WORLD SNOW ROUNDUP #248
Issued: 13th July 2022
By Patrick “Snowhunter” Thorne
World Overview
Very different pictures from both sides of the world as we move deeper into winter/summer …depending on which hemisphere you’re looking at.
In the southern hemisphere, it’s an increasingly good picture with more snowfall reported. This last week it’s the Andes that are really seeing the most significant accumulations and the first taste of real Andean powder of the season at several centres. In Australia and New Zealand, it’s been more a case of further snowfalls improving a mostly already good season start.
In the northern hemisphere, however, the picture is a quite sad one of ever more glacier areas in the Alps being forced to end their summer ski seasons early due to the unprecedently spring and summer heat after well below-average winter snowfalls. With Les 2 Alps ending their summer run before the hoped-for halfway point, we’re down to just three areas clinging on for summer operations, an all-time lowe since glacier summer skiing took off more than half a century ago. There are though three areas still open in Norway, the first time Scandinavia and the Alps have been on an equal footing for the numbers of areas open.
In North America and Japan there are also a few areas still offering snowsports, meaning we still have lift-accessed skiing and boarding available on six continents.
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE INTRO
It’s good to report snowier and snowier conditions across the Andes and New Zealand. It’s been a snowy week in Argentina and Chile with resorts reporting up to 90cm (three feet) of snowfall in the last week and one reporting over 60cm (two feet) in 24 hours to start this week. The deepest reported base has passed the two-metre (80 inches) mark as well. New Zealand has had more of a rollercoaster week with some good snowfalls then storm closures to start this week with some big snowfalls underway as we publish this report. Less fresh snowfall for Australia but conditions have been good with a few small top-ups and most terrain open.
AUSTRALIA REPORT
It’s been another pretty good week in the Australian Alps with a low to the south of the continent bringing up cold weather and light to moderate snowfalls, topping up the decent bases the country’s ski areas are already posting. It’s peak season with school holidays underway. Most resorts are fully open or almost so and many are now opening for early morning and evening skiing to maximise opportunities on several days a week where the facility exists. Perisher (55/75cm / 22/30”) has the most terrain open, around 60km (36 miles) of slopes and almost all of its near 50 lifts turning. Most of the country’s other ski areas have slightly deeper snow and similar full operations Thredbo (60/110cm / 24/44”) has the deepest snowpack of all.
AUSTRALIA FORECAST
Staying cool on Australian slopes with more light snow expected over the next 24 hours before an end-of-week dry spell. Then more significant snowfall is expected at the weekend as a larger weather system moves in.
NEW ZEALAND REPORT
It has been quite a week in New Zealand and as we complete this week’s report there’s a major storm underway expected to dump snow several feet deep on ski areas including Mt Hutt (20/80cm / 8/32″) which have closed as the storm blows through. It’s the latest development in a week of weather extremes which has seen some beautiful clear days midweek last week and the end of the weekend. But also rain for quite a few areas at the start of a storm system that moved through at the end of last week, leading to more short term closures until conditions improved. But against this, some areas have now opened for the first time this winter including Mt Dobson (25/40cm / 10/16″), last weekend, which had delayed opening due to staff covid absences. It’s also important to stress that when not stormbound most New Zealand ski areas are now open with good snow depths and usually all-terrain accessible. Treble Cone (90/190cm / 36/76″) has one of the best base depths in the world at present. On the North Island, Turoa has delayed its planned full opening due to inadequate snow cover, which it stresses is not unusual at this point of the season. In brighter news, the resort notes that the volcanic warning level for the region has dopped from 2 back down to 1 which means the exclusion zone around the crater on Mt Ruapehu, on which the ski slopes are located, is no longer touching the edge of the ski area.
NEW ZEALAND FORECAST
The current stormy weather in New Zealand is forecast to continue for the next 24 hours or so with many areas expected to see 50cm (20”) or more snow totals by midweek, potentially double that for some lucky areas. Remaining cold and cloudy everywhere in the latter half of this week with the snow continuing on the North Island and returning to the south at the weekend.
