by Patrick Thorne with First Tracks!! Online Media staff reports
Kiltarlity, Scotland, UK – Heading into mid-June, a number of ski resorts across Europe are opening their glaciers for summer skiing and snowboarding as the ski season debuts in the southern hemisphere. Even so, there are still options to get your ski on across North America as well.n
North America
In a surprise announcement, a second Canadian resort will be joining Whistler Blackcomb for snow sports this weekend. While the Blackcomb glacier re-opens for summer skiing and riding from this Saturday, June 19th, through to July 25th, over on Vancouver Island, Mount Washington has also announced it will re-open its snow slopes this weekend at the start of its summer season.
|
In Utah, a rapidly thinning snowpack caused Snowbird to call it quits on the 2009-10 ski and snowboard season last weekend. |
Mount Washington was top of the world snowfall table for much of the first half of last winter with over six meters (20 feet) of base at times at the resort, which was a pre-Olympic training base for international teams immediately before the Winter games in February. Mount Washington recorded over 15m (approximately 50 feet) of snow throughout the season.
It is now trying to clear snow that’s still lying deep on the upper mountain bike tracks ready for the summer season, but has decided to offer summer skiing this weekend too for the first time in its 32-year history.
At Blackcomb, the deepest snowpack in years awaits summer skiers and riders on the resort’s Horstman Glacier. Summer skiing and snowboarding kicks off there this Saturday.
“It’s looking like an amazing start to the summer season,” says Adam Francis, Whistler Blackcomb’s Summer Glacier Operations Supervisor. “With the incredible amount of snow we received this year, guests will be able to enjoy some of the best summer glacier conditions in recent years.”
Grooming and parks crews have been hard at work building a summer mini pipe under the resort’s Glacier Express chair. The pipe construction and finishing touches will be completed shortly. When the pipe officially opens it will be hike accessible in order allow easy access and multiple runs for guests. As the build-out continues, the bottom of Showcase T-Bar will become jib central with features for both beginner and intermediate skiers and riders. Regular skiing and riding lanes will also be open to the public daily.
Summer glacier camps also hit Blackcomb Mountain, bringing in professional athletes to coach aspiring skiers and riders. Ski and snowboard magazines and professional film crews also frequent the Glacier to check out the scene. This year, Momentum Ski Camps and Camp of Champions will be returning for another summer season with guest coaches includig Olympic gold medal winner Alex Bilodeau and snowboard pro Chris Dufficy, as well as skiers Sarah Burke, TJ Schiller, Mike Riddle, Rory Bushfield, Corey Vanular, and Ian Cosco. Pro snowboard coaches will be represented by TJ Schneider, Rube Goldberg, Beau Bishop, Verra Janssen, Andrew Burns and more.
Access to the Horstman Glacier will start at the base of Blackcomb Mountain via the Wizard Express and Solar Coaster to the Rendezvous. Guests will then take a shuttle bus to the 7th Heaven Express Chair, which will bring them to the top of the Glacier. Lift access to the glacier is via Horstman and Showcase T-bars. Meanwhile, Horstman Hut will be open to the public, offering patio BBQs and light refreshments with a sunny outdoor patio overlooking stunning views of neighboring Whistler Mountain and the surrounding Coast Mountain range.
General public access from the valley runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for sightseers and 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. for skiers and riders. Glacier skiing is available from noon to 3 p.m. daily. Glacier skiing runs until July 25 and terrain park features will be available as long as snow pack and weather allows.
In the U.S., Utah’s Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort decided to end their season after last weekend due to a rapidly melting snowpack, leaving only Mammoth in California and the year-round Timberline ski area in Oregon now open.
Update: Snowbird will, in fact, open this Saturday and Sunday for one last hurrah. For details, click here.
Western Europe
Les 2 Alpes is the first of France’s three ski areas that still offer summer glacier skiing and boarding to open for the season today. The pistes open from 7:15 a.m. daily until the 28th of August, with 2.4m (eight feet) of snow lying on the glacier. The resort’s summer ski area, one of Europe’s largest, covers 200 hectares and has eight runs and a large snow park complete with two half pipes and a superpipe located between 2900 and 3600m of altitude.
Neighboring Tignes and Val d’Isere are the only other glacier summer ski areas still operating in France, since Alpe d’Huez, La Plagne and Val Thorens all stopped offering summer snow sports in recent years. Both will open within days of Les 2 Alpes for their summer seasons.
