Messages posted by : admin
Striking out from Turin with a reluctant skier.
Started by User in Snow Forecasts and Snow Reports, 8 Replies |
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Pila (staying in Aosta)?
Not been myself (yet) but Aosta is a proper old and interesting town in the valley, with gondola access direct into the Pila ski area? |
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That's appalling; feel free to name and shame (with a link to the pricing) and let them know you've done so! Chances are you won't even use them if the car has winter tyres, although best to have them just in case. Providing your route and flight times allow; drop in to a supermarket/garage en-route and just buy some. With sensible prep (watch some Youtube videos - of snow chain fitting, not cats, take a torch and some gloves and have them handy in the car) there's nothing to be scared of if you need them; just pick a sensible, safe spot to fit. If the roads are clear when it's time to go home, donate them to a needy seasonaire or take them to the airport, hang around in arrivals or near the car hire desks and wave them about - you'll find someone to take them off your hands. |
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J2Ski Snow Report 16th November 2017
Snow, Sun, Piste Basher! It snowed lots in Tignes this week... This Week's Snow Headlines - A second weekend of big snowfalls in the Alps - up to 60cm more snow reported. - More than 40 ski areas were open in North America last weekend. - More resorts open early (some partially) including Verbier, Wengen, Schladming, Baqueira Beret, Courchevel, Panorama and many others. - Big name resorts open in North America this coming weekend including Whistler, Stowe, Heavenly and Squaw Valley. - Ski season starting early in Spanish Pyrenees. - Ski areas in Eastern Europe open early for the season. - More snow in the Dolomites. - Not all good in US, as small ski areas in the South delay opening as it's too warm. It's proving difficult not to get excited about early snowfall in the Alps after two successive weekends of big dumps has brought around a metre of cumulative snowfall depth to many higher slopes, and snow down to the valley in many areas too. Resorts have been opening early for 'season preview weekends' or just opening early full stop and those that were already open have seen amazing early November powder conditions for a second week. But, it's still early in the winter, so the next few weeks are going to be crucial. Keep everything crossed. There has also been more snow in Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, the Dolomites and the Pyrenees where Spain's Baqueira Beret has announced it will open early for the season this weekend. Across the Atlantic there was a fairly unprecedented mass opening of ski areas right across the continent with around 45 ski centres in 16 states and provinces from East to West all opening, some claiming their earliest opening for decades, one since 1949! Resorts in the East and Midwest were able to open thanks to cold temps for snowmaking whilst in the West there have been some heavy snowfalls. In the Forecast There is a little more snow in the forecast for Europe; not as much as the previous weekends but we do expect some scattered snowfall late this coming weekend. The Eastern Alps will likely see the best falls, with up to 30cm possible in places, but lighter top-ups elsewhere should be reasonably widespread. Next week sees quieter conditions back in charge, with temperatures below seasonal averages until the last week of the month. OPENING TIMES SUBJECT TO CHANGE! Some of the early openings are partial and temporary, and may be weekends only - so check with the tourist office! Always check local conditions and resort opening times directly before travelling! 
See when and where it's going to snow...
