J2Ski Snow Report - December 5th 2024
J2Ski Snow Report - December 5th 2024
Published : 05-Dec-2024 08:23
Whistler, BC, Canada, aims to have over 5,500 acres open this weekend...
More ski areas open, more terrain, and more snow - either on the ground or on the way - across the northern hemisphere.
The Snow Headlines - December 5th
- Big pre-season snowfall for Bansko, reports 50cm accumulation at the weekend.
- Pyrenees struggle with warm temperatures preventing any opening so far.
- Ischgl first ski area to offer over 100km of slopes open so far this season.
- Chamonix delays opening Grands Montets for second successive weekend.
- Whistler expects to open over 5,000 acres of terrain this weekend.
- Big snowfalls forecast for Alps and Pyrenees.
Snow forecast for many ski areas.
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World Overview
With hundreds of ski areas already open for their 24-25 seasons the battle is now on to open as much terrain as possible in the run-up to Christmas, only three weeks away.
In Europe Ischgl has been leading the way since it opened at the weekend, the first with more than 100km of slopes on offer although Zermatt-Cervinia is now about there too and with all sectors of the 3 Valleys opening this weekend, it looks like it will post bigger numbers too.
The Alps have seen increasingly cold and snowy weather this week which looks good news for lower-lying terrain yet to see the snow that's been dumped above 2,000m.
In North America, Mammoth Mountain and Sun Peaks were leading with most of their terrain open, but here too it looks like the biggest resort, Whistler Blackcomb, will take the top spot at the weekend when it plans to have 5,500 acres available.
Areas doing less well right now include Eastern North America (although some areas have had several feet of snowfall at last in the past week), The Pyrenees (significant snowfall is now expected next week) and Scandinavia (getting colder and snowier here too!).
Europe
Austria
Austria continues to lead the way on multiple levels in Europe, with the most centres open of any country, the ski areas with the greatest percentage of terrain open (Obertauern was near to 100% at the weekend), and the ski areas with the most terrain open. That's Ischgl, which opened at the weekend with 110km of slopes available already.
After sunny weather and a bit of a temperature spike at the weekend, it has been a colder week with temperatures dropping to freezing down to resort levels at times, allowing snowmakers to work to the max, and there have been some mostly light natural snowfalls too.
The forecast is for still colder and snowier weather into the weekend.
France
Around half-a-dozen French ski areas opened at the weekend, joining already-open Tignes and Val Thorens.
In fact, La Rosiere, Alpe d'Huez and Les 2 Alpes managed to offer a little more terrain each than those first two openers.
Avoriaz, with half-a-metre of snow lying, opened terrain a fortnight earlier than originally planned for a 'preview weekend' but the Grands Montets above Argentiere in the Chamonix Valley put off its planned opening for a second week.
Grands Montets, along with several more resorts including Serre Chevalier, now plans to open this weekend.
There's not much change in terms of French snow conditions since the big snowfalls a fortnight ago, however, temperatures have generally remained low and there have been some light snowfalls, with more significant dumps expected later this week.
Italy
It was a fairly dry week until recently in Italy, when colder, snowier weather moved into the north and west.
More of the country's bigger resorts have been opening including Livigno and Madonna di Campiglio at the weekend. Cervinia's shared area with Zermatt has the most open terrain so far, with about 100km of slopes there and increasing fast.
In the Dolomites, most sectors of Dolomiti Superski have opened with Kronplatz posting the most open so far – about 50km of slopes.
Switzerland
About 30 Swiss ski areas are now open, including most of the country's famous resorts.
This week has seen some fresh snowfall and colder temperatures for snowmaking and the forecast is for heavier falls at the start of next week.
Verbier and the 4 Valleys, and St Moritz are both up to about 50km of slopes open with newly open Samnaun (linked to Ischgl) as well as Zermatt (linked to Cervinia) on around 100km of slopes open each.
Other Swiss areas newly opened include Andermatt and Laax.
Scandinavia
It's still very early days - of course - but after much hype about Norway and Sweden being the place to go for a snow-sure winter, it has been a rather mild autumn with rain rather than snowfall and temperatures often too warm for snowmaking too. As a result a lot of the region's larger resorts you'd expect to be open by now, like Norway's Hemsedal, have pushed back their opening dates.
Sweden's Are has just opened after delays and just has a few kilometres of slopes available initially.
The big four centres in Finland are open, but still with a reliance on machine-made snow.
All that being said it has been colder this week and some of the biggest snowfalls of the autumn to date are expected over the next few days which should transform things.
Pyrenees
It's an increasingly tense time in the Pyrenees as ski centres have been forced to delay their openings in Andorra, France and Spain due to the warm conditions. The biggest of them all, Andorra's Grandvalira, failed to launch its 24-25 season on Saturday.
We're now all reset for things to hopefully get going this coming weekend and there have been more promising signs with colder temperatures, hopefully, low enough for significant snowmaking.
Increasingly heavy snowfall is also expected, with the potential for a metre or more by the start of next week if they play out as forecast, so it remains to be seen what does open this Saturday.
Scotland
The Scottish Highlands saw very mild weather last weekend but temperatures have dropped back to closer to seasonal norms since Monday with mid-week snow on the hills replacing that lost in the weekend warmth.
The four centres aiming to open before Christmas (all except Nevis Range) have had their SnowFactory all-weather snowmaking machines fired up and making terrain suited for beginners, sledging and ultimately some longer runs if adequate natural snowfall doesn't arrive over the next few weeks.
Eastern Europe
It's looking pretty promising across Eastern Europe with centres already open in the Czech Republic,
Poland, Romania and Slovakia (including the region's largest centre, Jasna). Most have had natural snowfall and low temperatures for snowmaking.
Bulgaria's season isn't expected to start for another week or so but there have been some great snowfalls there over the last seven days, with Bansko getting about 50cm last weekend.
North America
Canada
It continues to look like a great start to the season in Western Canada with Whistler Blackcomb expecting to jump to over 5,500 acres of terrain open this weekend and resorts across Alberta and BC posting some of the best snowfall totals in the world, including Fernie opening with the deepest snow in the Rockies.
This week has been drier than recently but remaining below freezing and there's more snow forecast now.
Less good news from the East Coast where the World Cup races due at Tremblant this weekend are the first in the 24-25 season to be cancelled, for lack of snow. Things are getting colder and snowier more consistently now though so hopefully more resorts will be able to open very soon.
USA
The Eastern US has been catching up after its mostly warm autumn, with cold, snowy weather allowing more centres to open.
The biggest snowfalls though have been further inland in the Great Lakes region where a "Lake-effect-snow-event" led to record-breaking accumulations of up to two feet (60cm) in 24 hours for some lucky smaller centres in states like Michigan, which had also previously been suffering a dry winter.
Things continue to look good in the West. Mammoth is leading the way with almost all its runs open now and the snow has kept dumping in the Northwest of the continent.
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