World Snow Wrap Up Vol. 6, 6 Dec – Snowiest Start to Season in 25 Years
Whister has commenced heli ski operations – who wants to be there? Image:: Whistler
Stormwatch:
The snowfall heros
It’s been declared the ‘snowiest November on record’ by Steamboat. Whistler is claiming the snowiest opening in 25 years, Europe is practically buried and the people of Britain are thoroughly cold.
- Fernie 58cm of white stuff so dry we can only assume it squeaks when you ski it
- Europe with heavy snowstorms of epic proportions
- Britain with up to 60cm in recent days – Scottish ski trip anyone?
The snow forecast heros:
Luckily we’re not obliged to give everyone a go at being a hero because there’s just no getting around the fact Whistler is always number one.
- 75cm for Whistler this week, again.
- The Dolomites with fresh snow expected every day for the week
- Hakuba, good to see it on the list at last with 20cm for the week
Highlights this week:
- 7 – 8 December SNOWBOARD WORLD CUP – snowboard X. Lech am Arlberg, Austria
- 9 – 12 December ALPINE SKIING WORLD CUP, St Moritz, Switzerland. Women’s GS super G and super combined
- 10 – 11 December FREESTYLE WORLD CUP – Moguls, Ruka, Finland.
- 11 – 12 December ALPINE SKIING WORLD CUP, Val d’Isere, France. Women’s downhill, super G and GS
If we could pick anywhere this week, we’d be: Fernie. Have we ever seen snow that dry before?
Colorado
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: Nothing at Aspen Mountain, but between 10cm and 22cm across the other three resorts
7 Day forecast: 23cm forecast in the next 7 days, mostly next weekend
Current snow depth: 58.42cm
Current conditions: packed powder and man made
91% of Aspen Mountain’s intermediate terrain is open and 84% of the expert stuff is going strong, did we mention it’s week three of the season? Buttermilk and Aspen Highlands are yet to kick into gear but Snowmass is also looking good. In other news the guys at Snowmass put in some overtime to get the first park of the season going over the weekend.
Aspen staffers testing the ‘product’. Image:: Aspen
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 17.78cm in the last 7 days
7 Day forecast: 19cm forecast in the next 7 days, particularly towards the end of the week
Current snow depth: 96.52
Current Conditions: Packed powder
Back bowls open? Check, parks and pipes under construction? Check, almost daily doses of fresh pow? check, snowflakes on the forecast table every day next week? check. Breckenridge – ticking all the boxes.
Record breaking November snow at Steamboat. Image:: Steamboat
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 10cm in the past 48 hours
7 Day forecast: 13cm forecast in the next 7 days
Current snow depth: 96.52cm at mid mountain
Current conditions: packed powder
It’s officially the snowiest November on record for Steamboat and as we roll into December 100% of the resort is open just three weeks into the season… facts and stats are all well and good but it’s the pics and clips coming out of Steamboat that are inspiring us – icing-sugar-dry pow face shots are making us drool into our morning coffees here at Mountainwatch.
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 33cm in the last 7 days
7 Day forecast: 24cm
Current snow depth: 60.96cm
Current conditions: packed powder and fresh powder
With a spattering of the EX extreme terrain calling out to the intrepid, all of the cruisers groomed to perfection and a conveniently organised nightly snow top-up Vail is all things to all comers at the moment. The big news? the Snow Daze week long party begins Monday, dancing Vail into winter with a plethora of concerts, comps and general festiveness.
And Colorado generally…
Parts of Colorado saw around 5cm of fresh in the past few days and thee are some residual snow clouds hanging over much of the state. However we’re looking at a few sunny days in the middle of the week before there’s chance of another big storm over the northern part of the state on the weekend.
Almost everywhere is open now, with the exception of Durango, Powderhorn and SolVista.
Utah
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 15.24cm in the past 3 days
7 Day forecast: 21cm in the next 7 days
Current snow depth: 119.38cm
Current conditions: Early season powder
PC gives good park, so it’s not surprising the resort is already boasting a 15 jib, two jump setup in Three Kings, though there’s just so much fresh pow, we know where we’d be found each morning, in McConkey’s bowl – better than a bowl of wheat-bix for kick starting your morning.
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: about 53cm for the week
7 Day forecast: about 15cm in the next week
Current snow depth: 1.44cm at mid mountain
Current conditions: Early season powder
We strongly suspect snowbird has a team of workers go out each night with high powered humidifiers to suck the moisture out of the snow, so that their photographer may then capture images of face shots in pow so dry it may in fact be icing sugar… hmmm, perhaps the worker team is spreading icing sugar about… Whatever’s going on, we’d love some of that action.
And Utah generally…
Utah is running with a similar story to Colorado, a few centimetres over the last three days across most of the state, a sunshine break in the middle of this week and a good chance of more snow towards next weekend.
The Canyons is the only major Utah resort yet to start spinning the lifts, with opening day scheduled for 10 December.
California
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 10.16cm in the last week
7 Day forecast: 31cm forecast
Current snow depth: 114cm – 137cm
Current conditions: powder, man made and machine groomed
Tubing and terrin parks are the order of the week at Heavenly, where 85% of the terrain is now open for the business of snow sliding. Early season jibbers are loving the early season jibs and early season families are hitting up the tubing hill.
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 12.7cm since Saturday
7 Day forecast: 28cm forecast
Current snow depth: 213cm at the summit
Current conditions: fresh powder, packed powder and machine groomed
The 1ft pow drop is heading in to give Mammoth a facelift for Monday morning and snowguns have been on full blast for days so the resort has all lifts turning and seven, yup seven terrain parks set out across the mountain. The Mammoth film festival begins in Wednesday for those looking for a culture fix.
