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.

Recent Eyeball Snow Reports for Russia

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)
Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

(713m — 820m)

snow report 9 days ago

1.0 cm
9 days ago
cloud clear clear cloud part cloud
Mid station 766 m
0m 0m 0m 0m 0m

(550m — 2238m)

snow report 4 days ago

2.0 cm
2 days ago
2.0
7.0
2.0
cloud light snow light rain light snow light rain
Mid station 1394 m
1350m 1450m 1300m 1350m 1100m

(1918m — 2504m)

snow report 2 days ago

1.0 cm
2 days ago
2.0
11.0
2.0
cloud light snow snow showers light snow light snow
Mid station 2211 m
900m 1450m 1300m 1450m 1000m

(1500m — 2050m)

snow report 2 days ago

2.0 cm
3 days ago
9.0
8.0
cloud light snow light snow part cloud clear
Mid station 1775 m
1300m 0m 0m 0m 0m

(300m — 517m)

snow report 2 days ago

2.0 cm
3 days ago
4.0
3.0
2.0
cloud light snow light snow snow showers light snow
Mid station 408 m
0m 0m 0m 0m 0m

(1620m — 3005m)

snow report 2 days ago

1.0 cm
2 days ago
4.0
9.0
5.0
light snow light snow part cloud light snow light snow
Mid station 2312 m
1700m 1450m 1200m 1600m 1100m

(530m — 1004m)

snow report 3 days ago

2.0 cm
3 days ago
4.0
10.0
clear cloud light snow light snow cloud
Mid station 767 m
1350m 0m 450m 0m 0m

(102m — 590m)

snow report 4 days ago

2.0 cm
yesterday
3.0
2.0
2.0
cloud light snow light snow part cloud clear
Mid station 346 m
0m 0m 0m 0m 0m

(785m — 905m)

snow report yesterday

9 cm
2 days ago
1.0
3.0
cloud cloud light snow cloud cloud
Mid station 845 m
0m 0m 250m 250m 500m

(856m — 3456m)

snow report 2 days ago

1.0 cm
2 days ago
clear snow showers clear clear clear
Mid station 2156 m
0m 0m 0m 0m 0m

(370m — 890m)

snow report 2 days ago

3.0 cm
3 days ago
2.0
5.0
cloud light snow light snow cloud light snow
Mid station 630 m
0m 0m 0m 0m 0m

(2311m — 4750m)

snow report yesterday

1.0 cm
yesterday
clear snow showers part cloud clear clear
Mid station 3530 m
0m 0m 0m 0m 0m

(920m — 3456m)

snow report yesterday

8 cm
yesterday
7.0
8.0
snow showers clear clear part cloud clear
Mid station 2188 m
0m 0m 0m 0m 0m

(960m — 2200m)

snow report 4 days ago

3.0 cm
2 days ago
2.0
9.0
2.0
cloud light snow light snow light snow light snow
Mid station 1580 m
1400m 1450m 1300m 1350m 1150m

(167m — 600m)

snow report yesterday

6 cm
yesterday
8.0
10.0
light snow snow showers clear clear clear
Mid station 384 m
0m 0m 0m 0m 0m

(2100m — 3550m)

snow report 2 days ago

1.0 cm
2 days ago
13.0
13.0
14.0
light snow light snow light snow light snow light snow
Mid station 2825 m
1800m 1500m 1150m 1200m 1200m

(3203m — 5642m)

snow report 2 days ago

1.0 cm
2 days ago
7.0
8.0
8.0
light snow light snow snow showers light snow light snow
Mid station 4422 m
1700m 1500m 1150m 1300m 1250m

(2370m — 3800m)

snow report 2 days ago

2.0 cm
2 days ago
11.0
11.0
11.0
light snow light snow light snow light snow light snow
Mid station 3085 m
1700m 1500m 1200m 1250m 1250m

(575m — 2320m)

snow report 4 days ago

2.0 cm
2 days ago
2.0
8.0
2.0
cloud light snow light rain light snow light rain
Mid station 1448 m
1350m 1450m 1250m 1400m 1100m

(669m — 1270m)

snow report yesterday

2.0 cm
2 days ago
12.0
5.0
6.0
cloud light snow cloud light snow light snow
Mid station 970 m
0m 0m 0m 0m 0m

(123m — 2173m)

snow report yesterday

34 cm
yesterday
30.0
1.0
31.0
mod snow light snow part cloud part cloud light snow
Mid station 1148 m
0m 0m 0m 0m 0m

(139m — 189m)

snow report 22 days ago

6 cm
23 days ago
cloud cloud part cloud part cloud cloud
Mid station 164 m
0m 0m 0m 0m 200m

(430m — 862m)

snow report 4 days ago

1.0 cm
5 days ago
1.0
clear clear clear cloud part cloud
Mid station 646 m
0m 0m 0m 0m 0m

(17m — 200m)

snow report 7 days ago

2.0 cm
8 days ago
cloud clear cloud cloud part cloud
Mid station 108 m
0m 0m 0m 0m 0m

(547m — 1800m)

snow report 10 days ago

7 cm
11 days ago
4.0
cloud light rain light rain mod rain light rain
Mid station 1174 m
1350m 1450m 1300m 1400m 1150m