Ski Club Snow ReportsSki Club Snow Reports
Snow reports supplied by the
Ski Club of Great Britain
The summer skiing season has now ended in France as Tignes and Les Deux Alpes have closed their glaciers until the winter season.
Most of Austria and parts of Italy received loads of snow at the end of August. Up to 40cm fell in places with the snow landing at altitudes as low as 1400m in Austria. The brief wintry blast is expected to give way to summer again by the weekend.
Fresh snow fell at all of our reported Australian resorts last week, boosting the snow base but now the snow has now packed down. In New Zealand all of the resorts have received new snow this week, which again has improved the snow cover.
Chapa Verde in Chile is now closed for the season while the remaining open resorts all report fresh snowfall this week.
Cerro Catedral in Argentina has superb skiing and boarding on offer thanks to yet another massive dump of snow. It’s cold, there’s plenty of powder and the skies are now clear so enjoy the excellent early spring skiing.
If you were in Austria on Monday 30th and Tuesday 31st August you’d be forgiven for having thought it was winter. It was snowing on both days, right down to around 1400m. Areas above 2000m received more than 20cm of snow which is very rare for August.
30cm fell on the glacier at Hintertux (95cm) over the course of both days. It was also about -9°C while the snow fell so there was lots of dry powder around for the lucky skiers there. The sun came out on Thursday 2nd September providing excellent visibility to enjoy the new snow.
Further snow showers are possible above 3000m over the whole of Austria for the next few days which should keep the snow in good condition.
The summer ski season is now over at Tignes, Val d’Isere and Les Deux Alpes. Maintenance work will take place between now and when they open for the winter 2010/11 season.
A dusting of fresh snow fell at Saas Fee (119cm) on Saturday 28th August. It’s still quite cold up on the glacier so the snow is in good condition for the time of year. There’s plenty of their summer terrain open as well with ten of the lifts operating on Thursday 2nd September, only one short of the full compliment of summer lifts.
There is more snow over at Zermatt (176cm) but it’s virtually the same in terms of condition. All of their summer ski lifts were running on Thursday 2nd September. 17km of prepared pistes are available to ski on at the moment.
A sunny and warm weekend is expected but there could be some rain early next week. It could fall as snow on the very tops of the mountains but on the whole the precipitation will be wet.
The skiing in our two featured Italian summer skiing resorts is vastly different following the big dump of fresh snow that fell towards the east of the country recently.
Val Senales (100cm) received loads of fresh snow on Monday 30th and Tuesday 31st August. Up to 40cm of fresh snow fell, even down to lower levels and this is incredible for the time of year and his given the glacier ski runs a huge boost.
Cervinia (80cm) is located a lot further west and unfortunately didn’t benefit from any of the snow from the storm further east. It did go colder though so the pistes are fairly hard packed throughout the day. Milder weather is on its way however which should soften things up again.
The Blackcomb Glacier at Whistler has now closed for the summer ski season. They will reopen again in November for the start of the winter season.
Wet weather closed the ski lifts at the America resort of Timberline (85cm) on Wednesday 1st September but the weather brightened up for Thursday 2nd. The good news is that this bright and sunny weather is forecast to last into then weekend. Cloudy and possibly snowy weather is expected on Sunday 5th September.
Last weeks fresh snow in Australia has now all packed down but the snowfall was good for the existing snow base. Much warmer weather has moved over the area and as a result the snow is a bit soft and wet, especially lower down.
Mount Hotham (143/193cm), Perisher (193cm) and Thredbo (193cm) all have the same upper base depth. Nearly two metres of snow is fantastic for the resorts as they don’t usually have that much snow on the ground. If you’re after the best snow stick to the upper slopes generally as that’s where it’s coldest and the snow is best preserved. The cover is complete everywhere though.
Ben Lomond (15/20cm) has had a very limited season so far but is finally open for skiing and boarding at the moment. On Thursday 2nd September they had five of their seven lifts running.
A mixture of rain and snow is forecast for most of the resorts. Saturday 4th September at Mt Hotham is expected to be very windy with heavy rain all over the mountain, which will unfortunately deteriorate the snow conditions if the forecast hold true.
Fresh snow has graced all of our featured New Zealand resorts this week. The heaviest snowfall has been reported at Mount Dobson (275cm) and Mt Lyford (300cm) which both received 45cm of fresh snow. Mount Dobson reported this fresh snow on 30th August while Mt Lyford received it a day later. Snowfall at the other resorts has only really been a dusting but it has been enough to freshen up the on and off-trail cover.
Unfortunately strong winds on Thursday 2nd September forced three resorts in New Zealand to close for the day including Mount Dobson (275cm), Mount Hutt (190cm) and Turoa (1565cm). Rainbow (57cm) is still temporarily closed due to insufficient snow cover but the base coverage is improving thanks to the current wintry conditions.
Further snowfall is forecast across New Zealand on Friday 3rd September then a brief sunny respite is expected on Saturday 4th September. Cloudy and possibly snowy weather should then return on Sunday 5th.
All of the open Chilean resorts we feature have received fresh snow this week, freshening up the on and off-piste snow cover.
Termas de Chillan (190/320cm) received the most snow when 30cm fell on 29th August. The next greatest snowfall amount was 12cm, which fell at El Colorado (48/58cm) and La Parva (140cm) in the Three Valleys ski area on 31st August.
The forecast over the weekend is for clear and sunny skies which should provide great visibility to take advantage of the new snow.
Chapa Verde is now closed for the season.
Base depths at two of our three featured Argentinean resorts have increased massively since Thursday 26th August. Yet another large winter storm dropped a metre or more of snow on Chapelco (65/230cm) and Cerro Catedral (80/330cm).
Both resorts have the deepest snow base they’ve had of the season so far and as such they offer superb skiing, especially on the upper slopes, following that massive dump of snow recently.
The arrival of spring in the southern hemisphere seems to be bringing the most snow. A further 21cm of snow is forecast at Cerro Catedral.
Check out the latest snow conditions in your favourite ski resorts. These snow reports are the most up-to-date you can find and are supplied daily by the Ski Club of Great Britain.