Snow report: Where the white stuff is falling this week

Good news from the Alps, where the much anticipated storm is delivering snow to many resorts.  The south-western Alps have had the lion’s share so far, but other areas are starting to benefit as the snow extends further north and east.

Austria still boasts the greatest extent of skiing in the Alps with Ischgl now offering 108km of runs on a 60cm upper base.  It hasn’t snowed here for a while, and you still can’t get back to resort, but high up the pistes are in good shape.  Not far away, Sölden offers 72km of pistes (about half of which are on the glacier) on an 87cm base. Obergurgl, Stubai and Hintertux are the 3 best alternatives but most non-glacial resorts in Austria need lots more snow before they can open properly.  This includes Lech (pictured, from lech-zuers.at) which was due to open tomorrow, but has had to postpone until 8 December.  The good news is that snow will reach most Austrian resorts tonight or tomorrow with further falls possible over the weekend and into next week.

France

Photo, from merilys.com, shows it’s snowing at last in Meribel this morning

Val Thorens opened last Thursday, 2 days ahead of schedule and has 19 pistes open on a 60cm upper base (despite the bad weather today).  It’s also snowing in Tignes which is operating 7 lifts and remains the only other option until the weekend.  Here too there is 60cm on the glacier and enough snow on the long double M run to ski back to Val Claret.  Neighbouring Val d’Isère joins the action on Saturday for the official opening of L’Espace Killy and fingers are crossed that the current storm will deliver enough snow for the resorts to link properly.  Several other resorts also open this weekend, including Les 2 Alpes where lots of snow has already fallen this week and prospects are excellent.

Switzerland

More and more resorts have been opening up in Switzerland, albeit most of them in a limited capacity.  In Zermatt up to a dozen runs have been open this week, some of which offer 1500m vertical from the top of the Klein Matterhorn all the way down to Furgg.  All but one run on Gornergrat is closed today due to bad weather, but conditions will be superb once skies clear.  Saas-Fee is also closed with heavy snow forecast all day, but it is better news for St Moritz, where it is also snowing hard but they have managed to open 6 runs today on an 80cm upper base.  Other limited options include Verbier and Davos.

Italy

Lots of snow has fallen over the western Italian Alps this week – to quite low levels too – which is great news for the Milky Way (Sauze d’Oulx, Sestriere) which plans to open this weekend.  One resort in western Italy that has already opened is Cervinia, though the weather might have other ideas today.  Here there is at least 160cm of snow on the glacier and, with lots of fresh snow, conditions should be epic once skies clear.

Further east, a handful of resorts are also open including Cortina, Livigno and Val Senales all of which have seen fresh snow at altitude.

Rest of Europe

A handful of resorts are open for business in Scandinavia where the best skiing is in Hemsedal (Norway) with 20 slopes and a 55cm upper base.  Ruka (10 slopes, 27cm base) is one of several resorts doing alright in Finland but Åre in Sweden (2 lifts, 17cm base) is in urgent need of new snow.

Better news for the Pyrenees where snow has been falling this week and several resorts expect to open with good conditions on Saturday – including those in Andorra.

USA

Colorado resorts are in urgent need of new snow but will have to wait until the middle of next week before anything significant arrives.  Many resorts including Vail (46cm upper base) are partially open thanks to artificial help but off-piste is extremely limited or non-existent. 

Californian resorts have done better so far this season and have lots more snow in the forecast.  Leading the way is Mammoth where 90 trails were open on Tuesday (37 groomed) and the upper base is 91cm deep. 

Utah resorts such as Snowbird (4 lifts, 66cm mid-mountain base) are doing ok thanks to one massive dump a couple of weeks back.  Snow would be welcome though and there is some in the forecast for later in the week and over the weekend.  Further north, Jackson Hole (2 lifts, 86cm upper base) opened with decent conditions last weekend and here too, there is more snow in the forecast.

Canada

Western Canada continues to offer excellent early conditions, especially in Banff/Lake Louise, left,  (19 lifts, 106cm upper base) where more snow is forecast later in the week.  More snow is also expected at altitude in Whistler, but milder air here means that rain will be a nuisance lower down.  The resort had an impressive 56 runs open on Tuesday with a 105cm mid-mountain base.

For further details, go to weathertoski.co.uk, where snow reports are updated daily.