There is still snow....in places
Friday April 23, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

Several hundred ski areas remain open in The Alps and North America for a few days more, with a few dozen still planning to open into May.

Scotland has had yet more snow, Austria has had some and there's a dusting at some high resorts in The Alps. 

Over in North America there is more at the high west coast resorts.

See this PlanetSKI story for a video of what it is like at the moment in Verbier, Switzerland.

And this week we've added Iceland to our snow overview.

Apparently a volcano has erupted - it has also been snowing on the Eyjafjallajökull volcano and we have a fascinating timelapse film at the bottom of this story.

April in Saas-Fee

So, which resorts are currently open and when are they planning to close?

See the video report from our PlanetSKI content editor, James Cove, who is in the Swiss Alps.

For a full round up of what skiing and snowboarding is still available see our detailed PlanetSKI round-up below, with the help from our good friends over at skiinfo.com.

FRANCE: 50 ski areas are still open in France this week and there’s still some fresh snow.

Chamonix, where the snowpack has diminished a little still has 3.6m at the top of the Grands Montets.

It has had another 10cm of snow in the past week.

Many French areas close this weekend but Chamonix is one of nine French ski areas remaining open into the first week of May.

Tignes is also reporting good conditions up on its glacier.

Grande Motte looks good

Elsewhere though in France winter is over and many resorts have closed.

Shutting up shop

ITALY:  In Italy Arabba has a 5.2m and Madonna di Campiglio has had the most snow of the past week with 22cm of new snow.

The best place to ski and snowboard is probably Cervinia, where of course you can head over from the Testa Grigia area into neighbouring Zermatt.

It has some of the highest slopes in The Alps.

View of Testa Grigia from Kleine Matterhorn

AUSTRIA: Sölden had 18cm of new snow during the past week. The most in Austria.

There are still 2.5m of snow on the glacier which remains open until 2nd May.

10cm of fresh snow also fell in Lech Zürs and Ischgl last weekend.

Lech closes this Sunday, April 25th. 

Ischgl will celebrate the end of their season with a concert of Alicia Keys on May 1st.

Great place for a concert!

The Mölltal glacier also had some new snow on Sunday and will be open until May 16th.

Currently, they have up to 3.9m of snow on the glacier, more than anywhere else in Austria.

Some other Austrian ski resorts will still be running their lifts for skiers and boarders next week.

Kitzsteinhorn will remain open until May 2nd and currently has 1.71m of snow on top and 1.5m on lower slopes.

Obergurgl celebrates its “ski finish” from this Saturday 24th April through the week to May 1st. The resort has 1.5m of snow left on upper slopes but only 14cm on lower ones.

The Pitztal glacier remains open until May 16th, as does the Kaunertal glacier which has already begun its four week celebration of the end-of-season.

The so-called “Spring Classics” include freeski contests, parties, professional snowboard coaching and a film and photo week.

On the Stubai glacier there is still 1.8m of snow lying with a winter season lasting until June 13th.

SWITZERLAND:  Davos recently had 20cm of new snow and still has a snow depth of 1.84m on its upper slopes, but the official end of season is April 25th.

Samnaun reported 25cm of new snow on Monday. 35 of its 40 lifts are still open with 160cm of snow on the mountain. Samnaun’s season ends May 2nd.

In St. Moritz the ski lifts are still running, too

”Several mountain railways and lifts will be open through to May”, says the local tourist office. “With a snow depth of 80cm to 1.20m skiing conditions are still great on the mountains around St. Moritz.”

Gstaad as well as Saas Fee will allow skiing until May 2nd, but Engelberg with 3m of snow on upper slopes will not close before May 24th.

Zermatt offers 365 days of skiing and snowboarding, with its year long season officially ending on May 31st and then officially recommencing on June 1st.

Verbier closes this weekend with good snow high up but patchy snow low down.

Pretty good high up 

Pretty bad low down

In Germany, the Nebelhorn near Oberstdorf will remain open for another week, until May 2nd.  Likewise Zugspitze closes May 2nd - it even reported 21cm of new snow in the past 7 days and still has a snow depth of 3m on the glacier.

