by Patrick Thorne with First Tracks!! Online Media staff reports
Kiltarlity, Scotland, UK – Huge snowfalls of more than two feet, or 60cm, have been reported at ski resorts in Australia at the end of last week and in the Austrian, German and Italian Alps in the past 48 hours.nUp to 70cm (28 in.) of snow has fallen in the past 36 hours on northern Alpine glaciers, so it’s slightly ironic that the number of European ski areas open has dropped to seven, after the two French centers of Tignes and Les 2 Alpes ended the country’s summer ski season last weekend. Cervinia in Italy is due to follow suit this weekend. In Tignes case the closure is only for three weeks and it will be one of the first resorts in the world to open for “winter” 2010-11 later this month.
All is not lost, however, as in Austria Soëlden is currently hoping to start their winter 2010-11 season this Saturday following the heavy snowfall there, a month earlier than planned. They’ve currently got a 61cm (two-foot) base. The Pitztal Glacier, which was due to be the first to open for 2010-11 on September 15th has not announced any plans to open early, but has reported 50cm (20 inches) of fresh snow.
The Kitzsteinhorn Glacier above Kaprun, which closed unexpectedly in August due to the snow on the glacier all but melting away, has still not re-opened even though it, too, has received several feet of new snow and now boasts 55–65cm over a 500m vertical. It’s the same at present on the Dachstein glacier, although it reports a foot of new snow.
The Molltal glacier has had 50cm (20 inches) of new snow and now has a 1.3m (4.3-foot) base. Snowfalls have been less spectacular on the Tux glacier but it still has the most terrain open, with 20km of runs to enjoy and a 95cm (three-foot) base.
In Germany the Zugspitz glacier has reported 70cm (28 inches) of new snow but is not yet open. It Italy Val Senales reports 30cm (a foot) of new snow, taking its total base to a meter, but Cervinia has only had an inch or so of new snow, as have its Swiss neighbors Zermatt and Saas Fee, reporting 120cm (four feet) of base and “spring-like” conditions.
There’s no skiing today in North America as the only ski area due to be open, Timberline on Mt. Hood in Oregon, is closed due to rain and wind. It’s due to close soon shortly anyway for its annual maintenance shutdown for a few weeks in late September.
The season’s first snow dusted some ski resorts around the western U.S. and Canada on Monday, including ski areas in Utah, Colorado, Montana, Oregon and British Columbia. On the upside Loveland in Colorado, one of the world’s highest resorts and typically one of the first to open in North America each year — usually in early October — has announced it has wheeled its portable snowmaking guns onto the trail, ready for temps to drop low enough for snowmaking to begin.
In the southern hemisphere the big news was Australia’s leading ski areas being dumped upon in a big way at the end of last week (and still a little bit now), and in some cases reporting the best August snowfalls for more than two decades.
“We smashed the record books with some of the best snow the mountain has seen in years! The resort received 34cms of snow, rendering it as the best August snowfall recorded since 1985!” said an excited spokesperson for Mt. Buller.
It’s a similar story at the country’s largest resort, Perisher, where officials think that this August could still end up their snowiest ever as the snow is still falling. There has been no other August since 1984 where more snow has fallen.
Perisher has had more than 30cm of fresh snow settle across the resort, bringing to 2.6m the snowfall accumulated since Aug. 1 with wind drifts over 1.5m deep in places.
Mt. Hotham reports 102cm in the past week with 47cm of fresh snow overnight on Wednesday – the biggest single dump on record since 2003. A total of 82cm fell in 48 hours last weekend, making it the resort’s snowiest August since 1992. All 13 lifts are operating with plenty of powder stashes to be found.
In New Zealand there’s been less fresh snow but more world class competitions, with the FIS Junior World Championships at Cardrona and SnowParkNZ declared a success as they drew to a close. Mt. Hutt continues to have some of the best snow in the country receiving yet another 14cm (six inches) yesterday, taking base depths up to 205cm (nearly seven feet). There’s been fresh snow, if less of it, at Coronet Peak and The Remarkables, which are both looking good though they have around half the snow depth.
But Treble Cone went one better than Mt. Hutt with 30cm (a foot) of snow falling in 30 hours last Friday, just in time for the weekend. The snow is still falling there with another 5cm in the past 12 hours and base depths past 180cm (six feet), so conditions are spectacular.
Snow depths are also still good on the North Island’s Mt. Ruapehu, where Turoa has more than 1.6m (five feet) of snow and Whakapapa 112cm (nearly four feet).
Cardrona has a 105cm base but Rainbow Ski Area unfortunately remains closed for nearly two weeks now while awaiting more snow.
Across the Pacific in South America there’s been fresh snow, with Chapelco’s base depth on upper slopes hitting 225cm (7.5 feet). Conditions are fairly amazing at Catedral, too, with base depths at the continent’s biggest ski resort up to 3.3m (11 feet) on upper slopes and 80cm (nearly three feet) at the base. Although it’s as cold as -10C at Las Leñas the snow is not so great — 60cm (two feet) at the top but only 20cm (eight inches) at the base.
It’s snowing in parts of Chile, too. Valle Nevado, another of the continent’s big areas, has had 9cm (four inches) in the past 24 hours, taking its season-long snowfall to 381cm, or nearly 13 feet. At Portillo it’s still not a memorable season, but they’ve had 5cm (two inches) of new snow today, a small boost to the 80cm (32-inch) upper slope base depths, but the powder skiing for which the resort is most famous remains sadly limited.
Across the Atlantic, Afriski, the only ski area that’s been officially open in Africa for the southern hemisphere’s winter is due to close this weekend after a successful season.
“Spring has arrived at the resort. The peach trees in the valley are blossoming and our snow is sadly melting,” said a resort statement.
Snow depth on the main run which had been above 70cm (2.3 feet) for several months has dropped to 45cm (18 inches) and the run length has also decreased to 440m. The snowpark and a diminished beginners area are still open, though.
All of the snow this season has been machine made and Afriski’s snow guns got tantalizingly close to raking up 500 hours of operation, but it now looks like they‘ll finish the season with 496 hours. Temperatures are set to hit double figures Celsuis for the final few days of the Lesotho ski area’s season.