Ski Russia

With so many of the ‘new rich’ Russians now filling top resorts in the Alps, most noticeably Courchevel, Kitzbuhel and St Moritz, it should come as no surprise that the world's largest country is home to more than 120 ski areas.

Most of these were internationally unknown until the end of the Soviet era in the 1980s, but subsequently the full range of Russian ski possibilities has become known and new privatised resorts developed. There are few, if any, countries on earth with a more diverse range of resorts.

To begin with, there are the dozens of small ski hills in and surrounding Russia’s major cities, particularly Moscow and St Petersburg.

Many can be reached by metro train services and during the Soviet era many operated rudimentary lifts and ungroomed slopes free of charge to citizens at weekends, if you were prepared to queue.

Now privatised, many of these slopes still exist and indeed some have become so exclusive in contrast to their origins that lift pass prices are reported to be among the world’s highest to price out most people. There’s also one of the world’s biggest indoor snow centres, snej.com, in Moscow.

Next is Russia’s world class terrain along its southern borders. Although Mont Blanc is sometimes reported to be Europe’s highest mountain, it is in fact Mount Elbrus on the border with Asia that’s higher at 5633m, and it can be possible for ski cats to take you above the height of the top lift, at 3800m, right up to 5100m for some huge descents.

This is also the area where the Russian government and several giant corporations have transformed the ski slopes close to the Black Sea city of Sochi in to several resorts for the 2014 Winter Olympics which, after billions of investment, boast the most state-of-the-art lift system to be found anywhere in the world.

Plans are now in place to develop five more world class ski areas in the region over the next decade, with a combined total of nearly 900km and guest capacity of 150,000 in a bid to help stimulate economic growth in the region.

Moving east in to Siberia more new resorts have been created but others from the Soviet era have been abandoned. As recently as the 1980s cities artificially created for mining up in the arctic saw no winter daylight due to their latitude and doctors prescribed skiing to some of the workers in order to help them keep fit and active in the harsh conditions.

But while those cities have closed, in the capitalist era new commercial centres have been created such as Kvan at the country’s main car making city, where a remarkable $30m ski slope has been built with a giant steel frame at the top of the hill that adds 100m of slope length and 20m of vertical.

On the North Pacific Coast, half-a-dozen time zones from Moscow, skiing remains a major attraction, this time in particular heli-skiing on the Kamchatka peninsula, world famous destination for this version of the sport.

Russia’s ski area development is not without its troubles; there have been helicopter crashes at Kamchatka and in the Caucasus which are also earthquake prone, and terrorist groups have shot tourists and tried to blow up ski lifts in recent years at Elbrus too.

But set against this is the determination of avid skiers and sometime political personas such as Vladimir Putin have been a driving force in the development of the Russian ski industry over the past decade.
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Russia: latest snow conditions round-up

Summary of forecast snowfall and ski conditions for resorts in Russia. Fresh snow is forecast at 18 resorts. Powder is reported at 0 resorts and 0 are reporting good piste conditions.

All resorts

Ski resorts of Russia, alphabetically

Resort
snow depth
top and bottom

on-piste

off-piste

Last Snow

Next 9 Days
0–3 | 3–6 | 6–9
snow (cm)
Next 5 days weather forecast.
Freezing level (m)
Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue

(713m — 820m)

2.0 cm
66 days ago
rain showers part cloud rain showers part cloud part cloud
Mid station 766 m
2700m 3400m 3300m 2850m 3000m

(550m — 2238m)

2.0 cm
82 days ago
thunderstorm thunderstorm thunderstorm thunderstorm thunderstorm
Mid station 1394 m
3000m 3700m 3600m 4150m 4300m

(1918m — 2504m)

2.0 cm
45 days ago
rain showers thunderstorm rain showers rain showers rain showers
Mid station 2211 m
3000m 3650m 3500m 4050m 4250m

(1500m — 2050m)

10 cm
37 days ago
clear rain showers thunderstorm thunderstorm thunderstorm
Mid station 1775 m
3900m 3950m 3200m 3150m 3350m

