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J2Ski Snow Report - October 15th 2015
Right, we're calling it! Today we (re)start our Weekly Snow Reports; exactly six months since the last weekly report. We'll be weekly now through to the other side of Easter. Why? There's been some more early snow... 
The view from 2800m above Ischgl today This Week's Snow Headlines - Ski areas in Cervinia and near St Moritz open this weekend. - Snowmaking under way in Colorado. - Ruka in Finland has opened this week, the first non-glacier ski area to open for 15-16. - First Snow in California - is it the start of the strongest recorded El Nino? - Southern Hemisphere ski areas extend seasons. A third wave of serious snowfall in the past six weeks has been crossing the Alps this week. It's still too early to get (too) excited about this late summer/early autumn snowfall but it's difficult not to; Saas Fee, open since July, has clocked up three powder days already with big snow bases on the glacier. To add to these positive signs (which may yet evaporate of course!) British newspapers have been forecasting severe snow this winter with a rather tenuous link to a strong El Nino forecast for the Pacific which should hopefully bring big snowfalls for the Western US. Whether that continues further East is more difficult to predict. Elsewhere, ski areas in Scandinavia have started opening this week with temperatures dipping low enough for snowmaking whilst on the other side of the world most southern hemisphere ski areas have now closed, although a few still soldier on, having extended their seasons thanks to abundant snow. In The Forecast Snow has been falling in many Alpine areas over the past 24 hours, and is expected to continue for the next couple of days. The snow line should fall to 1500m in places, albeit briefly before rain rolls it back to 2000m or so. There will be useful accumulations above that level, nonetheless, and further snows are expected next week. The Alps Austria Austria is well ahead of the rest of the world in terms of ski areas open at present. All eight of the country's glaciers are currently operational (almost as much as the rest of the world put together) and they all appear to be in good shape, posting pictures of world champion skiers from around the world in autumn training on their slopes, running ski tests and Autumn Fest weekends and alternating between beautiful sunny autumn days and fresh powder mornings. Most are expecting 30-40cm of fresh snow by the weekend following similar falls a week or so ago – and hoping it's the start of a cycle. Hintertux currently has the most terrain open and a 90cm base but Solden is gearing up to stage the first Northern Hemisphere World cup races of the season the weekend after next, then previewing the new Bond movie SPECTRE's filming venues, shot there last January, the week after that. France Tignes re-opened on 3rd October after a month with no lift-served French skiing available. It got off to a good start with a foot of fresh snow falling over its opening weekend – an unexpected powder bonus, and there's been more fresh snow this week meaning condition are quite 'wintery.' Around 20cm more on its current 50cm base is expected by Saturday. It has four lifts and four runs plus the terrain park open. A second option, Les 2 Alpes, opens for it's traditional 'end of October' nine day opening for ski tests and festivities on the glacier from next weekend before closing again after November 1st. Italy Italy has had two ski areas open for the past month but a third will join them this weekend. Cervinia will re-open its cross-border ski area shared with Zermatt in Switzerland this weekend. It joins Passo Stelvio which has been open all summer and Val Senales which re-opened last month. More than a foot of snow (about 40cm in fact) is forecast to have fallen on Italian mountains by the end of the weekend. Passo Stelvio has all six lifts operating and a 2m base. Switzerland It's been a great start to the winter at Saas Fee which has had three big snowfalls since the start of September on its glacier. The latest, currently underway, is expected to mean 40cm more fresh snow there by the end of the weekend. It currently reports a 1m base and 25km of runs open, it's neighbour Zermatt is in similarly good shape. The Diavolezza glacier near St Moritz is also scheduled to open this weekend giving a third option and there are conflicting reports as to whether the Titlis glacier at Engelberg will be opening or not too. Scandinavia It's a good start to the season in Northern Europe (which, lest we forget, also had a great autumn 2014 when the Alps suffered). Ruka in Finnish Lapland opened on Monday after starting snow making last week and aims to maintain its record of having the longest season of any non-glacier resort in the world – usually through to next May or June. Another Finnish resort Levi is also madly snowmaking and may open soon, although its priority is to prep the slopes for World Cup races due to be staged there next month. Elsewhere the Galdhoppigen summer ski centre in Norway is still open and a second of the country's areas, Geilo, is reported to have opened one slope at the end of September that's still reported to be operational. Icelandic ski areas have reported a good covering of natural snowfall. North America Hopes of an El Nino year – some reports have claimed the strongest for 65 years/ever – bringing abundant snow to the Western US - remain in place after Mountain High received a covering of fresh snow last week and now hope to open by the end of