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J2Ski Snow Report 1st June 2020
It's Kaunertal, this weekend, with snow, and skiers! June brings hope for skiing north and south of the equator! The mountains are still waiting for most of us... stay safe and well and follow your local authority's advice on travel. We can't all go skiing just yet but we can still read about it! The Snow Headlines - 1st June - Hope of traditional midsummer ski day in Scotland. - Glacier ski areas have re-opened in Austria and Norway. - Ski areas re-open in the USA. - More glaciers to open for summer 2020 in France, Italy and Switzerland. - Australia, Lesotho and New Zealand's ski seasons are on (but delayed). - Riksgransen to re-open for midsummer. - Leading Argentinian ski area Las Lenas won't open this winter. - Japanese summer ski area re-opening. It's looking much more promising in the ski world as we start June 2020, compared to a month ago. Although the final week of May saw perhaps the lowest number of ski areas open in the world for 50 years (we counted just four between 26th and 28th May!), numbers are already back in to double figures and should, given a fair wind, be approaching triple figures by this time next month - similar to those normally open in late June. The latter half of May is, in any case, usually the quietest part of the ski year. Most of the ski areas in the northern hemisphere have closed, even the majority of those that offer summer skiing take a month or so off before reopening in late June. At the same time, the southern hemisphere's season hasn't got started. The start of June 2020 sees signs of light, even if closed borders, limited travel and quarantines mean only locals will be hitting the socially-distanced lift queues for now. Norwegian and Austrian glacier areas have already reopened along with the highest slopes in Slovenia and ski areas in Japan and the USA. Next up are glacier centres in France, Italy and Switzerland along with the first in the southern hemisphere. New Zealand areas have already confirmed they'll open, other countries are less certain, although Australia looks promising, if perhaps not until July. 
Snow for Australian ski areas hoping to open soon...
EUROPEAN ALPS After two and a half months with nowhere open in the Alps, summer ski areas have begun opening for their 2020 season, and the world's two year-round ski areas, Hintertux in Austria and Zermatt in Switzerland, are getting the lifts turning again. Conditions have been fairly good up high through the closed months with plenty of fresh snow accumulated and temperatures staying, overall, mostly low. Austria June begins with three Austrian areas, Kaunertal, Hintertux and the Kitzsteinhorn all having re-opened on the final Friday of May. For Kauntertal it is only going to be a nine-day season with the centre closing again on June 7th – the day it had always planned to end its 2019-20 season. However the day before that, May 6th will see a fourth Austrian glacier open, Molltal, starting its 2020-21 11-month long ski season a fortnight earlier than it had originally planned. Switzerland Next up is expected to be Switzerland with Crans Montana and Zermatt opening glacier runs on 6th June too (Zermatt moving forward from a previously announced 8th June). It has said there'll be no limit on the number of people on the mountain there, but, as with all areas, social distancing and increased cleanliness will be applied in lifts and public areas. A third Swiss area, Saas-Fee, is currently expected to open on schedule in July. It should be noted though that whilst Zermatt has re-opened its slopes indefinitely, Crans-Montana is just opening for nine days to June 14th - just because it can. France The French ski season will also get going in June, again on the 6th, with the glaciers at Val d'Isere and Les 2 Alpes planning to open from then, although initially only for race teams training. Then from the 27th Tignes expects to open. The picture is less certain in Italy. Val Senales, which now usually only opens from September has confirmed it definitely won't re-open until then and the Italian Ski Federation have brokered an exclusive deal to run ski training camps at Passo Stelvio through June, although those plans had o be approved by the authorities at the last report. Slovenia In Slovenia, the Kanin ski area on the Italian border had been the first to re-open in the Alps in the middle of May and even staged a national big air championship on 23rd May, but it appears to have closed again as of 31st May, this time until next winter. There was snow still lying up at 2200m but it was also very warm. Northern Europe Norway and Sweden were the two countries where skiing continued through most of May, even as ski areas in Japan finally decided to close after a spike in the pandemic there. Around a dozen smaller Norwegian ski-areas re-opened for much of the month after the lockdown was eased there and Riksgransen in the Swedish Arctic Circle never closed as the country had a very loose lockdown and did not require resorts to close (although most did). Now most Norwegian ski areas and Riksgransen have closed due to normal 'end-of-season' but Norway's glacier areas, Fonna, Galdhopiggen have re-opened for summer 2020. A