(300m — 517m)

3.0 cm
37 days ago
part cloud clear clear clear part cloud
Mid station 408 m
3300m 3750m 4150m 4200m 4000m

(1620m — 3005m)

3.0 cm
45 days ago
light rain mod rain rain showers thunderstorm thunderstorm
Mid station 2312 m
3100m 3700m 3550m 4100m 4300m

(530m — 1004m)

6 cm
36 days ago
rain showers part cloud rain showers rain showers part cloud
Mid station 767 m
3100m 3300m 3950m 3700m 3850m

(102m — 590m)

1.0 cm
74 days ago
part cloud part cloud light rain clear clear
Mid station 346 m
4400m 4150m 4750m 4450m 4100m

(785m — 905m)

2.0 cm
57 days ago
rain showers rain showers mod rain part cloud cloud
Mid station 845 m
1950m 1800m 2100m 2400m 2750m

(856m — 3456m)

snow report 11 days ago

1.0 cm
11 days ago
1.0
2.0
clear clear clear cloud cloud
Mid station 2156 m
2950m 3150m 3150m 3150m 2550m

(370m — 890m)

snow report 15 days ago

1.0 cm
13 days ago
22.0
light rain mod snow light rain cloud clear
Mid station 630 m
1000m 800m 700m 1900m 1900m

(2311m — 4750m)

snow report 2 days ago

2.0 cm
2 days ago
5.0
part cloud clear clear clear part cloud
Mid station 3530 m
2900m 2900m 3150m 3000m 2650m

(920m — 3456m)

snow report 21 days ago

1.0 cm
21 days ago
11.0
52.0
cloud light rain cloud light rain light snow
Mid station 2188 m
3500m 3650m 3500m 3500m 3000m

(960m — 2200m)

2.0 cm
82 days ago
thunderstorm thunderstorm rain showers thunderstorm thunderstorm
Mid station 1580 m
3000m 3750m 3600m 4150m 4300m

(167m — 600m)

1.0 cm
38 days ago
cloud light rain cloud mod rain light rain
Mid station 384 m
3550m 3700m 3550m 3550m 3150m

(2100m — 3550m)

snow report 17 days ago

1.0 cm
17 days ago
light rain mod rain light rain rain showers light rain
Mid station 2825 m
3100m 3550m 3500m 3850m 4200m

(3203m — 5642m)

snow report 17 days ago

3.0 cm
yesterday
7.0
light snow light snow snow showers clear snow showers
Mid station 4422 m
3050m 3550m 3450m 3900m 4300m

(2370m — 3800m)

snow report today

3.0 cm
yesterday
light rain light rain rain showers rain showers thunderstorm
Mid station 3085 m
3050m 3550m 3450m 3900m 4300m

(575m — 2320m)

2.0 cm
82 days ago
thunderstorm thunderstorm thunderstorm thunderstorm thunderstorm
Mid station 1448 m
3000m 3700m 3600m 4150m 4300m

(669m — 1270m)

3.0 cm
37 days ago
clear clear part cloud part cloud cloud
Mid station 970 m
3550m 3800m 3900m 4000m 3650m

(123m — 2173m)

snow report 24 days ago

2.0 cm
24 days ago
14.0
cloud light rain cloud light rain light rain
Mid station 1148 m
3900m 3800m 3600m 3650m 3300m

(139m — 189m)

2.0 cm
54 days ago
clear cloud light rain light rain part cloud
Mid station 164 m
3400m 2200m 2400m 2900m 3250m

(430m — 862m)

3.0 cm
66 days ago
rain showers part cloud rain showers part cloud light rain
Mid station 646 m
2650m 3200m 3100m 2750m 2950m

(17m — 200m)

2.0 cm
69 days ago
clear light rain rain showers rain showers heavy rain
Mid station 108 m
3100m 2600m 2450m 2450m 3100m

(547m — 1800m)

1.0 cm
82 days ago
thunderstorm thunderstorm rain showers thunderstorm thunderstorm
Mid station 1174 m
3000m 3700m 3600m 4150m 4300m