Snow falls in The Alps
Monday September 6, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

The best of it seems to have fallen in Australia.

It has been slightly in the shadow of New Zealand that, up until now, has had by far the best of it down under.

Not anymore.

See the latest video from Perisher.

And below is the scene out in Argentina, in The Andes, where PlanetSKI reader, Alex Leaf, is.

The place to be

There's been some decent snow out in the Alps too as we have already reported.  The earlier story includes some web camera pictures of the snow up on the glaciers.

But we start where the best snow is; Australia. With thanks to our friends at skiinfo for some of the reporting.

AUSTRALIA: It has been the snowiest August in Australia for decades. Official.

"We smashed the record books with some of the best snow the mountain has seen in years. The resort received 34cms of snow, rendering it as the best August snowfall recorded since 1985!" said an excited spokesperson for Mt Buller.

Perisher has had more than 30cm of fresh snow settle across the resort, that makes it 2.6m of accumulated snowfalls since1st August with wind-drifts over 1.5m deep in places.

For Mt Hotham it's 1.2m in the past week with 47cm of fresh snow overnight on Wednesday - the biggest single dump on record since 2003.

82cm fell in 48 hours last weekend making it the resort's snowiest August since 1992.

All 13 lifts are operating with plenty of powder stashes to be found. However, at the weekend a landslide hit the ticket office after all the rain in the area.

See this separate PlanetSKI news story.

Latest snow report from Thredbo and it's snowing.

NEW ZEALAND:The talk in all the ski areas is now of the eathquake that struck near Christchurch. 

The epicentre was just 44km away from some of the ski resorts and though it was felt by many skiers and snowboarders as it struck non-one was hurt and no damage has been reported.

See this separate PlanetSKI news story.

In the country there's been less fresh snow than Australia but more world class competitions, with the FIS Junior World Championships at Cardrona and SnowParkNZ declared a success as they drew to a close.

We have reported on it here.

Mt Hutt continues to have some of the best snow in the country receiving yet another 14cm last week taking base depths up to 2.5m. However it is shut at the momet because of high winds.

"Mount Hutt lived up to it's name as Mount Shutt today!! High winds. I will let you know how it looks tomorrow," says PlanetSKI reader, Amanda Pirie, on Monday morning.

There's been fresh snow, if less of it, at Coronet Peak and The Remarkables which are both looking good though they have around half the snow depth.

But Treble Cone went one better than Mt Hutt with 30cm of snow falling in 30 hours last weekend.

Snow depths are also still good on Mt Ruapehu where Turoa has more than 1.6m of snow and Whakapapa 1.12m.

Mt Ruapehu weekly snow update:

Cardrona has a 1.05m base.

However bad weather has closed in again with strongwinds forecast for the next few days across many resorts on both the north and south islands.

Across the pacific in South America there's been fresh snow.

ARGENTINA: The Argentine resort of Chapelco has a base of 2.25m on its upper slopes. 

Conditions are fairly amazing at Cerro Cathedral too, with a base depth of 3.3m on upper slopes and 80cm at the lower slopes.

PlanetSKI reader, Alex Leaf, is out there at the moment.

He is a BASI Trainer coaching some students on a Base Camp, Gap Year course.

"Today in Argentina, the skiing has been just amazing. See the view from the top of the Condor 3 lift.  Now there are lakes, and there are Lakes. This is what you call a lake! We had a truly amazing day with great company and fantastic weather. The Base Camp group here are enjoying the experience and are imersing themselves into the Argentinian way of life.  I have 6 people with me, one from Seattle, one from Sydney, and four from the UK."

One of the best views in the world we reckon

You may well have seen it before, but if you haven't then check out the PlanetSKI video we made in Argentina a couple of years ago.

It's one of our favouite places to ski on the planet.

Although it's as cold as -10C at Las Lenas the snow is not so great 60cm at the top but only 20cm at the base. 

CHILE: It's snowing in parts of Chile too, Valle Nevado, another of the continent's big areas, has had 9cm recently taking its season-long snowfall to 3.81m.

At Portillo it's still not a memorable season, but they had 5cm last week, a small boost to the 80cm upper slope base depths.

However the powder skiing for which the resort is most famous remains sadly limited.

A team of British skiers has been skiing the volcanoes in Chile and we have just been sent some photos and a report. We will be putting it up on the site later this week so keep an eye open for it.

In the meantime here are a couple of pictures.

First skin up, then ski down

Across the Atlantic, Afriski, the only ski area that's been officially open in Africa for the southern hemisphere's winter in the continent is due to close this weekend.

"Spring has arrived at the resort. The peach trees in the valley are blossoming and our snow is sadly melting. If you need a last snow fix, make use of our 70% discount on skiing and select accommodation for this weekend and enjoy a spring snow break with us," said a resort statement.

Snow depth on the main run that had been above 70cm for several months has dropped to 45cm and the run length has also decreased to 440m. 

The snowpark and a diminished beginners area are still open though!

All of the snow this season has been machine made and Afriski's snow guns got tantalisingly close to raking up 500 hours of operation, but it now looks like they'll finish the season with 496 hours. 

Temperatures are set to hit double figures for the final few days of the Lesotho ski area's season.

If you want to find out a bit more about Afri-ski see this PlanetSKI report from last year.

In Europe there has been some fresh snow at altitude on the glaciers with Austria doing best. However many of the resorts are clsoing their summer seasons.

AUSTRIA: Solden is currently hoping to start their winter 2010-11 season a month earlier than planned, this weekend following the heavy snow fall.

It currently has a 61cm  base. 

The Pitztal Glacier, which was due to be the first to open in September for 2010-11 on September 15^th has not announced any plans to open early, but has announced 50cm of fresh snow.

The Kitzsteinhorn Glacier above Kaprun which closed unexpectedly in August due to the snow on the glacier all but melting away, has still not re-opened as yet however, even though it too has had several feet of new snow and now boasts 55 - 65cm over a 500m vertical.

It's the same at present on the Dachstein glacier, although it reports a foot of new snow.

The Molltal glacier has had 50cm of new snow and now has a 1.3m  base, the falls have been less spectacular on the Tux glacier but it still has the most terrain open, with 20km of runs to enjoy and a 95cm base.

GERMANY: In Germany the Zugspitz glacier has reported 70cm of new snow but is not yet open.

ITALY: In Italy Val Senales reports 30cm of new snow taking its total base to 1m.

Cervinia has only had a dusting but the glacier of Zermatt is accessible.

SWITZERLAND: It similar in Zermatt and Saas Fee, reporting a 1.2 base and 'Spring like' conditions.

The resorts missed out on the snow that hit the high altitude Austrian glacier resorts.

In the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland PlanetSKI reporter, Ben Clatworthy, has been on a walking trip around Lugano.  He will be reporting on it next week on the web site. 

Judging from the photo he has just sent in it looks rather pleasant round the lake.

Looks inviting

FRANCE: Is shut!

Tignes and Les 2 Alps have now closed although Tignes will re-open again later this month as it begins its Autumn skiing season.

We'll let you know when that happens.

USA: There's no skiing in North America as the only ski area due to be open, Timberline on Mt Oregon, is closed due to rain and wind. 

It's due to close soon shortly anyway for its annual maintainance shut down for a few weeks in late September.

On the upside Loveland in Colorado, one of the world's highest resorts and typically one of the first to open in North America each year, usually in early October, has announced it has wheeled out its portable snowmaking guns on to the piste ready for temps to drop low enough for snowmaking to begin.

We have already reported on it here.

On your marks....

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