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Our first Weekly Snow Report of November brings news of more resort openings (with some surprises!), but it's what's in the forecast that's really got our attention... winter is most certainly coming!


Met Office (UK) chart perfectly showing Saturday's Alpine weather front

This Week's Snow Headlines
- Davos unexpectedly opens three weeks early!
- Canadian ski season starting 3d November - earlier than expected.
- More areas aim to open in the US this coming weekend.
- Norwegian ski area opens with man-made snow, gets 20cm snowfall.

The main season is starting to take shape with more big name resorts beginning to join the glacier centres and early openers that had their lifts operating in October.

There's not been much fresh snow reported in central Europe over the past seven days but that is about to change with significant snow forecast in the Alps over the coming week. There has however been fresh snow up in Scandinavia with up to 25cm of fresh cover reported.

Across the Atlantic there has been good snowfall on both East and West Coasts with resorts reporting 30-50cm of fresh snow last weekend giving mid-winter conditions. Snow has also been falling in Asia on the Japanese Alps.

In the Southern Hemisphere the only resort still open, Mt Ruapehu, says its season will finally end this Sunday.

In the Forecast

All the forecast models are now indicating a cold November, but this weekend sees an exciting weather pattern develop. In broad terms, cold air moves South West from the North of Europe meeting warm and moist air pushing up from the South... and this promising mix will occur all along the main mountain ranges; The Alps, The Pyrenees and The Dolomites should all benefit. The snow line will be high in the South, but there are likely to be heavy localized falls of snow, with accumulations of more than one metre possible in places, and lighter snow across a wide area.

The change will feel spectacular in many mountain areas with today and tomorrow likely to be the best of warm and autumnal days, followed by sharp drops in temperature through the weekend as the snows arrive.

At present, the forecast models are all indicating a colder than average second week of November, with more snow to follow.

Of course (here we go being all cautious and spoiling the mood), it may all melt but it's a fine start to the month and the mountains are going to look spectacular by Monday!

Re-publication :- our Snow Report Summary, being the text above this line, is free to re-publish, but must be clearly credited to www.J2ski.com with text including "J2Ski Snow Report" linked to this page - thank you.

The Alps
Austria
Kitzbuhel has now opened full time since last weekend after its initial weekend-only opening 11 days ago. It, and the country's eight glacier areas, remain the only ski areas open in the country and that will be the case for another week or two yet, with Obergurgl scheduled as the next to open on the 16th/17th. There's been no fresh snow reported in the last week but bases are good at most glacier areas, with 50-140cm. Hintertux is currently looking particularly good with 37km of runs open, 16 lifts operating and its excellent terrain park operational.

France
It's back to just Tignes open in France after Les 2 Alpes ended its 10 day October opening last weekend, and that will be the situation for the next three weeks. Conditions could be better, but there's up to 50cm of hard packed snow at the summit and snow in the forecast.

Italy
Italy's summer ski stalwart Passo Stelvio is believed to have ended its 2016 season at the weekend but there remain three centres open in Italy thanks to Solda opening to join Cervinia and Val Senales which opened in October and September respectively. Cervinia reports the base depth at 95cm with its slopes linked over the border to Zermatt (reporting a 60cm base despite having higher slopes), and there's 35cm at Solda, 50cm at Val Senales.

Switzerland
More Swiss centres have opened in the past week so there are now six open areas to choose from, placing it second after Austria for the present. Davos Klosters has decided to open this weekend - three weeks earlier than its scheduled opening date - because of what it said were great conditions. Terrain at the top of the mountain was opened as well as a cross country loop the resort has been keen to promote as a successful project, attracting international racing stars. Arosa Lenzerheide also aimed to open some terrain at the weekend thank to creative snowmaking. The two resorts join already open Swiss glacier resorts including Saas Fee, Zermatt, the Diavoleza glacier near St Moritz and Glacier 3000 above Les Diablerets. Saas Fee has the deepest base on the country, and one of the deepest in the world at present, with 150cm/5 feet lying.

