World Snow Wrap Up Vol. 11, 10 January – The Return of the Ja-Pow
Pyramid Peak, Aspen. Image:: Aspen/Snowmass
Stormwatch:
The snowfall heros
Yeah Niseko! To reward devotees for their patience, Japan has delivered New Year snow with abandon. Other than the revived Ja-Pow it’s been a mixed bag this week, with some serious snow blessings and some spectacular bluebird. Temperatures have been universally arctic however so the snow everywhere is so dry it squeaks like sand on a deserted beach.
- Fernie, Canada – with 81cm
- Niseko, Japan – 2m and counting
- Arabba, Italy – 70cm the last couple of days
The snow forecast heros:
We seem to be back to normal-sized snowfalls after the pre-Christmas craziness. There will be steady snow over the week but ntothing outstanding, except for a Niseko metre and Whistler but frankly we’re sick of talking about Whistler.
- 96cm for Niseko, Japan
- Hakuba, Japan is catching up with 40cm
- Whistler, Canada, with 104cm
Kellie Walter Stewart bringing in the new year in Vail. Image:: Connor Walberg
Last week’s event highlights:
- Brother and Sister Chris and Devin Logan taking out respective first places in the North Face Park and Pipe Open Series Slopestyle in Northstar on the weekend. Our own Anna Segal finished in second. Yeah Anna!
- The first TTR World Tour 6Star event – the O’Niell Evolution in Davos, Switzerland. Victorious riders included Jamie Anderson (slopestyle) Sebastien Toutant (slopestyle) and Kelly Clark (halfpipe). Full results.
- The dead heat between Aksel Lund Svindal and Cypren Richard in the World Cup GS in Adelboden on the weekend.
Event highlights this week:
- 8 – 15 January 2011 BURTON EUROPEAN OPEN, Laax, Switerland.
- 9 – 10 January 2011 SNOWBOARD WORLD CUP – parallel slalom. Bad Gastien, Austria
- 11 January 2011 ALPINE SKIING WORLD CUP, Flachau, Austria, women’s slalom
- 11 – 16 January 2011 ALPINE SKIING WORLD CUP, Wengen, Switzerland. Men’s downhill, slalom and super combined
- 12 – 13 January 2011 FREESTYLE WORLD CUP – skier X. Alpe d Huez, France
- 15 – 16 January 2011 FREESTYLE WORLD CUP – moguls and aerials. Mont Gabriel, Canada
- 15 – 16 January 2011 ALPINE SKIING WORLD CUP, Maribor, Slovenia. Women’s slalom and GS
- 15 – 20 January 2011 L Clusaz Radikal Mountain in La Clusaz France – Ski + Snowboard. Freeride
- 16 January 2011 FREESTYLE WORLD CUP – skier X. Les Contamines, France
If we could pick anywhere this week, we’d be: Niseko, for the Ja-Pow, or maybe Laax for the Burton European Open… anyone have a private jet we can borrow?
Colorado
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 15.4cm at Aspen Mountain in the last 7 days and 25.40cm at Snowmass
7 Day forecast: 16cm forecast in the next 7 days for Aspen Mountain – and some cold temperatures
Current snow depth: 96.52cm at Aspen Mountain, 167.64 at Highlands
Current conditions: powder and packed powder
This is not the week for midnight pool raids on the way home from Sky Bar, overnight lows of – 26 degrees Celsius will make things pretty chilly, best to warm up with a brisk morning Highlands Bowl hike.
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 33.2cm in the past 7 days
7 Day forecast: about 8cm for the coming week
Current snow depth: 147.32cm
Current Conditions: powder and packed powder
It’s Ullr Fest in Breck, when homage is paid to the Nordic snow god by riding the streets in a perambulating hot tub, amongst other festive activities.
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 43.18cm in the last 48 hours
7 Day forecast: about 14cm forecast in the next 7 days
Current snow depth: 175.26cm at mid mountain
Current conditions: powder and packed powder
Nearly half a metre of new snow plus temps between -15 and -19 degrees Celsius more than equals an epic dry pow week ahead.
