Siberian snowy blast brought early cover, but that's largely melted away now and ski areas are currently unlikely to start opening until December, as planned.
Scotland
Although Scottish centres can open any time when snow conditions are good, so far it has been a largely warm and uncharacteristically dry autumn in the Highlands (after the cool wet spring and summer!) so there's almost no hill snow to date.
North America
Canada
Canada has been where all the snow is this past week with the one metre accumulation at Revelstoke the big news in world snow reports of the last seven days so it's hard to believe that no Canadian ski area is actually open yet. That all changes on Friday when Lake Louise opens . The Glacier Express Chair will start turning at 9am and three runs will be open; Bald Eagle, Wiwaxy and Easy Street. "The hype is real, the season is about to begin," said a resort spokesperson. Elsewhere most Canadian resorts received healthy snowfalls ahead of their season but mostly it was in the 20-40cm bracket not Revelstoke's metre. "Winter has firmly planted her cold, frosty kiss at Panorama," said a spokesperson there, " The mountain received 34 CM in the recent storm and the snow guns are pumping out fresh snow daily!"
USA
The US has been a country of two halves with fresh snow a plenty in the West and warm weather thawing cover at early-openers in the east. Killington and Sunday River which both opened early last month say they won't be able to open this weekend as it's now too warm.
Whether or not it's the start of the much heralded 'El Nino' it's looking much better out west though with A-Basin and Loveland in to their second week open in Colorado, joined last weekend by Wolf Creek and to be joined this weekend by Keystone. Further West Mt Rose opened for the season on Wednesday at Lake Tahoe and Mammoth Mountain to the south will be the biggest player yet to open, this Friday.
Will this turn out to be the epic season in California after four dry warm winters, that everyone hopes?