First snows for Portillo, Chile, earlier in the week
Fewer than a dozen European ski resorts open, more in North America, with the first snows falling in Argentina and Chile.
The Snow Headlines - May 15th
- 10 ski areas are still open in Europe.
- Ski area in Arizona announces season extended into June.
- Final weekend of Canada's 24-25 season coming up.
- Season ends fast in Eastern US as warmth and rain close last centres open.
- Norway's glacier summer ski areas starting their 2025 seasons.
- US continues to post most ski areas open in world at present.
- Big pre-season snowfalls in the Andes and Patagonia.
Snow up high in the Alps and Rockies.
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World Overview
The number of ski areas open in the northern hemisphere continues to drop as we get nearer to the start of the southern hemisphere's 2025 ski season.
That's normal for mid-May, of course, one of the low points of the year (along with late September/early October) in terms of areas open. But there are still around 20 centres open in Europe and North America (plus one in Japan). There's also been some fresh snowfall in the Alps and Rockies on high slopes and in northern Scandinavia over the past week.
But south of the equator anticipation continues to build and after the big snowfalls in New Zealand last week, it's been Argentina and Chile's turns to report some big dumps there giving an initial covering, with particularly heavy snowfall in the south.
It's just two weeks now until the 2025 southern hemisphere season is expected to start.
Europe
The Alps
There are still half a dozen ski areas open in the Alps, four of these in Austria although for two – the Kaunertal and Kitzsteinhorn glaciers - it's the final weekend of the season coming up. Hintertux and Molltal glaciers will continue as conditions allow.
Also still open are Les 2 Alpes in France, which aims to maintain a skiable vertical between 3,600m down to 2,600m, and the cross-border 'glacier paradise' area above Zermatt and Cervinia.
It's been a largely sunny week but there have been some light snowfalls reported on high slopes.
The week ahead again looks like it's due to be mostly sunny but with snow showers bubbling up some afternoons to bring a few centimetres of fresh cover on glaciers. The freezing point will mostly be between 1500 and 2500m altitudes.
Scandinavia
There are four centres open in Scandinavia at present (for a total of 10 in Europe).
The longest season that's still going, at least until this coming Sunday, is at Finland's Levi - it opened in early October last year and has now been operating for seven-and-a-half months - but this weekend is expected to be the last.
Also still going, but only since late February, and with just over a week of its season left to run, is Sweden's Riksgransen.
Both the above are currently at, or close to, 24-hour daylight at their northerly latitudes with Riksgransen offering skiing at midnight two evenings each week.
In Norway, the Galdhoppigen and Fonna summer ski areas are reported to have just opened for their 2025 season with a fifth Scandi/third Norwegian option, the Stryn glacier, opening next weekend after running a few pre-season cat-skiing sessions.
As to the weather, it was cool up to last weekend with some snowfall for Riksgransen, but since then temperatures have climbed to +10C even on glaciers, with lots of sunshine, so it is getting a bit heavy going after the first morning sessions. Continuing hot into next week but hopefully, cooling from Wednesday onward.
North America
Canada
Three Canadian ski areas are still open but this is expected to be the final weekend of their seasons.
Whistler's Blackcomb glacier is the last still open in British Columbia, whilst Sunshine near Banff is, as usual, the last still operating in Alberta.
Mont Saint Sauveur in Quebec, which has been opening a patch of snow some evenings and weekends, is expected to call it a day on its 24-25 season this weekend too.
As to the weather, Sunshine has had the best of it this week with a good deal of fresh snowfall, visitors reported they could ski powder for a while on several mornings this week. Blackcomb and Quebec's ski area have seen warmer weather, rain showers and what's euphemistically described as "variable spring conditions". That's set to be the same for the upcoming season finale weekend.
USA
The US continues to report the most ski areas open in the world with a dozen or so aiming to remain open to the Memorial Day holiday long weekend at the end of the month and a few beyond that into June or beyond.
Some have announced season extensions in recent weeks, but the majority are currently only opening weekends.
Resorts still open in the Rockies include the Arizona Snowbowl (now planning to open weekends to June 1st), then in Colorado there's Arapahoe Basin and Winter Park still open although the former closed a lot of terrain last weekend and the latter says its season will end this Sunday.
Utah has Snowbird and Solitude still going.
The surprise package is Arizona's Snowbowl which has kept extending its season each week, opening the next weekend, and it's announced it's doing so again this weekend and now next, to stay open for the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
On the West Coast, the lifts are still spinning at Mammoth (which now says it plans to stay open into June) and the Palisades in California as well as Timberline and Mt Bachelor in Oregon and Crystal Mountain in Washington state.
Two centres were still open on the East Coast last weekend, both in Vermont, however, Jay Peak and Killington had heavy rain followed by high temperatures so decided that that was that and ended their 24-25 seasons.
Over in Michigan in The Midwest, Boyne Mountain is still operating weekends and plans to reopen for at least the next two, after piling up a huge amount of snow to create what it calls a skiable glacier. It's melting fast now but is still skiable.
In terms of conditions, warm and sunny weather has been dominating but there have been periods of snowfall, particularly in the Rockies, where some resorts have had over half-a-metre of fresh snow on their higher terrain, cumulatively, over the last seven days.
There was also fresh cover for the Pacific Northwest.
The coming week looks like more warmth and less snowfall, but there are signs of more snow coming in the Rockies, especially in the north of the region, and weekend falls on the West Coast too.
Southern Hemisphere
It's just a fortnight now until the expected start of the season in New Zealand, thanks in large part to all-weather snowmaking machines (although natural snowfall may help too).
Turoa and Whakapapa on Mount Ruapehu on the North Island both plan to offer snow play with some beginner terrain accessible from the final weekend of the month.
Mount Hutt has announced plans to open a fortnight early for their 2025 season, from May 31st, thanks to heavy snowfall there earlier this month.
Aussie ski centres including Mount Buller and Corin Forest also plan to open around the first week of June thanks to their all-weather snowmaking.
Australia's ski areas have had a mostly sunny week but with low overnight temperatures allowing test firing of conventional snowmaking systems.
The biggest southern hemisphere snowfalls this week have been reported in South America, with Las Lenas in Argentina posting images of deep powder lying on its slopes after a big pre-season dump. There were also snowfalls across Chile and Argentina ski slopes, with the season start there likely still a month away unless any open early as they did in 2024.