Snow above the clouds in Whistler, Canada...
Many more northern hemisphere ski areas to open tomorrow (Friday 24th), some earlier than planned, most with good early snow.
The Snow Headlines - November 23rd
- French 23-24 season is underway.
- US East Coast resorts open, joining previously solo Killington.
- Ischgl opens with 122km of slopes open, most in the world at present.
- US West Coast resorts Heavenly and Northstar delay opening, awaiting snowfall.
- Italy's Livigno and Madonna di Campiglio open their seasons early.
- Most leading Scandinavian ski centres now open, temperatures drop to -25C.
- Fresh snowfall in Pyrenees, Baqueira Beret will open (early) this weekend.
- Japan's ski season getting underway this weekend.
- Argentina's Las Lenas announces upcoming summer ski season to celebrate its 40th year.
More early-season snow forecast for Europe, America and Japan
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World Overview
It remains a fast-changing picture as we close in on the start of the 23-24 main season across the northern hemisphere.
We are quickly approaching 100 centres open with plenty of early-openers in the Alps after the big snowfalls in early November. These have slowed a little and there's been thawing and even rain reported at times, but also more snow, with Austrian areas seeing heavy snow down to valley floors at the weekend.
There's also been fresh snowfall in the Pyrenees with Spain's Baqueira Beret opening early.
It's a different picture in North America where they still wait for a good pre-season snowfall, although most have had low temperatures and parts of Colorado and Utah saw a foot of snow to start the week.
Those with snowmaking arsenals, including many big-name resorts on the East Coast, have opened, as have the continent's two biggest areas, Whistler and Park City in the west, but some other major resorts like Telluride currently have their season starts on hold while they await the snow.
Europe
Austria
A mostly cold and frequently snowy seven days in the Austrian Alps with the freezing point / snowline moving between 1000 and 2000m altitude. Occasional spells of rain and sleet during warmer periods at lower levels but most ski areas saw snow, heavy at times down to village level such as at Lech last weekend.
More and more big-name resorts are opening including Obergurgl last weekend with more than 50km of slopes open from day one (70km now) and hosting World Cup Slalom races on Saturday.
Nearby Solden became the first to reach 100km of slopes open this season but was overtaken by Ischgl, opening for the season on Thursday with 112km of slopes open from day one.
All three areas with the most terrain open so far are in Tirol. Actually 4th placed Hintertux is too but with "only" 42km.
Austria has been overtaken for the number of areas open by Switzerland and the US but still has the three resorts with the most terrain open anywhere this weekend by some distance.
France
The French 23-24 ski season got underway a week earlier than planned at the weekend with Tignes and Val Thorens both bringing forward their opening dates.
That said, November 18th is thought to be the latest start date of a French ski season for more than 50 years.
Both areas were capitalising on heavy snowfall across the French Alps in the first half of the month. It's been a little more unsettled since with some more snowfall but also rain and fast thawing at times below about 1800m leading to some avalanche concerns.
The big picture remains positive though.
Both open areas report more than a metre of snow lying with Tignes saying they've opened with 1300m of vertical but Val Thorens posting more terrain open on day one with 10km of slopes. Most other French ski areas won't open until the start of December.
Italy
The number of centres already open for the 23-24 season in Italy doubled last weekend with Livigno, Madonna di Campiglio and the Presena Glacier above Passo Tonale all opening early thanks to the big snowfalls at the start of this month.
They join Cervinia (which now has some runs open on the Italian side of the border, not just the Swiss) and a couple of others.
It has been a mostly sunny week with the snowline yoyoing between 1000m or less overnight, so good for snowmaking, but climbing above 2,000m in the afternoons on warmer days causing thawing on lower runs.
Switzerland
Switzerland topped the table in Europe for the number of ski areas it had open last weekend, with 15 to choose from, overtaking Austria.
Andermatt, Crans Montana, Grindelwald and Laax were among those starting their 23-24 seasons last Saturday, Andermatt reporting it had had 80cm of fresh snowfall on its Gemsstock freeride mountain.
Conditions have been mixed, but mostly good for mid-November with more snowfall, some sunny days and temperatures remaining below freezing above about 2,000m. Strong winds up high have caused some issues though including the failure to launch of the Zermatt-Cervinia planned season opening World Cup downhills for the second successive year.
Many Swiss ski areas are only open weekends until December but Davos, Saas Fee and Zermatt are open daily.
Pyrenees
It was a largely dry and sunny weekend in the Pyrenees but with temperatures fairly promising, remaining below freezing in the mountains and only reaching +5C or so in valleys in the afternoons. Snowfall arrived on Tuesday and snowmaking has been able to fire up so an improving picture. The season is expected to get underway the weekend after this.
Scotland
More Scottish ski centres are giving provisional opening dates, which are now more precise than they once were, thanks to all having all-weather snowmaking systems which means at least some snow can be guaranteed from day one.
Glencoe says they'll run their access chairlift, which can help tourers up the mountain to access high-altitude snow, from 2nd December. How much snow there'll be remains unknown at this point but it has been cold and Scottish mountain tops have turned white again this week with snow down to 800m. Glencoe's all-weather snowmaking will also get underway in early-December but initially just for a base area sledging slope.
Cairngorm says they'll open for Christmas week.
Scandinavia
It's been another good week in the build-up to the Scandinavian main ski season with many of the region's leading resorts opening for the first time this year, joining the dozen or so smaller resorts, as well as two of Finland's biggest (Levi and Ruka) that had already opened.
Sweden's Are, the largest in the region, as well as Norway's Trysil, were open last weekend.
Temperatures have remained subzero day and night at most of the main centres and there have been light snow showers as well as great snowmaking conditions.
The only thing some skiers might not like is the rapidly diminishing daylight, with some areas in the north just getting an hour or so a day now before the sun dips below the horizon for a few weeks next month, and the bitter cold up in Lapland, where temperatures have been in the -15C to -25C range this week.
Eastern Europe
Still no centres open in Eastern Europe, but that's normal with most targeting the first half of December, and a few the final days of this month.
Pre-season conditions are looking good at one of the biggest, Slovakia's Jasna, while another, Bulgaria's Bansko, has reported more snowfall.
North America
Canada
Canada's season start has not really got into full gear in terms of snowfall, although the country's ski regions are now predominantly finding themselves in round-the-clock subzero temperatures, so there are great snowmaking conditions, even if they're still waiting for a decent dump of natural snowfall.
British Columbia's season got underway last weekend at Sun Peaks and as we publish this week's report the biggest centres in the East (Tremblant) and West, Whistler Blackcomb (also the country and continent's largest of course – when fully open), are scheduled to open.
But what's open so far is not much and bases aren't very deep anywhere yet either, mostly in the 10-30cm bracket.
USA
A mixed picture across the US, caused mostly by a continuing shortage of natural snowfall in most areas.
In the East they're managing to open anyway thanks to snowmaking, in the West a number of big-name resorts including Telluride, Heavenly and Northstar have delayed opening, although the latter two have now opened over the past few days.
Other ski areas managed to open as planned including America's biggest, Park City Mountain Resort, which kicked off Utah's 23-24 season last weekend.
Things have improved somewhat in the Rockies at least with Snowbird among areas posting over a foot of snowfall as a storm moved through at the start of this week.
On the East Coast, it has been a battle with the elements for resorts to open, with warm temperatures at times and not much snowfall. Overnight lows have permitted snowmaking and Maine's two biggest areas, Sugarloaf and Sunday River have both opened with top-to-bottom skiing, despite a lack of natural snow cover. Other big-name areas opening include Stowe.