Europe Weekly Snow Roundup #321

It’s a big weekend coming up for Les 2 Alpes as, unless there's an extension, this Sunday marks the end of a season which began more than seven months ago at the start of December last year.  It appears it has outlasted Val d'Isère, which ended its winter season back in early May, then planned a summer ski-season to mid-June, but appears to have been thwarted by the unprecedented high temperatures in Western Europe over the final weeks of June and to have ended summer skiing after a fortnight.  So as of next week, only Tignes (0/100cm / 0/40") appears to be staying open in the French Alps. It's currently reporting 6km (about 4 miles) of terrain open.

Elsewhere in the Alps, Austria’s Hintertux (0/145cm / 0/58") is reporting the most terrain open in the northern hemisphere (in fact, currently in the entire world), still, 25km (15.5 miles) of runs. It says it will no longer open year-round and close for a few months from July, but it has not yet said when in July that will be.  On the Switzerland/Italy border, Zermatt, still open year-round, has almost as much terrain open, around 15km of slopes, and last weekend got a new summer terrain park set up in operation. Also open is Italy’s Passo Stelvio (0/180cm / 0/72”) with about 4km (3 miles) of runs open and reports of up to 10cm of snowfall in the past 24 hours. 

All areas in the Alps have been dealing with some very warm temperatures reported to have hit 20C some afternoons, even up at glacier level. 

Up in Scandinavia, the Galdhøpiggen (20/120cm / 8/48") summer ski area remains fully open and has had more national and regional teams training there over the past week. Conditions have been variable, temperatures mostly in the freezing to +8 °C range, although some afternoons are now seeing the mercury climb into double figures. Elsewhere in the region, one new option became available last weekend, and will be again this weekend, with Norway's Trysil opening a summer terrain park from Friday to Sunday for the last weekend of June and the first weekend of July, using snow stockpiled from last winter.

Europe Forecast

A strong high‑pressure pattern keeps the Alpine glaciers sunny, with Tignes, Hintertux, Passo Stelvio and Zermatt all seeing bright skies, firm early‑morning surfaces and freezing levels well above 3000 m. Temperatures will rarely dip below freezing even at glacier level overnight, so thawing will continue around the clock some nights. No meaningful natural snowfall is indicated across the main glacier areas, and winds stay light. Further north, Galdhøpiggen Glacier in Norway also remains under settled, sunny weather, but here there should be overnight freezes and dry, stable daytime conditions.