J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by J2SkiNews

Mammoth Mountain in California is reporting a snow depth of 568cm (nearly 19 feet) on its upper runs following another week of storms. The snow is reported to be 403cm (over 13 feet) deep at its base.

More storms are due to hit the resort from the latter half of this weekend. In previous years this kind of snow depth in January, hen it has happened, has led to Mammoth staying open through to July or even August.

The snow levels at Mammoth are the most extreme result of a seemingly endless stream of huge storms to hit the North American West Coast for about two months straight now. Each time the storms cause major operational issues with ski areas having to dig out access roads, buildings and lifts and try to make a much terrain 'avalanche safe' as quickly as possible.

Big White in BC Canada issued a warning yesterday that the weight of snow was causing mature trees to fall and for dangerous snow slides from pitched rooves and advised skiers to be vigilant.

The world's second deepest reported snow depth is at Alta in Utah which reports 160 - 340cm (over 5 to over 11 feet) lying.

It appears that the delayed start of winter is getting underway at last in the Alps. Following cold temperatures and snowfalls of up to 70cm (over two feet) in the early part of this week, the mid-term forecast is for five consecutive days of snowfall in the Alps next week, with accumulations of over a metre in some resorts.

This week's snowfall has led to improvements at the hard-hit lower lying ski areas like Megeve, Gstaad and Les Gets. The latter had had to completely close its slopes following warm and wet Christmas and new year weather, but had re-opened half-a-dozen lifts and runs by Wednesday.

Now its hoped next week's snowfall could bring season average snow depths below 2,000m back up to around the norm for the time of year (despite doom laden media reports, they were already at the seasonal norm above 2000m).

Temperatures are forecast to plummet from Sunday with the freezing point reaching sea level by the end of next week, with the heaviest snowfall again in the Western Alps where more higher slope depths passed the 2m mark this week. Strong winds are also forecast.

Megeve, Chamonix, Val d' Isere and Courmayeur are all forecast to receive over 1.2m metres (four feet) of snowfall with around 70cm for Morzine and Verbier then smaller but still significant falls in Austria.

Of courses, seven day forecasts for snowfall in the mountains are notoriously unreliable when it comes to precision, but it does look increasingly like we should see low temperatures and lots of snowfall across the Alps next week.

Snow depths are up (in many cases from zero on lower slopes) at ski resorts that have had limited terrain open in recent weeks due to the warm weather and lack of early season snowfall in the Alps.

A change in the weather since the weekend has seen heavy snowfall for many areas since Sunday, but the big accumulations of 60cm+ reported at some areas are on higher slopes, which in most cases had average snow cover already. It's the lower slopes where the snow is needed.

In France, a number of famous areas have been struggling to open much terrain but the situation is now improving. Les Gets, which had had to completely close its ski area, opened one short run on Tuesday and from Wednesday 11th January has six lifts operational again. There are seven runs skiable once more (six blues and a green) although the connection with Morzine has not yet re-opened.

La Clusaz posted the picture top with the message, "What if we were start winter all over again?"

In Switzerland, Gstaad, which previously had less than 20% of its terrain open and no snow on its lower slopes, reports there's now a 20cm resort-level base depth. It now reports about 40% of its slopes open.
Crans Montana, which was not so badly hit but was suffering too, says it has gone from zero to 30cm of snow lying on its lower slopes.

With temperatures at lower elevations still marginal, it's uncertain how long the new valley snow can survive, but resorts are already working hard to maintain and built on what's there.

In Austria, the huge Skiwelt region warned that it was taking advantage of lower temperatures to run its snowmaking guns during the daytime. It noted it usually only ran its snow guns at night but said it wanted to make as much snow as they could while temperatures are low.

The heaviest snowfall in the Western Alps has now passed but the latest forecasts indicate a temperature spike previously expected for the end of the week shouldn't be as warm as initially feared and. It also currently looks like there will be more snow showers and mostly sub-zero temperatures into next week.

The latest huge snowfall to hit Mammoth Mountain ski area in California has taken the Californian's ski resort's total snowfall to date this winter past the total it reached for all of last winter.

"The storm has arrived and it's absolutely dumping this morning. With 14-18" of snow overnight, our season snowfall total at Main Lodge is now 270" (686cm) – officially surpassing last season's total snowfall number. We've received 23 feet (over 7 metres) of snow at Main this season and well over 30 feet (over 9 metres) at the Summit," a resort statement today explained.

The storm is the latest in an ever-growing succession of Pacific fronts to hit the resort and wider North American West Coast for over two months now. It's very different to last season when, with the exception of some huge snowfalls between Christmas and new year, and then in mid-spring when many areas had already closed, conditions were generally dry.

