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Looks like the pre-entry test requirement for France, at least, will be removed shortly...
https://www.travelmole.com/news/france-to-drop-tests-for-fully-vaccinated-travellers/ |
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J2Ski Snow Report 3rd February 2022
Saalbach, Austria, got a lot of snow this week... Snow for Austria, Scandinavia and USA... The Snow Headlines - 3rd February - Snow "Cyclone Bomb" hits North-eastern North America. - Major snowfall for North-eastern Europe - up to 50cm (20") in 24 hours in Austria. - Ski areas in Japan near 5-metre base and pass 10-metre season-to-date snowfall totals. - Successive powder days kick off February in parts of Scandinavia. - Up to 30cm (a foot) of fresh snowfall reported in Bulgaria. - Snow again at last in Scotland after "dry January". - 8 Years after "Tropical Olympics" Russia's Rosa Khutor First in Europe to post 4m Base. 
Japan leading the forecasts, but there's more following for Europe...
World Overview Europe There's been a second week of snowfall in North-eastern Europe, this time heavier and spreading over a wider area. Austria has again been the main beneficiary but the snow clouds have extended further west into Switzerland, south into Italy and north into the Tatra mountains than last week. Bulgaria and the Balkans reported about a foot of midweek snow. In fact, the snowfall is spreading across much of Europe after the largely dry January, Scotland's mountains have finally turned white again and some of the biggest dumps of the past few days have been reported up in Scandinavia with a series of powder days there. The snowfall has been enough to briefly close some resorts in Austria over the past few days due to avalanche danger and other logistical issues. As a result of all the snowfall Austrian areas are now the first in the Alps to post upper slope snow depths past the 3m mark, although the continent's deepest snow is on its eastern borders above Sochi on the Black Sea coast where Rosa Khutor says they now have over 4 metres lying. North America Another week when most of the snowfall action has been on the eastern side of the continent with the Northeast staying very cold and another major weekend snowstorm bringing several feet of fresh snowfall to the most fortunate ski areas, half that to the majority. Over in the west, it has been another week with little or no fresh snowfall and temperatures often a little warmer than we might like especially down near mountain bases. That said the big falls of December continue to mean that ski areas can open pretty much all their terrain, so long as they have staff to run the lifts. Most are enjoying the slopes in the sunshine, but there's not much powder to be found off the groomed trails, and first thing some of those trails are icy. That's not an issue in the east though where the snow is the best it has been all season. Europe Austria Austria has enjoyed a snowy few days and it's the second week in a row here with the country seeing much more fresh snowfall than their neighbours to the west and south. The snowfall in Austria appears to be the most significant since before Christmas with some areas reporting half-metre accumulations at the weekend, others the same amounts on Tuesday and Wednesday, so in other words, it has been a very snowy week. Base depths are finally on the rise as a result which is good news for late-season cover and indeed summer 2022 skiing on glaciers. In the short term though the snow caused many areas to limit terrain open midweek and some, including the Stubai, to close completely, in its case due to avalanche danger on its access road. The country's Loser ski area has become the first in the Alps to report a 3m (10 foot) base this winter, on upper slopes, thanks to the snowfall. France There was some snowfall in the Northern French Alps on Wednesday but not so much as further east, typical accumulations were 10-20cm, a good refresh. Further south, ski areas reported little or no fresh snowfall, just the usual full sunshine that has marked much of 2022 to date. As with elsewhere in Europe though big December snowfalls mean that most of the country's ski slopes remain open and there's been good news in the French battle with the pandemic with restrictions eased a little in recent days and even an announcement that the famed French ski resort discotheques may re-open from the middle of this month. The 3 Valleys continue to have the most terrain open, unsurprisingly being the world's biggest ski area with 95% of their terrain currently skiable. Italy There's been snowfall across most Italian mountains over the past few days and for some areas, that's really the first time that's happened this year. The heaviest falls have been across the north of the country with Cervinia reporting over 50cm (20 inches) on higher slopes. Most of these areas had also seen some snowfall over the previous week but this time there's was some snow further south too with the Dolomites getting several inches on Wednesday having had very little if any, snowfall for nearly two months now. So, a very welcome refresh there although everything, pretty much, had been open anyway. Switzerland Swiss ski centres have also been reporting some good snowfalls over the past few days although Andermatt and Engelberg are yet to move to the top of Europe's snow depth table as they usually do. Reports of up to 60cm (two feet) of snowfall since Tuesday have come in from several resorts, particularly on the eastern side of the country, including Davos. Further west the 4 Valleys has the largest skiable area open in the country at present with about 90% of its 400km+ of runs currently open. Scandinavia As with the Alps, so with Scandinavia, the ski areas of Norway famed for their heavy snowfalls are finally seeing that snow. Bjorli, which had been reporting the region's deepest base at 110cm a week ago is now up at nearly 150cm (five feet) and