There is skiing to be had
Sunday June 28, 2009 - Email this article to a friend

The north south divide continues with heavy snow in the southern hemisphere, particularly South America and Australia with more ski areas opening in New Zealand.  The northern hemisphere continues to compete with glacier skiing and improves still further with two more centres opening, plus an 18cm top up on the up on some Austrian slopes. 

The wintry weather has brough severe flooding threats to the country as we have reported here.

Across the world there's been heavy snow in South America and more glacier skiing in Europe.  Here's more from our friends over at www.skiinfo.com

But first here's some web camera photos from resorts that have opened Down Under and in Europe this weekend.

Coronet Peak, it's dark but there's snow.

Cervinia, opened this weekend to good snow cover

Val D'Isere, also opened this weekend and it's white in the far distance!

In France, Tignes opened its glacier skiing following on from the recent opening of Les 2 Alpes one week ago.  In celebration, Tignes staged a race with people wearing only sunglasses, suncream, gloves and bikinis. See our PlanetSKI report on the opening extravaganza and check out the video of the bikini skiing. Tignes summer skiing will be open for the next 10 weeks until 30th August from 7.15am to 1pm daily. The Perce-Neige funicular operates daily transporting skiiers to the top in 7 minutes. A one day ski ticket costs 31 Euros for an adult, 25 Euros for a child.

Austria continues to offer the widest choice of glacier skiing in Europe with a further 4cm of fresh snow.  The Mölltaler Glacier re-opened on Saturday with 9km pistes open every day from 8am to 4pm.  Typically temperatures fall a few degrees below zero but the  glacier snow base depth is 330cm with an additional 10cm of fresh snow in the last few days. And bearing in mind its mid June, the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier above Kaprun reported 18cm of fresh snow. 7 lifts operate on a 365cm base on the glacier.  The Kitzsteinhorn’s Ice arena opens June 26th offering facilities for young children accessed by a simple magic carpet.  The Hintertux glacier offers the largest ski area open with 23km of piste.  The Dachstein Glacier operates a small ski area.

In other parts of Europe, 3 glacier ski areas are open in Norway each boasting very deep snow bases. Italy also offers 3 glacier ski areas, and Zermatt's year-round skiing.

In North America,  Whistler Blackcomb opens the Horstman Glacier on Blackcomb Mountain on Saturday, June 20 for summer skiing and snowboarding. Timberline in Oregon is still open with a base in excess of 2m.

In South America there’s been very heavy snow.  Argentina’s Las Lenas resort reporting 120cm of snow at the base and 260cm at the top of the mountain, it expects to open shortly.   Caviahue opens on June 24 with snow depths of 20- 80cm.

Although not yet open, other Argentinian ski areas are reporting snow.  Los Penitentes reports a 20cm base.  Chapelco has 2cm on lower slopes and 50cm on upper runs with temperatures hovering a few degrees below zero.  Catedral also has a good covering of fresh snow - see our blogs and video on Serro Catedral.

In Chile, Portillo reports 140cm of snow so early on in the season.  Most of this fell last week.  Conditions are described as ‘packed powder’.  Valle Nevada opened on 22nd June with 1m  of fresh snow falling just 72 hours before it opened.  Chapa Verde reports 30cm of snow but  remains closed.

South Africa’s Tiffindell and Lesotho’s Afriski have only had a disappointing dusting of snow.  Tiffindell is the only one open with 60cm of machine made snow for its 175m run.

Australia hopes for more snow next week. 16 lifts will be running across Perisher and Blue Cow with snow depths of up to 48cm.  Snow is forecast above 1500m which is great news for Perisher Village sitting at 1720m.

New Zealand continues to have a great season, already four weeks old for some areas, whilst others are still to open. Mt Buller has 9 lifts open with good cover on firm packed snow. There’s a natural snow base of 33cm and an average of 47cm in the snowmaking areas.  Remarkables near Queenstown, started its season with bright sunshine, excellent snow cover and all its lifts open.

Cardrona Alpine Resort kicks off its season on 26th June welcoming skiers and boarders to enjoy the best opening snow conditions in over a decade. All the runs will be open. Cardrona has made many improvements including a new trail down Arcadia Basin for more advanced skiers and boarders. The 22-foot half pipe is ready to host 3 major events including the Burton New Zealand Open, NZ Freeski Open and Winter Games NZ.

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