the month. It's a similar picture in Colorado although here the main hope lies in snowmaking at some of the world's highest ski areas like Copper Mountain and Loveland where snowmaking is underway and an October opening hoped for. Mt Hood, usually the only ski area open in North America year round, has been closed for three months now as hot weather has serious impacted its permanent snow field, thawing it back to the ice below. North of the border Lake Louise may be the first ski area to open on November 6th but if conditions are good other may try to open for Halloween in just over a fortnight's time. And just in - Sunday River hope to open this coming Monday... Southern Hemisphere We're approaching the last fortnight of winter 2015 in the southern hemisphere with only Turoa ski area on New Zealand's Mt Ruapehu committing to staying open to the end of the month south of the equator after what has been an epic season for one reason or another in most major ski nations in Australasia and South America. After a poor start Argentina and Chile saw some record breaking snow storms and Valle Nevado in Chile has extended its season by a week to next Sunday because, it says, of on-going snowfall and the best conditions for a decade. Some of New Zealand's ski areas also reported the most snow ever. |
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Flaine's a good choice for Easter; Morillon not so much. Morillon's nice, being an actual village, and has some great skiing that's often very quiet (even when the rest of the Massif is busy), but it's 500m lower than Flaine. Flaine has a good late-season snow record by contrast. Also, if you're in Morillon and all the snow's in Flaine then you've got a fair old slog on slushy, chopped-up and probably busy pistes to get there and back. There certainly used to be a couple of reasonable pizzerias in Flaine but beware the on-mountain prices; total rip-off in some of the mountain snack stops/restos so check the price list before ordering anything or pack your own lunch! :evil: HTH, p.s. and if your 14-yr-old has enough energy to be bored in the evening... then you're not skiing enough! 8) |
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Looks like we need a confessional forum!
Anyone else? :lol: |
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Blimey. J2Ski gets its own international master criminal!
Hmm, tough choice. Shall I change your username to Tony_Cell_Block_H ? 7 months on the run and it looks like the (very) long arm of the law has finally caught up with you; time to pay your dues to (Austrian) society. 8) |
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See "Breuil-Cervinia"
8) |
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J2Ski's Where to Ski in October 2015
Here is our quick guide to where to ski in October (winter IS coming!). Too soon to get excited? It was hard not to in the last week or so of September when the Alps got dumped on with up to 50cm of fresh snow. 
Laax - September 23rd - courtesy of Laax Tourist Office That snow in Europe followed similar accumulations in parts of the Rockies earlier in the month although of course, it still being summer, it largely melted away again after causing a snow-photo tidal wave on social media. Sustained snowfall through Autumn is what's needed. Some British media outlets have reported that a strong 'El Nino weather event' in the Pacific could not only bring an end to the four season drought in Western North America but also bring 'End of the world' type winter weather to Europe... there is no real scientific evidence of that (but it makes a good story); no one really knows what's coming. Regardless, there were a few good days of powder skiing on the handful of already open European glaciers. South of the equator the season is of course winding down. Some areas have already closed and most will have done by mid-October. It has been a good season across the hemisphere, after a very poor start in South America, with regular top ups all through the southern winter including regular snowfalls in September in most countries. October 2015 Snow Headlines - 'El Nino' forecast to be strongest for up to six decades (depending which report you read) - meaning possibly huge snowfalls (or not). - Good September snowfall in the Alps to start Autumn. - Big fresh snowfalls in the Southern Hemisphere through September. - Some resorts opening early in the Alps last month, a dozen more set to open through October. - Some good early snowfalls in Western North America. In The Forecast Snow (well, a bit)! Down to 1500m in a few places in The Alps today; mainly to the South and East of the region, with scattered snow across the area for the next few days although with the snow line rising to around 2500m by the start of next week. The Alps Austria September and October are months when Austrian ski areas dominate the Northern hemisphere, in the sense that by mid-October all eight of the country's glacier ski areas are normally open, whereas the number of ski centres open in the rest of the northern hemisphere added together total, well, less than eight. Things are already looking particularly good for one area in particular – Solden. It got the lion's share of the September snow and opened a week earlier than planned. Next month sees it stage the first World cup races of 15-16 and it also hits cinema screens around the world as a location venue in the new Bond movie Spectre. But other areas are open already – the Stubai, Pitztal and Hintertux glaciers among them. There's been more snow flurries and generally