another small but frequently snowy centre, Roldal, is also reporting deep powder. Fresh snow too, if not on the same scale, at well-known areas like Hemsedal and Are and a chilly -30C reported up in Lapland at Ruka. Daylight hours are rapidly increasing there too from a standing start when the sun reappeared after a few weeks below the horizon a month ago. Pyrenees The Pyrenees continue to hang on to their title of having the deepest snowpack in Europe – which has been the case pretty much all season since early December when most of Western Europe was dumped on, but the French Pyrenees more than anywhere else. There's been very little snowfall over the two months since however and the past week has been little different, once again largely sunny and temperatures a little warmer than wanted – some ski areas seeing +5C to +10C even on higher slopes. But all that December snow means everywhere remains almost fully open, with over 150km of slopes skiable at the biggest areas like Andorra's Grandvalira and Baqueira Beret in Spain. Scotland Scottish hills have finally turned white again after having returned to their summertime greeny-brown hue as all the natural snow melted away in January. There have been snow showers, at last, this week with Glencoe in the West looking particularly white again. So far it's not enough to reopen the main slopes and in any case, there have been exceptionally strong wind blasts from successive storms. It's also difficult to predict how fast the cover will be able to build as we still have +10C weather spikes in the forecast as conditions fluctuate between cold and snowy and warm and dry days, but at least there's a chance of improvement now. In the meantime, the five centres continue to operate small slope areas at their bases thanks to all-weather snowmaking machines. Eastern Europe It has been a snowy few days in Eastern Europe with centres down in Bulgaria posting up to 40cm (more than a foot) of fresh snowfall since Tuesday. It's also been snowing further north in the Czech and Slovak Republics as well as Poland. As well as fresh pow, Jasna, the northern region's largest centre, has extended lift opening hours to 4 pm for the start of February so it can be enjoyed for longer. North America Canada Ski areas in Alberta and BC have been excitedly reporting 15-30cm of fresh snowfall over the past few days ending a rather warm and dry spell over recent weeks. In the east, it has continued to be very cold and there has been more light to moderate snowfalls in Quebec and Ontario so it's an ever-improving picture there with all resorts fully open. Tremblant currently has the deepest snow and most runs open in the east, Whistler the most terrain open in North America over on the west. USA The big snow news in the US this past week was the 'cyclone bomb' storm which brought up to two feet to the country's East Coast. This caused major disruption in cities but was of course welcomed by ski areas in the region. They had a poor start to the season back before Christmas but have been gaining ground since 2022 got underway and are now beginning to have decent snow coverage from top to bottom and most now finally have all their terrain open. Over in the West, the poor Fall conditions were followed by huge snowfalls in the latter half of December so they've had everything open, in most cases, since then, but there have been few snowfalls in 2022 here and the sunshine and warm temperatures at the mountain base have led to base depths actually dropping a little through January rather than growing as they normally would. But they're still the deepest on the continent and whilst there's nothing much skiable off the groomers, and the groomers are icy in the mornings, pretty much everything is open. |
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J2Ski Snow Report 27th January 2022
Val d'Anniviers, Switzerland, this week... Snow in Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and USA... The Snow Headlines - 27th January - The best snowfall for several weeks for parts of the Alps, but other areas stay sunny and dry. - Very cold weather continues in north-eastern North America, warmer in the northwest. - Southern hemisphere – Australia, New Zealand and Argentina – see first snowfalls of 2022. - Sochi in Russia posts Europe's snow depth at 3.3m (11 feet). - Heavy snowfall in western Norway A little more wintery in Europe than it has been for much of January, with strong winds impacting much of the continent at the weekend and heavy snowfall for parts of the northern Alps with ski areas across much of Austria as well as further east in the Czech and Slovak republics doing well. Scandinavia also reported what were the first big snowfalls of the winter so far in Western Norway. Down in Bulgaria, Greece and Romania there was plenty of fresh snow too. Other parts of the continent stayed dry through – the Dolomites, the Pyrenees and much of France, as well as Scotland, remained sunny as they have been for much of January. This isn't a problem in terms of open terrain for most areas thanks to December snow accumulations still providing a decent depth, only Scotland has no snow other than small areas from all-weather snowmaking machines. Over in North America, much of the West of the continent has been fairly dry and sunny too but the East has been very cold and frequently snowy so things are looking much better there. Snow has also been reported across areas that don't usually get it very often, or as heavy as it has been over the past week. Locations including northern Iraq, Istanbul in Turkey and the Greek islands turned white and Israel's one ski area on Mt Hermon was closed due to snow on the access roads. There was also snow for the southern hemisphere reported at the end of last week on high slopes in the Andes as well as in Australian and New Zealand ski slopes. It's mid-summer there so this is the first snow of 2022 with the ski season start still six months away. 
