J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by admin

CORRECTION!

In our "first edition" this morning, we mistakenly stated that the FIS had cancelled a "Cross Country" race at Val Thorens this coming weekend. That should have stated Ski Cross - the race would have been the first stop of the 2018 Audi FIS Cross Alps Tour.

FIS wrote:"In spite of improving snow situation in Val Thorens, unfortunately now we're sure that we will not be able to produce the amount of snow necessary for the cross course, given the weather report we have for this week," said the FIS Cross Race Director Jean-Pierre Baralo, "We would have needed five more days of snow production, and with the humidity we have now and the temperature rising on Thursday, it would have left us with only one or two days of snow production."

With low reserves of water and unfavourable weather forecast for the upcoming days, the decision has been made to cancel the event in Val Thorens.

Full details are at FIS Cross Alps Opener cancelled

J2Ski Snow Report 29th November 2018

Winter Park, Colorado, gets more snow, opens more lifts... nice!

J2Ski Snow Report 29th November 2018

Big snows for Colorado, lighter snow and cooler weather elsewhere.

November 29th Snow Headlines
- Snow returns to the Alps.
- Heavy snowfall in Western USA (up to 105cm/3.5 feet) in 7 days in Colorado.
- Scottish ski season due to start on Saturday.
- Val Thorens cancels World Cup Ski Cross Opener due on 7/8 Dec due to lack of snow.
- Iranian ski areas report up to 50cm of November snowfall.
- Cervinia-Zermatt open more than 100 miles of pisted terrain already.
- 150km of slopes opening across Dolomiti Superski this weekend.
- Canadians expect 'El Niño' weather system to mean mild winter for west.
- New Zealand ski area to re-open for 'snow fun' on first day of summer after unseasonal fall.

There are somewhat mixed reports coming in to J2Ski Towers on current world snow conditions. Generally conditions seem good, considering we are still just in November. Most of the northern hemisphere's mountains are seeing cold weather and some healthy natural snowfalls on top of good snow-making weather.

Resorts in Spain have opened early for the season, ski areas in Austria have issued powder alarms and in Colorado Winter Park got more than two feet (60cm) of snow in 48 hours (as did several others) and 105cm in the last week.

It's not universal but it's a good start to the pre-season by most measures.

There's even news of a ski area in New Zealand deciding to re-open this Saturday (the first day of December and meteorological summer there) for summer snow fun.

In Scotland The Lecht has announced it will open on Saturday with some natural snowfall but also thanks to its new all-weather snowmaking machine. It's the first time a Scottish ski area has been able to announce a fixed opening date.

There are just a few small worries, perhaps normal for November. One is for Western Canada where the weather service has predicted a warmer winter due to a 'developing El Niño' weather system. Indeed Whistler had not had much pre-season snow but, having just opened, has had more than 50cm this week and further east Lake Louise successfully staged World Cup racing at the weekend and it looked snowy enough there. Crans Montana in Switzerland decided not to open for a planned preview weekend last weekend as "not enough snow" they said. It will open this weekend however, so hopefully these are short-lived 'blips'.



See where it's expected to snow this week...

Re-publication :- our Snow Report Summary, being the text above this line, is free to re-publish, but must be clearly credited to www.J2ski.com with text including "J2Ski Snow Report" linked to this page - thank you.

EUROPEAN ALPS
Austria
Austrian ski areas have seen some of the snowiest conditions this week with up to 30cm of fresh snowfall reported so far at Obertauern and plenty of 'winter wonderland' pictures posted on social media. Other resorts have had 5-20cm of snow so far this week, although Hintertux reports 25cm. Ischgl opened at the weekend with 63km of runs but Solden is currently posting the deepest snow base in the country at just over 180cm (six feet) lying up on the glacier and now 84km of trails open.

France
Fresh snow in the French Alps in recent days has helped to raise spirits there with Tignes reporting 20cm in 24 hours on Monday-Tuesday this week and Val Thorens posting plenty of snowy images online. More ski areas, including Val d'Isere, have opened or are opening but it's still a few weeks until some of the biggest get their seasonal operations started.

However Serre Chevalier is saying it will open for the next few weekends before opening daily from December 15th. Currently the resort, the largest in the southern Alps, has 80cm of snow at the top, 60cm at 2000m and 30cm down in the Valley. Villeneuve and Chantemerle sectors will be open this weekend with the Ratier and Aravet gondolas providing uplift.

