Treble Cone, New Zealand, now open for skiing...
It's been a promising start to winter in the southern hemisphere, whilst near the end of some summer ski seasons in the northern. Notably, ski areas in Chile and Australia are experiencing excellent conditions, while Argentina faces challenges due to a slow start to the snows.
The Snow Headlines - July 3rd
- Les 2 Alpes and Val d'Isere expected to end their 2025 summer ski seasons this weekend.
- Treble Cone the latest of New Zealand's big-name ski areas to open for the 2025 season.
- Saas Fee is set to open for summer skiing and the start of the 2025-26 season next weekend.
- Chilean ski area the first with over 100 km/62 miles of slopes open since the northern hemisphere winter.
- Alps see record high-altitude June freezing levels.
- Argentina's 2025 season still not fully started.
- Thredbo the first Australian area to pass a 1 m/3 ft depth in 2025.
- Chile's Valle Nevado is the first in the southern hemisphere to report slopes 100% open for 2025.
More snow forecast for New Zealand and South America.
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World Overview
Almost all southern hemisphere ski areas have opened for the season, and more snow has been reported in the Andes, Australia, and New Zealand this week. Most already open areas have added more terrain.
The surprise exception is Argentina, where a lacklustre late autumn/early winter for cold and snowfall means little is open, and the southern hemisphere's largest resort by uplift, Cerro Catedral, has yet to open a run.
Heat has dominated the weather in the northern hemisphere, with the Eastern US posting all-time record temperatures above 100°F/38°C. In the Alps, the freezing point rose above the highest mountain in the range, Mont Blanc, in June for the first time ever. Ten centres remain open, but several French glaciers will close this weekend, along with Japan's Gassan, believed to be the only centre still open in Asia. We will be down to single figures, in the northern hemisphere, for the first time this year from Monday.
Southern Hemisphere
Australia
Thredbo became the first Australian resort to post a base of over 1 m/3 ft last weekend after snowfalls at the end of the previous week brought 30-50 cm/12-20 inches more snowfall to the country's slopes.
The falls meant some ski areas had snow totals for June of nearly 2 m/6.5 ft, making it one of the best starts to the season in years.
Thredbo already has more than 50% of its slopes open, while Falls Creek and Hotham are up to 60%.
After last week's snowfall, it has been mostly sunny until the past 24 hours, with temperatures ranging from -5°C to +6°C/23°F to 43°F.
New Zealand
It has been a bit of a rollercoaster week in New Zealand, with warm weather on Friday leading Treble Cone to delay its season start by 24 hours to Saturday.
By then, most ski areas in New Zealand, including Treble Cone, had reported 20-40 cm/8-16 inches of snowfall in the previous 24 hours. By Sunday, the cold weather under clear skies led Mount Dobson to announce it was closed for the day as teams tried to chip off a rime ice build-up on the lifts.
The overall picture is positive, with Mount Hutt posting the deepest base in the southern hemisphere at nearly 1.5 m/5 ft and the most terrain open in the country, with about 90% of its slopes now available.
Most New Zealand areas are now open for winter 2025 and reporting fairly good snow depths for early season. It was largely sunny in the first half of the week, but resorts have seen up to 20 cm/8 inches of snowfall again in the last 24 hours. More snowfall is expected to start next week.
Argentina
More of Argentina's ski areas started their seasons at the weekend, and a little more than half are now open.
After a poor spell of autumn/early winter snowfall and some warm temperatures, it is not the best start to winter 2025. This is very different from last year when most opened early in May after 5 m/16.4 ft of snowfalls.
The southern hemisphere's biggest ski area, Cerro Catedral, opened on Sunday but with a very thin base and only about 1 km/0.6 miles of runs reported open. Argentina's second-largest resort, Las Lenas, has just a few runs open and reports a thin base. In the far south, however, Cerro Castor, the world's most southerly ski area, is open and received more than 50 cm/20 inches of snowfall at the weekend.
Chile
Chilean ski areas are posting some of the best terrain statistics in the world at the moment, particularly the linked Tres Valles area east of Santiago, where Valle Nevado, La Parva, and El Colorado now have over 100 km/62 miles of slopes open between them and are reporting some of the deepest snow depths in the world at over 1.2 m/4 ft.
All of the country's ski areas have opened for the season, with Portillo reporting 75% of its terrain open.
It has been a mostly dry and sunny week after some significant snowfalls just before last weekend. Another front is expected to bring more snowfall over the coming weekend.
Lesotho
Afriski in Lesotho's webcams are back working, so in the absence of any snow report from the centre, we can now see the main kilometre-long run is complete, thanks to snowmaking. It has been the usual sunny week after the big snowfall over a fortnight ago, but there are signs a fresh front will bring snow ahead of the weekend.
Northern Hemisphere
The Alps
Six glacier ski areas remain open across the big four Alpine nations, but two of the three French choices are expected to end their seasons on Sunday.
Val d'Isere will conclude its brief four-week summer ski season, while for Les 2 Alpes, the last French area still open since the 2024-25 season started, it will be the end of a run that has lasted more than seven months. This means only Tignes, which opened for summer skiing less than a fortnight ago, will remain open in the country.
Year-round Hintertux and the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise above Zermatt and Cervinia remain open, as does the Italian summer ski area, Passo Stelvio. Hintertux has the most terrain open, with about 24 km/15 miles of slopes and the deepest snow lying at nearly 2 m/6.5 ft thick on its glacier.
However, the freezing point in the Alps has been moving up to 4000-5000 m/13,123-16,404 ft altitudes and stayed above 5000 m/16,404 ft for more than 24 hours at the weekend in the final days of June.
That meant no overnight freeze on most slopes, and precipitation fell as rain rather than snow; although there has not been much of either, with plenty of sunshine this week.
Saas Fee is scheduled to open next weekend for summer skiing, with a season lasting more than nine months until spring next year.
Scandinavia
It has been a week of sunshine and showers in Norway, where Galdhøpiggen is believed to be the only ski area still operating.
Overnight lows have dropped a few degrees below freezing most days, but afternoon highs have reached around +10°C/50°F, so precipitation has often been rain and snowpack numbers are dropping. There have also been plenty of sunny spells.
USA
It has been very hot in the US over the past week after the snow shower in the Northwest a week ago, with daytime highs topping 100°F/38°C in parts of the east coast over last weekend.
The last lift-served ski area still open in North America is Timberline in Oregon, where there are a few miles of slopes available on the permanent Palmer snowfield above 2000 m/6,562 ft altitude on Mount Hood.
The heat has continued to impact its reported base depth, which is now down to a couple of feet.
Timberline aims to stay open into August, and this Friday will be the only place to celebrate US Independence Day on snow.
The hike-to terrain park at Copper in Colorado is also open to the public from Fridays to Sundays, next from the 4th to the 6th. It is expected to stay hot and largely dry there.