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J2Ski Snow Report - October 30th 2014
30th October, 2014
Snow Report Summary Last week's early snows brought a flurry of excitement that, like the snow, was short-lived except at altitude where autumn snow depths have been boosted and some excellent skiing has been had! This Week's Headlines - Up to a metre of fresh snow in the Alps after last weekend's deluge. - Fresh snow in the Colorado Rockies, but still only one resort open. - Second ski area opens in Scandinavia. - Only one ski area still operating in the southern hemisphere for 2014 ski season. - US ski team reschedule training plans after Colorado resort training base delays opening. The snowfalls in the Alps at the end of last week have brought remarkable skiing conditions to the 18 glacier ski areas open in the region this week. Temperatures rose, winds eased and the sun came out giving near perfect on piste conditions, although some complained it got too warm too fast so any powder was quickly gone. But then it is October. Elsewhere another ski area opened in Scandinavia and the first Canadian resort to open for 2014-15, as well as a second Colorado centre, are scheduled to open on Halloween for the coming weekend. South of the equator one ski area in New Zealand is heroically keeping their 2014 ski season going, the last resort still standing in the southern hemisphere... In the forecast The models are hinting pretty strongly at a further episode of snow early next week, with some significant falls and seasonal temperatures looking likely to bless the North and West of the Alpine regions. Watch this space... The Alps Austria It's still a few weeks until Austria's first non-glacier ski areas (Obergurgl and Obertauern) are due to open but conditions on the eight glaciers that are open are excellent for the start of November after the heavy snow a week ago was followed by clear, sunny weather and temperatures on the mountains staying at around zero. Some areas reported a metre of fresh snow. Hintertux is looking particularly good with its base up to to 185cm and 40km of runs open already and a full 1100m of vertical skiable (very unusual for October) as well as the main terrain park open. It's looking good at Pitztal, Kaunertal, on the Kitzsteinhorn (which reported 80cm of fresh snow last week) above Kaprun and at Solden, which staged the first worlds Cup races of the season last weekend too. Two runs are open at the Dachstein glacier, which says it has a 70cm base of powder and the Molltal glacier's base has reached 2.3m with three runs open. The Stubai has nine runs and just over 20km of slopes open in total, also reporting powder conditions. It's 'capacity measure' – a new calculation based on how busy it is, has shot up from below 10% to over 50% at times since the new snowfall. France For the second weekend, two glaciers are open in France as Les 2 Alpes completes its annual autumn festival week opening, well timed this year thanks to all the snowfall just before the week began. After Sunday it's back to just Tignes being open for three weeks until Val Thorens joins in and the mass resort openings begin. In the meantime the glacier at Tignes looks great, with freestylers training there this week in the half pipe. Italy In Italy Cervinia – which has been open the past few weekends – begins full time opening from this weekend, although weekends will continue to be the focus through November with different themed events being staged to help attract more early season visitors. It joins Val Senales and Passo Stelvio which have both been open for some months and are both looking particularly good this week having benefitted from the same snowfall as other parts of the Alps. Val Senales reports snow depths at 115cm having received 60cm of fresh snow on the 23rd and 24th of October last week. Switzerland Switzerland now has five ski areas open with Les Diablerets (Glacier 3000) and Engelberg joining the three already open areas last weekend. Placing it second to Austria in terms of number of areas open. Like Austria it's centres had healthy snowfalls a week ago too, building bases and greatly improving conditions. Zermatt, which is open year round anyway, has just re-opened the Furggsattel glacier lift as well as the Gandegg and Testa 1 ski lifts meaning there now 23 kilometres of piste open on Europe's highest lift-served slopes. Scandinavia In Scandinavia a second resort has opened in Finnish Lapland, the country's largest, Levi, which is due to stage World Cup bracing in a fortnight's time, opened two runs earlier this week. It joins Ruka which opened a fortnight ago and now has six trails open for early visitors to choose from. North America Canada Canada's ski season is due to begin this Friday with Mt Norquay near Banff in Alberta scheduled to open its runs for Halloween - if there's enough snow. That's not been announced for certain at publication time although snowmaking got underway last week with natural snow lying too, so it's looking quite promising. USA In the USA Arapahoe Basin which has been open the past fortnight largely thanks to its impressive snowmaking efforts, has had three