third glacier area, Stryn, was due to have opened the final weekend of May but has had to delay, first to the first weekend of June due to a huge snowfall in mid-May which buried the access road and lifts again and needs digging out, then more recently it delayed to the 13th June as the dig out is taking longer than hoped. In fact, the snowfall in Norway's glacier areas has been incredible this year with Fonna taking over a month to dig the access road out and report the snow lying nearly 16 metres (around 50 feet) deep. It kept snowing right through May but has finally warmed up for the start of June with "Sunscreen recommended on the slopes". Riksgransen although currently closed, says it will re-open for its traditional mid-summer long-weekend including skiing under the midnight sun from 18th to 21st June when there's 24-hour daylight. Usually, this weekend sells out well in advance and this year there's the added interest of the deepest snowpack of the century so far. Scotland In Scotland there was talk of Glencoe being able to open for its traditional midsummer skiing around June 21st as the lockdown in the country, stricter than in England, may be eased enough by then. Fresh snowfall was reported in late May and big patches of snow are still lying. North America Re-opening of ski areas in North America has been more complicated than in Europe, but we do begin June with four ski areas open – Timberline in Oregon (which was the first to re-open in mid-May), the Beartooth Basin summer ski area on the Montana/Wyoming border, Crystal Mountain in Washington State and Arapahoe Basin in Colorado. All four are limiting numbers on the slopes, selling out of tickets days in advance and going for full health and safety procedures of course, including social distancing and face covering. Crystal Mountain is only opening for a few weeks. May was actually a colder and snowier last month of meteorological spring than usual in Northwestern North America, so June snow conditions are reported to be above normal. There still seems to be an outside chance that other areas including the Blackcomb Glacier at Whistler might re-open later this month if deemed safe and feasible. Asia Japan's Gassan ski area was closed for much of May by the Japanese lockdown due to a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, which also closed resorts like Niseko, which had stayed open until late-April, for what would have been the final few weeks of the season. An initial closure to mid-May was later extended to May 31st but it should now re-open through June, with a 6-metre base. Temperatures were around 10C in the final week of May. The centre is due to stay open now into July. Another area, Shiga Kogen, is reported to have had one lift operating in the last week of May. Southern Hemisphere There have been some good snowfalls in most Southern Hemisphere ski regions in May, including some especially impressive dumps in Australia. The biggest falls were at the start of the month and have since mostly melted away (although there have been smaller top-ups since!). More recently there have been some good snowfalls and low temperatures in the Andes, South America and in New Zealand with the mountains of southern Africa seeing snow-making systems fired up in Lesotho and Afriski. But can ski areas open? Well, the answer, on the whole, is "yes" and the news changes daily on what will open and when. New Zealand was the first area to confirm plans to open ski areas and all resorts now are doing so with no limits on people on the mountain either (contrary to glacier areas in the Alps and similar where limits are in place). However planned openings on May 30th and June 5th have been set back with Mt Hutt currently set to be the first to open for 2020 in the Southern hemisphere, on June 12th. Australian ski areas have now confirmed they'll begin opening from June 22nd with most open then or on the 24th, about a fortnight later than planned. Lesotho's Afriski plans to open from the 18th, again a fortnight later than expected. Operations will be different from normal of course, with social distancing and other measures in place to combat the virus. There'll be no international guests and some areas will be closing midweek outside peak periods. So far though there's no confirmation on South American ski areas, nor South Africa's Tiffindell, where the lockdowns are still quite tightly enforced. One larger Argentinian ski area, Las Lenas, has however announced it won't open at all this winter, even if the lockdown there is eventually lifted, as it can't see a way to make it viable. Promising signs, until next month, stay safe... |
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J2Ski's Monthly Snow Report - May 2020
Started by User in Snow Forecasts and Snow Reports, 4 Replies |
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Thanks for that. Interesting that restaurants and bars will be opened quite early; I was really expecting bars - particularly - to be amongst the last businesses to re-open. Fingers crossed it all goes according to plan. Are you out there at the moment Swingbeep? |
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Well, my plan to get all my skiing in at Easter didn't work out too well this year!