SCOTLAND: Yes, there’s been yet more fresh snow.

"Still great skiing to be had at Cairngorm and they plan to open into May," says PlanetSKI reader, Roger Anderson.

"As far as the season goes it's been awesome with quite unprecedented levels of snow and this is very much the case now with Cairngorm set to open later than most, if not all, non glacier alpine resorts. There's been new snow in the last few days and more set to fall through this week. Personally, given demand I wouldn't be surprised to see lift served skiing into June," he adds.

The resort has just held the Dawn of the Shred competition, as we have already reported here.

The dawn of the shred

However three of the country’s five ski areas, Glenshee, Nevis Range and The Lecht, have now closed – in most cases due more to lack of skiers and boarders than a lack of snow. 

Glencoe is open at weekends and Cairngorm, which has received about 30cm more snow since the weekend, every day until the end of April. It then intends to open at weekends in May.

Cairngorm has also used its snow canon recently - apparenty for the first time this century.

Virtually all resorts in the Pyrenees including those in Andorra and in Eastern Europe have now closed, though Zakopne in Poland is still open and has just has 5cm of fresh snow but still has a base of 1.5m.

SPAIN:  Sierra Nevada, Europe’s most southerly resort, still has a deep snow base and will remain open to May. 

There’s been fresh snow in Scandinavia with Norwegian resorts reporting some of the greatest new snow accumulations of the past week, the most at Røldal which has had 70cm in seven days.

SWEDEN: Spring skiing is at its best right now in Sweden. 

18 resorts are open throughout this week which for many is the last week of the season.

Riksgränsen up in the Arctic Circle has the deepest snow depth in the country with 1.58m. There was also a fresh dusting of 5cm on Wednesday.

The world’s largest downhill competition "Skutskjutet takes place in Åre this weekend (24th April).

The racing course is 3.5km long and everyone aged from 3 years upwards can participate.  All competitors have a chance to win a new Audi A3 convertible.

In North America there’s been fresh snow on the East Coast after several sunny weeks but only two leading ski areas remain open and both plan to close after the coming weekend. 

Killington in Vermont has one lift running serving nine trails and a 50cm base.  It has reported a few inches more snow since Monday.

To the north Mont Sainte Anne, in the Canadian province of Quebec, closes this weekend.

CANADA: There’s a wider choice and deeper snow on Canada's West Coast. 

 Banff, Lake Louise and Whistler are open in to May.

Alberta’s Marmot basin closes this weekend.

Check out the video below from Whistler Blackcomb Mountain.

April 19th 2010:  Memorable moments from the season and some snowboarding tips for those lucky enough to still be out in the white stuff. Whistler Blackcomb has had such a good season boasting the second most snowiest season on record.

US:  In the US the heavy snowfall on the West has eased and Arapahoe Basin in Colorado, which is still open had a further 10cm snowfall in the past week. 

Loveland in Colorado as well as Squaw Valley and Mammoth in California are among those still open.

Once again Utah has had some fresh snow with Snowbird, next to Alta, reporting another 30cm.

Check out the video below to see for yourself.

AUSTRALIA:  With temperatures dropping south of the equator and heralding the start of the southern hemisphere’s winter, Hotham and Dinner Plain in Australia welcomed the first snowfalls of 2010 on Sunday 11 April.

Both villages turned white for a few hours on Sunday and Monday with light dustings of new snowflakes throughout the day.

There are now 53 days to go to the official start of the 2010 winter season down under.

ICELAND:  As promised at the top of this snow overview here is a video from Iceland.

As well as erupting there has been fresh snow falling on the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in the last couple of days.

This 24 hour time-lapse film uses webcam images from 20th April.

The eruption has been greatly reduced.

Film starts in the dark showing orange lava fountains, and ends with fresh snow on its craggy slopes.

Quite a sight.

Bookmark this page

Related Articles