Innsbruck, Austria, lighting up some snow-covered slopes for New Year.
As we enter 2024, it's a very different ski world to what we saw 12 months ago.
Whilst the lowest valleys in the Alps do (temporarily, we hope) again have slopes of white ribbons on a green/brown snowless background, November and December just gone saw huge snowfalls leaving the snows up high at levels that weren't reached until March last year and most ski areas are 70-95% open as we start January.
Across the Atlantic, it's the opposite. This time last year ski areas in the west had been battling major storm after major storm bringing huge snowfall accumulations; this season it's warm, dry weather that's the problem (and sometimes rain rather than snowfall when precipitation does arrive). Fewer than half of North America's slopes have opened so far and there isn't any big change forecast for January so far... El Nino has a lot to answer for!
Back in Europe, the Pyrenees are also battling warm, dry weather, whilst it's a mixed picture in Eastern Europe, but mostly good news for Scandinavian ski centres.
Scottish centres are having their now familiar battle to open terrain with mother nature as capricious with her snows as ever.
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Europe
Austria
Austria finds itself in almost the exact opposite position to a year ago when many of the country's resorts were starting the season with ribbons of white pushed down green hillsides to create valley runs.
This winter a succession of snowstorms, the heaviest just before Christmas, has left the country's ski areas posting the world's deepest snowpacks at present.
The Arlberg region around Lech and St Anton is topping the table at the start of January with 3.6m (12 feet) lying up high. Before we get ahead of ourselves though, bases in valleys are more likely to be 30-60cm (1-2 feet) and prone to disappearing more quickly if temperatures rise. That's less likely in January than in most months, thankfully.
France
In common with Austria, several French ski areas are starting January with bases of 3 metres (10 feet) or more on their higher slopes, numbers not reached until well into March at the end of last season, so the big picture is a positive one.
The final half of December was mostly warm and dry so lower valleys have suffered, although low-lying resorts like Les Gets and Morzine have seen the snow return in the last day or so.
This January does start well with much more snow at 1500-2000m.
Big ski areas with most of their terrain above 1800m altitude, like the 3 Valleys or Tignes/Val d'Isere, have 90% of their terrain open to start the month - and good snow over much of it.
The forecast as we go to press is indicating some decent, even heavy, snow to quite low levels for the French Alps in particular.
Italy
Most of Italy's ski areas are in good shape for the start of January, at least in terms of open terrain.
Snow depths are generally not as good as further north.
Nearly all runs are open in Dolomiti Superski, for example, even though the snow levels are only 20-60cm at most areas. But they're long experienced at operating with thin snow cover and have almost all their runs open.
That's not the case for the Via Lattea (Milky Way) as we start January though unfortunately. It only has a foot of snow lying and only about a third of its 400km of slopes open so far.
Switzerland
Swiss slopes are in great shape after all the snowfall in November and December.
The country's big resorts and their associated ski areas are reporting almost all of their runs open and decent snow depths – typically 50-100cm, on lower slopes and 150-250 up high.
Verbier and the 4 Valleys is 95% open and most of the country's other big regions like Zermatt, Samnaun and Laax are similarly starting the year operating at almost full capacity.
The only problems are at lower elevations where warm weather has melted valley snow so only key runs are kept open.
The Portes du Soleil is the most obvious case of this with about a third of its runs still closed, although we expect this to change with colder and snowy weather forecast.
Pyrenees
Unfortunately, the Pyrenees have had a bad start to the 23-24 season with very little natural snowfall and warm temperatures impacting snow cover in valleys.
As a result, some centres have only just opened; with resorts like Spain's Cerler only managing to open a few kilometres of slopes, less than 5% of their terrain so far.
That said, the big-name resorts with access to more high-altitude terrain have managed to offer more. Baqueira Beret had the most terrain open all through December, peaking at 120km or about 75% of their terrain, Andorra's Grandvalira (including Soldeu, Pas de la Casa et al) more like 80km, a third of theirs.
Scandinavia
It's looking good in Scandinavia as we start 2024 after a cold autumn and regular snowfalls as well as temperatures low enough for snowmaking.
Most of the region's big resorts have 80-95% of their slopes open, including Sweden's Are and Salen, and Norway's Trysil, only Hemsedal is lagging a little behind.
The final days of December also saw some of the first big snowfalls – up to two feet in 24 hours – reported.
In the far north, in Lapland, January sees the crowds visiting Santa start to dissipate and the sun that dropped below the horizon for a few weeks of non-stop polar night, in the last 2 or 3 weeks of December, begins to reappear for a few minutes each day.
Eastern Europe
It's a mixed picture across Eastern European destinations as we start January.
In the northeast of the continent, it was a largely cold and snowy end to the year with the result that January 2024 is looking much more promising than January 2023 did, with most areas open and posting at least half their slopes skiable.
Jasna, in Slovakia, the region's biggest, has closer to 90% of its runs skiable and a base depth of up to a metre.
Things look promising in Southeast Europe in the first half of December with snowfall down to low levels, but 'springlike' weather to the south has melted cover on lower slopes.
Bansko starts January with about half the runs open, although Borovets reports more than 90%.
Scotland
Scottish ski centres have had their usual up-and-down conditions in the final weeks of December.
What they're lacking is very much snow cover as yet as most of the little hill snow that's arrived has been blown off by 100mph gales or thawed off by warm spells.
Of course, this being Scotland things could change quickly, getting better or still worse. But as we start the month there are just small areas used mostly for nursery slopes at Cairngorm, The Lecht and Glenshee thanks to all-weather snowmaking machines.
Glencoe has a dry slope for nursery skiers and is using its all-weather machine to make a toboggan run.
Nevis Range doesn't have a functioning all-weather snowmaking system so have been struggling to open any snow areas though have had a toboggan run available at times.
North America
Canada
The start of Canada's 23-24 season continues to stutter rather with ski areas on the West and East coasts still battling warm and sometimes wet temperatures, with little snowfall to report.
As a result, the big players on either coast – Whistler in the West and Tremblant in the East, still only have about half of their runs open and thin bases.
The closest to 'normal' is in the Rockies along the BC/Alberta border where centres including Sun Peaks, Sunshine and Lake Louise are posting the biggest open areas in the country.
Others like Panorama say they are 99% open, despite the snow lying only a foot or two deep.
USA
Unfortunately, it's the worst start to the season for quite a few years in the US – the exact opposite of Europe in fact.
On the East Coast, there has been snowfall but then periods of warm weather and rain which has shut centres down right up to the final week of December. Hopefully, January will bring more consistent cold. An El Nino winter like this one typically brings plenty of snowfall to the region, it just needs to be colder.
The West Coast is facing similar issues, but less precipitation, so the big ski areas in California are still battling to open even half their terrain with thin bases.
The best snowfall and conditions have been reported in the Rockies with Jackson Hole already past 3 metres of seasonal snowfall to date and ski areas in Colorado and Utah reporting they're about the only US ski areas fully open (or almost so) for the start of the New Year.
As we go to publish this, there are some decent snowfalls in the forecast, but still a mix of temperatures.