It's snowing!
Monday June 28, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

The Northern hemisphere continues to have some sking and snowboarding on offer. It's not much but it's possible.

Recent heavy snowfalls in Europe, up to 50cm in places, have improved conditions on European glaciers as more re-open for summer skiing. Not quite what you expect at this time of year. 

Another US area plans to open its slopes in July.

And Cairngorm Mountain in Scotland finally, finally wraps up its 7 month season.

Mid-summer on Cairngorm

In the southern hemisphere, resorts in New Zealand are reporting up to 25cm of new snow, but in Australia conditions are only just cold enough for snowmaking.

And there's more snow in South Africa.

In South America, Argentina’s resorts start to open and there's a bit more snow in Chile.

Here's the PlanetSKI snow round up with the help from our friends over at skiinfo.

SCOTLAND: Midsummer's Day on 21st June really was the very, very, very last day's skiing at Cairngorm. 

In Scotland more than 60 skiers took to the slopes at CairnGorm Mountain on the summer solstice on Monday 21st June to enjoy some midsummer skiing on the snow still lying in the Ptarmigan bowl.

They were able to take advantage of two rope tows set up by the resort’s operators CairnGorm Mountain. Skiers had travelled from as far away as the Isle of Mull in order to be able to say that they had skied at midsummer at CairnGorm.

We reported on it here and had a separate photo gallery too.

The 21st June was the 147th day of skiing at CairnGorm since the season started on 28 November 2009.

There were 23 days when skiing was not possible, not due to lack of snow as is often the case, but caused by high winds or access blocked by excessive snow.

June; open for business

Last y

Last year 65,000 skiers visited the resort and only three years ago they had their worst season ever with only 38,000 skiers.

SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE:

NEW ZEALAND:   More ski areas are opening in New Zealand.

Treble Cone has received excellent pre-season snow and opens 24 June with the first lift running at 8.30am. There’ll be Amisfield bubbles for the first 150 skiers on the lifts.  Whakapapa is scheduled to open on Saturday 26 June.

Of the up and running ski areas - Turoa has 80cm of snow on upper slopes.  The Remarkables has 85cm and has reported a further 10cm on 23rd June.  Coronet Peak has the same amount lying with a 15cm top up on 23rd.   But Mt Hutt has trumped both with 25cm of new snow today and 1m base.

Treble Cone’s skiers and snowboarders can test their aerial skills on its new The AirBag - a supersized, air-filled stunt cushion that provides a soft landing for skiers and snowboarders.  Its a first for New Zealand, the Airbag is used throughout Europe to help develop the training techniques of Olympic and national aerial teams.

AUSTRALIA: In Australia there’s been no new natural snowfall for over a week, but temperatures are continuing to stay quite low so most resorts with snowmaking equipment are making more. 

Resorts like Falls Creek, Mt Hotham and Perisher have 40cm - 50cm of snow on snowmaking areas, Thredbo has less.

You Tube snow report from Perisher on 23rd June

Perisher 24th June

ARGENTINA: Las Lenas is the first resort to open in Argentina opening with 1m of snow on upper slopes. 

But the country’s other leading resort, Cerro Catedral, says it needs more snow before opening, there’s currently approximately 30cm on upper slopes.

CHILE: Conditions at most ski areas in Chile are looking promising with reports of up to 60cm of fresh snow in the past week, most of it beautifully timed just before the weekend. Chapa Verde has a 60cm base  and Chapelco 50cm.

However Valle Nevado and the South American ‘ three Valleys’ that surround it have some of the best conditions on the continent with more than 1.6m of accumulated snowfall to date. 

Portillo, which delayed its opening by a week, is now on schedule to open this weekend - 25th June.

SOUTH AFRICA: In Southern Africa there’s snow sports as well as World Cup football.  Africa’s Tiffindell is open for skiing.

Afriski in Lesotho has had more new snow taking its base depth to 65cm with a 400m long slope open.

NORTHERN HEMISPHERE:

AUSTRIA: The Hintertux glacier has reported 45cm of new snow. It has a 590m vertical with 20km of pistes open, and a 195.cm base.

The Dachstein glacier has a 2.10m base and is reporting powder conditions. It’s beginner park and super park are both open.

The Kitzsteinhorn glacier above Kaprun has also reopened, reporting another 5cm of fresh snow on Tuesday, on top of weekend falls and a full 750m of skiable vertical.

The Mölltal glacier will re-open Sunday 27 June at 8am with about 9km of groomed slopes open daily to 4pm through to the end of August. The centre currently reports up to 3.6m snow depths on the glacier.

One famus face out in Austria at the moment is Lindsey Vonn.  She is in Kaprun and has told people via her Facebook page that winter is still present up in the mountains.

"I arrived in Austria yesterday and today I am in Kaprun on the Kufstein glacier for a video shoot with Head. It is definitely still winter up here! After the shoot I will head to Salzburg for 3 weeks of off snow training."

ITALY: By the weekend, Italy will also have up to four summer ski areas open.

Cervinia re-opens at the weekend with fresh snow.  It joins the still-open Presena glacier above Passo Tonale where just two advanced to expert runs are open, as well as Passo Stelvio and Val Senales.  Val Senales has reported 20cm of new snow in two falls over the past few days.

SWITZERLAND: Switzerland's only open resort is Zermatt.  It is Europe’s highest ski area, and has 8km of runs open.

More runs are opening next week and we will have a report and pictures direct form the slopes from a PlanetSKI reader, Sean Langmuir, who is out on the slopes coaching.

When Saas-Fee opens shortly it should be good with the recent new snowfall.

FRANCE: Ski lifts began running again in Tignes at the weekend on the Grande Motte glacier and in neighbouring Val d’Isere.  Les 2 Alpes re-opened a week ago.

In Tignes there’s 20km of piste and a giant terrain park is open. Its snow base is 120cm, and there’s been another 5cm of fresh snow. The slopes are open from 7:15am to 1pm, and located at an altitude ranging from 3,000 to 3,456 metres.

The glacier features 12 ski lifts and can be accessed in 7 minutes by the funicular.

Les 2 Alpes has 80cm of snow at 2600m and 2.8m up at 3200m with 12 slopes and the terrain park open at one of Europe’s largest summer ski areas.

NORWAY: The only other places to ski in Europe are in Norway.

3 glacier ski areas are open at Folgefonn with up to 4m of snow, Galdhoppigen with almost 5m and Stryn with up to 4.5m of snow.

And across the Ocean in America:

USA: In North America the ski season ended a weekend later than expected in Utah when Snowbird decided it would open last weekend, extending its 2009/10 season to 189 total days.

Skiing though was limited. 

Customers were limited to one ride up the Aerial Tram per day, allowing access to Little Cloud lift and skiing on Regulator Johnson. All additional terrain was closed and classified as “backcountry terrain.”

However Timberline on Mt Hood in Oregon and Mammoth Mountain in California are still operating their ski lifts and snow slopes.

Mammoth, which currently has 60-180cm of snow, have said they will remain open for two more weekends to July 4. However another California resort, Boreal, now say they’ll open for one weekend only, on the 10th/11th July.

Lifts will be open from 10am - 2pm, to enjoy the abundance of snow left from the snowy spring.  A full terrain park will be built, accessed via the Castle Peak Quad. Lift tickets will cost $20.

CANADA: North of the border Whistler’s summer skiing and boarding area on the Blackcomb glacier is now open. 

Whilstler is also offering summer snowshoeing and tubing.

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