Excellent Conditions Continuing In Europe
Sunday, February 8th, 2009
Most of Europe’s ski areas are continuing to enjoy an excellent winter for snow cover with top-to-bottom skiing even at low-lying resorts.
Heavy snowfalls in late November in the Alps, Dolomites and Pyrenees enabled resorts to offer great skiing from day one of the winter, and the snow kept falling through December.
For the first three weeks of January there was a cold dry spell across most of the Alps, which meant that the off-piste deteriorated with hard-packed crusty snow off the runs, but for most recreational skiers conditions remained excellent on the pistes which were well groomed nightly.
In the past few weeks the snowfalls have returned with many ski areas in central Europe receiving 20 to 50cm (8 – 20 inches) of new snow in the past week alone. More snowfalls are expected over the next week with a low pressure system lying across the continent.
The Pyrenees, which contains about 60 ski areas in France, Spain and Andorra, has had a particularly memorable winter with big snowfalls through the season meaning that all resorts have at least two metres (nearly seven feet) of snow lying. It’s particularly good news for the region which has had a run of several poor seasons for snow over the past few years.
Eastern Europe has had a more average season with limited cover in December and warm temperatures but resorts like Bansko now have good cover after healthy snowfalls in January.
Scandinavia, likewise, has had a less spectacular season, although Norway’s resorts have done well since the start of the season. Sweden on the other hand has had warm, snow-less periods, although it too has now reverted to more normal low temperatures and healthy snowfalls.
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