World Snow Wrap Up Vol. 5, 29 November – We Give Thanks for Snow
Lonnie Kauk at Mammoth 24 November. Image:: Mammoth
Stormwatch:
The snowfall heros
Amid a flurry of snowflakes many of the snow resorts of North America flicked the on switch early this week. Places like Jackson Hole opened ‘top to bottom, wall to wall’, which considering JH’s terrain is pretty astounding. Resorts everywhere are claiming the best season opening in years, we’re more than pleased.
- Snowbird with a season total of 3m and heaps of fresh
- The Dolomites with a reported 1m or thereabouts early last week
- Aspen Mountain with 50cm in seven days
- Jackson Hole with a 3.4m season total – it’s not even December
The snow forecast heros:
The forecast totals are a little lower this week on average, hovering around the 20m – 30cm mark rather than the 50cm – 90cm mark… but we’re being fussy now, with snow forecast almost everywhere almost every day we’re almost wishing there could be some blue sky. Almost, cause all this good stuff is building an amazing base for when we go North in the new year.
- 51cm for Niseko this week. Go you good thing, Japan is catching up at last
- Colorado with between 50cm (at Breckenridge) and 21cm (Vail) this week
- Around 30cm for the Swiss Alps
Highlights this week:
- The Alpine Skiing World Cup Downhills – Lake Louise for the girls and Beaver Creek for the boys
- The TTR 6Star SHAUN WHITE AND OAKLEY PRESENT AIR & STYLE in Beijing. This is the first go for this massive big air stadium event
If we could pick anywhere this week, we’d be: Jackson Hole. Enough said.
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 50.8cm in the past 7 days
7 Day forecast: 21cm forecast in the next 7 days
Current snow depth: 55.88cm
Current conditions: early season powder and man made
Lift began turning at Aspen just three days ago and already 454 acres of snow covered perfection are open for riding. The girls of the Alpine World Cup technical disciplines kicked the season off with some hard core slalom and GS racing over the weekend and the Nor Am races are taking place today (Monday).
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 33.02cm in the last 7 days
7 Day forecast: 51cm forecast in the next 7 days
Current snow depth: 1m
Current Conditions: Packed powder
This week Breck has gone from operating 32% of their terrain to a whopping 63%, yep, that’s doubling the open runs in a week, and only the third week of operations for the season. We’ll let those stats speak for themselves and we’ll leave you to start getting excited about the first stop of the Winter Dew Tour on 16 – 18 December…
Opening day at Steamboat, 25 November. Image:: Steamboat
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 2.5cm in the past 48 hours
7 Day forecast: 27cm forecast in the next 7 days
Current snow depth: 86.36cm at mid mountain
Current conditions: packed powder
There’s a winter storm warning active at Steamboat right now, which will only add to the lovely piles of power that covered the resort on opening day.
Steamboat Opening Day
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 43.18cm in the last 7 days
7 Day forecast: 21cm
Current snow depth: 53.34cm
Current conditions: packed powder and fresh powder
More snow, more freshies, more face shots and more terrain open, 59% of the resort to be precise, none to shabby considering the scheduled opening day was Friday. Vail was one of the resorts smashed by the freezing weather last week and the result is some epic-cold snow cover.
Park City Resort Opening Weekend 2010 from Cooper Hoffmeister on Vimeo.
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 5cm in the past 3 days
7 Day forecast: 34cm in the next 7 days
Current snow depth: 73.66cm
Current conditions: Early season powder
Park City is looking good and with 16 jibs and 1 jump the Three Kings park is looking especially enticing right now. With little snowflakes appearing for every one of the next 7 days on the forecast the resort can expect some pow pow skiing to come!
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 20cm in the last two days, and nearly 3m so far this year
7 Day forecast: 38cm in the next week
Current snow depth: 1.52cm at mid mountain
Current conditions: Early season powder
from three lifts to nine lifts turning in one week, Snowbird is building its momentum towards an amazing season.
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 83.82cm in the last week
7 Day forecast: 37cm forecast
Current snow depth: 114cm – 137cm
Current conditions: powder, man made and machine groomed
Last week – 3% of terrain open, as of today? 47%. Heavenly is claiming to have the best early season park California has ever seen, with 14 features on CA trail for some November jibbing, but with all the pow, do you really want to be in the park? it’s up to you…
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 38.1 since Saturday
7 Day forecast: 14cm forecast
Current snow depth: 223 at the summit
Current conditions: fresh powder and machine groomed
Mammoth is now running all lifts and a sweet 38cm of snow over the weekend means Monday morning will dawn bright and snowy for all those who can be there to enjoy some mid week pow.