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 33cm in the last 7 days
7 Day forecast: about 15cm
Current snow depth: 116.84cm
Current conditions: packed powder and powder
Vail tells us they groom more terrain daily than any other North American resort. Anyone wanting to test out your new super G skis, Vail is the place!
And Colorado generally…
Somewhere in the vicinity of 10cm – 20cm in the Colorado mountains this week makes for some damn good skiing anywhere you may choose to go. Next week will see some more of the white stuff but the real news is the arctic-style temperatures on the forecast. If you can handle numb extremities the riding will be amazing… pack a facemask.
Utah
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 5cm in the past 3 days
7 Day forecast: 14cm on the forecast
Current snow depth: 195.58cm
Current conditions: powder and packed powder
Night skiing at Park City isn’t just for frothing five year olds and overly enthusiastic death-plow style skiers, it may just be fun enough to have us rethink our ‘humans were not made to ride in the dark’ stance. If you’re in PC, give it a try.
LTPark does Utah! Part 2 … Park City from Will Moss on Vimeo.
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 10cm in the past two days
7 Day forecast: 14cm before the weekend
Current snow depth: 246cm at mid mountain
Current conditions: packed powder
On Wednesday Snowbird is hosting an evening seminar on injury prevention and safe riding strategies. There will be real medico-types as well as genuine famous skiers like Jen Hudak. We thinks it’s a great idea. check out snowbird.com for details if you’re around.
And Utah generally…
Somewhere in the vicinity of 10cm to 15cm piled itself onto the Utah slopes this week. Alta is leading the base depth charge with a handy 271cm of that famous Utah pow. With the super cold temps on the horizon things will continue dry and fluffy for the foreseeable future.
California
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 2.5cm in the last week
7 Day forecast: 12cm forecast for the week
Current snow depth: 198cm
Current conditions: powder, packed powder, man made and machine groomed
When the sun shines, make terrain parks. Heavenly’s made them to suit every taste, so there’s no reason not to be mastering something new while it continues sunny.
Perfect Conditions @ Heavenly – 01/07/11 from Heavenly Mountain on Vimeo.
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: no snow in the last three days
7 Day forecast: about 10cm at the end of the week
Current snow depth: 533cm at the summit
Current conditions: packed powder and machine groomed
It had to come to an end sometime, endless sunshine has replaced endless snowfall at Mammoth. Can’t complain really…
And California/Tahoe generally…
Sunny California is back with a bluebird weekend that will continue on into next week. Compared to much of the west coast, the temperatures in Cali will be mild too, good goggle tan weather really.
And the rest of the USA…
The snow congregated in obscure local resorts in places like Montana and Michigan and North Carolina this week. Whitefish, Montana is sporting a 73cm weekend coat and Shanty Creek Michigan has a lovely 71cm of fresh… The coming seven days won’t be as snowy, though it will be uber cold in many states.
South Park, Mammoth January 5. Image:: Mammoth Mountain
Japan
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: a very nice 2m-ish for the week
7 Day forecast: 106cm
Current snow depth: 295cm at the Grand Hirafu summit
Current conditions: japan powder!
This is the Niseko we all know and love, where life comes, periodically, to a grinding halt as the village is buried in snow. With all that snow as motivation though people surmount any snow-related obstacle in their way to get those freshies.
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: about 160cm this week
7 Day forecast: about 44cm for the week
Current snow depth: 235cm at the summit
Current conditions: powder and packed powder
Hakuba is alive and kicking.
And Japan generally…
Put away your Harajuko outfits and get your snow-animae outfit on because winter has arrived in Japan. Nozawa enjoyed a nice metre or so of snow across the weekend and Shiga Kogan’s been waking up to 20cm each morning. The snow will continue all week. Whoop!
British Columbia
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 40cm this week
7 Day forecast: 38cm in the next 7 days
Current snow depth: 151cm
Current conditions: powder, packed powder and machine groomed
Want a free t-shirt? Big White’s Cruise the Blues combines two of our favouite things – riding blue runs and free tees, do one to get the other on Cruise the Blues weekend. visit www.bigwhite.com for details
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 81cm in the last 7 days
7 Day forecast: 42cm for the week
Current snow depth: 206cm
Current conditions: powder and packed powder
Time to sing the praises of the unsung powder mecca. Fernie just keeps piling pow onto those rather large mountains it has out in the back garden. Which makes Avalanche Awareness Days seem like a pretty good idea. The next is on Saturday January 15 and everyone can join in. Visit www.skifernie.com to find out about it.
