The snow has arrived
Sunday January 10, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

It's been cold everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere.

In the lead up to the New Year it was raining in the Alps and the snow and skiing was somewhat disappointing.  And then, yippee, there was The Big Freeze - The Alps, Scandinavia, Scotland, East and West coasts of the US all reported heavy snow over New Year and the following week. 

Colder weather in the Alps has meant snow at lower altitude which only last week had been reported as rain. And so much more snow is on the way.

See this short video summary from our content editor, James Cove, direct from The Swiss Alps.

Spanish snow depths have reached 2m but some of Sierra Nevada’s lifts are out of action due to storm damage.  China too is experiencing very cold weather at the moment and there’s even been snow in Beijing.  Even Mexico reports temperatures dropping to -2ºC, it’s a shame they only have an artificial ski slope.

Burt a word of caution - check out avalanche risk levels before you ski and don’t stray off-piste. Heavy snow in Europe means the avalanche risk is high off the marked piste.  Sadly there have been more widely-reported avalanche deaths in the past week in several countries.

Here's our snow overview on 7th January 2010 with help from our friends over at www.skiinfo.com

France:  On 4th January 35cm of snow fell at Serre-Eyraud and 30cm at Pra Loup in the Southern Alps as well as at Sainte-Foy in the Northern Alps. 

The snowdepth has already almost doubled at many French resorts since the New Year.  Snowdepths are building up in Flaine which boasts the deepest snowbase in France with 2.7m on upper slopes, La Clusaz with 2.5m and Orcieres with 2.1m, and Alpe d’Huez doing pretty well with 2m.

The French Alps have also seen some of the heaviest falls of the past week with St Gervais reporting accumulations of 90cm and the Paradiski region of La Plagne, Les Arcs and Peisey with 70cm. 

Most other areas have reported at least 30cm of new snow. Further south, Serre Chevalier received 20cm earlier in the week with over 0.5m to 1.7m higher up.  Tignes and Val d’Isere also had fresh snow with varying snow depths from 1m to 1.5m depending on altitude.

Chamonix and Argentiere have both had regular daily top-ups of 4cm - 6cm since New Year’s Eve.

One of PlanetSKI's reporters, Xavier Adam, is in St Gervais at the moment.  "It's set to snow a bit, getting really cold tomorrow. There is an OK base of  50-100cm at mid-mountain level. The piste skiing is OK though off piste is crust. Rocks coming through on steeps.  Meanwhile the resort itslef is about 50% full."

See this related story he sent to us when he came across a car upside down in the road.

Switzerland:    This time last week the snow in Switzerland and across most of the Alps was lacking, it was wet and warm.

Since the New Year weekend, however the conditions have been fantastic. Mont Fort finally opened in Verbier with 2m of snow on top.

However, the biggest snowfalls were in Diemtigtal - Wiriehorn 50cm in 48 hours, Crans Montana and Gstaad - Château-d'Oex approximately 40cm.  Top snow depths in Switzerland were at Lötschental 2.35m, Andermatt-Gotthard 2.20m and Les Marécottes - Salvan 2.20m with Leukerbad and Celerina both with 2m.   Engelberg had between 35cm and 1.7m.

The biggest snowfalls in the last 7 days were at Vercorin with 180cm, and Evolène 170cm.

See this video of some of the famous off piste runs in Verbier that James Cove skied this week as they opened up.

Austria:   Conditions in Austria have been fairly respectable at high altitude but in lower resorts its been poor. Up till now Kitzbühel has been surviving on 45cm of man-made snow but the turn of weather brought 20cm of the real stuff on Sunday alone.  Snow depths now reach 65cm on upper and 30cm on lower slopes with 51 lifts operating.  Obergurgl reports 53cm - 120cm snow depths, and Lech has a snowdepth of between 50cm - 1.6m depending on altitude.

Bad Kleinkirchheim got a 10cm top up of new snow.  Mölltaler Gletscher, Kleinarl and Montafon had the biggest snowfalls in 7 days with 31cm - 35cm.  Mölltaler Gletscher boasts the deepest snowbase with 2.6m, followed by Kaunertaler Gletscher with 2.1m.

Here's a video from Austria.

Italy:     Italy is the place to be at the moment. 

They simply have tons of snow in the Aosta Valley. Conditions are great and Italy continues to report the deepest snow depths in the world with the Marmolada glacier at Arabba and the Presena Glacier above Passo Tonale and Pragelato with snow depths of 3.8m and 4.1m respectively.  Arabba has reported another 50cm of new snow during the week and so has Cortina in the neighbouring Dolomites ski area. 