Austria, USA and Japan leading the forecasts...
World Overview Europe Austrian ski areas have seen some of the best snowfalls in Europe over the last week, with the heaviest last Friday-Saturday and another front set to bring more snow this coming weekend too. It's part of a change to much snowier conditions which saw the downhill and slalom races at Kitzbuhel switched around at the weekend with the slalom run in the usual downhill spot on Saturday due to the challenging snow conditions and strong winds (which temporarily closed several glacier centres). The resort reported a metre of snow had to be cleared from the Streif downhill racecourse on the Sunday morning. So all in all it's an improving picture for the start of February next week with fresh snow everywhere and almost all areas fully open. France It has been another largely sunny week in France. Some ski areas did see a little snowfall at the end of last week and the start of the weekend but for many, it has been another largely sunny seven days. Although temperatures have been getting a little warm in the lower valleys in the afternoon, overall resorts and skiers seem very happy with most slopes open, decent snow depths and good weather. It's only off-piste terrain that is lacking fresh powder now almost everywhere. The country's larger ski regions are almost all running at 85-95% of their slopes open. Italy Italy too has seen a largely sunny week with most of the country's ski centres reporting wall to wall sunshine. The only real issue, besides lack of fresh snowfall, was strong winds at higher altitudes through the weekend and at other times. Although areas of spring-like green colour in the valley floors are creeping up the mountainside and snow depths aren't spectacular, most ski areas have plenty of snow to open all their runs and some, including the Milky Way (Via Lattea) straddling the French border report more runs open now than they've had all season to date – up from 70 to 80% of their 400km+ of runs. Switzerland Swiss ski areas are reported to be doing bumper business thanks in part to the country not having quite the onerous levels of restriction on daily life that the other alpine nations do with the omicron variant. It too has not seen much fresh snowfall over the past week with largely sunny skies in the mountains and temperatures climbing above freezing in the valleys. Snow levels appear to be below the norm for late January but still, most resorts have enough cover to open almost all of their terrain and most are happy to have good weather. Engelberg has the deepest base at 2.4 metres, with Verbier (& 4 Valleys) and Zermatt (& Cervinia) each posting the largest amounts of terrain open with 360km and 280km of slopes open respectively. Scandinavia Some areas in northern and western Scandinavia have reported their best snowfalls of the season so far with cold air hitting coastal precipitation to dump 25-50cm of snow on slopes at the start of this week. Overall conditions are the best they've been of the season so far in most parts of the region with wintery conditions and a little more daylight as we head into February. Are in Sweden has the largest amount of terrain open and now has about 90% of its slopes accessible, the highest percentage of the winter so far. Pyrenees The Pyrenees will see out an almost entirely sunny January next week but are still reporting Europe's deepest snowpack thanks to snowfall in December. All of the ski slopes are open in Andorra and Spain and while the snow depth has dropped below 3 metres (10 feet) now in the French Pyrenees, it remains the deepest in Western Europe, with only ski areas around Sochi on the other side of the continent claiming deeper. Around 200km of runs are open at Andorra's Grandvalira, 160km (100 miles) at Baqueira Beret in Spain – in both cases pretty much everything. Scotland There are signs that winter proper may arrive in Scotland over the coming week, with just small snow areas at the basses of the five highland centres, thanks to all-weather snowmaking machines. Eastern Europe Ski areas across Eastern Europe have been reporting some decent dumps over the past seven days with Vitosha in Bulgaria and Jasna in Slovakia among the centres reporting 30cm (a foot) of fresh at the weekend. So things are looking pretty good, on the whole, in most areas with the most terrain open of the season so far. Many other areas in the region reported 10-20cm of fresh snowfall. North America Canada There's not a great deal of change on a week ago. The big picture is that it has been fairly warm by the region's usual January standards in Western Canada but very cold in the East. There's not been much fresh snowfall, other than in Ontario and Quebec although some centres there have had closure days due to dangerously low (-30C or colder) lows at times. In the West, there's plenty of snow and indeed there has been a high avalanche warning as the warm temperatures hit a deep snowpack but for most resorts in Alberta and BC, the temperatures remain just below freezing so very nice conditions indeed. Whistler Blackcomb has thin cover at its base but is almost 100% open offering North America's largest ski area. USA The main areas of the US seeing snowfall over the past week have been in the East with several ski areas in New England reporting over a foot of fresh snow since the weekend. Temperatures have also remained very low so after the warm conditions of November and December, it is very much a wintery picture now. That is almost the reverse of the picture in the West where the snowy end of 2021 has been followed by a mostly dry and sunny January. There were a few inches of snowfall high in the Rockies this week but mostly it has been wall to wall sunshine again and good conditions on the groomed runs. The sunshine and lack of snow have been reflected by the deepest base in the country/continent dropping below 14 feet/4 metres for the first time in early January with 13 feet (395cm) on higher slopes at Mammoth. For the week ahead much of the country looks to be staying cold with a mixture of sunshine and cloudy days with the next chance for snowfall around the start of February Monday-Tuesday in both East and West. |
