Still More Heavy Snow In Europe, Fresh Snow In North America
- The heavy snowfall continues, resorts in the Pyrenees post new
record for accumulations.
- Snow depths in Italy touch five metres (16 feet).
- Healthy snowfall at last in western North America.
- Summer skiing cancelled in southern hemisphere due to warm weather.
It’s now ten weeks since the first heavy snowfalls were reported in the Alps
and the snow is continuing to come down by the bucket load in many areas.
www.skiinfo.com reports that apart from the duration of the snowfall
obviously setting ski resorts up for a memorable season, what’s also unusual
is that almost all of the world’s major ski regions have received well above
average pre-season snowfall, usually one area will do better than another.
However this time almost everywhere has above average snow.
Along with the Alps there have been huge falls in the Dolomites, resorts in
the Pyrenees have reported record accumulations for this early in the
season. In North America the East Coast has had a good start and whilst the
Rockies and most recently the West Coast initially had more challenging
conditions early on, they’re now rapidly gaining ground. Only parts of
Eastern Europe are currently lagging behind.
Although great for skiers and boarders the snow has caused many practical
problems in Europe however with www.skiinfo.com’s regional staff reporting
villages cut off and without power for periods, airports and railway lines
closed and on the mountains a high avalanche risk as some of the more recent
snow has been heavy during a period of warmer temperatures. There have been
deaths on the mountains already as a result and Skiinfo strongly advises
everyone to stay on the marked runs and keep a close eye on avalanche
warnings when in the mountains.
France continues to receive heavy snowfalls in the Alps and Pyrenees with
Skiinfo issuing powder alarms of up to 60cm (two feet) of new snow at some
areas. Montgenèvre got another 40cm (16 inches) and Val d’Isère 20cm
(eight inches) more on Tuesday alone. But all the snow means there is a
high risk of avalanche everywhere.
The greatest snow depths are reported at Valberg 260cm (8.7 feet) and Isola
2000 250cm (8.3 feet), but many resorts have base depths of more than two
metres (6.7 feet), including Meribel, where the Freestyle World Cup is being
staged today.
In Austria snow falls and snow depth are if anything, even greater than
France – although with everywhere in the happy position of having so much,
why quibble over a few inches? The Mölltal Glacier reports 310cm (over 10
feet) and Obergurgl 255cm (8.6 feet).
Fresh snowfalls totaling up to 1.2m (four feet) have been reported at some
Austrian resorts over the past week with Nassfeld Hermagor reporting 120cm
of new snow, Bad Gastein 95cm (over three feet).
Snowfalls in Germany to the north have been more modest with Balderschwang
receiving 20cm (eight inches) more last Friday, taking base depths to 100cm
(40 inches) on upper slopes, one of the deepest in the country.
Switzerland has once again received big snowfalls in the past week with
Zermatt, once again, one of the leading beneficiaries receiving yet another
85cm (nearly three feet) over the past seven days. Nearby Saas Fee got 65cm
(26 inches) and St Moritz 50cm (20 inches) ahead of hosting the FIS Alpine
Ski World Cup Ladies Super Combined tomorrow 19 December, Downhill on
Saturday 20 December, and Super G on Sunday 21 December. Disentis has the
most snow with 350cm (nearly 12 feet) ion upper slopes. Saas Fee has 288cm
(nearly 190 feet) and Zermatt 250cm (over eight feet).
To the south the snowfall that has brought parts of Italy to a standstill
has not let up with the country’s north east getting the heaviest falls in
the past week which has partially cut off some ski towns like La Thuile and
Sauze d’Oulx. As a result Alagna in Monterosa has some of the greatest snow
depths in the world at present with 420cm (14 feet) on upper slopes although
Arabba in the dolomites leads the way with 480cm (16 feet). Many other
resorts now have three metres plus (over ten feet) bases.
The huge snowfalls in the Pyrenees have perhaps been the biggest snow story
of the past month, because conditions have been rather lackluster there in
recent seasons. In Andorra virtually all runs are open and snow depths have
reached 170cm (nearly six feet) in VallNord, with similar conditions in
GrandValira, which reported another 15cm (six inches) of snow on Monday.
It’s much the same on both the Spanish and French side of the chain with
Spain’s Baqueria Beret reporting that the more than four metres of snow it
has received in the past month is the most it has ever received this early
in the season. It currently has 225cm (7.5 feet) on upper slopes. Many
Spanish resorts have reached two metres (seven feet) of fresh powder snow
depth.
In Norway there will be 50 ski resorts open this weekend and Skiinfo.no
reports eight of them are expecting over 50cm (20 inches) of fresh snow over
the next four days. XC skiing is fantastic too.
Does all this snow mean that global warming is a myth? We’ve noticed our
weekly reports in recent weeks have been appearing on websites of
organizations who believe they do! Well, alas, probably they don’t. The
exceptionally heavy snowfall is great but fits the long term pattern of
increasing extremes of weather rather than being any long term guarantee
that the global warming projections are wrong. We can always hope of course
and as it’s likely to take decades more to prove the matter one way or the
other, we’ll have a while yet to wait and see.
Those who do think the heavy snow in the Alps means there’s no global
warming will want to skip over the fact that in Eastern Europe conditions
remain ‘challenging’ with only Bansko in Bulgaria open and with very limited
terrain on largely machine made snow. Borovets reported light snowfall
early in the week but needs much more.
In Scotland the situation has deteriorated a little in the past week with
warmer temperatures bringing a thaw and Glenshee no longer open until the
next snow comes. There’s very limited terrain open at Cairngorm and the
Lecht with the situation being reviewed daily.
In the southern hemisphere too the resort of Whakapapa in New Zealand which
has managed to offer summer skiing the past few years and had great snowfall
over their winter months has just announced it won’t be offering Christmas
skiing this year due to recent warm weather melting the remaining snow too
much.
In North America the one area that had been having serious problems with
lack of snow – the West Coast to the rest of the Rockies, has at last had
some healthy falls in many areas with most resorts finally opening or able
to open more terrain,
“A strong cold North Pacific winter storm brought snow at a rate of 1 inch
(2.5cm) per hour, with snow fall totals ranging between 22 and 36 inches,”
Squaw Valley USA in California reported on Monday. “The US National Weather
Service is calling for another 18-30 inches and continued snow showers are
in the forecast through to Tuesday December 23rd.”
Other parts of North America have been having more good snowfalls too. In
Colorado Jen Brill of Silverton sent a picture of the ski area shuttle bus
buried in snow (attached) and reported, “The total from the last seven days
is 55 inches (nearly 1.4 metres) of new snow. It continues to snow hard
today so we have not been able to get a depth from the upper mountain but it
likely exceeds two feet (60cm) of new snow. “
There’s been more snow in Canada too. Marmot Basin which was one of the
first on the continent to open last month and has had consistently good snow
since we received 55cm (22 inches) of new snow over the past week and a half
and 20cm 9eight inches) of new snow last Friday alone.
“This means we will be opening a whole bunch more runs and ski lifts this
weekend as conditions are superb.” said the resort’s Brian Rode.
Visit www.skiinfo.com to sign up for powder alarms from your favourite
resorts, check current snow conditions and projected snowfalls with snow
finder as well as exchange news and views in the Skier’ Lounge.
For the current top five snow depths in countries across Europe please see:
http://www.skiinfo.com/Snowreport-Europe-Top-5-1716-en.jhtml
Skiinfo.com also projects where the snow is likely to fall in the near
future through its Snow Finder service:
www.skiinfo.com/Snowreport-Snowfinder-7711-en.jhtml