"The latest forecast is calling for even more snow than initially expected today – we'll see intense snowfall, increasing winds and blizzard conditions through the end of day Tuesday. Avalanche danger is very high at this time and patrol will continue to utilize avalanche closures and conduct mitigation work throughout the storm cycle. Travel across the area will be impacted due to weather, and lift operations will be limited to the lower mountain," Mammoth's statement continues.

The resort has the deepest snow of any resort in the world with 493cm (over 16 feet) at the top and 355cm (12 feet) at the base.

The much anticipated snowfall has begun in the Alps, with many resorts hoping that this will mark the turning point of the season.

Media around the world has been reporting on how poor snow conditions have been in most ski regions in Europe over Christmas and New Year, many implying all ski areas are closed. In fact slopes above 2,000m have fairly normal levels of snow cover for the time of year, but lower areas have been suffering.

The change from above average temperatures and rain to high altitudes to freezing temperatures and snow down to low valley floors has begun on Sunday and is expected to continue for most of this week, on and off, spreading across the Alps from the west. The most optimistic forecasts are for around 75cm (30") on higher slopes in parts of the French Alps by Tuesday morning with the potential to pass the metre (40") total mark by the end of the week for some areas. Italy's Bardonecchia is pictured above on Sunday.

However it is lower lying areas that particularly need the snowfall and so all eyes are on whether the falls there are adequate to re-open runs and in some cases open ski areas for the first time this winter. The low temperatures should also help snowmaking systems fire up to boost natural cover.

Cold weather and snowfall is also forecast this week for the Pyrenees (Cerler in Spain pictured on Sunday), which have faced similar issues to the Alps, and the Balkans, where there has been almost no snowfall and temperatures too warm for snowmaking up to now.

After being five wins behind Lindsey Vonn's record of 82 World Cup wins, the most of any female or US athlete, Mikaela Shiffrin' has taken four straight wins in the post-Christmas races to take her total to 81.

The 27 year old, who holds many records, including the most slalom wins of any racer (50), the most wins in a season and being the youngest slalom champion in Olympic alpine skiing history, at 18 years and 345 days is now one of only three Alpine ski racers to pass the 80 wins mark. She is now within five wins of all-time top race winner Sweden's Ingemar Stenmark who had his last win in Aspen in 1989, six year before Shiffrin was born.

Already a four-time Overall World Cup champion, Shiffrin already has a healthy lead in the 22-23 women's overall table with 975 points this season and is almost 400 points ahead of second placed Petra Vlhova of Slovakia.

Shiffrin races again today (5th January) in the Snow queen trophy at Zagreb in Croatia.

Ski resorts with higher altitude terrain, which include most of the large resorts that British skiers head to, have been aiming to counter a wave of media headlines implying that all ski areas are closed.

Conditions are certainly being badly impacted on lower altitude ski slopes and some regions like the Balkans have almost no snow, but meteorological agencies in Alpine countries have reported seasonal snowfall figures above 2,200m are actually matching the average for this early point in the season.

It's a mixed picture too, not that bad at all to lower levels in the Dolomites while a sad picture for much of the lower-lying parts of the Portes du Soleil.

Resorts with access to higher altitude terrain, which includes most of the leading international resorts, have 60-90% of their terrain open and while temperatures are warm in the afternoons, the rate of thaw is slow at high altitudes so they're not currently closing slopes very often.

In Switzerland the Blick Newspaper ran a story highlighting the fact that eight ski areas had been forced to close which turned out to refer to eight small local hills with their highest lifts at 1800m. This led to a number of leading Swiss resorts endeavouring the highlight that they are still open. Andermatt went with,

"Thankfully we are open! The current snow situation is also affecting us. We feel for everyone waiting for a load of fresh snow. We have 21 out of 22 facilities open, most of the slopes as well."

In the UK The Telegraph went with the headline "Alpine ski holidays at risk as 20C temperatures mean there's no snow" and the BBC went with "Snow shortage threatens Alps with wet winter season" reporting only on how bad things were at low altitudes, appearing to believe that using snowmaking is a new thing and ignoring any mention of the fact that most destination ski areas have most of their terrain higher up.

The Aspen Times are reporting that the upmarket Colorado ski town is suffering from a shortage of eggs.

"Those in need of eggs for cooking and baking are out of luck due to an egg shortage sweeping the Roaring Fork Valley," the paper reports saying the problem is down to high demand and avian flu.

The city's supermarkets had previously been limiting sales of eggs to two boxes per person per visit but are now reported to be completely out of stock.

Lots of famous names and numerous multi-millionaires are currently reported to be in Aspen including Justin Bieber for some snowboarding, along with friends Kendall and Kylie Jenner, but separate media reports on their visits don't mention if they're having any difficulties getting eggs.