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Just been sent this link by the folk at Tignes...
https://www.sante.fr/how-to-obtain-a-french-health-pass That help (hopefully it does, as that looks like THE official rules). |
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There's some discussion here https://www.j2ski.com/ski-chat-forum/posts/list/0/19884/testing-12-14-year-olds.page - I think Iain's probably got the best idea of how things stand right now, but they may (hopefully) get simpler by March!
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J2Ski Snow Report 20th January 2022
Sunshine on a snowy La Clusaz, France this week... Sunshine in Europe, Snow in Japan... The Snow Headlines - 20th January - Wall to wall sunshine all week in the Alps (and most of the rest of Europe). - Some ski areas report over two feet (60cm) of snowfall in eastern US. - Warm weather sends Scottish ski areas back to the beginner slopes. - Very cold temperatures continue in Eastern US, and a major snowfall this week. - More heavy snowfall for Japan but borders remain closed. - Warm weather in the US Northwest but deep bases to survive the impact of that. 
Japan still leading the forecasts...
World Overview Europe Most ski areas across Europe have been using words like "paradise" and "dream" to describe conditions over the past seven days. Whilst that might be a bit too enthusiastic (these are marketing people after all) there's no denying it has been great almost everywhere. Snow depths are pretty good, almost every run is open, the skies have been blue, the sun out all day, the wind light ...all in all near perfection for piste ski lovers. Perhaps a little less so for freeriders having an ever-harder time finding any remaining powder. The reports from the north are less magical too. Some Norwegian areas closed after freezing rain landed on the snow surface whilst in Scotland warm temperatures have thawed away much of the snow cover. North America It seems that when one side of North America is doing well this winter, the other side suffers. This time it's the East that has benefitted from a healthy snow dump to start the week, with some areas reporting 12-24 inches (30-60cm) and more snow falling whereas the west has been largely dry and up to 40 degrees warmer at the base of the slopes in the Northwest than over in the North East – unseasonably warm in states like Oregon and Washington, 20-30 degrees below freezing in Vermont and Maine. Further north it's a less dramatic difference; fairly cold across Canada (very cold in the east, and south of the border) and light to moderate snowfalls reported across the country. California still has the deepest snowpack reported in the US after the late December snowstorms. Europe Austria Austria has had a week of fairly non-stop sunshine although things are starting to change now with clouds rolling in and the first snowflakes for nearly a fortnight for some areas starting to fall. The snow is generally light, but a heavier fall is expected around Friday/Saturday. Most centres are fully open and though it has been a little warm in valleys, conditions on piste are generally reported to be excellent. Some significant snowfall would be welcome, many areas are getting by on 50-100cm of snow cover and even up on the glaciers depths up top are below two metres for most, which is below average. But most skiers won't notice that as there's plenty of piste cover for now. France There's no fresh snowfall to report in France and that has been the case for nearly a fortnight now. It's not a huge worry though as temperatures have not been too warm, despite full sunshine every day, and bases from early season snowfalls remain healthy at the big destination resorts. The result is that they're all more or less fully open and piste skiers reporting superb conditions. There's little fresh snow left off-piste, however. The deepest snowpack in France (and Europe) continues to be reported down in the French Pyrenees, the only part of the continent where it is up to three metres/10 feet deep. Italy Italy has had sunny weather across much of the country for another week too, although it is starting to change in the north with light snow showers reported since the middle of the week, expected to continue through the weekend. Further south, the sunshine should continue at least into next week, making it a fortnight straight for many areas. Most Italian resorts are fully open and report great on-piste conditions. The only hiccup is tightening COVID restrictions as infection rates rise. This already meant only fully vaccinated people allowed on the slopes in most cases, but in addition has led to, for example, limits on the number of people on the