J2Ski Snow Report - September 19th 2024
J2Ski Snow Report - September 19th 2024
Published : 19-Sep-2024 02:13
Stubai Glacier, Austria, opening tomorrow(Friday!) after last week's heavy early snow.
Heavy snow (and flooding) arrives for parts of Europe, while New Zealand and South America get late season boosts with snow falling in the final weeks of their seasons.
The Snow Headlines - September 19th
- Stubai announces early opening - this Friday!
- First snowfall ahead of 24-25 season in the Pyrenees.
- Heavy September snowfall in the Alps, down to low levels in places.
- Heavy snowfall in New Zealand.
- Only two centres still open in Australia.
- More Alpine glaciers are preparing to open.
- Forest fires threaten ski areas on the US West Coast.
Decent late-season snow forecast for New Zealand, Argentina and Chile
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World Overview
The big news in the ski world this past week was the amount and extent of snowfall in Europe in the latter half of last week. Along with sizable falls up above 2,500m, which isn't unusual for late summer/early autumn, there was heavy, wet snow down to low levels, disrupting summer operations, particularly in the Austrian Alps.
That's allowed at least one Austrian glacier ski area to start their season early, this coming weekend.
The European snow fell over a very wide area too including Slovenia in the east and the Pyrenees to the west.
In North America, the ski news was unfortunately more of forest fires threatening resorts than fresh snowfall, but high-altitude resorts in the Rockies are prepping their snowmakers to begin operations.
The season continues to wind down in the southern hemisphere with Australia the most 'wound-down' having now only the largest resort Perisher, and one of the smallest Tasmania's Mount Mawson, left open.
New Zealand areas by contrast have had a boost with a good fall of snow over the last week and most centres in the Andes remain open.
Southern Hemisphere
Australia
With Charlotte Pass, Falls Creek and Thredbo closing early last weekend, only Australia's largest area Perisher remains open of the big players, albeit with thin cover left and less than 10% of its slopes still skiable.
Temperatures did actually dip a little this last week and there were some light snowfalls. Ben Lomond in Tasmania even reported that it was re-opening for weekend sledging, if not skiing as a result, but the other Tasmanian ski centre, Mt Mawson, has a tow still running for skiers.
Perisher hopes to stay open to the start of September but with afternoon temperatures continuing to be warm that remains to be seen. Overnight lows are still dipping below freezing.
New Zealand
It was one of the better weeks of the past month in New Zealand despite the fast-approaching end of the season.
The main boost was a 20-40cm snowfall in the final days of last week which really transformed conditions after the spells of warm weather, rain and gales in recent weeks. The past week has seen several blue sky powder days after the snowfall.
Coronet Peak, Cardrona and Mount Hutt appear to be in the best shape, with bases up to 2 metres up high and 100% of their terrain still open.
Some smaller resorts are struggling with thin cover, and strong winds continue to cause closures.
Mount Ruapehu's Turoa and Whakapapa ski areas remain hard hit with very little open so it is not looking good for their usual October operations.
Argentina
Most of Argentina's ski areas remain open although it's the final week or two for many. It's been a mostly dry week, frequently sunny and although overnight lows continue to dip just below freezing, daytime highs have reached +10C to +15C which is of course impacting snow cover.
Most centres still have most of their slopes open, if down a little on a week ago.
Catedral near Bariloche still has the most open in the world, down a little from 100km to 94km of slopes.
Chapelco also still has the world's deepest reported snowpack, also down slightly on a week ago, at 3.2m.
Chile
A definite end-of-the-season feel in Chile with temperatures reaching the high double digits above freezing (Celsius) in the afternoons at some resorts. However, overnight lows on high runs continue to dip below freezing for freeze-thaw conditions so it's not a non-stop meltdown.
It has been largely dry and frequently sunny over the last week, although rain/snowfall is expected for the remainder of this week.
Base depths are dropping a little with the warmth but most centres remain fully open, Valle Nevado for example posting a 1-2.5m base depth and 100% of its lifts turning and runs open.
Portillo has a 70-140cm base, down from double that at the height of winter, but also reports its slopes 100% open.
Europe
European ski areas had an exciting end to last week with over a foot of fresh snowfall above 2,500m and snow right down to valley floors, particularly noted in Austria where ski resorts like Lech posted PR pics and videos of impatient skiers looking optimistically at the snow on the resort's streets.
Stubai Glacier announced on Monday that, after half-a-metre of late summer snowfall, it's starting its season weeks earlier than expected, this coming Friday 20th September.
The snowfall covered a wide area including resorts in the Dolomites, as far east as Slovenia's Julian Alps and there was a dusting in the southwest too in the Pyrenees. It has since warmed up in valleys so the interruption to late summer mountain biking and hiking operations is about gone now, but temperatures remain in the -5C to +5C range up above 2,500m with more snow showers, albeit lighter ones, forecast for glaciers.
Currently, it remains Saas-Fee and Zermatt open in Switzerland with the link to Zermatt's glacier from Cervinia currently closed, perhaps a little cruelly to Cervinian skiers given the fresh snow at Zermatt!
However Italy's Passo Stelvio is open and Val Senales is scheduled to open for its 24-25 season this weekend, although possibly only for race team training initially.
Austria's Hintertux had not yet re-opened at the time of writing despite getting a foot of fresh snow at the weekend, but that could change at any time. Two more Austrian areas, Pitztal and Solden, plan to start their 24-25 seasons in a week's time.
Scandinavia saw snowfall too, in its case from the same Arctic air that moved down over the UK. Many centres there posted images of light snow coverings.
Currently, the only area that should be open, the Galdhopiggen glacier, remains on hold.
The two major Finnish ski areas Levi and Ruka plan to start their 24-325 seasons in a fortnight's time thanks to their snow farming efforts.
North America
In North America, ski areas in Colorado have continued preparing snowmaking systems as cold temperatures overnight have been more consistently dipping below freezing.
There remains nowhere open across the continent at present with the first named opening date at Mount Norquay, Banff, Canada still six weeks away on November 1st.
There has been more snow dusting high peaks over the last few days, with a second coating for Californian peaks and a first for Utah this autumn/fall.
Unfortunately, ski areas have also been in the news for the wrong reasons this week with Oregon's Mount Bachelor and Mountain High and Mount Rose in California all threatened by forest fires.
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