Mount Ruapehu, NZ, set to enjoy a couple more weeks of Spring skiing...
We're at that point in the year when anticipation for the start of the 2023-24 ski season is growing by the day in the northern hemisphere, while in the south skiers and boarders are hoping for late-season snowfalls and season extensions.
In fact, the 23-24 season is already underway in Europe and with some centres open through the summer, a couple of them carrying on into 2024, it is difficult to say exactly when it did begin.
After Saas-Fee opened for its 23-24 season in mid-July not a lot changed until the last week of September when three Austrian glacier areas opened. This month should see that rate of opening gradually accelerate with more countries seeing their first lifts turning, so it definitely feels like about now.
It's much too early to draw any conclusions but between spells of warmer, drier weather than we'd like, there have been snowfalls reported up high in the Alps, Dolomites, Pyrenees and Scandinavia in Europe and across Western North American mountains.
In the southern hemisphere the number of areas open after Sunday, October 1st, will probably be countable on two hands. All of Australia's centres have closed, earlier than expected, due to warm weather there, but a handful of centres in Argentina and New Zealand, plus perhaps one in Chile, are expected to stay open for one or two weeks into October, with the last on Mt Ruapehu in New Zealand targeting the 24th for its closing day.
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Northern Hemisphere
The Alps
The Alps will be the focus of ski area openings in Europe and perhaps the whole northern hemisphere as October progresses.
Fewer glacier areas are expected to open than previous years for various reasons, the main one being climate change, and many of those that are, are opening later into autumn than before for that same reason.
October 2023 arrives after another predominantly warm and mostly dry summer in the Alps. Glaciers which were once reliably sub-zero for much of the year, have seen continuing double-digit daytime temperatures even at 3000-4000m so the big picture isn't good. The final two days of September were supposed to see three Austrian glaciers start their seasons, but all three have now delayed with no real sign of cold or snow at the start of October so far.
Looking for the positive though, spring 2023 was colder and snowier than recent years and some glaciers like Saas Fee and Zermatt built up snow cover that has not yet melted. Temperatures are cooling too and there have been several periods of snowfall between the prolonged warm spells.
Besides the two Swiss centres, due to be joined by Engelberg's Titlis glacier originally on October 7th, but now rescheduled to the 21st, Italy's Passo Stelvio summer ski area is due to be open all month, and Cervinia should re-open its lift service to the Matterhorn Glacier paradise area it shares with Zermatt from the middle of the month.
However, Val Senales (Schnalstal) which would normally open in September, plans not to open until December this winter due to cable car renovation work.
Austria looks set to have more ski centres open than any other country for much of October 2023, starting this week, with two glaciers to choose from (both in Tirol). Two of the three glaciers that postponed opening at the end of September, Kaunertal and Solden, to the 7th October (hopefully) are also in Tirol, which could mean that by next weekend, 4 of 9 ski areas open in the northern hemisphere are in that one Austrian province.
Of the two already open, Hintertux has just about scraped through the warm summer with a 10cm base claimed and about 10km of slopes open, while recently opened Pitztal starts October with a 15cm base and 3km of slopes.
Solden is due to stage the opening World Cup Alpine ski racing events of the season on its glacier, as usual, later this month.
More Austrian areas will open in the middle of the month, all being well, with three more glaciers aiming to open from the 14th – the Kitzsteinhorn (the third of those postponing from September), Molltal and Stubai. The former earlier season starter of Dachstein has given up on downhill skiing however and is having its lifts dismantled.
Kitzbuhel also seems to have given up on its aim of October opening, saying it won't open until well into November this year.
Finally, France currently has nowhere open but Les 2 Alpes hopes to offer glacier skiing for a 2 week opening from the 21st, if conditions are right. Tignes, which formerly opened in late September then early October has now given up on autumn opening, aiming for late November instead.
The warm September temperatures for glaciers seem to have particularly impacted France so this looks like a wise move this autumn at least.
