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J2Ski Snow Report 26th October 2017
Sunrise over a snowy Hintertux this morning... Autumn snows, a mild few days and a plunge to cold on the cards... and that's just Europe! And an awesome competition... Top 100 Snowiest Ski Areas Worldwide This Week's Snow Headlines - More ski areas open in the Alps and Rockies. - Up to 60cm of fresh snow reported in the Alps in higher slopes. - Fresh snow in Scandinavia. - KItzbuhel to open Hahnenkamm ski area this week using snow stockpiled from last winter. - 2017 ski season ends in the southern hemisphere. - Snow to low altitude (in places) in the Alps raises excitement ahead of main season. - Cervinia and Laax due to open for the season on Saturday. It was a snowy weekend in the Alps to the delight of not only the already-open ski areas but many of the rest who have been proclaiming early snow cover "just a month" or "only 50 days" ahead of planned opening dates. Reported snowfall of up to 60cm has helped higher slopes look good for the coming winter after the onslaught of the summer sun. Bases on glaciers and other high runs are getting back towards the metre mark after five good snowfalls since early September, having dropped to zero in some places in August. There was also fresh snowfall again in parts of Western North America as well as in Scandinavia, generally raising the excitement levels! The number of ski areas open worldwide remains in the low 20s with Loveland in Colorado and the Diavolezza glacier near St Moritz in Switzerland the latest new resorts to open for 2017-18 at the weekend. Laax in Switzerland aims to join them this weekend and then the focus will switch to North America where resorts in Colorado, California and Alberta are all targeting start-of-November openings. The ski season in the southern hemisphere officially ended on Sunday with the conclusion of the skiing and boarding for 2017 at Mt Ruapehu in New Zealand, the last ski area still open for winter 2017. One area, Cardrona, remains open for national team training however, just not to the general public. In the Forecast It's currently warm for a few days in the Alps, after the weekend snow, but it's not going to last! It will be cold again by the end of the weekend, and temperatures will fall by around 15C over the next week before settling around, or a little below, the seasonal average as we move into November. And, yes, there's some snow in the forecast too; nothing huge at this stage but useful snowfall is currently forecast to medium altitudes, for the eastern Alps, over the next 10 days. Don't miss our best competition for years... Fancy winning one of Suunto's very latest, and quite magnificent, smart Sports watches? Watch this space... -) Always check local conditions and resort opening times directly before travelling!
NORTHERN HEMISPHERE Austria It's been a great few days in the Austrian Alps after up to two feet of snowfall over the weekend. The year-round Hintertux glacier posted the biggest (60cm) snowfall but Solden was not for behind with 53cm (21 inches). Bases there are continuing to grow at a healthy rate thanks to that snow. The Kitzsteinhorn has the deepest snow base of the nine ski areas open in Austria at 1.3m (just over four feet) at present. Eight of the nine centres are glaciers but Kitzbuhel, which opened its highest slopes the weekend before last using snow stockpiled from last winter, says it will open a second area, using the same technique, in its world famous Hahnenkamm sector, in the next few days. Belgium It's the first time we've ever included Belgium in the weekly round-up but an honorary mention as the first new indoor ski area in Europe is due to open here on Friday 27th October. The Aspen Ski Centre near Antwerp was, like the last indoor ski area to open (The Ski Centre at Hemel Hempstead), a popular long standing club dry slope before the decision to replace it with an indoor snow complex was made. It's got a 250 metre long indoor slope and a 15 metre high roof for 'safe' big air in the terrain park. France Tignes reported 15cm (6ins) of fresh snow over the weekend but its base is still not great at 5-30cm. Les 2 Alpes decided not to open for snow-sports as it had planned to this week, due to limited snow cover on the glacier there. There are five runs open at Tignes and the sun is shining again. Italy Cervinia, which has been open the past two weekends will open permanently for the 2017-18 season from Saturday, but Passo Stelvio, open since last spring, will see its unusual six month season come to an end. Passo Stelvio boasts the deeper base at 50-150cm; the only other Italian area currently open, Val Senales, has a more marginal 0-30cm of snow and three runs open. Switzerland With Laax scheduled to open on Saturday and the Diavolezza glacier near St Moritz in the East of the country opening last weekend, there'll be five Swiss glacier ski areas to choose from as of this weekend, all being well, placing it second in the world to Austria for the number of resorts open. Engelberg