inches (8cm) of fresh natural snowfall to boost conditions. Along with A Basin and Timberline Lodge ski area on Mt Hood in Oregon, a third US are is scheduled to open for Halloween – Keystone. So far it's not clear if there will be snow there – they're keeping mum on their social media channels and website and it has been fairly warm and sunny, but like A Basin and Loveland (also expected to open any day) this is one of the 20 highest resorts in the world so a limited slope opening could indeed be imminent. However a fourth US ski area that had planned to open, Copper Mountain, has said it will delay opening by a week to November 6th because warmer weather has limited snowmaking operations. His is reported by the Denver Post to be bad news for the US ski team who were due to begin training there at the weekend. Southern Hemisphere After Whakapapa closed at the weekend, only one Southern Hemisphere ski area is open for 'Snovember' – Turoa, also on Mt Ruapehu, which will be open for the next two weekends before finally calling it a day At the end of Sunday the 9th. The base has dropped there by more than a foot in the last seven days to 145cm but it's still looking good for a few more turns yet with generally good spring skiing conditions. |
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Sssh, talk amongst yourselves and whistle nonchalantly... it'll run away if we notice... but early next week... ssshhhhhhh |
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Thin, with minimal reinforcement on the "rubby" bits (technical term), no seams and shaped like a, well you know, a foot. Apologies to anyone with tube-shaped lower legs, but tube socks were never a good idea for anyone other than cheap-skate manufacturers... Oh, and clean. That's good. 8) |
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Kendal Mint Cake
Foil Survival Blanket (for the optimists) Inclinometer Decent pair of ski socks |
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Big names of British Ski and Snowboard descend on the Ski and Snowboard Show next week in London
This autumn our British Ski and Snowboard athletes will descend on the Ski and Snowboard Show in Earls Court, London from Thursday 30th October to Sunday 2nd November. If you are heading down to the show, come and visit the British Ski and Snowboard (BSS) stand in the 'Drop In' area, where you can meet the athletes and see how you fair against them in our 'Challenge an Athlete' fitness tests run by BSS Strength and Conditioning Coach John Noonan. You will then have the chance to challenge the athletes, with results from each test recorded on a leader board for all to see. 'Challenge an Athlete' runs for the duration of the show. 
Athletes from Park and Pipe, Ski Cross and Alpine disciplines will be taking a short break from training to attend the show. As well as 'Challenge an Athlete', the athletes will be involved in daily Q&A's in the Mountain Talk Theatre, starting with 'The Sochi Experience' at 6.30pm on Thursday 30th October (see full list of Mountain Talk Theatre Q+A sessions below). You will have the chance to hear firsthand from Sochi 2014 athletes and promising British riders about their experiences and plans for the upcoming season. Ahead of each talk you will also get the chance to watch an inspiring video which involves big names of the sport, including Chemmy Alcott and Jenny Jones talking about what inspired them to get into snowsports, brought to you by BSS and their Principal Sponsor Delancey. 
Each day of the show several BSS athletes will also be involved with inspiring the next generation of skiers and snowboarders in TRY SKI and TRY FREESTYLE sessions on the artificial slope inside the show. GO SKI GO BOARD (www.goskigoboard.org.uk) ambassadors Jamie Nicholls, Aimee Fuller, Chemmy Alcott and Pete Speight will be amongst the athletes giving out tips on the slope. Times of the TRY FREESTYLE sessions are Thursday 4pm, Friday 1pm & 7pm, Saturday 4.30pm and Sunday 12.00pm. Athletes at the show include: Rowan Cheshire, James Machon, Pete Speight, Molly Summerhayes and Tyler Harding (Park and Pipe – Ski) Emily Sarsfield, Ed Drake and Pam Thorburn (Ski Cross) Darcie Mead and Chemmy Alcott (retired) (Alpine) And there is more… To add to the activity, Sochi star Aimee Fuller will be doing a signing session on Thursday 30th October at 5pm at the British Ski and Snowboard stand whilst Jamie Nicholls, one of the world's best rail riders, has a signing at 3pm on Sunday 2nd November also at the British Ski and Snowboard stand. Promising snowboarder, Lewis Courtier Jones, will be hosting a competition with a holiday in the French Alps, a snowboard and O'Neill kit up for grabs. Follow @teambss on Twitter and like Team BSS on Facebook for updates on ski show activity! |
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Morzine or Chamonix are good bets for lively night-life and both an hour from Geneva.
If you're not too fussed about clubbing then pretty much anywhere in the Grand Massif, Portes du Soleis or Aravis should give you 4 good days of sliding in February. |
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Hi Terra, welcome to J2Ski...