Conditions at all open areas should improve markedly with this weekends snow.

Scandinavia
After Geilo in Norway opened a month ago using snow stockpiled from last season spread out on one run, the resort of Bjorli decided to follow suit at the weekend, although in its case it used fresh snowmaking to open one run last weekend. Their decision was rewarded by a big natural snowfall which left the area blanketed in 20cm of fresh snow. The two open Norwegian areas are accompanied by Ruka in Finland which opened three weeks ago using stockpiled snow. Most areas in Scandinavia tend to open earlier than those in the Alps thanks to their typically lower Autumnal temperatures, so more areas are expected to open over the next few weeks.

North America
Canada
Western Canada's leading resorts - including Whistler and Sunshine - have been publishing pictures of deep snow cover and heavy snow storms in recent days, making them look very ready for opening. In fact Sunshine near Banff in Alberta has decided to open early on Wednesday 3rd November to claim that 'first to open in Canada' title. It says it has a 68cm base of all natural snow (no snowmaking there). Smaller Mt Norquay, even closer to Banff, was officially supposed to be the first in the country to open, this Friday, but on its site it says that has still not been decided and the webcam image is inconclusive – some slopes look white, others not. Other areas including Whistler and Nakiska seem likely to open very soon and Lake Louise will open the weekend after this (on the 11th).

USA
Things are looking good in the US with continued big snowfalls on both East and West Coasts. Mammoth Mountain in California reported one of the biggest falls with 18 inches (45cm) at the weekend. It is scheduled to open a week tomorrow. Currently it remains just Arapahoe Basin in Colorado and Killington in Vermont that are open, both with bases around the foot mark and just one or two trails open a piece. They should be joined this weekend by Keystone and possibly Loveland in Colorado, both due to open on Friday, with Breckenridge and Copper, the first of the country's big players, lined up to follow on the 11th.

Southern Hemisphere
It's the final week of the southern hemisphere's 2016 season, with just one ski area still open; Mt Ruapehu in New Zealand. It still has a 150cm (five foot) base and conditions look good for the last few days up to closing day, Sunday the 6th.

A quick update; this week we've added :-

Kiroro, Japan
and
Spiazzi di Gromo, Italy

Both can now be selected in your Profile Ski Area selection.

So... pretty much all the weather models have been swinging into agreement about a major change in the European weather starting at the end of this week.

In essence, a vast mass of cold air will push South and West from Scandinavia and Siberia across Central Europe. At the same time, warm (and moist) air will push North and East from the Atlantic, Iberia and the Med. They'll rub alongside each other over The Pyrenees, The Alps and The Dolomites.

And where they meet, high above the mountains, there's going to be a lot of fallout! White fallout.

With such a scenario, it's very difficult to predict the exact evolution but we can say with some certainty that there will be some significant snowfall, and potentially some massive falls in a few locations.

The most uncertain part will be the rain/snow line; it looks likely to be high across The Pyrenees but potentially falling to mid and even low altitudes in The Alps and The Dolomites.

These two charts from Wetterzentrale, showing the predictions of the European (ECMWF) model, illustrate it quite nicely - although the colours used do exaggerate the differences...


Saturday 5th November, as forecast Tuesday 1st
Picture copyright of Wetterzentrale


Sunday 6th November, as forecast Tuesday 1st
Picture copyright of Wetterzentrale

We'll have more on this developing situation in our Weekly Snow Report on Thursday, but expect our Snow Storm Warnings and Powder Alarms to be winging their way into your Inboxes (you are signed up to our snow mail aren't you?) for the next week or so!

About Wetterzentrale

This is a great site if you want to explore the outputs and predictions of the major forecast models, with a wide variety of maps, charts and graphs. Start here :- www.wetterzentrale.de

bedrock barney wrote:will we be able to jump on to last minute deals

Almost certainly.

As you might expect, after two late-starting seasons and with Xmas Day on a Sunday, Xmas has been tough to sell this year. I'd expect there to be deals around...

bedrock barney wrote:is last minute holidaying a thing of the past?