Scandinavia
Spirits rose in Scandinavia in the last few weeks when late summer snowfall in Lapland made it down to the valley floor, and further south in Norway and Sweden turned peaks white.
As we start October only the Galdhopiggen glacier in Norway, Scandinavia's highest lift-accessed ski slopes, is officially open, although September saw a lot of closure days. It is due to remain open all month, however.
Next up are expected to be the Finnish resorts of Levi and Ruka, both due to begin their 7-month seasons on the 6th. They use snow from last season, stockpiled under cover through the summer and began to spread back over 100,000 cubic metres back out on the slopes to make runs a few kilometres long. After these ski centres start opening across Scandinavia from early next month.
North America
There have been high-altitude snowfalls on ski slopes across Canada and the USA through September.
Some in states and provinces like Alberta, Colorado and Utah have seen multiple snowfalls. Most have melted away but it's now getting cold enough for the snow to last in some places and for high resorts in Colorado like Arapahoe Basin, Keystone and Loveland, to get snowmaking started.
There's always a battle to be first in the US to open and that can happen before mid-October in a good year. Consistent cold temperatures are key and it's usually one of the two-mile-high centres in Colorado that's first with a full opening, although some resorts in the Midwest have managed to open limited terrain with snowmaking first some years recently.
Banff is looking particularly good with Sunshine seeing multiple September snowfalls, the last leaving about a 4" depth. So overall at this point the signs are good but exactly which way it will go (some years nowhere opens until the last days of October or even the start of November) remains unknown at this point.
The only snow skiing currently open on the continent is indoors at Big Snow in New Jersey.
North of the border, unless there's a shock early snowfall, nowhere is expected to open until the ski areas around Banff set the lifts moving around November 10th this year.
Southern Hemisphere
As we start October 2023 there are more areas open in the southern hemisphere than northern – just, but by the first full weekend it seems likely that position will be reversed and by the end of the month there'll be nowhere left open in the southern hem.
The current position is that all of Australia's areas had closed by 25th September – including several that had planned to stay open into October, but all were beaten by warm, temperatures.
We're left with South America and New Zealand, both of which saw cold temperatures and considerable snowfall in September. However most ski centres there will be closing on October 1st, if they have not already, including some big names like Las Lenas and Portillo.
We're likely to be down to single figures across Argentina, Chile and New Zealand for the number of areas open with the last target opening date anywhere currently 24th October, but all but one centre having closed by the 15th..
New Zealand
New Zealand perhaps has the strongest hand of the southern hemisphere's still-open-for-2023 ski nations. It saw some great snowfalls in the final weeks of September and low temperatures too ...albeit against the inevitable springtime rise in temperatures and some gale force winds thrown into the mix too.
Although most Kiwi ski areas have now closed for the season (or will on the 1st), Cardrona, Mt Hutt and The Remarkables are aiming to continue for another fortnight to the 15th. Then over on Mt Ruapehu on the North Island, Whakapapa and Turoa are expected to be the last two centres open in the country (and the southern hemisphere), aiming for the 22nd and 24th of October respectively, if there are no season extensions.
The snow is still 2 metres deep at Turoa and Mt Hutt so anything is possible.
Argentina
Most of Argentina's ski areas are expected to close after October 1st, however, the largest centre, Catedral, near Bariloche, plans to stay open until the 15th, having announced a week's season extension. The country had a fairly cold and snowy September so conditions are pretty good with the snow still a metre deep up high and more terrain open here than anywhere else in the world at present, about 50km of slopes.
Chile
Chile has three or four centres planning to stay open to the first or second weekend of October (the 8th or 15th), although Portillo, which reported a 1.6m (over 5 feet) snow accumulation in the latter half of last month and is one of the few resorts posting a 2m+ base depth worldwide, isn't one of them, but like most of the country's centres plans to close on the 1st.
Corralco is aiming to stay open to the 8th though and La Parva and Antillanca to the 15th.