Snowfall Brings Relief to the European Alps, While USA’s West Coast Gets Hammered – World Snow Wrap

January 15th, 2016


A unique point of view and dazzling snowflakes in Jackson Hole yesterday Image:: Jackson Hole

Mountainwatch | World Snow Wrap

As we steam ahead from the holiday period and quickly into mid-January the big news is out of the European Alps where the drought has broken and the snow continues to fall. Meanwhile, North America’s luck looks set to continue as yet another storm unleashes its fury on basically the entire West Coast. California looks set to do particularly well out of the next phase of fresh snow.

Read on for more…

TOP 5 FORECAST TOTALS THIS WEEK (7-DAYS)
1. Niseko, Japan – 98cm
2. Heavenly – USA – 74cm
3. Mammoth – USA – 59cm
4. Hakuba – Japan – 47cm
5. Whistler – Canada – 38cm
*As at 15/1/16


Les 2 Alpes has been scoring plenty of fresh, unfortunately this created some incredibly dangerous avalanche conditions that resulted in the tragedy of a few days ago Image:: Les 2 Alpes

Canada

British Columbia and Alberta both continue to enjoy a consistent run of new snow and cold temperatures over the last two weeks, which have made for some epic days. Whistler Blackcomb has 17cm on the 48-hour tally with 576cm so far this season. In the interior it’s much the same story, Revelstoke sits atop a 175cm base while Fernie enjoy 196cm. Over on the East coast it has started snowing more consistently and Tremblant are now sitting on a 60cm natural snow base.


Mammoth have made the most of the strong start, erecting a super-solid park Image:: Mammoth

USA

California and Colorado are expecting a nice top-up of fresh this week with forecasts tipping 30-40cm over the next week. Utah is expecting to score even more snow than that, with forecasters talking about snow totals pushing 40-50cm. This has made for some of the best conditions in years across the United States. As you’ll see in the following photos Jackson Hole have enjoyed some incredible skiing of late.


January 14th in Jackson Hole. Where else would you want to be? Image:: Jackson Hole


Deeeeeeep in Squaw Mountain on January 7th Image:: Squaw

Europe

Since Christmas time, it’s been from zero to hero for most of the European Alps. Unfortunately this has created typically dangerous conditions off-piste, leading to the deaths of school children while skiing at Les Deux Alpes. Freezing levels have been fluctuating, so as per normal it’s the high French, Swiss and Austrian Alps that have enjoyed the most snowfall. The Arlberg in Austria has certainly done the best out of the recent storms, while in France it’s the higher resorts that are benefitting most from the marginal freezing levels.


A very snowy St Anton am Arlberg. Picture taken January 14. Image:: St Anton

Summary

The North American luck continues throughout the rest of January, while Europe is in the midst of a storm that will hopefully set them up well leading into the colder, snowier months ahead.

Where We Would Like To Be This Week

The Arlberg region in Austria gets our vote.

 

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Mammoth forecasts,
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