slopes in the Aosta Valley announced this week. That said the region reports the reduced numbers allowed are still greater than those wanting to buy lift tickets at present. Switzerland Swiss slopes are mostly in great shape after a sunny week here too. It perhaps got a little warm last weekend but on the whole, temperatures have been fairly low and on-slope conditions glorious in the sunshine. As with the rest of Europe, almost all slopes are open now, and snow depths are relatively good, although here too there has not been a lot of fresh snowfall for nearly a month. Still, there has been occasional light to moderate snowfalls giving a refresh. The 4 Valleys has the largest amount of terrain open in the country with more than 90% of its 410km of runs open. Scandinavia While it has been mostly sunny for most of Europe it's been a much more mixed picture in Scandinavia, with plenty of clouds and some snowfall, prolonged for parts of the north, heavy at the start of the week for ski areas like Voss on Norway's West Coast. It's (even) more difficult to forecast aurora visibility, than snow, but some areas where skies have cleared have been treated to a good display over the past week too. Overall, most ski areas in the region have about 60-80% of their slopes open with not yet terribly deep bases, and in the south not terribly cold temperatures either, although further north things remain well below freezing. Pyrenees The Pyrenees have been posting the deepest snow in Europe for more than a month now. That's quite unusual but as both the Alps and the Pyrenees got some good snowfalls in the first half of December, but neither not very much since, it seems the Pyrenees did slightly better. In any case, this is the only area in Europe posting up to a 3 metre (10 feet) base depth, they also have all their terrain open. Like further north, it has been a mostly cold, mostly sunny week. Here though there's no immediate sign of much changing over the next few days either with sun forecast through the weekend. Scotland January weather in the British Isles has been particularly bizarre over the past seven days with a topsy-turvy picture seeing freezing fog and frost in the south of England but +10C and spring-like conditions in the Scottish Highlands. That's nice for gardeners wanting to get an early start-up north but bad news for the ski centres which are back to stage one with much of the mountain snow thawed away once more and just all-weather-snowmaking-machine snow left to open small areas at the base. Some deep snow patches are surviving though so the most optimistic picture is of a quick recovery once temperatures dip again. Eastern Europe Although there were snow flurries to start the week in Southeastern Europe, and more significant snowfalls up in the Tatra mountains of the northeast, the past three or four days have seen sunshine for much of eastern Europe too. Resorts in Bulgaria have been posting lower temperatures – double digits sub-zero – than those in the Alps. The weather is set to change here to end the week and through the weekend with clouds moving in and some snowfall expected, although probably just a few centimetres. Conditions remain good across the region though with healthy snow depths and everything open. North America Canada Things are looking good across Canada, with all centres open, and most now nearing full opening too. Not a huge amount of snowfall to report but there have been small to moderate falls across the country. The biggest issue has probably been the extreme cold in the east with temperatures dipping to -30C and some areas closing for safety reasons at times as a result. By contrast, the west, Alberta and BC, which had been very cold at the start of the year, has warmed up to closer to freezing. The continent's largest ski area Whistler now has a foot of snow lying on lower slopes and has passed the two metres mark up top and is now more or less fully open. USA It has been warm and mostly dry on the Western side of the US. In many ways that's a good thing as the big snowstorms that hit at the end of last year were driven in on gales and resorts had to close for days as the damage was repaired and lifts and access roads dug out. Now they can open but they are probably not so happy that temperatures have been getting quite so warm as they have, particularly in the northwest where we're getting double-digit plus temps and snow depths are dropping in mid-January. Mammoth though is maintaining a 16-foot base on its upper mountain, the continent's deepest. The big snowfall news of the past week hit the Eastern third of the US. After very cold temperatures (20-30 degrees below freezing) in the Northeast, a major snowstorm dumped 1-2 feet of snow on Sunday - Tuesday, including quite far south. This is the biggest snowstorm of the season so far and feels like a return to normality after a fairly tame start to the season. It's certainly provided a big boost to the region's ski areas which had been relying predominantly on machine-made snow up to now. Killington in Vermont, the region's largest ski area, said it had received two feet (60cm) of snowfall by Wednesday. |
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Hi Sandra, thanks for the observation. We have looked into this and did find an issue with the way our system processed a particular combination of weather conditions at low altitudes; which meant erroneous forecasts of rain at times for places like Niseko.
