It’s looking like a possible powder weekend on the slopes of some of the half-dozen glacier ski areas currently open in the Alps. The end of August is a very quiet time in the ski year in the northern hemisphere with most summer ski areas having ended their 2018 openings and few glacier areas yet open for the coming autumn and winter, but mother nature appears to have decided to round out the last weekend of August, and summer by the meteorological measure, by ending the sunny weather with a nice snowfall. The snow is forecast above about 2000 metres in altitude as a very cold front crosses the Alps.  That’s not unusual for this time of year, although for…

One of Japan’s most northerly ski areas has reported its earliest ever snowfall – on the morning of August 17th. The snow, on Mount Kuro in the Daisetsuzan Mountains, was reported at the top station of the Daisetsuzan Sōunkyō Kurodake lift, the most northerly cable car in Japan, located on the country’s famous ski island of Hokkaidō, home to numerous ski resorts with a reputation for deep powder in winter including world-famous Niseko. Most of Japan is still in mid-summer mode, and there have recently been record-breaking hot weather in the country, but a cold front crossing the Sea of Japan brought the winter-like conditions even before autumn has arrived. The snowfall at the ski area near the town of…