EUROPEAN ALPS Austria Austria has had two great snowfalls this month which have brought up to a metre of snow to higher slopes and snow right down to the valley. Ski areas are either open already, opening early or just taunting people by putting up pictures of how good conditions are (but sticking to their December opening dates). The eight glaciers that have been open since September have had powder conditions all November and the Dachstein, with a 2.4m (8 foot) base, the deepest snow in the northern hemisphere at present. Hintertux, with a 1350m skiable vertical and 45km of runs open may have the biggest ski area open too. Obergurgl, opening today, Thursday 16th November, may be offering more though. About a dozen Austrian centres were open last week including Kitzbuhel and Schladming and the number looks set to get in to the 20s this weekend as more areas open including Zell am See for a 'season preview weekend.' France After a few months when French skiing was looking a bit thin on the ground with Les 2 Alpes forced to cancel its planned late October opening and Tignes getting by with a 30cm base on the glacier things have been completely transformed by the two big snowfalls of the first half of November with ski areas reporting 50-60cm of snow cover at 1800m and up to a metre on the highest slopes – most of it fresh. Val Thorens is the big opening this coming weekend, finally ending Tignes reign as the only centre open in the French Alps. Both areas report excellent conditions and Val Thorens say that 70% of their terrain will be open from day one – the best opening conditions for at least four years. Courchevel opened a few runs for free skiing on Wednesday, as it did a year ago, and there are signs that other French areas may open this weekend because of the great conditions. Italy Italy is having its own good November with the same snow in the Alps, plus two good snowfalls in the Dolomites where Cortina and the Three Peaks of the Dolomiti Superski Area are already open, having joined the glacier areas at Val Senales and Cervinia. Passo Tonale has also opened. The number of open Italian areas looks set to jump in to double figures this weekend with more areas opening early including San Martino di Castrozza / Rolle Pass in Trentino, a third are in the Dolomiti Superski region, and Cimone. Livigno has announced big snowfalls and that 20km of cross-country trails are open but has not yet said when it will open its ski lifts. Base depths are at around the metre mark on upper slopes at all open areas. Switzerland Big snowfalls in Switzerland over the past week and the season is really starting to take off here too. Snow depths are around the metre mark and more than 15 ski areas had opened by the start of this week with more set to follow this coming weekend. Meiringen, which is one of the swiss resorts to report 60cm of fresh snow earlier this week, is one of the areas newly opened whilst Grindelwald – Wengen, who report 40cm of fresh snow, say they'll be opening early, this weekend. Most of the already-open Swiss areas have had big snowfalls too, including Glacier 3000 (55cm) and Laax (52cm). Engelberg is reporting the deepest base in the country at two metres. Scotland There was fresh snow down to the valley in the Cairngorms on Saturday and Sunday, but this thawed back up to the upper slopes on the mountains by Wednesday. Currently meteorologists opinions are divided as to whether a cold front from the north or a warm one from the south will be victorious over the coming week. Pyrenees Its looking good in the Pyrenees and one of the area's largest resorts, Baqueira Beret in Spain, has announced it will open a week ahead of schedule, this weekend. It reports snow depths of up to 60cm mid-mountain and expects to have at least 30 runs open. So far no other areas are known to have decided to open early too, but the whole mountain range has a good pre-season snow covering. Eastern Europe Eastern Europe has also been enjoying good early season conditions and ski areas have begun opening early. Among them two high-lying ski resorts Slovenian resort Kanin and Vogel which opened at the weekend and a third Slovenian ski area, Kranjska Gora, has announced it will open this coming weekend as well. Scandinavia About a dozen ski Areas are open already in Finland, Norway and Sweden with more planning to join them this weekend. In Lapland, Levi and Ruka are the main centres open, the former hosting world Cup slalom races last weekend; In Norway Kvitfjell and Skeikampen are open daily, Beitostølen at weekends. In Sweden it's Idre Fjall and Kabdalis that are open already. Snow depths across the region are typically in the 20-30cm bracket. North America Canada Canada had more than a dozen ski areas open last weekend, mainly in the West and most in Alberta which actually had more centres open than any other North American state or province with a whole nine to choose from. There were three resorts open in BC including Panorama in the East of the province claiming its earliest opening for years and Cypress and Grouse Mountains on the West. The BC big gun, Whistler Blackcomb, joins the party this Friday. It's reporting heavy snowfall at present. On the eastern side of Canada ski areas have begun opening but more with the use of snow-making. Mont Sainte Sauveur was the first, last weekend. USA Last weekend was quite a big one in the US for early-opening ski resorts although as many of them were small hills off the international or even national radar, few seemed to notice. But J2Ski did and we counted more than 30 areas opening across the country in 13 separate states – which is quite something for early November. Unprecedented perhaps. There was a combination of reasons why – good snow conditions in the north west, cold weather for snowmaking in the North East and Midwest and high altitude resorts in Colorado that had planned to open early November anyway. Ironically it's those ski areas in Colorado that probably have the most marginal cover as it has been rather warm for snowmaking and what natural snow there had been in October (not a lot) has largely melted away leading one smaller ski area in the state to say its delaying its opening plans to December. But elsewhere resorts were claiming opening days that were their earliest in 20 or 30 years and in one case in its 68 year history! More big name resorts will open this weekend in time for the Thanksgiving Holiday period including Vail-run Stowe and Heavenly. Beaver Creek Resort and Kirkwood are slated to open Wednesday, Nov. 22, followed by Vail itself, the country's largest resort of Park City Mountain and Lake Tahoe's Northstar on Thursday, Nov. 23. |
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Just in from the lovely folk of the French Pyrenees...