I'll be going early and often next winter. Will wave to you all on the first lift (from an appropriate distance, obviously). Stay safe, stay healthy, keep the faith! :thumbup: |
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J2Ski's Monthly Snow Report - May 2020
Started by User in Snow Forecasts and Snow Reports, 4 Replies |
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J2Ski Snow Report 1st May 2020
It's snowing! Mount Buller, Australia this morning... May arrives with fresh snow in Europe and the southern hemisphere. The mountains are waiting for us... in the meantime, stay safe and well and follow your local authority's advice on travel. Take care! The Snow Headlines - 1st May - Norwegian glacier area with 12m+ base opening for 2020 season from May 1st. - Fresh snowfall in Australia, New Zealand, Southern Africa and the Andes. - One US area re-opens and summer ski area aims to open at the end of May. - Japan's ski season ends early. - Ski touring allowed in Austria from May 1st, mountain lifts open from the 29th. Writing a snow report in the middle of a global lockdown when almost all of the world's ski areas are closed is quite a challenge in some ways, but easy in others! The challenge is finding ski areas that are still open - or likely to open - in May, which is always the quietest month in the skiing year anyway. Most northern hemisphere areas are closed, including those that normally re-open for glacier skiing in summer, whilst the southern hemisphere's ski season isn't due to start for another month. It has also proved a challenge not to upset a few people! The skiing world (and the wider world) seems to be divided into those who think any talk of the world continuing, that someone, somewhere might be able to ski, is wrong at the present time, whilst others think the opposite is true and it's good to stay positive. Where it is not so much of a challenge is that whilst the human race is in lockdown, the world carries on; the weather continues, the snow is still falling (albeit thawing fast in most of the northern hemisphere). So we can write about that - whilst completely accepting that, for now, we stay home and plan for the future as travel is currently out of the question. All that being said, April was another strange month for skiing, as in all other respects. There were (in the skiing world, if you are in that second group of people who like to hear of apparently positive signs), some good things. Small local ski hills were allowed to re-open in the Czech Republic and Norway under strict operating limitations, and Austria decided to allow ski touring to resume in May (whilst advising people not to do it as it's too dangerous right now and doubly irresponsible in a pandemic). In terms of larger ski areas re-opening there's interesting news from Jasna, the leading ski area in Slovakia, which has announced it will reopen for summer operations from May 1st. It runs cable cars, gondolas and 4 and 6 seater chairlifts but says it will have strict limits (20-30 capacity max in cabins/on chairs unless family members or similar) in place. Lift queues will also be spaced with two-metre gaps between people. Not such good news from Japan though which, a few weeks ago, had looked like it would be where most resorts would be open at the start of May. Here, sadly, a second wave of the pandemic led to the closure of most of the still-open ski centres in the country around April 20/21st (they'd planned to say open to around May 7th). North America and most of the rest of Europe remains in lockdown (although with most lockdowns now being eased a little with more to come in May if the pandemic doesn't surge). In the southern hemisphere ski areas are preparing for the 2020 season start in June/July, not fully knowing if it will be allowed to re-start by then. That said, there are increasingly positive signs, particularly from New Zealand, where some ski centres have already re-opened for summer activities. Anyway, staying positive, April ended with the number of ski areas open back into double digits having dropped to around five during the penultimate week of last month with the news from Japan. But Norway has seen more than half-a-dozen areas open now, which, along with still open Swedish ski areas and at least one re-opened US resort gets us up to double digits. 
Snow coming in for Australia and New Zealand...
