Heavy Snow Across The Alps And Pyrenees
Friday, October 31st, 2008
Heavy snowfalls across Europe major ski areas have increased excitement levels amongst skiers and boarders ahead of the main ski season starting in a little over a month.
Some of the biggest falls have been in the French alps where Tignes (which has been open for glacier skiing since September!) building up a base of more than 150cm (five feet).
In Switzerland Zermatt is one of the few resorts that remains open year round, with Europe’s highest ski runs. It has now been joined by glacier skiing at Engelberg, Saas Fee and Gstaad which have all reported more than a foot of fresh powder falling in the past 48 hours.
There are also eight glacier ski areas already operating in Austria, which have also been blessed with abundant early powder - good news for those heading out there in December. Amongst the beneficiaries are the Kitzsteinhorn glacier above Kaprun and Zell am See, the Dachstein glacier near Schladming, the Tux glacier near Mayrhofen and the Stubai glacier which serves Innsbruck, Fulpmes and Neustift.
In the Pyrenees, Andorra’s ski areas have had heavy pre-season snow. They’ll be open at the end of November.
Formigal, Spain’s largest ski resort has also reported its first snowfall of the season. Yesterday snow fell continuously throughout the day and night leaving a covering of 5cm at 1,500m. The slopes reach a height of 2,250m, with the resort itself at 1,500m. But the snow was falling at 1,000m and below. More heavy snow is predicted for Saturday and Sunday.
Scandinavia is usually a good early season bet with the northerly latitudes getting colder sooner and two Norwegian resorts in the brochures, Geilo and Hemsedal, are due to open in the next fortnight, on November 7th and 14th respectively.
Across the Atlantic there has also been snow in many ski areas with the first New England ski area opening yesterday (October 30th) following several Colorado resorts that opened a few weeks ago.
Of the big names in the brochures Copper Mountain, Breckenridge and Keystone all plan to open in a week’s time on November 7th with a healthy fall of snow to top up machine made white stuff.
Closer to home even Scottish ski areas are benefiting from early snowfall in the UK with Cairngorm announcing that it hopes to open limited terrain tomorrow (Saturday, November 1st).
Pictures from Andorra: (click the image to see a larger version)
Pictures from Spain:
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November 4th, 2008 at 12:33 am
Thanks for the update.
There was a good amount of snow covering on the Kitzsteinhorn glacier, above Kaprun prior to the recent snows, as you would expect of an resort which is skiable all year round,( however they do shut the pistes for 2-3 weeks while they relocate the lifts on the glacier normally in June) I would expect to see a few more runs opening up in the next few weeks.
You can see for yourself via the liver cams at http://en.snowpark.kitzsteinhorn.at/webcams/
The site indicates that the snow levels is between 3cm and 45cm, and the Kitzsteinhorn Mellow play park is now open with a further two parks to follow. http://en.snowpark.kitzsteinhorn.at/parkmap/maps.php?id=1
Derek - Austria
http://austria-holiday-apartment.blogspot.com/
November 6th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Looks like it’s gonna be another fantastic start to the season like last!