So, skiing and snowboarding is back on the menu in France, after the past six weeks when it was the only one of the four big Alpine ski nations to not offer snow sports. Glacier ski resorts in Austria, Italy and Switzerland remain open.
The Dachstein glacier in southern Austria has re-opened for summer skiing, two weeks later than planned. A technical issue following the replacement of the steel cable on the Dachstein access cable car, the first such maintenance since the lift was installed in 1969, led to the postponed opening. As a gesture of good will operators the Planai-Hochwurzen-Railways decided to lower season ticket prices.
The area’s popular Horsefeathers Superpark has now opened with a new design for summer 2010 and is reported by the operators to be in perfect shape. New features include a row of four rails and a line of new boxes designed for beginners and intermediates.
Following Stubai’s closure over the weekend, all other Austrian glaciers are now closed except for Tux, which has 25km of runs to enjoy on a 295cm (10 foot) deep snow pack with nine lifts operating. The Kitsteinhorn glacier above Kaprun and the Molltal glacier will each re-open over the next few weeks.
Three glacier ski areas are now open in Italy following the re-opening of Val Senales over the weekend. It joins Passo Stelvio and the Presena glacier above Passo Tonale, which had one red and one black run open over the weekend but is likely to close in the near future. Cervinia, however, will reopen a week from Saturday for summer skiing and boarding, keeping the Italian choices up to three.
Val Senales, in Italy’s South Tyrol, opened its Nitro Snowpark for the summer season on Saturday with a special opening party including barbecue BBQ, beer and “Tirolerpfeif”. Events coming up during the six-week summer snow season includes Girls Weekend June 25-26, a Rookie Camp for children from July 23 to August 10, and a “Koolt Action Weekend” with Skate/Snow/BMX and soccer and beach volleyball tournaments.
Zermatt remains the only summer skiing and riding option in Switzerland, with Europe’s highest ski lifts in operation touching 3,900m.
Northern Europe
In Northern Europe, Scotland’s Cairngorm and Finland’s Ruka finally ended their long seasons last week, leaving only Norway with ski slopes open on its three glaciers of Folgefonn, Galdhoppigen and Stryn.
Southern Hemisphere
In the southern hemisphere, fresh snow in Australia, Lesotho and New Zealand has led to more resorts opening.
Fresh snow across Australia’s ski areas helped get the season off to a positive start last the weekend, when the country’s resorts began opening for winter 2010. Temperatures have been low for the best part of a month, allowing for plenty of pre-season snowfall and with 10-15cm (four to six inches) of natural snowfall just before the resorts were scheduled to open, it’s been a very good start to the season.
Perisher in New South Wales was the first to open on Friday, reporting 10cm of new snow on a base the resort had been building for over a month with their snowmaking equipment. Mt. Buller has four lifts open with the resort’s Bourke Street run in good shape. Mt. Hotham has three lifts operating and Thredbo six lifts, four runs and a basic terrain park. Falls Creek has 10cm (four inches) of new snow, too, and three lifts running.
In New Zealand, conditions are some of the best in the southern hemisphere with Mt. Hutt the second resort to open last weekend, a week after Coronet Peak and most of the country’s other ski areas opening over the next two weekends. Most have at least a meter (3.3 feet) of snow depth ready for a good start to the season.
The early snowfall was enough to prompt Mt. Ruapehu Alpine Lifts to open its Turoa Ski Area on New Zealand’s North Island tomorrow, two days ahead of schedule, although a natural ice release from the High Noon Express lift caused damage to the chairlift. Repairs are underway, but may delay opening of the ski area’s summit terrain where a meter of snow on the ground awaits ski enthusiasts.
In South America, more resorts are opening, too. The “Three Valleys of South America” — the linked ski areas of El Colorado and Valley Nevado — are now open with more snow expected in the next few days. Portillo has delayed its plan to open this Saturday by a week as the 40cm of snow at the base of the Chilean resort is apparently not enough to open with. Resorts in Argentina have yet to open, but expect to start doing so shortly.
In Southern Africa it’s all white at Tiffindell in South Africa and at Afriski in Lesotho. Two hundred meters of the main slope is open at the latter where there’s a reported base of 50cm (20 inches) thanks to low temperatures for snowmaking.