Messages posted by : admin
|
Thanks Tom - that doesn't look too shabby! Enjoy your day!
|
|
|
J2Ski Snow Report 12th December 2019
Corduroy at Ax 3 Domaines, French Pyrenees, this week... picture (c) Ax Tourist Office More snow this week, and freshies for the weekend? The Snow Headlines - 12th December - Deepest base in North America hits 2-metre (6 feet) mark, in California. - Fresh snowfall again in Europe. - Up to 70cm of snow in 24 Hours in the Alps. - Revelstoke opens biggest vertical in North America for first time this season. - Austria's biggest ski area begins operating for 19-20. - Japan's delayed season starts after Niseko gets a metre of snow. - Scotland's ski season declared underway. - Up to 30cm of snow in the Pyrenees. - Ski areas open for the season across Eastern Europe. - More heavy snow forecast for Alps this weekend. It's returned to winter in the Alps this week after a period of mixed and dry weather. There's good cover from the November snowstorms at most areas above about 1500-1600 metres altitude. Lower slopes have had thin to no cover, however, so a bit more winter was needed! This week's snowstorms, set to intensify at the weekend, have improved things a good deal. Elsewhere the Dolomites continue to look good although they've missed out on some of the recent snow. The Pyrenees have had more fresh snow, and it has kept snowing in Scandinavia, particularly in Western Norway which reported some of the biggest falls of the past week. Scotland's season is underway, in a very limited respect, at Cairngorm, but it is cold again there now with natural snowfall building new fresh cover. Eastern European ski areas have also got their seasons started. In North America, there have been good snowfalls over the past few days across most of the continent with resorts in Alberta, BC, Colorado, California and Wyoming amongst those reporting 30cm+ (1 foot) fresh snow in 24 hours. There have been some good snowfalls on the East Coast too. It is only really in the northwest of the continent, including Whistler Blackcomb, where the snow has been in short supply. A bit inland though there's been enough snowfall for Revelstoke to open top-to-bottom skiing on the continent's biggest vertical. A quick mention too for Japan, where ski areas had not been able to open as planned in the latter half of November; things have taken at least a partial upturn with Niseko reporting a 1-metre dump over the past week and normal powder service resumed. In the Alpine Forecast 
Snow in the forecast for France this weekend... Very much a mixed outlook; with heavy snow expected this weekend for the western and northern Alps, less in the East, after which temperatures look like rising above average for a few days before more unsettled weather follows.
EUROPEAN ALPS Austria The new snowfall has been good news for Austrian ski areas where recent snowfall had melted from at least the bottom half of the slopes. Fresh snow has fallen heavily down to the valley floors; Saalbach Hinterglemm-Leogang-Zell am See, the country's new largest ski region, opened at the weekend but had a thin, hard-packed cover on lower runs. That's now all refreshed and the area has announced all sector connections will be open from the coming weekend. The biggest snowfall reported so far was 50cm at Lech in the Arlberg region on Monday/Tuesday but there's more on the way. France It's looking like a really good start to the main season in almost all French resorts following more snowfall to start this week, building on bases that were already over two metres from November snowfalls at many areas. The country's big purpose-built altitude resorts are benefiting the most from all the snow as new snowfall has gone down to the valley floors here too making the traditional villages at lower elevations look wintry. The biggest accumulations at the start of the week were 30-45cm at resorts including Bonneville and Chamonix. There's more snow on the way and the FIS announced they were modifying (but not cancelling) the weekend races in Val d'Isere because of expected snowfall. Italy Italy is still reporting the deepest snow in the world on the Presena glacier by Passo Tonale at four metres but the snowstorms earlier this week seem to have largely gone elsewhere. That looks like it will change this coming weekend though with J2Ski's preferred forecasting models predicting the possibility of metre plus accumulations in the Western Italian Alps. Switzerland Swiss ski areas scored the biggest snow accumulations of the Monday/Tuesday snowfalls at the start of this week with the slopes around Gstaad reported receiving 70cm of snowfall in 24 hours. Most of the other ski areas in the top 10 for snowfall by Tuesday morning were also Swiss. Verbier reported 55cm and now has more than 100km of trails open and Zermatt continues to lead Europe with around 240km of runs open shared with Cervinia. Swiss slopes