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The J2Ski Snow Report - Week Ending January 18th 2013
(* Free to re-publish in whole or part so long as credited to www.J2ski.com with hyperlink to https://www.j2ski.com/snow_forecast )

This Week and Next - in Brief

This week has brought cold weather and snow to, well, just about everywhere you can ski in the Northern Hemisphere.

Snow conditions are generally superb, although visibility and cold have been challenging at times in The Alps at least.

A brief mild spell is about to roll through the alpine region that will push temperatures above January averages for a day or two. This will not last long, and it will be accompanied by further snowfall in the North and East of The Alps.

This Week's Headlines

- Huge snowfalls in the Pyrenees - up to 65cm in 24 hours
- Scottish areas re-open thanks to cold weather and snowmaking.
- Over a foot of new snow in the Dolomites.
- Up to a metre of new snow in the Alps in past week.
- Over a metre of snow in the past week for Niseko, Japan.
- High off-piste avalanche danger in the Alps and Pyrenees.

Travel Disruption this weekend

Snow and wind is likely to cause some disruption to travel plans this weekend, particularly for UK-based travellers. We strongly advise everyone travelling this weekend to check local weather conditions (home and away!) and allow extra time for your journey.

Europe
Austria
A second snowy week for Austria and this time its colder so the snow is falling further down, a condition that will continue right through to the weekend. Niederau in Wildschonau has had an impressive 80cm of new snow while Kitzbuhel has reported 43cm (17 inches) of new snow in the past week leaving 40cm at resort level and 1.5m up on the mountain tops. Obergurgl, Zell am See and Ischgl have all reported at least a foot (30cm) of fresh snow too and it's a similar picture at resorts across the country. More healthy snowfalls adding similar volumes of snow are expected over the next 7 days too, meaning Kitzbuhel can hope to have received nearly a metre of snow over the fortnight before the Hahnenkamm week begins.

France
It's looking great in the French Alps as heavy snow has continued for much of this week, bringing accumulations since the weekend of up to a metre (claimed by La Plagne) with most other resorts in the northern ski areas reporting big accumulations too including Flaine (80cm), Chamonix (67cm), Meribel (60cm), Les Arcs (55cm) and Avoriaz (48cm). Upper slope depths are now at the 9-11 foot mark at many top resorts including Chamonix and Flaine with 330cm while Avoriaz, Alpe d'Huez, Tignes and Val d'Isere are all up around 2.7m. More snow is expected over the rest of the week but the volume is expected to drop.

Italy
In Italy the big snow news of the past seven days has been in the Dolomites where, after a few fairly snowless weeks, falls averaging 50cm have been reported across the region. Some resorts including Cortina have had even more than that with 60cm (two feet) in total. Base depths have of course improved as a result, particularly good news at lower elevations where it had been getting a little thin in some places. In the west of the country the Alps still have the deepest snow in Italy – with 235cm on upper slopes at Cervinia, a resort which has also reported the most snow in the region over the past week, with 30cm of fresh snow.

Switzerland
Swiss resorts continue to offer the deepest snow in Europe, now approaching 4m with 3.8m at Andermatt and 3.75m in Engelberg just a couple of inches behind. There have been healthy snowfalls across the country in the past week ranging from 15cm at St Moritz to 66cm at Les Diablerets – that's more than two feet. Verbier has had another good week with 48cm of new snow – meaning it has received nearly 2m since Christmas. Base depth in the resort is now just under three feet at 87cm with 2.3m (nearly 8 feet) at the top of the slopes. Jungfrau, Laax, Crans Montana and Leysin all have very similar accumulations.

Pyrenees
The Pyrenees have been the big snowfall story this week – after a fairly average start to the season and little new snow since Christmas, there have been huge falls over the past 72 hours with Baqueira Beret on the Spanish side being hit first and reporting 65cm of snow in 24 hours up to Monday, then ski areas in Andorra posted 40-50cm in the 24 hours to Tuesday and similar falls are now being reported on the French side at Cauterets among other resorts. The snow is still falling and at Baqueira the accumulation was 1.4m in the past 7 days.

Scandinavia
There's been very little new snow in Scanadinavia but low temperatures mean there's no snow melt either. Hemsedal in Norway with 105cm has the deepest snow in the region, with Are, the biggest resort still reporting around 55cm of snow – both resorts are fully open.

Eastern Europe
There's been little or no new snow in most Eastern European ski areas. The exception is Slovenia where Kranjska Gora has had 20cm of snow in the past week. Pamporovo in Bulgaria has the deepest snow in the region however with an 80-180cm base and conditions have improved a little at Poiana Brasov in Romania where snow cover is now up to 70cm on upper slopes.

Scotland
Four of the five Scottish ski areas were forced to stop running their lifts for skiers last week due to the mild conditions and resulting thaw but now we're back to cold weather again all but Glencoe have re-opened, albeit currently limited terrain, and even Glencoe has some sledging and hopes to open by the weekend. Most areas are using the consistently cold temperatures for snow making and there's be some natural snowfall with more forecast.