October is looking good in Austria. France September – the month when no French ski areas are open – is behind us and this weekend sees Tignes re-opening. Many French resorts posted pictures and reports of September snowfall so after looking pretty sad after the summer heat in august, the grand Motte isn't looking so bad for October. No other French area really opens until later November but Les 2 Alpes does have an annual 9 day opening at the end of October for various ski test festivities. This year it's October 24th to November 1st. Italy Passo Stelvio heroically battled on through September as pretty much the only Italian area open after Cervina ended its summer ski run at the start of the month. There are reports that Macugnaga has also been opening at weekends but it is difficult to get accurate information on that. In any case the former summer ski area of Val Senales has now re-joined the list of areas open and Cervinia will be back too in a few weeks, starting with weekend opening before going full time from the end of the month. Switzerland Saas Fee reported fresh powder conditions twice in September after snowfalls at the start of the month (still summer) and during the more wide spread snowfall at the start of autumn just over a week ago. Presumably Zermatt enjoyed similar although it also reported one of its highest drag lifts was 'taken out' by very strong winds in September too – so not all sunshine and powder. After several months of these being the only two Swiss options more glacier areas are scheduled to open through the month including Diavolezza near St Moritz in the idle of the month and Laax at the end. Scandinavia In Norway the summer glacier ski run at Galdhoppigen remains open and more surprisingly a run has opened at Geilo, not known for its out-of-season skiing, mainly targeted at school children visiting for the autumn holidays. It's open four hours a day. Some other Scandinavian areas may open during October. Ruka in Finnish Lapland aims for the longest season in the world of a non-glacier resort and tries to open a run by mid October (then keeps it open to next May or June). North America Although there's been no lift-served skiing open in north America for several months now since the timberline snowfield on Mt Hood had to close early due to poor cover, it's hoped that snowmaking will start at high resorts like Arapahoe Basin, Copper, Keystone and Loveland in Colorado within the next few weeks and possibly in New England too. October openings are really the norm at some of these locations. As mentioned in the introduction there have been some early snowfalls in Western North America already and the forecasts are for a very severe winter. Southern Hemisphere New Zealand New Zealand's ski areas tend to stay open longer than others and with 2015 being one of the best seasons in years and base depths touching the 3m/10 feet mark at some areas, plus snow still falling in the last week of September, the end of this year's skiing looks to be a strong one. Mt Ruapehu, where Turoa and Whakapapa have 2.8 to 2.9m bases, may well announce shortly it plans to stay open to 'Snowvember' Otherwise it's open to the last weekend of the month, most other areas are still open and will stay open to mid October. Australia Aussie ski areas have begun closing for 2015 and most will have called-it-a-day on the ski season by the first weekend of October. There's been a few dustings of snow in recent days and still open centres including Perisher and Thredbo are reporting up to 109cm base depths. Argentina The season is in its last days and weeks at Argentinian ski resorts. As we enter October bases are generally looking good however with most areas reporting 1.5 – 2m now lying on their slopes and most have also had a few September snowfalls of up to 30cm a time to keep things fresh. Chapelco reports the deepest base at 1.9m and that it had 5cm of fresh snow over the last weekend of September. Chile It has been a good few months in Chile and the snow has been abundant since late July. It's had the best southern hemisphere snow of the last seven days too, with resorts reporting 20cm falls on the last weekend of September. Most areas are still open but will close in the first half of October. Portillo reports the deepest base at 12.9m, most others have 1.3 to 1.8m bases. |
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Quite possibly, yes, but there are hundreds of ski resorts in France and they don't ALL get rammed for half-term. Look for the less-well-known and smaller areas that the Tour Operators don't go to and start your research there; how about somewhere in the Maurienne Valley for starters? In any case, consider satellite villages rather than central resorts and think about planning your days to be away from any obvious bottle-necks; us "Brits Abroad" exhibit odd herd-like behavior on holiday and tend to cluster in crowded centres rather than skiing to out-lying stations. Get away from the herd and you'll be fine. 8) |
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Hi Michael, welcome.
You no doubt know that Mittersill itself is pretty small but you're going to be right in the middle of a whole range of great ski stations (Mayrhofen, the Ski Welt, Saalbach, etc. are all within striking distance). What sort of skiing are you looking for, and will you have a car or be relying on public transport? A few of the forum regulars frequent that area so if you tell us a little more about what you like to ski, you should get some good advice. |
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