should get more heavy snowfall this weekend too. Scandinavia It's been the snowiest week of the autumn so far by some distance in Scandinavia where Voss on the Norwegian Coast has reported 105cm (3.5 feet) of snowfall in the past seven days. Other ski areas in the region have reported heavy snow too, particularly in the West, with Hemsedal and Trysil both reporting 30cm of snowfall in 24 hours to Wednesday morning. Most of the region's centres are now open and those already open are opening more terrain. Pyrenees There's not been so much fresh snow in the Pyrenees but there has been some, particularly on the Spanish side of the mountains. Although bases are not huge in Andorra, there is a lot of terrain open at the biggest area, Grandvalira, with over 100km of slopes also reported open at Baqueira Beret just over the border. Scotland We've seen almost the full range of Scottish weather over the past 7 days – temperatures soaring to double digits above freezing, torrential rain and gale-force winds at various times over the past week. But the good news is that, since Sunday, temperatures have been dipping towards zero and there's been quite a lot of natural snowfall. All-weather snow-making systems hopefully mean that one or more areas will be able to open some terrain very soon – as currently, the forecast is for it to stay cold. Cairngorm did declare it was 'open' on Saturday but at that point, there was just a short stretch of machine-made snow which had survived the thaw. It has since been closed by blizzards Tuesday and Wednesday this week but has posted images of snow accumulating. Eastern Europe The season got started at ski areas across Eastern Europe at the weekend with resorts in Bulgaria, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Poland and Slovenia amongst those starting their seasons. Bansko in Bulgaria, which opens fully for the season next weekend, decided to open a week early last weekend. Most areas have 40-60cm lying on their upper slopes but not much down at resort level at yet, each with just a handful of trails open for keen early visitors. North America Canada More Canadian ski areas have been opening in BC and Alberta on the Western side of the country and there have been some big snowfalls in Eastern BC in particular with Fernie getting more than 50cm of snow in just a couple of days. Revelstoke reported more than 70cm in the past week and has opened it's full 1700m+ vertical, the biggest in North America. The second biggest at Whistler is currently far from opening though it seems due to still warm, wet weather there and very thin cover on higher slopes. In Alberta, Lake Louise has reported more than a metre of snow in the past week, one of the biggest accumulations anywhere in the world. The forecast is for an improvement imminently though. In the East, a few dozen resorts in Ontario and Quebec have opened but there's so far just thin cover and limited terrain open. USA It's been snowy right across the US over the past few days with dozens of top-name resorts in the West posting 20-40cm accumulations on Sunday/Monday, following more big falls in California at the end of last week. It's also been quite snowy and very cold in the North East and resorts in Vermont are in full winter mode with fresh snow here too. The roll call of big dump resorts to start the week included Alta, Deer Valley and Park City in Utah, Aspen, Breckenridge and Winter Park in Colorado and Jackson Hole in Wyoming. Several resorts report more than 2,000 acres of terrain now open including Aspen and Mammoth. The only part of the US that's not yet getting its normal snow quota remains the northwest where it has been a bit too wet rather than white in what is statistically the world's snowiest resort, Mt Baker in Washington State. More snow is forecast across the country, including there though, so finger crossed things improve. Thanks for reading... until next week... |
|
Hope you've had a good summer Brucie... don't suppose you've learned how to use a camera yet??? 8) Keep us posted! |
|
|
Evening JB,
A fine plan! Fingers crossed the snow keeps coming for you. |
|
I think there were a couple of smaller operators going there a few years back but I'm not aware of any now; Spanish Pyrenees likewise, but the OP has already booked flights anyway. Skifamilylennon - do your teens speak any French? I'd be surprised if somewhere like Ax or Les Angles didn't offer group lessons with ESF, at least, at that time. I'd suggest emailing the Tourist Offices directly? Otherwise, don't dismiss private lessons; you/your kids may find a couple of hours personal tuition is more effective than a day in a group setting, and leaves them with more free time to ski where/how they like? |
|
|
Reply from Dobby, posted to another thread...
|
|
|
This just in... La Clusaz will open La Balme sector Friday (tomorrow) through Sunday, and Beauregard for Saturday and Sunday.