ARGENTINA REPORT
It’s been a very snowy and sometimes stormy week in Argentina with plenty of deep powder to be had and some resort closures at the weekend due to the conditions. The big improvement in snow depths means that the continent’s largest area, in terms of groomed terrain and uplift, Catedral (60/120cm / 24/48”) near Bariloche, now has about 95% of its 120km (75 miles) of runs open, making it the only ski area in the world at present with that much terrain open, overtaking Australia’s Perisher which had had the most terrain open until now. The numbers are also looking increasingly good down at Las Lenas (40/100cm / 16/40”), which is back open for the first time in three seasons. The resort famously has access to vast areas of ungroomed terrain rated among the best in the world but quite often, unfortunately, the snow is not abundant enough for it to be fully accessible. This winter, so far, is looking like one of the better ones. For the deepest powder though it’s Caviahue (160/220cm / 64/88”) posting the biggest numbers in South America and indeed the entire southern hemisphere at present.
ARGENTINA FORECAST
The current cold and snowy weather is expected to continue through Thursday at most Argentinian ski areas with temperatures typically in the range of freezing down to 10 degrees below on most of the country’s ski slopes. There should be a lull in the snowstorms for a day or two to end the week before more snow clouds are expected to move in to start the new week.
CHILE REPORT
A snowy week on the eastern side of the Andes as well as the west if not quite so much. So most (well all) ski areas in Chile are reporting spectacular conditions now with plenty of fresh powder on top of a solid base. Nevados de Chillán (60/140cm / 24/56”), to the south, has seen its base double in the past week while Lagunillas (50/80cm / 20/32”) was closed through the weekend as the centre dug out its lifts and infrastructure whilst a full winter storm raged. Temperatures have been hanging around freezing, dipping a few degrees below at times, and the snow has kept dumping all week with sunny spells in between. Portillo (110/150cm / 44/60”) reports it has had over 90cm (three feet) of snowfall in the last seven days.
CHILE FORECAST
The snowfall is expected to continue for a day or two more with temperatures staying low. Skies should begin to clear at the end of the week with sunshine forecast for many on Friday – Saturday while some will remain cloudy but the snow should stop falling, for a while at least. The snow clouds are expected to return to start the new week.
AFRICA REPORT
Afriski (30/50cm / 12/20″) remains the only centre open in southern Africa. No real snowfall to report here in the past week but the centre’s slopes remain fully open under generally sunny skies. Temperatures have been in the range of -8 to +8 Celcius with overnight lows cold enough for snowmaking as required.
AFRICA FORECAST
There’s no real change in the forecast for Afriski, with mostly clear skies expected once more for the week ahead and temperatures staying a few degrees on either side of the freezing point.
EUROPE INTRO
It’s been a hot spring and summer so far in most of Europe and it looks like it’s going to get hotter still over the coming week. That’s very bad news for the continent’s glaciers, especially in the Alps where winter snowfall had been well below average, meaning the ice is now exposed directly to the summer heat. All three French glaciers that open for summer skiing have now closed early and only three glaciers are still open in Austria, Italy and Switzerland with fast diminishing bases, the lowest number ever reported in the 50 years or so of summer skiing in the Alps. A fourth, Saas-Fee, is due to join them this coming weekend when it opens for 22-23, but it will initially at least, only be open to teams for training, not the general skiing public. It’s a better picture up in Scandinavia where three Norwegian glacier areas remain open, although the first of these will end its 2022 season this coming weekend.
ALPS REPORT
There was fresh snow high in the Alps at the end of last week, giving a brief respite from 2022’s spring-summer heat, which has decimated snow cover on glaciers and led to even faster thawing. The Dachstein glacier in Austria and the Zugspitze in Germany were among areas reporting 5-15cm (2-6 inches) of fresh snowfall up high. However, this small accumulation cannot turn the tide and the final French glacier still operating for summer 2022 announced it would close at the weekend, less than halfway through its hoped-for three months of operations through August.
Les 2 Alpes, which markets itself as the largest summer glacier ski area in the Alps, opened in late May but never fully opened its summer slopes. It closed on Sunday, a week after Tignes, which didn’t make a full fortnight into its hoped-for six-week summer ski season while France’s third remaining summer ski centre, Val d’Isere, didn’t bother attempting to open.
It leaves only three glaciers currently open in the Alps for summer skiing (a historic low), the two year-round glacier areas of Hintertux (0/90cm / 0/36”) in Austria and Zermatt (0/120cm / 0/48”) in Switzerland (currently also accessible from Cervinia on the Italian side), as well as Passo Stelvio (0/180cm / 0/70”) in Italy. It remains to be seen if all three can remain open daily through to the autumn as they plan. For now, Hintertux continues to claim the largest amount of terrain open – 20km of slopes.
