J2Ski Snow Report - June 6th 2024
J2Ski Snow Report - June 6th 2024
Published : 06-Jun-2024 06:21
Portillo, Chile, where the 2024 season has started with some great early snow.
Chile is just about fully open, Argentina following. Australia and New Zealand are about to open... and it's still snowing in Europe!
The Snow Headlines - June 6th
- Hintertux issues powder alarm after over 20cm in 24 hours on last day of spring.
- Australia's ski season starts this weekend.
- Italy's Passo Stelvio summer ski centre opens for 2024 season.
- Arizona ski area opens in June for the first time.
- Most ski areas in Chile open three weeks ahead of expected season start.
- Southern Africa's 2024 season officially underway but ski run appears incomplete.
- Last ski area open on US East Coast ends its 23-24 season on June 1st.
- Brief, limited skiing starts New Zealand's 2024 season, kind of.
Big snow forecast for South America
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World Overview
It's wintertime in the southern hemisphere and summertime in the northern, at least by the meteorological measure of the seasons. Unsurprisingly that means that ski areas have started opening in the southern hemisphere and almost all have closed in the northern.
There are some surprises though; firstly, almost all ski areas are open already in Chile three weeks ahead of schedule as there's been so much early snowfall. June has also begun with 'mid-winter' snow conditions on glaciers in the Alps after a powder alarm for snowfall on the last day of May.
The 2024 season has also got underway, just about, in Southern Africa and New Zealand - although with very limited terrain openings there.
Southern Hemisphere
Australia
Australia's season is just about here and it currently looks like there'll be some terrain skiable in most of the country's ski areas, almost all of which will open this Saturday for the long 'King's birthday weekend' with a public holiday on Monday in most states.
It's not been the ideal build-up to the start of winter, as warm daytime temps have thwarted the limited snowmaking opportunities overnight and there's not been much of the natural stuff. But the start of this week has brought frosts and light snowfall (Perisher reported 10cm on Monday) as well as increased snowmaking opportunities, so we now wait to see what centres are able to offer on Saturday morning.
So far Mount Baw Baw have said they'll have some nursery slopes open thanks to their all-weather snowmaking machine, but Selwyn say they won't have anything open. Perisher has said probably beginner terrain only there.
New Zealand
New Zealand's ski season is due to begin in just over a week on the Saturday after next with Mount Hutt, Coronet Peak, Cardrona and The Remarkables all set to open on the South Island.
Whakapapa on the North Island opened a very small amount of ski terrain on Saturday within its Happy Valley area which has all-weather snowmaking. It was for those with their own equipment only but by Sunday warm temperatures and rain were blamed for it closing again.
Conditions aren't looking ideal as the season nears with rather warm daytime highs persisting so it remains to be seen how much terrain is open for day one at the end of next week.
Argentina
Argentinian ski areas have not opened en-masse like those of Chile, despite seeing similar excellent May snowfall. However the country and continent's largest by uplift, Catedral near Bariloche, which was the first in the southern hemisphere to open some limited terrain for a few days in mid-May, says it will open for the main season (a fortnight early) from this coming weekend.
After the huge May snowfalls, the weather has been a little less favourable this week with warmer temperatures and some rain - but it's now getting colder and snowier and down in the south Cerro Castor, one of the world's newer resorts celebrating its 25th season this winter, is seeing temperatures in the -5 to -20C range already.
Chile
Chile has got a jump on the 2024 season with almost all of the country's ski areas opening early last weekend. The move follows a cold and very snowy May, with some centres seeing up to 1.8m (6 feet) of snowfall in the final week of last month alone.
Portillo and Valle Nevado were among the centres opening three weeks earlier than planned for the season, although most are only opening at weekends until the main season starts in a fortnight.
A few ski areas are open every day already, including Lagunillas, Corralco and El Colorado, the latter posting the most terrain open anywhere in the world at the start of June - more than 45Km/25 miles of runs and about and about 80% of its terrain already.
Portillo, which reopens Friday-Sunday, has the deepest snow in the region at 1.4m.
The past week hasn't been so snowy, but there have been light showers among the sunny spells and it's looking similar for the week ahead.
Southern Africa
Lesotho's Afriski officially began its season on Saturday, June 1st, but although social media promo images showed skiers on snow, the webcam images initially showed piles of unconnected machine-made snow, so it looked like the ski run hasn't been completed yet.
It is starting to look promising though with a light covering of snow on Sunday (which had gone on Monday), then more snowfall on Tuesday giving a much whiter picture. That's coupled with a drop in temperatures allowing snowmaking to work more effectively.
Europe
The Alps
It's now down to four glaciers open in the Alps, with Austria's Kitzsteinhorn closing on Sunday after an 8 month season.
Italy's summer ski centre Passo Stelvio had been due to open at the weekend which should have taken the total briefly to six, but it had to delay doing so until this Thursday, June 6th, due to continuing snowfalls and high avalanche danger above the pass road.
Actually, the latest snowfall on the last day of spring last Friday was quite dramatic; the Hintertux glacier, one of the four that is still open, issued a powder alarm for over 20cm of snow in 24 hours and resorts like Livigno, long closed for the season, saw their resort streets turn white with snowfall as low as 1800m.
Otherwise, temperatures have been as high as 25C in valleys although remaining close to freezing with snow showers (and some low visibility associated with them) at 3,000m.
Les 2 Alpes in France has limited terrain open to the skiing public on its glacier too, but most of it is reserved for team training.
The Molltal glacier in Austria's Carinthia province is in the final week of its 23-24 season and the year-round Matterhorn glacier paradise above Zermatt, also accessible from Cervinia over the border, also remains open. It and Hintertux have about the most terrain on offer, around 25km each.
Scandinavia
There are three glaciers open in Norway, placing it first in Europe and second in the world in terms of number of centres open right now. What's more, Stryn is posting the deepest snowpack on the planet at present at 6 metres (20 feet). Fonna is down to 5 metres, (joint second with Hintertux).
Scandinavia's highest lift-served slopes at Galdhopiggen are also open.
It's been a mostly sunny week but with strong winds as well as rain/sleet/snow showers at times and the week ahead looks similar. Temperatures are down to freezing overnight but climbing up towards double figures in the afternoons at Fonna and Stryn.
North America
We're down to two centres still open in North America.
Colorado's Arapahoe Basin is open this Friday to Sunday and re-opening for a final weekend up to the 16th too. Oregon's Timberline also remains open.
Two others made it into June; Killington with just about enough snow cover to maintain its Superstar trail and, for the first time ever, The Snowbowl in Arizona opened on June 1st with skiers and riders enjoying the slush in Hawaiian shirts.
For the two still-open areas, it's mostly sunny weather in the forecast, with overnight lows still getting down near freezing, and daytime highs up around the 50s Fahrenheit, so the thaw continues.
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