For more info and ticket prices :- https://en.laclusaz.com/opening-of-balme-and-beauregard-massifs.html |
|
|
J2Ski Snow Report 5th December 2019
Mammoth Mountain got over 5 feet of snow this week... nice! More snow in Europe, and heavy snow in the western USA. The Snow Headlines - 5th December - Zermatt claims the biggest ski area in the world open, so far, for 19-20 at 200km+ - Huge snowfalls in US West - Californian areas get up to 1.5 metres (5 feet). - Up to 50cm of fresh snow in 48 hours in Norway. - Ischgl opens for the season with more than 100 miles (169km) of slopes open. The start of the main season is less than a fortnight away and things continue to look pretty good for most of Europe. It has been snowing once again; heaviest in the southern and western Alps where up to 1.2 metres (4 feet) of snowfall has been reported since last week. But as more lower elevation resorts have opened, it's clear that the real deep accumulations are up above about 1800 metres and lower down the base depths are a lot less. Heavy snow up high, of course, brings risk so please be careful away from the pistes; two off-piste skiers were killed in an avalanche near Courmayeur a few days ago and another slide damaged a lift at (yet to open) Serre Chevalier. With hundreds of resorts now open the competition for December is who can open the most terrain. The leader so far appears to be Cervinia/Zermatt in Italy/Switzerland with more than 200km, followed by Ischgl/Samnaun in Austria/Switzerland with nearly 170km. In the Pyrenees, Spain's Baqueira Beret says it has more than 100km of terrain open. Elsewhere in Europe, things continue to look pretty good in the Dolomites, Pyrenees and snowy Scandinavia with Eastern European areas due to start opening from this weekend. In Scotland alas, things have warmed up again but centres say they'll open anyway thanks to their all-weather snow-making systems. Over in North America, the switch to snowy weather after the mostly dry November stepped up a notch with huge snowfalls in California (and fairly big ones further east in Colorado and Utah too). The rest of the continent's ski regions have mostly seen cold, snowy weather too, if not quite so much as the far West. In the Alpine Forecast 
Snow in the forecast for Scandinavia (and Japan, and France, etc.)... After a mild few days across much of The Alps, temperatures will dip through this weekend and more snow is expected early next week; heaviest in the northern Alps where accumulations could be substantial.
EUROPEAN ALPS Austria More than half of Austrian ski areas have now opened with Ischgl and St Anton among the big names joining the party last weekend. Conditions are still good across the country but with more lower elevation areas opening and publishing their base depths it's apparent that whilst the country's glacier saw their depths jump two metres or more in November and are now sitting on 2-3 metre bases in most cases, there was much less snow down low (as you would expect so early) and here there's around 10-30cm on slopes at resort level and 50-90cm up high. That's OK to start with so long as it stays cold and snowy over the next month or so. Ischgl has certainly made the most of their cover, opening with nearly 170km of piste open from day one. France More big French ski areas opened on Saturday with Avoriaz doing so, at weekends, a fortnight early. It – like most higher ski centres in France – is reporting excellent conditions for this early in the year and indeed the Portes du Soleil region was one of the snowiest of the past week with (yet to open) areas on the Swiss side reporting a total of 1.2 metres (four feet) more snow. Val d'Isere also opened for the season. A number of French resorts are now reporting base depths at more than 2 metres on upper slopes. They're mainly in the southern Alps and include Isola 2000, Montgenevre and (not yet open) Serre Chevalier, which also reported a chairlift damaged by a pre-season avalanche earlier this week. Further north the base depths are still good, just not quite so big, although with more snow expected next week. Italy Italy is still posting the deepest base in the world by some distance with 4 metres of snow lying on the Presena Glacier in Trentino. It may also have the biggest ski area open in the world at present if you combine the Cervinia and Zermatt cross-border linked area to get more than 200km (125 miles) of runs open there already. The snowfall, in common with most of the rest of Western Europe, has slowed since the weekend with the last marked accumulations in the Dolomites (50cm for