J2Ski Snow Report - November 28th 2024
J2Ski Snow Report - November 28th 2024
Published : 28-Nov-2024 06:59
Loveland, Colorado, USA, looking fabulous this week...
Snow in Japan, and in North America, as many more ski areas open across the northern hemisphere. Milder temperatures in the Alps this weekend, to be followed by cold next week.
The Snow Headlines - November 28th
- French ski season underway as Tignes and Val Thorens open.
- Ski season expected to start in Eastern Europe and the Pyrenees this weekend.
- Most US ski areas open in time for Thanksgiving weekend.
- Scottish ski centres get a foot of snow on Saturday, but much thaws on Sunday.
- Four of Finland's leading ski areas are now open.
- Good snowfalls in Japan ahead of the main season start this weekend.
See where it's going to snow.
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World Overview
As we approach the start of December, there are now over 200 ski areas open in the northern hemisphere.
The majority of these are in North America, where US resorts have endeavoured to open in time for the coming Thanksgiving Holiday weekend, but we're well past 50 in Europe now too, with the French season getting underway last weekend.
The weather has been fairly quiet this week in the Alps after the big snowfalls last, there have been some lighter showers and cold temperatures for snowmaking, but plenty of sunshine too.
The snow has kept falling in North America, very heavily again in the west and things are improving now on the East Coast where ski areas had previously been struggling to open much terrain as it was too warm and dry.
Japan's season kicks off this coming weekend and there's been plenty of snowfall there.
Europe
Austria
There were some very low temperatures last weekend in Austria, getting down to -20C after the snowfalls.
It's warmed up since, but overnight lows have still been at -10C allowing pre-season snowmaking to continue at the majority of Austrian areas not yet open, and there have been light snowfalls too.
A dozen ski resorts are now open, with Schladming and Obertauern among the latest. This weekend sees Ischgl, which often posts the most terrain open in the Alps as it opens, starting its 24-25 season.
France
The French ski season got underway last Saturday with Tignes and Val Thorens the first two resorts to open. Both report snow depths at the metre mark on their highest slopes after heavy snowfall earlier this week ended a long spell of dry, sunny weather.
Val Thorens has the most terrain open posting 23km of slopes available for its 'Grande Premiere' opening weekend. Tignes reported that 10km of slopes were initially open.
It's been a mixed week since with some snow showers and very cold temperatures, with warmer, sunny spells in the mix too.
This coming weekend, resorts including Alpe d'Huez, Argentiere, Avoriaz (for an early-opening preview weekend), Montgenevre and Les 2 Alpes are among those expected to open.
Italy
There are half-a-dozen Italian areas open for the season now with 3 Zinnen Dolomites and Cortina d'Ampezzo amongst the latest to open. Most only have a few kilometres of slopes open with a thin base reported at this early point in the season.
This weekend should see much of Dolomiti Superski begin opening, and several other Italian areas.
There was some light snowfall midweek but otherwise, most of the country has been largely sunny and it's looking like more of the same into the weekend. Cold though with lows below -10C so good news for snowmakers.
Switzerland
Zermatt has doubled its available terrain to 65km of slopes open so far, as it aims to stay ahead of Samnaun which opens with its Austrian neighbour Ischgl this weekend.
That's one of about 20 Swiss areas expected to be open this weekend with Crans Montana and Laax among those starting their 24-25 seasons, whilst resorts like Verbier switch from weekend to daily operation.
A mostly sunny weekend ahead with the snowline moving between 500 and 2,000m, snowfall returning around Tuesday next week.
Scandinavia
We're still waiting for Scandinavia's bigger ski centres to open, at least those in Norway and Sweden.
In Finland, Pyha and Yllas opened last weekend, joining already-open Levi and Rukas so that's the big four there open for 24-25, just as polar night begins to descend and the sun comes close to its annual dip below the horizon until January.
It's still just small ski areas - with a kilometre or so of slopes - open in Norway and Sweden though, but big players including Norway's Geil, Hemsedal and Trysil as well as Sweden's Are, are expected to start their 24-25 seasons this weekend after several false dawns.
All have been posting images of snowy slopes and temperatures have been dipping to allow snowmaking with a good dump of natural snowfall for many this week too.
Pyrenees
There's nowhere open yet in the Pyrenees but that should change this weekend with some of the region's big players including Spain's Baqueira Beret and Andorra's Grandvalira expected to open.
Quite how much will be open from day one remains to be seen as daytime highs have been rather warm with plenty of sunshine and the Pyrenees have not had as much snowfall as the Alps, although some areas did get a decent dump earlier this week.
Scotland
Scottish ski areas saw some good snowfalls at the weekend as storm Bert blew through, depositing up to a foot of snow on their slopes. Glencoe had also already started its all-weather snowmaking machine to add to the mix. Alas, much of the Saturday snow melted in warmer, wetter weather on Sunday.
Temperatures dropped again to as low as -10C on Wednesday/Thursday but are expected to rise back to +10C through the weekend, so nowhere seems likely to open just yet.
Eastern Europe
There have been more promising pre-season snowfalls and cold weather for snowmaking in Eastern Europe.
Nowhere is open as yet but one of the region's largest centres, Slovakia's Jasná has released images of slopes covered in deep, fresh snow and says it plans to open this Saturday, November 30 and it seems likely other centres in the wider region will follow suit.
It's looking like a snowy end to the week, a sunny weekend, then a snowy start to December.
North America
Canada
There's an East-West divide in Canada with east coast ski areas still battling mild temperatures preventing snowmaking as well as little or no natural snowfall, whilst in the West most areas are now open and are being repeatedly dumped on.
Sun Peaks has the most open terrain, with about 75% of its runs.
Whistler only has about a third of its trails open so far but is already posting a 1.2m (four feet) base up top.
The week ahead looks to be remaining cold, typically in the -5C to -15C range on the slopes, with further light-moderate snowfalls.
USA
Thanksgiving is underway in the US and thankfully it's been a good week for snowfall in most of the country's ski regions.
About 100 centres, including most of the larger destination resorts, have opened in time for the holidays.
The Northeast has been having the most challenging conditions and there's still not a lot open at the centres where lifts are turning, but there was 10" of snowfall last weekend which was a big boost on top of the snowmaking efforts and it has been snowing again over the past 24 hours.
That's arriving a bit late for quite a few areas with Vermont's Stratton among the latest to delay its opening to at least next week. More snow is forecast.
There were similar falls in the west too which were further boosted by 1-2 feet of snow midweek. The Pacific Northwest continues to post the best snow in the continent and the most snowfall anywhere in the world in November.
Among last weekend's openers was Park City in Utah, which has America's largest ski area.
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