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Where to Ski in October 2016
Welcome to our global snow round-up for October; very much a quiet point between the seasons... but all about to change. 
Saas Fee this morning This Month's Snow Headlines - September snow across Northern Hemisphere raises expectations for 16-17. Too soon? - French ski season starts. - Kitzbuhel aiming for October opening. - Norwegian area opens for season using last winter's snow. - Ski season almost over in southern hemisphere. After a few glacier ski areas tentatively opened in mid-September, October is when the 2016-17 season should really get moving with the first ski areas scheduled to open in the first half of the month in the high peaks of the Rockies and the high latitudes of Scandinavia. Among the areas aiming to open in the next few weeks, that you might not expect, are famously low-altitude-major-resort Kitzbuhel in the Austrian Tirol, thanks to snowmaking technology and Geilo in Norway, thanks to stockpiling snow from last season. Several more glacier areas are also scheduled to start their 16-17 seasons in October so by the end of the month several dozen areas will be operating. October also marks the end of the southern hemisphere's 2016 ski season - most likely. Virtually all ski areas are closed now in Australia and South America; with only a few of New Zealand's ski areas still open. One may choose to soldier on into 'Snow-vember' as it does every few years... we don't know yet if 2016 is going to be one of them. In the Forecast As is usual for this time, there's nothing hugely exciting to anticipate... although it does look as if a very wintry blast is going to push some way into the Eastern Alps this week. There should be some nice webcam views as a result of temperatures falling 15C and bringing snow... watch this space! We'll likely revert to our Weekly Snow round-ups in a couple of weeks time and will be aiming to push them out earlier each Thursday so you can better plan your weekends!
NORTHERN HEMISPHERE (for South, please see below) The Alps Austria Austria as usual has the most ski areas to choose from as we enter October; as many as are open in the rest of Europe put together at this very low point in the season. Some significant fresh snowfalls were reported in mid-September. The country's highest lifts at Pitztal opened one Saturday morning early last month and received 20cm of powder buy the end of the day – not bad considering it was still summer. But otherwise snow depths are not yet too healthy, with most areas only having 20-40cm of mostly old snow at the start of the month. Besides Pitztal, centres open include year-round Hintertux, the Molltal Glacier, Dachstein, Solden and Kaunertal. The Kitzsteinhorn is due to open mid-October and the Stubai re-opens with its multi-million new cable car on 21st October. Kitzbuhel hopes to open some terrain thanks to snowmaking the next day on the 22nd. France There were no ski areas open in France during September, the only one of the big four Alpine nations with no glacier skiing open. However that changes as of October 1st when the ski area on the Grand Motte glacier at Tignes re-opens for its nearly eight month long winter season through to May 2017. It'll be the only French area open until Val Thorens re-opens late November, except for a nine day period up to 1st November when Les 2 Alpes opens over the schools October holidays with ski tests and events on the glacier there. Italy The number of ski areas open in Italy is slowly increasing. Only Passo Stelvio was open in the summer but it was joined by Val Senales at the start of last month and later in October Cervinia will re-open its skiing and cross-border terrain linked to Zermatt will be available once more. It's open for the middle and penultimate weekends of the month (October 15/16 and 22/23) and then full time from the final weekend (29th) onwards. Switzerland Switzerland's two stalwart summer ski centres – Saas Fee and Zermatt – will be joined by several other glacier resorts plus, more surprisingly perhaps, non-glacier ski destination Arosa Lenzerheide, over the next few weeks meaning more than half-a-dozen Swiss centres should be open by the end of October, second in number only to Austria. Saas Fee and Zermatt currently have around 1.5m of snow lying on their slopes, healthier than numbers reported by their Austrian neighbours, so are looking good. The Crans Montana, Engelberg and Diavolezza (Near St Moritz) glaciers should be opening for the middle weekend of October (15th/16th) then a fortnight later it's Arosa Lenzerheide (conditions permitting) and a sixth Swiss glacier, Glacier 3000 near Gstaad. Scandinavia October is an interesting month on Scandinavian ski slopes as we have the last of the summer ski areas still open, the first non-glacier ski areas in Europe hoping to open, and even a Norwegian resort (Geilo) that has stockpiled last winter's snow all winter and opened a kilometre long ski course across the brown Autumnal hillside on 30th September. They did the same thing last year and it was very popular apparently. Galdhøpiggen on Scandinavia's highest mountain at 2469m is the summer ski area that's scheduled to stay open to the last weekend in October. Meanwhile a number of northerly latitude areas are scheduled to open from mid-October so long as it's cold enough for their snowmaking systems to fire up. Ruka, traditionally boasting the longest ski season of a non-glacier ski area in the world, may be first to open – they're aiming for October 10th. North America September was quite an exciting month across most of western North America as there was plenty of new snow up on high peaks from Colorado up to Canada which clearly