Bareges 
Cauterets 
Peyragudes 
St.Lary. |
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J2Ski Snow Report 9th November 2017
The view above Zermatt this morning... Hello! We called it autumn snow last week, but it's looking a lot like winter in many mountains now! There have been some big snowfalls, and there are more in the forecast... This Week's Snow Headlines - More resorts open (and opening) in Canada, Finland, Italy, Switzerland, Norway and the USA for the 17-18 season. - Big snowfalls in the Alps, down to 1000m altitude. - Stubai reports 1 metre of snow in 48 hrs. - Kicking Horse reports 92cm of snow in 48 hours. - Six Canadian resort open/opening. - Snow in the Dolomites and Pyrenees. - At least a dozen ski areas open in US this weekend, the first country to reach double figures for 17-18. - Passo Stelvio ends 2017 summer ski season with 70cm snowfall. It has certainly felt a lot like (a good) winter over the past six days with some huge snowfalls recorded at a few resorts on each side of the Atlantic - and many other areas getting 20-60cm of snow too, with snowfall right down to resort level in many cases. The ski season has got, or is about to get, going in a number of countries and regions including Canada and eastern North America and the number of areas planning to be open this weekend, more than 40, is about double the number that were open last weekend. The snow has been widespread too with good snowfalls in the Dolomites, Pyrenees, Scandinavia and even a covering on Scottish hills. The good news is that so far at least temperatures are looking like they'll stay low in many areas with more snow in the forecast too. It's early days still, of course, but keep your fingers crossed! In the Forecast Following on the heels of the snows of last weekend we have, yes, another round incoming. The next week should see temperatures several degrees below seasonal averages (i.e. cold for November) across most of the European mountains. From late Saturday, we expect some heavy snows for the central and western Alps (e.g. Chamonix, Zermatt and surrounds), to low altitudes at times. Snows are likely to be a little less intense than those of last weekend, but should fall over a wider area as we move into next week. The longer-term (7 days+) forecast is also looking promising at the moment but that's very uncertain at this point. OPENING TIMES SUBJECT TO CHANGE! We do need to emphasise this! 8) We've been hearing that a few of the resorts planning to open this coming weekend, due to the snow last weekend, are now doubtful due to the forecast (snow and wind) - so do check locally, immediately before you travel! Always check local conditions and resort opening times directly before travelling! 
See when and where it's going to snow...
