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It feels a bit odd to still be writing about snow conditions when skiers and snowboarders have raised concerns about whether their ski resort will be open, assuming they we can still get to it, due to coronavirus. However the good news against all the other gloom is that the snow is looking pretty good in most places. There’s been more snow in the Alps and some of the best falls of the season so far in the Pyrenees, Eastern Europe and (sadly, now closed to skiers) Dolomites. Scotland continues to have one of its best periods in recent years and a ski area in Scandinavia has posted the first 5m+ base in Europe this season. Conditions are good in most of North America too.
France
It has been a very snowy week in both the French Alps and down in the French Pyrenees too. The latter had had below-average snowfall all season so getting up to 95cm of snow up to the weekend (at Cauterets) was a real boost. The French Alps have had a snowier February and early March but still more snow was good news for the final month or so of the season. La Plagne now has one of the world’s deepest bases at 455cm. The weather has been sunny the past few days in most areas, nice to enjoy the latest fresh snowfalls but a little too warm at times too. Cooler weather is moving in now though.
Austria
Austria is, unfortunately, the second major ski nation after Italy to report a resort closure in the fight against the coronavirus Covid-19 with Ischgl announcing it has been ordered by the Tyrol region government to close for a fortnight from Saturday. That could still mean the resort re-opens for a final five weeks of is long season through to the start of May, but that depends a lot on how things are in the Tirol and the wider world in a fortnight’s time. As for the snow, well Austria got plenty in the past week, like the rest of the Alps with the heaviest snow last Friday/Saturday and lighter snow since (Solden reported 20cm more had fallen by Thursday morning). St Anton, with 10cm of fresh, has the country’s deepest base at 4.6 metres.
Italy
With all ski areas in Italy closed by the Italian government until at least April 3 (after which it seems unlikely all will re-open as that’s near the end of the season for most), reporting on snow conditions seems a little ironic. It is certainly ironic that the Dolomites were reporting excellent conditions as the ban was enforced, having seen 30-60cm snowfalls in the few days before the lifts were closed. Cortina d’Ampezzo, which was also forced to cancel its staging of the Alpine World Cup Finals, what was to have been the biggest ski competition of the season, reported 90cm of snowfall.
Switzerland
Swiss ski areas have had the snowiest week of any in Europe with several reporting 30cm or so since Monday. This followed heavier snowfall at the end of last week, which led some Swiss areas to report over 1.5 metres of snowfall in the past seven days. The Glacier 3000 ski area at Gstaad posted 1.2 metres of fresh snow. As with most of the Alps, the week has ended with warmer weather but it is cooling again now. Andermatt, which has had 20cm more snow in the last few days, has the deepest snow in the country of the larger resorts, with 4.5 metres of snow lying.
Canada
After a quiet few days midweek, which got rather warm in Eastern Canada, temperatures have dropped and it is snowing again from coast to coast. Some of the bigger falls in the last few days included around 25cm 24-hour accumulations at both Revelstoke in BC in the west and Les Massif in Quebec in the east. However, ski areas across the country have reported at least some snow – generally around 10-20m over the past few days, giving a nice freshen up to cover once again. Fernie, close to the BC/Alberta border, has one of the deepest bases of the country’s better-known resorts at more than 3 metres, and has had 29cm of fresh snow since Tuesday.
USA
The past few days has seen fresh snow for resorts in Colorado, California, Utah and Wyoming, with some ski areas including Jackson Hole and Breckenridge reporting 20-28cm accumulations at the start of the week. The past 24 hours or so have been sunnier so very pleasant out on the slopes. It’s been a less positive picture in states like Vermont in the east which had seen some of their best snowfalls of the season over the past fortnight but started this week with warm weather and rain spoiling the snow surface. Things are back on track now though with most seeing cooler temperatures and the return of snow.
Eastern Europe
Bulgaria could be a good choice this week if you are searching for fresh snowfall – the country’s ski centres reported up to a 30cm of snowfall on Monday and great powder conditions as a result, although temperatures have risen sharply since and the sun is now out again. The latest fresh snowfall continues a springtime trend after a rather dry winter. Both Borovets and Bansko are reporting almost all runs open and excellent conditions on the slopes. Bansko’s long run back from the ski area to the resort is still open but despite the new snow cover is reported to still be thin at just 5cm. There looks to be more snow on the way this weekend though.
Andorra
After some light snowfall at the end of February, the start of March saw some of the biggest snowfalls in Andorra this year, transforming conditions and bolstering bases. The snow has now largely stopped falling and it’s a mixture of sunny and cloudy days but with everything open and fresh snow to enjoy. The country’s smallest area at Ordino Arcalís which recently hosted the Freeride world cup has the deepest snow at nearly two metres, whilst the biggest, Grandvalira, has seen its depth grow by half-a-metre with the fresh snow and reports all 240km of its slopes, the most extensive in the Pyrenees, open and ready for skiing.
Scandinavia
The snow news from Scotland continues to be generally very good. The snow keeps falling and most of the five highland centres have at least half of their runs open, Glencoe, all of theirs. This is Scotland though so the centres remain prone to gales, which can close the lifts for periods of a few hours to a few days, rain or sleet rather than snow at times and sudden thaws, which can impact thinner cover on lower runs. So the advice is always to keep a close eye on conditions on the day you plan to visit, but when the snow is freshly fallen, the sun is out and the wind has dropped there’s nowhere in the ski world better – and we continue to get days like that, some days, at present.
Scotland
Scotland continues to enjoy some of the best conditions the country’s ski areas have seen in the past few years. After the weeks, months and entire seasons of week after week of yoyoing temperatures and frequent gales, the past few weeks have seen consistently low temperatures, snow depths building and even the winds easing – the result being more and more terrain open, more often. Glencoe, which has all but one run open (and that, the steepest, Flypaper, closed due to avalanche danger) now reports the snow lying two metres deep up top, although, for most of the other areas, which have around half to two-thirds of their terrain open (the most this season), it’s more like 30-60cm.