set American pulses racing. The dominant weather factor, El Nino, credited with bringing heavy snow to the far West last winter has been supplanted by La Nina, this autumn and winter which most resorts seem to think (hope) will bring colder air and more precipitation further east across the continent, so most are portraying it as a good thing. Many areas posted snowy pictures through September with Lake Louise showing one of the most impressive, with a foot of fresh snow one morning. Mammoth had a covering down to resort level and Silverton Mountain in Colorado even pictured snow patrol workers making first turns in patches of powder. October always sees the annual battle to be the first centre to open in the US. There are no official announcements of October opening plans as of yet, but high resorts like Loveland and Arapahoe basin hope the be snowmaking from the start of the month and may open by mid-October if it's cold enough. Mt Hood's Timberline ski area in Oregon also often claims to be the first to open but it hardly closes all year round so it's a bit of an unfair competition there as it has a permanent snow field. In Canada the first ski areas are due to open around Banff at the very start of November. Southern Hemisphere The southern hemisphere's 2016 season – generally reported to be quite a good one overall after a shaky start – is all but over. Virtually all areas in South America, Australia and New Zealand have either already closed or plan to this first weekend of October or at the very latest, next weekend. The only possible exception is Mt Ruapehu in New Zealand which may stay open in to 'Snow-vember' – that hasn't been announced yet. With 2m lying on upper slopes at present it certainly looks feasible. |
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Oh dear.
Still, "Davina really knows what she's talking about", said no-one ever. I'll just leave this here... |
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Hi Andy, we'll be adding this back in to your Profile in the next couple of weeks, as we have a minor update in the pipeline.
You can get notified of the occasional deals that we post in this area by clicking Ski Deals and Competitions above and then clicking the Follow this Forum button. Neither of those are very obvious though, and something we're hoping to improve! 8) |
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Definitely not pixies... ...it'll be the marmottes getting restless. Not aware of any issues but we'll have a nose around and check our logs. At the very least we'll try and think up some technical-sounding excuses over a cold beer. 8) Hope you've had a good summer? |
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Hello again,
Welcome to our global snow round-up for September; August brought fresh snow both North and South of the equator, holding out promise of the season to come for the North and giving good conditions for the last few weeks of winter 2016 in the South. 
Cerro Catedral this week - photo courtesy of Catedral Alta Patagonia This Month's Snow Headlines - Ski season winding down in Southern Hemisphere. - Austrian winter 2016-17 kicks off this month with eight glacier areas planned to open by October 1st. - Chilean resort has deepest fresh snow base in the world at present at 2.8m. - All French resorts closed in September. - Stubai glacier to unveil new gondola access lifts on 30th September. September is always a month of change in the seasons on each side of the world. In the Northern Hemisphere the Summer ski areas have closed, or are about to, and the first Autumn openings for the coming winter on the high glaciers in the Alps begin. In the Southern Hemisphere, the ski areas in Africa then Australia and South America close and by the end of September there are similar numbers of ski areas open in either hemisphere; perhaps a dozen or so in each.
NORTHERN HEMISPHERE (for South, please see below) The Alps Austria September is usually a big month in Austrian skiing as all of the country's glacier ski areas open, most by mid-month, meaning there's a choice of eight operational by the start of October. That can often be more than in the rest of the northern hemisphere's ski nations put together. The exact opening weekend will depend on conditions but the target weekend for most is 17/18th September; only Stubai is planning to be a bit later than usual this year – September 30th – as it is battling to complete new access lifts to the glacier ski area being built at a cost of tens of millions of Euros. Two Austrian areas are already open as we enter September though. Hintertux (Open all year) reports a metre base up top and the Molltal glacier 1,4m, both had some fresh snow in August to freshen things up. Due to join them this month are the Dachstein, Pitztal, Kitzsteinhorn, Solden and Kaunertal glaciers. France With Les 2 Alpes and Tignes finishing their summer ski seasons at the end of August there are currently no ski areas open in France. Tignes will re-open on October 1st. Italy It's all change on Italian slopes with Cervinia, which has been open all summer, about to enjoy its final weekend. It will re-open in mid-October. However the former summer ski area that no longer opens in summer, Val Senales, has announced it does plan to open for its eight month season that very same weekend- conditions permitting – so for 36 hours there'll be three Italian glaciers open simultaneously. Otherwise the second Italian September snowsports choice is the same as the second August choice, Passo Stelvio is still open. Switzerland Two ski areas have been open in Switzerland simce July and two will remain open through September before being joined in mid-October by four other glacier destinations. They