EUROPEAN ALPS Austria Austria has seen some 'epic' snowfalls on its glacier slopes over the weekend leading to great pictures and video of resort staff diving in to deep powder snow. The biggest accumulations were up to a full metre but all eight open glaciers reported at least 60cm of snowfall, so it added up to 'a lot' wherever you looked. More snow has been falling mid-week and it's expected to continue through the weekend and in to next week too. No new Austrian areas have opened in November so far and it's another week or so until the next, Obergurgl, is scheduled to, but Kitzbuhel, which opened last month using snow stored from last winter, reported 15cm of fresh snow on its old snow as the snowfall in the alps continued down to lower elevations on Sunday. France Lots of snow in France to the great excitement of the many ski areas readying to open there over the next 2-5 weeks, with Val Thorens first up. For the coming week though Tignes remains the only open French ski area with a 10-30cm base on the glacier, although now with fresh snow cover. Italy Italy has seen big snowfalls in the past week. It's a little galling, perhaps, in the Dolomites where there has been precious little snow actually during the past three ski seasons, to be heavily dumped on in early November. On the other hand, if temperatures stay low, it's clearly good news for the start of the 17-18 ski season at the end of this month. In a further irony, one of the three Italian areas open at the weekend, Passo Stelvio, ended its 2017 season on Sunday with 70cm of fresh snowfall. So this week the ski areas open, with fresh powder snow, are Cervina and Val Senales with a third area Sulda, also reported to have opened with a 30cm base. Two of Italy's top resorts – Bormio and Livigno – have also hinted they may open early. Bormio issued a snow report and image of groomed slopes reporting a 45cm base on Tuesday whilst Livigno said it had had 60cm of fresh snow and wondered if it should wait until its scheduled opening date of 1st December, seeking customer feedback on social media. Most recently, Passo Tonale has announced its Presena glacier ski slopes will open at the weekend. Switzerland Switzerland has seen more ski areas open over the past few weeks than any other country, and like the rest of the Alps there were big snowfalls here at the weekend, especially on higher slopes where up to 70cm was reported (at Glacier 3000). The snow fell down to resort level in many cases too though, and Zermatt is reporting 5cm at resort level now. Davos and Laax were the latest to open last weekend, joining Engelberg, Saas Fee, Zermatt, the Diavolezza glacier near St Moritz and the aforementioned Glacier 3000 near Gstaad. Andermatt expects to open this weekend and Verbier has announced it's opening on Friday taking the Swiss areas-open-already total to nine – equal with Austria. Davos opened the Parsenn cable car to access slope "No. 15 Totalp" last weekend and plans to again for a second "Pre-Season Opening" on 11/12 November with the official start of the season is on Friday, 17 November 2017, if the conditions are good. Laax only opened on Saturday in the end as snow and strong winds closed it on Sunday and it says similar conditions this coming weekend means it has no plans to open. Scotland No ski areas are anywhere near opening in Scotland but spirits were raised in the Highlands by the first white coat of the autumn on Scottish hills on Sunday. Temperatures have stayed low since and more snow is forecast at the weekend and in to next week. Pyrenees It is still three weeks until the first ski areas in the Pyrenees are likely to open but most of the region received a good snowfall earlier this week and again in the last 24 hours so things are currently looking promising. Snowfall of up to 40cm has been reported so far. Eastern Europe No major ski centres are open yet however it has been reported that there has been freshg snow in Bulgaria and that the small Czech ski centre of Monínec was able to open one of its ski runs for the final weekend of October using its all-weather snowmaking system. It's the second year in a row that the centre, close to Prague, has recorded an October opening. The slope that's accessible is the 'Hotel slope' a gentle run for beginners and families served by a 170m long drag lift. Scandinavia There's been a lot of fresh snow in Scandinavia too. A second ski area has opened in Finnish Lapland, Levi, ahead of staging World Cup races this weekend. It joins already open Ruka which has opened more terrain. In Norway Beitostolen has opened a gentle run and joins Geilo, which opened a run at the end of September. For Sweden the centres at Idre Fjäll and Kåbdalis have both opened a run a piece. North America Canada There have been some big snowfalls in Western Canada and temperatures have also been double digits below freezing so it's a good start to the season there. Kicking Horse, not yet open, reported 92cm (over three feet) of weekend snow. Mt Norquay at Banff was first in the country to open for 17-18, last Friday. It was joined by fellow Banff resorts Lake Louise and sunshine opening early for the season over the past few days. Lake Louise has over a metre of snow lying and more than 40 runs open making it a contender for one of the most terrain open and best conditions in the world this week. Nakiska also opened last weekend and Marmot Basin plans to open this coming weekend, as does Cypress Mountain, the first in BC. USA The US looks set to overtake Austria this weekend as the country with the most ski areas open in the world. With the exception of a region in the Northwest of the country and California, there has not been as huge amount of snow here yet, but resorts are opening anyway, in most cases thanks to snowmaking, and the number of resorts in the US set to be open by Saturday should be in double figures – the first country to get in to double digits so far this season. The East Coast should have at least five areas open – each with fairly marginal conditions and machine made snow on a couple of runs. Killington opened on Wednesday and it's due to be joined by fellow Vermont resorts Okemo and Mount Snow as well as Sunday River in Maine and Wildcat Mountain in New Hampshire at the weekend. In Colorado, already open Arapahoe Basin and Loveland will be joined by Breckenridge, Copper and Keystone at the weekend. And at Lake Tahoe – where there has been up to 40cm of fresh snow - already open Mt Rose in Nevada was joined yesterday by Boreal Mountain. An 11th US area that opened last week is the little ski hill of Trollhaugen in Minnesota. |
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Well, here's my tip of the day for Flaine... check out the webcam. Although you can't see very much...
