When we arrived in Gurgl in Austria at the weekend it was bitterly cold with the morning temperature at -8.
By Sunday afternoon it was +5.
There is good covering on the pistes, but there is no off piste to ski and this part of the Alps needs some more natural snow.But on the piste with grooming and artificial snow the skiing has been superb.
Next weekend more French resorts are set to open including Les2Alpes and Alpe d’Huez.
Tignes and Val Thorens are the first resorts to open in France, though many areas have been open for several weeks in Austria, Italy and Switzerland.We detail them lower down this article.
Schladming, in Austria, opened at the weekend.
Austria has not seen the levels of snow that have been falling in the norther western Alps and the resorts in France and Switzerland, but conditions remain good for the time of year.
For an overview across the Alps we turn to Fraser Wilkin from weathertoski.co.uk who posted this assessment on Friday 22nd November .“In the Alps another 20-50cm fell across a wide swathe of the north-western Alps (roughly from Grenoble through much of Switzerland and into the west of Austria).
“The far north-west of Italy also did well.
“Further east, much of Austria also saw at least a few centimetres of snow (with much more in the far west).
“There was also a sprinkling in the Dolomites which, despite not having seen that much snow fall this week, have been able to operate their snowmaking at full throttle thanks to the cold temperatures.
“Resorts that have done best this week are those in France, Switzerland and the far north-west of Italy.
“Snowfall totals recorded since Monday are unreliable due to strong winds, but are certainly in the 80-120cm range (with 150cm+ in places) above 2200m in the likes of Tignes, La Rosière/La Thuile, Verbier, Zermatt and Engelberg, to name just a few.”
Austria
Hintertux
Pitztal
Stubai
Soelden
Kaunertal
Moltaller
Gurgl
Kitzbuhel
Schladming
Silvretta/Montafon
France
Tignes,
Val Thorens
Italy
Passo Stelvio
Val Senales
Cervinia
Sulden
Madonna
Switzerland
Adelboden
Arosa/Lenzerheide
Engleberg
Murren
St Moritz
Saas-Fee
Zermatt
Glacier 3000
Davos
Elsewhere in Europe Scandinavia has seen fresh snow and cold temperatures.
There remains just a handful of ski areas open in Finland, Norway and Sweden but bigger resorts including Are, Geilo, Hemsedal, Pyha, Yllas and Trysil are set to open shortly.
There’s currently no ski area open in the Pyrenees yet but Baqueira Beret in Spain has snow falling and hopes to open shortly.
In Asia, some Japanese ski areas have been posting their first decent dumps of the autumn on higher slopes with 20-40cm accumulations ahead of official opening dates.
This winter PlanetSKI will be in Japan from the end of January to the beginning of March–six weeks in total–so we will be keeping a close eye on the snow conditions over the coming weeks.
In the Alps the temperature is now set to shoot up and the freezing level could be at 3,500m shortly so much of the snow at low altitude will melt.
Post time: Nov-27-2024
