It's melting but there's a bit left
Wednesday April 28, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

For most people skiing and the winter are a distant memory, but the season isn't over yet.

Not by quite a way for those still out in the Alps or about to set off for a Bank Holiday treat.

A few resorts are open in each of the Alpine nations while further north there are still slopes open in Scotland, Sweden, Norway, Finland and even Iceland. 

In the USA conditions are good and more snow is forecast.

It's the place to be.

(BTW if you look at nothing else on PlanetSKI see the videos at the bottom of this story - inspiring or what ?!)

Still a bit left high up

One way to get to the best snow

Here's our round up of conditions with help from our good friends over at www.skiinfo.com

FRANCE:   The snow remains pretty reasonable for this time of year with 8 ski areas still open in France. 

Bonneval sur Arc, La Grave, La Meije and Val d'Isère will close after this weekend. 

Argentière, Chamonix Mont-Blanc, Orelle, Tignes and Europe's highest ski resort, Val Thorens, will stay open one more week to the 9th May.

Chamonix Mont-Blanc still has the greatest snow depth in France on its upper slopes with 3.55m.

The other areas have between 1.6m and 2m.  After May 9th all ski resorts will be closed for 5 weeks. 

After that Tignes, Les 2 Alpes and Val d'Isere will offer summer skiing and boarding.

Tempting in Tignes

"Skiers could fully enjoy the pleasures of skiing early in the season because the snow fell in mid-November, in both a good quantity and of a good quality, so we opened the ski resort a week ahead of schedule, on November 14th," says Marinoël Turc, manager of the Tourist office of Val Thorens.

"Today, we still have winter-like conditions and you can still enjoy the snow."

SWITZERLAND:  Zermatt and Saas Fee both had 5cm of fresh snow this week.

Saas Fee has 2.61m of snow on the glacier with 10 lifts still open. 

Zermatt, Saas Fee, Gstaad and Andermatt, will remain open until this Sunday, May 2nd. 

Zermatt offers year-round skiing on its glacier. 

Engelberg boast a 2.90m snow depth and promises not to close before May 24th.

Still snowy in Saas Fee

ITALY:  Five ski resorts are still open.  Livigno and Abetone will close after 2nd May, whilst Cervinia and Gressoney stay open until 9th May.
 
The Presena Glacier above Passo Tonale plans to stay open until 26th June, it has a 4.2m snowbase with some of the deepest snow in Italy.

Livigno is staging two big events this weekend:

1st May there's a big party planned to celebrate the career of ski racer Giorgio Rocca with a non competitive giant slalom race, open to everyone.

 2nd May the first edition of the La Ciaspoleda rac.

  It's a run with snowshoes for both competitive or non competitive entrants.

AUSTRIA:  Skiing is now largely concentrated on the glaciers.

There’s 2.10m of snow reported on the upper slopes at the Pitztal glacier which remains open to mid-May, while the Kitzsteinhorn above Kaprun has 1.36m.
 
The Mölltal Glacier stays open to May 16th. At the moment six lifts are operating with 45km of skiable slopes. The glacier reports a snow depth of 3.70m boasting the biggest in Austria.

St. Anton and Lech Zürs closed last weekend.

Ischgl celebrate its end of season grand finale this Saturday with Alicia Keys performing at the closing “Top of the Mountain Concert”.  20,000 fans are expected to attend.

The stage is set in Ischgl....

..... for a bit of a party.

SCOTLAND:  At Cairngorm Mountain skiing is still possible from top to bottom, although lower runs are thinning out.

Slopes will remain open daily through to 3rd May, conditions are still good enough for this weekend's Bank Holiday sking. 

The centre is currently operating Ptarmigan, Ciste, Cas, M1, and West Wall lifts along with the train.

Weather and conditions allowing, it will open every weekend to the end of May.

SPAIN:  The season is over in most of Europe but Spain's most southerly resort, Sierra Nevada remains open this weekend with snow depths of between 20cm and 4.00m and 32km of slopes open.

In the Spanish Pyrenees Masella is also open for a last weekend blast with snow depths of 30cm to 80cm and 22km of runs to enjoy.