See http://m.webcam-hd.com/grand-massif/grand-massif_flaine-1600 :thumbup: |
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J2Ski Snow Report 2nd November 2017
Davos Klosters will open one slope this weekend... More autumn snows around the world, more ski areas open and more to come! This Week's Snow Headlines - First ski area opens for season in California. - 7 Swiss areas open by weekend; as Gstaad glacier opens with Davos and Laax to follow. - First FIS Men's World Cup race (Solden 29th October) cancelled due to wind. - 40cm of fresh snow reported at ski areas in northern Scandinavia. - Heavy snowfall in US Midwest - 60cm (two feet) of weekend snow reported on the Dachstein glacier. - Pre-season snow-making underway at higher resorts in the Alps and Dolomites. - Snow reported in Slovakia. It has been another exciting week of pre-season snowfalls and early openings in the skiing world with some heavy snowfall in northern Norway and in parts of the Alps, as well as enticing dustings on higher Scottish slopes and in Eastern Europe. More glacier slopes have opened, with a bit of a switch from Austria to Switzerland, although Kitzbuhel also managed to open a second ski slope for the weekend, this time on the Hahnenkamm area, using its snow farming technique. Gstaad's Glacier 3000 opened last Saturday and Davos will open some terrain on Parsenn this Saturday. So we are now up to 20 areas open in Europe. The snowfall forecast in the alps at the weekend was more patchy than predicted with most of the glaciers not seeing as much as hoped, whilst some, most notably the Austrian Dachstein, reported 60cm of fresh snow - rather more than the most optimistic forecast. Across the Atlantic, the first ski area to open in California, Mt Rose, has opened an easy run using snow-making - with a big snow storm forecast. The start of November sees more high areas in Colorado and elsewhere, such as Banff in Alberta, scheduled to open so the mass start of the north American ski season looks to be just days away. In the Forecast There is currently some significant and widespread snowfall forecast for the Alps for the end of the weekend and into next week. The forecast has been quite dynamic for the past few days, so details will change but heavy snow does look likely to moderate altitudes across a good part of the northern and central French, Italian and Swiss Alps with lesser (but useful) falls to the East (Austria). We expect the main event to be Sunday night into Monday but with snow continuing for a few days in some areas (Aosta valley and Dolomites potentially). 
See when and where it's going to snow... Always check local conditions and resort opening times directly before travelling!