EUROPEAN ALPS There was fresh snow in the Alps and Pyrenees to end April, after a generally warm and sunny month for most areas, with snow falling to quite low levels around April 28th-29th and 10cm or more in 24 hours up high on glaciers. As we all know most of Europe remains in lockdown, it's mid-springtime and 98% of ski areas would be closed by now anyway – for some, mostly at northerly latitudes or with skiing to high altitude, the first few days of May would have been the last of the season. An even smaller group would have continued operating later into May, and some June or July or beyond. Hintertux and Zermatt should be open every day of the year, weather permitting, in normal times and they may well be the first to re-open, at some point this summer. Austria Austria became the first of the big ski nations to ease the lockdown - as of May 1st - with the country's deputy premier announcing ski touring would be allowed again but asking skiers to go to easier slopes where they're less likely to be injured and require medical help. On 29th April the country announced that ski lifts would be allowed to run again from the 29th May, potentially meaning ski resorts could re-open. As this piece is being unwritten, none of the ski areas that could re-open (Hintertux, Stubai and others) have said they will. When contacted by J2Ski most said they were still deciding. Schladming says it will open for summer operations on the 29th. Whilst not specifying if that included using ski lifts it posted pictures of mountain bikers riding up in gondolas, giving the impression that's the plan, presumably with social-distancing and limited numbers in mind like Jasna. France The lockdown in France, where three areas (Les 2 Alpes, Tignes and Val d'Isere) were hoping to operate summer skiing from June has been extended to May 11th. The postponement of the Tour de France to September there makes summer skiing seem less likely at present but on the other hand, several ski areas including Val d'Isere, one of the country's three summer glacier ski options in a normal year, have made pretty firm statements that they're opening for summer operations around July 4 or 5 – a few weeks later than previously announced. Other French summer ski centres contacted by J2Ski say they're busy looking at ways to open with social distancing in place, and want to do so, if permitted and safe, but that there are logistical issues. Italy Italy's situation is similar to that of France, with nothing certain but the potential for some limited summer openings. Switzerland Switzerland is making faster moves to come out of lockdown than most other ski nations, although with a different approach to the order of re-opening. Zermatt would be the most likely area to re-open, if/when it can, as it normally aims to open its glacier slopes every day of the year, weather permitting. Northern Europe Scandinavia has been the centre of the 'active' skiing world for the past six or seven weeks and that continues to be the case. Norway went into an early lockdown and closed its resorts mid-March along with most of the rest of Europe. Finland and Sweden soldiered on to the end of the month before Finnish areas closed en-masse. Most, but not all, Swedish centres closed in early April; Bjorkliden and Riksgransen are still open in the far north. Riksgransen has posted its best snow base for more than 20 years (currently over five metres) and looks set to make it through to its planned closure at the end of May after a few weeks of skiing and boarding under the midnight sun (as 24-hour daylight up at its northerly latitude 250km within the Arctic Circle is now imminent). Bjorkliden is due to make it to the first weekend of May, its planned season end date. Meanwhile, Norway eased its lockdown after a month in mid-April and smaller ski centres have, with the permission of their local authorities and health boards, been able to re-open with restrictions in place. More than half a dozen of these have done so in the last 10 days of April, with Roldal back to the top of the 'world's deepest snowbase' list at 6 metres (20 feet). The Fonna Summer Ski Glacier, posting a 12 metre (40 feet) base, opens for its 2020 season on May 1st and the second of the country's three glaciers, Galdhopiggen, will open mid-May; the third, Stryn, is due to join it on the last weekend of the month, to get the complete set. Other Norwegian ski areas that have so far re-opened include Al, Haukelifjell, Hovden, Skarslia, Sogndal and Voss Myrkdalen but as yet it's unclear how long they'll stay open into May. It's important to remind ourselves these centres are open for Norwegian skiers living locally only, there's no suggestion people should attempt to travel to them from further afield. North America Media reports from the USA in the latter half of April have shown the divisions in the US between those who feel the lockdown should continue and those who think it shouldn't be there at all. This has also been the case on the ski slopes to some extent. Although all North American areas had closed by early April, last-month saw a battle between those wanting to continue ski