Heavier snow is expected across France in the latter half of this week. It doesn't seem to be all good news though, despite having the highest base in Europe the FIS have announced Val Thorens have had to cancel their planned staging of the Ski Cross World Cup season opener (first stop of the 2018 Audi FIS Cross Alps Tour) due on 7/8 Dec due to a lack of adequate snow cover at resort level. Interestingly the FIS report on the cancellation notes that there's also low levels of water available for snow-making.

Italy
Cervinia is leading Europe at the moment with the biggest ski area open, with more than 160km (100 miles) of slopes operating, shared with Zermatt. It also has some of the most impressive snow stats ranging from 50cm on lower runs (Many glacier resorts have decent depths on their glaciers at present but little or nothing below) and 240cm up top – also one of the best stats anywhere as yet this early in the season.

Elsewhere there are now about a dozen Italian areas open, although some only at weekends, with Bardonecchia, Livigno and Madonna di Campiglio amongst the big names recently opened. Many more are scheduled to open from this weekend on as the Dolomiti Superski and other regions begin their seasons.

Big name areas including Cortina, Alta Badia, Val Gardena and Kronplatz are among nine opening in the Dolomiti Superski region with the largest single sector offering about 45km of runs.

Switzerland
The number of Swiss areas open has reached about 20 now, although somewhere between a third and a half of these are currently just opening at weekends. As mentioned in the Italy section, the shared Cervinia-Zermatt ski area is currently leading the world on both snow depth and terrain open. There's been some fresh snow in Switzerland this week, with Saas Fee and Adelboden reporting 10cm, Engelberg 15cm on the first few days of this week. More is forecast towards the end of this week and in to the weekend.

Scandinavia
It has been a warmer November than skiers would like in much of Scandinavia but the temperature is now dipping well below zero and there's been a little natural snowfall and snow-making friendly temperatures. Not a whole lot is open yet though

Pyrenees
The Pyrenees have their big season kick-off this weekend ahead of a major holiday weekend in Spain at the end of next week. So far only Masella is open, already coming up to a month in to winter 2018-19 but most other areas will be opening this Friday or Saturday and there has been more fresh snow. Down in the south of the country Sierra Nevada opened a week early with nine lifts and 43 kilometres of slopes open, providing a vertical drop of 1,100 metres with accumulated snow between 20cm and 150cm depending on the altitude.

Scotland
It's looking increasingly like the ski season will kick off this coming weekend on Scottish slopes, with Glencoe and The Lecht saying they plan to open on Saturday. Temperatures have been cold and there's been fresh snow on the hills, not enough for areas to open usually but The Lecht and Glencoe now have all weather snow-making and Cairngorm is also getting a new machine this week. The season's first ski tourers have already been up high making turns on the natural snow.

Eastern Europe
The ski season is expected to start this coming weekend in Eastern Europe, a date which coincides with a forecast end-of-week of heavy snowfall in the region, so it could be a good one. Jasna in Slovakia is one of the region's largest areas scheduled to open.

North America
Canada
Canada's 2018-19 season is starting to gather pace in terms of resorts opening but so far there's not been the big snowfalls in Alberta and BC for which the area is famous. In fact Mont Ste Anne in Quebec on the eastern side is posting the deepest base of the dozen or so Canadian resorts open already at 90cm.

Big White in BC was the latest big name resort to open, last Thursday, with 3cm of fresh snow falling on the day. It has a 79cm base and about half of its 36 runs open. Whistler, which also opened at the end of last week, has reported more than 50cm of snowfall this week up top and has a 59cm base.

USA
There are on-going snowy times in most of the USA with heavy snowfall over the past week and more heavy snow forecast for the week ahead. The west of the country has seen 40-60cm of snow over the weekend with Winter Park reporting just over a metre – the most in the world this week. The snow in California was particularly needed and after several feet for resorts like Squaw, Heavenly and Mammoth about as much again is forecast by the weekend, so conditions are transformed from a week ago when it was ribbons of machine-made snow on brown slopes.