Expected Opening: 4 December.
Recent Snowfalls: Nothing significant
7 Day forecast: about 18cm
Current snow depth: nothing significant
Hakuba is still looking decidedly green, but it’s popped up on the Mountainwatch Next Snow top 10 list, so things are looking up!
Expected Opening: imminent
Recent Snowfalls: 10 – 15cm in the past few days
7 Day forecast: 51cm
Current snow depth: 25 – 30cm on the slopes
Thanks to a few solid snowfalls Niskeo is finally resembling a snow resort, however no one flicked the switch on the lifts just yet, hopefully the 51cm forecast for the coming week will be enough to get those chairs spinning and Niseko will be in action for December.
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 15cm this week
7 Day forecast: about 8cm in the next 7 days
Current snow depth: 74cm
Current conditions: Early season, hazards exist
Early Openings are just so in this season and Big White has just adopted the trend, with two lifts running daily as of Sunday, a week earlier than scheduled. Sensibly their keeping the uphill capacity low as the snow cover is still marginal and too many frothers would chop it up too much, but Big White is looking good!
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 32cm in the last 7 days
7 Day forecast: 8cm for the week
Current snow depth: 86cm
Current conditions: powder and packed powder
Another resort with an early opening to celebrate, with five lifts already running and 44 runs to enjoy that Canadian powder.
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 20cm in the past week
7 Day forecast: 8cm in the coming week
Current snow depth: 76cm
Current conditions: early season powder
The folks waiting in line for first day first tracks at Silver Star were rewarded with shin-deep freshies and although there’s not much to get excited about on the forecast, cold weather and snow flurries will ensure the resort is ready to receive the next big dump.
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 18cm last week
7 Day forecast: about 6cm in the middle of the week
Current snow depth: 63cm
Current conditions: early season
Sun Peaks has seven of its 11 lifts up and running and a spate of cold cold days have ensured its base stays good and dry!
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 59cm in the last week
7 Day forecast: 57cm this week
Current snow depth: 113cm
Current conditions: Early season powder
We’re all just a little bit sick of Whistler, the overachieving snow resort that never lets any other resort have a turn at the top of the top forecasts list. Perhaps people in Whistler are wishing for a little sunshine, but hey, with sooooo much snow, we’re sure they can cope! Blackcomb is now also open and the total terrain for shredding is more than 2 000 acres.
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 9cm in the last two days
7 Day forecast: about 4cm for the coming week
Current snow depth: 46cm
Current Conditions: Early season and man made snow
Lake Louise has been steadily making snow to add to the spatterings being sent from the sky and the resort is now running a decent amount of terrain.
Going Global
France
Recent snowfalls: Many of the French resorts had steady snow during the week with accumulations of up to half a metre
Forecast snow: About 16cm on Wednesday for the region
Snow conditions: Chamonix is now open, with a 1m base, Mozine, Tignes and Val d’Isere are also up and running with bases around 80cm – 90cm
Top pick: Chamonix, 1m base and… well… it’s Chamonix
Switzerland
Recent snowfalls: A similar story to the French Alps, steady snow during the middle of the week, finishing by Friday, brought about half a metre of snow
Forecast snowfalls: The Swiss resorts should see about 20cm in the middle of the week and a little more on Sunday
Snow conditions: Resorts are maintaining they have ‘early season’ conditions, however with a snow bases above 2m at places like Laax we have to presume there’s some good skiing to be found.
Top pick: Laax – it’s that 2m base
Austria
Recent snowfalls: 5cm in the Alberg region – Lech and St Anton, and about 10cm in the east, in the Tyrol region.
Forecast snowfalls: About 13cm for St Anton and the Alberg region across Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, slightly less for the Tyrol
Snow conditions: Early season, still not many resorts open beyond the Glaciers
Top pick: Gerlos or Hintertux, plenty of snow on the ground
Italy
Recent snowfalls: The recent European snowstorms focused much of their attention on Italy this week, depositing around a metre on the Northern part of the country
Forecast snowfalls: About 20cm by Thursday for much of the area
Snow conditions: Bormio and Livingo have solid bases for this time of the season and most of the resorts are building that snowpack. Tnanks to the snowfalls there is some fresh pow to be found too!
Top pick: Bormio, 125cm snow depth
Hakuba forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.
Lake Louise forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.
Heavenly forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.
Big White forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.
Whistler forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.
Vail forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.
Steamboat forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.
Fernie forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.
Snowbird forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.
Niseko forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.
Aspen Mountain forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.
Sun Peaks forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.
Park City forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.
Breckenridge forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.
Silver Star forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.
Mammoth forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.
