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Slopes in Australia and Andes Dumped on Ahead of Imminent Start of 2019 Season (NZ Next)

It’s looking good for the start of the 2019 ski season in South America, Australia and New Zealand with a week of snow forecast to see these ski regions into June. Falls Creek, Australia, 28 May 2019 Las Lenas in Argentina has already reported a 50cm+ accumulation whilst several ski areas in Australia, and several in Chile, have had 20-30cm of snowfall. Cerro Bayo is pictured below. With snow forecast to continue all week there’s potential for 60-100cm of snow accumulating by this time next week in these two areas. New Zealand hasn’t had any significant snowfall but that is set to change here too with 20-40cm of snow forecast as temperatures drop from tomorrow. The weather is also good…

snowhunter 28th May 2019

AdventuresLifestyleRoundupsSki ResortsTravelWeather

More Snow Falling in Southern Hemisphere as 2019 Season 10 Days Away

Excitement is building for skiers and boarders waiting to hit the slopes of Australia, New Zealand, South America and Southern Africa as each area receives news of snowfalls, snow forecasts or snowmaking underway …and in some cases all three. New Zealand is likely to see the first ski areas open a week on Saturday, June 1st. Whakapapa will open its Happy Valley snow play area using an all-weathers snowmaking machine and Cardrona ski area has also said they’ll open some terrain. Then the focus switches across the Indian Ocean to the resorts of Afriski (pictured below on 9 May) in Lesotho and Tiffindell in South Africa which are scheduled to open the following week on June 6th and 5th…

snowhunter 22nd May 2019

EnvironmentRoundupsSki ResortsWeather

Late May in the USA: Aspen To Re-Open And Heavy Snowfall Hits California

Aspen ski area has announced it will re-open for the US Memorial Day long holiday weekend at the end of the month (May 25-27). The resort will re- open 130 acres on Aspen Mountain for skiing and boarding. It will mean that three Colorado ski areas will be open for the last weekend of the month as Breckenridge (pictured above earlier this month) and Arapahoe Basin are yet to end their 2018-19 ski seasons, Arapahoe Basin will stay open daily to June 2nd and recently announced it will re-open the following weekend. Meanwhile in California, where four ski areas are still open, there’s a heavy snowstorm dumping down at present. Mammoth (pictured top and below) reported 20cm of snowfall in…

snowhunter 17th May 2019 1

Ski ResortsTravelWeather

Breckenridge Nears 11 Metre 18-19 Snowfall Total and Celebrates Longest Season For Over 20 Years

Breckenridge ski area in Colorado, which operates some of the highest lifts and ski runs in the world including the world’s highest chairlift, has extended its season to the last Monday in May, a public holiday in the US. It’s the first time the resort has stayed open this late in the season until the 1990s and it seems to have chosen a good season to do it, with snowfall totals currently at 1,092cm and locals saying some of the snowfalls this winter were the biggest in living memory, with some claiming falls on that scale have not been recorded for 120 years – according to the resort’s marketing department. But the extended season is not a one off due…

snowhunter 9th May 2019

EnvironmentLifestyleSki ResortsWeather

Big Snowfalls to Start May in the Alps

There has been up to a metre (40 inches) of new snowfalls reported at still open ski areas in the Alps to start May. Several glaciers in Austria have reported up to 50cm of fresh snow so far over the weekend, and the Presena Glacier in Trentino, Italy, says it has had a metre (40 inches) of fresh snow above 3,000 metres over the past 72 hours. It is scheduled to stay open for another fortnight. Temperatures have dropped in to double digits below zero and although the snowfall is now expected to ease off, it will remain very cold all week at most ski areas. For most ski areas this meant it was a powder weekend, although as it…

snowhunter 6th May 2019

AdventuresEventsRoundupsSki ResortsUncategorisedWeather

Where’s Open For Skiing or Snowboarding in May 2019?

The main ski season in the northern hemisphere is drawing to a close but there is no need to despair! Heavy snowfall in many parts of the skiing world through the winter has left bases as deep as 17 feet (5.5 metres) in the US and Canada and 7 metres (21 feet) in the Alps, where there was also lots of fresh snow above 2,000 metres in the last week of April so in many areas conditions are good for late spring skiing and boarding. The further good news is that more than 50 ski areas in over a dozen countries are still open for the start of May and although that number will drop as the month goes on,…

snowhunter 30th April 2019 1

AdventuresEnvironmentLifestyleSki Resorts

Only North American Summer-Ski Only Area is Crowd Funding

Beartooth Basin, the only summer-ski only ski area in the US, is crowd-funding to raise much-needed finance to maintain and improve its existing operation. The centre, then known as The Red Lodge International Ski and Snowboard Camp, was originally established in the mid-1960’s by Austrians Pepi Gramshammer, Eric Sailer and Anderl Molterer as an Alpine Ski Racing summer training ground. It aims to open every year from late May to early July with a mission to keep the spirit of skiing alive with two surface lifts atop the iconic 10,000 foot elevation Beartooth Pass, over the Montana/Wyoming border. The centre usually opens when the road is cleared. Since 2003 a younger generation of skiing enthusiasts now open the area to…

snowhunter 23rd April 2019

AdventuresEventsSki ResortsTravel

The World’s Biggest Season-End ‘Pond Skimming’ Contest

The concept of the end-of-season meltwater pond skimming competition is long-established and has spread to ski areas around the world. The world’s oldest, The Slush Cup, at Sunshine ski area near Banff in Canada (below) will take place on Monday, May 20th – it will be the 91st. But one French resort takes the ‘skiing/boarding down a snowy slope and then seeing how far you can get across a pool of water’ to another level. La Clusaz in the Aravis mountains near Lake Annecy stage their Défi Foly contest, not on a pool of meltwater, but on the local Lake Confins with competitors seeing how far they can get across it before they sink. The hope is that one day…

snowhunter 20th April 2019

EnvironmentRoundupsSki ResortsWeather

Summer Ski Areas Opening Take World’s Deepest Snowbase to 10 Metres (33 Feet)

Two ski areas that open only for spring and summer skiing in the northern hemisphere opened at the weekend, both claiming they have more snow lying on their slopes than the resort that had been open all winter and had previously claimed the current deepest base in the world. Gassan’s famous Tsukiyama Ski Area in northern Japan’s Yamagata Prefecture opened for its 2019 ski season at the weekend, immediately posting the world’s deepest snow depth at 10 metres (33.3 feet). Normally open for 3 months to mid-July, subject to snow conditions, it says it's closed today due to a whiteout. Pictured above and below from Sunday. Meanwhile, Norway’s Folgefonn or ‘Fonna’ glacier also opened for spring and summer skiing at…

snowhunter 15th April 2019

Ski ResortsWeather

Norway’s Summer Ski Season Starts Saturday

The first of Norway’s three summer ski resorts will begin its 2019 season this Saturday, 13th April, 2019. Managers at the country’s Folgefonna glacier, better known as Fonna, say their 2019 season will kick off at 10am tomorrow. Resort teams have been working for weeks to clear access roads and prepare slopes and resort infrastructure after the winter shut down during which everything gets buried in snow. The snow is currently lying several metres deep. The Galdhøpiggen Sommerskisenter plans to open second on May 9th, 2019 https://vimeo.com/229096989?fbclid=IwAR2fc4gJ7UGGCGuwZV9ONU9si3_d2zS9dUUCjQmR_HcTa2JNd7dxTUZdhhg Finally the country’s Stryn summer ski area will join them on 29th May. This picture was published by Stryn this week of how conditions are looking ahead of the start of the seasion…

snowhunter 12th April 2019

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