Winter Begins with Snow Bombs and Early Pow – World Snow Wrap
Vail opened last week with some of the best early season conditions in years. Image:: Vail Resorts
Mountainwatch | World Snow Wrap
EDITOR’s NOTE: This year we will once again bring you the fortnightly World Snow Wrap and the weekly Japan Snow Wrap. These regular features aim to be a one-stop-shop that gives you an idea where the snow is falling, where it’s not, and provide some regular snow porn just for your desktop viewing pleasure. Expect these features to be published regularly across the Northern Hemisphere season…
As Summer heats up across Australia and New Zealand, the Northern Hemi is welcoming Winter’s first snowfalls with welcome arms. While we spend our weekends dashing over hot bitumen and battling for waves in crowded line ups, up North it’s all about Turkey and Pow…
Down in Tahoe all resorts have been making snow at every opportunity to add to the natural base. Image:: Northstar
The last few days have seen opening weekend celebrations across North America and Canada, while over in Europe snow is slowly starting to fall down to lower elevations. Read on for more…
TOP 5 FORECAST TOTALS THIS WEEK (7-DAYS)
1. Whistler, British Columbia – 58 cm
2. Big White, British Columbia – 51 cm
3. Fernie, British Columbia – 46 cm
4. Silver Star, British Columbia – 31 cm
5. Lake Louise, Alberta – 22 cm
*As at 24/11/14
Revelstoke patrollers and their Avy dogs making last-minute preparations to the resort ahead of next week’s opening day. Image:: Revelstoke
Canada
Whistler Blackcomb flicked the switch over the weekend – a week earlier than planned thanks to great early season conditions up high. Unfortunately the lower side of the mountain is still looking rather dry thanks to warm temps in the valley. Revelstoke is busy preparing for opening day, they are currently sitting on a decent base with 204cm of YTD snowfall. Over in Alberta, Lake Louise, Sunshine, Norquay and the other resorts in the Banff area all commenced operations last week with a early season base and cold temperatures.
There’s plenty of storm activity forecast to move through the Coast, Cascade, Purcell, Kootenay and the Rocky Mountains over the next week or so, with up to 50cm forecast by this time next week.
A unique perspective of Vail by Night. Image:: Vail Resorts
USA
Colorado has been experiencing frequent snowfalls so far this season and is off to a great start. Most resorts in the region are either open, or planning to open in the next week or so. Utah is open for business with a decent base and even a few parks open already at Park City Mountain Resort. East Coast resorts are cleaning up thanks to the huge Snow Bomb that dropped a massive amount – up to 70″ in places – of snow across Buffalo and New York State. As a result, places like Sugarloaf are open and operating with decent early season snow conditions.
How good’s that? Pre-Season turns in Jackson Hole yesterday Image:: Jackson Hole
Up in the ever-snowy Pacific Northwest, Mt Baker has dubbed the month: Snow-vember. They had 25 cm today, with a further snowfall expected over the next few days. They don’t set an opening date, and will open when possible. As usual, the rest of the PNW resorts can expect to get hammered over the next week or so. Jackson Hole is also looking mighty fine, with an epic storm dropping about 30cm of new snow today. They plan to open over the Thanksgiving weekend. California are stoked to finally have an early season worth writing about, and many of the Tahoe area resorts and Mammoth mountain to the north already open.
Les Gets in France on November 15. Image:: Les Gets
Europe
Most of the European Alps were lucky enough to be treated with great early snowfalls a week or so back, and this has now been matched with some fine and clear weather across the region. This has meant that the skiing is great at the resorts with a bit of elevation on offer. Resorts like Stubai in Austria, Tignes and Val Thorens in France opened across the weekend thanks to the great conditions, and more resorts are expected to open as the freezing level drops over the next few weeks. Resorts across Switzerland and Italy are also enjoying some great skiing thanks to the big snowfalls a week ago. The forecast looks to be dominated by a high pressure system over the next week or so meaning that conditions will likely soften as the day time temps warm up.
Summary
Considering the slow start that happened last year, most areas are trucking along nicely for this time of year. It’s still quite early, so we expect it to be another couple of weeks until we really start to see things firing. Until then…
Snow-shine in Sugarloaf yesterday. The East Coast is preparing for yet another huge snow storm this week. Image:: Sugarloaf
Where We Would Like To Be This Week
Whistler-Blackcomb has a decent amount of terrain on offer with that unique Whistler vibe to go with it… Perfect.
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Fernie forecasts,
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Sun Peaks forecasts,
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Mammoth forecasts,
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