by Patrick Thorne with First Tracks!! Online Media staff reports

Kiltarlity, Scotland, UK – More ski areas have opened in the Alps for “winter” 2010-11, while heavy snowfalls have been reported in North America and in the southern hemisphere in New Zealand in the past few days.nIn France, Tignes will re-open its glacier this weekend, less than a month after it ended its summer snow season. The resort will be open through to next May and for the next two months will, with the exception of a brief opening of Les 2 Alpes in late October and the indoor snow center in Amneville, be the only area open in the country.

Six glacier ski areas are now open in Austria after the Stubai and Kaunertal glaciers joined already open Hintertux, Solden, Molltal and Pitztal glaciers over the weekend. The Dachstein and Kitzsteinhorn Glaciers remain unexpectedly closed, although the latter has a 42cm (17-inch) base.

In Switzerland it’s still either Saas Fee or Zermatt with a meter to 150cm of snow on the ground and terrain parks open. It’s still a few more weeks until the glaciers of St. Moritz, Gstaad and Engelberg join the party.

In Italy Val Senales still has a one-meter base. It received 5cm (two inches) of new snow on Saturday to freshen up its slopes.

In northern Europe, Ruka, which has a similarly long season to Tignes except that it has no glacier, just the advantages of a northerly latitude up at the top of Finland, has announced it plans to open next week on Oct. 1. It then hopes to stay open through to June 2011. Ruka also has some of the lowest priced lift tickets for a major resort in Europe. In the low season, which runs from Oct. 1 to Dec. 17 and then again in May 2011, the price for an adult day ticket bought online is only 29.5 Euros and a six-day ticket 131.5 Euros, compared to most major resorts in the Alps which generally come in the 190-220 Euro price band. Even in the main season a six-day ticket bought online is only 164.50 Euros.

There’s currently no skiing in Africa or in North America, as Timberline in Oregon is closed until October for its annual maintenance period. But the snow is already starting to fall, especially at the northern end of the continent.

Marmot Basin above Jasper and Banff–Lake Louise, all in the Canadian province of Alberta, have reported big snowfalls in the past 48 hours. Over 20cm of snow blanketed Banff-Lake Louise on Monday with more forecast. The snowstorm started on the 20th and continued non-stop throughout the night.

Jasper’s Marmot Basin also received over 10 cm of snow on Monday with considerably more accumulation at higher elevations. At 1,700 meters, Marmot boasts the highest base elevation of all Canadian ski resorts, meaning it often gets large amounts of snow when it is raining lower down in the Athabasca Valley and the town of Jasper. That was exactly the case on Monday when a mix of rain and snow fell on the valley floor while heaps of wet, white snow fell on the mountain slopes.

Last winter Marmot opened on Nov. 11, its earliest opening date ever, with ideal snow conditions. So far this fall is shaping up to deliver a repeat performance of last year’s early season snowfalls, which helped contribute to Marmot’s record setting year for attendance.

“I think this snow is here to stay”, predicted an optimistic Brian Rode, Marmot’s VP of Marketing and Sales. “We may still get some warm weather, but given that it’s nearing the end of September, I am quite sure this is the beginning of a very good base layer.”

Marmot Basin is once again targeting Nov. 11 as the opening day of the season. Mt. Norquay near Banff is shooting for a Halloween opening on Oct. 31.

It’s getting towards the end of the season in the southern hemisphere but New Zealand is seeing the biggest snowfalls of the winter to date.

“We have received heavy snow mainly from the west and northwest since late last week,” Ruapehu Alpine Lifts, the operator of both Whakapapa and Turoa ski areas on Mt. Ruapehu on New Zealand’s North Island, said in a statement this week. “Whakapapa has gone from 130cm’s a week ago to over two meters. Turoa has received just as much snow but it has come with higher winds meaning the snow stake measurement hasn’t changed as much. Don’t be fooled though, conditions will be way better when the storm passes.”

It’s a similar story at other New Zealand areas, with most reporting up to 60cm (two feet) of new snow over recent days but with strong winds and other extreme weather problems meaning most have had to close their slopes until the storm, which began over the weekend, passes over. A spectacular upcoming weekend is in the making.

It’s not all good news, though, as the heavy snow led to a collapse of a sports hall and on Ruapehu, Tower 8 of the High Noon Express has been damaged by the storm. The resort has already ordered replacement parts from a New Zealand-based company and hopes to have the lift fixed by Sunday, with the lift hopefully operational late next week.

There’s been no fresh snow in Australia but conditions are still good at most ski areas thanks to the huge snowfalls in August and subsequent top-ups. Temperatures have been touching double figures above zero Celsius at some areas and most are reporting “beautiful spring-like conditions.”

Thredbo, for example, still has 1.7m (nearly six feet) of snow lying at mid mountain. Officials there have announced plans to extend the 2010 ski season to Oct. 10, conditions permitting, with lift operations gradually being reduced over coming weeks until it’s just the Kosciuszko Express (to village or mid-station, depending on conditions) and the Basin T-bar in the final days of operation.

At Falls Creek snow depths are a little lower, just above a meter, although deeper in the snowmaking areas. It’s a similar story at Mt. Hotham, which says it has concluded snowmaking for the season.

Over in South America, Chile’s Valle Nevado is into the last few weeks of the season, but temperatures are still below freezing and the snow tally for the season has just passed the four-meter (13.3-foot) mark. The hotels are scheduled to close this weekend but limited terrain will remain open to Oct. 2. At Portillo snow depths are 25-50cm (10-20 inches) with no new snow in the past week and spring-like conditions. In Argentina, one of the top resorts, Las Leñas, closed on Monday, but Catedral is still open with a diminishing snow pack on upper slopes, down to 1.7m (just under six feet).