However Courmayeur in the West has reported the largest snowfall in the country for the past week with 60cm of new cover.

Spain:    Conditions have improved dramatically in Spain and the Pyrenees since Christmas Week when warm weather, rain and storm conditions devastated the snow. 

Formigal has some of the deepest snow in Spain with 130cm (not quite meeting with last year's record accumulation, but its early days) on upper slopes and the biggest single area open with 122km of slopes.  “The snow in Formigal has been falling all week and there are fantastic depths of up to 130cm and beautiful powder snow.” said Formigal’s Catherine Dolan.

The predictions are for more snow to fall at altitudes as low as 400m. 

Big snowfalls at Boi Taull make it the first Spanish resort to reach a snowpack depth of 2m.   Sierra Nevada reported 20cm-150cm of powder and 39km of runs, however due to extreme weather conditions in recent days upper station lifts remain closed until storm damage is repaired.

Andorra:    Alot more snow is expected over the next few days.  Meanwhile Andorra benefitted from some of the new snow this week although depths remain sparse on lower slopes.

The Pal and Arinsal area added another 30cm taking its base up towards 1m. Some of the best conditions however, are found in Pas de la Casa where snow is over ½m deep.

Scotland:    Scotland has had the best snow conditions for 14 years and its still snowing.

The CairnGorm Mountains thigh-deep powder is offering “better skiing than Utah!” according to ski patroller Colin Matthew.  Although The Lecht’s powder is “only” knee-deep, Lecht Managing Director, Pieter du Pon said “because the temperature has not risen above freezing since before Christmas, it’s really staying nice and fluffy.”

The other ski areas too have the best early-season snow for a decade.  Glenshee has all three valleys and 4 mountain areas open and has welcomed more than 12,000 snowboarders and skiers since Christmas Eve.

Glencoe Mountain and Nevis range both report an excellent start to the seasons with good snow on upper slopes, which is quite unusual at this time of year.

Scandinavia:

Sweden:    More heavy snow over New Year caused 2 avalanches to set off in Åre.  This took place on Saturday in the East and West Ravines in the area which are the two most popular off piste runs in Åre.

3 people were caught but luckily there were no serious injuries. The avalanche warning during the day was set to 3 on the 5 grade scale.

In common with the rest of the Northern Hemisphere it is really cold in Sweden.  In the resort of Idre temperatures are reported to be  as low as -35ºC and it is forecasted to drop even further by Thursday.  In the south of Sweden more snow is expected with up to 20cm in the next couple of days with more snow forecast on Friday.

Norway:   Norway has also had alot of fresh snow.  The small area of Stordal reported  the most snow in the country with 70cm of fresh snow last week. 

Many other areas have reported between 30cm - 60cm. Voss Fjellandsby/Myrkdalen has the deepest snowbase with 1.3m. And, there's more to come.

Eastern Europe:   Broadly speaking, the more northerly ski areas in Eastern Europe, in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland have seen the best conditions each reporting very low temperatures and fresh snow. 

Vratna in Slovakia has had the biggest accumulations of 40cm.  Conditions are still rather marginal in Bulgaria however with little new snow reported and best base depths of 40cm - 70cm at the top of the slopes, and a very thin 10cm at the bottom.

USA:   In North America the storm on the East Coast has continued to dump large quantities of snow creating great conditions in the region which is well know for firing up its snowmaking cannons.  Up to 50cm more snow has fallen with the biggest resort – Killington in Vermont reporting it’s base has passed over 1m on upper runs also boasting great off-piste skiing.

Conditions are also continuing to improve in western US resorts.   A series of Rocky Mountain storms slammed into the Tetons this weekend dropping 75cm of snow since Friday at Jackson Hole in Wyoming, and now with a good 1.2m snowbase even more mountain is open to ski on - and great news more snow is on the way. Snowbird  and Vail both had a delightful 15cm top-up of snow brightening up ski prospects each with good snowbases of around 1m.

Canada:    Conditions continue to impress us in Canada. Resorts in Alberta and British Columbia have some of the best snowbases in the world, admittedly they’ve had over 2 months of near perfect snow - are we jealous?  We'd say yes!

Most Canadian resorts are reporting 1.5m - 2.4m bases recently topped up with 10cm - 15cm of snow keeping conditions powdery.  Conditions are also continuing to improve on the East Coast with resorts in Quebec also reporting fresh snow.

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