by Patrick Thorne with First Tracks!! Online Media staff reports
Kiltarlity, Scotland, UK – More ski areas opened in Europe last weekend and more are scheduled to do so next weekend, but temperatures across the Alps are warming up. Meanwhile, the ski and snowboard season in the U.S. is finally drawing to a close while more ski areas are opening for the southern hemisphere winter across South America and Australasia.n
North America
In North America, Mammoth Mountain’s long ski season appears to be nearing its end this weekend, with the last day of their nine-month season on Monday, July 5th to conclude the Independence Day weekend. The California resort is currently offering its guests the chance to ski or board, play a round on the local nine-hole golf course and do some mountain biking all in one day for $99.
At the nearly year-round Timberline ski area on Mount Hood in Oregon, lifts and runs are open, including the Otto Lang terrain park, but the resort’s halfpipe is currently closed for construction.
North of the border Whistler’s Blackcomb glacier remains open with its many summer camps. Whistler’s Momentum Ski Camps will stage “Momentum Splashdown,” an event for professional skiers and campers, on Tuesday, July 6 from 4 to 6 p.m. Olympic gold medalist Alex Bilodeau will judge the aerial offerings of some of the North America’s best skiers at the water ramps located adjacent to Blackcomb Mountain’s Base II area.
Europe
Warm temperatures, even above 3000m in the Alps are making conditions “sticky.” In France Les 2 Alpes is planning a big event this weekend. The Kumi Yama contest is a Japanese themed slopestyle and superpipe contest from July 2nd to 4th, which will feature X Games and Winter Olympic champions. The glacier ski areas at Tignes and Val d’Isere remain open, too.
In Switzerland, Saas Fee is due to open this Saturday, joining its neighbor Zermatt which is open year-round. Saas Fee has a three meter (ten foot) base waiting for those hitting its slopes this weekend.
In Italy, Cervinia has opened for summer skiing with a two meter (nearly seven-foot) base, but the Presena glacier above Passo Tonale has closed, keeping the total number of Italian ski areas open at three, the other two being Passo Stelvio and Val Senales.
Austria again has four ski areas open following the Molltal glacier re-opening over the weekend, more than any other northern hemisphere country, The Molltal glacier has 9km of runs open, served by three lifts with 250cm (eight feet) of snow.
On the Kitzsteinhorn glacier above Kaprun the snow is a meter thick at the top of the glacier but only 5cm is left at the Alpincentre which you can currently ski down to, but not for much longer.
The Dachstein Glacier has 180cm of snow on the glacier and two lifts, two runs and a terrain park open. Their ice palace under the glacier has also seen the arrivals of giant frozen ice sculptures of The Simpsons.
The Tux glacier, which is open virtually year round, has one of the biggest ski areas open at present with 20km of runs served by nine lifts and a 550m vertical.
It’s colder and the snow is in better shape in Norway, where three glacier areas remain open. Folgefonn has a two-meter base, Galdhøpiggen four meters and Stryn 4.5 meters – the deepest reported by any open ski area anywhere.
Australia and New Zealand
Some fresh snow has fallen over the past week in Australia, and low temperatures have allowed the resorts to make a lot of snow. More snow is forecast throughout the rest of the week. Mt. Buller is typical of all the leading Australian ski areas in that temperatures there reached a low of -6.3ºC last night and heading to a high of -2ºC today, perfect conditions to blast some quality man made snow around the clock across the whole resort. Four lifts are operating there with a coverage of 46cm in all open areas. But with forecast snow showers throughout this week and heavy snowmaking underway since Saturday morning, they are anticipating that more intermediate terrain will be open later this week.
In New Zealand almost all ski areas are now open and there’s been more fresh snow. Whakapapa on Mt. Ruapehu reports 22cm of new snow and an average base depth of 60cm. Most other ski areas have a similar amount of snow, with Mt. Hutt near Methven having some of the deepest snow with 125cm.
The 2010 winter season is officially underway in Lake Wanaka with all four fields now open for business and reporting excellent snow conditions. Good snowfalls in May and optimum snowmaking conditions throughout June have provided the mountains across the region with a good base and quality snow coverage for the start of the season.
Snow Farm, New Zealand’s only Nordic ski area was the first to open near Wanaka in early June, then at Treble Cone’s opening last week, skiers and boarders enjoyed outstanding conditions with all lifts operating. Skiers in The Saddle were treated to great powder with fresh tracks well into the morning.
The ideal weather conditions and excellent snow base produced plenty of smiles at Cardrona Alpine Resort’s opening. A new 40-meter tunnel, providing a unique access route across the ski area proved popular with skiers and boarders. Cardrona now boasts the largest number of chairlifts on New Zealand’s South Island with the installation of the Valley View Quad, opening up even more terrain.
The roll-out of Lake Wanaka’s ski areas continued as the freestyle action got underway at Snow Park NZ on Saturday. New for the terrain park is a learner tow rope and designated area for beginners as well as a new transport service to take passengers to and from the mountain every day with extra frequency for night riding sessions Tuesday, Friday and Saturday nights. This season Snow Park NZ will launch its 22-foot halfpipe and quarter pipe as well as many new rails and boxes.
Africa
There’s been no new natural snowfall on southern Africa’s ski slopes, but Afriski in Lesotho has been able to keep making snow as temperatures have fluctuated between highs of +4ºC in the daytime and a low of -5ºC at night. It has about 65cm of snow lying on its 400m-long main run, and the beginner run is also open.
South America
Over in South America there has been quite a lot of fresh snow falling in both Chile and Argentina, enabling more ski resorts to open.
In Chile, Portillo opened a week later than planned last weekend, and has about two feet of snow. Valle Nevado reports it has had more than 2 meters of snowfall so far this season and currently has a 50cm base on the slopes. The connection to La Parva is open, but not the one to El Colorado.
Argentina’s largest ski resort, Catedral, is also now partially open although it reports only 50cm of snow on upper slopes and nothing at the base, with only limited terrain open as a result. Las Leñas is looking a little better with 40cm at the base and 85cm on upper slopes, but temperatures have been peaking at a too-warm 12ºC.