touring (or 'backcountry skiing' as it is more commonly known there) and those who considered such activity irresponsible. As snow and avalanche reporting agencies ceased operations the dangers grew and there were several avalanche deaths and police arrested and fined skiers and boarders heading out on closed slopes. The last week or so of April seemed to show a slight change in attitude though with the anti-lockdown movement getting more vocal, and restrictions eased a little in some states like Colorado, Idaho and Washington State. The biggest news was probably that Mt Baldy, a small ski area closest to LA in southern California, became the first resort to re-open, with strict social-distancing measure in place, and is currently selling lift tickets with timed-arrival slots right through May. This is also unusual for the area as it normally closes in mid-April die to too little snow, but it says conditions are currently, "as good as they get (at this time of year)," – which could, of course, be read in two different ways. Other North American ski areas which open in May, June or later most years say they have not ruled out re-opening and in some cases (Arapahoe Basin and Mammoth Mountain) have said they're actively looking at ways to do so. It seems some others that may do too, if virus restrictions are eased and it is considered safe, includeg Banff, Sunshine and Whistler in Canada; Squaw Valley and Heavenly in California, Aspen in Colorado, Snowbird in Utah and Timberline in Oregon. But time is now running short for many of these and whether they will feel it is worth re-opening for just a week or two if the opportunity arise remains to be seen. The small Beartooth Basin summer ski area on the Montana/Wyoming border says it will re-open on May 30th. Asia After operating through most of the pandemic in March and the first half of April, when all other leading ski nations closed their resorts, Japanese areas finally decided to close in the latter half of April. This was despite declaring a state of emergency in February and March on the northern ski island of Hokkaido, famous for its powder. That is the resorts that were still open – many made it to the end of their normal seasons in late March. Niseko and a few dozen others would normally stay open into early May but they did finally, and in most cases suddenly, decide to close between 15th and 20th April as the pandemic had a second wave in the country. The current state of emergency runs to 10th May but Kagura, which was due to stay open to May 24th, looks like it is definitely calling an end to its season. Gassan, which is open from April to July most years, says it will review its position on May 10th. Southern Hemisphere April saw the first snows of 2020, in what was early Autumn, on ski slopes in Argentina, Australia, Chile, Lesotho, New Zealand and South Africa – in other words on each of the six southern hemisphere ski nations. More snowfall has been reported in the final few days of April, with rain in Australia turning to snow for the start of May. Of course, the main talk here too is of the COVID-19 coronavirus lockdowns and how this will impact the 2020 ski season in each country. It's a mixed picture, as in the northern hemisphere but, essentially, most ski areas are preparing to open, but equally are ready not to open if not permitted to. Then there is the middle way of opening but with operational restrictions to limit the danger of virus spread, if it is decided that's worth doing when the season start arrives in June for most areas, although some not until July. As of the end of April, Australian and New Zealand ski areas have been pointing to positive signs of eased lockdown measures which they hope will allow them to operate at at least some level come June. The only ski area we know definitely won't be open for winter 2020 is Selwyn Snowfields in Australia which is closed for a complete re-build after its lifts and other facilities were destroyed by bush fires earlier this year. Until next month, please stay safe... |
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J2Ski Snow Report 9th April 2020
Maybe you can't go skiing, but you could win these! Win some Panda RS1 Goggles With our last weekly report of this strangest of seasons, all of us at J2Ski wish you and yours a Happy Easter and the best of health for the weeks ahead. Please follow your local authority's advice, stay safe and well, and look out for your neighbours! The mountains are waiting for us... The Snow Headlines - 9th April - Fresh snow on empty Californian and Colorado slopes. - Most of Sweden's ski areas close, some stay open. - Further crackdown on backcountry skiing and boarding in North America. - Austria announces timetable to return to a more normalised lifestyle by late June. - Ski areas in Iceland and Japan still open. - Still open Riksgransen has 5.1 metre (17 foot) base, world's deepest. It's still going downhill for the world's ski resorts with more areas closing due to the virus and the only real light at the end of the tunnel being China where some resorts have re-opened and are allowing people with green health