NORTHERN HEMISPHERE Austria Austria continues to have the most ski areas open in the world at present, as it has for the past two months. It may lose its title to the US in the next week, however. Currently though there's a choice of nine areas open; eight glacier centres and Kitzbuhel, which opened a second small area at the weekend including its famous Hahnenkamm slopes. It uses snow stockpiled from last season to make the run but there's been fresh snow too. In fact Austria got the best of last weekend's snow with the Dachstein glacier reporting 60cm/2 feet of fresh cover – much more than anywhere else. Another Austrian glacier, Hintertux, is also claiming a world's best – it has the most terrain open in the world at present with nearly double its nearest competitor and around 35km of runs open. It isn't all good news though, the first Men's FIS World Cup Races of the season due to be staged on the glacier at Solden on Sunday were cancelled due to strong wins. The women's event did take place successfully the previous day however. The other glacier resorts currently open are the Molltal, Stubai, Kaunertal, Kitzsteinhorn and Pitztal ski areas. France Conditions remain fairly challenging for skiers who want to hit the slopes in France at the start of November. Tignes remains the only ski area open and there's a 5-30cm base here and five runs to choose from on the Grande Motte glacier – a blue, a black and three reds. Val Thorens, due to open in just over a fortnight on Saturday the 18th November, reported sub-zero temperatures on 1st November though and says snowmaking is underway, so hopefully things are looking good for the build up to the mass opening of French resorts from then on. Last year there were of course big snowfalls in the French Alps in early November leading to ski areas including Courchevel and Alpe d'Huez opening early, so fingers are crossed that history repeats itself. Italy It's the last week of an eventful 2017 season for Passo Stelvio, one of the very few northern hemisphere ski areas that only operates during a calendar year rather than seeing its season go from one year to the next through winter. The centre is open from early spring to mid-Autumn but this year had an unprecedented fortnight's closure in August when the very hot summer melted away snow cover. Currently though it's claiming the deepest base in the Alps at 1.5m. Cervinia, which had been open weekends from mid-October has stepped in to the breech and is now open permanently until next May. Val Senales is also open. Switzerland Switzerland seems to be fast catching up with Austria in terms of ski areas open. Although Laax, which had eyed an end-of-October opening, decided not to open at the weekend, Glacier 3000 between Gstaad and les Diablerets did open, and it will be joined by a run up on the Parsenn area at Davos next weekend – taking the Swiss-areas-open tally to six, the second-most in the world at present. Laax too is now saying it will open on Saturday, although it's not yet certain about Sunday. Engelberg, the Diavolezza glacier near St Moritz along with Saas Fee and Zermatt are all also open and had a little fresh snow at the weekend. Glacier 3000 reports the deepest snowbase in the country at present at 1m, whilst Saas Fee and Zermatt each say they have 18km of runs open, the two biggest skiable areas in Switzerland at the start of November. Scandinavia There's been a good amount of fresh snow on the slopes of Scandinavia. Bjorli in Northern Norway posted images of a snowy desert there after 40cm of fresh snow fell last week, and Ruka in Finnish Lapland, which opened last month using snow saved from last season, now has a fresh white coat on top of that old snow and will open more trails this weekend. After its long spring, summer and early autumn opening, Galdhoppigen snow field in Norway, will close on Monday. It's still reporting the deepest snow base in the world at present though at 3 metres. Geilo is still open in Norway though. North America The first bit of big news in North America over the past week was the unexpected opening of Mt Rose by Lake Tahoe in California after the centre's snowmakers created snow on one of the centre's easy runs, allowing it to open at the weekend. It joins already-open Arapahoe Basin and Loveland in Colorado and Timberline on Mt Hood in Oregon which all opened earlier in October. Secondly, a big snowstorm is now forecast to sweep across much of the West of the country - on the ski slopes at least – later this week. The next week or two should see more high altitude US ski areas open, particularly in Colorado as well as the first Canadian ski areas opening for 17-18. In fact by the end of next week there should be more ski areas open in the US, all being well, than in any other country, after two months of Austrian dominance. |
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...but it also takes some beating in the skiing stakes too; pretty much all levels of ability are well catered for and there are some great runs - both on and off piste - around the Flaine bowl. One minor point re. the off-piste; it's not so much boulders that are an issue with thin snow cover, but mahoosive great holes as the base rock is limestone with caves and crevices galore. It's definitely not a place for ducking barriers in marginal snow. Thankfully, though, the snow record's pretty good and if anywhere in the area has snow then Flaine will. Great place to ski. |
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