Where's the snow?
Thursday June 3, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

This month sees ski areas open in Argentina, Australia, Chile, Lesotho, New Zealand and South Africa.

In The Alps glacier resorts are opening up and Blackcombe re-opens in Canada.

These hundred odd ski areas in eight countries will join the 20 or so still going in 10 countries in the northern hemisphere; Austria, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland and the US.

In the southern hemisphere snow is already falling and it's cold enough for some resorts to make snow.

In New Zealand, Treble Cone had 35cm of new snow this week and a few hiked up to put in the first turns of winter.

Pre-season turns in Treble Cone

Here's our world overview with the help of our friends over at skiinfo.com

AUSTRIA: In the northern hemisphere Austria seems to be the place to be this week with glacier ski areas reporting up to 40cm of new snow.

The Dachstein Glacier in southern Austria is re-opening at the weekend, unveiling its improved Horsefeathers Superpark for the summer snow season.

The Kaunertal, Stubai and Tux glaciers are also open and have reported substantial new snow too.

If you were watching England's World Cup warm up match against Japan in Austria earlier this week you will have noticed it was chucking it down with rain.

At altitude, on many glaciers, it fell as snow.

England was based in the Austrian Alps for its training camp while Japan is in Saas-Fee.

Altitude training in Saas-Fee

So what is summer skiing and snowboarding like?

We will be bringing you a special feature soon so keep an eye open for that.

ITALY: In the Italian mountains a third ski area, Passo Stelvio, has joined the Presena Glacier and Val Senales.

All other ski areas in Italy remain closed.

SWITZERLAND: Europe's highest slopes above Zermatt, remain open and there are mixed signals coming from the Diavolezza glacier near St Moritz. 

We have checked the web site and part of the official site says the ski centre is open but when we click through it leads to a more detailed page which seems to indicate it has closed.

If you know the true state of play then please let us know.

FRANCE: There are no ski areas currently open in France although there's plenty of high altitude ski touring going on above resorts like Chamonix.

See this related picture gallery on a recent day tour in the area.

"Whilst those who can’t bear to put away their skis, are still touring the high passes, others are whizzing around on 2 wheels, or playing golf and tennis with renewed vitality," says Claire Burnett from the resort's tourist office.

Chamonix is one of the top destinations in The Alps for summer activities and PlanetSKI will be reporting from the Chamonix Valley later in the summer on all that it has to offer.

The country's three remaining summer ski areas - Les 2 Alpes, Tignes and Val d'Isere begin opening in three week's time.

In Northern Europe they're still skiing at Riksgransen in the Swedish Arctic Circle where there's now24 hour daylight, at Ruke in Finland and on Norway's three glacier areas of Folgefonn, Galdhoppigen and Stryn - the latter recently opened.

We had this recent report from one of our reporters, Gabriella Le Breton, from Riksgransen.

SCOTLAND: Meanwhile Cairngorm in the Scottish Highlands has announced plans to open for the first weekend of June.

It was open last weekend and we reported on it here.

It also says it may stay open on weekends through June, conditions permitting .

On June 21st Northern Scotland celebrates the start of summer with near-24 hour daylight, thanks to the region's northerly latitude.

The ski area is enjoying a record-breaking year approaching eight months of near continual operation, but soon it will be un-economicla tokeep it open as there is not enough demand.

There was more fresh snow last week with temperatures hovering around zero at the top of the slopes. 

The Ptarmigan lift is running and the train makes mid-station stops if it is possible to ski to the middle using the gunbarrel.

The terrain park and the sledge park are open.

The Cairngorm terrain park

USA: In North America the season continues at four US ski areas - Mammoth Mountain in California, Arapahoe Basin in Colorado (now in its last week), Snowbird in Utah and Timberline in Oregon.

However three areas opened at the weekend to celebrate the Memorial Day holiday in the US.

On the West Coast Donner Summit and Squaw Valley ski areas re-opened due primarily to fresh snow falling last week.

On the East Coast, Stowe in Vermont, took a different approach and unveiled a huge pile of snow it had stockpiled through the winter to use for one off 'Last Trick' Rail Jam over the Memorial Day weekend. 

The giant pile of snow, formerly the resort's halfpipe, provided the venue for Stowe's park crew to set up the rails, boxes and jumps for one more jam session.

Fun in Stowe Mountain resort

See this separate report on PlanetSKI.

Arapahoe Basin

Mammoth Mountain had 12cm of new snow just before last weekend.

There are no ski areas known to be open in Canada at present although Whistler Blackcomb is due to re-open shortly for its summer glacier ski and board season.

NEW ZEALAND: In the southern hemisphere there's been natural snowfall in New Zealand where the 2010 ski season is only weeks away.

Resorts have begun snowmaking too.

The team at Turoa on Mt Ruapehu spent much of Monday morning blowing snow down on the meadow. The mountain's other ski area, Whakapapa, is ready to make more snow as soon as the conditions allow it.

There has been snow throughout the day and more in the forecast so mother nature is doing her bit to help out too.

Things are currently on track for the projected opening dates of the 19th of June for Turoa and Whakapapa following one week later on the 26th of June.

There's been less fresh snow in Australia but temperatures have been low enough for snowmaking to begin at Perisher ski resort, the country's largest.

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