Definitely not! It increases every year.

FWIW, we (family) are hoping to be away the same week as you or maybe the week before - and I doubt we'll have anything booked before December.

The above notwithstanding, the weather models are getting very interesting from this weekend onwards... so if you do see a particularly good deal, and it's where you want to go, then go for it. Otherwise wait.

Love that first shot of yours TC - where's that?

moogy wrote:I wonder how much is brexit and how much is "let's put a bit extra on"?

I think, so far, most tour operators (large and small) have tried to avoid price rises as much as they can. It's difficult to miss the uncertainty in public sentiment and add that to two seasons when the snow came late to popular parts of The Alps... I don't think anyone's going to be profiteering this winter.

There will be some operators thinking "what's the smallest rise we can possibly apply, and still be in business next year".

That isn't meant to sound overly pessimistic, but challenges there certainly are.

On the flip side, we're seeing a lot of thought going into reducing the cost to ski. A number of French resorts, in particular, are going to be promoting late season and Spring skiing this year and the slow but steady increase in flexible booking and short break options will continue.

Actually, I will point up one blatant piece of profiteering in the wider travel industry... the outrageous spread of exchange rates offered by popular outlets at airports! Scumbags!

J2Ski are delighted that our long-time friends at Skiline have been rewarded for their efforts in finding skiers the best holidays.




A Kent company has scooped a prestigious national award for outstanding customer service, beating off stiff competition from 100s of travel agents across the UK. Beckenham-based ski travel specialists Ski Line Limited collected "Best Specialist Travel Agent" at the 2016 World Snow Awards run by the Daily Telegraph.

Announced yesterday (27 October 2016) at the opening of the London Ski Show, the World Snow Awards honour the very best in the world of skiing and snowboarding. Collecting the award, Ski Line's managing director Angus Kinloch said: "We're delighted the company has been recognised with this accolade. The shortlisting was undertaken by industry experts posing as mystery shoppers. We understand they conducted an extensive nationwide poll under the guise of searching for a family skiing holiday with the judges all rating our trip suggestions as the most inspired and helpful. The judging panel was apparently also highly impressed by our clear website and huge choice of skiing holidays. We aim to update our prices and availability up to six times a day which scored really highly."

Established five years ago, the awards recognise the best brands, retailers, resorts, operators, venues and personalities in the industry, highlighting the top performers from the past 12 months and the most promising prospects for the season to come. The winners are decided by an independent judging panel comprising leading figures from the UK skiing and snowboarding industry, as well as by a public vote in some categories.

With awards for everything from Family Resort of the Year to best UK snow sports retailer, the World Snow Awards celebrate everything that matters to UK' skiers and snowboarders choosing how to spend their next trip in the mountains.

Ski Line, based in Chancery Lane, launched in 1996, and now offers skiing holidays from 189 ski holiday suppliers including British, French, Dutch, Italian, Bulgarian, German, Swiss and Austrian tour operators, as well as contracting directly with some of the best hotels in ski resorts across Europe and North America. Their website – www.skiline.co.uk - features over two million ski holidays including catered ski chalets and hotels designed to suit all budgets in the finest ski resorts around the world; with prices ranging from £100 per person to over £50,000 for a luxury ski chalet.

Kinloch concludes: "I'd like to thank all our dedicated staff, innovative suppliers and loyal customers. Customer service is a driving priority for Ski Line so beating the big brand players is a real feather in our cap."

Ski Line can be contacted on 020 8313 3999. www.skiline.co.uk.
 

Ski Line directors Angus and Sarah Kinloch (right) receiving their award with colleague Nicola Perks.

Full details of the awards and other category winners: http://www.worldsnowawards.co.uk/award-winners-2016/. The Telegraph Ski & Snowboard Show London is now open at Battersea Evolution 27 – 30 October.

Kiroro's coming, but Antarctica's one place even the long-range forecast is probably fairly reliable for...