Ski areas in Andorra though are closed.

Sierra Nevada, April 24th

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, and more is expected towards the weekend.

SWEDEN:   Snow covering is pretty good with good spring snow and some regular 5cm top ups.  12 ski resorts remain open to 2nd May. 

Björkliden on Sweden’s east coast will be open a further week until 9th May whilst Riksgränsen, situated right up in the very north and famous for its May midnight-sun skiing, stays open to 27th June.

Åre is just about closed with live music, events and competitions taking place this weekend. 

As winter activities wind down its ‘summer ‘ activites are about to start with Bike Parks and trails opening almost as soon as the skiing ends.

NORWAY:  12 resorts remain open but just over half of them close this weekend. 

Fresh snowfalls are expected in many areas so there’s a good chance the season will end with a spectacular powder weekend.

31cm of snow fell in Voss last week and it has a 2m snow depth, one of the deepest in Norway. Hemsedal’s notorious ‘end of season’ party is happening on 1st May and around 6,000 skiers are expected. 

Most of its slopes are open.

The Norwegian World Cup team are currently skiing in Hemsedal. So it could be quite a party!

Stryn glacier in the northern region of Norway, has been threatened with closure due to economic difficulties. 

But the news is good - they will open for skiing this summer.  Stryn offers exceptional summer skiing on its glacier which sits at 1,463m. 

Stryn operates a chairlift and a drag lift from late May to early August. The exact season end date depends on the amount of snow melting during the summer and weather conditions. 

JAPAN:  Across the Pacific, Niseko remains open until May 5th. 

It reports an amazing season with January and February providing waist deep powder whilst December and March gave it some of the best skiing conditions of the season.

The famous Japanese resort had the snowiest March since 2005 and the coldest March since 1999, with a total accumulation of over 16m of snowfall for the season. There’s still 3m of snow at the top of the resort and 1m at its base still providing great spring skiing conditions.

CANADA:  In Canada Lake Louise and Sunshine in Alberta and Whistler in British Columbia are still open. 

Lake Louise will close after this weekend, Sunshine closes on 24th May and Blackcomb closes on 14th June.

USA:  Several dozen ski areas remain open across North America and unsurprisingly some have announced that 2010-11 will be their longest winter season ever.

In Colorado Echo Mountain closes after this weekend.

Loveland, one of the world’s highest resorts at 3,871m, and one of US's first ski resorts to open, also closes after the weekend - it had 59cm of fresh snow in the last 7 days.   And, Echo Mountain reported 17cm of new snow last week.  So they're both finishing off with a lovely powder weeked.
 
In Utah, Snowbird beat its self-made target of 12.5m snowfall for the third consecutive year.

A recent storm brought a further 15cm to its slopes.  Snowbird is now the only ski area still open in Utah and proposes to remain open to 31st May, Memorial Day.

In California Squaw Valley and Mammoth remain open - Squaw closes on 9th May whilst Mammoth will stay open until July 4th.  In the southern part of the state Mountain High now plans to remain open to May 2nd making this the longest season in its history.  Mountain High will have been open a total of 186 days beating out the winter of 2004/05 by five days.

The majority of Mountain High’s West Resort is still open with good snow coverage, and there is a chance for even more snow this week.

Up to four lifts are currently in operation accessing 28 trails with terrain for all levels and abilities.

Squaw Valley, and Heavenly in Lake Tahoe both had 43cm snow accumulations in the last 7 days.

April apres in Squaw Valley

Mount  Bachelor and Timberline in Oregon are keeping their lifts running until mid May. Mount Bachelor will close on 17th May. And there's been more snow too. Timberline is reporting 8cm of new snow along with 10cm at Mount Bachelor.

Heavenly Mountain is closed now but below is Heavenly Mountain's slick end of season promotional video with highlights of the best bits of the 2009/2010 winter season.

And it all looks pretty good, including the slushy bits.

And here's one from Snowbird on 7th April (posted on April 19th), boasting 97" inches of new snow in eight days... IN APRIL!

It's just a little old but we liked it anyway.  Not bad, eh?

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