We have now fixed that and you should see less rain now! |
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J2Ski Snow Report 13th January 2022
After the snow, the sun at Ax 3 Domaines, French Pyrenees... France is ON (for UK skiers) at last... The Snow Headlines - 13th January - France re-opens for travellers from UK, from 14th January. - Jackson Hole Report 5 Feet (1.5m) of snowfall in first 8 days of the year. - Nevis Range in Scotland opens ski slopes for first time since March 2020. - Heavy snowfall at last in Eastern US allows more ski areas to open. - French Pyrenees ski areas have deepest bases in Europe at 3m/10 feet. - Some US ski areas restrict terrain due to COVID staff absences. - Huge snowfall totals are expected for western Norway. - Wolf Creek digs up snowcat completely buried in 14ft/4 m Christmas-New Year storm. We'll have further clarification on the easing French restrictions tomorrow. 
Incoming for Scandinavia and Japan is getting it big time...
World Overview Europe Conditions are the best they've been for a month in much of Europe after successive snowfalls over the past week brought 20-60cm of fresh cover to slopes following a fairly dry start to 2022. The past week has seen temperatures close to -10C in many resorts and cold on the slopes although it is now rising closer to freezing. North America It has been another snowy week for much of North America as winter proper digs in, with snow across much of the continent. There's been heavy snowfall in the Pacific Northwest, the Rockies and perhaps most importantly in the East where more southerly areas, in particular, had been suffering the most and the longest from warm weather and a lack of snow. They've had several feet now. Temperatures have moderated in Canada although in the East it's 20-30 degrees below freezing. Snowfall has been driven in on gales at times which has caused issues including power outages, blocked roads and iced up lift cables but ski areas continue to battle to open as much terrain as they can. The omicron surge also continues to cause issues, including isolating staff meaning problems manning lifts at some resorts. Europe Austria Austrian ski areas are in fairly good shape following the recent snowfalls at the end of the weekend and the start of this week. The warm weather at the start of the year is now largely forgotten and instead there's fresh snow, mostly cold temperatures (although it is climbing a little warmer down in the valleys in the daytime) and most areas are fully open – or just about. Big areas like the Skiwelt, Silvretta and Saalbach all have 200km+ of slopes open although the Arlberg appears to only have a little over half of its 300km+ runs operational so far, despite posting apparently healthy top-to-bottom snow depth stats. There has not yet been the 'big dump' Austria tends to get most Januarys though and currently it is dry and sunny. Snow depths are good enough to mean that's not a problem at present but glaciers will be hoping for some good snowfalls over the coming weeks and months to see them through their spring and summer operations later in the year. France There was some snowfall for French resorts over the past week with Les Menuires posting 20cm at the end of last week and Megeve a total of 40cm by the beginning of this week, giving the snow cover a refresh. These were typical totals across the French Alps. Bases, particularly at lower elevations, are not yet fabulous, thanks in part to one of the warmest ends to December ever recorded, but extensive snowfalls earlier last month withstood the warmth and most French resorts continue to have 80-90% of their terrain open. It has been sunny for most of the week now and is expected to remain so at least into next week. Italy Italy reported some fresh snowfall too although on the whole not so much as further north and west and it has been sunny all week and looks set to remain so through the weekend and at least up to the start of next week. Temperatures are fairly cold though, below freezing much of the time and at most altitudes other than lower valleys, so resorts are happy that conditions on their groomed runs are excellent. Most are fully open or just about so. A few of the big regions, most notably Via Lattea around Sestriere and Sauze d'Oulx has a smaller percentage of their terrain open and is reporting less than 50cm base, so will be looking for a fresh snowfall forecast. Switzerland Swiss ski centres have had a good week too with fresh snowfall at the end of last week followed by more at the start of this weekend. Those not lucky enough to actually have been in Switzerland last weekend had the option to see the snow piling up at Adelboden as the World Cup slalom was run there on Sunday. Engelberg is posting the deepest base in the Alps but snow cover is good across most of the country, especially on higher slopes, and everything is open. Since the snowfall