certificates and wearing surgical masks back out on the slopes for the last few weeks of the season there. This is, of course, Easter weekend so perhaps the only consolation from next week on is that the season would have been over in the majority of the world anyway. The weather has been warming up in most areas so even without the virus, this very much feels like the end of the winter, and we'll be reverting to our monthly round-ups for the summer, until the snows return to the North. Although Sweden finally joined the list of countries where ski areas are closed, most of them at least, on Sunday, there are still a few ski centres open in Europe. Ski areas in Iceland are still operating and a few in northern Sweden were, at time of writing, still open too. That's because it's not an outright closure order in the country, but businesses are asked to assess the risks, and a few have decided they think they can continue to operate safely. There are a few other signs of hope for later in the year too. Earlier this week Austria became the first country outside of China to put together a post-lockdown recovery timetable which, if it proceeds to plan, will see some loosening of restrictions as early as next week, and bars and restaurants starting to re-open next month, then 'large scale events like sports matches' from June. Exactly where ski areas fit into this schedule isn't quite clear, but the country does have more late spring and summer glacier areas than any other. In the wider world of skiing, there were reports of fresh snowfall dusting Australian ski slopes two months to the day before the season is due to begin there, virus permitting, in early June. Japan, where the northern island of Hokkaido declared a state of emergency in February due to the virus, but kept ski areas open, then declared the emergency over late last month after cases dropped, is now seeing a surge in cases further south on the main island of Honshu. The season had ended anyway at quite a lot of Japanese ski areas, but several dozen stay open into May and so far they're still operating. 
A little Spring snow for Japanese mountains...
EUROPEAN ALPS Austria It has been warm and sunny in Austria over recent days and looks set to stay like that for the week ahead too. Temperatures have been getting into the high teens in the valleys, so spring has definitely sprung, but up on the country's glaciers it is still below freezing and images posted by ski centres show pristine, empty slopes, covered in fresh snow (well, maybe a week old but still looking pretty fresh!). Austria has become the first country to publish a schedule for a return to normality over the coming months if the pandemic there does not worsen. They think restaurants will re-open next month and that large sports events should be taking place again from June. There are normally four or five Austrian glacier ski areas open in late spring, so these could now be among the first in Europe to re-open if things go to plan. France French ski resorts are experiencing similar weather to Austria, with full sunshine, warm valleys but still low temperatures above around 2000 metres. If these were normal times it would be the end of the season for many French ski areas this Easter Sunday or Monday anyway, although for some high altitude stations there were a further 1-3 weeks of skiing in the plans. Instead, the focus is on the need for a very tight lockdown with no one being allowed on to the slopes at all, even for a walk, with fines likely for those who do. Three French resorts, Tignes, Les 2 Alpes and Val d'Isere hope to open for summer skiing from June if conditions improve enough for that to happen. Italy Italy has seen perfect weather over the first half of this week, with mostly clear, sunny skies, warm temperatures in the valleys, still sub-zero up high above about 2,000 metres – the Easter week norm really. With the country on lock-down for a month now there's no one getting out to enjoy it and the only hope really is that summer glacier areas like Cervinia and Passo Stelvio are able to open in June or July if considered safe to operate again by then. More unsettled weather is forecast for the Easter weekend with snow up high (potentially heaviest in the Dolomites), rain down low. Switzerland Swiss resorts too have seen warm, sunny weather in the valleys, with temperatures reaching 15-20 degrees Celcius under clear sunny skies down below 1000 metres. Up high though temps have stayed just below freezing so the high slopes, including glacier runs, are in great shape for whenever they can be accessed again (Zermatt is, of course, normally open year-round so the slopes should re-open there once normality returns). Scandinavia Sweden, the last major ski nation where ski areas were still open, finally decided to change its virus medical advice late last week, leading to most of the country's areas that were still operating (quite a few had closed as the season was over for them anyway), deciding to close on Sunday. Like Norway a fortnight earlier, there had not been a blanket ban, more a request to consider the implications of staying open and the likely