There's also been extreme weather causing issues in the Midwest and more heavy snowfall on the Eastern Coast of the country too with Sunday River in Maine posting 36cm in 24 hours on Tuesday, Okemo in Vermont 41cm in a similar time.

morrisk9 wrote:[20th Nov] Even over just the next 5 days, your totals are significantly higher than any of these other website's totals - including Whistler.com.

Whistler's now reporting that they've had 14inches/36cm in the past 48 hours (v. close to what we were forecasting a week ago) and their near-term forecast has pretty much aligned with ours now - predicting up to another 21inches/60cm over the next 5 days.

GFS doesn't always get it right, but it does happen... 8)

:shock: Well, I'll file that under "Unexpected News" then...

Our friends and partners at Snowtrex are having a WHITE Friday, with some big discount on their already great-value deals.

Just click any of the images below to see all their deals... they start from €59 !

J2Ski Snow Report 22nd November 2018

Dawn breaking over a snowy Cervinia this morning...

J2Ski Snow Report 22nd November 2018

Snow falls all over Europe's mountains, and more is in the forecast for America.

November 22nd Snow Headlines
- Ischgl and Val Thorens promise 50km+ open terrain for opening days this week.
- BC ski season gets underway as Sun Peaks opens.
- Zermatt-Cervinia to have more than 90km of runs open this weekend.
- Arabba in the Dolomites reports 50cm of snow in 48 hours this week.
- More than 100 US ski areas to be open for Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend next week.
- Val d'Isere opening for preview weekend with 60cm base up top.
- Start of Scottish ski season imminent as all-weather snow-making systems start.
- Snow in the forecast for California.

Winter is getting closer and it's beginning to feel like it in most of the northern hemisphere's leading ski regions.

In Europe the snow has been falling since the start of this week in the Alps, Eastern Europe, Dolomites, Pyrenees, Scotland and Scandinavia – in fact almost everywhere.

Low temperatures have also allowed snow-making systems to operate 24 hours a day. The added good news is that so far the forecast is for more of the same over at least the coming week as we move towards the start of 'meteorological winter' a week on Saturday.

Snowfall totals over the past 72 hours have been up to 50cm, posted by Arabba in the Dolomites, although for most it is more like 10-30cm. 7 day totals by this time next week could reach a metre if forecasts are correct.

This weekend should see ever bigger areas of terrain skiable. Ischgl - opening on Thursday 22nd November - promises 50km of slopes will be open and Val Thorens, opening on Saturday, a similar amount. However the cross-border Cervinia-Zermatt area looks to be the one that will have the most terrain open with the resort saying there'll be 91km of runs open there. In recent years the Swiss-Italian giant has had the largest area open in Europe in the run up to Christmas.

Across the Atlantic the ski industry is building up to a key holiday weekend – Thanksgiving – which is always a good season starter if conditions are good. This winter looks better than last, across much of the continent, with great early conditions in the Rockies and on the East coast. It has been warmer on the
West Coast, in BC and California, but that is changing with snow forecast for the rest of this week.



See where it's expected to snow this week...

Re-publication :- our Snow Report Summary, being the text above this line, is free to re-publish, but must be clearly credited to www.J2ski.com with text including "J2Ski Snow Report" linked to this page - thank you.

EUROPEAN ALPS
Austria
After Austria's non-glacier resorts began opening last week; more of the bigger, higher resorts are due to start their seasons in the next few days with Ischgl and Obertauern due to kick off their 18-19 seasons.

Ischgl always makes a big event of its season opener, highlighting its November to May snow-sure ski season, and this year has announced at least 50km of runs will be open from opening day on Thursday, with a mixture of natural and machine-made snow. That's one of the biggest areas open in the world so far this (pre-)season and the biggest in Austria.

Of the Austrian resorts already open Obergurgl (which reported 20cm of fresh snow at the start of this week), Solden, the Stubai and Hintertux are all reporting 25-38km of runs so far open, although more may be opening this weekend. Solden's 180cm base on its glacier is the deepest in the country.

France

Mont Blanc this morning, as seen from Les Arcs

After cancelling plans for a preview weekend last weekend it's all systems go for the start of the season at Val Thorens, buoyed up by their fourth successive win of the 'World's Best Ski Resort' title at the World Ski Awards. Piste crews are reported to be working day and night to create a snow piste link between the snowline at around 2600m down to the resort at 2300m before Saturday's big opening. Val d'Isere has also announced it is opening for a preview weekend, and has a 60cm base above 3000m they say.

