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Snow in the south
Wednesday September 1, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

South America and Australia report heavy snow falls and there's a bit of an autumnal chill out here in The Alps. Here's the PlanetSKI snow overview from our reporters, friends and contacts around the world.

Argentina has had the best of it with Cerro Catedral getting almost 1m.

Good news for one of our reporters, Alex Leaf, who is heading out there now for a 4 week trip.

He works for BASI and is delivering some training for a GAP year ski course.

"I depart for a month of skiing where, apparently, the snow is superb. How about that for a damp UK in August! The gap year students I will be working with have the benefit of a stunning location and an opportunity to kick-start their careers in Snowsports Instruction."

More than just skiing in Argentina

Australia too reports heavy snowfall.

This season it was being rather outdone by New Zealand, but not anymore. It has had the snowiest August for almost a decade.

We have the full details further down this article and also some first-hand reports from PlanetSKI readers/reporters in New Zealand.

And for those of us out in The Alps it has been a bit cold and wet with some snow on the high peaks.

Not much and we certainly aren't calling it the first snow of the winter, like some people, but it shows that winter is now getting nearer.

"It's freeeeeeezing," is how one PlanetSKI reader in the Swiss Alps describes it. "Apparently it is snowing above 1,800m but we can't see because it is so cloudy."

Another reader in Lugano says it has cheered up a bit.

"The weather is beautiful in Lugano and following heavy rain in the past days the air is very fresh and the temperature is lovely. Time to go and swim in the lake now," says PlanetSKI reader/reporter, Ben Clatworthy.

Looking good in Logarno Looking good in Lugano

Here's our weekly round up with the help of our friends over at skiinfo.

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SWITZERLAND: The two open Swiss glacier ski areas of Sass Fee and neighbouring Zermatt continue to have the best conditions in The Alps.

Both received more than 50cm of fresh snow a few weeks ago. Snow depths at both remain about 1.2m and terrain park features are in good shape.

In Verbier, the PlanetSKI base resort, there's been a light dusting up on the mountain tops and an autumnal chill in the air.

Below is a web camera picture from the resort.

Mixed weather

One of our reporters in Verbier, Guy Ordway, sums it up.

"It's actually freezing today - I just cycled up to Carrefoure and was going to head further up to Marmotte but it's well and truly in the cloud so I didn't bother."

He took this photo for us instead.

Mean and moody

Guy works for the Performance ski school in the resort.

The guys in the bright colours.

But why ski with your mouth open?

ITALY: Val Senales, Cervinia and Passo Stelvio remain open, each with 70-100cm of snow.

Cervinia, which is in its last week of summer skiing, closing on September 5^th, has the best snow after benefitting from the large snowfall that Zermatt received a few weeks ago.

FRANCE: Cover is patchy at Les 2 Alpes and Tignes, the two open glacier ski areas, both of which closed this weekend as the summer holidays end.

Although in the case of Tignes it's only for three weeks before re-opening for winter 2010-11 in mid-September.

Not long to go to Autumn skiing in Tignes

AUSTRIA:There's no change in Austria where the Kitzsteinhorn's 'temporary closure' due to thin snow cover on the glacier is stretching towards a month.

There's only 7cm of snow reported on there at present so it's not looking promising that it'll re-open any time soon.

It's a similar picture on the Dachstein Glacier which has 30cm of snow on the glacier which it describes as "wet." It only had limited cross country skiing open at present.

On the Molltal glacier in the south of the country there remains 9.5km of runs open with up to 1.2m of snow lying.

Snow depth on the year-round snow sports centre at Tux in the Ziller Valley has dropped below a metre for the first time in a long while - it's at 95cm, but there are still 20km of runs and more than 600m of vertical to enjoy.

flag_usa USA: In North America it's still Timberline on Mt hood in Oregon that's the only snow sports centre open.

It's two chairs and public terrain park are all open and temperatures are dropping a little as summer draws to a close.

However, one ski area in Colorado has dusted off its snow cannons and brought them out in preparation for making some snow. We have reported on it here.

Loveland gets its cannons out

In the southern hemisphere we're starting to see more spring-like conditions at some resorts, while others remain in mid-winter mode.

flag_argentina ARGENTINA: Cerro Catedral, the continent's biggest ski area, is reporting an amazing 90cm fall last week taking base depths on the mountain to 2.4m.

There's a dramatic difference between the top and the bottom of the slopes however, with lower runs only reporting a 25cm base and 10cm of new snow.

The last time there was such a big snowfall an avalanche came down one of the main pistes and completely flattened a restaurant.

Fortunately it happened at night.

It's also looking good, if not quite so spectacular, in Chapelco with a 1.4m base.

At Argentina's other big resort, Las Lenas, snow depths on upper slopes are at 95cm.

The remains of the restaurant in Cerro Catedrale

flag_chile CHILE: Portillo has issued a statement saying, "We are in a spring skiing freeze/thaw cycle. Off piste skiing cover is variable. The heliskiing is operating as weather permits on corn snow and the snow depth on the Plateau side is 100cm and 50cm on the Juncalillo side."

This seems to be a pattern being repeated at other resorts, with Chapa Verde's base depth now down to 50cm at Valle Nevado it's only 40cm, despite more than 3.7m falling so far this winter.

None the less, most of the terrain there remains open.

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AUSTRALIA: Conditions are good once again across Australia's ski areas.

Mt Hotham reports the whole mountain is open, with Keogh's and The Orchard opened for the first time in season 2010 last week and Blue Ribbon followed suit on Saturday after 17cm of fresh snow fell.

August snowfalls now measure 1.43m and it's been the best August for snowfalls since 2001.

"It's great to see such a snowy August as the pre-season forecasts had said it would be drier than this so it's a great surprise," said Mt Hotham spokeswoman, Gina Woodward.

"It's the best second half of a season for many years."

Another large dump is currently falling too.

Perisher, 27th August, and it's really been snowing pretty hard - check out the video.

Good snow in Thredbo too

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NEW ZEALAND: In New Zealand the big news isn't so much the snow, as the fact that over 300 of the world's elite junior snow sports athletes from some 30 nations have been in Lake Wanaka.

They were taking part in the inaugural joint FIS Snowboard & Freestyle Junior World Championships.

We have already reported on it here on PlaneSKI several times.

Cardona is reporting excellent conditions with temperatures around -3 and 90cm of snow on upper runs, virtually everything open, but no fresh snow.

Mt Ruapehu's two resorts of Turoa and Whakapapa have bases of 115-160cm and though they've had no new snow, are expecting fresh for the rest of the week.

Matt RiversPlanetSKI reader and reporter Matt Rivers has been there all season.

"Snow has been amazing this season with some great powder days," he tells us.

We hope to bring you a selection of his photos from the winter later on PlanetSKI.

Over at The Remarkables the snow has started falling, just, with Icm in the past 24 hours, it has a 1m base.

Not much but better than nothing we guess. Mt Hutt has had the same fall but double the base.

Coronet Peak also reports a centimetre of new snow on its 110cm base.

In Treble Cone another PlanetSKI reader, Rupert Goldring, says conditions are superb.

"The last week in Treble Cone has been the best of the season. We have enjoyed 30cm of fresh over the last 3 days. This gives a lower base of 107cm, and an upper of 180cm. The front has remained relatively cold, maintaining dry powder, particularly on the Summit and in the Mototapu Chutes."

Rupert is working for Rookie Academy in the resort. The company provides instructor training.