Here's the first of our monthly guides to help you find the snow during the northern summer and southern hemisphere's winter.
Tignes Les Brevieres, with a little fresh this morning
Top 100 Snowiest Ski Areas Worldwide
This Week's Snow Headlines
- Heavy late April snow in many ski regions leave excellent conditions for the start of May.
- Ski areas in California extend season to the end of July.
- No French or Italian ski areas will be open after May 8th.
- USA has 9 ski areas open at start of May, Austria 7.
- Heavy pre-season snow reported in Australia and New Zealand.
May is traditionally one of the quietest months in the world's skiing calendar. Almost all of the 6,000+ ski areas in the northern hemisphere close for the season by May 1st, even quite a few of those that will re-open for summer skiing later. And of course ski areas in the southern hemisphere haven't started their main winter ski season either - it really kicks off in early June although any early winter blast (and there was one in Australia and New Zealand last month), could see centres opening early, in May, as they did in parts of South America last year.
Spring has, so far, been typically odd. As with much of winter 16-17, spring started in March much warmer than usual, but in late April we did get a succession of big snowfalls, in the latter case after the vast majority of resorts had already closed for the season. But the result is that most of those areas that are open into May have some quite fresh snow cover up high. In many places April has been snowier than December was.
More than half of the still open ski areas in Europe closed after the last weekend of April, leaving around 20 ski areas open through May - or most of it - fairly evenly divided between North America and Europe.
In the Forecast
Surprisingly enough, there is more European snow incoming in the northern French, Swiss and Italian Alps over the next few days. J2Skiers have reported good (for April/May!) conditions from Verbier, Engelberg and Chamonix in the past few days.
Temperatures are still cool for April, and it's snowing in many places - including the Chamonix valley - to quite low levels as we write.
Things should warm through the next week, before what surely must be the last call of winter for the North next weekend... when heavy snow again looks likely!
Meanwhile, in the southern hemisphere, cold and snow are continuing to crop up in the forecasts for Australia and New Zealand, although there's nothing open there yet!
There's still snow in Europe, but very few open resorts now; check local conditions and resort opening times directly before travelling!
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The Alps
Austria
Austria has the biggest selection of glacier ski areas in Europe, or at least the most that endeavour to open outside the main ski season (France has about as many but they are open less and less outside the main ski season). All eight of Austria's glaciers are open into May too, but Pitztal, with Austria's highest lifts and Solden will call it a day on the 16-17 season on May 7th and will not re-open until September or October. The Molltal glacier will also close, but will re-open in June at the start of a nearly 11 month long season! Austria's other five glaciers – Hintertux, Kaunertal, Kitzsteinhorn, Stubai and Dachstein will be open at least in to June, most much longer. The good news is that unsurprisingly the glaciers have the best snow depths in Austria (1.8-2.8m) and fresh snow!
France
There's little skiing to be had in France during May with most of the country's few still open resorts at the end of April – including Chamonix, Val d'Isere and Val Thorens - closing on or by 1st May. Unlike Austria most of its highest resorts like La Plagne, Les Arcs, Val Thorens and Chamonix don't try to open after the main season ends. Only Tignes, with a 1.5m (Five foot) base on its Grand Motte glacier, will be open for the first week of May, but it no longer operates year round and it too closes for six weeks or so from May 8th until summer skiing and boarding gets underway. So there's no open lift-served skiing in France in May after the first week of the month.
Italy
Italy, like France, has seen a decline in centres staying open through late spring and now only has Cervinia as a summer skiing destination. Cervinia closes on May 1st though but Val Senales, a glacier area that once stayed open all summer, will be operational until May 7th. The Presena Glacier, near Passo Tonale, will be open from the 2nd of May to the 4th of June for spring skiing, for advanced skiers. Otherwise Italy too has no lift-served skiing after the first weekend in May, but it does have a summer ski area opening on the last weekend of May – Passo Stevio is due to re-open on the 26th.
Switzerland
Swiss resorts too got some good snowfalls in the last week of April with Engelberg (open to May 28th) and Zermatt (Open year round for snow sports) both issuing powder alarms for 20cm+ snowfalls in 24 hours. The Diavolezza glacier near St Moritz is also open to the end of May and Glacier 3000 to the first weekend of the month.
Scandinavia
Spring skiing is popular in Scandinavia, up to a point, with many of the region's larger resorts staging celebratory weekends for the start of May. There's also been a good deal of late April snow to make these better than some years. However once the Mayday parties are over, most Scandinavian ski areas that are still open also call it a day on the season. Up in Lapland Ruka, which has been open since last October, claims the longest ski season of any non-glacier resort on earth and used to keep open until June. It seems to have given up on that these past few years though and says it will close on May 7th. In Sweden though the 'spring skiing capital of Europe' Riksgransen is in good shape and will soon be offering its traditional 'ski under the midnight sun' sessions when 24 hour daylight returns by mid-May, it's open through to midsummers in June. And in Norway too, the Fonna (Folgefonn) glacier has just re-opened for the summer skiing season and reports great conditions too.
Scotland
Despite some fresh snow (the first in over a month) in Scotland in the last week of April, the desperately hoped for 'unseasonal snow deluge' has not materialised so far and the ski season remains possibly the worst for 35 years. That said, The Lecht did manage to re-open a few runs on the last few days of April after a winery blast. High pressure rolling in for the start of May is likely to end the season, however.
Pyrenees
All ski areas have closed for the 2016-17 season, despite heavy snowfall in the area down to low levels in the last few days of April.
Eastern Europe
All ski areas have closed for the 2016-17 season.
NORTH AMERICA
Canada
Lake Louise closes in early May leaving Sunshine ski area at Banff and Whistler Blackcomb the two ski areas open through most of the rest of the month – closing around the 2nd. After that there'll be no lift-served skiing in Canada for 12 days or so – until Whistler re-opens for summer glacier skiing for most of June and in to July. Lake Louise, which has a 1.5-2.6m base for the start of May, reported 24cm of fresh snow on 24 hours on the last Tuesday of April, providing great end-of-season conditions.
USA
The US has the most ski areas in the world open for any one country as we enter May – with at least nine areas to choose from. Most of those that are open have, like the Alps, seen healthy snowfalls in the last days of April, leading to comparisons with 'January conditions' and enthusiastic reports of powder snow.
For some US areas that are still open, a target is to stay open to the Memorial Day Holiday at the end of May. Resorts aiming for this include Snowbird in Utah, Mt Rose in California and Mt Bachelor in Oregon. Also still open are Loveland and Arapahoe Basin in Colorado – the former due to close after the first weekend in May, the latter likely to stay open to early June. In California both Mammoth and Squaw Valley, which have reported by far the deepest snow bases in the world all year (and still both at 8m+ and 6m+ respectively) have said they'll be open to at least July 4th. Squaw has said it may try to stay open all summer and autumn through to next season. Which would give it a similar season to Timberline in Oregon, another open resort.
Finally, on the East Coast, Killington remains open although it is not clear for how long.
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
No ski areas have yet opened for the 2017 southern hemisphere ski season.
Tiffindell in South Africa and Afriski in Lesotho may open in May if there's natural snowfall or cold enough weather for consistent snowmaking.
Ski areas in Australia, New Zealand and South America are due to begin opening from the start of June and it's possible some could open in May if there is excessive pre-season snow, as happened in Chile last year. Resorts in Australia and New Zealand reported good pre-season snowfalls in mid and late April.