impact on local medical facilities if there was a big virus outbreak among visiting skiers. Not all Swedish areas have decided to close, at least not at the time of writing. World-famous spring-skiing centre Riksgransen, which has been posting the deepest base of the 500 or so areas in China, Japan and Europe that were still open over the past few weeks at 5.1 metres, reckons it can operate safely and is staying open for now, along with several other northern centres. Riksgransen has its own medical team, says the number of guests has dropped dramatically with cancellations so thinks it can cope with any outbreak. Pyrenees Even if we didn't have the virus to contend with, the season would be winding down fast in the Pyrenees now. The past week has been mostly warm to very warm, with the temperature rarely getting below zero even high on the slopes, and rain reported rather than snowfall. The biggest hit from the Spanish mountain this past week has come from one Philipp Klein Herrero who had to cancel a skiing holiday because of the coronavirus pandemic and instead created a stop-motion animation of ski touring in his small Barcelona flat. The video has gone viral and you can find it on J2Ski's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/J2Ski Scotland There was fresh snow on Scottish hills at the end of last week, but it did shoot up to well into double figures above freezing at the start of this week, at least down in the valleys, which can't have been good for snow cover. In fact webcam images, in the absence of any live measuring and reporting, reveal snowless grassy slopes at The Lecht in the East, although cover is still deep at Glencoe and Nevis Range in the West, which got the brunt of the winter snowstorms. Eastern Europe It was a snowy end to a snowy week in Bulgaria last week with some of the best snowfalls of the season right down to resort level. Resorts remain closed here too of course. Now though temperatures are shooing up across the region anyway and there's a fast thaw underway. North America Canada There has been some fresh snowfall for Western Canadian slopes, although the message is increasingly "stay away" to ski tourers as the battle against the spread of the virus intensifies. Conditions remain generally good and there are still hopes (even if they're diminishing) that resorts like sunshine at Banff and the Blackcomb Glacier at Whistler could still re-open in late May or June if considered safe to do so by then. It has been drier in the East but has also stayed around the freezing point or below, and some snow is expected here through the remainder of this week. USA Not a great week for US skiing, there was fresh snow in the west last weekend (it has been mostly warmer still) but against that most of the on-going news has centred on stopping people going out backcountry skiing, further redundancies and furloughing of year-round employees now on top of the mass redundancies of season workers three weeks ago, and resort collecting-drives for goggles for ski medics to wear. Last weekend and next would have marked the end of the regular season for many US resorts in any case, but the season has obviously ended badly. Things continue to get worse with the virus in the US, as in many parts of the world, with no end in sight. If things do start to improve in six to eight weeks and restrictions begin to be relaxed in late-May or June there are around half-a-dozen US areas that could re-open some terrain for late spring or summer skiing, as a gesture at least, but of course, it's far too early to know yet if that might happen. Stay Home, Stay Safe, and we'll be back in May... |
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We have to say this looks pretty optimistic at this point but, nonetheless, the major ski resorts in Australia are still making plans to enable them to open - if they're allowed - on or around their usual big opening weekend (the long weekend holiday for the Queen's birthday starting June 6th 2020).
In the event that they can't open on that weekend, they're making contingency plans to support a shorter season with a later opening date if they can.
More information, and the latest update, can be found here - http://asaa.org.au/covid-19-faq/ The Australian Ski Area Association represents the following resorts :- - Perisher - Charlotte Pass - Selwyn Snow Resort - Thredbo - Falls Creek - Hotham - Mt Baw Baw - Mt Buller - Ben Lomond - Corin Forest You can, of course, use J2Ski to keep up with the snow and weather forecasts for Australia. |
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In further challenging news from the troubled Ski Club of Great Britain, following substantial financial losses last year and job cuts this year, Chief Executive Ian Holt has resigned.
The full announcement from SCGB follows.
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Hi Mr/Mrs Foxperson, just go to https://www.j2ski.com/competitions/win-panda-rs1-goggles.html and, when the widget has loaded (it can be a little slow), click the email symbol below where it says "Log in using...". |
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