are Saas Fee and neighbour Zermatt, with Europe's highest slopes. Both report reasonably good summer skiing conditions between 7am and 1pm daily, bases on the glacier ice at around the metre mark as we enter September. Scandinavia The Stryn glacier has closed and the Galdhoppigen glacier – currently claiming the deepest snow base in the world at 5m, is due to close the first Sunday of September but Norway's third glacier area, Fonna, should be open all month. It had 10cm of fresh snow in August leading to summer powder snowsports so is in good shape too with a 2m base. For novelty value another Norwegian resort Geilo will open a slope covered with snow stockpiled from last season for snowsports fun in October from 30th September. It worked well last year! North America There's just the Timberline snow field on Mt Hood in Oregon open in North America at present until the annual battle to be first to open in October. Timberline has racing lanes for team training and a terrain park for fun realty. It usually closes too for a few weeks annual maintenance in late September as it's otherwise open year round. SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE Australia September normally marks the end of the season at most Aussie ski areas with the majority of centres calling it a day on one of the last few weekends of the month, although Perisher normally soldiers on to the first week of October. Things are looking pretty good there as we enter September, almost all centres have had a little fresh snow in the last week of August and most have depths of at least a metre which should see them through to the last day. The deepest bases at 1.5m/5 feet are at Thredbo, Perisher and Charlotte Pass. New Zealand There have been extremes of weather in New Zealand again through August but mostly the country finally settled down to a snowy winter after a mixed June and July. Bases are generally good to very good and it was snowing again in the last few days of August. Almost all areas have at least a metre base and Turoa and Whakapapa on Mt Ruapehu on the north Island which are sometimes open to 'Snowvember" and have been opened for snowsports at Christmas some years (the northern hemisphere's equivalent of mid-summer) have more than a 2m base. Pretty well all Kiwi areas expect to stay open through September before ending their seasons in most cases in October. Argentina It has been a mixed winter and overall not one to remember in Argentina, but for the final few weeks the country's main resorts should enjoy reasonable conditions. Bases are in the 70 – 160cm bracket (the deepest in Las Lenas) and it was snowing everywhere in the last week of August. To recap, some Argentinian areas opened early in June due to good pre-season snowfalls but then warm weather in July forced others to close again for lack of snow, before some big snowfalls brought the cover back. Chile Chile too will be winding down its ski season in September, it's had a similar one to Argentina but with perhaps less extreme fluctuations – although there was the 10 foot snowfall in Portillo and that volcano did erupt at Termas de Chillan so perhaps it was similar. Valle Nevado currently has the deepest snow in the southern hemisphere approaching 3m/10 feet on upper runs. Again all areas have had some fresh snow in the last few days of August. Southern Africa There was more fresh snow last month but both Tiffindell in South Africa and Afriski in Lesotho wound up the Southern African 2016 season at the end of August. Until next month... |
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Snow has been falling across much of New Zealand South Island today, and is expected to continue, bringing significant fresh snow to many NZ ski areas.
Snow at Mt. Cheeseman, picture courtesy of Cheeseman via Stuff.Co.Nz There's excellent coverage of the ongoing snows in this article at Stuff.
Amen to that... 8) |
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Welcome to our global snow round-up for August; more snow for Europe's summer ski areas and some big snowfalls to report from the Southern Hemisphere.
Tiffindell, South Africa, where 60cm of snow this weekend left the resort snowed in - please check their Facebook page for latest updates before travelling... This Month's Snow Headlines - Big July snowfalls on open glacier slopes in the Alps; now looking good for August. - Large snowfalls in Chile take some snow depths past 2m mark for first time in 2016. - Fonna ski area in Norway continues to claim world's deepest snow base at 7m. - July snow on high peaks in North America, including the one ski area open in August. - Powder reported on three continents for the start of August. It was a very snowy end to July, not just in the Southern Hemisphere but also in the Alps and Rockies - setting things up very nicely for August snowsports worldwide. In fact it's really one of the best Augusts on record for some countries; notably South Africa, Lesotho and Australia. In the Northern Hemisphere, base depths are healthy on most glaciers thanks to good snowfalls last winter topped up with the July snow. In total, there are a dozen areas open in countries including Austria (3), France (2), Italy (2), Norway (2), Switzerland (2) and USA (1) with several areas (Molltal glacier, Saas Fee) recently re-opening for August. There's powder snow reported pretty much across the southern hemisphere's ski fields as we enter August, a very different picture from a month ago when areas in Argentina, Chile and New Zealand were struggling to open/stay open due to a thaw. Now all of those areas, plus Australia and Southern Africa have seen big late-July snowfalls and are looking good with bases reaching the 2m mark in the Andes.