Also currently open are Chamonix (at weekends) and Tignes with a good many more resorts planning to open from 1st December in just over a week's time.

Italy
There are not a lot of ski areas open in Italy as yet but the country is able to claim a couple of snow records this week. The 91km of runs it will have open in the area shared with neighbouring Zermatt this weekend looks set to be the biggest in the world for the final weekend of November, and the 50cm of snowfall Arabba in the dolomites reported falling in 48 hours on Monday/Tuesday this week was the biggest accumulation of the past 7 days in Europe.

Switzerland
There were no new Swiss areas opening last weekend but the country is still posting some of the world's best snow depths (up to 3 metres/10 feet above Zermatt) and some of the biggest areas of terrain yet open, no more so than at Zermatt (again) where, as mentioned above, the shared area with Cervinia extends to more than 55 miles of open terrain at present – about double the nearest competitor.

Other resorts currently open include Davos, Engelberg, Glacier 3000 and the Diavolezza glacier near St Moritz. After Zermatt its neighbour Saas Fee has the most terrain open at about 35km.

Scandinavia
There are now more than a dozen areas open in Scandinavia but so far most only have one or two trails operating on fairly thin bases. It's turned colder now though with some snowfall and snow-making machines running at full blast.

Pyrenees
The Pyrenees and Sierras Nevada down on the south coast have been seeing some snowfalls too and it currently looks like these will continue through the coming week, good news for the main start of the season in the region for most areas on December 1st. Masella in the Spanish Pyrenees, which posted its earliest ever opening on November 1st, remains open with a 20-80cm base, surviving a warm spell in mid-November. It currently has about 15km of runs open.

Scotland
Scotland too is seeing a return to cold, snowy weather after a warm first half of November melted the early hill snow covering from October. Colder temperatures are expected for the week ahead and Glencoe ski area has posted video of their new all—weather snow-making machine making a massive pile of snow, so it seems possible it could open some terrain in the next few days. The Lecht also has a similar machine and has said it will open at the start of December. Cairngorm is believed to have purchased one but it's unclear if it's on site yet.

Eastern Europe
Most of the leading ski areas in Eastern Europe have reported some good snowfalls in the past week. Both Bansko in Bulgaria and Kranjska Gora in Slovenia posted images of top-to-bottom snow-covered slopes and there was even first snow on some of Hungary's lower, smaller ski areas. There's no sign that any have opened as yet and as with the Pyrenees most resorts in the region look to be targeting Saturday 1st December as the initial opening day.

North America
Canada
The ski season got underway in BC at the weekend with Sun Peaks joining the half dozen ski areas already open in Alberta. Western Canada, especially over on the coastal side of BC has had a warm November on the whole and Whistler, due to open next week, has only had about 30cm of pre-season snow so far. It may get as much again from a front due to hit over the next few days and temperatures are cold enough for snowmaking to go full blast 24 hours a day.

USA
America's great start to the season continues with most of the country reporting great conditions for the time of year and the snow still falling. There are now far more areas open in the US alone than across all of Europe as dozens of resorts open ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday long weekend.

The one region that had been suffering was California where half a dozen resorts had opened with ribbons of white machine-made snow on green and brown mountainsides but that looks to be set to change with a huge snow storm expected to bring up to three feet of snow and dramatically transform conditions over the coming 72 hours. The snow should go right up to the Canadian border bringing snow to Washington state as well and continue inland to bring yet another big dump to the Rockies although more like 20-40cm is expected there.

Andyrow wrote:do you think there will be snow by the 15/12/18 and or if not will the resort use snow machines

Hi Andy, it snowed there today (their website snow report doesn't look like it's getting updated yet, but they sent out a Tweet of falling snow earlier). There's a fair bit more in the forecast too.

15th is still 3 weeks away, so it might all melt... -) ...in which case, yes, they'll turn on the cannons.

I expect our friends at Chateau d'Oz will be giving us an update before then! We'll give them a prod in a week or two if they haven't checked in by then...

Poppetnhatty wrote:Hi is it true there is no snow at yllas Lapland yet .

There's a little, but not a lot; there's a few webcams here :- https://www.sportresortyllas.com/webkamerat