World Snow Wrap – 1m Weekend for Steamboat, Colorado Pow is Here
Steamboat 20 Feb – yes please. Image:: Steamboat
Weekly Snow Wrap
It’s been all about Colorado this week, which might not be strictly fair as it’s snowed much more in Washington and Wyoming, but it’s good to see a solid run of powder days for some of our favourite resorts.
Top 5 Snowfalls last 7 days: 1. Ebenalp Appenzellerland, Switzerland, 120cm 2. Jolster, Sweden – 115cm 3. Haroefossen, Sweden – 110cm 4. Oberstdorf, Germany – 100cm and 5. Argentera, Italy – 95cm
Top 5 forecast this week: 1. Whistler, Canada – 53cm 2. Alyeska, Alaska – 46cm 3. Steamboat, USA – 34cm 4. Fernie and Big White, Canada – 31cm 5. Big Powderhorn, USA – 27cm
If we could pick anywhere this week, we’d be:
Based on snowfall alone we’d say Mt Baker and Washington State, but with the recent tragedy in the area our avalanche awareness is heightened – so perhaps Steamboat.
Canada
British Columbia
Status: Open 100% pretty much everywhere
Recent snow: Widespread snow right across the state, every resort received a good double digit amount of snow. Nearly 40cm at Whitewater, Silver Star, Fernie and Big White, but Mt Seymour wins the day with over 70cm.
Coming snow: Another snow-filled week, Wednesday and Saturday will be the big days but Friday looks promising also. As much as 53cm for Whistler by the end of the weekend, 31cm for Fernie and Big White.
Conditions generally: Great and staying that way!
A Jackson Hole sunrise 17 Feb. Image:: Julie Weinberger/Jackson Hole
Alberta
Status: Open 100% pretty much everywhere
Recent snow: A nice 30cm at Castle Mountain over the weekend, more like 10cm – 20cm in the Banff area.
Coming snow: Solid daily snowfalls through until the end of the weekend, around 30cm all up.
Conditions generally: Three weeks ago Banff called it the best season in 13 years, still no disputing!
USA
California
Status: Pretty much 100% open across the state
Recent snow: Heavenly had a little over 30cm at the beginning of the week but it’s been all sunshine these past few days.
Coming snow: The bad news is, there’s no snow forecast until the end of the week, the good news is that with daytime temps getting up to 12 degrees it’s lucky there’s no precipitation expected. But then Friday’s temperatures will plummet in a matter of hours and there should be some snow flurries on the weekend.
Conditions generally: The resorts are running most, if not all, of their runs and have respectable base coverage.
Colorado
Status: 100% pretty much all round.
Recent snow: Steamboat is leading the charge with nearly a metre since the end of last week but the rest of the state is doing pretty well also. Over 30cm at Telluride, Wolf Creek, Powderhorn, and over 20cm at Aspen, Monarch, Vail.
Coming snow: The storm isn’t over yet, with between 15cm and 25cm all over before next weekend.
Conditions generally: Two solid weeks of snow and Colorado is looking pretty much amazing.
Utah
Status: 100% or near enough.
Recent snow: More snow all over, between 20cm and 35cm in the past few days.
Coming snow: Three more days and 12 more centimetres before some brief sunshine, then the snow will return over the weekend.
Conditions generally: Pretty good all round!
Aspen! Image:: Jeremy Swanson
North West – Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Oregon
Status: Pretty much all open at nearly 100%
Recent snow: Though not everywhere did as well as Mt Baker on the weekend with 127cm of new snow, the whole North West is under a very generous snow cloud at the moment – around 60cm to 80cm for most resorts in the area.
Coming snow: There’s plenty more on the way – PLENTY more.
Conditions generally: Just incredible.
Europe
France
Status: Open
Recent snow: There was light snow over the weekend following the heaver falls at the beginning of last week that saw around 30cm at resorts like Morzine.
Coming snow: A mostly clear week for the Alps, not much forecast except for perhaps a few flurries on Thursday.
Conditions generally: The last round of snow brought some new freshies and reaffirmed the already solid bases but the sunshine and rising temps have had a little bit of an effect on the snow quality
Nice day for a stroll – Zermatt 15 Feb. Image:: Zermatt
Austria
Status: Yep, open.
Recent snow: Great snowfall at a few Austrian resorts at the beginning of the week – about half a metre at Kaprun, Stubai Glacier and the Tyrol area.
Coming snow: Sunshine this week and potentially some… rain… yep it will get warm around Thursday and a few resorts in the Albach could be in for a hosing.
Conditions generally: The consistent snowfall is keeping the base solid and on powder days the riding is great.
Switzerland
Status: Open, open and open right across the alps.
Recent snow: Freshies in the vicinity of 15cm – 20cm over the weekend at Saas Fee, Wengen, Engelberg and the like.
Coming snow: Again, sunshine until the weekend, perhaps some snow flurries on Sunday building strength into Monday.
Conditions generally: The season is solid and there are some amazing days in there!
Italy
Status: Same story – open.
Recent snow: The snow last week was mostly in the Dolomites, 25cm at Arabba, 20cm at Cortina in the past four days or so.
Other areas were sun-blessed.
Coming snow: Clear for most of the week though Friday may see a few very light snow showers across all regions.
Conditions generally: It’s been a great season in Italy and when the snow is fresh it’s great. Sunshine days have their effect though.