North America
Canada
Conditions remain good across Canada although the rate of snowfall has slowed this week. The biggest reported accumulation has been at Lake Louise with 28cm of snowfall, with resorts on the Powder Highway including Panorama, Kicking Horse and Kimberley receiving around 20cm each. Fernie to the south had less new snow bit still has Canada's deepest snow, for a leading resort, with 221cm. In the east there's been a few inches of fresh snow in Tremblant and Mont Sainte Anne which have 80cm and 95cm bases respectively.

USA
North-western USA has again had the best of the week's snowfall in the US. For the third successive week Alyeska in Alaska has posted the biggest snowfall in the country of the major resorts with 106cm – its base is now 3.6m (12 feet). But Mammoth still has the deepest snow in the country at 4.9m. Other big snowfalls over the past week include a foot (31cm) at Jackson Hole and 20cm at Heavenly. There have been small snowfalls in Colorado but bases are still rather low – around 60-80cm at most resorts. Utah is looking a bit more normal now though with 1.5m or more at resorts including Alta and Snowbird. There's been no fresh snow on the East coast but depths remain above a metre at larger resorts including Killington and Stowe.

andyhull wrote:Don't say that, I have trains to catch Friday!

Andy, definitely keep a close eye on how the forecast develops but the models are all now going for snow on Friday, and possibly lots of it. It'll come in from the West during the course of the day so staying ahead of it would be a good plan... :shock:

If you don't know it, http://www.raintoday.co.uk/ is great for watching the weather systems come in. Bookmark that for Friday morning.

Iceman wrote:I can't see anything different on my mobile. Has anything changed for mobile versions?

Can the ratings work on mobile versions?

No change yet... will likely be tomorrow now, as we've spent a bit of time looking at the weather models this afternoon...

UK. Friday. :shock: Interesting!

Brace Yourselves! :lol:

Morning all,

This is just to forewarn you that we're going to be rolling out a significant update to the forum later today.

Although the "behind the scenes" bits will work just as before, the user interface (the bit you see) is going to look quite different at first glance.

95% of the features you know and love (ahem) will still be found in roughly the same place; but there will be less "clutter" and the important functions will be more obvious.


Why are we changing?

Some aspects of the current design are a little clunky and cluttered and overdue for a refresh, but the main reason is the rise of the tablet (and other mobile) devices.

Over 15% of our visitors now browse on iPads. :shock: And many more use iPhones, Galaxies, etc.

The current interface is not optimal for small displays and touch-screens, so we need to make it better.


What are we changing?

Much of the visual "cruft" will be gone, and redundant links culled.

The most important links will become easier-to-tap buttons and colours will be more consistent in use, with better visual "cues" and a couple of useful new features where you need them.


So, talk amongst yourselves while we do some final testing...

I'll post some screen grabs later this morning and we hope to publish the new interface this afternoon.

It will be a "hot swap" taking only a few seconds and we won't need to take the forum down.

N.B. If you're online when we apply the update, then your screen may go briefly weird... but just refresh your browser once or twice and all should be well.

But I'll let you know when we're ready to roll...

As you were...

Great write-up; enjoyed reading that and brought back memories of my "SkiWelt in a day" with Dave Mac a few years back!

Sounds like a top family holiday.

Ian Wickham wrote:Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :thumbup:

Have an epic week Wickers, and give my regards to La Clusaz... 8)

Bon voyage everyone, and have a fantastic time!

Really gutted to miss this one but love how it's all come together - well done, AllyG! :thumbup:

Keep us all posted (jealous) :mrgreen:

The J2Ski Snow Report - Week Ending January 11th 2013
(* Free to re-publish in whole or part so long as credited to www.J2ski.com with hyperlink to http://www.j2ski.com/snow_forecast )

This Week and Next - in Brief

It's been a week of mild and clear weather in much of the European Alps, but all that's about to change.

Significantly colder (and snowier) conditions are moving into the region and temperatures will fall markedly overnight tonight and through tomorrow.

Heavy snow is expected in parts of the Northern Alps (primarly France and Switzerland) tomorrow (Friday). Further weather systems will bring snow into the South as me move into next week.

The outlook is good for snow for the next week, with temperatures below the January average and frequent snowfall expected. Mid and high altitude resorts will be very cold at times, with Northerly winds adding significant wind-chill, so wrap-up well!

This Week's Headlines
- Alaskan resort reports 1.45m (4.5 feet) of new snow in past 7 days.
- 4 of 5 Scottish ski areas closed by warm weather.
- Up to 60cm of new snow in Austria.
- Californian resort snow depths near 5m.

Europe
Austria
It's been Austria's turn to have some of the best snow in Europe over the past week, but the picture is mixed with heavy snow above about 1800m, and rain and sleet on lower slopes, particularly below 1500m. It's now getting warmer. The result has been ever deeper snow bases up top, and fighting cover thawing-away completely down at resort level for lower resorts.

