This Month's Snow Headlines
- Best summer ski conditions in years reported on Europe's glaciers, with a dozen ski areas open across five countries.
- Huge snowfalls start the season in Chile.
- Resorts in New Zealand delay opening after succession of warm fronts hit the country.
- Snowy start to July in Australia
- Last weeks to ski the 2015-16 season in Canada and California.
The glacier at Les Deux Alpes this week
Unusually for July (!), there are better snow conditions and fresh snow in parts of the Alps, whilst some Southern hemisphere areas, where winter is supposedly underway, are experiencing warm spells and resorts closed for lack of snow.
Zermatt is among resorts reporting July 'powder' conditions after snow through June, whilst resorts in New Zealand that had hoped to be open at the start of June have had to delay opening as it's too warm.
New Zealand initially had a lot of snow at the start of June for a great season opening at early-opening resorts, before it warmed up. It was a similar story in Chile and Argentina where there were really huge snowfalls of up to 3m/10 feet and resorts opened early. Australia on the other hand had almost no early snow when resorts officially opened there three weeks ago, but has seen over half a metre of snow at some ski areas over the past week.
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NORTHERN HEMISPHERE (for South, please see below)
Europe
Austria
As usual from May to November there are more ski areas open in Austria than any other northern hemisphere ski country. Three to be precise. Year-round Hintertux has the deepest snow base in the Alps at present at 255cm and says conditions are 'powder' after fresh falls. There are 18km of runs open and members of the US national team have been training there. Also open and with similar good conditions are the Dachstein and Kitzsteinhorn glaciers. The Kitzsteinhorn – which has been open since last autumn – is scheduled to end its 10 month long season on Sunday July 24th.
France
All three of France's glacier ski areas are currently open and reporting the best July skiing conditions in years – bases are four times what they were last year, currently standing at around the 2m mark. Val d'Isere was the first to open but is also likely to close first – most likely on July 10th. Les 2 Alpes and Tignes are open throughout July and most of August.
Italy
Cervinia re-opened on the last Saturday of June which means that once again cross border skiing is possible over to Zermatt in Switzerland. The area has had plenty of fresh snow in June and has a 2m+ base and around 20km of runs open over nearly 800m of skiable vertical. A second Italian summer ski area, Passo Stelvio, is also open and looking good.
Switzerland
Only Zermatt is currently open in Switzerland, home to Europe's highest lifts at 3899m. As mentioned for the Italian news from its neighbour Cervinia, conditions are reported to be excellent (for July), with glacier skiing in the morning. Another neighbour, Saas Fee, re-opens on 16th July for its summer season.
Scandinavia
All three of Norway's glacier ski areas are open at present with base depths of up to seven metres (23 feet) reported. The Stryn glacier plans to close on July 19th however, but Folgefonn and Galdhoppigen should stay open in to August. Europe's self-styled spring skiing capital at Riksgransen in Sweden's Arctic Circle closed after the last weekend in Jun on Sunday.
North America
There are three ski areas open in North America at present, although two will soon close. Mammoth has said it will stay open to July 4th, whilst Whistler, which currently has ski and board camps running on its Blackcomb Glacier, will stay open to 17th July. The only area likely to be open beyond mid-July will be the timberline ski area on Mt Hood in Oregon where the year-round snowfield aims to stay open around 10 months of the year, conditions permitting.
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
Australia
Australia is the place to head in the southern hemisphere if you're looking for fresh snow. After a slow start to the season with only one run open at one resort on the official first-day-of-the-season in mid June, all Aussie areas are now open after serious snowfall deposited up to 50cm of snow on the country's slopes in the last week of June. Of course bases aren't huge and not all lifts and runs are open yet, but the outlook at the start of July is for more snowy conditions and cold weather. Tasmania's Ben Lomond even opened for the season three weeks early.
New Zealand
It's not looking great in New Zealand at the moment after a good start to the winter a month ago. A succession of warm fronts have melted snow cover and made snowmaking impossible, with the result that only a few ski areas are currently open, some that had opened have been forced to close, and resorts that had planned to open in recent weeks have delayed doing so, including the country's biggest, Ruapehu. Rainbow has so far delayed its proposed opening date by a week from the 9th to 16th July. Bases are just 20-40cm on limited terrain and snow described as 'hard packed' at the still open areas including Cardrona, Coronet Peak and Mt Hutt. A forecast return to cold weather can't come soon enough with better conditions expected in the next week or so.
Argentina
Argentina also saw some healthy snowfalls at the start of the season with some resorts opening weeks early as a result. Unfortunately the snow didn't continue through June and several areas, including Catedral near Bariloche, the largest in the southern hemisphere, isn't open. The best skiing and the biggest open area at present is Las Lenas which reports a 1.5m snow depth up top.
Chile
Chile seems to be the best choice in the southern hemisphere (and indeed the whole world) right now after massive snowfalls in the first half of June brought up to 3m/10 feet of pre-season snow to the country's slopes. Initially access roads were blocked in some cases but once dug out conditions were great! The only proviso is that there hasn't been much fresh snow since. La Parva has the deepest fresh-snow base in the world at present with 1.5m on upper slopes, just a little bit more than Portillo, but most areas have good snow too. Significant snowfall is forecast for the first few days of July however.
Southern Africa
Southern African ski areas Tiffindell in South Africa and Afriski in Lesotho both benefited from good natural snowfalls in mid June. Afriski got over a foot of fresh snow in 24 hours. That natural cover has largely melted away now but there's still good snowsports to be had on a 700m long main slope thanks to snowmaking and Tiffindell is open too.