There’s been some snow in the alps this week on higher slopes with up to 15cm/6 inches reported – better than nothing! It’s not the perfect start to winter but with big snowfalls giving a base in late November and some cold weather for snowmaking most resorts do have some terrain skiable, and some a lot – Zermatt has more than 90 miles of groomed runs.
Scandinavia has had slightly more snow in places – up to 25cm this week but the big snowfall has once again been in Western North America where some areas in Colorado and California received a metre in the last five or six days.
Austria
It’s best to be up high in Austria. Obergurgl got 15cm of new snow and the Stubai glacier 14cm (pictured above) but down in the valleys at resorts like Mayrhofen that’s the actual snow depth up top, with nothing in the village. Sadly there’s not much snow forecast either, but if you can get up high you’ll find good piste conditions.
France
(Les Arcs) Conditions in the French Alps are largely good, so long as there’s skiing above 2,000m, which most resorts have. Sop there’s plenty of terrain open at larger resorts although some at lower elevations like Meribel and Morzine need you to take the gondola up to reach the snowline.
Italy
(La Thuile) It’s a similar picture in western Italy to France, but in the Dolomites in the North east there’s still been almost no natural snowfall. However low temperatures have allowed resorts to make lots of snow and hundreds of kilometres of piste are open, despite the hillsides being green and brown on either side. World Cup races are currently taking place in Val Gardena despite the lack of natural snow.
Switzerland
It’s the same again in Switzerland where higher slopes got up to 10cm of new snow on Wednesday and Thursday (Laax, Verbier). Again higher slopes are best. Saas Fee (pictured) has just about managed to maintain top to bottom skiing over its near 2000m vertical and Zermatt reports 150km of runs open.
Pyrenees
Similar again in the Pyrenees (Grandvalira pictured), indeed some reports claim skiing here is marginally better than the Alps. Again there’s lots of terrain open thanks to the snowfalls three weeks ago and subsequent snowmaking, no fresh snow is expected now until 2016.
Eastern Europe
(Pamporovo opens this weekend and is posting pictures of fresh snow and snowmaking. Other Bulgarian and Eastern European centres have 15-30cm bases but have quite a lot of terrain open none-the-less.
Scandinavia
(Roldal) Norway’s Hemsedal claims the biggest snowfall in Europe this week with 25cm of new snow, many other areas have had 10-20cm. so its looking more like a normal winter in Scandinavia now with more runs opening at resorts across the region.
Scotland
After double digit figures below freezing last weekend its been double digit above the past few days damaging bases and it now seems unlikely that any Scottish area will open before the New Year now. although never say never…
Canada
(Kicking Horse) The great snowfall in the west has continued with Whistler reporting another 90cm/3 feet of snow in the last week and several areas reaching 4m or more season-to-date totals already. On the East its a less rosy picture with areas struggling to open with a few centimetres of machine made snow and one of the biggest resorts, Blue Mountain in Ontario, resorting to summer activities for Christmas.
USA
Still more incredible snowfalls in Western USA with Squaw in California, Steamboat in Colorado and Snowbird in Utah all reporting 3-4 feet (90-120cm) of fresh snow in the last seven days. Most other ski areas in the West have had big snowfalls too. It’s very different in the east still alas though with temperatures too warm even for snowmaking and some areas facing a completely green Christmsas. Most of the big names like Killington and Stowe do have some machine made snow cover though.