Focusing on the positive some of the big winners have been the glacier areas like the Kitzsteinhorn and Pitztal which have received up to 60cm (two feet) of snow in the past week and now have bases well over 2m. Lower down there's also been a foot of new snow at powder resort Fieberbrunn and even around Innsbruck ski areas are reporting 20-30cm of new snow at Axamer Lizum and Innsbruck.

France
There has been almost now snow anywhere in France in the past week and temperatures have been creeping above freezing on lower slopes too – not a good combination. But unlike the situation a few years ago, this winter resorts are able to relax a little bit as most of the big centres have built big bases (Over 3 metres at Chamonix and over 2m at many others), which have been almost unaffected by the thaw. The news is also that the weather will be changing later this week and significant snowfalls, in many case with more than a foot of snow in the forecast, are on their way.

Italy
As with France there's been virtually no fresh snow in the past seven days, but as with most of the rest of Europe we're expecting accumulations averaging around a foot (30cm) over the next seven days.

Best snow depths are generally in the alps on the West side of the country where a number of resorts including La Thuile and Cervinia have more than 2m lying on upper slopes, but then so does Passo Tonale further East. However lower elevations have much more marginal snow cover below 50cm and in some cases as thing as 20cm down at resort level.

Cover in the Dolomites is generally not quite so deep, but most areas have at least a metre on upper slopes and with the snow forecast, no one is worried yet.

Switzerland
A few small snowfalls have built bases a bit in Switzerland. The biggest snowfall was reported in Zermatt on Europe's highest slopes with a 15cm (six inch) accumulation, and Davos added 8cm of snow in the past week.

Swiss resorts have the deepest snow depths in Europe still with Andermatt reporting the deepest snow in the continent at 3.7m and Gstaad also above 3m. Many other Swiss resorts have at least 2.1m (7 feet) snow depths including Engelberg, Laax, Saas Fee and Verbier.

As with the rest of the alps significant snowfall is expected over the next week, up to 45cm/18 inches is likely across the Swiss Alps.

Eastern Europe
There's been very little new snow in Eastern Europe. Cover is fairly thin at Kranjska Gora in Slovenia and Poiana Brasov in Romania (both less than 50cm on upper slopes) but more substantial in Bulgaria where Bansko reports 5cm of snow in the past week and a one metre base.

Pyrenees
Snow depths have dropped a little in the Pyrenees where there's been no new snow since Jan 1 and temperatures have been getting above freezing during the day. However depth are still acceptable in Andorra with most resorts reporting around a foot (30cm) at village level and 60-90cm (2-3 feet) at the top of the slopes. Snow is expected here by the weekend too.

Scandinavia
It's looking promising across most of Scandinavia with fresh snow reported in Finland and snow bases passing a metre now in Norway. Ironically the region's biggest resorts, Are in Sweden, seems to be struggling the most for snow cover with a 30-50cm base, however the resort says piste conditions are excellent and there was a couple of inches of fresh snow (5cm) on Monday to freshen up on top. Hemsedal in Norway has double Are's base depth and Levi up in the Finnish Arctic has had triple Are's snowfall in the past 7 days, with 15cm building its base to 70cm.

Scotland
It's not looking good on Scotland's slopes after a warm week and four of the five areas have closed, although in the case of Nevis Range they say two runs are complete, they're just closing to stop them getting worn away before more snow arrives. The only place where you can currently ski in Scotland is Cairngorm, and here just the funicular is running with a walk from the snowline back to the mid-station, but who's complaining – still 300m of vert. The good news is temperatures are now dropping and 'significant snowfall' is expected in the next week to 10 days.

North America
Canada
It's still snpowing in Western Canada with Fernie, Banff, Whistler and Revelstoke all reporting yet another 30cm+ (foot) of new snow in the past seven days.

"The incredible snow conditions are here to stay," said a typically modest Whistler statement on Tuesday, "23cm (9 in) of new snow has fallen in the last 48 hours giving Whistler Blackcomb a base of 184cm (6 feet) and accumulations of 589cm (19.3 feet) of snow so far this season."

The snow on the East Coast has slowed a little but most areas are looking reasonably good with snow depths at 60-80cm across the mountain at the big resorts like Mont Ste Anne and Tremblant and few inches of fresh snow on top too.

USA
A relatively quiet week across the US with no big snowfalls in the past seven days at most resorts and the few that have had snow measuring only a few inches. The one BIG exception is up in Alaska where the leading resort Alyeska, which was once in Crystal brochures, reports a 135cm (4.5 foot) accumulation.

Among the mainstream resorts, Mammoth in California is now only 10cm off the magic 5m base mark – much closer to its normal epic levels of snow depth that can see it stay open to august than in the lacklustre winter of 11-12. Colorado resorts have seen a few centimetres of snow but are looking a lot less healthy still, more like last season there, with 53cm only at Vail for example, although Winter Park has a three foot base.

Snowfall has slowed on the East Coast too, but unusually bases there remain better than Colorado in many cases – Sugarbush in New Hampshire for example with 127cm (over four feet) on upper slopes, more than twice the snow depth of Vail at present.

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