Whistler on January 5. Image:: Justa Keskova – coastphoto.com
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 46cm last week
7 Day forecast: about 29cm for the week
Current snow depth: 157cm
Current conditions: fresh powder and packed powder
Monday, find yourself a deck chair and soak up some sunshine. Tuesday, get yourself to a roaring fire cause it’s going to be minus 20 out, Wednesday wax up the fat skis cause come Thursday the snow will be coming thick and fast…
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 32.6cm last week
7 Day forecast: 19cm for the week
Current snow depth: 119.7cm
Current conditions: packed powder
Last week Sun Peaks played host to the Sun Peaks Family Cup, an international event pitting teams from across the world against each other in a series of alpine based team competitions. Last year team Australia was victorious. We’re breathlessly awaiting the results from this year…
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 79cm in the last week
7 Day forecast: 104cm coming up
Current snow depth: 233cm
Current conditions: Powder and packed powder
Rumour has it the sun came out over Whistler on Sunday, presumably there was mass panic as, to a person, the town realised they’d misplaced their sunny-day lenses. Fortunately the snow clouds will descend once more on Tuesday and equilibrium will be restored.
And BC Generally…
Fernie earned the top snowfall total in North America for the weekend, so that’s what things are like in BC currently – Whitewater had a healthy 63cm, Mt Seymour 73cm. Basically it’s cold, snowy and likely to stay that way, just how we like it really.
Alberta
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 33cm in the last 7 days
7 Day forecast: about 13cm for the coming week
Current snow depth: 82cm
A decent week of snow for Lake Louise and there is much rejoicing and dancing in the streets.
Lake Louise 2 January. Image:: Lake Louise
Going Global
France
Recent snowfalls: Sunday was a good day, snow wise, for the French Alps, though the larger resorts, such as Courchevel and Chamonix have had a mostly sunny week.
Forecast snow: A decent 30cm should be hitting the north-east on Monday and staying entrenched until Thursday. For the South, Alpe d’Huez can expect perhaps 20cm before Wednesday.
Top pick: Alpe d’Huez, it’s got a lovely 1.8m powder base.
Switzerland
Recent snowfalls: 160cm has fallen in Airolo this week – where Airolo is we’re going to find out. Generally the weekly totals are around 15cm.
Forecast snowfalls: Saas-Fee should have about 25cm in the coming days, Zermatt about 22cm by Tuesday
Snow conditions: packed powder and fresh powder
Top pick: St Moritz, a lovely 15cm of fresh on Sunday
Austria
Recent snowfalls: Light snowfalls in the Alberg in the middle of last week – 5cm for St Anton – and even lighter snowfalls in the Tyrol on Sunday were the only snow in an otherwise sunny week.
Forecast snowfalls: Perhaps 30cm is on the way for the end of the week, with Flachau forecasting 28cm by Friday and Zell am Zee 21cm on Thursday
Snow conditions: powder and packed powder
Top pick: Zell am Zee for the fresh
Val Gardena Gröden January 5. Image::Val Gardena Gröden
Italy
Recent snowfalls: An impressive 70cm in Arabba on Friday, with residual snowfalls all across the Dolomiates
Forecast snowfalls:10cm or snow for Livigno and Bormio on Monday and Tuesday and about the same for Cortina and the Dolomites area
Snow conditions: powder packed powder
Top pick: Arabba, with out a doubt
Hakuba forecasts,
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Lake Louise forecasts,
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Heavenly forecasts,
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Big White forecasts,
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Whistler forecasts,
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Vail forecasts,
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Steamboat forecasts,
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Fernie forecasts,
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Snowbird forecasts,
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Niseko forecasts,
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Aspen Mountain forecasts,
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Sun Peaks forecasts,
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Park City forecasts,
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Breckenridge forecasts,
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Silver Star forecasts,
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Mammoth forecasts,
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