reported the best of the weekend snowfall with 40cm of fresh snow and now has a 70cm base. Saas Fee and Zermatt each reported 20cm of new snow. Zermatt has 10 runs open and 14km of slopes to enjoy, Saas Fee 18km of terrain and six runs. Scandinavia There's been fresh snow (up to 30cm reported) and low temperatures across Scandinavia so a lot of resorts have turned on their snowmaking systems ahead of season starts planned for early November. Geilo in Norway and Ruka are already open using snow they had stockpiled from last winter and both are now snowmaking to build the base on top of that old snow. The Galdhoppigen glacier in Norway, which has been posting the deepest base in the northern hemisphere all summer, currently at 4 metres, is due to end its season this weekend. North America It's getting close to opening day for about a dozen ski areas in Colorado, California and up in Alberta, Canada and things are currently looking fairly promising. So far however it's Arapahoe Basin and Loveland in Colorado, two of the world's highest ski areas, that have opened, both saying they have one run open and a 46cm/18 inch base, mostly of machine made snow. Southern Hemisphere The 2017 ski season is now over in the southern hemisphere although Cardrona ski area is still open for national team training, but not to the general skiing public. |
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Snow Reports by e-mail - New Ski Resorts
Started by Admin in Snow Forecasts and Snow Reports, 85 Replies, discussing Morillon and Sölden |
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Alyeska is now available in your snow mail options (login and go to your Profile). Also added today is the Swiss resort of Bugnenets – Savagnières. |
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J2Ski Snow Report 19th October 2017
Snow at altitude for many places on Sunday, deepest in the East! See Snow Forecast for Austria J2Ski Snow Report 19th October 2017 Yeah! We're back... welcome to the first J2Ski Weekly Report of the World's Snow for the 2017 / 2018 winter. There's been snow in the high hills already, and there's more to come... though it may not stay, so get your snow dance on. Top 100 Snowiest Ski Areas Worldwide This Week's Snow Headlines - Kitzbuhel is the first non-glacier ski area to open in the Alps. - Only one ski resort still open in southern hemisphere. - Arapahoe Basin first to open in Colorado. - Les 2 Alpes cancels planned annual Autumn opening week. - Ruka's October 6th opening one of the earliest in its history. - Diavolezza glacier near St Moritz, should open for snowsports this weekend. It's obviously way too early to be getting excited for the ski season but, so far, autumn has been good for early-opening ski centres with around 20 now open in Europe and North America for the 2017-18 ski season. Things were not looking great at the start of September after a long, hot summer had melted most of the snow from glaciers in the alps, causing two summer ski areas in Austria and Italy to close in August, a fairly unprecedented event. But then repeated heavy snow storms transformed things to some extent and nearly all of the main glacier resorts in the alps have opened with some enjoying powder days already. But it's not entirely good news. The snow hasn't been enough to fully restore glacier bases yet and Les 2 Alpes has had to cancel its planned opening at the end of October - an annual fixture since the 1990s - due to lack of snow cover. One growing trend to note has been ski areas opening in early autumn by saving up snow in huge piles through the summer then spreading it out to make a 1-2km run in the autumn when temperatures are low enough. Geilo in Norway, Ruka in Finland and most recently Kitzbuhel in Austria have all used this technique to open in the past three weeks. For Kitzbuhel, it was their earliest ever opening and they are the first non-glacier resort in the Alps to open for the season. Across the Atlantic there have been snow storms and cold weather for snowmaking, very different to this time a year ago when unseasonably warm weather was causing concerns (before that all changed mid-November and it didn't stop snowing). So far Timberline and Arapahoe Basin are open with Loveland set to join them imminently. In the southern hemisphere the season is just about over with the remaining centres in New Zealand coming up to their closing weekend this Saturday. In the Forecast Yes, it's way too early to predict the season but this weekend will bring snowy scenes to many webcams as a band of snow rolls through much of The Alps. 
Many Swiss resorts will see snow at altitude on Sunday. See Snow Forecast for Switzerland This will be a cold interlude between relatively mild spells but it should bring snow down to moderate and even low levels for a while. In most areas the snow will fall through Sunday and into the first couple of days of next week before milder temperatures follow for the following week. Always check local conditions and resort opening times directly before travelling!