And California/Tahoe generally…
The Tahoe resorts were blessed with anywhere up to 25cm on Monday, particularly Northstar and Sierra. There’ll be some sun across the area this week, with clear skies at Squaw at the beginning of the week and sunshine at Kirkwood in the middle. Again, more snow should come through at the end of the week. The major resorts are all open, though Kirkwood is still running a limited opening.
And the rest of the USA…
Idaho has won the ‘rest of the USA’ 72 hour snowfall prize, with about 60cm across the state recently, Montana, Wisconsin and Illinois have also received snow.
Japan
Expected Opening: When there is enough snow
Recent Snowfalls: 5 – 8cm over the weekend
7 Day forecast: 20cm
Current snow depth: not yet measured
A cruel mixture of quick snow flurries and bright sunshine has cycled Hakuba in and out of winter several times this past week. Here’s hoping the snow forecast for next week sticks as opening day is on hold.
Expected Opening: imminent
Recent Snowfalls: 25cm last Tuesday and about 10cm up high on Thursday
7 Day forecast: 29cm
Current snow depth: 25 – 30cm on the slopes
With the temperature sitting around plus 8 degrees Celsius, even at night, winter is just not managing to get a good grip on Niseko just yet.
And Japan generally…
Most of the country is just waiting for winter to set in and that famous Ja-Pow weather to start blessing the snowfields with an endless supply of freshies.
British Columbia
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 20cm this week
7 Day forecast: about 24cm in the next 7 days
Current snow depth: 80cm
Current conditions: Early season, hazards exist
This weekend marked the scheduled Big White opening, which the resort celebrated by opening the Telus terrain park and a whole bunch more terrain. Meanwhile the resort is counting down to 10 December when Big White Light Up will see the whole village decked out in illuminated Christmas costume. Don’t forget to check out the pretty lights on the Big White snow cam
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 58cm in the last 7 days
7 Day forecast: 11cm for the week
Current snow depth: 104cm
Current conditions: powder and packed powder
Just silly amounts of squeeky-dry pow fell on Fernie last week, making for a 7ft November for the resort. Fernie is boasting the best conditions in Canada right now and really, we can’t argue.
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 12cm in the past week
7 Day forecast: 11cm in the coming week
Current snow depth: 56cm
Current conditions: packed powder
Silver Star is one of the only snow resorts experiencing sunny skies at the moment and while that’s maybe not what they want when option B is fresh snow, it’s still making it a lovely place to be and really, the resort has lots of snow, and they’ll get more.
Holiday tradition at Sun Peaks. Image:: Sun Peaks
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 19.6cm last week
7 Day forecast: 13cm in the middle of the week
Current snow depth: 70cm
Current conditions: early season
Nightly snow top ups and clear blue skies are making for some excellent photo ops for the Sun Peaks roving snappers, and facebook is proving to be the perfect medium to use those photos to make the rest of us wish we were there. It’s still early season in Sun Peaks yet but the resort is looking incredible.
November 30th Powder Day at Whistler Blackcomb from Whistler Blackcomb on Vimeo.
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 55cm in the last week
7 Day forecast: 75cm this week
Current snow depth: 123cm
Current conditions: Early season powder
At this stage we’re just lost for words. Will it ever stop snowing in Whistler? It was officially the snowiest November in 25 years and December isn’t showing any signs of letting up. New terrain has been opening daily and ski outs are now possible at Whistler and Blackcomb.
And BC Generally…
Again, BC saw a few centimetres over the weekend and now the state is enjoying a rare moment of sunshine. There should be some snow around the resorts, such as Kicking Horse and Kimberley, by Wednesday and the snowy weather looks like it will set in for the weekend.
The Vancouver resorts are running at limited capacity at the moment and the last of the BC resorts will open by 10 December.
OPEN
Recent Snowfalls:5cm in the last 7 days
7 Day forecast: about 10cm for the coming week
Current snow depth: 51cm
Current Conditions: Early season and man made snow
Lake Louise played host to the girls of the alpine World Cup tour over the weekend and saw Lindsay Vonn go head to head with Maria Riesch for out the gates glory in the FIS rankings. Although the resort hasn’t had the snow measurements of many of its other North American counterparts it’s doing well for December.
The Lake Louise World Cup. Image:: Lake Louise
And Alberta generally…
Sunshine and more sunshine for Sunshine, Mt Norquay and the rest of Alberta, where the La Nina incredible-ness doesn’t seem to have taken hold in quite the way it’s done across the rest of North America. But there’s a lot to be said for blue skies!
Going Global
France
Recent snowfalls: What a difference a week makes, heavy widespread snow has prompted many of the resorts to kick off the season
Forecast snow: About 30cm on Monday or Tuesday
Snow conditions: Fresh powder all round
Top pick: Alpe d’Huez
Switzerland
Recent snowfalls: Switzerland was also blessed by that heavy snow on 1 December and many more resorts have switched on their lifts for the season.
Forecast snowfalls: Verbier, Zermatt and surrounds should get about 24cm on Monday
Snow conditions: Fresh snow!
Top pick: Verbier, it’s going to get a dump soon!
Austria
Recent snowfalls: Most of Austria saw considerable snow in the middle of last week.
Forecast snowfalls: The next big snow dump will hit Austria later than the French and Swiss alps, depositing 50cm + towards the end of this week and the weekend
Snow conditions: Snow cover is improving and more resorts are opening daily
Top pick: Kaprun, it has the glacier and quick access to Zell am Zee too!
Italy
Recent snowfalls: The Dolomites had about 15 – 30cm on the weekend
Forecast snowfalls: It should snow every day this week across the Italian Alps, the daily measurements are not much more than 5cm, but still that’s a fresh top up every morning!
Snow conditions: Bormio and Livingo still have the best cover at the moment.
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.