at the start of the week, it has been largely sunny but has stayed below freezing, although it is now getting warmer. Scandinavia It's been very cold in much of Scandinavia with the kind of temperatures – 20 to 30 degrees C below freezing - where you don't want to be outdoors for more than an hour at a time. That said, Finland's Ruka has begun its annual fortnight of illuminating its slope in colourful lights so that's something to see. Most ski areas in the region are in fairly good shape although there have not been huge snowfalls yet. It's looking good through the coming weekend at Norway's coastal resorts like Voss which look set to receive a huge snowfall and as a result offer those powder conditions for which they're famous. Pyrenees The Pyrenees enjoyed a snowy start to the week with the first fresh snow of 2022 for many areas. The region was already in great shape with the deepest snowpack reported in Europe on the French side of the mountains after big falls a month ago. After a warm spell at the end of December, this refresh was very welcome. Ski areas in the French Pyrenees are currently the only ones in Europe to have hit a 3 metre/10-foot base so far this winter. Most ski areas are fully open, or almost so, which for areas like Grandvalira above Soldeu, Pas de la Casa and other villages in Andorra means more than 175km (110 miles) of slopes open and in Spain 160km (100 miles) at Baqueira Beret. Scotland Scottish conditions slowly improved until Wednesday when the latest very warm weather arrived. Since the warm period up to Christmas, it had been largely cold with occasional snow showers allowing a base to begin to rebuild and snowmaking to be fired upon occasion. All five centres have been able to open limited additional terrain, and most require online advance ticket purchase - with limited availability, these sell out fast. The weekend saw excitement at Nevis Range above Fort William in the West though, which re-opened some runs for the first time since the original March lockdown nearly two years ago. But all that's in the past now with very warm January weather melting much of the thin natural cover so it's back to square one awaiting the next cold spell. Eastern Europe Quite a mixed bag of weather across Eastern Europe over the past week, although overall an improving picture. Many areas saw stormy and snowy conditions at the end of last week which ended an unwelcome warm spell that had seen temperatures in the teens on lower slopes for a time. For some centres like Spindleruv Mlyn in the Czech Republic, this means there's now fresh cover and it has been cold enough for snowmaking systems to fire up - but it is still catching up from the earlier poor conditions so still has less than half its slopes open. Others, like leaders Bansko in Bulgaria and Slovakia's Jasna, have much more of their terrain operational. North America Canada Canada's Banff region led much of North America in the early months of the season last November and early December when it was blessed with cold, snowy weather whilst much of the rest of the continent was warm and dry, or worse still wet. The rest of Canada has now caught up though and the West of the country which had been reporting 'dangerously cold' weather at the start of the year is now in a more comfortable zero to 10 degrees below and the East which battled warm weather right up to New Year is now the coldest part of the country with lows of 10C to 20C below freezing. The result is that all resorts in the west are fully open, in the east most are still catching up but getting there, and there have been more decent snowfalls (10-30cm, 4-12") for most across the country, further improving the overall picture. USA The sunshine has returned to much of the US over the past few days, but that was after another week of stormy, snowy weather, this time impacting the Midwest and more southerly states on the East Coast than previously. That was largely good news in the area that had been suffering warm and dry/wet weather. The past few days have seen the opposite with some exceptionally cold weather in the East. For the destination resorts in the Rockies and on the West Coast, it is largely good news. Mammoth is one of two resorts in the world posting a base of more than 14 feet (the other is also on the Pacific Coast) and it's 100% open. It, along with ski areas in the Rockies, got several feet more snow before the dry weather moved in. The sunshine is something of a respite as the stormy cycles brought blizzard conditions to the closed access roads, brought down power lines and generally made it frustratingly difficult for ski areas to open at all. Now the bigger problem is reported to be liftees self-isolating due to omicron infections so some areas are having issues finding enough staff. If it's not one thing it's another this season it seems. |
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