21st July 2010
Mt Ruapehu, New Zealand.
www.skiinfo.co.uk reports that it's still warm in the Alps which is bad news for snow cover on the 11 glacier ski areas that are currently open in Austria, France, Italy and Switzerland. That's down one on last week with the scheduled end of summer season at Val d'Isere.
In Austria the snow has been melting fast on the four glaciers that are still open, with the Dachstein down to 70cm with two lists and three runs open. At the Kitzsteinhorn above Kaprun there’s only 18cm on top of the ice and temperatures are expected to again hit 8C. The Molltal glacier still claims 1.9m (over six feet) of snow and 9.5km of slopes open, but the glacier snowpark is closed. Tux has 1.2m (four feet) of snow and temperature up to 10C with 20km of runs and nine lifts open.
In France, following the closure of Val d’Isere’s summer ski area last weekend, two choices remain open for another month they hope – les 2Alpes which has a metre of snow at Le Signal, and Tignes is still reporting temperatures rather warm at 5 or 6 degrees on the glacier with rain forecast on Friday.
It’s a little cooler in Italy where there’s 1.4m of snow on Plateau Rosa above Cervinia and top temperatures should only be 3C. Val Senales has slightly less with 1.3m snow depth but more trails open, although all are currently showing closed today. Passo Stelvio is also reported to be open for snow ports.
In Switzerland the choice remains Saas Fee or neighbouring Zermatt which even have between 1.7 and two metres of snow lying and the same issues with warm weather on the glacier.
Hot weather in Norway has led to the premature closure of the resort’s three summer ski areas, two of which normally stay open right through to the Autumn.
Across the Atlantic it’s the last week of the summer ski and board season at Whistler, Canada’s only summer snow destination. The resort’s Blackcomb Horstman Glacier remains open until this Sunday July 25 – with the best skiing and riding conditions seen in years.
For the first time ever Whistler Blackcomb has been offering snowshoeing and tubing in July thanks to the record-breaking winter snowfall that has ensured plenty of white stuff is sticking to the alpine. Alpine hiking has been on hold for a few more weeks while Whistler Blackcomb has offered snow shoe hire instead and a three-lane tube park at the top of the Whistler Village Gondola.
In the Southern Hemisphere is is continuing cold with snow flurries at mount Australian ski areas. Typical base depths are at around 40-80cm across the country’s leading resorts. Perisher, Australia’s largest resort, plans to celebrate ‘Christmas in July’ this weekend July 24th and 25th.
It’s looking good in New Zealand too where good snow, good snowmaking conditions and a fantastic run of fine weather has seen the seven days from Saturday July 10th to Friday July 17th being the busiest period in Ruapehu Alpine Lifts in New Zealand’s 57 year history.
Whakapapa and Turoa recorded 56,000 skier visits during the period, eclipsing the previous best of 51,000 recorded in 2007. Mt Ruapehu marketing manager Mike Smith says it was a fantastic week.
“It’s unusual on Ruapehu to have such a long stretch of great weather and for this to coincide with the busy school holidays was quite exceptional,” says Mr Smith.
Snow is now falling on the mountain and is forecast to continue for the next couple of days. Whakapapa has a snow base of 63cm and Turoa has just hit the one meter mark. It’s a similar picture across the country where resorts have up to a 1.6m base.
www.skiinfo.co.uk
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