Arabba), Lombardy (25cm at Colere) and Aosta Valley (another 15cm for Cervinia). More and more Italian areas have been opening with many in the Dolomites starting their season last weekend. Switzerland Swiss slopes are in good shape too after all the November snowfall. Andermatt's 3.2-metre upper slope base depth is the country's deepest and also one of the five deepest in the world. A more impressive stat though comes from Zermatt which reports 213km open, shared with Cervinia, as mentioned in the Italy section above. This is the biggest area open anywhere in the world at present. The most recent Swiss snowfall has been in the Easterly Graubunden region with St Moritz and the Engadin area reporting 19cm of fresh snow on Monday to start the week. Scandinavia Scandinavian ski areas are seeing a fairly cold and snowy start to the season and since the snow stopped falling in the alps at the start of the week most of the snowfall that has been reported since Monday has been here or a little further south in northeast Europe (Poland/Slovakia). The region's largest ski centre at Are (Sweden) now has a nearly 70cm base (about double what it was a week ago) and Norway's Geilo has posted one of the biggest snowfalls in Europe so far this week – with 50cm falling since Sunday. Roldal beats it for 7-day total though, 72cm there. All in all, it's looking good with more areas opening and those that are opening constantly adding more terrain. Pyrenees Fairly steady weather in the Pyrenees this past week although a band of heavy snowfall was reported hitting the French side of the mountains on Wednesday evening. Bases are around 20-50cm in Andorra so more snow would be welcome there. Over on the French and Spanish sides of the mountains, it's deeper and Baqueira Beret claims it already has more than 100km of slopes open. Scotland It's the usual weather roller coaster on the Scottish hills with the mostly sub-zero November now a thing of memory and warm, wet fronts coming in off the Atlantic bring wet, windy +1-C weather to end this week. It is then supposed to get colder again at the weekend with snow in the forecast next week, let's just hope it stays cold. All five areas in the Highlands are talking about their all-weather snow-making systems though, which make snow in internal containers even when it is well above freezing outside. Glenshee and Nevis range are the latest converts to this technology. Cairngorm says they'll have an opening weekend of festivities this coming weekend despite the conditions; their snow-making machine has been producing since October. Eastern Europe There are no areas of note open in eastern Europe as yet but that will be changing this coming weekend and the one after when leading resorts in the Czech and Slovak Republics, Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria among other countries in the region are due to start opening. Since the weekend there have been 20-30cm snowfalls reported in Slovakia so it's looking promising there. Bansko in Bulgaria, scheduled to open on December 14th, has no snow in resort as yet (it has had some but it has thawed) but reports 60cm lying on its upper slopes. North America Canada Canada is still way behind the US in terms of areas open but British Columbia has seen half a dozen of its leading areas open over the past week including the continent's biggest, Whistler Blackcomb. Currently, it doesn't have the biggest area open in North America, or even Canada, and possibly not BC as it has a thin snow cover and warm temperatures on its lower mountain. Lake Louise in Albert, hundreds of miles inland, by contrast, saw -30C temperatures last week and has over 100 runs open compared to Whistler's current 10 or so. It will be hosting more World Cup racing this weekend after the first Men's Downhill and Super G races of 19-20 were staged there last weekend. USA There's been a bit of a Transatlantic flip after North America's (mostly) dry November with some huge snowfalls reported over the Thanksgiving Weekend, particularly in California and Utah (Alta and snowbird did particularly well) where ski areas reported up to 1.7 metres (almost six feet) of snow. This did cause some to close of course, due to access problems or buried lifts, but overall it's obviously great news for building bases at the start of the season. The 1.7-metre figure was also the most extreme with most areas just getting a mere foot or two of snow, enough to make a big difference but not to cause a big problem. Almost all of the leading ski areas in the US have now opened for the season. Until next week... |
|