Snow on the peaks this morning; Mont Blanc seen from Les Arcs.
This Week's Snow Headlines
- Switzerland's Arosa Lenzerheide and Glacier 3000 opening this weekend.
- First snow of 16-17 pre-season in New England, as Killington Vermont opens.
- Most expensive single ski lift yet opens at Austrian glacier resort.
- More than five feet of snow reported so far this autumn at some (unopen) ski areas in BC.
- Ski areas in 5 countries (Austria, France, Italy, Switzerland and the USA) open for ski.
- Cervinia open full time from next weekend on.
The number of ski areas opening for the northern hemisphere's 2016-17 ski season continues to gather pace. The season kicked off in North America last weekend with, first, Arapahoe Basin in Colorado last Friday then Killington in Vermont opening on Tuesday after a weekend of snow there.
In the Alps too the first non-glacier ski areas have opened (along with more glacier areas), headed up by Kitzbuhel at the weekend and more French, Italian and Swiss glacier areas have joined the list meaning more than 20 areas are now open in Europe too, with more set to follow this weekend.
Snow has also been reported across mountainous areas in Asia with the mountains of Hokkaido in northern Japan turning white. In the southern hemisphere the one ski resort still operating has closed one of its two ski hills for the season but promised the other will remain open in to 'Snow-vember.'
In the Forecast
Nothing major in the forecast for The Alps for the coming week; it's cool in the East whilst the West and Northern Alps are going to have a warm few days before temperatures drop going into November.
Some light snow showers at altitude, but generally clear and settled weather for the next week or so.
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The Alps
Austria
Austria continues to be the country where it's all happening in terms of October snowsport, with the Tirol the province where most of the action is – it has six of the nine open Austrian areas. That means Tirol alone has more ski areas open than any country besides the one it's in!
Last weekend saw Kitzbuhel, the first non-glacier-resort using this autumn's snow to open (non-glacier resorts are open in Scandinavia but they're using recycled snow saved from last spring!). It offered skiing on its Pass Thurn slopes. It's closed during the week but will re-open permanently for the season from next weekend. Also last weekend the new 3S cable car opened at the Stubai glacier, a £52m queue-gobbling lift that cuts ascent times to only 11 minutes. There hasn't been any fresh snow reported for a week but conditions are still 'good for the time of year' thanks to the 15-30cm of snow that feel in the middle of last week.
France
There was a bit of excitement at Tignes at the start of the week with the resort reporting 30cm of snow in 24 hours from Monday to Tuesday. Looking at the web cam images this tally seemed slightly optimistic but there was certainly some fresh snow. That's good news as the official base depth remains at 25cm on the Grand Motte glacier, the thinnest at this time of year for five seasons. A second French glacier ski area is open for this week and coming weekend only, Les 2 Alpes. It closes on Monday for five weeks after that so there'll be three more weeks with only Tignes open until Val Thorens and others start to open for the beginning of the main ski season.
Italy
Cervinia, which has been open the past few weekends, will join Passo Stelvio and Val Senales again this weekend and then stay open permanently until next May, offering cross-border snowsports to Zermatt (at a lower cost than if you buy your ticket on the Zermatt side!). It may be the last weekend of the spring-autumn ski season at Passo Stelvio; it tends to wind down at the end of October as other resorts begin to open for the 'regular' season.
Switzerland
Swiss glacier ski areas beyond the two stalwarts of Saas Fee and Zermatt have been talking about opening from mid-October but then have decided to delay. However the Diavolezza glacier at St Moritz and Engelberg opened last weekend, the latter posting a 40cm base number on its Titlis glacier. They're due to be joined by Glacier 3000 above Les Diablerets and near to Gstaad this weekend along with the more novelty appearance in our October openings list of Arosa Lenzerheide which is reported to have invested in a special plus temps snowmaking machine in order to open a limited area early, all being well. So that should be six Swiss area open by Saturday.
Scandinavia
The last weekend of the summer-autumn ski season is nigh at Galdhoppigen ski centre in Norway, the country's highest and one of three summer glacier destinations there. It still has a healthy snowpack. Other resorts are close to opening as temperatures are low enough for the snowmaking cannons to fire up. The two that have already opened using snow stockpiled from last season – Geilo in Norway and Ruka in Lapland, Finland have both been boosting up their bases with overnight snowmaking.
North America
Canada
The season has still not officially started in Canada. Resorts around Calgary including Nakiska and Sunshine are hoping to open in the first and second weeks of November. However there have been impressive pre-season snowfalls reported in BC, perhaps the most in the world so far. Revelstoke says it has had 1.6m of snowfall this autumn and has a 60cm base with more than six weeks until the season is due to start there. Other BC resorts are looking similarly snowy.
USA
Ski areas are now open on both the East and West coasts of the US as Killington in Vermont joined Arapahoe Basin in Colorado in opening in the past week. A-Basin was first last Thursday, Killington followed on Tuesday after a weekend of heavy snow that left some East coast areas claiming more than a foot/30cm of snow had fallen. Killington report five-and-a-half inches but with a bit of snowmaking on top were able to open. Arapahoe Basin also used a mix of machine made and natural snow but has the advantage of being one of the 20 highest ski areas in the world.
Southern Hemisphere
Ruapehu in New Zealand, the only ski area still operating in the southern hemisphere, has closed Whakapapa (one of its two ski areas) despite it still having a 2.2m base. The other area, Turoa, will be open at least to November 6th and has a 1.7m base still with fresh snow reported to be still falling. The terrain now available is reported to be only good for intermediate to advanced level skiers and boarders.