Nice choice to have... 8)
Anyone claiming to know this is, frankly, an idiot and you should ignore them. Nobody knows what the season ahead will be like. A single week of unusually snowy (or warm) conditions can make or break a season and modern forecasting tech is good for a maximum of 2 weeks ahead, but pretty unreliable at that timescale. Both Avoriaz and Honshu should be good in February; you've probably more chance of "epic powder" in Japan but no guarantees either way. Roll the dice; if you're really worried then book last minute when you know where the snow is, but you really shouldn't be worrying about February. HTH |
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J2Ski Snow Report - October 23rd 2014
23rd October, 2014
Alpbach, 23rd October 2014, courtesy Tyrol Snow Report Summary The past 48 hours have seen the first major snows of the European Winter arrive, with some snowy scenes on many of the webcams we watch. This Week's Headlines - Heavy snow in the Alps. - First non-glacier resorts open this week in Europe and North America. - FIS 2014-15 World Cup kicks off in Solden this weekend. - Last resorts still open for 2014 season in southern hemisphere. The 2014-15 ski season is about to start! Or, has already started! Well, it depends on where you are and your point of view. As well as the year-round glaciers, the first non-glacier ski areas opened this week and there's been heavy snow in the Alps. With the numbers of resorts opening continuing to grow it seems the right time to switch back to our weekly digest. Happy (and hopefully) snowy days are here again. In fact at present about 20 areas are open around the world, almost half of them in Austria, but with more opening every week. The 2014 ski season in the southern hemisphere is still going too, at one area at least. The Alps Austria Seven of Austria's eight glacier ski areas are open and currently benefitting from heavy snowfall – up to a metre of new snow is expected to have accumulated on their upper slopes by the weekend. So far (as of Thursday 23rd October) up to 70cm has been reported (at Solden) and it is still snowing hard with cam images looking more like a January blizzard than early autumn. There are in fact as many ski areas currently open in Austria as in the rest of the Alps put together. Hintertux has the biggest area open – some 24km of piste and 770m of vertical, but this weekend's focus is on Solden which is hosting World Cup races (assuming all the new snow does not cause problems). Other open slopes are to be found on the Stubai, Kitzsteinhorn (50cm of fresh snow reported as of 23rd October), Molltal, Kaunertal and Pitztal glaciers. France Tignes has been open for three weeks and remains the only area open in France. It has a 30cm base on the Grand Motte glacier but that may double by the weekend with low temperatures and heavy snow. It will be joined for nine days only by Les 2 Alpes which will be open for the coming week with its annual major festival of snowsports with gear testing and un in the park. Snow depth is currently over a metre. Italy In Italy Cervinia is open at weekends only. It has benefitted from fresh snow this week and there's a metre of snow on the glacier. Daily opening from next weekend on 1st November. Val Senales has been open daily since mid-September, it too has reported fresh snow this week and temperatures in double digits below freezing already. The base there is 55cm. All six lifts and runs are reported to be open at Passo Stelvio too which has a base of 70cm at the base to 3m at the summit. Switzerland It's snowing in Switzerland too and Verbier expects to have received perhaps a metre of snow by the weekend. Whether it will open early as a result (as it has in past years) is not yet known. But more Swiss areas are opening to join year-round Zermatt and its neighbour Saas Fee (open since July). The Diavolezza glacier near St Moritz is the latest to open and has a 125cm base at present. Engelberg is due to open this Saturday (25th October) having delayed doing so for several weekends when it had hoped to open. Glacier 3000 between Gstaad and Les Diablerets is also scheduled to open for the season on Saturday. Scandinavia Scandinavia's ski season has got started at Ruka in Finnish Lapland, the main slope opened there last weekend, allowing the area to claim to be the first non-glacier resort in Europe (and the northern hemisphere) to open for 2014-15, beating the first area in North America by a few hours. So far only two runs are open, thanks to snowmaking although there has also been natural snowfall too. North America Canada Nowhere is open in Canada at present but the season is due to kick off in just over a week on the 31st of October in Banff. There have been promising pre-season snowfalls in the region since mid-September and more fresh snow recorded in the last few days so it's currently looking promising for an on-schedule opening for Halloween. USA Arapahoe Basin in Colorado was able to claim the title of first ski are to open in North America a week ago when they opened a couple of trails thanks in part to snowmaking, and part to natural snowfall. It's one of the 20 highest ski areas in the world. Nearby Loveland has been snowmaking too and expects to open soon but has not named the day. In fact another ski area, Timberline on Mt Hood, is open almost year round and has been open since earlier in October thanks to a permanent snowfield. Southern Hemisphere The 2014 ski season is over for most of the southern hemisphere but in New Zealand, which had a slow start to winter 2014, a late snowy surge has meant Turoa is planning to stay open in to 'Snowvember.' It currently has a 1.6m base and plans to stay open to November 9th. Its fellow Mt Ruapehu resort Whakapapa is still open too but this is its final weekend of 2014 coming up. |
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