Of course, even though this text is about snow conditions for skiers its important to say that the loss of glaciers has far greater issues for alpine communities in terms of water and power supplies as well as safety when glacial collapse occurs, as it did at Italy’s Marmolada earlier this month.
The glacier at Saas-Fee is due to open this coming weekend for its eight-month (hopefully) 22-23 run through to spring next year. But the Swiss resort has announced there’ll be a more limited area open than usual and that what is open will be restricted to team training with no public access, initially at least.
Only two of the four Allalin glacier drag lifts (2 and 3) will be operating accessing about half of the 20km (13 miles) of piste within the summer ski area. The situation regarding public access will be reassessed on August 14th.
ALPS FORECAST
Alas, for glaciers and what’s left of the snow lying on them there’s more hot weather moving north and east from the south and west bringing temperatures up into the 20s in alpine valleys up to as high as 2,000m and while mostly in the 0-5C range, sometimes as high as +10C. Lots of sunny weather is expected.
SCANDINAVIA REPORT
There have been some gorgeous days on glaciers in Norway over the past week with beautiful, sunny weather dominating and perfect conditions in the mornings. All three of the country’s ski areas are currently open, although Stryn (180/280cm / 72/132”) is due to close for the season this coming weekend. For now, though there are more ski areas open in Norway than any other northern hemisphere nation, and half of Europe’s total open areas are there, both ‘firsts’ in the history of summer skiing. That’s more down to Scandinavia having a decent winter for snowfall and not such a hot spring as further south. Both are the opposite of the situation in the Alps this year. Norwegian resorts continue to post by far the best snow depth too. Fonna (380/740cm / 152/296”) and Galdhøpiggen (260/320cm / 104/128”) remain fully open.
Along with the three Norwegian areas, Finland’s Levi and Ruka both noted that it was only 90 days on Saturday 9th July until their planned 22-23 season openings on October 7th this year. Both use snow farming to ensure early opening (stockpiling snow from last season through summer and then spreading it back out on the slopes in early autumn, by which time it will hopefully be cold enough for some natural early snowfall and/or snowmaking as well as only limited thawing). Levi has declared it is creating a ‘glacier’ by ensuring an area of slopes is snow-covered year-round and they uncovered a small part of it for some midsummer skiing and boarding recently too.
SCANDINAVIA FORECAST
After the mostly sunny week, it looks like a much more mixed weather picture for the week ahead with prolonged periods of precipitation that will mostly fall as rain although there are times, mostly overnight, when it may just dip cold enough for it to be snow. Temperatures are looking cooler, mostly in the freezing to +100C range, but it is possible there’ll be overnight dips below freezing on upper glacier slopes, and daytime highs back up to +15C by the weekend.
NORTH AMERICA INTRO
The Timberline ski centre (0/120″ / 0/300cm) remains the only one in North America that’s open to the skiing and boarding public. At the weekend the managers of the Palmer snowfield above the Oregon resort on Mt Hood said conditions were so good they were extending the season to late August. This rather begs the question as to when the season had been expected to run, as in previous years it has targeted the Labor Day long holiday weekend at the start of September. Although it hasn’t always got there before too much snow thawed away, but that no longer appears to be the case. This year huge late spring snowfalls have helped the centre make it through hot summer weather, with another week of warm summer sunshine behind it.
Elsewhere, the glacier terrain park on the Blackcomb glacier above Whistler in BC, Canada remains open to those who have booked one of the private camps there, but not to the general public. The same is true of a terrain park maintained at Copper Mountain high in the Colorado Rockies for those signed up to camps organised by the local Woodward facility.
NORTH AMERICA FORECAST
It’s another week of the wall-to-wall sunshine forecast. Valley temperatures are in the 70s Fahrenheit but on the snowfield, things should be a little cooler, down in the 40s overnight and 50s-60s in the daytime. But the thawing will inevitably continue.
JAPAN REPORT
Japan’s Gassan ski field (0/200cm / 0/80) continues to operate into its final month of 2022. The snow cover has melted away or become too unstable on the main runs (“large slope” and Sawa) but snow patches remain at high elevations where it is still possible to ski or board with care. Temperatures have been in the range of 10-20℃, with mostly light winds and plenty of sunshine. The resort’s double chairlift is operating but the main T Bar closed for this season on Saturday. However, the Hino T Bar is still open and can be used to access remaining safe snow patches.
JAPAN FORECAST
Predominantly sunny weather forecast with temperatures ranging from +15 to +25C. Some rain showers and light to moderate winds through the week, but nothing major expected.