NORTHERN HEMISPHERE (for South, please see below) Europe Austria Three of Austria's eight glacier ski areas are open in August – the other five are prepping for the big autumn re-opening in late September! The Kitzsteinhorn glacier above Kaprun only closed at the end of July, but it is replaced by the re-opening Molltral glacier which will now stay open through to May 7th, 2017! The year-round Dachstein and Hintertux glaciers are the other two options. All three have had fresh snow in July. The Hintertux glacier has the biggest area open with 12km of runs and a base of 1-2m. France France is back to a choice of two summer ski destinations during August with Val d'Isere having ended its 2016 summer opening. Tignes, which was formerly open year round and remains the ski area what is open for the longest period in total each year in France (being open for two months in the Autumn when no other French area is) has a 130cm base and is open through August. Les 2 Alpes glacier ski area peaks at 3,600 metres and has 17 lifts operating in the summer serving 11 runs and a terrain park. It has a 160m base and summer skiing in Les 2 Alpes in 2016 is from 7am to 12.30pm every day to the 27th of August. Italy With Val Senales no longer opening through the summer, Passo Stelvio and Cervinia are the two Italian options for August skiing. British-run snow camps are currently underway at Cervinia, run by the Warren Smith Ski Academy who report conditions there are excellent with some fresh snow cover. Passo Stelvio also looks to be in good shape. Switzerland Switzerland is back up to a choice of two ski resorts with Saas Fee re-opening its glacier in the latter half of July. It joins neighbouring Zermatt, which with Hintertux is one of two resorts that tries to open for snowsports every day of the year. Saas Fee also has one of the world's longest ski seasons, open now right through to next spring 2017. Both ski areas have their terrain parks open and claim to have over 2m of snow depth on their glaciers, so are looking good for August, often the hottest month of the year. Both had some fresh snow in July too. Zermatt has Europe's highest slopes and in August offers cross-border skiing with Cervinia in Italy. Scandinavia Two Scandinavian areas remain open as we enter August, boasting the deepest snowbases in the world. Both in Norway; the Fonna (7m base) and the Galdhoppigen (Norway's highest) summer ski areas are both in good shape. The Stryn glacier closed last month. North America There were some big snowfalls above 2,000m on the Cascades and northern Rockies in the US in the latter half of July. Jackson Hole posted pictures of sunflowers buried in snow. Only one ski area is now open in North America (and did get fresh snow in July); Timberline on Mt Hood in Oregon is open through August with several runs and a terrain park to enjoy. SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE Australia Conditions are looking excellent across Australia with a good fall of fresh snow in the final week of July continuing a largely snowy six weeks since mid-June. Perisher reported 75cm (two-and-a-half feet) of fresh snow in 72 hours in the last days of July and is now one of four resorts to boast a snow depth around the metre mark – a very healthy depth for Australian ski areas. Mt Hotham and Thredbo are also up there and Falls Creek was actually the first Aussie resort to reach the magic metre back on July 26th. New Zealand It has been a very challenging ski season in New Zealand so far. The country is mid-way through its warmest year on record and a few weeks ago ski areas that had opened were closing due to unseasonably warm weather and those due to open were delaying doing so, or opening just a run or two at a stretch. Thankfully centres are now posting "winter is finally here" stories on social media. Temperatures have dipped and there's been lots of fresh snowfall in the last week. Although some centres still have thin bases the majority are looking much better and four areas (Coronet Peak, The Remarkables, Treble Cone and Ruapehu) have reported their base depths have passed the metre mark, so things are definitely looking more 'normal' for New Zealand as we enter August. Argentina After a snowy pre-season in early June it got warm and dry in Argentina, and even the country's biggest resort, Catedral, was unable to open. Things are looking much better now after a snowy few weeks. It's powder across the country and Las Lenas now has a 1.6m base. Other areas are looking less impressive for snow depth but are still getting regular snowfalls now and bases are building fast. Chile It has been a snowy few weeks in Chile after a warm spell shut down some areas from late June to early July. The past few weeks have seen a return to low temperatures and plenty of fresh snow, particularly at Portillo in the north which is one of two areas (the other Valle Nevado) to now claim more than a 2m base – the first resorts in the southern hemisphere to do so in 2016. So things are looking good for the rest of the season here with a still snowy start to August and more than a metre of snow in the last week. Southern Africa It has been a good season in southern Africa so far with several good snowy periods, most recently in the last week of July when both Tiffindell in South Africa and Afriski in Lesotho saw healthy natural snowfall and temperatures low enough for snowmaking on top. So both are fully open. Do check road conditions before travelling, however, as snow has been causing issues accessing the African resorts this last week! August is normally the last full month of the Southern African 2016 season and this year should go the distance. |
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In the summer?
Lac d'Annecy, surely? 8) |
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