by Patrick Thorne with First Tracks!! Online Media staff reports
Kiltarlity, Scotland, UK – Winter is here, at least it is if we forget that it’s still technically autumn. There’s been more heavy early season and pre-season snow at ski and snowboard resorts across the Alps, North America, Scotland and Scandinavia – in fact, in most places.nMore resorts have now opened across North America, where there are now more than 20 place to go skiing and riding, including Canada’s first this season. Ski resorts in the Pyrenees have reported 60cm of snow in the past 24 hours as heavy snow has been reported in most of the Alps. They’ve seen up to 60cm of new snow in the past week in Scandinavia as well.
In North America, Lake Louise in the Canadian province of Alberta was the first Canadian resort to open this season this past weekend. Nakiska, also in Alberta, hopes to open this weekend and others including, Marmot Basin, Alberta, and Sun Peaks in British Columbia hope to open soon thereafter. Whistler has reported plenty of fresh snow this week and is hinting at a possible early opening.
More ski areas have opened across the U.S. and though the situation is changing daily there are probably now more ski areas open here at present than in any other country. Keystone in Colorado and Killington in Vermont are among the latest, with Breckenridge, Colo., due to follow this weekend. Other Colorado resorts currently open include Wolf Creek, Arapahoe Basin, Copper Mountain and Loveland Ski Area.
The ski season starts in Utah on Thursday at Brighton and Friday at Solitude following a storm that left up to 16 inches of new snow in the Wasatch Mountains, and a refresher is expected to add a few more inches today. Brighton’s Thursday debut was moved up a day from its original schedule, and will include limited skiing and riding via the Majestic and Snake Creek Express chairs. Brighton is offering any veteran or active military free skiing on opening day, which falls on Veteran’s Day. There’s also a possibility for more snow to fall there this weekend when the lifts start spinning in Big Cottonwood Canyon.
In California, Squaw Valley reports a foot (30cm) of fresh snow that fell from top to bottom and Mammoth Mountain will launch its 2010-11 ski and snowboard season tomorrow. Boreal reopened this week after closing for a few days of warm weather. They’re making snow in southern California at Mountain High, Bear Mountain and Snow Summit in an effort to get the si season underway in the southern part of the state near Los Angeles.
Despite a less than encouraging mid-range forecast in the eastern U.S. approaching that Thanksgiving holiday later this month, Maine’s Sunday River will reopen Thursday through the weekend with upper mountain skiing on T2. All active and retired military members and immediate family are invited to Sunday River on Thursday for free skiing and riding on Veterans Day. In Vermont, Killington is uploading and downloading via its K-1 gondola for skiing and snowboarding via the North Ridge Triple chair. No resorts are presently open in eastern Canada.
In Europe, there’s been plenty of fresh snow in Austria with the Molltal glacier reporting the most new snow of the dozen or so open Austrian ski areas with a 46cm accumulation. It has one of the deepest snow depths in the country at around 1.5m along with the Kaunertal, Pitztal and Tux glaciers. Solden has 1.2m.
Temperatures have been cooler in France and snow has replaced earlier rain since the weekend. There has been up to 20cm of snow in the Alps and Pyrenees in the past few days and larger snowfalls are expected in the next three days. Tignes is still the only ski resort currently open in France with 35cm of snow on the Grande Motte glacier. Eight lifts are running there, serving 16km of open runs.
Meanwhile, conditions are looking great at Italy’s open resorts. The Presena Glacier reported 50cm of fresh snow on Sunday and currently claims the deepest snow in the world with a three meter base on its glacier slopes. Cervinia is also open on weekends.
Half a dozen ski areas are open in Switzerland, including Engelberg, Les Diablerets, Laax and Zermatt. Saas fee has the deepest snow depth in the country with 1.8 meters.
The aforementioned snow has fallen in the Pyrenees but no ski areas are open there at present. Formigal received 15cm of snow on Monday and another 60cm in the past 24 hours. Plans there are to open for the season on Nov. 27.
Moving north to Scandinavia, Norway’s ski slopes have seen up to 60cm of new snowfall in the past week. Voss has the most snow accumulated at the moment, a total of 60cm after receiving 30cm of fresh cover in the past seven days. About a dozen ski areas are open in Norway at present, although two thirds of these are currently open only on weekends.
The ski season in the southern hemisphere is now over after Turoa, on Mt. Ruaphehu on the North Island of New Zealand, wrapped it up for the year on Sunday.