So where's the snow now?
Friday July 3, 2009 - Email this article to a friend

There's been heavy snow in South America especially Chile. 

Most of the ski areas in the Southern Hemisphere are now open, and in the Northern Hempisphere glacier skiing is offered by resorts in France, Italy, Switzerland and Norway.   And on 30th June 2009, here's more from our friends over at www.skiinfo.com

In France glacier skiing is now possible in Tignes, Les 2 Alpes and Val D'Isere which opened last weekend.  All 3 resorts are reporting snow depths of around 180cm on their respective glaciers.

Austria has 4 glacier areas open for skiing. The largest at Tux near Mayrhofen has more than 23km skiable runs.  Other include Kitzsteinhorn glacier at Kaprun, Dachstein glacier near Schladming and Molltal glacier.

Italy has 4 summer-ski areas open.  Cervinia opened last weekend and reports a 180cm snow depth.  A Cervinia lift company spokesman commented, “The glacier is in splendid condition this year!”  The Presena glacier above Passo Tonale is still open although the tourist office reported last month it expected the glacier ski lifts to close by the end of June. Although only 2 red runs and 1 black are open it offers tough skiing and still boasts a 320sm snow depth. Italy also offers skiing at Passo Stelvio and Val Senales.

Whilst Cervinia in Italy has great snow it links into Zermatt across the border into Switzerland, which also offers great summer skiing.  Saas Fee will open its summer glacier skiing on Saturday July 4th.   

Norway‘s three glacier ski areas are open. Folgefonn is currently reporting the deepest snow base with a 5m accumulation. The Stryn glacier has a 180cm base and Galdhøpiggen 150cm.

In North America two open ski areas remain open - the Horstman Glacier on Blackcomb mountain at Whistler with 1m of snow and Timberline in Oregon where the shrinking
snow pack remains at 150cm.

In South America, Portillo Chile reported 28cm of new fresh snow blocking all access roads to the resort,  They have had so much snow to date this season that the snow base has reached on 180cm.

La Parva reported 35cm snow in 24 hours on Monday, part of a huge 95cm  snowfall in 7 days.  A quarter of its lifts are open with good fresh powder.  Valle Nevado has also reported big snowfalls, with 35cm of fresh snow on Monday with 138cm snowfall on a 40cm base.

In Argentina, Las Lenas has reported big falls but remains closed.  Serro Catedral at Bariloche, South America’s largest ski area, has a 45cm base on upper runs.

In Africa Tiffindell remains open with 60cm artificial snow on its 175m run.  Afriski in Lesotho is still closed.

In Australia most ski areas have seen temperatures hovering around zero for several days now and a few cm/inches of fresh snow.  Typical is Mt Buller with an average 45cm  base on open terrain. At Mt Hotham snow is predicted to fall on 30 June above 1600m and is expected to continue throughout Wednesday and Thursday above 1300m.

Two more New Zealand ski areas opened at the weekend.  Cardrona Alpine opened its gates on June 26, with ideal snow and weather conditions for a great  start to the ski season  with 1m on groomed trails.  And another Kiwi resort, Whakapapa, opened for the season on June 27 with both Happy Valley and the Rock Garden open.  The grooming team has spread out the snow a whopping two metres thick over Happy Valley. Snowmaking actually had to stop because they ran out of water. So far the resort has turned 72 million litres of water into snow. How eco-friendly is that?

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