NORTHERN HEMISPHERE Austria About half of the ski areas currently open in the world are in Austria, with eight glaciers to choose from, plus Kitzbuhel. Conditions are generally good on the glaciers although more snow would always be welcome, bases vary from 30cm (Dachstein) on top of the glacial ice to 90cm (Molltal, Kitzsteinhorn) and terrain open from 3km (Dachstein again and Molltal) to 35km (Hintertux). The other open options are Solden (23km open), Stubai (14km), Kaunertal (10km) and Pitztal (7km). France Conditions aren't great on French glaciers. The only centre open, Tignes, has a 20cm base and four runs open, a blue, a black and two red adding up to 7km of runs. Less good news at Les 2 Alpes which has decided to cancel its planned last-week-of-October-special-opening-week, an Autumnal feature at the resort for more than two decades, due to inadequate snow cover after the long hot summer. Italy There are three ski areas currently open in Italy with Cervinia opening for the first time for the 17-18 ski season last weekend (about 5 weeks after it closed at the end of its 2017 summer ski season). It's currently closed midweek but will re-open next weekend and then permanently for the 2017-18 season from the last Saturday of the month. It has joined Passo Stelvio, which has been open since last spring and Val Senales which re-opened at the start of September. Passo Stelvio had to close in August due to the hot summer sun melting all snow cover on the glacier but now reports its base back up to 50-150cm and all six runs open. At Val Senales there are five easy to intermediate runs open and a 30cm base. Switzerland There are three glacier areas open in Switzerland at present following Engelberg's decision to open, despite only having a 20cm snow depth on its Titlis glacier, last weekend. It joined year-round Zermatt and Saas Fee which has been open since July. A fourth Swiss glacier ski area, Diavolezza near St Moritz, scheduled to open for snowsports this weekend with Laax due to follow a week later. Scandinavia Norway's Galdhoppigen glacier has been open all summer and posts the deepest snowbase in the northern hemisphere at present at 3-4m, although how much of that is fresh is a moot point. It has been joined, as mentioned in the introduction, by Geilo, also in Norway, and Ruka in Finnish Lapland which have opened thanks to snow stock-piled from last season then re-distributed on a 1km or so long slope at each area. North America It's been an early start to the ski season in North America with several bands of heavy snowfall crossing the west of the continent and low temperatures for snowmaking too, so the permanent snowfield on Mt hood in Oregon, Timberline, has been able to re-open and Arapahoe Basin in Colorado was the first to open with fresh snow (albeit mostly machine made) on a previously green grassy slope last weekend – a fortnight earlier than in 2016. Indeed the whole region is much colder than a year ago when most centres had to delay opening plans until mid-November when a snowy deluge began that continued for much of the following six months. Loveland ski area, a second Colorado option, will join A Basin this weekend and other areas are also making snow in the region though none have announced plans to open before November so far. On the East Coast Killington in Vermont, also known for its early start to the ski season each year with an end-of-October target opening day, has started snowmaking too. Southern Hemisphere It's probably the last few days of the southern hemisphere's 2017 ski season with only two ski areas in New Zealand's north island, Turoa and Whakapapa, both on Mt Ruapehu, still operating. They are both set to close on Sunday after pond-skimming type 'final weekend' events. Both have 2m bases. Cardrona is still operating but only for athlete training in their terrain park ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympics; it's closed to the general skiing public. Mt Hutt closed on Sunday with a 3.3m (11 foot) base still on the mountain. |
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Win Tickets to the London Ski and Snowboard Show!
Started by User in Ski Deals and Competitions, 5 Replies |
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Seems to be working for most (as we've got quite a few entries). We have just tweaked it though, so can you try again now? |
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Win Tickets to the London Ski and Snowboard Show!
Started by User in Ski Deals and Competitions, 5 Replies |
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Just a quick bump for this; we have to pick the winners at midnight (tonight, 17th October) or we turn into pumpkins so get your entry in now!
:thumbup: |
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Win a ticket to hear Graham Bell talk about heli-skiing...
Started by User in Ski Deals and Competitions, 2 Replies |
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UPDATE FOR EVERYONE HEADING TO THIS!
Free session on the Slope!
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Snow Reports by e-mail - New Ski Resorts
Started by Admin in Snow Forecasts and Snow Reports, 85 Replies, discussing Morillon and Sölden |
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This coming Thursday! Stand by your Inbox! 8) |
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Win Tickets to the London Ski and Snowboard Show!
Started by User in Ski Deals and Competitions, 5 Replies |
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Thanks Mike, but watch this space... -) Later this week, we'll be announcing one of our best competitions for a long time; with the very latest, not-yet-in-the-shops, [******] from [******] as the prize... we'll be getting one of the very first batch into Europe... ...and we've a few other things in the pipeline too, so a few lucky J2Skiers will be in line for some early Xmas presents! 8) |
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